Wall Street News Breakfast FM-Radio | April 17, 2026

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Huajian Morning Voices

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Market Overview

US stocks closed slightly higher. S&P and Nasdaq set new highs again, with tech stocks leading the gains. S&P rose 0.26%, Nasdaq 100 rose 0.5%, a 12-day winning streak, marking the longest rally since July 2017. North American software ETF rebounded another 1.2%, Oracle soared over 5%, Microsoft rose 2.2%. Post-earnings, Charles Schwab plunged 7.6%, the biggest single-day drop in over a year, Netflix tumbled nearly 9% after hours. Allbirds crashed 36% in a single day.

Stocks and bonds decoupled, oil remained at high levels, Fed rate expectations leaned hawkish. 10-year US Treasury yield rose 3 bps to 4.31%, 2-year yield edged up 2 bps.
Dollar rose 0.2%, overturning an earlier eight-day losing streak. Bitcoin dipped below $73,000 then rebounded, met resistance at $75,500, and ended slightly higher.

Spot gold unchanged, hovering near $4,800. WTI crude futures rose 3.72%. Middle East Dubai crude futures rose 0.65%.

In the Asian session: ChiNext hit an 11-year high, battery and computing sectors strong, Hang Seng Tech surged 3%, Baidu jumped over 7%.

Key News

China

China's Q1 GDP grew 5.0% year-on-year, marking a good start. March retail sales growth 1.7% YoY, auto retail sales dropped 11.8% YoY. March industrial value-added (above designated size) up 5.7% YoY, transportation equipment and electronics led, cement production slumped 21%. Urban fixed asset investment up 1.7% Jan-Mar, infrastructure investment grew 8.9% YoY. Real estate development investment Jan-Mar -11.2%, marginal narrowing in commercial housing sales decline. March 70-city house prices: first-tier cities rise month-on-month, second/third-tier cities saw narrower drops or were flat, Shanghai new houses up 3.7% YoY.

TSMC Q1 net profit up 58% YoY, gross margin historically broke 66%, capex $11.1 billion; Earnings release: this year's capex aimed for $52-56 billion high-end range, 2nm chips already in mass production.

Zhongji Xuchuang Q1 net profit 5.7 billion yuan, up 262% YoY, single-quarter profit exceeded all of 2024.

Kweichow Moutai saw annual revenue fall for the first time since listing, dividend hit a historic high.

Duan Yongping is anxious: I didn’t sell Tencent!

Qunhe Technology Hong Kong IPO oversubscribed 1591 times, pre-listing trading surged 170%.

Overseas

Trump: Next US-Iran meeting may be this weekend, possibility to extend ceasefire if needed, Iran agreed not to own nuclear weapons, Lebanon and Israel to ceasefire for 10 days, Israel agreed to ceasefire but not withdrawing troops from southern Lebanon. US launched "Economic Fury" campaign against Iran, pressed for agreement, Iran denounced it as economic terrorism, saying the enemy misjudged battlefield. US blockade entered third day, two Iran-related ships slowly entered Persian Gulf, Hormuz traffic sharply reduced.

Cuban president claims "US may launch military invasion," urges people to prepare.

Countdown to May 15! Powell refuses to "hand over power early," Trump threatens to "fire on the spot," Fed power transfer caught in legal quagmire. Bessent made a dramatic reversal, voiced support for Fed to "stay put" for two consecutive days. On the eve of Waller's Fed Chairman confirmation hearing, Senate Banking Democrats collectively called for a delay.

Anthropic released its flagship AI model Opus 4.7, better software engineering, cyber offense/defense intentionally weakened. White House plans to open access to Anthropic's powerful AI model Mythos for federal agencies.

OpenAI launches drug development model to challenge Google, releases Codex for operating computers on ongoing tasks.

Netflix Q1 earnings beat expectations but guidance disappointed, "soul figure" chairman to step down, stock plunged after hours.

First production line targets 3,000 wafers/month, Musk's "super chip factory" requires suppliers to deliver at "light speed."

Oracle deepens multi-cloud cooperation with AWS, enterprise-level high-speed private interconnect landing this year.

Market Closing Data

US/European markets: S&P 500 up 0.26% at 7041.28. Dow up 0.24% at 48578.72. Nasdaq up 0.36% at 24102.704. European STOXX 600 closed down 0.05% at 616.95.

