Shipments reached 3.59 million units in April, an increase of 1.8% from the same period last year.

The figures come from China’s state-linked research data on handset shipments. Total smartphone shipments in the country stood at 25.73 million units, up 2.8% year on year.

Growth is still present, but only just. April marks the weakest performance for foreign brands in months and sits well below the strength recorded in the first quarter.

In that quarter, foreign brands expanded at a far quicker pace. Apple alone shipped 13.1 million iPhones in China in the first three months of the year, up from 9.2 million a year earlier.

That represents growth of about 42%. The foreign-brand category also posted double-digit gains over the same period.

China’s overall smartphone market, however, did not follow the same direction. Total shipments fell 3.3% in the first quarter to around 69 million units. Domestic brands took the bulk of sales, while foreign players held a smaller share of the market.

Huawei moved back into the top position in China during the quarter for the first time in five years. Apple held second place. Both companies were responsible for much of the activity in the premium segment.

Huawei’s growth was supported by strong demand for its Mate 80 series and its foldable Pura X device. Apple also saw solid demand for its iPhone 17 range. At the same time, Xiaomi recorded a steep decline, with shipments falling by around 35%.

Outside China, Apple reached a major milestone in the same period. It became the world’s largest smartphone maker in the first quarter of 2026, taking a 21% global market share.

Samsung followed, also at 21%. The iPhone 17 series performed strongly, taking several top positions in global sales rankings.

Back in China, the April slowdown for foreign brands stands out. The 1.8% rise shows demand has cooled compared with the earlier surge.

The figures do not break down individual companies, but Apple is still the dominant foreign company in the market. Other brands such as Samsung and Sony account for the remainder of the category.

The environment helps explain some of the movement. High memory chip costs have affected pricing across the industry.

Apple has largely avoided major price increases, while several competitors adjusted prices upward. That shift appears to have pulled some demand forward into earlier months.

There is also a seasonal pattern. April often shows weaker growth in smartphone markets as consumers wait for later product cycles. I note that this period usually sits between early-year demand spikes and the build-up to new launches later in the year.

Market-wide data supports this slowdown. March shipments reached 21.15 million units, down 7.1% year on year but up strongly from February. Domestic brands accounted for the vast majority of sales during that period, leaving foreign brands with a stable but limited share.

Apple has been working to steady its position in China after a difficult 2024. The strong first quarter suggested a recovery was under way, driven by both replacement demand and interest in the latest iPhone models.

April complicates that picture. One month does not define a trend, but it does interrupt the pace seen earlier in the year. The next set of data will be important. May and June figures will show whether demand has simply paused or whether growth is levelling out.

There is also a comparison effect to consider. Late 2025 saw unusually strong foreign-brand shipments, which makes current year-on-year growth harder to sustain. That base effect is likely to influence the rest of 2026 reporting.

China’s smartphone market is stable but not expanding. Foreign brands are still growing, but at a far slower rate than earlier in the year. Apple is still a key driver in the premium segment, but the scale has clearly eased.

The company confirmed on Thursday that it will not proceed with the British phase of the project for now, saying work will resume only when conditions support long-term investment.

Stargate UK, developed with Nvidia and British developer Nscale, was announced in September 2025 as part of a plan to expand global data centre capacity.

The project was expected to deploy up to 31,000 AI chips and strengthen the country’s ability to run its own artificial intelligence systems.

That capacity, usually called sovereign compute, allows a country to manage sensitive data and AI workloads locally instead of relying on overseas providers.

OpenAI said in a statement: “We see huge potential for the UK’s AI future. AI compute is foundational to that goal, we continue to explore Stargate UK and will move forward when the right conditions such as regulation and the cost of energy enable long-term infrastructure investment.”

The decision is a setback for the UK government as Prime Minister Keir Starmer has made artificial intelligence central to his economic plans and wants Britain to attract more global tech investment.

Officials insist talks are still ongoing. A spokesperson said the government is “continuing to work with OpenAI and other leading AI companies to strengthen UK compute capacity”.

At the same time, they pointed to more than £100 billion in private investment that has flowed into the UK’s AI sector since 2024.

