Business, Financial & Legal

Apple is bleeding out some of its highest-level C-suite staffers in something that's being described as a "rebellion" with four key executives announcing they were leaving the iPhone giant in the last 72 hours... but the exodus might not be over yet.

Earlier this week, Apple's AI czar, John Giannandrea, was terminated on Monday and replaced with Amar Subramanya from Microsoft. Just a couple of days later, Apple's UI design boss, Alan Dye, was poached by Meta on Wednesday. Dye had been working on UI design at Apple since 2015, working on iconic designs including the iPhone X, watchOS, and the pill-shaped Dynamic Island on the last few iPhones.

Dye was the lead behind Liquid Glass for iOS 26, and the dedicated interface for the Vision Pro headset that computes spatial interactions. The C-suite exodus for Apple didn't stop, with the company announcing its general counsel, Kat Adams, and its vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, Lisa Jackson, are leaving the company soon.

Micron has just announced suddenly that it is closing its Crucial consumer SSD and RAM business, as it is pushing all-in for AI, in the middle of the crazy-expensive RAM crisis.

In a press release, the US-based memory company -- only one of three major DRAM manufacturers between Samsung and SK hynix -- has said that it will continue shipments of its Crucial consumer products into the channel until the end of Q2 2026. After that, Micron will work with its partners and customers through the transition, providing continued warranty service and support for Crucial-branded products.

Sumit Sadana, EVP and Chief Business Officer at Micron Technology, said: "The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage. Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments".

TSMC accused its former Senior Vice President, and now the Executive Vice President at Intel of stealing trade secrets after they departed from the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer in October.

TSMC filed a lawsuit in Taiwan's Intellectual Property and Commercial Court against Wei-Jen Lo, a former TSMC employee who worked at the semiconductor manufacturer for 21 years and, before that, at Intel for 18 years. Lo has since returned to Intel, joining the company in October, and now TSMC is accusing its former staffer of leaking trade secrets and confidential information to its direct competitor.

Intel has since responded to the allegations in an emailed statement, writing, "Based on everything we know, we have no reason to believe there is any merit to the allegations involving Mr Lo." Additionally, Intel pointed to its policies and controls it has in place that strictly prohibit the use or transfer of any third-party confidential information or intellectual property, and stated, "We take these commitments seriously."

ASML has just opened up its first training facility on US soil, with the new facility in Phoenix, Arizona, set to train thousands of engineers on how to use their industry-leading EUV machines.

Right now, US semiconductor investments are growing by the week with the likes of TSMC opening up semiconductor facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as Intel and Samsung with their foundry operations on US soil. However, there aren't enough US-based workers in the R&D divisions of these companies to get them trained up on how to use ASML's leading High-NA EUV lithography machines.

In a new report from Reuters, the outlet reports that the Netherlands-based company is opening a technical training center in Arizona, which will be training over 1000 engineers each year, and will become one of the core tenets of the US semiconductor industry.

Intel has secured TSMC's former Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy Development, Wei-Jen Lo, in a shock move in the semiconductor industry, with the latest reports that Intel is now gunning for big US tech companies like NVIDIA, Tesla, Microsoft, and Qualcomm as new advanced packaging customers.

In a fresh report from DigiTimes, we're hearing that Intel will be relying on Wei-Jen Lo who has experience in both Intel and TSMC wafer manufacturing R&D and management, to handle orders from US clients at TSMC's new Arizona semiconductor fab and related advanced packaging work for Intel.

This move is expected to include orders from Microsoft and Tesla in the short term, and then NVIDIA and Qualcomm in the future, ensuring a "smooth transition between the front-end and back-end". Wei-Jen Lo's expertise in managing the wafer fab and equipment supply chain will be used to "rapidly" improve yields and efficiency for Intel Foundry.

NVIDIA has just posted its Q3 FY26 financial results, with the company pulling in a record $57 billion in revenue, and projecting to hit an even bigger $65 billion in Q4 FY2026.

