Geopolitics & Trade
ASML says its Q3 sales to China surged 109 per cent from the previous quarter, and it expects China at about 20 per cent of total sales this year. The jump came despite mounting US pressure for tighter limits on less advanced chipmaking machines.
Export-control pressure has not yet slowed Chinese tool buying; expect equipment supply and pricing to stay contested.
Supply Chains & Critical Minerals
An SIA report finds China supplies about 5 per cent of equipment and materials sold directly to US chipmakers by country of manufacture, but over 90 per cent of certain rare earths used in chipmaking. About 95 per cent of the nearly US$27 billion annual spend comes from US, European and Japanese firms.
Direct-supplier counts understate exposure; map sub-tier material dependencies, not just Tier 1.
Supply Chains & Critical Minerals
Mining firms, agencies and industrial facilities across North America, Australasia and Europe are working to take share from Chinese firms, which control roughly 90 per cent of rare-earth oxide and metal markets. IEEE Spectrum examines monazite as a route to do it.
Non-China rare-earth supply is still a campaign, not a market; magnet-dependent buyers should not bank on near-term relief.
Industrial Policy & Regulation
IDC data seen by Reuters puts Nvidia's share of China's data-center AI accelerators at 34% in H1 2026, with Huawei at 28%. US export restrictions constrained Nvidia's supply as Chinese chipmakers expanded shipments; Nvidia shipped 678,000 units, down 44%.
Export curbs are shifting share to local silicon, a signal for anyone selling AI-enabled equipment into China.
Robotics & Embodied AI
At a Hangzhou auto parts plant, 15 humanoid robots load parts at 15 stations in routine shifts. Cycles take up to 40 seconds against about 15 for a skilled worker; Leju reports about 98% success.
Humanoids are in routine shifts but at more than twice a skilled worker's cycle time, on a vendor-reported result.
AI / LLMs in Industry
Zhou Yuxiang, CEO of Chinese factory-AI cloud provider Black Lake, says manufacturers are skipping full traditional digitalisation and moving directly to AI agents, like China's jump to mobile payments. He says that playbook is now being exported to global supply chains.
A vendor's view, but it suggests competitors may bypass legacy digitisation stages rather than complete them.
Robotics & Embodied AI
Industrial automation maker Inovance showed its first humanoid, the wheeled InoBot W1, with liquid-cooled 2,070 TOPS compute, a 10-hour hot-swappable battery and a footprint under 0.6 m².
An established automation maker entering humanoids suggests the category is moving toward industrial suppliers.
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