TSMC's 3nm, 2nm and CoWoS capacity remained in short supply in late Q3 2026, forcing a reallocation as AWS lifts Annapurna tape-outs and MediaTek pulls TPU volume. Overall utilisation is running near 96%, with advanced nodes at 100% and packaging overflow reaching OSATs through 2028.
Weekly US export sales came in at or below the bottom of trade expectations across corn, soybeans and wheat, with soybean bookings the lowest in 12 weeks. Harvest rain in the western Corn Belt and a dollar at its strongest since late July added to the pressure.
LME three-month copper eased to $14,606.50 a tonne after testing resistance above $14,800, with Comex warehouses now holding 69% of the roughly 1 million tonnes of copper tracked by global exchanges. Gold slid to a one-week low near $4,271 as the dollar hit a two-month high.
US diesel set a record national average of $6.52 per gallon while Washington sent conflicting signals on a 90-day distillate export ban. With global refinery throughput still 4.2 million bpd below year-earlier levels, refiners warn that blocking exports would cut runs and push gasoline and jet fuel higher.
TrendForce estimates global data center power demand capacity will reach 161 GW in 2026, up 31% year on year, with AI servers accounting for 33.4% of it, while Nvidia's roadmap shifts toward rack-scale Vera Rubin platforms.
TrendForce's September bulletins show AI infrastructure demand tightening DRAM supply and pushing PC and handset brands to cut output, while hyperscaler QLC demand lifts enterprise SSD contract prices even as NAND spot trade stays thin.
TSMC's 3nm, 2nm and CoWoS advanced-packaging capacity remained in short supply late in the third quarter as hyperscaler and ASIC orders reshuffled allocations, while tightening 8-inch foundry supply has restored pricing power at mature-node specialists such as DB HiTek.
US corn and soybean harvests are running ahead of their five-year averages while retail fertilizer prices rose for a sixth week, leaving growers to absorb higher nitrogen and phosphate costs just as new-crop supplies press on board prices.
Three-month LME copper settled at $14,783 a tonne, within $92 of its September 10 record, as Shanghai cathode stocks fell to 43,900 tonnes — the lowest since 2023 — and Chinese fabricators restocked ahead of the National Day break.
Brent held above $105 a barrel on renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia's Yanbu export terminal, while the refined-products market tightened further as Russian and Middle East refinery outages kept global diesel supplies short and pushed US pump prices to a record.
Supply chain sources say Nvidia enters heavy Vera Rubin shipments in the second half of 2026, while DIGITIMES sees 2027 high-end cloud AI accelerator shipments rising 64.5% to 25.95 million units with ASICs overtaking GPUs.
TrendForce's September DRAM bulletin says AI infrastructure demand is crowding out consumer memory, pushing contract prices higher and forcing PC and smartphone makers to cut production and trial alternative memory sources.
TSMC has outlined 2027 expansion targets for the first time, lifting 2nm to 110,000 wafers a month and 3nm to 210,000 by mid-2027, while CoWoS advanced packaging stays in short supply through the third quarter.
China's 2026 urea export quota of 3.3 million tonnes sits about 1.7 million below 2025 shipments with FOB floors in place, while USDA crop condition ratings held steady into mid-September and corn yields were cut again.
LME copper held above $14,600 a tonne with the cash-to-three-month spread at its widest since September 1, as a fatal accident halted BHP's Escondida mine and zinc jumped on a Nyrstar smelter review.
Washington is weighing a ban on diesel exports just as average US pump prices hit a record $6.5107 a gallon, while Brent holds above $105 on renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi export infrastructure and stalled Hormuz flows.
Chicago soybeans, corn and wheat all rose on Monday as traders positioned for the Trump-Xi summit in Washington, but US harvest is running ahead of the five-year average and diesel has hit a record $6.29 a gallon, squeezing farm margins at the heaviest fuel-use point of the year.
Supply chain sources tell DIGITIMES that Nvidia is entering a heavy shipment phase for Vera Rubin in the second half of 2026 across NVL4, NVL8 and NVL72 configurations, while Foxconn-built Nvidia servers went on sale in Japan and Taiwan AI supply chain revenues accelerated again in August.
TSMC's overall capacity utilisation is running at about 96.2% with every node from 16/12nm down to 2nm fully booked, and the resulting CoWoS shortfall is spilling advanced packaging orders to SPIL, Amkor and Powertech, where order visibility now extends to 2028.
TrendForce's mid-September DRAM bulletin says AI infrastructure demand has tightened supply enough to cut PC and smartphone output, while its 2027 NAND outlook sees enterprise SSD orders setting new highs in 4Q26 even as consumer NAND weakens on new Chinese capacity.