Electronics Supply Chain Weekly Digest 11-14-25.
DATAPOINT OF THE WEEK: Passenger car retail sales in China reached 2.24M in October, declining 0.8% Y/Y and is flat M/M marking the first decline since January, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
NEV retails sales came in at 1.28M units in October, surpassing 1M level for the third straight month. NEVs were up 7% Y/Y but down 1.1% M/M in October. BEV sales totaled 812k units, up 21% Y/Y but down 1.7% M/M. PHEVs totaled 469k units, flat M/M but down 10% Y/Y. October marked the fourth consecutive month of Y/Y declines in Hybrid vehicles, which are the only four months with Y/Y decline in the CPCA dataset.
NEV penetration stood at 57.2%, up 4.9 percentage points Y/Y, but 0.6 percentage points M/M. NEV exports totaled 250k, up 40k units M/M, and more than double Y/Y. CAAM data for October came in much higher than CPCA, with total sales amounting to 3.322M units, NEV sales at 1.715M, BEV at 1.109M, and PHEVs at 605k.
Headlines:
Auto/Transportation
- BYD plans to sell up to 1.6M vehicles overseas in 2026, up from 900k–1M in 2025, driven by new model launches, according to Citi
- BYD is moving away from using its in-house Dilian electronic IOUs to pay suppliers, opting instead for commercial paper or bank notes, according to Reuters
- Global sales of EV and PHEVs rose 23% Y/Y in October to 1.9M units, led by strong demand in Europe and China, according to Rho Motion
- GM seeking to eliminate China-sourced parts from their supply chains, aiming for completion by 2027 to boost supply-chain resiliency amid US-China trade tensions, according to Reuters
- Hyundai faces rare-earth magnet shortages from China, prompting R&D delays but mass production remains unaffected; global automakers explore rare-earth-reduced and free motor designs
- China urges EU to push Netherlands on Nexperia, though short-term wafer workaround may alleviate tightness, according to Reuters, DigiTimes, and Bloomberg
- Nissan plans to cut 87 roles at its European office in France under CEO Espinosa’s global restructuring, according to Reuters
- South Korea will raise EV subsidies 20% to $658M in 2026 and expand financing for auto parts suppliers
- Tesla is reportedly planning to add Apple CarPlay support in its EVs, according to Bloomberg
- US new-vehicle inventory rose to 2.97M units in early November, with ATP at $49,766; EV sales fell 49% M/M to 74,835 units, says Cox
- VW and Rivian’s joint venture, RV Tech, is developing a scalable EV electrical and software platform that could eventually be licensed to other automakers, according to Bloomberg
- Waymo announced it will begin offering robotaxi rides on freeways in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix
Datacenter
- Anthropic announced plans to invest $50B in US datacenters, partnering with Fluidstack in Texas and New York, with additional sites expected later
- CoreWeave trims annual revenue forecast despite strong 3Q results, citing datacenter delays, rising costs, and Nvidia chip price pressures
- Two major Santa Clara datacenter projects, remain empty years after approval due to limited local electricity supply
- Amazon is backing the GAIN AI Act alongside Microsoft and Anthropic, aiming to restrict Nvidia’s ability to export advanced AI chips to China, according to the WSJ
- Microsoft announced plans to invest $10B to build a new datacenter in Sines, Portugal, one of Europe’s largest AI projects
- Nebius announced a $3B, five-year deal with Meta to provide AI infrastructure, following its earlier $17.4B contract with Microsoft
- Tencent announced chip shortages are limiting the growth of its cloud business, as the company prioritizes internal AI chip use over renting computing power to external clients
IP&E
- BizLink reported 3Q revenue of $593.8M with growth driven by AI server, with the information data unit surpassing 40% of total sales and the industrial and factory automation segments showing steady gains
- Scala, Lightera, and Nokia achieve 32% latency reduction with Hollow Core Fiber in Latin America, paving way for AI-ready data center networks
- POET Technologies and Quantum Computing Inc. announced a collaboration to develop 400G/Lane TFLN modulator-based 3.2Tbps engines for AI networks and hyperscale datacenters
Semiconductors
- AMD announced it expects its datacenter chip revenue to reach $100B within five years, driven largely by AI demand, with overall earnings projected to more than triple
- Baidu announced two new AI semiconductors, the M100 for inference in early 2026 and the M300 for both training and inference in early 2027
- German startup Ferroelectric Memory GmbH raised €100M in financing and subsidies to commercialize energy-efficient memory chips
- Foxconn 3Q profit rises 17% on AI server demand; strong 2026 outlook, OpenAI collaboration teased
- GlobalFoundries 3Q revenue beats expectations at $1.69B; 4Q guidance of $1.80B driven by automotive and datacenter demand, €1.1B German fab expansion planned
- Kioxia reported a F2Q net profit of $306M, down 62% Y/Y and below expectations of $356M, largely due to a shift toward lower-margin smartphone products
- TrendForce reports that while higher ASPs are boosting profitability in the memory industry, DRAM and NAND Flash capex are expected to rise only modestly in 2026, limiting impact on bit output
- Microsoft is accelerating its AI chip development by licensing IP from OpenAI, enabling faster progress on its AI accelerators and computing architectures, CEO Satya Nadella disclosed
- Samsung is reportedly targeting profitability for its foundry division by 2027, aiming for a 20% revenue market share, according to ETNews
- Samsung has reportedly sharply raised prices for memory chips amid a global shortage with 32GB DDR5 modules jumping 60% from $149 in Sept to $239 in Nov, according to Reuters
- SMIC reported a 28.9% Y/Y increase in 3Qprofit, reaching $191.75M and surpassing expectations of $178.88M
- Tower Semiconductor reported strong 3Q results, with revenue of $395.7M, slightly above expectations, driven by robust demand for chips in datacenters, AI infrastructure, and RF applications
- TSMC announced it is exiting lower-margin GaN wafer foundry services, licensing its 650V and 80V GaN technologies to GlobalFoundries
- YMTC has begun construction on its third NAND fab in Wuhan, aiming for production to begin in 2027, while also expanding its second fab and exploring entry into the DRAM market
Consumer/Other
- Apple will reportedly delay the next iPhone Air, originally planned for fall 2026, due to weaker-than-expected sales, according to the Information
- iPhone sales in China rose 22% Y/Y in the first month after the iPhone 17 launch, despite a soft broader smartphone market, according to Counterpoint Research
- Forterra, a US startup developing autonomous battlefield vehicles, raised $238M in a funding round, boosting its valuation above $1B, according to Bloomberg