DATAPOINT OF THE WEEK: April new car registrations in Europe totaled 1.15M, surpassing the 1M mark for second straight month. Registrations increased 7.0% Y/Y but declined 27.1% M/M, largely in line with seasonal trends, according to ACEA data. BEVs maintained strong growth in April, reaching 255k registrations, up 38.3% Y/Y, but down 25.8% M/M. BEVs accounted for 22.2% of the market in April, up 4.8 percentage points Y/Y. PHEVs also saw significant Y/Y growth, rising 21%. HEVs increased 12.6% Y/Y but fell 31% M/M. HEVs now account for 36.4% of the market, up 2.3 percentage points Y/Y. ICE registrations declined 15% Y/Y and 23.8% M/M in April, marking its 24th straight month of Y/Y declines.
Headlines:
Auto/Transportation
- China EV prices reverse higher as lithium, automotive DRAM, and copper costs crush industry margins to a decade low, according to DigiTimes
- Memory cost spike emerges as biggest 2026 auto pricing pressure, threatening to offset NEV incentives as Tesla retakes global BEV crown, as reported by TrendForce
- NIO CEO calls China auto market saturated, but plans to stay focused domestically with 5x smart-driving compute spend in 2026 as overseas push stays sidelined
- Nissan's JATCO scraps UK EV powertrain plant as demand stalls and Nissan trims production footprint, according to Nikkei
- Trump administration pushes USMCA rewrite lifting NA auto content to 82% with half from US, sidelining Canada, according to Reuters
- Waymo announced its debut of sixth-gen autonomous stack in Geely-built Zeekr Ojai minivan, opening passenger rides across three US cities
- Xpeng guides 2Q revenue below expectations as soft China EV demand deepens and 1Q losses widen
Datacenter
- Dell reports 1Q AI server revenue surpassed PC sales as memory-driven price hikes and supply tightness reshape the mix
- Iren announced a $1.6B Dell contract for Blackwell systems to fulfill $3.4B Nvidia AI cloud deal
- Meta is reportedly evaluating cloud computing entry, according to CNBC
Connectivity
- Aixtron wins multiple G10-AsP MOCVD orders from Lumentum to expand InP laser capacity for 800G and 1.6T AI optical links
- Marvell lifts long-term outlook as custom silicon ramps past $10B by FY29 on hyperscaler ASIC wins
- Semtech flags AI networking demand at 3x supply as 1.6T optical shipments to US hyperscaler shift story to capacity execution
Semiconductors
- AWS announced it has landed a $6B Snowflake AI infrastructure deal as Graviton CPUs expand role in agentic workloads
- BYD launches in-house smart-driving chip it claims is China's most powerful, deepening silicon self-sufficiency push
- ByteDance pursues in-house CPUs on parallel Arm and RISC-V tracks as Intel and AMD hike prices up to 35% Q/Q, according to Reuters
- GlobalWafers announced plans to raise silicon wafer prices in 2H26 with 12-inch capacity is running at full utilization and smaller wafer sizes have visibility extending into 3Q
- GlobalWafers announced it is rolling out a phased 30%, and an additional +20% GaN capacity expansion as 2026 supply tightens on AI server and robotics demand
- Infineon sets second 2026 price hike for July 1 as power chip suppliers ride structural AI demand shift, according to TechNews
- MediaTek backs both TSMC CoWoS and Intel EMIB for custom AI silicon and will allow customers to pick
- Micron shifts LPDDR4 and DDR4 production to Virginia Fab 6 as Taiwan operations pivot to DDR5 and HBM, says TrendForce
- Nexperia announces partnership with US foundry Polar Semiconductor to manufacture power MOSFETs, expanding automotive-grade capacity
- Qualcomm wins ByteDance ASIC supply deal, marking inroad into AI datacenter chips beyond smartphone processors, says Bloomberg
- Samsung planning to invest $1.5B into first Vietnam chip testing plant targeting DRAM and NAND as AI-driven memory shortage spreads to legacy nodes, according to Reuters
- Stellantis announced expansion of multi-year deal to deploy Qualcomm Snapdragon Digital Chassis across global portfolio, with aiMotive set to join Qualcomm
- STMicro has reportedly notified customers of a new round of price increases effective June 28, 2026, covering products not included in earlier 2026 adjustments, according to SemiMedia
- STMicro announced it has expanded its PowerGaN portfolio with seven new 700V enhancement-mode GaN HEMTs targeting AI servers, robotics, industrial systems, and smart-grid converters
- TSMC is reportedly preparing up to 15% 3nm price hike in 2H26 with another 5-10% in 2027 as AI and ASIC demand swamp capacity, per Commercial Times
- TSMC reframes roadmap around power efficiency as A14 targets 30% lower consumption and A13/A12 skip High-NA EUV, according to TrendForce
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