Electronics Supply Chain Weekly Digest 6-19-26.
DATAPOINT OF THE WEEK: Infineon won two more GaN patent rulings against Innoscience in Munich, blocking additional Innoscience product sales in Germany and adding to prior wins in Germany and at the U.S. ITC.
Separately, China’s Supreme People’s Court upheld a Suzhou ruling that bars Infineon from selling the contested GaN products in mainland China, with each company now holding home-market injunction leverage over the other and entrenching a bifurcated GaN competitive landscape across data center, EV, and renewables end markets.
Headlines:
Auto/Transportation
- BMW slashes 2026 auto margin target to 1-3% from 4-6% on China weakness and Iran war, leading to expected cost cutting through localization and capacity reductions
- Global EV registrations rise 3% Y/Y in May as Europe surges 23% while China and NA slump on expired incentives, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence
- Mobileye to launch its own US robotaxi service in 2027, pitting the ADAS supplier against its own automaker customers
- UK auto lobby reportedly calls government to review 2030 ZEV mandate as EV share lags 33% target at 23.9%, says Wards Auto
- Volkswagen scales back convertible vehicle output at Osnabrueck, Germany plant with the plant in talks to be repurposed for defense in future
Datacenter
- Meta reportedly contracts 1.6GW of AI datacenter capacity from Crusoe across Texas and Missouri sites, says Bloomberg
- OpenAI reportedly in talks to lease 10GW Ohio datacenter campus with Nvidia hardware and lease guarantee backing, per The Information
Connectivity
- Coherent announced it secured a $50M CHIPS Act LOI to quadruple Texas InP wafer output for Nvidia AI interconnects
- CPO and NPO optical interconnect market set to balloon from $100M to $39B by 2030 as hyperscalers lock in laser and fiber supply, as reported by TrendForce
- IQE announced a multi-year InP epiwafer supply deal with Tower Semi for AI datacenter silicon photonics
Industrial
- US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reportedly approves orders to fast-track multi-year datacenter grid connections to 90 days, says Bloomberg
Semiconductors
- Ajinomoto announced it prioritizes ABF capacity expansion over price hikes, targeting 2032 startup for new Japan plant
- President Trump announces Apple has agreed to design and manufacture chips with Intel in the US, giving Apple a second foundry source to TSMC
- ByteDance reportedly in talks to buy 50K Iluvatar CoreX AI chips, adding a third domestic GPU supplier alongside Huawei and Cambricon, Reuters reported
- Imec and Sony unveil local-BDI TSV backside interconnect method aimed at enabling 3D logic chip stacking
- Cambridge GaN Devices announces partnership with NXP to co-develop GaN power solutions for datacenter and EV traction inverter markets
- Qualcomm in talks to acquire AI chip startup Tenstorrent for $8-10B, per The Information
- Samsung reportedly seen surge in advanced foundry inquiries from Google, AMD, and others as TSMC capacity tightens, per Nikkei Asia
- Power SiC market set to hit $11B by 2031 on 20% CAGR as AI datacenters join EVs as key demand driver, according to Yole
- Tensordyne projects $200M+ in demand for Napier inference racks built at TSMC with Broadcom and Juniper, says Reuters
- TSMC and Amkor agree to 10-year partnership to expand advanced packaging in Arizona, onshoring more of the US chip supply chain
Consumer
- Apple announced plans for camera-equipped AirPods, smart glasses, and foldable iPhones in two-year hardware push tied to AI roadmap
