Business, Financial & Legal - Page 15

AMD has reported $7.65 billion of revenue for Q4 2024, up 24% from last year, with net incoming hitting $482 million for the three-month period, which is down 28% from last year.

AMD had data center revenues of $3.9 billion which is up 69% from last year, thanks to the mega-success of its EPYC processors and Instinct AI accelerators, driven by the insatiable demand of AI hardware. For the year, AMD's data center segment revenue hit a record $12.6 billion, up an even more impressive 94% compared to 2024, thanks once again to EPYC and Instinct product lines.

There are now over 450 EPYC-powered platforms in the wild from major server OEMs and ODMs, including over 120 EPYC "Turin" CPU platforms into production in Q4 2024 from the likes of Cisco, Dell, HPE, Lenovo, Supermicro, and others.

Thanks to data center products, AI hardware, and Ryzen CPUs crushing it in the client space, AMD's Q4 2024 financial results saw its overall revenue grow to a record $7.7 billion. And for the full year 2024, AMD's revenue of $25.8 billion is a new record for the company. However, AMD's Gaming revenue, which includes Radeon products for PCs and chips for Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox consoles, fell by a massive 59% year-over-year for Q4 2024.

In addition, the reported Gaming revenue of $563 million is now a third of what it was for a similar financial period a few years ago. And with an operating income of $50 million for the quarter, this too is down year-over-year - pointing to slim margins for chips used in modern gaming consoles. For 2024, AMD's Gaming segment revenue of $2.6 billion was also down 58% compared to 2023.

The good news is that AMD's Gaming segment is profitable; however, it has become the smallest segment of the company's portfolio. Naturally, there's no mention of gaming in CEO Dr. Lisa Su's summary for the quarter or 2024 - the focus is placed on record Data Center profits driving the company's current success and future.

Taiwan will be supporting local companies that want to relocate to the United States, helping them find partners on US soil, according to the economy ministry, offering assistance following President Trump's new tariffs.

In a new report from Reuters, we're learning that Trump's new tariffs would see additional levies of 25% for goods imported from Mexico and Canada, with 10% tariffs on goods from China. They start this week, and now Taiwan -- with its companies being some of the key producers of technology products including semiconductors and electronic parts is vulnerable notes Reuters -- considering that many have factories in Mexico and China, as well as Trump's promised tariffs on foreign semiconductors.

Taiwan's economic ministry said in a statement that it would provide information for local companies that want to relocate, suggesting particular US states to invest in, the local laws, and help finding partners on US soil. Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute branches in the US will also actively promote research and development, and manufacturing cooperation between Taiwanese and US companies, too.

The Department of Justice could throw a co-founder of a prominent Call of Duty studio in prison for up to a year after he admitted to crashing a drone into a firefighting aircraft that was battling the Los Angeles wildfires.

According to a new press release by the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, Peter Tripp Akemann has agreed to plead guilty to one count of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft. Reports indicate Akemann, who is a co-founder of prominent Call of Duty studio Treyarch, was irresponsibly and recklessly flying a drone when it collided with a CL-415 Super Scooper, resulting in a 3-by-6-inch hole in its left wing and the eventual grounding of the aircraft.

The aircraft is capable of carrying up to 1,600 gallons of water and is considered to be one of the most effective methods of fighting wildfires. The Justice Department estimated the damages caused to the aircraft to cost "at least" $65,169, which didn't include the time the aircraft was grounded and not fighting fires that resulted in more property damage.

It was only a few days ago that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) department took control of a government computer system that resulted in officials being locked out.

The initial report came from Reuters that claimed senior officials at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) suddenly lost access to a critical government database that contains the personal data of millions of federal employees. The report stated the takeover of the database by DOGE members is part of the broader overhaul to reduce bureaucracy and implement cost-cutting strategies across the entire US government.

According to the unnamed officials who spoke to Reuters, one of the systems now under control by DOGE is the Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades, and length of service of government workers. OPM workers have raised security and oversight concerns since access to the database was revoked. Now, a new WIRED report has identified six individuals who play critical roles in DOGE and have been tasked by executive order with "modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity."

Apple posted its best financial quarter yet with Q1 2025 results blowing the industry out of the water, wth $124.3 billion in revenue, and over half of that is thanks to mega iPhone sales.

