Zero One Investment Research Daily Intelligence Brief, November 6, 2026

Voter backlash against data centers widens beyond Texas as AI suppliers weigh exposure

Top Market Signals

Data-center opposition now reaches the builders

Meta (META US) president Dina Powell McCormick told a WSJ tech conference that after the midterms, "I think it's going to be harder" to build data centers. Meta runs sites in 23 states, and five of its projects, one of them in Texas, are planned at 1GW or more.

Our 5 Nov Blade flagged the Texas governor-elect's pledge to pause new data centers, with about 13GW of projects exposed. The opposition is wider than one state. Goldman Sachs says Georgia and Michigan could also shift under new Democratic governors, through lost tax breaks, tighter power rules, or towns choosing their own pauses. An NBC and SSRS poll found about 76% of US voters oppose a new data center in their own community.

Builders are already changing terms. OpenAI issued a new data center policy that pledges to cover power costs and halt NDAs, and it now calls its sites "compute campuses". NVIDIA is exploring retrofits of old telephone buildings, The Information reported. Meta says its successful projects pay for their own electricity and direct tax surpluses to teachers and first responders.

Foxconn (2317 TT), Wistron (3231 TT), Wiwynn (6669 TT), Pegatron (4938 TT), Compal (2324 TT), Delta (2308 TT) and Lite-On (2301 TT) have all expanded in Texas. The size of the risk depends on one open item: whether any Texas pause reaches projects already approved.

Linked stocks: META US, 2317 TT, 6669 TT, 2308 TT

Micron reportedly pauses Taoyuan fab over pay

Micron (MU US) has all but stopped work on its Fab 11E site in Taoyuan because a profit-sharing dispute with the local union is unresolved, Bloomberg reported. The plant was planned at US$3-4.5bn with output from 2028. Taiwan makes about 60% of Micron's DRAM, so a delay here would touch its largest production base.

DigiTimes said supply chain sources confirmed the pause on the site's standalone cleanroom building, while orders for EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography tools have not changed. Micron has not confirmed a pause. It said its Taiwan operations are running normally and that it is confident customers will not be affected.

The union wants 15% of operating profit shared, all in cash, cnYES reported. Taiwan's Economic Affairs Ministry says the proposed deal could lift engineer pay to as much as NT$6m a year. Micron has already settled with the Taichung union, which represents most of its Taiwan staff. The Taoyuan union says it has received no notice of a pause and suspects the report is a pressure tactic.

The two sides hold their fifth negotiating round today. If the pause runs long enough to move the 2028 start, Micron would lean harder on its planned sites in Singapore, Japan and the US.

Linked stocks: MU US, 000660 KS, 005930 KS

Microsoft passes on doubling Nscale's Texas deal

Microsoft (MSFT US) will not use an option that would have more than doubled the capacity it rents at Nscale's Texas data center, Reuters reported, confirming a Financial Times story. The FT valued the option at tens of billions of US dollars for Nscale, a UK AI cloud provider backed by NVIDIA (NVDA US).

The date matters more than the size. Reuters' source said Microsoft decided months ago, before Nscale filed for its IPO in September. That places the decision ahead of this week's midterm election, so the vote did not cause it.

The signed work is unaffected. Nscale's filing shows statements of work with Microsoft worth up to about US$43.8bn through December 2033, excluding the option, and total contract value of about US$103bn. DigiTimes puts the planned IPO at US$35bn.

Nscale is in talks with several large customers for the remaining Texas capacity, the source said. A named tenant would show that demand for rented AI compute has held up without Microsoft.

Linked stocks: MSFT US, NVDA US, CRWV US

600,000 H200 chips wait in Hong Kong

About 600,000 NVIDIA (NVDA US) H200 AI chips are sitting in Hong Kong because Beijing has not approved large-scale imports, Reuters reported citing people familiar with the matter. Washington cleared H200 sales to approved Chinese customers last year, so the limit on this stock now sits in Beijing.

Small amounts are getting through. One source said several large Chinese internet companies each received about 10,000 chips in recent months. The Information reported in July that approved imports could total fewer than 200,000, which would be at most a third of the stock now waiting.

The shortage shows up in price. A server with eight H200 chips was quoted above RMB6m (about US$900,000) in China at the end of October, roughly three times the level a year earlier. ByteDance, Alibaba (9988 HK) and Tencent (700 HK) have instead ordered more than 3m lower-performance RTX Pro 5500 cards that meet US rules, at a list value above US$35bn.