The cost of energy is also a big issue. Britain has some of the highest electricity prices in Europe, and large data centres require vast amounts of power to run and cool advanced chips. Regulation is another concern, especially those around data use and copyright.

OpenAI has been expanding its data centre footprint in other regions. Its Stargate programme includes projects in the United States, Norway and the United Arab Emirates. The first major campus is already underway in Texas.

The pause in the UK also comes as the company strengthens its focus. It has scaled back some side efforts and is concentrating more on core services like ChatGPT.

Competition is increasing, with companies such as Anthropic and Google pushing ahead with their own systems.

Despite the Stargate project delay, OpenAI says it will continue discussions with the UK government, including plans to support public services with its technology.

For now, the project is on hold, with no timeline for when work might begin.

Reports say the company could post operating profit of about 40.5 trillion won ($26.8 billion) for January to March.

That would be six times higher than the same period last year and close to its full-year earnings for 2025. Revenue is also seen going up by about 50%.

Some forecasts go even higher. Analysts at Citigroup expect profit to reach 51 trillion won, above the market estimate.

The profits come as memory chip prices increase. Data from TrendForce shows DRAM contract prices doubled in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter. They are expected to grow by another 58% to 63% in the second quarter.

Demand is being driven by heavy spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Large technology firms are investing heavily in data centres, increasing the need for high-performance memory chips. One analyst described the current market as unusually strong.

“You couldn’t ask for things to be better,” said Ko Yeongmin, analyst at Daol Investment & Securities.

Even so, investors are monitoring developments outside the company. The conflict in the Middle East has pushed up energy prices and could affect supplies of key materials used in chip production.

There are concerns that higher prices may force technology companies to slow spending on AI projects.

At the same time, there are early signs that spot prices for DRAM chips have eased in recent weeks. Higher prices for smartphones and computers are beginning to affect consumer demand.

New technology is also adding pressure. Google recently introduced a memory-saving system called TurboQuant, which could reduce the amount of memory needed for some AI workloads.

These issues have weighed on the stock as shares in Samsung Electronics have fallen about 14% since late February, when the conflict began. However, the stock is still up 50% since the start of the year.

Some experts believe the recent slowdown in prices will not last.

“We have seen a cooling (in memory chip spot prices) over the last 3-4 weeks, yes. We do believe it’s temporary,” said Tobey Gonnerman, president of Fusion Worldwide. “The demand and backlog remain strong.”

Samsung is still the world’s largest memory chipmaker, with about 40% of the DRAM market and around 35% of NAND flash. Its semiconductor division accounts for more than 70% of total profit, making it the company’s main source of earnings.

The company is also strengthening its focus on AI. It recently agreed to work with Nvidia to produce AI inference processors.

Outside chips, performance is predicted to be weaker. Analysts say Samsung’s contract chip manufacturing business is likely to remain loss-making as it competes with TSMC.

Meanwhile, profits from smartphones and display panels could fall by about half due to high component expenses and stronger competition.

There are also labour concerns at home. Workers in South Korea have called for changes to pay and bonuses and have warned of possible strike action in May.

The transaction links a rocket and satellite heavyweight with a company built to develop advanced conversational systems, pushing SpaceX far beyond launch services and into the core infrastructure behind next-generation computing.

People familiar with the agreement say SpaceX is valued at $1 trillion, while xAI carries a price tag of $250 billion. 

Together, that creates a private entity worth about $1.25 trillion, a figure that eclipses Vodafone’s takeover of Mannesmann in 2000, which stood unchallenged for more than two decades.

Under the terms of the deal, investors in xAI will receive 0.1433 shares of SpaceX for each xAI share they hold. Some senior executives at xAI are said to have the option of taking cash instead, priced at $75.46 per share. 

The combined company is expected to price its shares at roughly $527.

Describing the acquisition, Musk said: “This marks not just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI’s mission: scaling to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!”

The merger gives SpaceX a direct route into high-demand computing infrastructure as power, cooling and chip supply become key limits to growth. 

Musk has repeatedly argued that land-based data centres are nearing their limits, both economically and environmentally. Space, in his view, provides cheaper energy management and faster scaling within a few years.

