More investment money is heading into the self-driving trucking market. Now the technology startups just need some revenue from customers. Silicon Valley’s Aurora is the latest to reap a windfall, the WSJ’s Kimberly Chin reports, with a plan to go public through a blank-check company in a deal that would generate some $2.5 billion in cash and value the startup at $11 billion. The special-purpose acquisition company behind the merger is led by founders of LinkedIn and Zynga, but the bigger commercial impact on Aurora is likely to come from other investors. Truck makers Volvo Trucks and truck maker Paccar are among participants in a private investment vehicle backing Aurora, and both are working with the startup to build autonomous trucks. Aurora is competing with developers including TuSimple and Plus to turn their research into commercial sales. That race so far appears to run through Wall Street.

The world’s biggest chip maker is promising some relief from the shortage that has hamstrung car makers and other wings of the industrial economy. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. expects the shortfall in the key technology components to start easing in the next few months. The WSJ’s Stephanie Yang and Yang Jie report the company is on track to increase output of microcontrollers used in cars by about 60% over last year, although it still expects the broader semiconductor shortage could persist until 2022. The struggle to get the components used in products like home appliances and smartphones as well as automobiles is creating a tug-of-war of sorts among customers. Global auto makers from the U.S. and Europe have pressured TSMC to give priority to their orders, forcing the supplier to negotiate with other clients to free up manufacturing capacity for auto chips. The company is further increasing production for products requiring less-sophisticated semiconductors by expanding capacity at some plants.

Supply chains that were built to keep factories humming are instead proving a drag on the sector. The Federal Reserve says U.S. manufacturing production contracted 0.1% from May to June despite strong demand across the economy. The WSJ’s Justin Lahart writes in a Heard on the Street column that factory output rose just 1.1% in the first half of the year and remains below pre-pandemic levels. The chip shortage in the auto industry is a big part of the problem but factories overall were operating at just 75.5% of capacity last month. That supposedly leaves plenty of room to grow. But production is having a hard time shifting into higher gear because materials shortages and bottlenecks in transportation networks are bogging down supply chains. Those constraints should dissipate over time, and eventually that’s likely to drive a new flood of finished products into shipping networks.

Weekly new jobless claims in the U.S. fell to a fresh low since the pandemic began. (WSJ)

Dozens of people were feared dead and many more were missing in flooding that halted waterways traffic across parts of western Europe. (WSJ)

Intel is exploring a deal to buy GlobalFoundries, in a move that would turbocharge its plans to make more chips for other tech companies. (WSJ)

Workers at a Volvo Trucks North America plant in Virginia ratified most of a six-year contract and suspended their strike. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Trading this year in shares of Chinese electric-vehicle battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology has pushed the company to a market value of $203 million. (WSJ)

U.S. Senate Democrats plan to start floor action next week aimed at approving a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure package. (WSJ)

Venture-capital firm 8VC will work with Lineage Logistics on transportation and logistics investments. (CNBC)

Union Pacific suspended intermodal container transports from the West Coast to Chicago to relieve congestion at its big Midwest hub. (Trains)

Austria’s Lenzing Group and Italy’s Tencel will jointly develop a fiber for textile products made of orange peels and wood pulp. (Sourcing Journal)

Macy’s is trying to speed up its supply chain by aligning inventory management in warehouses and at its department stores more closely. (Supply Chain Dive)

Cosco’s China Shipping is buying 10 mid-sized container ships under a $1.5 billion deal with its own shipbuilding subsidiary. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Alphaliner says a spate of unconfirmed vessels orders could drive a new container shipping capacity rush if they are completed. (Lloyd’s List)

Regulators extended until the end of the year an exemption allowing airlines to carry cargo in aircraft cabins. (Air Cargo News)

Vietnam Airlines plans to launch a freight airline after seeing strong cargo business during the pandemic. (VE Express)

Uber Freight will work with freight broker BlueGrade Logistics to start less-than-truckload service. (Journal of Commerce)

Prices for wooden pallets are rising amid shortages of the shipping platforms. (Bloomberg)

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Write to him at paul.page@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @jensmithWSJ. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.