Business, Financial & Legal - Page 20

China has threatened "severe economic retaliation against Japan" if Tokyo continues restricting sales and servicing of chipmaking equipment to Chinese companies, reports Bloomberg.

In the report, the outlet adds that this complicates US-led efforts to cut the world's second-largest economy off from the world of advanced technology, mostly semiconductor manufacturing equipment, although Chinese companies are still getting ASML machines into the country.

Senior Chinese officials have "repeatedly outlined" that position in recently meetings with Japanese officials, "according to people familiar with the matter". One of the fears in Japan is that Toyota Motor Corp. privately told officials in Tokyo that Beijing could react to new semiconductor controls by cutting Japan's access to critical minerals that are essential to automotive production.

TSMC is expected to build its third chip plant in Japan as early as 2030, joining the Taiwanese semiconductor leader and its recent "Nightless Castle" project which saw a new fab built in Japan in under 2 years with 24-hour work days.

Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs, Kuo Jyh-huei, said he expects a new plant to be built that will make advanced chips in Japan, continuing on TSMC's fabs in Kumamoto Prefecture, but didn't specify an exact location. The minister said during an interview with Kyodo News: "experienced engineers are essential in producing advanced chips. Japan lacks enough experience so (such skilled engineers) will not be available until 2030 or later".

The minister also said he's willing to work together with Japan on training up skilled engineers, with Japan's next steps in the semiconductor business vital: it is fortifying supply chains for semiconductors, so working with Taiwan is paramount to Japan's future in the industry.

JPMorgan Chase Bank has put out a public warning advising against anyone attempting to take advantage of a system "glitch" that involved depositing fraudulent checks and withdrawing a portion of the total deposited amount from the ATM before the check could be denied.

The US banking giant stated it is aware of the now viral scheme that took off on the social media platform TikTok. Chase Bank customers were shown knowingly depositing a false check at a Chase Bank into their account and then immediately going to an ATM to withdraw a portion of that recently deposited amount. The withdrawal was processed as it exploited a delay in Chase Bank's internal balance checking system.

Reports indicate that videos going viral on TikTok showed people celebrating with large swaths of money, some even throwing it up in the air to celebrate the "glitch" working. Unfortunately, for those people who participated in this scheme, Chase Bank doesn't just give out free money. Customers who participated have started to show their account balances and how Chase Bank has deducted the amount they overdrew from their accounts.

Intel is considering splitting its product design and manufacturing businesses, as well as factory projects potentially being scrapped, led by CEO Pat Gelsinger.

In a new report from Bloomberg, we're learning that Intel is looking at splitting its chip product business from its foundry -- chip-making -- businesses, as it attempts to navigate its most difficult time in its 56-year history. The news of splitting its businesses saw Intel shares rise 9.5% on Friday, the biggest single-day gains since October 2022.

Intel will present its various options during a board meeting this month, according to the usual "people familiar with the matter" reports Bloomberg. The site adds that no major moves are imminent and that discussions are still in the "early stages" with an Intel representative declining to comment (of course).

US federal judge Pamela Chan has ordered Martin Shkreli "Pharma Bro" to turn over any and all copies he possesses of an ultra-rare Wu-Tang Clan album "Once Upon A Time in Shaolin" from 2015.

Not only that, but Shkreli is also forbidden from streaming or disseminating copies of the record, which is not just ultra-rate, but only a single copy exists on the planet, and Pharma Bro owns it. Why is this happening? The album's current owner, digital collective "PleasrDAO", claims that Shkreli has unauthorized copies of the album, and distributed it without permission.

Steven Cooper, one of the attorneys representing PleasrDAO provided an oral argument in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York with Judge Pamela Chan, with Cooper releasing a statement saying: "Today's ruling by the court is an important victory for our client PleasrDAO, who owns the exclusive rights to the one-of-a-kind-Wu-Tang Clan album".

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested at the Le Bourget airport outside of France over the weekend, where he was arrested as part of a police investigation into a wide range of alleged crimes including money laundering, drug trafficking, and human trafficking.

Durov is a dual citizen of both France and Russia, taken into custody after landing from a private jet at the Paris-Le Bourget Airport on Saturday night. Investigators from the National Anti-Fraud Office, attached to the French customs department notified Durov that he was being placed into police custody.

French media is reporting that the warrant for the Telegram CEO's arrest was issued by France at the request of the special unit at the country's interior ministry in charge of investigating crimes against minors. These charges include online sexual exploitation, including possession and distribution of child sexual abuse (CSA) content and grooming for sexual purposes.

Chinese companies have imported around $26 billion worth of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, according to new trade data released by China's General Administration of Customs this week.

In a new report from Bloomberg, we're finding out that Chinese imports of semiconductor equipment hit a new record for the first 7 months of 2024, as Chinese companies are racing to increase pricing in case the United States and its allies continue to block them from purchasing semiconductor-related equipment.