A-shares: Shanghai Composite closed at 4055.55, up 0.70%. Shenzhen Index closed at 14796.33, up 2.05%. ChiNext closed at 3626.27, up 3.17%.

Bonds: US 10-year Treasury yield up 2.38 bps at 4.3072%. US 2-year yield up 1.23 bps at 3.7737%.

Commodities: WTI May crude oil futures closed up $3.40, up 3.72%, at $94.69/barrel. Spot gold down 0.04% at $4788.96/oz. Spot silver down 0.69% at $78.4150/oz.

Key News Details

Global Headlines

China

China's Q1 GDP grew 5.0% YoY, marking a solid start! The growth rate accelerated by 0.5 percentage points vs. Q4 last year. High-tech manufacturing value-added grew 12.5%, faster than overall industrial value-added by 2.8 and 6.4 percentage points. By product: 3D printers, lithium-ion batteries, and industrial robots output grew by 54.0%, 40.8%, and 33.2% YoY respectively.

Guolian Minsheng macro analyst Tao Chuan believes that the actual 5% GDP growth is beyond expectations, but more importantly, faster nominal GDP recovery signals prices are about to turn positive. This will help reverse prior low-inflation behavior and expectations. As long as oil price transmission is controlled, the turn will be net positive for the real economy. Investment shows resilience amid balanced development & security logic, property demand shows marginal improvement signs.

March retail sales up 1.7% YoY, automobile retail down 11.8% YoY. Q1 retail sales up 2.4% YoY, 0.7 percentage points faster than Q4 last year; auto retail dropped 11.8% YoY in March, cumulative drop in Q1 was 9.1%. By contrast, communication equipment sales surged 27.3% in March, up 20.8% cumulatively for the quarter.

March industrial value-added up 5.7% YoY, transport equipment and electronics led, cement production fell 21%. Of 41 major categories, 30 saw YoY growth: coal mining grew 5.3%, oil & gas extraction 9.4%, agro-food processing 8.0%, beverages & tea manufacturing 2.4%, textiles 1.7%, chemicals 9.0%.

Jan-Mar urban fixed asset investment up 1.7%, infrastructure investment up 8.9% YoY. By area: infrastructure up 8.9%, manufacturing up 4.1%, real estate development down 11.2%. High-tech industry investment up 7.4% YoY: computer & office equipment, aviation & aerospace manufacturing, and IT services up 28.3%, 19.0%, and 20.9% respectively. Fixed asset investment (excl. households) was up 0.52% MoM in March.

Jan-Mar national real estate development investment -11.2%, marginal narrowing in commercial housing sales decline. New commercial housing sold: 195.25m sqm, down 10.4% YoY, narrowing by 3.1ppts vs. Jan-Feb; residential sales area down 13.1%. New commercial housing sales: ¥1,726.2b, down 16.7%, fall narrowed by 3.5ppts; residential sales down 18.5%.

March 70-city house prices: first-tier cities prices rose MoM, second/third-tier cities narrowed declines or stayed flat, Shanghai new houses up 3.7% YoY. Major city prices are recovering faster MoM and YoY declines are also improving. First-tier second-hand housing up 0.4% MoM (vs. previous month's -0.1%). Second/third-tier cities down 0.2% and 0.4% MoM, declines narrowed by 0.2 and 0.1 ppts respectively. Worth noting: Shanghai new homes up 0.3% MoM, 3.7% YoY, only city among big four with YoY growth.

TSMC Q1 net profit up 58% YoY, gross margin historically broke 66%, capex $11.1 billion; Earnings release: capex aimed for $52-56 billion, 2nm chips in mass production

TSMC's Q1 2026 results beat expectations: net profit NT$57.25bn, up 58% YoY, revenue NT$113.4bn, up 35% YoY, gross margin soared to 66.2%. AI demand boosted HPC platform revenue to over 60%, advanced nodes (3nm+5nm) reached 74%. Strong performance eased geopolitical chip demand worries.
Company predicts Q2 revenue $39-40.2bn, much higher than Q2 last year ($30.1bn) and Q1 ($35.9bn). Wei Zhejia says "AI demand is very strong," and the world is in "AI mega-trend." Middle East crisis may affect profitability but company has enough safety stock to handle supply swings.
TSMC: True overlord of AI, who can shake it? This report is "good but not explosive" — revenue and margins beat guidance but met expectations. AI chips moved from 5nm to 3nm, boosting unit price and volume. Guidance for full year revenue growth raised above 30%, CoWoS capacity remains bottleneck for AI industry. Intel and Samsung chase, but tech gaps remain. TSMC's status is hard to shake short-term.