SpaceX already tops the private space market and was last valued at about $800 billion during an internal share sale. xAI, which had been valued at $230 billion late last year, brings not just software expertise but also access to vast data streams and distribution channels created through earlier internal mergers.

This deal also tightens what investors often call the “Muskonomy”. Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Company and the social platform X now sit alongside a unified space and computing operation. Musk has done this before. 

Tesla’s purchase of SolarCity in 2016 and the earlier share swap that moved X under xAI’s control both followed the same pattern of consolidation.

Attention now turns to the public markets. People close to the matter say the combined business is preparing for a major stock market debut in 2026, with expectations that it could command a valuation above $1.5 trillion. 

If that happens, it would rank among the most valuable listed companies in the world.

Regulators are unlikely to stay quiet. SpaceX holds billions of dollars in contracts with NASA, the US Department of Defence and intelligence agencies. 

Any transfer of assets, staff or technology will attract scrutiny, particularly given Musk’s overlapping leadership roles across several firms.

Neither SpaceX nor xAI responded immediately to requests for comment.

The appointment brings a senior operator with long-standing ties to Indian enterprises and government into the picture. 

Ghose spent 24 years at Microsoft, where she worked across banking, healthcare, manufacturing and the public sector, before stepping down in December 2025. 

Her arrival points to Anthropic aiming beyond mass consumer reach and into large organisations that demand reliability at scale.

India is already important to Anthropic. It is the second-largest user base for Claude, with activity driven largely by work-related and technical use. 

While the audience is large, turning daily use into steady income has proved harder. Pricing pressure is tough, and competitors have leaned heavily on discounts and free access to win ground.

OpenAI has taken a similar path. In late 2025, it incorporated OpenAI India Private Limited and opened a New Delhi office, cementing India as its biggest market outside the United States. 

Earlier, it rolled out ChatGPT Go at under $5, then waived fees for a year in a bid to accelerate adoption. These have changed expectations around price and access across the market.

Appfigures data shows downloads of its Claude app in India rose 48% year on year to about 767,000 installs in September. Consumer spending jumped sharply to $195,000 for the month, yet that figure still trails far behind the $2.5 million recorded in the U.S. over the same period. Scale is there. Revenue remains the harder test.

The company has been laying the foundation well before this hire. Chief executive Dario Amodei visited India in October, meeting business leaders and lawmakers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Talks also explored a possible distribution tie-up with Reliance Industries, though Reliance later chose to partner with Google to offer Gemini AI Pro free to Jio subscribers. Airtel, meanwhile, struck its own deal with Perplexity, folding premium access into mobile plans.

In India, telecom operators have become the gatekeepers. Control the network, and you control how new digital services reach hundreds of millions of people.

In a LinkedIn post announcing her move, Ghose said she would focus on working with Indian enterprises, developers and startups using Claude for “mission-critical” work. 

She described demand for “high-trust, enterprise-grade AI” and added that tools adapted to local languages could be a “force multiplier” in sectors such as education and healthcare. 

The timing also aligns with the India AI Impact Summit 2026, scheduled for February 19–20 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. Billed as the first global summit of its kind hosted in the Global South, it will bring together policymakers and executives from firms including Google DeepMind, Adobe and Anthropic to debate deployment, regulation and inclusion.

Despite heavy interest, India’s homegrown ecosystem is still at an early stage. The country has no shortage of software talent or users, yet few firms are building core systems at the very top end. Investment has flowed instead into applications that sit on top of existing platforms, avoiding the cost and risk of building from scratch.

Anthropic is now hiring locally, advertising roles across enterprise sales, startups and partnerships. This means it is focusing on strong local leadership, careful pricing and the right distribution allies to turn India’s surge in usage into a lasting business. 

Speaking in Beijing on Thursday, the Ministry of Commerce confirmed it will assess whether the transaction aligns with Chinese laws covering export regulations, technology transfers, overseas investment and data movement. 

The review follows Meta’s agreement to buy Manus in a deal reported to be worth more than $2 billion.

At a regular press briefing, ministry spokesperson He Yadong said regulators would work across departments to determine whether the acquisition complies with existing regulations. 

