Fueled by the AI boom and China’s tech self-sufficiency agenda, the country’s humanoid robot industry is scaling rapidly. A growing wave of returnees from firms like Tesla and OpenAI are launching robotics startups in China, intensifying market competition.
At its April 21 Tech Day in Shanghai, CATL unveiled two major innovations poised to accelerate the EV transition past internal combustion engines. Highlights included the debut of CATL’s second-generation Shenxing ultra-fast charging battery, outperforming BYD’s Super e-Platform, and a strategic push to mass-produce sodium-ion batteries. These two technologies extend CATL’s lead over BYD while positioning sodium-ion batteries as a safer, more affordable challenger to lithium’s dominance in the EV supply chain.
Taiwan is strengthening its asymmetric warfare capabilities through unmanned surface vessels (USVs), with both government and private sector companies developing technologies that could reshape the island’s maritime defense posture.
Chinese EV maker BYD plans to enter Japan’s insular kei (mini) car market by developing a vehicle specifically designed to meet the country’s unique light vehicle standards, with a launch expected in 2026.
Taiwan’s export orders jumped in March 2025, fueled by rising global demand for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) chips, according to data from Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs. Electronic product orders totaled US$20.11 billion for the month, marking a 21.8% increase compared to the same period last year.