Zhongji Xuchuang Q1 net profit 5.7 billion yuan, up 262% YoY, single-quarter profit exceeds 2024 full year. 2026 Q1 revenue 19.496 billion yuan, up 192% YoY; net profit attributable to parent 5.735 billion yuan, up 262%; single quarter profit already exceeds full year 2024. AI computing demand continues exploding, high-margin optical module product sales rising. Company steps up inventory, expands projects under construction, and increases R&D.

Kweichow Moutai sees annual revenue drop for the first time since listing, dividend at historic high. 2025 revenue of 168.838 billion yuan, down 1.21% YoY; net profit attributable 82.32 billion yuan, down 4.53% YoY. Dividend of 65 billion yuan hits historic high, two rounds of stock buyback launched. Despite earnings pressure, brand value jumped 16.5% to $58.4bn, MSCI ESG rating rose from BBB to A.

Duan Yongping is anxious: I didn’t sell Tencent! Recently, a netizen analyzed he reduced holdings in Tencent, Duan Yongping was angry and said "If you keep explaining blindly, I'll block you!" He stated he never sold Tencent, selling Put options on Tencent was restricted, Tencent is a good company that shouldn't be sold. At end of March, he said when Tencent price adjusts, it's the time for buying more.

Qunhe Technology Hong Kong IPO oversubscribed 1591 times, pre-listing soared 170%. On April 16, Qunhe Technology surged 170% in Futu pre-market trading, closing at HK$20.52, with a market cap near HK$35bn. The stock will officially list on HKEX April 17 (Friday), becoming the “world's first space intelligence stock,” and also “first among Hangzhou’s ‘six little dragons’.”

Overseas

Trump: Next US-Iran meeting may be this weekend, possibility to extend ceasefire if needed, Iran agreed not to own nuclear weapons. Trump says agreement is very close, hopes to reach it during ceasefire; the deal will deliver US "free oil and free Hormuz passage"; if not agreed, war will reignite. He says US got a "weighty" statement ensuring Iran will not possess nuclear weapons, valid for over 20 years, Iran has not responded.

Trump says Lebanon and Israel to ceasefire for 10 days, Israel agrees but will not withdraw from southern Lebanon. Ceasefire starts 5pm Thursday US Eastern; Trump will invite Lebanese and Israeli leaders to the White House; will consider visiting Lebanon himself. Israel considers southern Lebanon a security "buffer zone," says current terms allow action if "threats" arise. US State Dept says Israel retains self-defense rights during ceasefire but will not attack Lebanon. Iran's Parliament leader says they will treat the ceasefire cautiously.

US launches "Economic Fury" campaign, presses Iran for agreement, Iran denounces as economic terrorism, says enemy misjudged battlefield. Gulf and European officials estimate peace may take about six months, so ceasefire needs to be extended. US Defense Secretary said new operation is to "maximize economic pressure" on Iran; ready to restart combat if Iran refuses to agree. US military expands shipping material blockade against Iran, 10,000 troops involved, 13 ships forced to turn back.

US blockade enters third day, two Iran-related ships slowly enter Persian Gulf, Hormuz traffic sharply reduced. Blockade at Hormuz entered third day, Iranian ships explored new routes—detouring via UAE, quietly passing through waterway between Larak and Qeshm Islands. Merchant ship traffic dropped from average 135 ships/day to 11, Iran’s daily 1.7mn barrels oil exports face disruption. Meanwhile, Iran made conditions for next US-Iran talks, proposed "free passage on Oman side of Hormuz."

Cuba's president claims "US may launch military invasion," urges citizens to prepare. President Díaz-Canel said Cuba is facing an "absolutely challenging" moment, imminent "serious threat" includes US "military invasion." He urges Cubans to "be ready" to fight if invaded. "We don't want war, but have a responsibility to be prepared."