He stressed that companies involved in foreign investment and technology-related transactions must operate within China’s legal framework.

Manus, now based in Singapore, has roots in China. It emerged from Butterfly Effect, also known as Monica.Im, before becoming a standalone company and relocating earlier this year. 

That development is now a big part of the investigation. Regulators are examining whether the transfer of staff, data and core technology from Beijing to Singapore required an export licence before the Meta deal was finalised.

Beijing has increased oversight of AI models, agents and related intellectual property, treating them as assets with national security implications. 

The Manus case will help clarify how those regulations apply to Chinese-founded startups that move overseas ahead of foreign acquisitions.

The startup received huge attention after launching its first AI agent in March, a tool designed to handle tasks such as market research, coding and data analysis. 

Within eight months, Manus said it had crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, a pace it described as unprecedented. The company also drew global interest after raising $75 million in a funding round led by U.S. venture capital firm Benchmark in April.

Meta has already made known how it views the deal. “Manus’ exceptional talent will join Meta’s team to deliver general-purpose agents across our consumer and business products, including in Meta AI,” the company said in a statement in December.

Chinese officials have been careful to frame the review as regulatory rather than punitive. “The Chinese government consistently supports enterprises in conducting mutually beneficial transnational operations and international technological cooperation in accordance with laws and regulations,” He Yadong said.

The company is expected to report a fourth-quarter operating profit of about 16.9 trillion won for the October–December period, according to analyst estimates compiled by LSEG. 

That figure would represent a jump of roughly 160% from a year earlier and place Samsung within touching distance of its 2018 peak, when the memory market last experienced a major price cycle.

What has changed is not just demand, but the structure of it. With manufacturers focusing capacity towards advanced chips for data centres, output of conventional memory has tightened. Prices have responded with unusual force. 

TrendForce data shows DDR5 DRAM prices climbed 314% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, while contract prices for standard DRAM are forecast to rise another 55% to 60% in the first quarter of this year.

That dynamic plays directly into Samsung’s hands. The company is heavily exposed to conventional DRAM, a segment that many rivals had begun to treat as mature. 

“As conventional DRAM prices continue to surge, Samsung – whose production capacity is largely concentrated in this segment – stands to gain relatively more from the current price upcycle,” TrendForce analyst Avril Wu said.

This quarter goes beyond a one-off rebound. Just over a year ago, Samsung’s leadership was apologising publicly for weak performance as it fell behind SK Hynix in supplying high-bandwidth memory to Nvidia. 

Today, the tone is different. On Friday, executive chairman Jun Young-hyun told investors that customers had described Samsung’s next-generation HBM4 chips by saying, “Samsung is back.”

The competitive backdrop explains why that is important. SK Hynix completed what it described as world-first HBM4 development in September 2025, doubling bandwidth and cutting power use by 40%. 

By the end of last year, it had already sold out its entire 2026 supply to Nvidia. Micron, meanwhile, has told investors that tight memory conditions could last beyond 2026, with chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra warning that the company expects to meet only half to two-thirds of demand from several major customers.

At CES 2026, chipmaker Nvidia unveiled its Vera Rubin platform, confirming that the next generation of its systems will rely on HBM4 memory. Nvidia said the Vera Rubin architecture is in full production and on track for launch later this year, underlining how critical reliable HBM supply has become.

Samsung’s expected profit surge shows this bigger change. Some analysts have already lifted their fourth-quarter forecasts above 20 trillion won, betting that price momentum in traditional memory has been underestimated. 

Looking further ahead, market forecasts reveal Samsung’s operating profit could exceed 100 trillion won this year, more than double last year’s level, if pricing remains firm.

Investors have largely embraced the turnaround. Samsung shares rose 125% last year, their strongest annual gain in 26 years, although they dipped 2.1% in early Tuesday trading as the wider market paused after a rally.

Risks have not disappeared. Lee Min-hee of BNK Investment & Securities cautioned that higher chip prices could cool demand for consumer devices and flagged “risks of a demand slowdown” as data centres rely more on debt to fund expansion. 

