Financial
The SSD supply crunch triggered by the ongoing AI agent boom does not seem to be lessening. Strong procurement demand from CSPs drove enterprise SSD revenue to a record high in Q1 2026, surging 86% QoQ and surpassing $18,46 billion. Vendors have aggressively raised prices to maximise profitability amid tight supply conditions, although the resulting price increases could moderate demand growth in some segments during Q2 2026.
• Major memory suppliers continue to prioritise capacity allocation toward higher-value products such as HBM and advanced-layer 3D NAND, according to TrendForce’s latest research on the memory industry. This has squeezed the mature-node capacity for NOR Flash and SLC NAND. Cumulative contract price increases for both product categories exceeded 100% during the first half of 2026. The company expects prices for NOR Flash and SLC NAND to continue rising in H2 2026, given that no significant capacity expansion plans have been announced by suppliers, amid tight supply-demand conditions.
• Foundries are starting to hint at possible wafer price increases in the second half of 2026 as utilisation rates improve, causing some process nodes to reach their lowest point and start recovering in price. This development is likely to encourage customers to place orders early in anticipation of upcoming price rises.
• Macom recently reported its Q2 2026 results with a revenue of $289 million, an increase of 22,5% compared to an increase of 6,4% in the prior fiscal quarter. Net income was $46,3 million compared to net income of $31,7 million in the previous year fiscal second quarter. For the fiscal Q3 ending 3 July, Macom expects revenue to be in the range of $331 million to $339 million.
• SpaceX’s upcoming IPO plans have become a significant market focus, driven by rising global demand for satellite broadband, direct-to-cell (DTC) connectivity, and AI computing. It is predicted that the worldwide satellite industry will generate $447 billion by 2027, with an annual growth rate of 14%.
• Global sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) – including battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles – reached 3,94 million units in Q1 2026, marking a 2% YoY decline. NEVs accounted for 19% of global car sales during the quarter. China’s NEV market underperformed, but Western Europe showed signs of recovery, and BEV sales in Japan and South Korea also recorded significant growth.
Companies
• Vertiv has completed its acquisition of ThermoKey, a leading provider of heat rejection and heat-exchange technologies, strengthening its thermal management portfolio and manufacturing capabilities across the EMEA region. The move expands Vertiv’s ability to deliver integrated cooling solutions for AI factories and high-density data centres, supporting customers as demand for AI infrastructure continues to accelerate.
• Microchip Technology has announced that its Nantes facility in France has expanded its Qualified Manufacturers List MIL‑PRF‑38535 certification scope to include QML Class Y, reinforcing the company’s commitment to delivering high‑reliability semiconductor solutions for aerospace and defence applications. The Nantes site expanded its certification scope from QML Classes V and Q to now include Class Y.
• Smart Hands Africa has been appointed as an authorised Services Partner for Supermicro, strengthening its position as a leading pan-African technology services and infrastructure enablement provider. Under the agreement, Smart Hands Africa will deliver installation, deployment, maintenance, support and professional services for Supermicro customers across multiple African markets.
• Anglia Components has announced that it has once again been named in the Top 50 Global Electronics Distributors list. Notably, Anglia remain the only privately owned, independent UK distributor to feature in the Top 5.
Technologies
Indium Corporation received a Sustainability Award from ASE Technology Holding at their recent 2025 Best Suppliers Award Ceremony in Taichung, Taiwan. Through the use of Indium Corporation’s WS-575-C Ball-Attach Flux, ASE successfully lowered the cleaning water temperature in the standard BGA ball-attach process from the typical 50°C – 60°C to room temperature, approximately 35°C. The change enhanced energy efficiency by reducing electricity consumption and carbon emissions, providing approximately $440 000/year in economic benefit.
• NVIDIA has decided to halve the SOCAMM memory capacity of its next-generation Vera Rubin Superchip modules in response to insufficient LPDRAM capacity allocated to NVIDIA under its suppliers’ preliminary 2027 production plans. NVIDIA has, therefore, opted to lower memory capacity per module, while increasing overall module shipments to expand market penetration.
• The rapid growth of AI training and inference workloads is pushing AI data centres toward increased power use, higher rack densities, and larger clusters. As data transfer becomes a major energy drain, CSPs are treating interconnect technologies as equally important as compute hardware. Bringing optical connectivity closer to switch ASIC, shortening electrical paths, and reducing system power consumption have emerged as key design priorities for next-generation AI data centres. TrendForce has, therefore, predicted that the markets for co-packaged optics (CPO) and near-packaged optics (NPO) will expand significantly, from around $100 million in 2025 to over $39 billion by 2030.
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