Countdown to May 15! Powell refuses to "hand over power early," Trump threatens to "fire on spot," Fed power transfer in legal quagmire. As successor Waller faces confirmation barriers, Trump threatened to fire Powell after his term, while Powell insists on staying as "interim chairman," confrontation escalates. Senator Tillis uses DOJ investigation as leverage against Waller's nomination, making transition timetable very uncertain. If White House forcibly replaces personnel, could trigger legal battles, impact Fed independence, and become market's most underestimated risk variable.

Bessent dramatically reverses stance! Twice in two days supports Fed "stay put," war clouds cool rate cut expectations. US-Iran conflict pushes up energy prices, Bessent rare reversal twice in two days to support Fed "pause, wait for data," showing Treasury and Fed cautious factions align. If Waller becomes Fed chair, faces political and voting pressure over rate cuts, policy uncertainty rises.

Day before Waller’s Fed chairman hearing, Senate Banking Democrats call for delay. Trump-nominated Waller expected at hearing next Tuesday, but all 11 Senate Banking Democrats pressed for delay. They sent a letter to committee chair, citing that Waller's nomination should not proceed until investigation of current Fed chair Powell and governor Cook ends. Waller’s chance of Senate confirmation before May 15 is thus lowered.

Anthropic releases main AI model Opus 4.7, software engineering improved, cyber offense/defense intentionally weakened. After restrictive release of Mythos, Anthropic launches upgraded flagship model Opus 4.7. Software engineering improves, image recognition also strengthened, but cyber offense/defense deliberately weakened. Choices reflect AI safety vs. commercialization trade-off.

White House plans to open access to Anthropic's powerful AI model Mythos for federal agencies. US government prepares to provide Mythos, market worries model may worsen cyber security risks, so far only small number of agencies had access, only for cyber risk evaluation. White House OMB said protective mechanism will be built before rollout, timing not set.

OpenAI launches drug development model to challenge Google, releases Codex for ongoing PC operations. OpenAI launches GPT-Rosalind, aims to speed drug development, challenge Google and others; news sent drug development company stocks tumbling. Codex can now operate PCs with users, remembers preferences, learns from usage, supports ongoing tasks.

Netflix Q1 earnings beat forecast but guidance weak, "soul figure" chairman will leave, stock plunged after hours. Q1 revenue growth slowed to 16% but beat expectations; EPS up 86% YoY, major boost from one-off Warner acquisition income $2.85bn. Netflix expects Q2 content amortization to peak for full year; operating margin guide unchanged and below forecast, ad revenue target remains at $3bn, free cash flow guidance raised over 10% to $12.5bn. Founder Hastings leaves board after June. Stock plunged up to 10% after hours.

First production line targets 3,000 wafers/month, Musk's “super chip factory” requires suppliers "light speed" response. Musk's chip ambitions accelerating: Terafab team sent inquiries to Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron and others, demanding "light speed" response, targets Texas production in 2029 at 3,000 wafers/month. Analysts estimate capex between $5T-$13T, tech path unclear, no core orders signed — can this chip bet rival TSMC like SpaceX? Unclear.

Oracle and AWS deepen multi-cloud collaboration, enterprise-grade high-speed private interconnect arrives this year. Oracle and AWS expand multi-cloud collaboration with OCI/AWS interconnection products, building enterprise private connections. Deepens collaboration in AI databases, supports seamless cross-cloud app/data movement, no need for physical networks. Oracle up 5%.

Research Report Highlights

Trump is anxious! US-Iran April BigDeal expected? Market focuses on next two days. Industrial Securities expects US-Iran deal in April, Trump’s “hard talk for negotiation” strategy begins to show effect. Strait blockade deadline, lower cost for de-escalation than escalation, election support rate at 41%, high oil price impact on US stocks together make Trump eager to push talks. Watch for April 22 ceasefire deadline and April 28 Congress authorization day.

Jensen Huang makes big moves again? GTC Taipei speech may reveal next-gen AI revolution tech, surprises for consumer products too. Jensen Huang will speak at Computex June 1, Nvidia official theme is “breakthrough tech driving next-gen AI.” Two main focal points: continuing March GTC’s enterprise AI arms race, and unveiling co-developed Arm-architecture AI PC chip with MediaTek — plus possible DLSS 5-esque surprises.