Apple announced its Q1 2025 financial results with a monster $124.3 billion in revenue, earning profits of $36.3 billion, compared to $119.6 billion revenue and $ 33.9 billion profits from the same period in 2024. Over 50% of Apple's earnings for Q1 2025 were thanks to iPhone sales.

The iPhone delivered $69.1 billion in revenue for Apple, accounting for 55.63% of its Q1 2025 revenue, with those numbers ever-so-slightly down from Q1 2024 where the iPhone made $69.7 billion in revenue. The new premium M4-powered iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air series were also great money makers, with the iPad division raking in $8.08 billion in Q1 2025, compared to $7 billion in Q1 2024.

TSMC is speeding up into its next-generation, cutting-edge 1nm process node production which is expected to kick off in 2030.

In a new report from the Taiwan Economic Daily, we're learning that TSMC is planning to continue its domination in the semiconductor industry with preparations for 1nm production lines at its new state-of-the-art facility in Taiwan. The report suggests that TSMC's new 1nm process node will be mass-produced at a dedicated fab in Tainan, Taiwan.

TSMC's bleeding-edge 1nm process node will be fabbed at the "Fab 25" facility, expected to produce new 12-inch wafers with 6 production lines. TSMC Is also reportedly planning to build new facilities for its upcoming 2nm and 1.4nm process nodes -- also in Tainan -- as Taiwan receives government incentives, helping the process along, as TSMC runs towards being a semiconductor-focused "Silicon Valley".

Senior officials at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have suddenly lost access to critical department databases, which is reportedly part of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plan to slash government spending through downsizing.

The report from Reuters cites two anonymous federal agents who told the publication that OPM officials were locked out of a database that contains the personal data of millions of federal employees. The report states that aides to Elon Musk initiated the lockout of the officials at OPM and that the movie is part of a broader government overhaul aimed at reducing bureaucracy and implementing cost-cutting strategies.

One of the systems is called the Enterprise Human Resources Integration, and it contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades, and length of service of government workers. According to the unnamed officials, OPM workers are still able to log on and access functions such as email, but they are no longer able to see the massive database that contains information on every federal worker. The unnamed officials said that since OPM employees have "no visibility" of the database, and that creating "great concern" for "real cybersecurity and hacking implications."

Mark Zuckerberg is tired of what he says behind closed doors at Meta eventually leaking to the public, which was revealed in leaked audio.

In a new report from 404 Media, it was revealed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is growing tired of what he says in internal meetings leaking, which is resulting in the CEO having to watch what he says during meetings as he doesn't want to diminish the value of what the company is trying to create. Zuckerberg is known for holding all-hands meetings in which Meta employees can respond to what Zuckerberg is discussing with their own questions. But due to the frequency of the contents of these meetings leaking, Meta has changed how the meetings work.

Instead of taking direct questions from staff Meta is now running a "poll" system where questions asked beforehand were voted on so the "main themes" of questions were addressed. As for what else Zuckerberg talked about during the all-hands meeting, the Meta CEO reiterated what is on the horizon for the company and how AI plays a pivotal role. Zuckerberg has previously stated that AI is going to replace many software engineers, and that open-source AI will soon overtake closed-source AI -- these same sentiments and others were told to Meta employees during the meeting.

TSMC founder Morris Chang hasn't had a long-form video interview in 17 years, when he was interviewed by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, but now he's appeared in an awesome new interview with the guys at Acquired. It's a long watch, but totally worth it, check it out:

During the interview, the TSMC founder discusses a bunch of hot topics over the last couple of decades, including the relationship between TSMC and NVIDIA, its 40nm process node development back in 2009, resolving TSMC's incredible core business vs its expansions, the 2009 dispute with NVIDIA, and more.

Acquired's interview with Chang includes talking about the all-in move on the 28nm node, meeting Apple and the entire debacle between Apple and Intel -- as Apple was going to have Intel make its chips, but eventually decided on TSMC -- to which the TSMC founder had some fighting words to say about that. Chang said Apple paused its discussions with TSMC at the time, talking to Intel which was making chips for the company's Mac family, but eventually decided on TSMC.

Americans could soon be hit with a price hike for sought-after electronics as President Trump pushes the idea of tariffs on foreign production of computer chips.

