Electronics Supply Chain Weekly Digest 4-24-26.
DATAPOINTS OF THE WEEK: March new car registrations in Europe totaled 1.58, surpassing the 1M mark for first time since December, and up 11.1% Y/Y and 61.5% M/M, according to ACEA data.
BEVs maintained strong growth in March, reaching 344k registrations, up 41.6% Y/Y and 80.5% M/M. BEVs accounted for 21.8% of the market in March, up 4.7 percentage points Y/Y. PHEVs also saw significant growth, rising 32.6% Y/Y. HEVs increased 15.3% Y/Y and 61.7% M/M. HEVs now account for 38.4% of the market, up 1.3 percentage points Y/Y. ICE registrations declined 11.7% Y/Y, but increased 48.8% M/M in March, marking its 23nd straight month of Y/Y declines.
TI reported 1Q revenue of $4.83B, ahead of expectations driven by strength in Industrial (up 30% Y/Y), Data Center (up 90% Y/Y), and a better-than-expected Personal Electronics result. With peers pushing prices higher and supply tightening in back-end packaging and test, TI signaled it may follow with price increases in 2H26 and into early 2027 should demand hold. TI guided 2Q revenue to $5.0-5.4B, ahead of expectations and implying 8% Q/Q growth led by continued Industrial and Datacenter momentum..
Headlines:
Auto/Transportation
- Canada trade minister meets BYD, Xpeng and GAC in China to discuss EV investments under new import quota system
- Chinese automakers race to embed AI in next-gen EVs, targeting Nvidia dependence and domestic chip supremacy, according to Reuters
- Ford and Geely reportedly explored deal to extend European technology-sharing and manufacturing partnership to the US, though talks stalled amid political headwinds, according to The WSJ
- Geely ride-hailing unit, Caocao, targets 100K-strong robotaxi fleet by 2030, starting with thousands of Eva Cab deployments next year
- GM indefinitely halts next-gen full-size EV truck program slated to launch in 2028, as reported by Crain’s Detroit Business
- Mexico’s President pushes for early deal on steel, aluminum, and autos ahead of USMCA 2026 review, Reuters reported
- Rivian starts R2 SUV production with deliveries due this spring, targeting sub-$50K price points by 2027
- Stellantis to announce plan to concentrate investment on four core brands – Jeep, Ram, Peugeot, and Fiat
- Volkswagen targets 50 EV models by 2030 and cuts ~1M units of remaining surplus capacity to fund software and AI push, according to DigiTimes
Datacenter
- Microsoft launches first-ever voluntary buyout program amid low Copilot adoption and internal restructuring, as reported by CNBC
Connectivity
- AI optical transceiver market set to surge 57% Y/Y to $26B in 2026, driven by hyperscale datacenter buildout, says TrendForce
- Cisco unveils prototype quantum switching chip that bridges incompatible quantum computing architectures at room temperature
- Marvell acquires Swiss plasmonics firm Polariton Technologies to push optical interconnect performance to 3.2T and beyond
Semiconductors
- EU set to launch Chips Act 2.0 on May 27, shifting subsidy focus to local companies and faster funding
- Google Cloud debuts split 8th-gen TPUs, with v8t delivering 2.8x performance vs. Ironwood at the same cost
- Google in talks with Marvell to develop next-gen TPU and memory processing unit for AI inference, says the Information
- Intel posts strong 1Q driven by better than expected PC builds and strong server demand
- Japan’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake halts Kioxia NAND output and photoresist plants, threatening near-term supply tightness, says SemiMedia
- Nvidia H200 chips still unsold to China as Beijing blocks purchases, Lutnick confirms
- ROHM launches 5th-gen EcoSiC SiC MOSFETs with 30% lower on-resistance for EV and AI datacenter power systems, says SemiMedia
- SK hynix breaks ground on $3.87B Indiana fab targeting next-gen HBM production by 2H28, according to Herald Economy
- SpaceX discloses in-house GPU plans as Tesla taps Samsung to produce upgraded AI4.1 chip with doubled memory
- STMicroelectronics posts 1Q26 revenue of $3.10B, targets $1B+ in datacenter sales by 2027
- TSMC breaks ground on Arizona advanced packaging plant targeting CoWoS and 3D IC capacity before 2029
- UMC plans ~10% wafer price hike in 2H26 as mature-node capacity tightens across Taiwanese foundries, per Liberty Times