Financial news on August 2, 2026

1. Tesla discontinued its 0% interest financing program for the Model Y in the North American market effective August 1, and simultaneously raised the annualized loan interest rate for higher-end Model 3 variants to alleviate sustained pressure on profitability. 2. Amazon released its Q2 2026 financial results on July 31, reporting quarterly revenue of $200.6 billion, a 20% year-on-year increase; AWS cloud business revenue rose 36.7% year-on-year—the highest growth rate in 18 quarters. 3. Kioxia announced its first-quarter operating results: operating profit stood at ¥1.27 trillion, below market expectations. The company plans to advance long-term supply agreements, targeting coverage of 50% of its shipment capacity by 2028. 4. ExxonMobil’s adjusted net profit for Q2 was $14.7 billion; Chevron’s net profit for the same period was $12 billion. High oil prices drove energy companies’ profits upward, with both firms continuing to ramp up investments in oil and gas exploration. 5. Eurozone CPI preliminary data for July showed a 2.9% year-on-year increase; core CPI rose 2.5% year-on-year. Rising energy prices pushed up inflation, prompting markets to raise expectations for an ECB rate hike in September. 6. BP officially launched the divestment process for its UK North Sea oil and gas assets, planning to exit its domestic North Sea oil production operations—after 60 years of operation. 7. Moderna released clinical trial data for its norovirus vaccine; interim trial results failed to meet pre-specified statistical success criteria, prompting the company to revise its subsequent R&D strategy. 8. BlackRock published a research report arguing that capital markets currently harbor excessive pessimism toward the AI sector; long-term demand for AI infrastructure remains robust, and the firm maintains a positive outlook on the semiconductor industry chain. 9. xAI partnered with major overseas cloud service providers; its Grok large language model has officially been deployed on third-party public cloud platforms, offering model inference services globally to enterprises. 10. AMD announced its mass-production timeline for its next-generation AI acceleration chips, with volume shipments scheduled for Q4, primarily targeting ultra-large-scale data center liquid-cooled AI compute clusters. 11. The Bank of Canada’s Financial Stability Report flagged rising commercial real estate debt risks and stated it would closely monitor corporate credit default indicators. 12. Novo Nordisk raised its full-year sales guidance for weight-loss drugs and is expanding its French manufacturing facility, aiming to increase global drug production capacity by 60% by 2027. 13. Blackstone Group unveiled an investment plan to allocate an additional $21 billion over the next three years to acquire North American energy storage assets, betting heavily on new-energy supporting infrastructure. 14. France’s excess profits tax policy officially took effect; tax revenues will be earmarked exclusively for household living subsidies, with total annual subsidy disbursements expected to exceed €12 billion. 15. Nokia intensified R&D efforts in high-speed optical modules, expanded its European production lines to meet overseas AI data center demand, and aggressively pursued global orders for computing-communication equipment. 16. BHP updated its five-year exploration budget, increasing overall spending by 40%, with priority focus on critical new-energy minerals such as lithium and copper. 17. SoftBank Vision Fund III raised the maximum investment cap per project to $1.2 billion, directing funds primarily toward overseas startups developing general-purpose AI and humanoid robots.

Estun’s net profit surged 25-fold in the first half of 2026, entering a hyper-growth phase

The robotics sector holds immense potential—a fact widely acknowledged. Yet no one anticipated that the robotics industry would explode in 2026, unfolding a surreal, almost incomprehensible scenario. On one hand, capital flooded into the sector: financing exceeded RMB 30 billion in Q1 alone—a 140% year-on-year surge. On the other, the secondary market plunged into an early winter, with leading companies’ stock prices collapsing by as much as 80% from their peaks. While ordinary consumers remained indifferent or merely observed from the sidelines, service robots tailored for specific scenarios emerged as a second growth curve driven by urgent demand. For instance, domestically produced industrial robots surged in popularity: output in 2026 reached over five times last year’s shipment volume. The industry’s pivotal shift—from demonstration prototypes to mass production and real-world deployment—has delivered tangible benefits to top-tier firms, including product portfolio upgrades and substantial earnings growth. Estun, which has consistently ranked first in domestic industrial robot shipments for years, saw its robot shipments surpass those of the ‘Big Four’ international players for the first time in 2025—and while securing the top spot in the Chinese market, achieved up to a 25-fold surge in net profit during the first half of 2026. Estun’s explosive growth delivered a vivid lesson to China’s entire domestic robotics industry—and the underlying business logic merits deep reflection. The Severely Undervalued 'King of Robotics' In 2025, Estun shipped approximately 34,000 industrial robots, capturing roughly 10.6% of the market—surpassing foreign brands to claim the No. 1 position in China for the first time. It retained the national brand leadership in H1 2026. Yet declaring Estun the 'King of Robotics' solely based on its shipment lead would be premature. What truly distinguishes Estun—as with all successful domestic substitutes—is its fully integrated, self-reliant value chain: self-research, self-manufacturing, and self-marketing—not mere assembly or low-price strategies to attract partners. Its end-to-end in-house R&D covers servo systems, motion controllers, and complete robot units; core component localization exceeds 90%. In essence, Estun designs both the 'heart and nervous system' and the robotic arm itself—granting clear advantages in cost control and iteration speed. Crucially, its products demonstrate exceptional adaptability across diverse applications, covering payloads from 3 kg to 120 kg and encompassing articulated, SCARA, collaborative, welding, and other robot types—plus full-line automation solutions for factories. Yet despite excelling in domestic substitution, scale, and vertical integration, Estun reported an RMB 810 million loss in 2024 and hit a share price nadir. At the time, robotics was already sweeping through industrial sectors—but for this still-developing enterprise, the situation resembled fledglings not yet ready to fly. Many of its solutions still required time and market validation—even though Estun had already rooted itself firmly in this field for a full 31 years. Its moment of glory simply needed more time. Perhaps two years ago, no one imagined that this wait would last only one more year—before the market and industry underwent a tectonic upheaval. From an RMB 800-Million Loss to a Market Cap of RMB 43.3 Billion Anyone familiar with industrial manufacturing—or who has spent time in factories—knows that Fanuc and ABB robots are deeply entrenched across numerous industrial domains, commanding most of the market share and enjoying widespread application. As a latecomer, Estun needed exceptionally powerful 'ammunition' and compelling, hard-hitting drivers to disrupt what appeared to be an unshakable status quo.

Ecovyst Releases Q2 2026 Financial Results

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Ecovyst Inc. reported Q2 2026 revenue of $250M, a 42% increase year-over-year, beating analyst estimates. Optimistic full-year guidance was issued, signaling sustained demand for its specialty chemical solutions.

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Ecovyst Releases Q2 2026 Financial Results

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