President Trump is looking to implement tariffs on foreign production of semiconductors and computer chips in all forms in an effort to bring manufacturing of these components to American soil. The idea behind the tariffs, which could range between 25 and 100% tax, is to force foreign manufacturers to either pay the exorbitant fee to import their goods or choose to manufacture their products on American soil. However, there is a third option, and that involves foreign manufacturers increasing the price of their products, which essentially means consumers will have to pay for Trump's import tax.

In Trump's crosshairs with these tariffs are Taiwanese semiconducting manufacturer TSMC and South Korean giant Samsung, which produces various computing products such as CPUs, GPUs, storage, and memory modules. Notably, TSMC and Samsung have agreed to build fabrication plants in the US, but TSMC has been somewhat hesitant to manufacture its cutting-edge technologies on US soil and instead opts for those advanced chips to be manufactured in Taiwan. Unfortunately, companies such as Apple, NVIDIA, and others are only really interested in TSMC's best offerings.

NVIDIA has responded to the recent unveiling of DeepSeek's R1 model, which wiped approximately $1 trillion from tech companies on the stock market and approximately $600 billion from NVIDIA.

The unveiling of DeepSeek's R1 model sent shockwaves through the tech industry after the Chinese company revealed its chatbot was capable of rivaling OpenAI's ChatGPT but was built in just two months and for just $6 million, a mere fraction of what has been invested into ChatGPT. Moreover, the company claimed the model was trained on NVIDIA's less-advanced H800 chips. These factors caused a massive stir and pullback from spending in the tech space, resulting in $600 billion being wiped from NVIDIA, marking a 17% plunge on Monday, the biggest loss in the company's history.

Now, NVIDIA has responded to DeepSeek's R1 model, with a NVIDIA spokesperson telling CNBC on Monday, "DeepSeek is an excellent AI advancement and a perfect example of Test Time Scaling. DeepSeek's work illustrates how new models can be created using that technique, leveraging widely-available models and compute that is fully export control compliant." NVIDIA also believes that DeepSeek's new model and the technique it used to create it will only fuel the chipmaker more as the technique called Test Time Scaling will require an abundance of NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).

The Trump administration is reportedly hard at work on a plan to save TikTok, using Oracle and a group of US investors to take control of TikTok's global operations in a new exclusive report from NPR "according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks".

President Trump and his administration are reportedly working on a new deal at the White House, with China-based owner ByteDance retaining a minority stake in the company, but TikTok's special sauce -- its algorithm -- data collection and software updates will be overseen by Oracle, which provides the foundation for TikTok's web infrastructure as it is.

NPR reports from a said who "person directly involved in the talks, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the deliberations" who said: "The goal is for Oracle to effectively monitor and provide oversight with what is going on with TikTok. ByteDance wouldn't completely go away, but it would minimize Chinese ownership".

Apple has been hit with a lawsuit that alleges the company used "forever chemicals" in Apple Watch bands, which are known to cause negative health effects in humans.

The lawsuit has been filed in the Northern District of California has highlighted three Apple Watch bands, which Apple states have all been made from fluoroelastomer. The lawsuit alleges fluoroelastomer hides per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which are commonly known as "forever chemicals". These chemicals are known to be resistant to water, grease, and heat -- and extremely difficult to break down naturally in an environment or a human body.

Notably, the chemicals have been linked to an increased risk of cancer and negative immune system effects that can even lead to complications with unborn children within a womb. Unfortunately, these chemicals are widely used in a variety of common items such as clothing, cleaning products, nonstick cookware, hygiene products, and more. They are widely used due to their effectiveness and their price, which is incredibly cheap compared to alternatives.

'Trust no one, not even yourself' is the theme of the latest ruling from the European General Court. In an inspiring display of personal accountability, the EU General Court determined on Wednesday that the European Commission is to pay damages to an EU citizen for failing to comply with EU data protection regulations. Yes, you read that correctly.

The citizen in question used the 'Sign in with Facebook' login option on the EU's webpage to register for a conference. The courts determined that this transfer of user information to Meta Platforms in the US was a violation of their own data-protection laws, and promptly ordered that the citizen be paid 400 Euros in damages.

