On May 5, On Semiconductor (Onsemi) reported a 22% revenue drop to US$1.45 billion in the first quarter of 2025, with margins squeezed by lower utilization and pricing pressures. The company is streamlining its portfolio, exiting non-core businesses, and boosting silicon carbide (SiC) wins in China's EV market to navigate the downturn.

In early 2025, the European Union made a decisive pivot in its electric vehicle policy, throwing full support behind battery electric vehicles (BEVs) while pulling back on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The aim was clear: accelerate decarbonization by backing fully electric solutions and phasing out what many saw as transitional technologies with questionable emissions benefits.

China's decision to tighten export controls on seven rare earth elements has sent global prices soaring more than threefold since early April, raising alarms across critical industries, particularly electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy.

European and American integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) have released their financial reports. Among them, Texas Instruments (TI), a bellwether in the analog chip market, believes that the automotive and industrial control sectors are already showing signs of revival. Growth is expected to gradually resume, particularly driven by significant effects from specification upgrades.

Vingroup, Vietnam's largest private conglomerate, has announced plans to develop the country's first general-purpose humanoid robot. The initiative is a key pillar of the group's 2025 technology and industrial strategy, which also encompasses its fast-growing electric vehicle (EV) and artificial intelligence (AI) operations.

Powertech Technology (PTI), a Taiwanese memory packaging and testing vendor, experienced a decrease in solid-state drive (SSD) and NAND flash shipments in the first quarter of 2025, impacted by significant production cuts by customers.

Regarding the recent China-US tariff policies affecting automotive components, Wellysun, a company specializing in the research and development, manufacturing, and sales of customized automotive electronic control modules, stated that the tariff policies have had limited overall operational impact since their end products are not exported to the US.

Advanced L3–L5 autonomous driving has long been a critical battleground in the technological rivalry between the US and China. Recently, as both nations aim for L5 fully autonomous vehicles, their regulatory approaches have begun to diverge sharply: the US is moving toward deregulation, while China is tightening its oversight.

President Donald Trump's administration has created a limited exemption pathway for automotive tariffs set to take effect May 3, 2025, offering modest relief to the industry despite a still-complex compliance process.

Supermicro announced this week a downward revision of its revenue and profit forecasts. The question remains whether this is due to disruptive innovation driven by DeepSeek or if the pull-in demand wave triggered by Trump's tariff policies has ended prematurely. The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research's (TIER) manufacturing business climate indicators also show that while opportunities in high-performance computing and AI applications remain strong, key metrics such as order intake, production, and shipments have declined, warranting close attention going forward.

The US will implement automotive parts tariffs starting on May 3rd, 2025, although President Donald Trump recently offered limited exemptions for certain vehicles and components. However, these tariffs have largely acted like a boomerang, especially with retaliatory measures from China and Canada remaining steadfast despite Trump's small-scale exemptions.