ASML makes the world's leading-edge High-NA EUV lithography machines, used by semiconductor giants TSMC, Samsung, and Intel has been a recent -- and big-paying -- customer of ASML's machines. ASML is based in the Netherlands, and wouldn't you know, shipments from ASML to China surged 21% in Q2 2024 to almost half of ASML's total revenue.

KIOXIA plans to IPO in October driven by the insatiable AI demand, and the soaring demand of semiconductors to fuel the AI demand.

The Japanese NAND flash memory chip maker is looking at an anticipated valuation of 1.5 trillion yen (around $10.3 billion USD or so) reports Nikkei. The outlet reports that KIOXIA would use the future funds raised from its IPO to increasing the production of cutting-edge memory as well as development of next-generation chips.

Nikkei talked with a "KIOXIA insider" who hoped the IPO would diversity its funding channels, and said: "We've been tight on cash so far, which has left us lagging behind in our ability to invest". Another insider said "even though memory demand is strong now, we don't know what might happen right up to the last minute, like in 2020, so we can't let our guard down".

President Donald Trump said he would have Elon Musk on his cabinet or in an advisory role if he won the 2024 US elections, to which SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on X saying: "I am willing to serve".

Better yet, Musk posted a picture on X of himself (AI-generated, probably using Grok) with "DOGE" or Department of Government Efficiency, which if you know Elon, he's referring to one of his favorite cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin (DOGE).

Musk talked to President Trump recently on an X space, where they two discussed government overspending, and that there should be someone in a government efficiency role, taking care of the finances of the US to not see hundreds of billions of dollars wasted year after year.

Age of Empires is one the real-time-strategy games that carved itself into the Mount Rushmore of golden-age PC games, and now a spin-off of the iconic title is making its way over to mobile.

The mobile title is slated for a global launch on both Android and iOS on October 17, and according to the announcement it will be seamlessly blend classic elements of Age of Empires with "brand-new mobile gameplay." The idea behind the title is to bring players a "fresh gaming experience" while also making sure to capture what was loved most about the classic game.

Age of Empires Mobile was developed by TiMi Studio Group in collaboration with World's Edge and Xbox Game Studios. Reports indicate the new title will come with multiple single-player modes, and players will be able to lead their empires by selecting legendary historical figures such as Darius the Great, Joan of Arc, and more. As you can probably imagine, each of these historical figures will come with a unique set of skills and talents that can be used to swat down your enemies.

Samsung is expected to have a new High-NA EUV lithography machine set up by the end of the year, as the South Korean giant wants to better compete with TSMC in the semiconductor manufacturing space.

In a new report from the SEDaily, we're hearing that Samsung Electronics' Semiconductor (DS) Division will have a High-NA EUV lithography machine set to receive one of ASML's bleeding-edge TwinScan EXE:5000 High-NA EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet) lithography machines.

Intel was the first customer of ASML's new High-NA EUV machines for use in the United States, as well as TSMC in Taiwan, and now Samsung in South Korea.

Texas Instruments has signed a preliminary agreement to receive up to $1.6 billion in CHIPS and Science Act proposed funding for semiconductor manufacturing in both Texas and Utah, in the United States.

The US Department of Commerce has proposed up to $1.6 billion for Texas Instruments through the CHIPS and Science Act to support three new 300mm semiconductor wafer fabs that are under construction in Texas and Utah.

Texas Instruments expects to receive an estimated $6 billion to $8 billion from the US Department of Treasury's Investment Tax Credit for qualified US manufacturing investments. The company also expects to receive $10 million in proposed funding for workforce development, as it creates over 2000 new jobs at Texas Instruments, and thousands of indirect jobs for construction, suppliers, and supporting industries.

TSMC's board of directors has just approved $37.1 billion in new capital spending, with $29.62 billion that will be used "to meet long-term capacity plans... and TSMC's technology development roadmap".

In this new injection of spending, there will be $7.5 billion for TSMC's new plant in Arizona, US, noting that in June 2024, TSMC approved $17.36 billion for fab construction and $5 billion for TSMC global. Ctee reports that we don't know exactly what this money will be funding, but the money is going towards long-term capacity plans and TSMC is pretty much booked deep into 2024, and even into 2025 with some companies.

TSMC isn't just expanding its operations in Taiwan, its home country, but also its production capacity and leading semiconductor technology worldwide, especially in the US with multiple fabs under construction (of which Intel is trying to poach senior engineers for its own Intel Foundry business, away from TSMC's new operations in Arizona).

Two cybersecurity vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Azure Health Bot Service were discovered by a team of researchers, which could have led to access to sensitive health data.

A new report shared with The Hacker News has highlighted two security vulnerabilities that Microsoft has now patched, and according to the report, the vulnerabilities, when exploited, could have enabled a bad actor to gain access to sensitive patient data. The Azure Health Bot Service enables developers in healthcare organizations to easily implement AI virtual health assistants that are interactable by patients and can also be used to offload administrative tasks.

