Chip Prices Jump, Chinese EVs Surge, and Rockets Attempt Redemption
Issue #2546.10 / November 10, 2025
While enjoying the weekend, the cost of building smartphones jumped, Chinese electric vehicles demolished Tesla’s UK position, and Jeff Bezos prepared another attempt to land a rocket on a ship.
TSMC quietly told its biggest clients — including Apple — that advanced chip prices are rising 8-10% starting next year. The Taiwanese foundry is ending volume discounts as it pours tens of billions into 2-nanometer manufacturing facilities, where the physics of making things smaller has gotten exponentially costlier. The real shock: those cutting-edge 2nm chips destined for the iPhone 18 Pro could run around $280 (€241) per unit, roughly six times what current A18 chips cost at $45. When your chip becomes the most expensive component in a device, someone’s paying for it—either Apple’s margins or your wallet.
The squeeze hits Apple’s entire silicon lineup: A-series mobile chips, M-series processors for Macs and iPads, and every future iteration currently in development. Moore’s Law hasn’t died; it just started sending bills.
Tesla’s UK Reversal
Meanwhile in Britain, BYD completed an automotive face-plant on Tesla. The Chinese manufacturer registered nearly seven times more cars than Tesla in October, with year-to-date sales up over 600%. Tesla sold just 511 vehicles last month—its weakest UK performance of 2025 and roughly half what it managed in October 2024.
BYD’s UK success stems from aggressive pricing that makes Tesla look like a luxury brand. The Dolphin Surf starts at £26,000 (€30,200/$35,000) while Tesla’s cheapest Model 3 runs around £40,000 (€46,400/$53,900). The company now operates over 100 UK showrooms and has made Britain its largest market outside China. It’s the same playbook BYD used to dominate electric vehicle manufacturing globally: vertical integration, battery production in-house, and prices that force competitors to choose between profits and market share.
For European policymakers watching Chinese manufacturers sweep markets through cost advantages, the parallel with semiconductor dependency is instructive. Whether it’s chips from Taiwan or EVs from Shenzhen, critical technology pricing increasingly flows from sources outside European control.
Rocket Science, Take Two
As of this writing, Blue Origin is attempting the second launch of its New Glenn rocket, carrying NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars. The company’s first attempt in January reached orbit but missed the ocean landing when an engine malfunctioned. CEO Dave Limp took the glass-half-full approach, noting they have “several more boosters in production” if this one also meets the Atlantic at velocity.
New Glenn represents Blue Origin’s bid to challenge SpaceX’s Falcon 9 dominance in heavy-lift launches. With a massive 7-meter fairing and reusable first stage, it’s designed for satellite deployments and deep-space missions. If the landing works this time, it validates years of development and positions Blue Origin as a credible SpaceX alternative. If not, at least they have spare rockets.
The ESCAPADE spacecraft is taking the scenic route: parking at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point for a year before slingshotting to Mars in 2026. It’s the orbital equivalent of using a rest stop to wait for better traffic conditions.
Miniature Antibodies, Maximum Potential
In health science developments that sound borrowed from science fiction, researchers discovered that miniature antibodies naturally produced by camels and llamas can slip past the blood-brain barrier more easily than conventional drugs. These “nanobodies” are small enough to penetrate brain tissue that typically blocks larger therapeutic molecules, offering new treatment possibilities for Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia.
The discovery highlights how biological solutions sometimes hide in unexpected places. Camelids evolved these compact antibodies millions of years ago; we’re only now figuring out how to repurpose them for neuroscience. The work suggests a potential breakthrough in delivering treatments to one of medicine’s most protected—and challenging—frontiers.
In Other News
China’s tech showcase: At the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, JD.com chairman Liu Qiangdong predicted robotic delivery systems could enable some people to work just one day per week, while Alibaba championed “super AI cloud” capabilities. Meanwhile, China’s three largest energy companies signed $71 billion (€61 billion) in deals for crude oil, natural gas, and drilling equipment at the China International Import Expo. The country is simultaneously betting big on AI futures and locking down conventional energy supplies.
Memory restoration via gene editing: Virginia Tech scientists reversed memory loss in aging rats using CRISPR tools to correct molecular disruptions in memory-forming brain regions. They targeted genes whose methylation patterns change with age, essentially rewinding biological clocks. The research suggests age-related cognitive decline might be editable rather than inevitable—though the gap between rat neurons and human treatments remains significant.
Free emergency texting for all: T-Mobile’s satellite-powered 911 service, built on Starlink infrastructure, is now available free to all US carriers, including AT&T and Verizon. Users with compatible phones can text emergency services from roughly 500,000 square miles of previously unreachable areas. It’s infrastructure cooperation in an industry not famous for sharing, driven by the reality that emergency coverage shouldn’t depend on your carrier’s coverage map.
Meta’s advertising problem: Internal documents revealed Facebook’s parent company projected earning roughly 10% of its 2024 revenue—about $16 billion (€13.8 billion)—from ads linked to scams, fraudulent e-commerce, banned goods, and illegal casinos. While Meta called the estimate “rough and overly inclusive,” the figure raises questions about business models that profit from not scrutinizing who’s buying ads too carefully.
Samsung’s thermal breakthrough: Samsung revealed details about its upcoming Exynos 2600 chipset built on 2nm technology, featuring new “Heat Pass Block” packaging that reportedly reduces operating temperatures by 30%. Lower heat means higher sustained performance without throttling—a crucial advantage as chips pack more transistors into smaller spaces. It’s Samsung’s answer to TSMC’s process leadership, attacking the thermal physics problem from the packaging side.
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