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Synopsys and Samsung have announced its hit first production tapeout of its next-generation flagship mobile CPU on Samsung Foundry's GAA process.

The companies announced that they have achieved successful production tapeout for its high-performance mobile SoC design, including flagship CPUs and GPUs, with 300MHz higher performance using Synopsys.ai full stack AI-driven EDA suite and a broad portfolio of Synopsys IP on Samsung Foundry's latest Gate-All-Around (GAA) process technologies.

Kijoon Hong, vice president of SLSI at Samsung Electronics, said: "Our longstanding collaboration has delivered leading-edge SoC designs. This is a remarkable milestone to successfully achieve the highest performance, power and area on the most advanced mobile CPU cores and SoC designs in collaboration with Synopsys. Not only have we demonstrated that AI-driven solutions can help us achieve PPA targets for even the most advanced GAA process technologies, but through our partnership we have established an ultra-high-productivity design system that is consistently delivering impressive results".

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Wednesday that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan to seize control of TSMC would be "absolutely devastating" to the US economy.

Raimondo was asked at a US House hearing about the impact of an invasion of Taiwan by China to control TSMC, where she said "it would be absolutely devastating. Right now, the United States buys 92% of its leading edge chips from TSMC in Taiwan".

It was only back in March of this year that a top US admiral testified that China is building its military and nuclear arsenal on a scale not seen since World War II, preparing to invade Taiwan by 2027. Admiral John Aquilino, the leader of the Indo-Pacific Command, told the US House Armed Services Committee in a prepared testimony on Tuesday that Beijing's defense budget has ballooned by 16% over the last few years to over $223 billion. In the three years since he's taken command, he said that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had added another 400 fighter jets and 20 new major warships to its arsenal. Admiral Aquilino said China has doubled its ballistic and cruise missile inventory since 2020.

China has imported more than $1 billion in goods from the Netherlands in April 2024 alone, a rather hefty 32% increase even in the world of US export restrictions and the selling of semiconductor machines to China.

China's imports from the Netherlands increased 32% last month from a year ago, to $1.4 billion, according to data released this week. The data doesn't show the breakdown of trade, which will come later this month, but we all know it's coming from Dutch company ASML, which makes semiconductor machines.

In the months leading up to April 2024, over 50% of the value of all Chinese imports from the Netherlands were just ASML's lithography machines, according to Bloomberg's analysis of the official data. The US has been restricting China's access to the latest chip-making tools, pressuring countries like the Netherlands to stop exporting equipment to China, and even stop repairing the equipment that China has already purchased.

Reports indicate that Tesla is being investigated by US prosecutors for any possible evidence of committing securities and wire fraud.

The examination of the company by US prosecutors is to find evidence of Tesla committing securities and wire fraud by misleading consumers and investors with Tesla's self driving capabilities found within its electric car line-up.

The two technologies, Tesla's Full Self-Driving system, and the Autopilot system, have been a point of conjecture for quite some time, as some regulatory bodies have argued the naming of the technologies is misleading due to the features not providing full autonomy, as Tesla still requires drivers to periodically place their hands on the wheel and be ready to take back over when necessary.

Intel has plans to partner with 14 different Japanese companies to develop technology to automate "back-end" chipmaking processes, like advanced packaging.

In a new report from Nikkei, the US and Japan are looking to cut geopolitical risks to their semiconductor supply chains. The deal would involve electronics maker Omron, Yamaha Motor, and materials supplier Resonac and Shin-Etsu Polymer, will be led by the head of Intel's Japanese business: Kunimasa Suzuki.

This new group will invest tens of billions of yen (with 10 million yen = $65 million USD or so) that will develop the technologies in a working state by 2028. Nikkei reports that with the advances in front-end operations including circuit formation start to approach their physical limits, competition is brewing in back-end steps like stacking chips to improve performance.

The U.S. government is on a quest to reduce the strain on the microchip fabrication industry, which has progressively become more important with the rise of artificial intelligence-powered systems.

The Biden Administration is committed to bringing chip manufacturing back to the United States, and under the multi-billion CHIPS Act, applications have been opened for $285 million in funding to develop "digital twins". Digital twins are advanced software models of hardware that can be used by engineers to identify key problems in the design of a piece of hardware. In this case, to receive funding an institute would have to create a digital twin of microchips.

The result of having a digital twin for hardware means engineers can make changes to the design of a chip before its even manufactured, speeding up the overall time it takes to design new silicone-based hardware. These virtual clones of pieces of hardware have been used in the past by the auto industry and the Space Force for satellite simulations.

Google and the US government are presenting their closing arguments to Judge Amit Mehta regarding the antitrust lawsuit that may result in Google being penalized for its dominance in the search engine market.

The US government has accused Google of violating anticompetitive laws with its Google Search engine, which is easily the most popular search engine in the world. The lawsuit alleges Google paid electronics vendors and developers billions of dollars to make Google the default search engine on the device, which created a monopoly within the market where other search engines are unable to compete.

Google revealed last year that it spent $26.3 billion in 2021 on deals for its search engine to be default on various internet browsers. Apple received between $18 billion and $20 billion to keep Google the default search engine on Safari. As you can probably imagine, Google doesn't believe it has a monopoly on the market, or broken any anti-compete laws and that its dominance on the market is a result of its product simply being the best.

Can you believe AMD has just turned 55 years old? AMD was founded on May 1, 1969, starting as a microprocessor company, turning into an everything giant now with Ryzen, EPYC, Radeon, AI GPUs, and so much more.

AMD started out with its own Athlon CPUs back in the day, moving onto acquire ATi and bringing the Radeon brand in-house. From there, the company has had ups and downs with its Radeon GPUs, but the Ryzen and EPYC CPUs have been powerhouse successes for the company over the last 10 years.

Turning 55, the future is bright for AMD with the rise of AI PCs this year and its NPU inside of its APUs and CPUs with Ryzen AI. AMD is inside of the Microsoft Xbox Series X/S and Sony PlayStation 5 consoles, and countless gaming handhelds, desktop PCs, laptops, and more.

Elon Musk has just terminated multiple senior executives at Tesla, with hundreds of other Tesla staffers let go at the 'send' button of an email from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The Information is reporting that Musk wrote in an email to Tesla staff that were being laid off: "Hopefully, these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hardcore about headcount and cost reduction. While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so".

Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of Tesla's Supercharger business, and Daniel Ho, the head of new products, will both be leaving Tesla today. Tesla has a global workforce of around 140,000 with the electric vehicle giant ordering a culling of over 10% of its workforce, which results in 14,000+ layoffs. The hundreds of people let go today are just a new wave of layoffs, it seems. Two senior leaders, battery development chief Drew Baglino, and Patel have both announced that they're leaving Tesla.

AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su has been named 2024 Chief Executive of the Year by her peer CEOs, in an announcement from Chief Executive magazine today.

Dr. Lisa Su was selected by an independent committee of CEOs for her work in leading "one of the most spectacular turnarounds in the history of the technology sector". AMD has gone from second-best to class-leading with its Ryzen and EPYC processors, the company has semi-custom designs inside of Microsoft's Xbox Series X/S and Sony PlayStation 5 consoles, as well as countless handhelds, laptops, and more.

Ed Bastian, chief executive of Delta Air Lines and Chief Executive magazine's 2023 CEO of the Year, who served on this year's selection committee, said: "Lisa Su's leadership in transforming AMD into a global leader in innovation and technology is truly remarkable. Just as impressive is the fact that she never forgets the people behind the technology-her employees and customers are always front and center. Her values-led approach is exactly the type of leadership we need as we move into an exciting and unprecedented future driven by AI innovation and emerging technology".