While the equivalent $412 USD might not seem like much (from a legal perspective): in a market comprised of regular data breaches and questionable handling of user data - it is promising to see even the smallest of violations being enforced on a judicial level. Particularly when it involves the government fining themselves.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang hosted a "trillion-dollar banquet" in Taiwan last night, inviting the heads and CEOs of some of its biggest AI partners including Quanta, ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, and others.

Jensen invited some of the biggest names in the tech industry, including TSMC chairman C.C. Wei, Foxconn chairman Liu Tangwei, Quanta chairman Lin Baili, ASUS chairman Jonney Shi, Pegatron chairman Tong Zixian, and the bosses and executives of MSI, GIGABYTE, Acer, ASRock, and Inventec.

Once their banquet was over, the executives went outside of the restaurant with Taiwanese media interviewing NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and TSMC chairman C.C. Wei. Jensen was in Taiwan meeting with the CEOs of NVIDIA's supply chain partners, thanking them for building NVIDIA, and leading the charge with AI.

Elon's jet is in Florida, Global Foundries jet is in Florida, Qualcomm's jet is in Florida... they're all at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate to Make America Great Again by... buying Intel.

In a new tweet from Dylan Patel, we're being painted a picture of an interesting world: Elon + Global Foundries + Qualcomm buying Intel, which would see the US semiconductor industry stabilize a little bit. Intel Foundry is the chunk of the company that would be the biggest prize, with consumer/server processors, IP, and other parts of Intel of heavy value to buyers.

Elon Musk buying Intel is an interesting take, something I said many months ago when the Intel takeover rumors started flying. I said that Elon could work wonders on Intel, which needs to be chopped down heavily like he did to Twitter (and soon, DOGE for the US government). I continued, saying that it wasn't the 90s anymore and that the old Intel needs to die and be reborn as the industry has changed, and Intel has missed countless opportunities.

In a new turn of events for Intel, after CES 2025 is done and dusted, a new rumor of a company eyeing Intel off is back in the headlines.

Charlie Demerjian from SemiAccurate is reporting that they've read an internal email about a company "that was looking to buy Intel outright, not parts". However, the interested party is NOT one of the companies that we've been hearing about, with Charlie adding that "we have not seen any rumor of this company's interest in public statements"

Charlie explained in his post: "This email went to a very tight circle at the company according to our source which leads us to believe that it was quite real. When a company wants to use the press, public opinion, or investors as a denial of service weapon, they go public and go public loudly. When a company wants to actually buy something, they do whatever they can to avoid leaks to keep the price down. The way this email was circulated, or not circulated, made us lean toward it being real. That said it was far from confirmation".

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang says he is delighted to go and meet with President Trump to congratulate him, and "do everything we can to help this administration succeed".

In a new interview with Bloomberg TV, Jensen said: "I'd be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do everything we can to help this administration succeed". The news seems to have ruffled some feathers with TDS sufferers, with childish headlines like "NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang joins rush to kiss Trump's ring" yet the CEO of the world's most valuable (and important) company, has no issue with it (and would be "DELIGHTED" to meet him).

We've seen some huge moves back to sanity in the last few days, with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg announcing that Facebook and Instagram would be removing those all-important (sarcasm) "fact-checkers" and moving into a world of "Community Notes" just like that other crazy Trump supporter: Elon Musk, and his platform X with its Community Notes initiative.

Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit - alleging that the company was retaining recordings of private conversations with the virtual assistant Siri.

This settlement marks the end of a 6-year proceeding starting in 2019, during which Apple has vehemently denied any wrongdoing or liability for the matter. The accusations brought towards Apple cap a long string of cybersecurity concerns. A recent report from The New York Post highlighted an iOS setting 'Enhanced Visual Search' that evidently shares user's photos and photo data with Apple by default. Just 3 weeks prior, warnings were also issued that failing to update to iOS 18 could leave users vulnerable to security threats. 

As part of the settlement, U.S. users who owned Siri-enabled devices between September 2014 and December 2024 are eligible for compensation. Eligible individuals may receive up to $20 per device, with a maximum of five devices per person, pending court approval in February. Instructions on how to claim, and when payments will be disbursed, will be approved by a federal judge in the next hearing scheduled for Feb 14th, 2025.