Jensen Huang directly “defines” Nvidia: The converter of ‘electrons’ to ‘tokens’. "Input is electrons, output is tokens, and Nvidia is the middle." For the first time, Huang gave Nvidia’s minimal definition, explaining supply chain moat, disdain for TPU rival, and commitment not to do cloud services. Nvidia claims to offer an acceleration computing platform across all scientific fields, cost advantage comes from best TCO and token per watt. He says GPUs will never be auctioned to highest bidder, nor abandon Chinese market.

Looking at AI chip future from "chip olympics": interconnect technology bottleneck surfaces, packaging innovation is next main battleground. With HBM4 bandwidth near limits, GPU scaling up, chip-to-chip communication and memory bandwidth bottlenecks appear, driving optical interconnect, CPO, DWDM, UCIe solutions. Nvidia, Broadcom, Marvell clarify next-gen data center interconnect, TSMC aLSI, Intel UCIe-S and many AI accelerator solutions compete in advanced packaging. Overall, compute boost depends increasingly on system-level packaging and interconnect innovation, packaging is now AI chip competition's core battleground.

CoreWeave vs Nebius—The new "AI cloud" powers: which is stronger? Morgan Stanley first systematic analysis. CoreWeave has leadership in scale, execution, visibility in financing, Nebius takes flexible spot market, diversified enterprise strategy, and more agile capital structure. Both face high debt and concentrated client risks—AI infrastructure competition is about certainty vs. imagination.

This US stock new high left retail investors behind! Bull Tom Lee: They’ll drive the next rally. Retail investors sold as US stocks bottomed, stayed bearish during rebound. Tom Lee says this creates a seed for next rally: large sidelined funds will turn into buying momentum if sentiment shifts. Currently, technology, industrial and financials lead, retail funds returning after tax season, sidelined funds could be key to driving further gains.

Domestic Macro

State-owned Assets Supervision held a special conference to promote low-altitude economy: increase investment and develop long-term capital. Strengthen planning, increase investment, play long-term capital, strategic capital, patient capital roles, focus on key tech breakthroughs, improve industry-wide technical supply capability, speed up innovation and iteration of low-altitude aviation equipment.

Domestic Companies

Ali Tongyi Lab open sources Qwen3.6-35B-A3B model. April 16: Ali Tongyi Lab announced open source of Qwen3.6-35B-A3B. Model capability far exceeds prior generations, compatible with OpenClaw, Claude Code, Qwen Code and other mainstream programming assistants.

Ali releases 3D world model Happy Oyster aimed at gaming and film content production. Alibaba released the 3D world model Happy Oyster on April 16. Further expands AI product matrix, targeting gaming, film, and content production. Developed by ATH Innovation Division, adopts native multimodal architecture, supports real-time creation of interactive AI digital worlds, enables transition from passive generation to proactive simulation.

Tencent’s new model pushes towards 3D, officially released and open-sourced the HY-World 2.0 mixed-element 3D world model.

Can't beat AI? Go deliver food? Not that easy anymore. That fallback is quietly being blocked by robots. Barclays' latest report reveals: autonomous delivery tech can cut per-order costs from $9 to $1, and by 2035 will unlock $16bn profit and $80bn incremental GMV for global food delivery platforms. DoorDash, Meituan already leading, a cost revolution worth hundreds of billions is accelerating.

Han's Laser 2025 revenue hits record, net profit up 82% ex-items, AI boosts PCB business demand. 2025 revenue ¥18.759bn, up 27% YoY; net profit attributable ¥1.19bn, down 29.77% YoY due to high base in 2024 non-recurring items; net profit ex-items ¥810mn, up 82.28% YoY, core business profitability improved. PCB business stood out: revenue ¥5.773bn, up 72.68% YoY, AI infrastructure driving strong procurement demand.

Overseas Macro

Fed governor Milan favors three rate cuts this year, calls blaming tariffs for inflation "baseless". Fed governor Milan said he supports three rate cuts this year, may ultimately be four. He says blaming inflation on tariffs is "irresponsible," expects core goods and housing inflation to keep falling, one year later PCE likely to approach 2% target, labor cooling trend continues, no reason to delay cuts.

Fed "third in command": monetary policy "well positioned," can handle MidEast war supply shock. Williams says monetary policy stance is "well positioned," can address persistent supply shocks due to Mideast war. Expects US inflation at 2.75%-3% by year end, GDP growth at 2%-2.5%, unemployment at 4.25%-4.5%.