During the earnings call, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said that the company is seeing "record-level" demand for Blackwell AI systems, adding: "Blackwell sales are off the charts, and cloud GPUs are sold out. Compute demand keeps accelerating and compounding across training and inference -- each growing exponentially. We've entered the virtuous cycle of AI. The AI ecosystem is scaling fast -- with more new foundation model makers, more AI startups, across more industries, and in more countries. AI is going everywhere, doing everything, all at once".

One of the big questions that NVIDIA was asked was for its upcoming quarters, and whether the company would meet the $500 billion projection that Jensen said recently at GTC Washington 2025.

SK hynix has just mega-boosted its investment plans for its Yongin semiconductor cluster, where initially proposing an $85 billion investment, expanding that to a whopping $410 billion investment thanks to unstoppable DRAM chip and AI demand.

In a new report from Korea JoongAng Daily, the outlet reports that a meeting was held over the weekend with South Korean president Lee Jae Myung, and the leaders of major South Korean conglomerates including SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who said SK hynix plans to increase its investment into the Yongin semiconductor cluster in South Korea, from an initially proposed 128 trillion won ($85.5 billion USD) to a gigantic 600 trillion won ($410 billion USD) in Yongin alone.

Chey said during Sunday's televised meeting: "The amount of investment continues to change, following the growing demand for memory chips and upgrades of the manufacturing process. While it is difficult to estimate the exact amount, around 600 trillion won will be invested in Yongin alone".

Sony has revealed the total number of PlayStation 5 units it has sold since the console launched in November 2020.

The PlayStation-maker revealed the statistic for the console in its latest financial report, stating it has sold 84.3 million units globally and has moved 3.9 million over the past three months, a 0.1% increase from the previous fiscal year. As for how those numbers line up with the competition, the Xbox 360 sold 84 million units, and so far, the Xbox One has sold 53 million units, with the Xbox One figure last reported in 2023, suggesting the number is likely far higher.

The report also revealed some other interesting statistics, such as the success of Ghost of Tsushima, which moved 3.3 million units since it launched in October. Notably, PlayStation Online has more than 119 million monthly users. Ultimately, Sony is likely quite happy with the PlayStation 5's overall performance, especially given the console's launch during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to shipment delays and stock shortages.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is enjoying the sights, the food, and the relationships in Taiwan with key suppliers, with a huge focus on TSMC, where he told local reporters that Elon Musk's ambitious plans of building a semiconductor fab isn't easy, and that doing what TSMC does for a living is "extremely hard".

Jensen has been in Taiwan for a few days now, asking TSMC to boost its 3nm process node production by 50% to allocate more silicon for NVIDIA's mega-successful Blackwell GPUs, including the B200 and new B300 "Blackwell Ultra" AI GPUs.

Reporters on the ground in Taiwan asked why Jensen was in Taiwan, to which he replied: "why am I back? Well, business is very strong. So, I came back to encourage my TSMC friends (to work hard)... business is going very, very strong and I'm here to encourage TSMC. They're doing a very good job for us and I'm here to thank them for all the hard work they're doing".

Intel is accusing a former employee who worked for the company for 10 years of stealing thousands of documents, but only after he was fired in July 2025, with many of them classified as "Top Secret".

In a new report from OregonLive, the outlet writes that former Intel employee Jinfeng Luo, who lived in Seattle, worked for the company as a software developer, starting in 2013, according to a lawsuit that Intel filed against him in a Washington federal court last week.

Intel says that it notified Luo of his pending dismissal on July 7, warning him that his employment would be terminated on July 31. Intel hasn't explained the exact reason behind Luo being fired, but it could've been because the company laid off over 15,000 workers last summer.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang attended a TSMC sporting event in Taiwan, where he said that "without TSMC, there would be no NVIDIA today", praising TSMC as the "pride of Taiwan and the world".

