Greetings from Yifan, here in the sunny and unseasonably hot San Francisco Bay Area. I'll be taking you through this week's #techAsia newsletter.

Spring is the season of growth and hope, but sentiment in Silicon Valley is ... mixed.

In all my coffee chats and lunches with founders, venture capitalists and executives from nearly every layer of the tech ecosystem in the past few months, I found most people were trying to maintain an upbeat tone when talking about the rise of AI agents, accelerated by the widely popular open-source platform OpenClaw. But from time to time, signs of fear couldn't be missed.

"We have to tell our staff that AI is a value-add to their work, but in reality I don't know how soon this 'value-add' will become more valuable than most people in my team, myself included," an executive at one of the Big Tech companies told me, after I lost to him in a brutal game of tennis.

"My advice to my juniors is always cash in on the AI boom and save up as much as you can so at least you'll say 'I'm retiring early' when those agents eventually come for your job," he added.

I don't think he would have been so blunt if our conversation had happened at one of the many AI events being held in the Bay Area.

In March, Nvidia GTC kicked the AI agent race into higher gear , and now virtually all tech firms are working on intelligent agents either for their own use or to sell to others. Who has the time to think about what AI agents taking over human work will mean for our societal structure when their company is being bankrolled by all this excitement? After all, FOMO -- or fear of missing out -- has always been one of the driving forces in the tech sector.

There is no denying that AI agents are becoming more capable, and while it may be too early to say they are destroying all of our jobs, nearly 80,000 tech positions were eliminated so far this year. I do think it's time for all of us, and tech leaders especially, to take a step back from the hype and let the fear of the unknown wrought by this new technology come out into the sunlight a little bit.

Throwing around corporate jargon like "reskilling" and "upskilling" workers could work for a bit, but we need some real solutions for dealing with the disruptions artificial intelligence brings before that 80,000 number becomes something bigger.

We at Nikkei Asia have been closely following how AI is reshaping the workforce , education , the environment and society in general. Feel free to reach out if you have some stories to share on AI's impact on your work or life.

Wrinkles in the fold?

Apple is encountering setbacks in the engineering test phase of its first-ever foldable iPhone, which could lead to delays in its mass production and product shipment schedule, according to a scoop by Nikkei Asia's Lauly Li and Cheng Ting-Fang .

Issues surrounding the engineering development of foldable iPhones are more complex and are taking more time to resolve than Apple had expected, and in the worst-case scenario could delay the first shipment by months, according to multiple sources briefed on the matter.

The first foldable iPhone is highly anticipated by the industry, as many hope Apple's launch will boost the overall foldable smartphone market. Samsung Electronics and Huawei, Apple's two major rivals, have launched generations of foldable smartphones since 2019.

Private eyes

Even Realities, a Shenzhen-based startup, is pitching camera-free smartglasses as a privacy-first alternative to Meta's Ray-Ban devices, writes the Financial Times' William Langley in Guangzhou.

The company's founder, Will Wang, said some consumers were turning away from rivals , preferring not to look like "douchebags with a camera on [their] faces."

The shift follows a March lawsuit alleging Meta shared sensitive footage with a data annotation firm. Meta disputes the claims and dismisses Even's criticism as "shots from a wannabe Chinese competitor."

Wang argues Meta subsidizes its $300-$500 glasses to support a data-driven model, while Even's $600 devices collect minimal data and discard audio after use.

The smartglasses market is growing. Global shipments of AI smartglasses surged more than threefold in 2025, according to Omdia, with Meta holding over 85% of the market.

Is the worst yet to come?

While more than 80,000 tech jobs were cut in the first three months of 2026, half linked to AI, the full scope of how this emerging technology might impact the workforce is yet to be seen , Nikkei Asia's Yifan Yu reports.

A total of 78,557 tech layoffs were recorded between Jan. 1 and April 1, with the U.S. accounting for 76.7%, according to analysis by RationalFX, which tallied figures based on layoff announcements, labor department notices and tech job tracking sites.

Babak Hodjat, chief AI officer at Cognizant, one of the world's largest IT service providers, says it could take up to a year before the real impact of the technology on the workforce becomes clear.

"I don't know if they are directly related to actual productivity gains," said Hodjat of the first-quarter job cuts. Workforce reductions, he said, can be driven by "expectations" that AI will improve productivity rather than by actual improvements.

Eyes wide OpenClaw

OpenClaw is coming for your smartglasses.

Chinese startup Rokid is aiming to help users deploy OpenClaw with "one-click," which will allow them to summon AI agents on their smartglasses by voice control, the company told Nikkei Asia's Yifan Yu .

OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent platform that helps users create different "claws," or autonomous agents that can execute complex tasks, and has quickly gained popularity around the world.

Rokid hopes to leverage OpenClaw to bring more AI agents and more users to AI glasses, not just theirs.

"AI glasses [are] a natural platform to host AI agents, and an AI agent is a great catalyst to accelerate the adoption of AI glasses," said Weiqi Zhao, global senior director of product, engineering and ecosystem at Rokid.

Global shipments of AI glasses will surpass 15 million units in 2026, according to a forecast by tech market intelligence firm Omdia.

Suggested reads

1. Taiwan chip industry calls for helium, LNG reserves amid Iran war risks (Nikkei Asia)

2. Samsung forecasts record profit on AI boom (FT)

3. Japan's Fujitsu, NEC and NRI among Asian software stocks hit by war, AI shift (Nikkei Asia)

4. Apple at 50: the roots of a tech revolution (FT)

5. Apple at 50: how Asia fuelled its rise to the top (FT)

6. Freshness is king: BYD reigns with 200 vehicle software updates a year (Nikkei Asia)

7. Mitsubishi Corp. opens free trial data center to boost AI deployment (Nikkei Asia)

8. Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Capital raises almost $1bn for latest Brazil fund (FT)

9. Grab adds AI features for delivery, travel across key markets (Nikkei Asia)

10. AI dolls offer companionship to the elderly (FT)

Podcast: Tech Latest

How the Iran war and AI are making tech more expensive

Welcome to the Tech Latest podcast. Hosted by our tech coverage veterans, Katey Creel and Shotaro Tani, every Tuesday we deliver the hottest trends and news from the sector.

In this episode, Katey speaks with Taipei correspondent Lauly Li about surging costs across the tech industry as the Iran war and AI boom strain supply chains .

Find us on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | YouTube Music | Amazon Music | Voicy

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