After labeling a $1 trillion order, Huang Renxun brought BYD and Geely to the autonomous driving table.
1｜Huang Renxun's trillion-dollar valuation doesn't even include the road.
This morning, Jensen Huang announced at GTC that orders for Blackwell and Vera Rubin through 2027 will exceed $1 trillion—double last year’s estimate. He added, “We’re supply-constrained, and I’m confident actual demand will far surpass this number.”
But $1 trillion is just the data center bill. On the same day, NVIDIA announced that BYD, Geely, Nissan, and Isuzu have joined the Drive Hyperion platform to develop Level 4 autonomous driving. Driverless taxis in partnership with Uber are set to launch in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the first half of 2027 and will expand to 28 markets by 2028. Jensen Huang called this "the ChatGPT moment for autonomous driving."
(Source: CNBC / TechCrunch / The Verge)
2｜Kalanick waited eight years, betting that the physical world had not yet been automated.
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick has revealed the secret eight-year-old robotics company Atoms. Formerly known as CloudKitchens and City Storage Systems, it employs thousands of people, none of whom were permitted to list the company name on LinkedIn. Its three business lines focus on food infrastructure, mining automation, and robotic chassis. In his public letter, he wrote a defining statement: “Software has automated language and mathematics, but the full automation of the physical world remains an untapped frontier.”
According to Fortune, Kalanick is set to acquire Pronto, the autonomous driving company founded by his former Uber colleague Anthony Levandowski, with Uber’s support. Eight years ago, when he was ousted from Uber, autonomous driving was solely Waymo’s domain. Now, eight years later, he’s returning with robotics—just as NVIDIA announced the “ChatGPT moment” for autonomous driving in the same week. The timing is no coincidence; it’s a signal.
(Source: All-In Podcast / Fortune / TechCrunch)
3 | Murata Raises Prices by 35%: The Hidden Bill for AI Infrastructure Has Arrived
According to 36Kr, citing Shanghai Securities News, Murata Manufacturing, the world’s largest MLCC supplier, has initiated a comprehensive price increase of 15% to 35% for AI servers and high-end automotive-grade products, effective April 1. Murata holds over 40% of the global MLCC market and accounts for 70% of the AI server MLCC market. This is the first large-scale price adjustment in three years.
Everyone is counting the price of GPUs. No one is counting the price of the capacitors on the circuit board. Murata’s monopoly over passive components in AI servers is as severe as NVIDIA’s monopoly over GPUs—except Murata doesn’t host GTC. When the invisible layer in the supply chain begins pricing scarcity, the $1 trillion infrastructure bill will only go higher.
(Source: 36 Kr / Shanghai Securities News)
4｜The SEC wants public companies to file only twice a year
According to TechCrunch, citing WSJ, SEC Chair Paul Atkins is discussing with exchanges the possibility of allowing public companies to switch from quarterly to semi-annual reports. The rationale is that the compliance costs of quarterly filings are too high and are deterring companies from going public. This could represent the most significant potential change to U.S. public company disclosure rules in over 50 years.
For tech companies betting heavily on AI infrastructure, skipping two assignments means avoiding two explanations of “where the money went.” The AI capital expenditures burned through by Meta in a single quarter can now be hidden within the large numbers of a semi-annual report. The primary beneficiaries of deregulation are companies that need time to prove the validity of their long-term investments.
(Source: TechCrunch / WSJ)
It’s also worth knowing ↓
Alibaba has established the Alibaba Token Hub business unit and distributed AI tool token quotas to all employees. Employees can use paid tools such as Wukong and Qoder series for free, and can be reimbursed for purchasing the Bailian Coding Plan or external AI development tools. From “encouraging trial use” to “standard equipment for all,” tokens are becoming the second essential production asset for employees at major tech companies. (Source: 36Kr)
The FDIC is preparing to end pass-through insurance for stablecoin deposits. If approved, users holding stablecoins will no longer be covered by FDIC deposit insurance through the issuer. The "deposit-like" narrative for stablecoins has just had its final safety net pulled away by regulators. (Source: Payments Dive)
Netanyahu’s deepfake conspiracy theories have spread across social media, forcing the Israeli government to respond. The so-called “evidence” includes extra fingers in the video and a coffee cup defying gravity. During wartime, deepfakes have shifted from a technical issue to a matter of national security. (Source: The Verge)
Picsart has launched an AI Agent marketplace, allowing creators to "hire" AI assistants on demand. The first four Agents are now live, with new ones added weekly. The creative tools platform is shifting from selling features to selling labor. (Source: TechCrunch)