Electronics Supply Chain Weekly Digest 3-21-25.
DATAPOINT OF THE WEEK: European chipmakers and semiconductor firms urged the European Commission to launch a follow-up to the 2023 Chips Act on Wednesday, requesting support be expanded to include chip design, materials, and equipment.
The first Chips Act spurred manufacturing investment but did not attract cutting-edge chipmakers or address the entire supply chain. Industry groups such as ESIA and SEMI Europe are calling for subsidies to strengthen the broader industry, similar to those seen in the US and China.
Headlines:
Auto/Transportation
- German premium carmakers weigh price, production shifts to soften tariff blow, according to Reuters
- BMW to integrate Huawei smart-connect system into its China-made cars in 2026
- BYD unveils megawatt platform to charge EVs in 5 minutes, twice as fast as Tesla’s newest supercharger
- BYD considers Germany for third plant in Europe, according to Reuters
- China’s Zeekr, Xpeng to offer cars with L3 autonomy as auto battle heats up
- GM to use Nvidia’s AI chips to enhance factory workflows and develop autonomous driving technology
- Mercedes-Benz takes stake in robotics maker Apptronik, tests robots in factories
- Toronto excludes Tesla from EV incentive due to US trade war
- Automakers, tech industry urge Trump to speed self-driving car deployment
- XPeng forecasts 1Q shipments in-line with 4Q, driven by the launch of its G6 and G9 SUVs and European expansion
- Xiaomi reports $15.08B in 4Q24 revenue, raises SU7 2025 production goal to 350K units
Datacenter
- Jabil reports strong 2Q25 results, anticipating continued growth despite global geopolitical challenges
Industrial
- US manufacturing output accelerates in Feb, but gains may reflect pull-forward demand due to tariff concerns
IP&E
- Chinese copper smelters face overcapacity, industry group to discuss potential output cuts March 31st
- Nvidia CEO says power-saving optical chip tech, co-packaged optics, will need to wait for wider use and scale up
Semiconductors
- Amazon reportedly slashes prices on Trainium-powered AI servers to take on Nvidia, according to The Information
- Google partnering with MediaTek on next-gen TPUs, continuing Broadcom collaboration, according to The Information
- Infineon brings RISC-V to the automotive industry and is first to announce an automotive RISC-V MCU family
- Intel’s new CEO plots overhaul of manufacturing and AI operations, according to Reuters
- Micron forecasts upbeat quarterly revenue on strong AI memory chip demand
- Nvidia teams up with TSMC for silicon photonics switches, expected in 2025-26
- Nvidia CEO Huang says chipmaker well positioned for shift in AI
- Nvidia to open a quantum computing research lab in Boston, collaborating with Harvard and MIT
- Nvidia expects to invest half a trillion dollars in US-made chips and electronics over four years, CEO tells Financial Times
- Price war escalates in Chinese smart driving chip market as Qualcomm cuts prices and Nvidia responds, according to DigiTimes
- SK Hynix launches early 12-layer HBM4 samples, eyes 2H25 production
- SoftBank announced Wednesday it is acquiring US chip startup Ampere Computing for $6.5B in cash
- Texas Instruments unveils new eFuse and GaN power stages for data centers
Consumer/Other
- Apple’s AI Siri faces development delays, release potentially pushed to 2026, reports Reuters citing internal sources at Apple
- China set to tighten export curbs on battery, chip material tech
- Siemens to cut over 6k jobs including 5.6k in its Digital Industries division, citing weak demand in Germany and China
Source:
Edgewater Research
