【Morning Report】Trump: Should Consider Possibility of US Withdrawal from NATO; Storage Spot Backwardation Intensifies

Macro News

1. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian held a routine press conference yesterday. A reporter asked: Previously, some media reported that Trump said he would delay visiting China if China did not assist with escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Lin Jian stated, “We note that the U.S. has publicly clarified that these media reports are completely false, emphasizing that the visit has nothing to do with the navigation of the Strait of Hormuz.”

2. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian held a routine press conference yesterday. A reporter asked about the EU’s announcement yesterday to impose sanctions on two Chinese companies and one Iranian company for launching cyberattacks against EU member states. Lin Jian emphasized that China firmly opposes the EU’s illegal unilateral sanctions against Chinese entities and urges the EU to correct its mistakes and work with China responsibly and constructively to maintain peace, stability, and prosperity in cyberspace.

3. The President of Iran issued a statement confirming that Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, has died. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed on the evening of March 17 local time that Wulam-Reza Suleimani, leader of the Basij militia, has died.

4. U.S. President Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with NATO again on March 17 at the White House. Trump said that whether the U.S. should withdraw from NATO “is indeed something we should consider.”

Industry News

1. In response to the uneven service capabilities, lack of industry standards, and a series of chaos and potential risks in the Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) field, the China Advertising Association, in early March, launched a comprehensive effort to establish standards for the GEO sector, involving industry experts, academic institutions, brand companies, legal service agencies, and other professionals.

2. On March 16, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated at the GTC conference that the AI inference market has reached a turning point. AI has fully transitioned from training to inference and execution phases, with demand for inference computing power exploding exponentially. NVIDIA will collaborate with the startup “Grok,” focused on inference technology, to launch AI server systems, strengthening its position in low-cost, low-latency inference computing, supporting a trillion-dollar computing market.

3. The Shah natural gas field in the UAE was hit by a drone attack on March 16, causing a fire. According to media offices in the UAE capital, operations at the gas field have been temporarily suspended for safety reasons, and officials are assessing the damage.

4. The Civil Aviation Administration held a full (expanded) March Safety Committee meeting on March 17, emphasizing that airlines should dynamically adjust capacity deployment and ensure aircraft are in good airworthiness condition.

5. The gap between spot storage prices has widened, leading to price increases this week for low-capacity SSDs, memory modules, and LPDDR4X products.

6. According to the Molecular and Cellular Biology Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Cheng Xin research team, in collaboration with Professor Yin Hao’s team at Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, recently achieved the first international success in minimally invasive transplantation of autologous and allogeneic stem cell-derived regenerative islets (E-islet), restoring pancreatic function and autonomous blood glucose regulation in type 1 diabetes patients.

7. The Yabuli Forum was held. Wang Xingxing, founder of Yushu Technology and a new board member, mentioned in his speech that although robots cannot yet beat humans in 100-meter races, it is expected that by mid-year, especially in China, robots will run faster than humans, “faster than Bolt.”

8. Caixin learned from multiple industry insiders that commercial banks previously required their wealth management products to be cleared by the end of 2026, but now they may continue to operate normally with scaled-down sizes. Some regions have mandated that year-end balances should not exceed the balances at the beginning of the year. Industry insiders say that the parent bank’s qualifications and the scale of wealth management business are two key factors in regulatory review, with parent bank qualifications being critical for approval of wealth management subsidiaries.

9. There is renewed funding in the technology innovation sector. Caixin learned that the China Securities Regulatory Commission recently approved a new batch of hard-tech themed funds, with 15 products approved on the same day. Seven are passive funds tracking the Innovation and Entrepreneurship AI Index, and eight are active funds based on the China Strategic Emerging Industries Index.

10. The China Satellite Navigation System Management Office recently announced that to provide better services, the BeiDou satellite navigation system will undergo in-orbit upgrades soon, optimizing the operational status of some satellites. As BeiDou applications expand, high-precision timing and positioning services are moving from “satellites in the sky” into everyday life scenarios. The National Development and Reform Commission stated that during the 14th Five-Year Plan, China will continue to implement the BeiDou large-scale application project, aiming to surpass 1 trillion yuan in BeiDou industry scale within five years.

Company News

1. Falshing announced that if the company’s stock price continues to rise, it may apply to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange for a trading suspension for investigation.

2. InnoLight announced that on January 6, it posted misleading statements about brain-computer interface chips on the interactive platform and may be fined 4 million yuan.

3. Yahui Long announced that it was fined 4 million yuan for violations related to information disclosure.

4. Fuyao Glass announced that net profit in 2025 is expected to be 9.312 billion yuan, a 24% increase year-over-year.

5. Zhaoyan New Drug announced that the shareholder plans to reduce their total shareholding ratio from 4.1% to 3%.

6. Kechuang Information announced that due to inflated revenue in the 2023 semi-annual report, the company was warned and fined 1.5 million yuan by the Hunan Regulatory Bureau of the CSRC.

7. Robotech announced that its subsidiary signed a mass production order worth approximately 48 million yuan for double-sided wafer testing equipment and services.

8. Meizhi Co. issued a revised forecast for 2025, originally expecting a net loss of 75 million to 113 million yuan, now revised to a loss of 132 million to 198 million yuan. The company’s stock may face delisting risk warning.

9. Sanfangxiang announced that due to rising raw material prices increasing costs, and the rapid increase in product prices reducing downstream customer purchasing willingness, its order backlog has been affected.

10. Shiyun Circuit stated on the interactive platform that it is currently experiencing rapid growth in PCB supply related to NVIDIA servers.

11. Pengding Holdings announced that its wholly owned subsidiary plans to invest 11 billion yuan to build a high-end PCB production base.

12. Qualcomm approved a $20 billion share repurchase plan and will increase dividend payouts.

Global Markets

The three major U.S. stock indices all closed higher: Dow +0.1%, Nasdaq +0.47%, S&P 500 +0.25%. Major European stock indices also rose, with Germany’s DAX 30 up 0.68%.

International oil prices rose: WTI crude futures closed at $96.21 per barrel, up 2.90%; Brent crude futures closed at $103.42 per barrel, up 3.20%.

Investment Opportunities

1. Institutions say AI ASIC demand for HBM memory has surged 35-fold over four years

According to reports, Counterpoint Research predicts that by 2028, AI server computing ASICs will demand HBM memory at 35 times the 2024 level, with average HBM capacity increasing nearly fivefold during this period.

Guosheng Securities states that breaking the memory wall bottleneck, HBM has become a main growth driver in the DRAM market. HBM addresses bandwidth bottlenecks, high power consumption, and capacity limits, making it the mainstream choice for current AI chips. Yole forecasts the global HBM market will grow from $17 billion in 2024 to $98 billion in 2030, with a CAGR of 33%.

2. Mitsui Kinzoku plans to raise prices for ultra-thin semiconductor copper foil

Mitsui Kinzoku recently announced negotiations with customers to raise prices for MicroThin, used in AI servers and other applications, though specific increases were not disclosed. The company is increasing MicroThin production to meet strong demand, aiming to raise monthly capacity by 6% to 5.2 million square meters in 2027, and further to 5.6 million square meters in 2029.

In 2025, Mitsui Kinzoku will raise prices for high-end copper foil by about 15%. Other manufacturers are also raising prices, reflecting tight supply of high-end copper foil. GF Securities analyst Chen Xin believes that given current supply-demand tension, domestic manufacturers may follow suit. The higher prices for HVLP products, with lower yields and strong demand, are likely to push RTF and HTE prices higher as well, though the increase may be slightly lower than HVLP.