China just posted export numbers that would make any trade minister pop champagne. May exports climbed 19.4% year-over-year, and June accelerated to roughly 27%. The engine behind this? A global appetite for AI hardware that shows zero signs of slowing down.
But zoom out from the export docks and the picture gets complicated fast. Car sales in China cratered 22% year-over-year in May, extending a painful streak of double-digit monthly declines.
The AI hardware gold rush
The numbers on semiconductor and AI-related exports are genuinely staggering. Integrated circuit shipments surged 110.9% in May compared to the same month last year. Data processing equipment, the servers and networking gear that power AI workloads, jumped 66.1%.
Across the first half of 2026, China’s semiconductor exports nearly doubled. China’s trade surplus ballooned to $105.4 billion in May alone, with US-bound shipments climbing approximately 36%. Part of that surge likely reflects front-loading, where companies accelerate orders ahead of potential tariff increases.
