Electronics Supply Chain Weekly Digest 5-1-26.
DATAPOINT OF THE WEEK: S&P reported US mfg PMI surged to 54.5 in Apr, up from 52.3 in Mar, marking the strongest expansion since May-22 and the eighth straight month of being in expansion territory. The M/M increase was driven by a steep rise in new order growth and stronger uplift in output.
However, some of the growth appears to be driven by stock rebuilding efforts to protect against increasing price and supply pressures related to the Middle East. ISM reported Apr US mfg PMI of 52.7, unchanged from March.
RatingDog China mfg PMI rose to 52.2 in Apr, from 50.8 in Mar, marking the strongest improvement since Dec-20, supported by faster rise in new order growth, aided by continued export momentum. In turn, production also improved M/M. China’s Government mfg PMI diverged from RatingDog with Apr PMI moderating to 50.3, from 50.4 in Mar.
Headlines:
Auto/Transportation
- BYD’s 1Q net profit plunges 55.4% Y/Y to $599M as domestic EV sales slump for a seventh straight month.
- China suspends new robotaxi permits after ~200 Baidu Apollo Go vehicles halted mid-traffic in Wuhan, according to Nikkei Asia
- GM core profit rose 22% Y/Y to $4.3B, raises 2026 outlook by $500M on truck strength and tariff refund.
- Magna beats 1Q sales expectations but trims full-year guidance amid tariff headwinds and EV uncertainty
- Hongqi in talks to build vehicles at Stellantis’s Zaragoza plant in its first western Europe manufacturing push, Reuters reported
- Tesla announces its first Semi rolls off high-volume production line, with 500-mile range and deliveries expected this year
- President Trump threatens to raise EU auto tariffs to 25% next week from 15%, citing non-compliance with August trade deal
- VW profit drops 14% Y/Y on tariffs and EV writedown and is weighing building China models in Europe
Datacenter
- AWS revenue jumps 28% Y/Y to $37.6B in 1Q, ahead of expectations as enterprise AI demand accelerates.
- Google Cloud’s 1Q revenue surges 63% Y/Y with AI tools for large businesses being primary growth driver
- Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta project combined $700B in datacenter capex for the full year
Industrial
- Meta announces deal with Overview Energy for up to 1GW of space-based solar power to fuel AI datacenters
Semiconductors
- ASE Technology raises 2026 advanced packaging revenue target to over $3.5B on surging AI chip demand.
- Delta Electronics posts 34% Y/Y revenue growth in 1Q26, driven by strong demand for AI server power and datacenter infrastructure
- Denso abandons Rohm acquisition bid after failing to secure board support, pivots to broader chip partnerships.
- DeepSeek V4’s model optimization for Huawei’s Ascend 950 chips sparks scramble among ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba for new orders, according to Reuters
- MediaTek doubles its 2026 AI ASIC revenue target to $2B, eyeing 10–15% share of a $70–80B market, per Liberty Times / TechNews
- Nexperia China says production and orders unaffected after parent Wingtech Technology triggers risk warning
- Nvidia B300 servers hit $1M in China, nearly double US prices, as export curbs and smuggling crackdown choke supply, according to Reuters
- NXP reports strong 1Q with all end markets up Y/Y; 2Q guide ahead of expectations as datacenter business scales to >$500M in 2026
- onsemi deepens SiC partnership with Geely to power next-gen 900V EV platforms.
- Power semiconductor lead times stretch to 30 weeks on strong AI demand, says SemiMedia
- Qualcomm announces plans to begin shipping datacenter chips by year-end across CPUs, inference accelerators, and ASICs
- Samsung chip division profit surges 49-fold to $36.4B in 1Q, and expects memory supply shortage to worsen in 2027
- Sandisk’s 3Q revenue more than triples to $5.95B as AI demand drives $42B in long-term supply contracts
Consumer
- Apple posts strongest quarterly sales growth in four years, guides C2Q at 14%-17% above expectations