The Trump administration's tariff policy announced in April 2025 is reshaping global server supply chains, prompting Taiwan's leading EMS firms—Foxconn, Wistron, Quanta, Inventec, and Mitac—to accelerate US expansion. Concentrating investments in Texas and California, these companies aim to localize high-margin components while navigating rising costs and tariff-driven uncertainties

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has begun mass production and turned a profit at its Arizona plant in 2025, a milestone that marks not only a breakthrough in its global expansion but also a reversal of long-standing skepticism about America's ability to sustain advanced chip manufacturing

With global smartphone sales leveling off, Qualcomm and MediaTek are taking their long-running rivalry into the fast-growing cloud AI ASIC market. DIGITIMES Research estimates MediaTek controlled 37% of the smartphone application processor market in 2024, ahead of Qualcomm at 27%. Together, the two suppliers accounted for more than 60% of shipments. With handset growth expected to remain stuck in the low single digits, both companies are turning to cloud computing chips as a new source of expansion

The global market for high-end cloud AI accelerators is approaching a major turning point. DIGITIMES forecasts that beginning in 2026, the supply chain will enter a new "decentralized" phase shaped by three forces: the expansion of custom ASICs, diversification of advanced packaging, and intensifying competition in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) pricing

Global electric vehicle (EV) sales rose 29.4% year-over-year to 9.29 million units in the first half of 2025, driven by strong momentum in China, Europe, and the US. The three markets delivered 8.4 million units, accounting for 90.4% of the total. China retained its position as the world's largest EV market and the sector's key growth driver

On July 31, 2025, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing new tariffs—ranging from 10% to 41%—on imports from 68 countries and the European Union (EU). While many trade partners faced updated rates, tariffs on Vietnamese goods remained unchanged: a 20% duty on direct imports and a 40% levy on transshipped goods. In exchange, Vietnam has agreed to fully open its market and eliminate all tariffs on American imports

At the OCP APAC Summit, Ethernet and UALink advocates clashed over data center interconnect architectures. Kurtis Bowman, UALink board chair and AMD's director of architecture and strategy, questioned Ethernet's latency performance in scale-up scenarios, arguing that its technical limits hinder high-performance application scaling

Nvidia's framing of the next AI wave as "physical AI" has fueled investor and industry excitement around humanoid robots, accelerating development. But according to a DIGITIMES report, 2025: The first year of humanoid robots — Global market trends and key technologies, humanoids will represent only 0.2% of the global robotics market in 2025, with usage largely confined to logistics, warehousing, and manufacturing. Broader adoption remains a distant prospect

Tesla and Samsung have struck a US$16.5 billion chip deal seen as a win-win, with Samsung's Texas fab set to produce Tesla's next-gen AI6 chips. Tesla gains customized supply chain support, while Samsung strengthens its foundry credibility and expands its external client base

As automotive computing platforms increasingly demand higher performance, longer lifespans, and near-zero defect rates, chip architecture faces the challenge of balancing system reliability with cost efficiency under stringent automotive standards. Chiplets are emerging as a pivotal pathway to meet these requirements

The first half of 2025 has reshaped the global EMS/ODM landscape, with generative AI emerging as the new industry driver. In a ranking compiled by Eric Huang, Senior Analyst and VP of the International Business Unit at DIGITIMES, the top 20 EMS/ODM players were assessed by revenue. The findings show that AI data centers — rather than smartphones or PCs — are now the dominant force influencing company performance and industry dynamics

US President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Tuesday (April 29, 2025, PT), easing certain tariffs affecting automakers. The rollback of these trade measures, which companies like Ford and General Motors had warned could hurt US manufacturing by raising production costs and squeezing profit margins, offers short-term relief

As US-China trade tensions rise, the global server EMS supply chain is transforming, with Chinese manufacturers rapidly gaining prominence and challenging established players. A recent DIGITIMES report noted Chinese suppliers' capability to provide server components amid a complex landscape where geopolitical strategies, technological advancements, and market competitiveness intersect

Since the second half of 2024, Tesla has increasingly emphasized AI as the core driver of its business strategy for the coming years, focusing on commercializing autonomous driving software and humanoid robots. As both projects share common technical resources and have explicit application scenarios, Tesla plans to first deploy humanoid robots in its factories to perform various tasks, expecting to significantly reduce labor costs, and the strategy will likely prompt other automakers to follow suit in deploying humanoid robots, according to DIGITIMES' recent report

The combined revenue of Taiwan's major wafer foundry houses is anticipated to hit US$27.71 billion in the first quarter of 2025, a sequential decline of 5.8%. However, as AI/HPC chip demand continues to be strong and consumer electronics inventory is being gradually replenished, revenue in the second quarter is expected to rebound 5.7% quarterly to US$29.3 billion, according to DIGITIMES' quarterly report covering Taiwan's wafer foundry industry