Overseas Companies

White House plans to open access to Anthropic's powerful AI model Mythos for federal agencies. US government prepares to give access to Anthropic's Mythos AI (market worries about cyber security risk), so far only limited access for evaluating cyber risk. White House OMB says protection will be set up first, timing TBD.

OpenAI releases Codex update, supports ongoing PC operation with users. Codex now collaborates with users, compatible with more everyday tools and apps, creates images, remembers preferences, learns from prior activity, handles ongoing/repetitive tasks.

SK Hynix plans US listing in June/July to rival Micron. SK Hynix rushes ahead of expectations for US listing, target window is June-July this year, plans to raise ~$10bn. Driven by long-term capital plan of 600 trillion KRW, an epic valuation defense: expected PE is only 3-4x, half of Micron, much less than SanDisk. ADR listing will finally let global capital directly access world’s top HBM supplier.

Intel CEO internal memo: Will reveal all details of Musk Terafab super chip plant within weeks. Musk’s chip project Terafab speeds up—Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan promises "all details" will be disclosed within weeks, project aims for 1 terawatt computing power per year, Texas production line to start in 2029. Bernstein estimates capex at $5-13T, orders not settled, tech path unclear—grand plan remains clouded.

"Perpetual contract" 24/7 leveraged trading, crypto capital feverishly trades gold/oil "tokens". As Bitcoin arbitrage is squeezed to 5% by institutions, crypto hedge funds shift focus to gold, oil, copper—those assets priced unclearly on blockchain with fewer competitors. Using perpetual contracts for all-hour trading, they finish risk pricing faster than traditional markets, pair-trading annualized yields 20%-30%. Tokenized real world asset market cap has hit $26.5bn, up 360%. These "digital natives" use blockchain tools to find fresh Alpha in traditional assets.

Goldman Sachs applies for Bitcoin covered call ETF, Wall Street speeds up crypto integration. Product sells Bitcoin-linked options for premium, sacrificing upside for regular cash flow, mainly for conservative investors. Seen as traditional finance speeding up crypto asset integration, transplanting mature stock option strategies into crypto. Bitcoin's volatility means option premium may not always hedge downside risk.

"Make $20bn in 20 minutes": This man turns meeting Trump into a business. Trump's special envoy Zampolli claims "20 minutes" secured $20bn Boeing deal, monetizes access to president—"Want to please president, buy Boeing." Official version shows Trump handled deal himself, contract only $8bn. From introducing Melania to shuttle diplomacy, Zampolli reveals Trump’s unique mix of governance and salesmanship.

Retail day trading restriction officially abolished! SEC removes $25,000 threshold, US stocks enter "all-YOLO" era. SEC scrapped "pattern day trader" rule, removed $25k threshold, day trading limits for small accounts fully relaxed, retail trading freedom rises, broker stocks surged. Seen as step toward market democratization, may amplify retail force post-pandemic. However, concerns exist: high-frequency YOLO trades may increase impulsive bets and losses, volatility and retail losses could rise together.

Industries/Concepts

1. Carbon Neutrality | Shanghai issued "Key Work Plan for Carbon Peak, Carbon Neutrality, and Energy Saving in 2026." Actively promotes heavy truck charging/swap facilities, densifies highway rest area charging, full coverage of port shore power, boosts renewable energy use at transport hubs.

Comment: Research institutions believe policy will drive accelerated building of charging infrastructure, emphasis on rapid charging network, hence strong demand for high-power quick-charging devices, related equipment companies to benefit. Demand driven by rising new energy vehicle sales, 800V platform proliferation pushes tech upgrade, liquid-cooled supercharge piles become mainstream, high-voltage DC pile demand explodes.

2. PCB, copper-clad laminates | On April 16, TSMC released Q1 2026 earnings: net profit NT$57.25bn, estimate NT$54.238bn. Revenue up 35.1% YoY. Revenue in USD $35.9bn, up 40.6% YoY, up 6.4% QoQ. Beat market amid strong AI demand.

Comment: Research institutions think TSMC's full capacity, expansion, and rising GPU rental prices show strong near/mid-term AI demand. AI boosts PCB price/volume, many AI-PCB companies have strong orders, full production, expanding capacity, sustained high growth. AI copper-clad laminate in strong demand, overseas expansion slow, local leaders to benefit.

