Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 1

We're counting down the hours into Computex 2024, where NVIDIA will be showing off a bunch of the coolest things we can imagine... and now, their NVLink dominance is being fought against.

The interconnect market is a hot one for servers right now, especially in the age of AI. We've now got technology giants including Intel, AMD, Broadcom, Cisco, Google, HPE, Meta, and Microsoft have formed an Ultra Accelerator Promotor Group that focuses on developing an AI-focused interconnect system specifically aimed at data centers.

The group has announced its lofty intentions with UALink (Ultra Accelerator Link) which aims to connect accelerators through an open -- non NVIDIA exclusive -- protocol.

Samsung Foundry is expected to unveil plans for its cutting-edge 1nm process node in July, with mass production expected to kick off in 2026.

The South Korean giant has plans to unveil its next-gen 1nm process node schedule at the Foundry Forum & SAFE Forum 2024, which will be held in the US between June 12-13, according to Korean media. It wasn't too long ago that Samsung bumped up its 1nm production timeline from 2027 to 2026, with the 2nm "SF2" process debuting in 2025, we still don't know much about it... for now.

Samsung looks to be ahead of its semiconductor competitors, with Intel planning to mass produce its new Intel 10A (1nm) process in 2028, while TSMC plans its next-gen 1nm process node for 2030. If Samsung can nail this, then the company would be many years ahead of its competitors. But now, we need to see performance, quality, great yields, and most of all... customers flocking to the new node (AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Apple, etc).

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang is in Taiwan once again, meeting with TSMC founder Morris Chang, as well as Quanta and MediaTek executives for dinner ahead of Computex 2024 next week.

The NVIDIA and TSMC founders enjoyed their dinner, leaving the restaurant and talking to the media, with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang responding to fans' requests for autographs, with media outlet CNA reporting he showed his "usual friendly attitude".

Jensen hanging out with TSMC founder Morris Chang is a big deal, but we know the relationship between NVIDIA and TSMC is strong. NVIDIA has its current-gen GeForce RTX 40 series, its upcoming Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 series cards made at TSMC, and its entire fleet of H100, H200, B100, B200 AI GPUs (and everything in between) fabbed at TSMC.

NVIDIA is planning its second R&D center in Taiwan, with new reports suggesting that Team Green is looking at the southern city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The new R&D center will be partly financed by the Taiwanese government and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and its "Big+ Project" subsidies. In a new report from Ctee, we're learning that with AI leading the charge, the Ministry of Economic Affairs' "Leading Enterprise R&D Deepening Plan" (aka Big+) will encourage overseas tech companies to set up forward-looking R&D centers in Taiwan.

NVIDIA was first with the Big+ funding, setting up the first AI innovation R&D center in Neihu, Taipei, then completing its supercomputer (HPC) at the NVIDIA building in Kaohsiung Software Park towards the end of 2023, with the company providing part of the computing power for new applications and the development of AI-powered products and services.

AMD will be spending over 5 billion yuan ($155 million USD or so) on a second R&D center in Taiwan, with both Tainan and Kaohsiung "actively seeking" AMD's favor to settle down.

In a new report from news outlet UDN, AMD CEO Lisa Su will visit Tainan next week, as well as visiting Nanke and Sharon to look for suitable places for its new R&D center. It's not just AMD that is eyeing off another R&D center in Taiwan, with GPU competitor NVIDIA also building a new R&D center in the country.

Both companies have applied to the Ministry of Economic Affairs' and its "Big+ Project" subsidy, with local governments rubbing their hands together with glee that NVIDIA and AMD are opening up new R&D centers in the country, especially in the southern parts of Taiwan.

A Chinese national who worked for SK hynix is currently on trial for allegedly stealing key semiconductor technology from the South Korean memory giant, giving it to Chinese company Huawei.

In the report, The Korea Times reports that the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police that a woman in her 30s, a Chinese national, was sent to prosecutors last month on the suspicion of violating the Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology.

The Chinese national who worked for SK hynix was hired all the way back in 2013, working in the department that handled analyzing defects in semiconductor designs. From 2020 to 2022, she was involved with consultations with business-to-business clients in CHina, according to the police agency.

Activision has solidified itself with another victory in an ongoing legal battle against a creator of Call of Duty cheats, which it then sold on a website.

The company sued EngineOwning back in 2022 and since then has been engaged in a legal battle over the cheats the entity made and then sold on its website. Notably, District Judge Michael Fitzgerald ordered several defendants to pay Activision, including EngineOwning, which was ordered to pay $14,465,600 for creating and distributing Call of Duty cheats. Furthermore, the cheat maker was ordered to give its website to Activision, stop creating cheats, stop selling cheats, and pay nearly $300,000 in attorney fees to Activision.

Notably, Activision has already won $3 million in a two settlements from Ignacio Gayduchenko and Manuel Santiago, who are reportedly involved with EngineOwning. As for the most recent orders, the court filings name the founders of EngineOwning, Valetin Rick, and Leon Risch, along with several others that were also involved in the operation.

Micron Technology is reportedly looking to build a new factory to produce DRAM chips in the Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, and will be operational by 2027 at the earliest.

In a new report from UDN, the total investment that Micron is looking at is between 600 billion and 800 billion yen (around $5.1 billion USD or so). The new DRAM factory will start construction in early 2026, with Micron to install new extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines.

The Japanese government is also stepping up, approving 192 billion yen ($1.3 billion) in subsidies to support the production of Micron's next-generation DRAM chips at its Hiroshima plant. The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry said in 2023 that the funding would help Micron introduce ASML's leading EUV lithography machines. This is the key to driving generative AI, data centers, and self-driving technologies of the future.

TSMC has been slow to adopt ASML's latest High-NA EUV lithography machines, but it seems that has changed in the last few days with TSMC CEO C.C. Wei skipping his own event, to fly to the Netherlands to meet with ASML to discuss securing equipment.

In a new report from Business Korea, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei skipped the TSMC Technology Symposium 2024 held in Taipei, Taiwan, to visit ASML's headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and TRUMPF, an industrial laser specialist company located in Ditzingen, Germany.

TSMC didn't make the media aware of where its CEO was, who was on a secret trip, but the secret was revealed through ASML CEO Christopher Fuke, and TRUMPF CEO Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller, and their respective social media accounts.

ASML is rumored to have signed a contract to lease a commercial office in North Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and has officially entered Kaohsiung, to help the installation of TSMC's new 2nm plant in Kaohsiung.

ASML is the world's largest wafer lithography equipment manufacturer, with TSMC being the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, the two powers combined make for a force to be reckoned with... mostly against Samsung and Intel. ASML has four offices spread out in Taiwan right now, located in Hsinchu, Linkou, Taichung, and Tainan.

Linkou has a smart manufacturing center that is responsible for machine refurbishment and measurement equipment protection, while Tainan has an E-beam electron beam inspection equipment manufacturing center, and an EUV Global Training Center.