SEMICONDUCTORS
AWS unveils custom chips
Amazon.com Inc’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), on Tuesday introduced two new custom computing chips aimed at helping its customers beat the cost of using chips from Intel Corp and Nvidia Corp. The company released the third generation of its Graviton chip, which is designed to compete with central processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, while a new class of chip called Trainium, which is designed to train machine learning computer models and would compete against chips from Nvidia, would soon be available to its customers, it said. AWS expects it to train machine learning models at a cost that is 40 percent lower than Nvidia’s flagship chip.
AEROSPACE
Musk talks SpaceX risk
Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday said that a potential bankruptcy at the company in the event of a severe global recession would be “unlikely,” but not impossible. He was replying to an article about a memo he sent to SpaceX employees in which he said the company could face a genuine risk of bankruptcy if its Raptor rocket engine problems are not fixed. Musk replied with a simple “yes” to a tweet about the Raptor production issue being the biggest potential bottleneck while the company is spending huge amounts on its Starship and Starlink projects.
BANKING
Citigroup picks bidder
Citigroup Inc has chosen Union Bank of the Philippines as its preferred bidder to acquire its consumer banking assets in the Southeast Asian country, people familiar with the matter said. Citigroup and Union Bank plan to continue to negotiate the terms and structure of a deal with the goal of reaching an agreement over the coming weeks, the people said. A potential sale could value the assets at about US$1 billion, they said, adding that other bidders remain interested.
APPAREL
Investcorp to sell Dainese
Investcorp is gearing up to sell Italian motorcycle clothing brand Dainese in a deal that could value the 49-year firm, favored by motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi, at about 750 million euros (US$850 million), a source familiar with the matter said. The Bahrain-based private equity firm has hired Lazard Ltd to launch a sales process for the company at the start of next year, the source said. Investcorp, which took control of Dainese in 2014 for 130 million euros, aims to cash out for about 750 million euros, and if successful, it could make almost six times its money from the sale.
INTERNET
Meta ordered to sell Giphy
Britain’s antitrust watchdog has ordered Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc to sell Giphy, the first time a global regulator has forced a Big Tech firm to unwind a completed deal, and a turnaround after years of being allowed to swallow up smaller rivals with virtually no pushback. The British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that last year’s US$315 million tie-up with the GIF search engine would reduce competition between social media platforms, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The company would be able to appeal the decision to the British Competition Appeal Tribunal where it would be heard as a judicial review. If Meta accepts the CMA’s ruling it would have to find a suitable buyer that would be vetted by the regulator.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
RSS