3. Controllable Nuclear Fusion | Compact fusion device (BEST) in Hefei, Anhui progressing steadily. As China’s next-generation "artificial sun," BEST mission is plasma "burn." Plans include deuterium-tritium plasma experiments, validating long-pulse steady-state, target fusion power 20MW-200MW, demonstration power generation.

Comment: China's fusion industry develops robustly with key projects, tech breakthroughs, funding, and policy support; global fusion research breakthroughs, major countries boost support, financing grows, commercialization speeds up. Fusion is key to solving human energy problems, industry chain is broad with intensive tech needs with upstream raw materials, midstream development and manufacturing, downstream applications.

4. Silicon Carbide | TSMC said at earnings call April 16 that advanced packaging capacity is very tight, core strategy is larger CoWoS tech. Plan to launch 5.5x mask size in 2026, 9.5x in 2027 for CoWoS packaging, supporting 12-layer HBM and multi-chip integration for higher AI chip integration.

Comment: TSMC’s path matches NVIDIA next-gen AI chip plans, RubinUltra adopts CoWoS?L and N3P, confirms large size, high bandwidth, high power density as core for next 2-3 years. Advanced packaging now is key limiting variable for AI performance, shifts from capacity constrain to thermal and warpage management. Analysts say SiC’s high thermal conductivity, rigidity, matching CTE with silicon make it crucial for solving CoWoS thermal/mechanical issues. May be used in thermal diffusion/carrier/support layers, leveraging material advantages and easing process fit. Large CoWoS and SiC enable AI computing, SiC substrate, thermal solution, and precision packaging makers to benefit.

5. New Materials | China research teams create key metal green extraction technology. CAS Qingdao, National Key Lab for Solar Energy Photoconversion, led by researcher Gao Jun, Prof. Li Chaoxu, with CAS Institute of Physical & Chemical Technology, researcher Jiang Lei, developed biological calcium ion channel inspired generic heavy metal membrane separation method, efficient, green, selective extraction of uranium, copper, gold and other critical metals, likely to solve traditional extraction’s pollution, low efficiency, and high energy use.

Comment: "Dual carbon" goals accelerate, wind, solar, EV, nuclear etc. clean energy tech rapidly develop, demand for specific metals grows sharply, some metals face severe shortage risk. Efficient recycling, alternative extraction, and circular use of key metals is vital for national competitiveness and tech autonomy in new energy era; this new tech may expand to extraction of copper, gold, etc., pushing extraction toward greener, more efficient transformation, supporting mineral supply chain self-reliance.

6. Hydrogen Silicone Oil | Baichuan prices show high hydrogen silicon oil surged nearly 22% on April 15 after previous steady rise. In PV module packaging, methyl hydrogen silicon oil is key cross-linker; in EVs, needed for battery pack high-temp resistant modification. Silicon oil liquid cooling is new tech mainly for AI data center computing, electrochemical storage, and EVs fast charging, replacing traditional fluorinated cooling with green, cheap, excellent insulating/safety performance.

Comment: So far this year, China’s PV and battery sectors staying hot, with double-digit growth, directly boosting silicon oil demand. Silicon oil as liquid cooling material adopted by Nvidia and other tech giants, expanding market share.

7. AI Education | Recently, Ministry of Education, NDRC, Ministry of Science and Technology, MIIT, and National Data Bureau jointly issued "AI+Education Action Plan" proposing four key tasks.

Comment: Experts say AI-era education must shift from knowledge transfer to comprehensive ability cultivation. With tech progress and shifting habits, machines will play bigger roles in teaching/learning, modes will change fundamentally. Machine abilities in knowledge transfer now rival or surpass human, “teacher-machine-student” integrated model is coming.

Today's Key Events Preview

Qunhe Technology Hong Kong listing.

China Humanoid Robot Ecosystem Conference opens.

Fed governor Waller, San Francisco Fed president Daly, Richmond Fed president Barkin speak.

Risk DisclaimerThe market has risks, invest cautiously. This article does not constitute personalized investment advice, nor does it take into account individual users’ specific investment goals, financial situation, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions in this article fit their particular situation. Investments based on this are at your own risk. ```