Samsung Electronics was expected on Tuesday to report that its Q1 operating profit increased by more than eightfold from a year earlier, exceeding market expectations. The boom in artificial intelligence infrastructure led to supply bottlenecks and drove up chip prices. The world's largest memory chipmaker was expected to post an operating profit of 5.72 trillion won (about $37.92 billion) for the January-March period, up from 669 billion won a year earlier and above analysts' expectations of 4.06 trillion won.

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 Briefing: The Most-Traded SHFE Tin Contract Opened Slightly Lower in the Night Session and Then Fluctuated Higher, While Downstream Enterprises Mainly Purchased to Restock for Phased Production Needs]

Nomura Securities economist Jeong Woo Park said that, driven by strong semiconductor exports, South Korea’s trade surplus this year could widen from $77 billion in 2025 to around $200 billion. After South Korea’s export growth in March surged to 48% from 29% in February, affected by robust chip demand, Park wrote in a report: “There is no sign whatsoever that the chip upcycle is peaking, and strong pricing effects and artificial intelligence demand will continue to support double-digit growth.” He also downplayed concerns that the conflict in the Middle East could disrupt supplies of helium and other critical inputs needed for chip manufacturing. He noted that chip companies held three to six months of inventory of key inputs, and that the conflict was unlikely to disrupt exports.

[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]

Markets frequently mistake an industry's sudden breakout for its origin. China's long-duration energy storage (LDES, ≥4 hours) sector did not abruptly emerge in 2026. Following policy incubation (2023-2024) and initial scaling (2025), 2026 marks a definitive inflection point, driven by a validated, closed-loop business model and exponential growth in grid-connected capacity.

On March 30, Agibot’s 10,000th product rolled off the production line. Headquartered in Shanghai, Agibot is one of China’s leading robotics enterprises. Amid the new wave of artificial intelligence, the robotics industry is undergoing a major leap from technology deployment to large-scale mass production.

[SMM Morning Meeting Summary: Support from the Macro Front Was Relatively Evident, and Tin Prices Were Expected to Maintain a Fluctuating Trend in the Short Term]

The General Office of the Guangzhou Municipal People’s Government issued the Implementation Plan of Guangzhou for Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Artificial Intelligence Industry. It proposed focusing on advancing the R&D and promotion of intelligent hardware products such as intelligent connected vehicles, intelligent unmanned systems, whole-home intelligent terminals, intelligent wearable devices, industrial intelligent terminals, and brain-computer interfaces; promoting the application of large in-vehicle edge-side models; and supporting the development of AIoT systems featuring collaboration among home appliances, central control systems, and sensors. It also called for advancing the commercialization of embodied AI robots, supporting enterprises in independently developing core parts, and expanding the application of intelligent robots in fields such as industrial manufacturing, household services, and healthcare.

At first glance, the market reaction to the outbreak of war following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran appeared deeply counterintuitive.