[Samsung Unveils BV-NAND, zHBM, and zNAND-O: 10x Density, 3x Energy Efficiency Over HBM5]

The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) released data showing that from July 1 to 31, retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles in China totaled 970,000 units, down 2% YoY and down 4% MoM, with year-to-date cumulative retail sales reaching 5.675 million units, down 12% YoY; from July 1 to 31, wholesale of new energy passenger vehicles by producers reached 1.463 million units, up 24% YoY but down 1% MoM, with year-to-date cumulative wholesale reaching 8.251 million units, up 8% YoY. From July 1 to 31, the retail penetration rate of the national new energy market was 64.4%; the wholesale penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles by producers was 65.3%.

Independent tech journalist Tim Culpan pointed out that the A20 Pro processor wafers produced by TSMC’s N2 process are showing good yield and sufficient capacity, with processor production basically ready, and that this process is not a bottleneck affecting iPhone shipments. However, due to a severe shortage of DRAM supply, the completed processor wafers cannot be subsequently packaged, leading to inventory buildup and putting pressure on Apple and its supply chain’s stockpiling. With only weeks to go before the release of the iPhone 18 series and the foldable iPhone Ultra, Apple and its supply chain assemblers are urgently seeking more mobile DRAM chip supply. In terms of DRAM supply, Apple currently relies primarily on Micron Technology, while also sourcing from SK Hynix and Samsung.

Tesla (TSLA.O) announced that the "Terafab" project has officially landed in Grimes County, Texas. Jointly initiated earlier this year by SpaceX and Tesla, the project is the world’s largest chip manufacturing plan, aiming to bridge the massive gap between current global chip supply capabilities and future computing demand. In fact, the predecessor of Terafab broke ground in April at the north campus of the Texas Gigafactory—a new R&D wafer fab. Now the project has been officially upgraded and sited in Grimes County, where it will be developed into an advanced semiconductor wafer fab. SpaceX and Tesla’s combined chip demand is expected to exceed 1 terawatt (TW) of computing capacity, a scale that far surpasses current global supply capability. We deeply appreciate our existing chip suppliers and encourage them to expand their capacity wherever possible, but the widening supply-demand gap in the future is the core reason behind the existence of the Terafab project. Terafab aims to manufacture new computing capacity at unprecedented scale and speed. The project plans to build a vertically integrated factory with over 100 million square feet of manufacturing space, covering fabrication, packaging, and testing of advanced logic and memory chips. Consolidating these processes in a single facility facilitates rapid iterative improvements and accelerates the deployment of new computing capacity.