A bulk import approval from Beijing would release the stock. NVIDIA's 17 Nov results are the first chance to hear how much of it the company is counting on.

Linked stocks: NVDA US, 9988 HK, 700 HK

Foxconn's record October hides a cloud dip

Foxconn (2317 TT) reported October revenue of NT$1.30tn, up 45.73% YoY and 12.66% MoM, its second straight monthly record. Its cloud and networking line, which carries AI servers, slipped MoM even so.

Foxconn gave three reasons: some customers moved to consignment, materials are tight, and new models are in early mass production. Under consignment the customer supplies key parts, so their value stops passing through the assembler's revenue. AI server sales can therefore fall on paper while shipments hold.

Consumer products did the lifting in October, helped by both volume and higher selling prices. Revenue for the first ten months reached NT$8.97tn, up 40.40% YoY, and institutional investors expect the full year to pass NT$10tn for the first time.

Foxconn's 12 Nov call covers 3Q26 and its 2027 outlook. A cloud decline that continues after the new models ramp would be harder to put down to accounting.

Linked stocks: 2317 TT, 6669 TT, 2382 TT

Zhen Ding's AI boards reach 28% of sales

Zhen Ding (4958 TT), Taiwan's largest circuit board maker, said server, optical module and IC substrate sales together more than tripled YoY in October. They passed 28% of revenue, up from 11.7% across all of 2025. Total October revenue hit a record NT$27.2bn, up about 40% YoY.

The materials makers grew faster. Elite Material (2383 TT), which supplies the copper-clad laminate that AI server boards are built on, posted NT$24.5bn, up 203.1% YoY. TUC (6274 TT) reached NT$6.5bn, up 127%, and ITEQ (6213 TT) reached NT$6.0bn, up 119.53%.

These are sales already shipped, so they say nothing yet about future orders. Zhen Ding still expects 4Q26 to be its peak quarter of the year. Its 10 Nov results are the first chance to hear whether AI customers have changed 2027 orders.

Linked stocks: 4958 TT, 2383 TT, 6274 TT, 6213 TT

Macronix lacks capacity for three-year satellite orders

Macronix (2337 TT), a Taiwanese maker of NOR flash memory, has a three-year order forecast from a leading US low-earth-orbit satellite customer, chairman Miin Wu said, according to DigiTimes. Demand runs to several million units a year each of eMMC NAND and NOR Flash. He said Macronix does not have the capacity to meet it.

Wu said Macronix has no plan for a new fab and will fill its existing plants first. He sees shortages possibly lasting to 2030, but warned that capacity added now would take the hit if an AI bubble bursts and customers stop buying.

Macronix is also moving out of ROM, the chips in Nintendo (7974 JT) game cartridges, according to MST Financial analyst David Gibson. ROM fell from 26% of revenue a year ago to 5% in 3Q26, and NT$37.8bn of planned capex goes to NOR and NAND with none for ROM. MegaChips (6875 JT), which designs the cartridge chips and outsources production to Macronix, may need another manufacturer.

A decision to build a new plant would show that Wu's caution has given way to customer pressure.

Linked stocks: 2337 TT, 6875 JT, 7974 JT

先聲 First Word: Exclusives from Chinese-Language Sources

China's big clouds seek long-term Korean memory contracts

Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance are reportedly negotiating long-term memory contracts with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, DigiTimes said. If signed, these contracts would show that China's largest buyers still need Korean supply alongside domestic maker CXMT. (5 Nov 2026) Source: DigiTimes

Taiflex orders equipment for NVIDIA's glass-free board material

Taiflex has ordered equipment early and plans 100,000 sheets a month of PTFE (Teflon) laminate by early 2027, as NVIDIA pushes the glass-free material for next-generation AI servers. Compeq and Zhen Ding remain cautious, and an ITRI analyst called the 2H27 timing tight. (5 Nov 2026) Source: 輝達力推PTFE無玻纖布！材料廠搶卡位 PCB大廠為何反而更謹慎？

Samsung skips the tender to sell 8-inch tools to DB HiTek

Samsung Electronics will reportedly sell equipment from closed 8-inch lines directly to DB HiTek, Korea's largest 8-inch foundry, the first time it has skipped a public tender. The industry suspects the aim is to keep the tools out of China, following the end-2030 exit in our 3 Nov Blade. (5 Nov 2026) Source: 三星傳破例將8吋晶圓設備整批賣給DB HiTek　擬防堵外流中國