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Trade Wars
Boeing Beats Airbus On Deliveries For First Time Since MAX Crisis
Boeing has achieved something it hasn't managed since the MAX crisis began in 2018: a quarterly delivery win over Airbus. According to its orders and deliveries data released today, the US planemaker handed over 143 commercial aircraft in Q1 2026, compared to just 114 for Airbus, giving Boeing a 29-aircraft advantage. For Boeing, this represents 10% year-over-year growth, while Airbus deliveries have declined by 16% over the same period.
This builds on a string of positive headlines for Boeing, after it racked up more orders than its European rival in 2025. That said, the result needs context. This was not Boeing suddenly blowing Airbus away across the board. Boeing’s quarter was helped by a very strong 737 performance, while Airbus was severely hampered by supply-chain problems, notably with Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines. So yes, Boeing won the quarter. But the more interesting story is how strengthening 737 deliveries met an unusually weak quarter for Airbus.
Read more at Simple Flying
Bosch, Qualcomm Expand Partnership To Include ADAS Technology
Bosch and Qualcomm Technologies are expanding their strategic partnership on computers for vehicle instrument clusters to include advanced driver assist systems. The first vehicles equipped with Bosch hardware and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform are expected to be on the road in 2028 and the companies intend the technology for global and regional models in all vehicle segments. “By combining leading-edge compute technology with our system integration expertise — hardware, software, and safety — we enable automakers to meet the rising demand for personalized, safe, and comfortable driving experiences,” said Christoph Hartung, CTO for systems, software and services at Bosch, in a statement.
The expanded partnership between the two companies will leverage Bosch’s cost-optimized vehicle computer architecture and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Cockpit platform to support scalable deployments of ADAS technology in vehicles. The hardware fuses multiple vehicle sensor technologies and runs complex algorithms to more advanced vehicle functions, such as automated driving. The platform is part of the company’s Snapdragon Digital Chassis family of products for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.
Read more at Ward’s Auto
Azure Printed Homes Opens Colorado Facility To Scale Prefab Housing Production
Azure Printed Homes has opened a 25,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Colorado, expanding its capacity to produce prefabricated housing using 3D printing technology. The company said the facility is expected to produce up to 352 housing units annually and support about 50 jobs at full capacity. Its printing process uses primarily recycled plastic polymer materials and can be deployed in smaller, temporary facilities closer to construction sites.
Azure Printed Homes said the new facility will allow it to scale production of small, prefabricated homes designed for workforce housing and other needs, including addressing homelessness. “This new facility allows us to bring our 3D manufacturing and robotics expertise directly to the region, helping communities build faster and more affordably,” said Gene Eidelman, co-founder and CEO of Azure Printed Homes.
Read more at Colorado Biz
Google To Provide $10M For Manufacturing Institute AI Training Programs
Google will provide $10 million for workforce development initiatives centered around artificial intelligence, the Manufacturing Institute announced. The funding will be used to develop two AI skills training programs for shop floor workers: a free course called AI 101 for Manufacturing and another called Advanced AI for Manufacturing Technicians. It will also be used to expand employer-led apprenticeship programs via the MI’s Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education, as well as provide scholarships for FAME USA students through the mikeroweWORKS Foundation.
The funding announcement comes as the United States faces a significant manufacturing skills gap. According to the MI, some 1.9 million manufacturing roles could go unfilled by 2033 if the workforce isn’t equipped with necessary technical skills. “The entire manufacturing sector is going to benefit from creating these trainings, which will be available for small, medium and large companies to take advantage of this technology, especially for incumbent workers,” Manufacturing Institute President Carolyn Lee said. “For new entrants into the manufacturing workforce, these skills will give them a strong foundation to start their careers.”
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
TSMC Quarterly Profit Leaps 58% To Record, Beats Expectations
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on Thursday reported a 58% increase in first-quarter profit, beating estimates and hitting a fresh record as demand for artificial intelligence chips stayed strong. TSMC’s net income of NT$572.48 billion for the three months ended in March represented a fourth consecutive quarter of record profits. Revenue rose to NT$1.134 trillion, beating estimates. The chipmaker had first reported the 35% year-on-year rise in first-quarter revenue last week.
The contract chip maker has maintained strong demand for advanced semiconductors from its key customers, such as Apple. It has also benefited greatly from the proliferation of AI, producing advanced processors designed by the likes of Nvidia — now the company’s largest customer. TSMC forecast full-year 2026 revenue growth of more than 30% year over year in U.S. dollar terms. Meanwhile, it projected second-quarter revenue of $39 billion to $40.2 billion, representing a 10% sequential increase. This comes as the company faces concerns about supply chain disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict, including disruptions to energy supplies and key manufacturing materials such as helium and hydrogen.
