Business, Financial & Legal - Page 14

Jim Keller has weighed in on the messy Intel situation, with the legendary chip expert posting on X that he thinks "a great intel is worth $1 trillion".

In a new post on X, Keller said: "you build value by having a great goal and a team that loves working to the goal. Intel built the fastest CPUs on the best process. This is not unlocking shareholder value, it's a fire sale". Pierre Ferragu replied to Keller, saying: "Jim - there a time for dreaming big and a time for rationalizing; preparing ground for the next big thing? Couldn't Intel's chip join the well run Broadcom family, Altera and Mobileye live their lives and Intel foundries become a national asset we protect and turn around?"

Keller replied, saying: "I think a great Intel is worth $1 trillion. Seems a little careless to throw it away".

As reported by Yahoo Finance, NVIDIA has recovered 90% of its market losses, rebounding sharply after the turmoil caused by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.

DeepSeek's low-cost R1 model sent shockwaves through the global tech sector, triggering a historic selloff that erased nearly $600 billion from NVIDIA's market capitalization in a single day-the largest one-day loss in stock market history. The broader tech sector shed an estimated $1 trillion, while NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang saw his net worth decline by $18 billion overnight.

Now, NVIDIA shares have rebounded to $140 USD, marking a remarkable turnaround from the late-January collapse. While still below the all-time high of $153.13 recorded on January 7, the swift recovery highlights investor confidence in the company's long-term prospects.

TSMC is rumored to be working on acquiring a 20% stake in Intel's wafer foundry services division (IFS) with US giants Qualcomm and Broadcom also investing in the deal to help Intel "get out of the trough".

In a new report from UDN, we're hearing that the supply chain and foreign media are reporting that the main goal of the Trump administration is to increase Intel's wafer manufacturing capacity through TSMC in order to strengthen "Made in America" from President Trump. The US hopes to see TSMC holding a 20% stake in IFS (Intel Foundry Services) through a technology valuation or an actual cash investment.

Qualcomm and Broadcom would be paying for production capacity from Intel's semiconductor fabs, ensuring smooth production of their high-end chips and Made in the USA, also increasing IFS's capacity utilization. UDN continues, reporting that the companies also plan on taking advantage of President Trump's semiconductor tariffs, leveraging the advantages of American companies as landlords and local manufacturing on US soil.

TSMC chairman and CEO Dr. C.C. Wei ruled out acquiring Intel's semiconductor facilities in the US, revealed during the company's Q3 2024 earnings call, and when asked again in January 2025, he refused to comment.

Fast-forward a couple of months and President Trump is back in the White House, and swirling reports of President Trump not supporting US chip factories being owned by foreign entities (like TSMC) and that it is "unlikely" the Trump administration would support a foreign company operating Intel's facilities.

US Vice President JD Vance attended the recent AI Action Summit in Paris where he said that the Trump administration "will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the US with American design and manufactured chips".

TSMC is reportedly planning the construction of a 3rd fab in Arizona by mid-2025, an entire year earlier than planned, and will invite top US officials to a ground-breaking ceremony as early as June 2025.

TSMC is also considering a new CoWoS advanced packaging plant for the US, with TSMC CEO C.C. Wei discussing these decisions with Arizona semiconductor fab executives after its board meeting on Wednesday on US soil: the first time TSMC has hosted a board meeting in the US in its 37-year history.

Construction of TSMC's second fab in Arizona is well underway, with the main fab building completed and clean room installations are now on their way. Equipment move-in is penciled in for the end of Q1 2026, which means we can expect risk production by the end of 2026.

President Trump might not support US chip factories owned by Intel being operated by foreign entities like TSMC, according to White House officials.

The new comments were a response to a Bloomberg report that TSMC would take a controlling stake in Intel's factories at the request of President Trump, with White House officials telling Reuters that the Trump administration supports foreign companies investing and building in the US, but it is "unlikely" to support a foreign company from operating Intel's factories.

