AI Data Centers Squeeze Automotive Chip Supply, Say Nexperia and STMicroelectronics

By Tom Whitfield

Aumovio expects a gross earnings hit of about €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in 2027, mainly from semiconductor inflation, as AI data-center demand pulls manufacturing capacity away from the cheap, high-volume chips that cars depend on. Two of the industry's most senior executives put numbers and names to the squeeze this week at the Electronica trade fair in Munich.

Nexperia's interim chief executive, Stefan Tilger, told Reuters on Tuesday that the Dutch chipmaker is "totally oversubscribed" because suppliers are diverting capacity toward AI data centers. "The automotive industry is suffering at the moment quite heavily," he said.

Nexperia makes mature-node chips such as diodes and transistors for cars and industrial equipment, a narrower range than its larger rivals. Tilger said some competitors have moved capacity away from commodity semiconductors, creating bottlenecks in parts of the automotive supply chain. Investment in those mature technologies has lagged for years, he added, while AI data centers and robotics absorb the available capacity.

The takeaway: the parts shortage now hitting carmakers is not a demand problem but a capacity-allocation problem, and it has been building for years.

What did STMicroelectronics say?

STMicroelectronics CEO Jean-Marc Chery described the same shift at a CEO panel at the fair. Foundries and outsourced assembly and packaging firms that once served a broad customer base are "disengaging" from mainstream technology, he said, because AI and data-center work pays better margins.

"We see many bottlenecks," Chery said. He argued that ST's own factories give it some protection from the squeeze. "We control a part of our future with our CapEx and our manufacturing," he said.

The takeaway: integrated device makers with in-house fabs can hedge the squeeze, but fabless automotive suppliers and their tier-one customers cannot.

How bad is the hit for auto suppliers?

Aumovio, the former Continental unit that makes radar sensors, cameras and cockpit electronics for customers including BMW, Volkswagen, Ford and BYD, gave the sharpest figure. The company said last week that chip cost pressure is "mind-boggling" and that its impact, barely noticeable so far, is set to "explode" in 2027, Bloomberg reported.

Interim finance chief Claus Bauer said the company expects a gross negative earnings impact of about €1 billion ($1.1 billion) next year, mainly from semiconductor inflation. He noted that data-center buyers show "no price sensitivity whatsoever" — a remark that explains why suppliers keep reassigning lines away from price-sensitive automotive work.

Aumovio plans to pass part of the cost to its customers and offset the rest through redesigns and spending cuts.

Why is memory the pressure point?

Memory is the most visible pressure point so far. AI servers are absorbing enough DRAM and NAND that memory makers are reporting operating margins near 80 percent. The Munich comments point to the same pull on mature logic, discrete parts and packaging capacity.

The takeaway: what started as a memory pricing story is now spreading into the unglamorous discrete and packaging layers of the supply chain.

What comes next for Nexperia?

Nexperia also remains caught in a control fight with its Chinese parent, Wingtech, an unresolved corporate dispute that sits in the background of its capacity discussions. Neither executive offered a timeline for relief.

With data-center buyers showing no price sensitivity and foundries chasing higher margins, automotive buyers face a structural cost gap rather than a temporary cycle — and 2027, by Aumovio's own forecast, is when that gap lands on earnings.