Electronics Supply Chain Weekly Digest 3-13-26.
DATAPOINT OF THE WEEK: Passenger car retail sales in China totaled 1.03M in Feb, down 25.4% Y/Y and 33% M/M, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
The slowdown reflects the impact of Chinese New Year and reduced EV policy support. NEV retail sales totaled 464K units, down 33% Y/Y and 22.1% M/M. BEV Feb sales were 278K, down 35% Y/Y and 20.1% M/M. PHEVs were similarly down 28% Y/Y and 25% M/M.
Despite the significant Y/Y declines across the board, NEV exports held strong, totaling 269K units, up 128% Y/Y and contributing to 48.5% of total passenger car exports.
Headlines:
Auto/Transportation
- BYD open to building a Canada plant and/or acquiring a legacy automaker, rules out US market entry
- CATL net income surges 42% Y/Y to $10.4B in FY25, driven by strong EV battery sales
- EU IAA policies raise costs for European automakers as 2035 zero-emission mandate looms and localization required
- Honda flags first annual loss since 1957, books up to $15.7B in EV restructuring charges on cancelled US models and China writedown
- Lucid unveils robotaxi concept and mid-size EV platform at investor day, targets ~100K deliveries and cash flow positive by decade’s end
- Mercedes considers sharing South Africa plant with China’s GWM amid US tariff pressure, according to Bloomberg
- Mercedes in early talks with Geely to expand partnership beyond Smart EV JV amid pressure from Chinese rivals, according to Bloomberg
- Nio posts first-ever quarterly profit of $115M, with 4Q revenue surging 76% Y/Y on record deliveries
- Renault targeting 23% volume growth by 2030 with overseas push, 36 new models, and 40% EV cost cuts
- Rivian to begin R2 EV deliveries this spring with $58K launch variant, cheaper $45K model by 2027
- Stellantis in talks with Chinese automakers including Xiaomi to acquire stakes in European brands like Maserati, according to Bloomberg
- Tesla China-made EV sales surge 91% Y/Y in February, driven by low Feb-25 comparison from Model Y assembly suspension
- Uber strikes multiyear robotaxi deal with Amazon’s Zoox, launching in Las Vegas this summer
- New-vehicle transaction prices rise 3.4% Y/Y in February while EV ATP down 1.4% Y/Y, says Cox Automotive
- Volkswagen 2025 operating profit falls more than 50% Y/Y to €8.9B, misses expectations on tariffs and China weakness
- Volkswagen reclaims top spot in China car sales with 13.9% share as BYD drops to fourth amid fading EV subsidies, according to CPCA data
- Zeekr’s updated 007 GT to see price hike of up to $1.1K in 2Q driven by DDR5 memory and battery cost pressures, says DigiTimes
Datacenter
- Nvidia announced it will invest $2B in Nebius to build next-gen hyperscale AI cloud with 5 GW capacity target by 2030
- Oracle’s 3Q revenue beats at $17.19B as contract backlog surges 325% Y/Y to $553B on large-scale AI contracts
Industrial
- EU to launch Strategic Infrastructure Investment Fund to finance €695B annual green energy transition cost
- Joby Aviation begins certification test flights of first production-model EV air taxi, with production ramp targeted in 2027
IP&E
- Ayar Labs CEO says mass production remains the key challenge for silicon photonics ahead of 2028 GPU adoption target
- Sunny Optical, OFILM, and Q Technology pivot to automotive and high-end optics as smartphone reliance fades, according to DigiTimes
- CPO penetration in AI data centers to hit 35% by 2030 as optical interconnects displace copper beyond one-meter range, per TrendForce
- Marvell and Mojo Vision partner on next-gen micro-LED optical interconnects for AI data center infrastructure
Semiconductors
- AMD CEO Lisa Su to meet Samsung chairman Jay Y. Lee in South Korea to discuss HBM supply cooperation, per Maeil Business Newspaper
- Applied Materials partners with Micron and SK Hynix as founding members of $5B EPIC Center for next-gen HBM and DRAM
- ByteDance deploys ~36K Nvidia B200 chips in Malaysia via Aolani Cloud in $2.5B+ build-out to power global AI efforts, according to the WSJ
- Cerebras and AWS announce partnership to combine Cerebras and Trainium3 chips for AI inference in “divide and conquer” approach, service expected 2H26
- China IC exports surge 69% Y/Y to $41.8B in January-February, according to China’s General Administration of Customs
- GlobalWafers reports fully loaded 12-inch capacity, guides 2026 revenue flat to slightly higher as silicon wafer prices near bottom
- Japan sets $253.6B domestic chip sales target by 2040, a fivefold increase from current levels
- Meta unveils four-chip MTIA roadmap through 2027, MTIA 300 deployed and MTIA 400 next with HBM capacity scaling to 384–512 GB
- Nexchip to raise foundry prices 10% from June 2026, following SMIC and Hua Hong amid tightening mature-node supply, according to TrendForce
- Nexperia dispute escalates as China warns of supply chain crisis after Dutch HQ disables employee accounts; Chinese unit begins independent 12-inch wafer production, according to Reuters
- Nvidia narrows CoWoP PCB partners to Zhen Ding Technology, Unimicron and Kinwongas as advanced packaging validation tightens, according to DigiTimes
- NXP and TI announce price hikes effective April 1, citing higher raw material, energy, labor, and logistics costs with TI leading at up to 85% on select products
- Qualcomm and Tata Electronics partner to manufacture automotive modules at India OSAT facility
- Rapidus secures Canon as first customer for 2nm test chips at Chitose fab site, according to Electronics Weekly
- Rohm and Toshiba in talks to integrate power semiconductor businesses amid Denso’s $8.2B takeover bid, according to Nikkei
- Wolfspeed engages AI ecosystem partners to evaluate 300mm SiC substrates for next-gen AI and HPC heterogeneous packaging, says EETimes
Consumer/Other
- AT&T announces plan to spend $250B+ over five years for fiber and 5G expansion
- Chile and US sign joint statement to begin critical minerals and rare earths collaboration talks, according to Reuters