Samsung itself has acknowledged the limitations on its mobile business, where rising component costs are squeezing margins. “As this situation is unprecedented, no company is immune to its impact,” co-chief executive TM Roh said, adding that the fallout looks “inevitable”.

Even so, a memory market once dismissed as cyclical has become essential to the next phase of global computing. 

The NITDA’s boss expressed this optimism in Lagos while delivering his keynote address titled “Implementing a National Digital Transformation Agenda” at the ongoing Global Tech Africa 2023 with the theme “Facilitating Investments in Africa’s Digital Economy.

The conference which provides platform to bring together African and international stakeholders in technology to unlock growth opportunities for all, and build the tech ecosystem in Africa was put together by Ascend Studio Foundation and in partnership with NITDA, the U.S. Consulate, Venture Garden Group, Business Sweden, and RivExcel Health.

Inuwa disclosed that Nigeria’s greatest resource to which he hinges his prediction on, is Nigeria’s abundant human capital which remains her greatest resource. He noted that many global reports have predicted that there would be global talent crunch by 2030 that could affect the future of work but which Nigeria can explore to reimagining herself to become global talent factory.

He said;

“It is evident that Nigeria is not just positioned to be the global talent factory, but we are also set for investment and global collaboration because all developed countries will suffer from that deficit, including the United States of America. But Nigeria, we have one of the youngest populations in the world. We have the largest population in Africa; the largest economy; we have the market, and we have the youth, and we have natural talent. So, if we position ourselves, we can bridge that global talent deficit, and we can benefit from the 8.5 trillion USD digital transformation global Gross Domestic Product, (GDP.)

According to Inuwa, Nigeria’s focus is beyond digital economy but the attainment of national digital transformation because of pervasive nature of digital technology and its capacity to transform any industry power by digital technology. He emphasised that for the nation to benefit from this, “we need to position ourselves and design the economy to reap the benefit of digital transformation.”

He said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has mandated the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy to accelerate the nation’s economy by diversifying it in a way that would enhance productivity across all sector through digital innovation. “Our mandate is not just about digital economy but transformation of the digital space and how we can empower and enhance productivity across all sector,” he noted.

While emphasising the implementation strategy approach Nigeria has adopted to drive its digital transformation agenda, the NITDA boss said, the approach are in three fronts; “firstly, reimagining ourselves in the global economy, secondly, embrace and creation of values for our ecosystem because no one succeeds in isolation and lastly, improve connectivity.

He noted further that, with the new Minister’s five priority areas as contained in a document tagged “Accelerating our Collective Prosperity through Technical Efficiency, A Strategic Plan for the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy,” the nation’s Strategic Agenda 2023-2027 to digital transformation would now be anchored on Knowledge; Policy; Infrastructure; Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Capital, and Trade.

In his remarks at the conference, the United State Consular General, Mr. Will Stephen expressed that Nigeria’s strive to digital transformation is commendable and assured that with such gusto the nation is exhibiting, her  digital transformation would soon blossom.

While commending Nigeria for various partnership and collaboration it has forged with some American big tech companies, Mr. Stephen sued for continuous collaboration. He promised that America would ensure continuous collaboration with Nigeria in promoting her digital transformation agenda.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the Executive Trustee of Future Map Foundation, the convener of the Global Tech Africa, Mr. Ahmad Shuaibu who was represented by Mrs. Farida Yahya disclosed that Africa would play pivotal roles in shaping the “unprecedented technological revolution” the world is currently witnessing.

According to her, the continent’s young and vibrant population with her rich natural resources and growing entrepreneurial spirit, provide a solid foundation for the technological innovation.

She noted that the Global Technology Africa Summit 2023 would serve as a powerful platform to showcase Africa’s technological prowess and connect innovators with investors, partners, and mentors.

“This gathering of minds will undoubtedly spark new ideas, collaborations, and opportunities, propelling Africa’s technological journey to new heights,” she opined.

The highlight of the day one of the conference was the signing of partnership agreement for the Startup Support and Engagement Portal between NITDA and Venture Group Garden, VGG.

The NITDA’s Director General described the agreement as a “milestone and exhilarating because it would provide the Nigeria’s startups access to funding as enshrined in the Nigeria Startup Act 2022.