Intel has been struggling for years, but there are multiple layers to this situation which analyst Patrick Moorhead beautifully breaks down in a post on X. He said that "having just manufacturing on US soil solves nothing for national security; the IP needs to be on US soil, too. If China attacks Taiwan, they have everything, and Arizona has nothing, and never gets beyond current node".

Ubisoft has released its financial report for the nine months ending December 31, 2024, and it shows a steady decline across the board for the once esteemed company.

Ubisoft was a company once known for its big AAA hits, but it has unfortunately slowly fallen from grace, and the company's recent financial results, along with its stock price, directly reflect that. For the nine months ending December 31, 2024, Ubisoft's revenue was €990 million ($1.07 billion USD), which was down 31.4% year-on-year. Net bookings for the company over that period were down 34.8% and accounted for €944 million ($1.02 billion USD), along with digital net bookings being down 33.8%, or €784 million ($850 million USD). Lastly, back-catalogue net bookings were down 27.7% at €762.3 million ($827 million USD).

Despite these significant declines, GamesIndustry.biz reports Ubisoft remains optimistic about its performance for the next quarter, as it will have released Assassin's Creed: Shadows on March 20, and according to Ubisoft CFO Frederick Duguet, pre-sales for the title are "tracking solidly" and are in-line with Assassin's Creed Odyssey - one of Ubisoft's most successful releases ranking second in terms of revenue behind Valhalla, which was the first Assassin's Creed game to pull in $1 billion in revenue.

President Trump is putting pressure on TSMC after saying he would have semiconductor tariffs, accusing TSMC of stealing the United States' chip business.

President Trump told reporters at The White House: "Right now, everything is made in Taiwan practically. Almost all of it, a little bit in South Korea. But everything, almost all of it is made in Taiwan. Taiwan took our chip business away. We had Intel, we had these great companies that did so well. It was taken from us. And we want that business back. We want it back in the United States. If they don't bring it back, we're not going to be very happy".

A TSMC spokesperson said: "We don't break down [capital expenditures] by market but some will apply to Arizona, where the second of three planned fabs is currently under construction".

The US government has reportedly provided TSMC with multiple alternatives on how the company can move forward with its facilities in the United States, an option of which includes co-existing with Intel as a foundry business.

President Trump has been clear that his administration won't allow TSMC to go away that easily, pushing his "Made in USA" initiative. In a new post from @Jukanlosreve and a report from DigiTimes, we're learning that the US government has given TSMC three different alternatives on how Taiwan could ensure its presence in US markets.

This mostly includes promoting US semiconductor domestic production, and helping Intel from drowning. We only just reported that SMC is reportedly working on a new advanced packaging facility in the US, but the other alternatives include TSMC investing in Intel Foundry and could see a technology transfer occur, meaning that TSMC could lose its market dominance.

TSMC is reportedly working on developing a new advanced chip packaging plant in the US, joining its development of chip-making facilities on American soil.

President Trump's second term seems to be taking things to the next level for the United States, with TSMC working favorably to get semiconductor production from Taiwan and onto US soil. In a new report from the Financial Times, we're learning that under President Trump's decision to force chip tariffs on Taiwan, TSMC has eased on its stance towards its expansion into the US, and is now reportedly working on advanced chip packaging facility in the US, which would help ease the effects of chip tariffs.

President Trump has never been a fan of Taiwan setting up factotres in the US, and didn't like the CHIPS Act saying that it is like "gifting out" money to Taiwan. In a recent House Republican discussion, President Trump reiterated his plans to impose chip tariffs on Taiwan, proposing high taxations on chipmakers.

Elon Musk has taken to his personal X account to warn he has discovered the the level of fraudulent federal entitlements exceeds the combined sum of every private scam anyone has ever heard of.

The post from Elon Musk has undoubtedly kicked off several alarm bells within the US government as the Tesla and SpaceX CEO continues to audit the US government books with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to Musk, he is "100% certain" that the magnitude of the fraudulent federal entitlements, which include services such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, and others, completely outweighs the combined sum "of every private scam you've ever heard by FAR."

