Despite a forecast-beating 6.0% growth in the first quarter of 2026, fueled by a massive global AI boom, the Ministry of Trade and Industry is holding steady on its full-year projections. Ryan Huang and Fabiana Negrin Ochoa, Breaking News Editor for APAC at Dow Jones Newswires explore the competing forces at play: the soaring demand for semiconductors and precision engineering versus the mounting supply chain disruptions and energy price spikes stemming from the US-Israel-Iran conflict.