Jensen attended Taiwan's massive sporting event, where he praised TSMC and said without them, there would be "no NVIDIA today". He didn't just praise TSMC, but also its executives, workers, and professionals that are involved in helping NVIDIA meet its massive semiconductor demands.

Jensen was visiting TSMC to secure more Blackwell chip wafers, as it is continuing to see insatiable demand for its current GPUs -- Blackwell B200 and B300 -- while Rubin is in the ovens and being prepared for a 2026 release. NVIDIA has asked TSMC to allocate additional chip production capacity, with NVIDIA expected to be the primary customer of TSMC's current 3nm process node, securing around 30% of total production.

TSMC is continuing to raise the price of the silicon it makes in 2026, with Apple's entire fleet of Apple Silicon to be more expensive, as TSMC costs in making its 2nm node process, and its overall tight capacity forcing the move.

The rumor started on the Naver platform, known as "Yeux1122's Blog" which now reports that TSMC has informed its major clients -- including Apple -- that there are imminent price hikes for sub-5nm advanced chip fabrication processes. We are told to expect price increases of between 5-10%, with the new prices to take effect in 2026.

Most Apple Silicon will be more expensive to make, with the Apple A16, A17, A18, A19, M3, M4, and M5 chips all being fabbed on TSMC's sub-5nm process nodes. It was only a couple of months ago in September 2025 that the China Times reported that Apple's next-generation A20 processor, which will be fabbed on TSMC's bleeding-edge 2nm process node and inside of the next-gen iPhone 18, will be one of the most expensive chips to ever power an iPhone.

AMD has announced its Q3 2025 earnings with a record $9.2 billion in revenue, but its Client and Gaming segment reported $4 billion in revenue, which is up 73% year-over-year.

The company's Data Center segment revenue was $4.3 billion, up 22% year-over-year thanks to strong demand for AMD's new 5th Gen EPYC processors and AMD Instinct MI350 series AI GPUs. However, AMD's Client and Gaming segment revenue was $4 billion, up 73% year-over-year, with client revenue at a record $2.8 billion, up 46% year-over-year, mostly thanks to record sales of Ryzen processors.

Gaming revenue was $1.3 billion, up an even stronger 181% year-over-year, driven by higher semi-custom revenue (console chips) as well as "strong demand" for Radeon RX series GPUs. Impressive, considering that its Q2 2024 earnings report saw a 59% drop in gaming revenue, but now it's 181% higher than last year, with more on that story in the link above.

Snap and Perplexity AI have signed a $400 million deal to integrate the AI directly into Snapchat to introduce a new search engine to Snapchat users.

The deal was announced during Snap's third-quarter earnings, with the company explaining that Perplexity will pay Snap $400 million for the integration into Snapchat. Notably, Perplexity will be integrated directly into Snapchat's "chat" interface, enabling users to ask questions and receive clear conversational answers.

According to Snap, users can expect Perplexity to be successfully integrated into Snapchat in "early 2026," and that Perplexity will "begin contributing" to the bottom line also in 2026.

A lawsuit filed in California District Court on Sunday alleges Spotify streaming fraud is taking place at a "mass scale," and that one artist in particular has benefited from "billions" of fake streams.

The lawsuit names rapper Eric Dwayne Collins, "RBX," the cousin of Snoop Dogg, as the lead plaintiff and Spotify as the defendant. The class-action lawsuit alleges that under Spotify's watchful eye, billions of fraudulent streams are generated from fake sources, such as bots or other illegal methods. The suit states this streaming fraud "causes massive financial harm to legitimate artists, songwriters, producers, and other rightsholders."

For those who don't know how Spotify pays artists on its platform, streaming royalties are paid out through what is called a "streamshare" model, which involves all subscription and ad money placed into a big pool. That money is then divided up and paid out to artists based on the total number of streams their music receives.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has been enjoying his time in South Korea, enjoying some Korean fried chicken with his "executive friends" from Samsung and Hyundai.