The alarming post from Musk comes after the billionaire took to his X account on February 8 to share that he was informed there is currently more than $100 billion per year of entitlements distributed out to people with no Social Security Number or "even a temporary ID number." For those who don't know, individuals must have a Social Security Number in order to work, collect Social Security Benefits, and officially receive government assistance, according to the Social Security Administration website, per Newsweek.

Andural Industries is taking over the US Army's Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program, with the Palmer Luckey-led defense contractor waiting for approval from the Department of Defense.

Palmer Luckey is the founder of Oculus VR which was purchased by Facebook (before it came Meta, and the Oculus Rift now the Quest VR family of headsets) and is the founder of Andural Industries. Luckey's company is taking control of the largest project of its kind in history, and for Palmer, "this announcement is deeply personal".

On a post on his own blog, Palmer explained: "Since my pre-Oculus days as a teenager who had the opportunity to do a tiny bit of work on the Army's BRAVEMIND project, I've believed there would be a headset on every soldier long before there is a headset on every civilian. Given that America loses more troops in training than combat, the Squad Immersive Virtual Trainer (SiVT) side of IVAS alone has the potential to save more lives than practically anything else we can imagine building".

Spotify Premium users have been taking the popular music-streaming apps official forums to complain they are hearing advertisements. Now Spotify has responded.

For those who don't know, Spotify Premium users pay for the service to not hear advertisements between the content they are listening to, along with other features such as the ability to download and listen to content offline. Unfortunately, many Premium users are reporting they are still receiving ads despite having active Premium subscriptions. Notably, the ads are being heard by Premium users across iOS, Android, and Spotify Web.

The response from Spotify isn't what some cynical Premium users may be thinking - Spotify is preparing to inject advertisements into the Premium subscription tier. Here's what a company representative responded within a thread, "Our tech teams are currently investigating reports of Premium users hearing ads." Judging from this response, we are able to assume the advertisements being heard by Premium users aren't deliberately placed there by Spotify and that the problem is instead a bug that engineers will soon squash.

In a recent interview, Bill Gates revealed an interesting piece of advice once given to him by the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, and it was a recommendation to indulge in recreational drugs.

In an interview with The Independent, Gates said the Apple founder once said to him that he wished he would have taken acid to improve his taste in designing Microsoft's products. Gates said he jokingly replied to Jobs, saying, "Look, I got the wrong batch." Gates further elaborated on the distinction between the two visionaries, saying that he understood the coding side of things when it came to the products, but Jobs helmed the marketing design aspects. Because of these differences, Gates said he didn't feel as if he was in competition with Jobs in these departments and more or less recognized each other strengths/weaknesses.

For those who don't know, Jobs was well-known for creating products with design and user interaction at the forefront, along with marketing them with his energic and passionate presentations. As for Gates, the Microsoft founder created products with an intense level of expertise and forward-thinking while also retaining a business-centered mindset. Notably, Jobs lacked technical knowledge, struggled with collaboration with others, and was renowned as a demanding and harsh leader. Gates fell short in being a charismatic public speaker, the product aesthetics and user experience.

Intel has suffered another blow after its CEO of Datacenter and AI announced his departure from the company and his adoption as the CEO and president of Nokia.

Justin Hotard took to his LinkedIn account to announce his department from the lead role at Intel's Datacenter and AI division, where Hotard was positioned for just over a year. Hotard thanked the team at Intel for their work in pushing and stabilizing the Datacenter and AI Business over the time he was at the company. Notably, Hotard was selected to join Intel in early 2024 after Sandra Rivera, Intel's former CEO of Datacenter and AI, stepped down to lead the Intel's Altera FPGA business.

As for Nokia, the company announced the transition of Hotard in a press release, stating that Hotard has more than 25 years worth of experience in the tech space, and that he will be taking on the role of President and Chief Executive Officer at Nokia. Hotard will begin his role at the company on April 1, 2025.