Read more at CNBC
Space Force Urges Industry to Invest in Satellite Production Capacity
The Space Force is preparing for significant growth to its procurement budget in fiscal 2027, and the head of the service’s largest acquisition organization said April 14 he is asking companies to invest now in facilities and production capacity so they’re ready to execute when called upon. The Space Force’s $71 billion budget request, a 77 percent increase over last year, includes $19 billion for procurement—up from just $3.6 billion in fiscal ’26. Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, head of Space Systems Command, told reporters that the service plans to use that increase to award new contracts and fund major increases to existing production contracts.
The Space Force’s emphasis on increasing satellite production is not unlike the Pentagon’s push to boost munitions production, Garrant said. Over the last year, the Defense Department has signed framework multiyear procurement contracts with several defense primes to speed up manufacturing of key munitions like Lockheed Martin’s Patriot PAC-3 interceptors and RTX’s Standard Missile series. The agreements, which haven’t yet been backed by funding, are meant to send a demand signal to industry so they can confidently spend their own capital to increase production capacity and be ready to follow through when the contract awards come.
Read more at Air & Space Forces
Global Supply Chain Pressures Reach 3-Year High: GEP
GEP Global Supply Chain Volatility Index signaled that global supply chain pressures rose to a three-year high in March, reflecting the immediate economic impact of the energy price shock and maritime disruption caused by the war in the Middle East. The GEP Global Supply Chain Volatility Index soared from 0.09 in February to 0.57 in March, its highest level since January 2023. Key findngs:
- In March, global manufacturers increased safety stockpiling in response to maritime disruption, higher transportation costs and supplier price increases. Reports of inventory buffers being accumulated were the highest in three years, with increases across all major regions.
- Uncertainty resulting from the conflict weighed on manufacturers’ input demand, with factories around the world cutting purchasing volumes. Notably, item shortages hit a three-year high despite slowing demand, signaling the emergence of bottlenecks, with the availability of materials such as polymers, PVC and rubber, as well as energy-intensive metals such as aluminum and copper reportedly deteriorating the most.
- Surging oil prices pushed global transportation costs to a four-year high in March. The impact was felt globally, but especially strongly in Asia, given its reliance on Middle East oil. Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan reported surging producer price inflation during March.
- After rising to its strongest level in four years in February, the global input demand indicator weakened in March, signaling a tapering of worldwide manufacturing buying activity. This was principally led by a pick-up in retrenchment across Asia as purchasing picked up slightly in North America and Europe, reflecting stockpiling here ahead of further anticipated price rises and supply chain disruption.
- The items in short supply tracker rose sharply in March, signaling an immediate emergence of bottlenecks across global supply chains following the outbreak of war in the Middle East. According to the measure, businesses reporting item shortages were their greatest since April 2023.
Read more Supply & Demand Chain Executive
EV Truck Startup Slate Raises $650M, Promises Deliveries This Year
The leaders of Slate Auto, the electric-vehicle startup backed by Jeff Bezos, have raised $650 million from a group of investors and say they’ll deliver their first vehicles late this year and begin taking pre-orders in a few weeks. Michigan-based Slate was incubated inside the Re:Build Manufacturing conglomerate and set out on its own in 2023. Its goal: Take an old-school approach to building an affordable, no-frills base model that owners can customize in various ways, including by converting it from a pickup truck to a five-seat sport utility vehicle.
Slate will make its trucks at a converted factory in Warsaw, Indiana, into which it plans to invest nearly $400 million over time. In the meantime, the company’s sales teams—who have more than 160,000 reservations on their books—will begin taking preorders for trucks in June. Worth noting given today’s inflationary climate: The Slate team says its truck’s price point will be “in the mid-$20,000s,” which is a good bit higher than where they were positioning it a year ago. If the Slate team stays on track with its plans to start delivering trucks to customers late this year, its vehicles will be hitting the streets around the same time as lower-cost EVs from Rivian Automotive Inc. and Lucid Group Inc., although the latter’s vehicles promise far more accoutrements and will be selling for around $50,000.
Read More at IndustryWeek
White House Wants Pentagon To Demo Nuclear Space Power By 2031
The Trump administration Tuesday published a new strategy to bring nuclear power to the heavens through a cooperative effort between civil and military authorities could see the Pentagon demonstrate an orbital reactor in as few as five years, according to a White House memo. Unveiled today at the Space Symposium conference by Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, the National Initiative for American Space Nuclear Power effectively implements an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in December aimed at achieving American dominance in space.
Key to the new strategy is NASA and the Defense Department “conduct[ing] parallel and mutually reinforcing … design competitions” that can pave the way to demonstrations and eventual fielding of “low- to mid-power space reactors in orbit and on the lunar surface.” While NASA is assigned responsibilities like initiating the development of a “mid-power space reactor with a lunar fission surface power (FSP) variant ready for launch by 2030,” the Pentagon will have tasks of its own. Specifically, the memo says that “pending availability of funding,” the DoD will “pursue deployment of a mission-enabling mid-power in-space reactor by 2031” — essentially an orbital nuclear reactor.
Read more at Breaking Defense
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