As chips evolve toward higher integration and higher power, traditional copper heat dissipation materials can no longer meet stringent thermal management demands. Diamond thermal conductivity can reach four to five times that of copper, making it a key heat dissipation material for resolving chip performance bottlenecks. Currently, China has achieved mass production of large-size diamond wafers, and coupled with the implementation of related cooperation with NVIDIA, diamond heat dissipation has officially moved from the laboratory to the industrialisation stage. Liquid cooling and diamond materials will create synergistic effects, and China's diamond industry, leveraging its globally leading capacity advantages, is expected to embrace broad development prospects.

SK Hynix is accelerating efforts to enhance the competitiveness of its 10-nanometer sixth-generation (1c) DRAM, and investment in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) equipment for this process node has increased approximately threefold compared to the original plan. Industry sources revealed that SK Hynix is focusing on advancing 1c DRAM technology for application in the seventh-generation High Bandwidth Memory HBM4E core chips and plans to deliver samples this year. As HBM's largest client, NVIDIA, plans to launch its next-generation AI accelerator "Vera Rubin Ultra" equipped with HBM4E in H2 of next year, SK Hynix must accelerate its R&D pace. Industry sources revealed that SK Hynix's 1c DRAM yield for general-purpose DRAM has risen to 80%. The company plans to convert more than half of its DRAM capacity to 1c process products this year and is expected to secure approximately 190,000 wafers of capacity by year-end.

Nvidia (NVDA.O) said it has invested $2 billion in Marvell Technology (MRVL.O), and the two sides plan to cooperate in the field of silicon photonics technology. Silicon photonics technology enables high-speed, energy-efficient data transmission, with its two common application fields being artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Huang Renxun said in a statement on Tuesday: “By joining forces with Marvell, we enable clients to leverage Nvidia’s AI infrastructure ecosystem and build dedicated AI computing capabilities at scale.”

[SMM Tin Morning Brief: The Most-Traded SHFE Tin Contract Surged Sharply Late in the Night Session and Closed at a High, While Downstream Enterprises Showed Weak Purchase Willingness]

[Nvidia Unveiled an L4 Autonomous Driving Platform, and Multiple Automakers and Mobility Platforms Announced Partnerships] On March 17 local time, at the 2026 GTC conference, Nvidia announced multiple advances in L4 autonomous driving technology and partnership updates. It will work with leading automakers including BYD, Geely, and Nissan to jointly develop next-generation L4 autonomous driving programs based on the NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion platform. Isuzu, meanwhile, partnered with TIER IV to use the platform’s core component, the DRIVE AGX Thor chip, to build an L4 autonomous driving bus.

In Q1 2026, China’s spot silver ingot market underwent a marked shift from extreme frenzy to a rational return. As investment enthusiasm cooled significantly and large volumes of imported silver ingots flowed in, the structure of spot premiums underwent a fundamental adjustment, while the market’s supply-demand pattern continued to be reshaped.

At the start of the year, there was plenty of excitement around silver. The precious metal was soaring and reaching record highs along the way. However, it has declined from the highs it reached in January.

According to reports, Samsung Electronics is working with NVIDIA to accelerate the development of next-generation NAND flash memory chips. A joint research team comprising the Samsung Semiconductor Research Institute, NVIDIA, and the Georgia Institute of Technology has successfully developed a "physics-informed neural operator" model. This model analyzes the performance of ferroelectric-based NAND devices more than 10,000 times faster than existing models, and the related results have been made public. Based on these research findings, Samsung is collaborating with NVIDIA to develop and commercialize ferroelectric NAND flash memory.

[SMM Tin Morning Briefing: The Most-Traded SHFE Tin Contract Opened Sharply Lower in the Night Session and Remained Rangebound at Low Levels, While Trading in the Spot Market Was Relatively Mediocre]

According to Cailian Press, on Tuesday (the 10th), US Eastern Time, Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun unusually published a long blog post in his personal capacity titled “AI is a five layer cake,” and wrote: “We are just getting started with this buildout. We’ve already invested hundreds of billions of dollars. There are trillions of dollars of infrastructure yet to be built.” Huang Renxun wrote: “Artificial intelligence is one of the most powerful forces shaping the world today. It is not an intelligent app or a single model; like electricity and the internet, it is indispensable infrastructure.”