TSMC will be hosting a board meeting in the United States for the first time in its 37-year history, expected to discuss geopolitics including US tariffs, Q1 2025 capital budget, bond issuance, and more between February 11-12.

In a new report from UDN, we're learning that TSMC is expected to confirm its plans for mass production at its new fab in Arizona, or even the construction of its first advanced packaging plant. TSMC's upcoming 4th fab is expected to focus on 1.6nm production, with TSMC's Arizona Mega Fab reportedly having the space for P4-P6 fabs, in addicion to Fab 21 with its P1-P3 plants.

TSMC has over $65 billion invested into its Arizona, USA plant at Fab 1 (4nm and in production), Fab 2 (planned for 2028 operations), and Fab 3 (aimed at 2nm or A16, planned for 2030) with the possible acceleration for Fab 2 and Fab 3 according to the latest reports.

TSMC plans to increase its investments into its fabs in Arizona, USA as part of its cooperation in the new "manufacture in USA" policy pushed by President Trump.

In a new report from Ctee, we're learning that TSMC has recently said: "TSMC is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations, including applicable export control regulations". TSMC is reportedly planning to increase its investments in its Arizona plant, which should see expansions to its current 3 wafer fabs on US soil.

TSMC's expansive site at Arizona covers an area roughly 445 hectares in size, with more room to grow as it expands production capacity. Not only that, but the supply chain ecosystem for advanced processes is also being gradually completed during the plant construction process, with the speed of the plant construction process set to be sped up in the near future.

Super Bowl 2025 is here and with it we have the infamous product spots and movie trailers, with the likes of the new Captain America: Brave New World, Jurassic World Rebirth, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, and more shown off. Check them all out below:

We'll start with the product ad featuring celebrities endorsing the biggest brands on the planet, with some rather cool and out-there ads to sell you new products in 2025. We have Carl's Jr, Ritz Crackers, Ram Trucks, Bosch, Totino's, DoorDash, Ray-Ban, Uber Eats, Little Caesers Pizza, Oikos, Hellmann's, Mountain Dew, Sketchers, Pringles, Reese's, Instacart, Squarespace, NerdWallet, and Coffee Mate with trailers at Super Bowl 2025.

Now, onto the movie trailers... where we get some slightly deeper, and sometimes some far longer movie trailers to some of the biggest movies hitting theaters this year. We get a better look at Marvel's Thunderbolts* (yeah, the astericks is meant to be there), as well as Captain America: Brave New World (which opens on February 14).

Elon Musk is rumored to be spending $40 million of his own money on 5 commercials during one of the most-watched events in the world -- the Superbowl -- highlighting US government waste that DOGE has found.

There have been a few posts and videos that I've seen floating around on X and TikTok saying that the SpaceX and Tesla boss has spent $40 million on Superbowl commercials that would highlight discoveries made by DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) through USAID, and President Trump's recent mention that he's tasked Elon with auditing the Pentagon.

It would be nice to see Elon Musk himself confirm that he has personally spent $40M on advertising DOGE's findings during the Superbowl, as it would put US government waste into the eyeballs of hundreds of millions of Americans.

The Chinese government responded to President Trump's newly implemented import tariffs against China by launching an antitrust investigation into Google.

China has responded to the 10% tariff imposed by US President Donald Trump on imports from China, and according to reports, China has responded with a flurry of retaliation measures, with one including a new antitrust probe into Google. The new investigation is looking into whether Google has violated Chinese antitrust laws, and the investigation was announced only minutes after President Trump implemented the 10% trade tariff.

Notably, Google is quite familiar with antitrust investigation processes as the company has endured probes from the European Union, the UK, and even the US over its business practices. Additional retaliatory measures from China include the newly announced 15% import tariff on US coal and natural gas, along with a 10% tax on oil, agriculture equipment, and large-displacement automobiles.