Additionally, these services are also used by insurance providers that allow customers to query the AI chatbot for answers on their personal insurance claim, any benefits they may be getting, and available services. Tenable's research found that an aspect of the Azure AI Health Service featured a vulnerability, which was called Data Connections. Reports indicate this mechanism was responsible for integrating data from third-party sources through an API.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against General Motors that alleges the company collected and sold drivers' data to insurance companies without their consent or knowledge.

The new lawsuit alleges that in car models from 2015 and above, General Motors implemented data-collecting technology to monitor and collect drivers' data, particularly any "bad" habits. The lawsuit alleges General Motors collected data on more than 1.8 million Texas drivers and that these "bad" habits were events such as braking too fast, steering sharply into corners, not using seatbelts, and driving at night. At the moment, it remains unclear if the data was used by the insurers to increase the premiums for Texans.

More specifically, the data collection method involved crunching the numbers down to what was referred to as "driver score," which was an aggregation of data from any time a driver used their vehicle. The attorney general's office claimed General Motors "deceived" its Texan customers by encouraging them to enroll in opt-in programs such as OnStar Smart Driver. The lawsuit alleges General Motors deceived its customers by failing to inform them enrolling in such programs mean they agree to the collection and sale of their data.

Following Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter and its conversation into the social media platform that is now called X, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO cleaned house, reducing the overall headcount at the company by at least 70%.

During that time, which was in November of last year, employees were going through a tumultuous time with rounds of firings, employees being locked out of offices, and company-wide emails being fired off from Musk. On November 16, Musk sent out an email titled "A Fork in the Road" and a warning to employees that for Twitter to reach "2.0," it would require long work hours at "high intensity," and the company would only be accepting "exceptional performance" as a passing grade.

The email also explained then-Twitter would be converting to a more engineering-driven company, and that if "you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below. Anyone who has not done so by 5 pm ET tomorrow (Thursday) will receive three months of severance. Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful."

Corsair's second-quarter for 2024 financial report has been released and it revealed the company is in a tough spot, with net revenue down more than $50 million compared to the previous year of the same period.

During the financial call, Corsair informed investors of the reasons why Corsair is falling short of growth, with the company saying that refresh cycles of gaming components are lengthening, meaning buyers of gaming components aren't purchasing an upgraded component as quickly as they once were, leading to a declining demand for high-end gaming components. This lengthening of refresh cycles can be attributed to there being no games calling for an upgrade in hardware,

Corsair's CEO, Andy Paul, co-founder of the company, said during the earnings call that refresh cycles for high-end components used to be on a 3 to 5-year cadence, and now they are moving to a four to six-year cadence. Additionally, Corsair said its still feeling the "echo" of the COVID-19 surge, which was a period where people purchased a lot of products to enjoy at home. Corsair is now moving back to pre-COVID normalcy.

Edit: Don't worry, X spaces isn't broken right now... but the interview hasn't started (22 minutes late so far) with thousands not able to even get in. I'm currently enjoying some rather pleasant elevator music, waiting for President Trump and Elon Musk to start their discussion.

Edit #2: DDOS attack, records broken... 1 million in the X space, but now we're LIVE!

Elon Musk has been doing system scaling tests for the last few days, for his upcoming historic interview with President Donald Trump, and we're here to point you in the right direction to watch it.

Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, has now been banned for 10 days after being deemed dangerous to country residents.

The ban comes from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who announced an order to ban Elon Musk's X for 10 days, which would sever access to the social media platform from local residents. According to Maduro's speech, which CNBC translated, the Venezuelan President has signed a decree ordering the nation's telecommunications regulator to block X after it determined the social media platform "violated all of the rules of the very social network Twitter, today known as X - all of them."

Maduro said, "And he has violated [the rules], by inciting hatred, fascism, civil war, death and confrontations among Venezuelans, [he] has violated all of the laws of Venezuela. And in Venezuela there are laws ... and we will enforce the laws." The temporary ban will give X enough time to respond to the recent change. Reports indicate that X has already become unavailable for users of several internet providers across the country.

Authorities have arrested a Tennessean man for running a "laptop farm" that deceived US and UK companies into thinking they hired American residents for positions when really they were hiring North Koreans.

The US Justice Department took to its website to post a press release about the arrest, with the authority writing that Matthew Isaac Knoot, a 38-year-old from Nashville, Tennesse, was arrested today for his efforts to generate revenue for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK or North Korea) weapons programs. According to the Justice Department, Knoot was running a "laptop farm" scheme that involved deceiving American and British companies with remote employment.

The press release states the American and British companies were deceived into hiring North Korean's that Knoot then assisted in using stolen identities to pose as US citizens. Knoot is accused of hosting company laptops at his place of residence, downloading and installing software without authorization to enable users to conduct deception, and conspiracy to launder payments for the remote work.