Business, Financial & Legal

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is patiently waiting for company investors to approve the $108.4 billion all-cash offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, following the announcement that Warner Bros. Discovery is being gutted and sold off in portions to Netflix.

Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that Netflix was acquiring many key parts of Warner Bros. Discovery for a healthy $82.7 billion. The announcement was made in December 2025, and only a few weeks later, Paramount Skydance made a competing offer of $108.4 billion.

The difference between the Netflix offer and the Paramount offer is that Netflix wants portions of Warner Bros. Discovery, while Paramount Skydance is willing to take the whole company. Warner Bros. rejected Paramount Skydance's offer, citing concerns with how the company would be able to fund the acquisition.

Samsung and SK Hynix are reportedly cutting NAND production to divert manufacturing capacity to more profitable avenues, such as DRAM.

The emergence of AI and the exponential power of the hardware fuelling demand from companies around the world for more powerful models is straining the global supply of specific components, with DRAM the most notable at the moment.

With a limited number of memory manufacturers and only a limited number of global suppliers, manufacturers are making more money selling HBM and DRAM in large quantities to customers such as NVIDIA and AMD, as these companies can outbid consumer-facing companies like Lenovo and Dell.

The UK and Bank of England are preparing for a potential financial crisis if the US government says we are not alone, and that UFOs, UAPs, USOs, and alien life are disclosed.

Former BoE analyst, Helen McCaw, has previously worked in financial security at the Bank of England, helping develop plans for theoretical economic crises, including the one now that she sees as a possibility in a full UFO and aliens disclosure scenario.

She wrote to Andrew Bailey, who is the Bank of England's governor, urging him to set out contingencies in case the Trump administration and the White House confirms the existence of alien life, reports The Times.

Malwarebytes, a very popular antivirus software company, has informed its users that it discovered a breach when it was performing a dark web check. Malwarebytes linked the breach to an Instagram API exposure that dates back to 2024.

According to reports, the discovery comes amid Instagram users reportedly receiving emails from Instagram requesting a password change. According to Malwarebytes, the leaked information, which includes email addresses, phone numbers, usernames, and more personal information, may result in more serious attacks taking place, such as phishing attempts, account takeovers, and other various scams.

Meta has yet to comment on the recent discovery, which has connected at least 17.5 million Instagram users with leaked information discovered on the dark web. It's currently unclear if the information has been sold to bad actors. In order to be completely safe, it's recommended you change your Instagram password to an encrypted password, and also turn on two-factor authentication if you haven't already.

NVIDIA has picked up Google marketing executive, and 10-year Google veteran Alison Wagonfeld to step into the role of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

Wagonfeld will be the first CMO at NVIDIA, and according to reports from Wall Street Journal, which spoke to a person familiar with the situation, Wagonfeld will be reporting directly to company CEO Jensen Huang, and that all members of the marketing and communications team will report to Wagonfeld once she begins her position in February.

The former Google employee announced the move to Team Green in a LinkedIn post, mentioning that she has been part of the Google Cloud project since it was merely a start-up in 2016, and that she has been part of it growing into a $60 billion run-rate business. With the explosion in AI, NVIDIA has positioned itself phenomenally to benefit off the demand for more advanced systems, as NVIDIA makes the most advanced and most efficient hardware to power artificial intelligence.

Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) division, responsible for the company's semiconductor business, will be paying performance-based bonuses of up to 100% of base salary.

Samsung's semiconductor competitiveness has increased greatly this year, with huge sales in HBM memory and securing important supply contracts with NVIDIA for next-gen HBM4 memory. Samsung recently announced the payment rate for the second half of 2026's "Target Achievement Incentive" (TAI)" was on its internal bulletin board on December 22, reports Korean outlet AJU news.

TAI is one of Samsung Electronics' internal performance-based bonus systems, with each division's performance evaluated once per year -- in the first half, and second half of the year -- and a differential payment of up to 100% monthly base salary is made, with the second-half TAI payment hitting Samsung staffers' accounts on December 24.

Warner Bros Discovery will be informing shareholders to reject the offer made by Paramount Skydance, which is more than the $72 billion deal that Warner Bros struck with Netflix.

Reports indicate that despite Paramount's $108.4 offer, Warner Bros will be telling its shareholders to reject the offer and go with Netflix, as Warner has multiple concerns with Paramount's bid, including how it would be financed, according to a report from the Financial Times.

For those who don't know, Warner Bros Discovery put itself up for sale in October, which garnered many expressions of interest, including a bid from Paramount. However, on December 5, Warner Bros Discovery announced it had agreed to sell its film and streaming businesses to Netflix, which prompted a new offer from Paramount for the whole company and its television networks.

Reddit has announced it will be challenging the Australian government's decision to ban popular social media platforms for under-16s and implement age verification restrictions on platforms.

Reddit has alleged that the ban and the restrictions that follow infringe on the platform's freedom of political discourse. For those who don't know, Australia recently implemented a social media ban for under-16s that requires the top social media apps to block access to their platform for those under that age, including current account holders. The ban went into effect on Wednesday.

In response to the ban, Reddit has filed a lawsuit in the Australian High Court against the regulator implementing the ban, writing the ban could prevent teenagers from engaging in political discussions years before they become voters, suppressing their freedoms. Reddit added that there is a large amount of content teenagers can view on its platform, and the new restrictions wouldn't have much impact anyway.

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.