Jensen delivered an important keynote at the APEC summit, where he met with Samsung chairman Lee Jae-yong, and the president of Hyundai Motors, Chung Eui-sun. After the important stuff was over, the executives were spotted in casual clothing, enjoying some Korean fried chicken, what looks like some mozzarella sticks, and some beer at a South Korean restaurant.

This year's APEC summit was an important one, with President Trump meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, which is the reason Jensen was in South Korea, in support of the US. After the business side of things, the NVIDIA CEO was hanging out in South Korea talking to the public, and enjoying his dinner with his executive friends.

A recent report by The Guardian claimed Google and Amazon agreed to demands by the Israeli government in order to ink the Project Nimbus deal worth $1.2 billion, and one of those demands was allegedly a "secret code" the companies were required to use to inform the Israeli government when its data, stored on Google and Amazon services, was being handed over to foreign countries as part of court orders or investigations by local authorities.

The Guardian report cited leaked documents about the Project Nimbus deal and claimed both Google and Amazon agreed to these terms with the Israeli government, and this secret code was called the "winking mechanism". For those who don't know, companies such as Google and Amazon are commonly requested to hand over data on individuals by authorities of various countries, and typically, the companies are gagged by local courts from informing the individual that their data is now with the authorities.

To get around this, The Guardian report claims leaked documents revealed a "winking mechanism" was devised by the Israeli government so Amazon and Google could inform it that its data, which was hosted on the company's servers, was now in the hands of authorities. The alleged code was in the form of payments to the Israeli government with a corresponding dialing code. For example, if US authorities asked Google or Amazon to hand over data, either company would send 1,000 shekels, as the US has a dialing code of +1.

A new report has claimed Amazon and Google agreed to use a secret code with the Israeli government called the "winking mechanism" when obfuscating legal obligations in countries around the world.

The Guardian has cited leaked documents between Google, Amazon, and the Israeli government that were part of the $1.2 billion cloud-computing deal in 2021, with the publication writing that Israel was concerned that, as the companies moved data through global corporate cloud networks, the data could end up in the hands of foreign authorities.

Global corporations controlling the routing of data and the storage regularly comply with laws that compel the holders of the data to hand over information regarding specific persons of interest, and typically, the companies are gagged by authorities to prevent them from informing the individual that their data has been handed over to authorities. However, according to The Guardian report, Israel demanded a workaround for this, and it involved the creation of a secret warning system.

NVIDIA has become the first publicly traded company on Earth to reach a $5 trillion valuation, and it was only three months ago that it was worth $4 trillion.

According to data provided by the World Bank, the value of NVIDIA exceeds the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of every country on Earth besides the United States and China, following the company's share price on Wednesday opening up by more than 3%. NVIDIA's skyrocketing valuation can be attributed to the booming AI market, with tech companies around the world looking to invest as much as possible into the emerging software, and to achieve a sophisticated AI, companies need the infrastructure to operate it. That is where NVIDIA comes in.

NVIDIA's AI GPUs have become such a sought-after product that they have become the subject of international trade restrictions, geopolitical footballs between competing countries, and even spawned a black market where the GPUs are banned from being sold. All of this is part of the greater race between countries and companies to create the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), the world's most sophisticated AI software.

Samsung Foundry is slowly tightening its grip on the semiconductor market against foundry leader TSMC with major contract wins from tech giants like Apple, NVIDIA, and Tesla.

In a new report from the Korea Herald, the outlet has looked at some of the recent deals Samsung Foundry has inked, which is helping it reduce its semiconductor foundry losses, and better position the company to be a direct competitor to TSMC.

An industry official said: "As foundry orders have been heavily concentrated in TSMC, client firms are now compelled to diversify their supply chains to reduce risks. Since Samsung Electronics is the only company besides TSMC capable of producing advanced chips at the 2-nanometer level, more business opportunities are likely to follow".