After Huang Renxun labeled the trillion-dollar order, he pulled BYD and Geely onto the autonomous driving stage.

1｜Huang Renxun’s trillion-dollar order hasn’t even counted the roads yet

This morning, Huang Renxun announced at GTC that procurement orders for Blackwell and Vera Rubin will exceed $1 trillion by 2027—double last year’s projection. He added, “We’re supply-constrained; I’m certain compute demand will far surpass this number.”

But $1 trillion is just the data center tally. On the same day, NVIDIA announced that BYD, Geely, Nissan, and Isuzu have joined the Drive Hyperion platform to develop L4-level autonomous driving. Robotaxi services in partnership with Uber are set to launch in Los Angeles and San Francisco by mid-2027, covering 28 markets before 2028. Huang Renxun calls this moment “the ChatGPT moment for autonomous driving.”

(Source: CNBC / TechCrunch / The Verge)

2｜Kalanick’s eight-year stealth bet: physical world remains unautomated

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick revealed Atoms, a robotics company secretly operated for eight years. Formerly CloudKitchens and City Storage Systems, it employs thousands, with no employee allowed to list the company on LinkedIn. Three business lines focus on food infrastructure, mining automation, and robotic chassis. In his public letter, he penned a defining statement: “Software has automated language and math—but full automation of the physical world remains terra incognita.”

According to Fortune, Kalanick is poised to acquire Pronto, an autonomous driving company founded by Anthony Levandowski, a former Uber colleague, backed by Uber. When he was ousted from Uber eight years ago, autonomous driving was dominated solely by Waymo. Now he returns with robotics—and NVIDIA announces its “ChatGPT moment” for autonomous driving in the same week. Timing isn’t coincidence; it’s a signal.

(Source: All-In Podcast / Fortune / TechCrunch)

3｜Murata raises prices by 35%, AI infrastructure’s hidden bill arrives

According to 36Kr citing the Shanghai Securities News, Murata Manufacturing, the world’s largest MLCC supplier, has initiated a comprehensive price increase for AI servers and high-end automotive-grade products, ranging from 15% to 35%, effective April 1. Murata holds over 40% market share globally in MLCCs and up to 70% in AI server MLCCs. This marks the first large-scale price adjustment in three years.

Everyone is counting GPU costs—but no one counts the price of a capacitor on the circuit board. Murata’s dominance in passive components for AI servers rivals NVIDIA’s monopoly on GPUs, except Murata doesn’t host GTC. When the invisible layer of the supply chain begins pricing scarcity, the $1 trillion infrastructure bill will only climb higher.

(Source: 36Kr / Shanghai Securities News)

4｜SEC wants public companies to submit reports twice a year

According to TechCrunch citing WSJ, SEC Chair Paul Atkins is discussing with exchanges the possibility of shifting public companies from quarterly to semiannual reporting. The rationale: the compliance cost of quarterly filings is too high, deterring corporate listings. This would be the most significant potential change to U.S. public company disclosure rules in over 50 years.

For tech firms betting heavily on AI infrastructure, filing half as many reports means fewer explanations of “where the money went.” Meta’s quarterly AI capex burn can now be tucked into a single semiannual figure. The beneficiaries of de-regulation are first and foremost companies needing time to prove long-term investments were correct.

(Source: TechCrunch / WSJ)

Also worth knowing ↓

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FDIC is preparing to end the tiered insurance coverage for stablecoin deposits. If approved, users holding stablecoins will no longer receive FDIC deposit protection through issuers. The “deposit-like” narrative of stablecoins has just had its final safety rope cut by regulators. (Source: Payments Dive)

Deepfake conspiracy theories involving Netanyahu are spreading across social media, forcing the Israeli government to respond. The so-called “evidence” includes extra fingers in videos and coffee cups defying gravity. During wartime, deepfakes have transitioned from technical issues to national security threats. (Source: The Verge)

Picsart launched an AI Agent marketplace, allowing creators to “hire” AI assistants on-demand. Four initial agents launched, with new ones added weekly. Creative tool platforms are evolving from selling features to selling labor. (Source: TechCrunch)