BBC (October 15)
“Silicon Valley is on the hunt for new sources of power to drive enormous data centres and in particular, the high-power chips that have become the backbone of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.” Nuclear power is capturing Increasing attention, especially small modular reactors (SMRs), which “sound like the perfect solution to the growing energy AI demand.” Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. The SMRs being discussed would only produce a small fraction of AI’s needs. Moreover, SMRs generate more nuclear “waste than larger conventional reactors.” Nevertheless, “big tech is making a big bet on nuclear – Microsoft has even recently joined the industry’s lobbying group, the World Nuclear Association.”
Tags: AI, Chips, Conventional reactors, Data centers, Lobbying, Microsoft, Nuclear power, Power, Silicon Valley, SMRs, Solution, Sources, Waste
Wall Street Journal (August 12)
“President Trump views tariffs as a toll that he alone gets to set for access to U.S. markets. Now he’s charging fees on U.S. companies for the purported privilege of exporting artificial-intelligence chips to China. Mark this as another step toward government control of private business.”
Tags: Access, Artificial intelligence, China, Chips, Companies, Exporting, Fees, Government control, Private business, Privilege, Tariffs, Toll, Trump, U.S. markets
Reuters (March 26)
“Thanks to advances in AI, chips and hardware, the United States and China are now racing to develop humanoid robots that can be deployed in factories, restaurants, hospitals and even households. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently declared that in less than five years, humanoid robots will be widely used in manufacturing.” At the moment, “China has shaky upper hand in battle of the robots” and tremendous motivation to succeed. The country faces a tremendous “labour crunch: in 2021 officials forecasted a shortage of nearly 30 million manufacturing workers by 2025” and this is projected to grow worse as China’s workforce continues to contract.
Tags: AI, Battle, China, Chips, Crunch, Factories, Hardware, Hospitals, Households, Huang, Humanoid, Labour, Manufacturing, Nvidia, Restaurants, Robots, Shortage, U.S.
South China Morning Post (February 24)
“South Korea is lagging behind or matching China in ‘basic competency’ in five areas of semiconductor technology, including memory chips and artificial intelligence (AI) chips, according to a report released last week by the Korea Institute of Science & Technology Evaluation and Planning.” China has now “surpassed South Korea to rank second in memory chip technologies” and “is now only behind the US in this field.” All of this comes despite “US restrictions on the country’s access to advanced chips and chipmaking technologies.”
Tags: Access, Advanced, AI, China, Chips, Competency, Lagging, Memory, Restrictions, Semiconductor technology, South Korea, Surpassed, U.S.
Market Watch (October 1)
“A tiny mining town in western North Carolina was among those battered by Hurricane Helene — and the damage could have serious implications for the massive tech-industry supply chain that relies on it.” Two mines in Spruce Pine account for about 80–90% of the “high-purity quartz used in semiconductor manufacturing.” Most foundries carry a several month inventory, but if repairs take longer it “could lead to supply-chain bottlenecks and temporary price increases on chips and electronics.”
Tags: Battered, Bottlenecks, Chips, Damage, Electronics, Foundries, Hurricane Helene, Implications, Inventory, Mining, North Carolina, Quartz, Repairs, Semiconductors, Serious, Supply chain, Tech industry
Financial Times (December 10)
“The world’s leading semiconductor companies are racing to make so-called “2 nanometre” processor chips that will power the next generation of smartphones, data centres and artificial intelligence.” While TSMC “remains the analysts’ favourite to maintain its global supremacy in the sector… Samsung Electronics and Intel have identified the industry’s next leap forward as a chance to close the gap.”
Tags: 2 nanometre, AI, Chips, Data centres, Gap, Intel, Leading, Next-generation, Processor, Samsung, Semiconductor, Smartphones, Supremacy, TSMC
Reuters (November 16)
“Restructuring a restructuring isn’t good news. Alibaba scrapped the spinoff of its prized cloud computing business, blaming U.S. curbs on advanced chips,” causing its shares over 10% lower. “The U-turn dashes market expectations of stability among technology companies after the end of Beijing’s years-long regulatory crackdown. The country’s weak economy and bad geopolitics mean the sector hasn’t yet hit a bottom.”
Tags: Alibaba, Beijing, China, Chips, Cloud computing, Economy, Geopolitics, Market expectations, Regulatory crackdown, Restructuring, Shares, Spinoff, Stability, Technology, U.S.
The Economist (January 23)
“Today about a trillion chips are made a year, or 128 for every person on the planet.” With uses burgeoning in applications from EVs to AI, “demand will soar further,” especially as IoT connects machines and other things. In contrast, the industry is experiencing profound consolidation. As chip generations become more challenging and costly, “the number of manufacturers at the industry’s cutting-edge has fallen from over 25 in 2000 to three.” The “grueling 60-year struggle for supremacy is nearing its end.”
Tags: AI, Applications, Burgeoning, Challenging, Chips, Consolidation, Costly, Cutting edge, Demand, EVs, Generations, Grueling, IoT, Manufacturers, Struggle, Supremacy
Bloomberg (April 28)
“For years, technologists have been talking about smarter cars packed with sensors, chips and supercomputers that can replace human drivers.That was enough to get investors excited about the future of automotive semiconductors.” As earnings reports are revealing, however, there is “one slight flaw in the plan: People need to actually buy cars.”
Tags: Automotive, Cars, Chips, Drivers, Earnings, Investors, Semiconductors, Sensors, Supercomputers, Technologists
