The U.S. government plans to impose steep retaliatory tariffs starting August 1st, including up to 30% on imports from Mexico, 15% on the EU, and 15–36% on key tech hubs in Asia such as Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia. With U.S. consumer spending growth revised down to just 0.5% in Q1—the lowest since the pandemic—TrendForce notes that the effects of front-loaded demand and stockpiling ahead of tariffs are fading. This casts uncertainty over the traditional back-to-school peak season in Q3, with MLCC order momentum clouded as a result.
TrendForce’s latest investigations find that the overall server market has recently stabilized, with ODMs concentrating efforts on AI server development. Starting in Q2, shipments of new Blackwell-based platforms—such as the NVIDIA GB200 rack and HGX B200—have gradually ramped up, while next-generation B300 and GB300 series products have entered the sampling and validation phase. TrendForce projects that Blackwell GPUs will account for over 80% of NVIDIA’s high-end GPU shipments in 2025.
TrendForce’s latest forecast estimates that shipments of foldable phones will reach 19.8 million units in 2025, maintaining a market penetration rate of around 1.6%, on par with 2024. Although growth has slowed compared to previous years, advancements in technology and declining prices are gradually positioning foldables as a key innovation in the mid-to-high-end smartphone
TrendForce’s latest investigations reveal that major Korean and U.S. memory suppliers are expected to significantly reduce or even cease production of LPDDR4X in 2025 and 2026. However, many mobile processors are not yet compatible with LPDDR5X, resulting in a supply-demand mismatch.
TrendForce reports that the U.S. government is likely to lift restrictions on NVIDIA’s H20 GPU exports to China. This policy reversal is expected to boost demand recovery from local AI and CSPs, with the H20 poised to once again become the primary high-end AI chip in the market. The renewed availability of H20 is also anticipated to drive up demand for HBM.
