April had a chaotic start as US President Donald Trump hinted at an exit from...

Driven by demand for AI infrastructure, Microsoft and Google are in talks with SK Hynix for a three-year DRAM supply agreement. This contract breaks with industry practice by introducing a floor price guarantee and a 10% to 30% upfront deposit mechanism to ensure supply security. With DDR4 prices soaring nearly tenfold in a year, memory chips have become a strategic reserve resource, contributing to record-high first-quarter earnings forecasts for Samsung and SK Hynix.

Broadcom executives have identified three core bottlenecks in the AI supply chain: lasers, advanced process wafers, and PCBs. Constrained by technological hurdles and capacity constraints, the delivery cycle for small PCBs has surged to six months, and laser yield rates are below 30%. Even with TSMC's large-scale capacity expansion, equipment delivery times of 12 to 18 months and the fact that 2026 capacity is already locked in by major manufacturers mean new orders will have to wait until 2027, making the computing power gap a more common occurrence.

Israel's largest gas field, Leviathan, has restarted production after a 33-day shutdown, which is expected to ease pressure on the global natural gas market. However, the conflict in the Middle East continues, with a new round of Iranian attacks damaging energy facilities in several locations. The market is focused on when another Israeli gas field, Karish, will resume production.