Business, Financial & Legal - Page 5

After spending two years at the helm of what is probably the most contentious social media platform in the world, Linda Yaccarino has officially stepped down as CEO of X.

In a recent X post, the now former CEO of the Elon Musk-owned social media platform announced her departure from the helm of the company, writing that when she accepted the position two years ago she knew it "would be the opportunity of a lifetime." Yaccarino added that when she first discussed Elon Musk's vision for X, she knew it would be an incredible opportunity for her to be entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out his vision, protecting free speech, turning the company around, and creating what is now considered to be the "Everything App."

X owner Elon Musk responded to the departure message from Yaccarino by writing, "Thank you for your contributions." Musk has yet to announce the next CEO for the company. As for other X-related news, Grok was recently updated and began spilling antisemitic remarks across the platform, causing xAI to respond by taking the AI chatbot offline. These remarks came after Musk said that Grok's responses were too "woke" and that users can expect a change in the behavior of the AI chat when the next update is rolled out.

NVIDIA has become the first company in the world to reach a staggering $4 trillion market cap, despite the company's stock valuation being somewhat sluggish at the start of the year.

The new record was broken on Wednesday when shares of NVIDIA rose as much as 2.5% to an all-time high of $164, which pushed the total market cap for the company briefly over the $4 trillion mark. At the time of writing, NVIDIA is sitting at $3.94 trillion. For those who don't remember, NVIDIA's stock took a $600 billion tumble at the start of the year when Chinese AI company DeepSeek shook the entire AI sector, and by at large, NVIDIA, when it unveiled a new AI model that's performance was on par with Western AI models, but only required a fraction of the processing power.

The emergence of the DeepSeek AI model cast doubt on whether companies looking to expand their AI infrastructure actually needed NVIDIA's AI GPUs for more raw processing power, or would be better off investing in improving the efficiency of their current AI models on the software side. NVIDIA reached a $1 trillion market value for the first time in June 2023, and in just a single year, it managed to triple that valuation, beating the pace of other industry tech juggernauts such as Microsoft and Apple.

Matt Turnbull, an executive producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing, has found himself in hot water after he suggested that the recently let-go 9,000 Microsoft workers should use artificial intelligence-powered tools to help deal with their emotions surrounding losing their jobs.

In what appears to be the latest completely tone-deaf response to the widespread layoffs hitting Xbox and companies under its umbrella, the public's response to this message from Turnbull was vitriolic, causing the Xbox Game Studios Publishing executive to remove the post from his LinkedIn account. One X user called Turnbull's suggestion "plain disgusting," while another wrote on LinkedIn, "I had to read this twice to make sure it wasn't satire."

This suggestion from Turnbull has come at a time when Microsoft has pledged to invest $80 billion into developing AI, which, to many, is part of the reason why the company decided to lay off 9,000 employees across its various divisions. To many affected by these layoffs, or simply anyone looking in from the outside, Turnbull's suggestion reads, "To get through your current emotional state caused by the job loss, use the tool that has seemingly replaced you." This suggestion from Turnbull is the equivalent of saying you should ask your replacement for advice on how to cope with being fired.

TSMC's new advanced packaging plant in Chiayi, Taiwan, has been hit with multiple setbacks, but another setback has just happened as the plant was damaged by a typhoon.

Typhoon Danas is the fourth typhoon to hit Taiwan in 2025. It has impacted the western regions of the country, with two people killed and over 500 people injured from the impact of the typhoon on western Taiwan. Typhoon Danas is the first typhoon to hit Chiayi, Taiwan, in 120 years, with TSMC's new under-construction facilities in Chiayi being impacted.

The impact from the typhoon was limited to impacting scaffolding collapsing at the site, according to the Southern Science Park Administration, reports the Taiwan Economic Daily. The scaffolding that collapsed is now the second setback at TSMC's new advanced packaging site, with TED reporting that the site's contractor has increased the speed of construction to account for the delay caused by Typhoon Danas.

TSMC is delaying the construction of its second semiconductor fab in Japan, as it continues to pump more funds into quickly expanding its US-based advanced packaging facilities ahead of potential US tariffs by the Trump administration.

The news is coming from the usual "people familiar with the plans", according to The Wall Street Journal, with the revised schedule from TSMC the "latest example of how President Trump's aggressive stance on trade is pulling some investments toward the US at the expense of allies".

TSMC said in early 2024 that it would be building a second semiconductor plant in southern Japan's Kumamoto prefecture, as part of a $20 billion investment plan in Japan that has brought in over $8 billion in promised support from the Japanese government.

Samsung Electronics is delaying the completion of its new semiconductor factory in Taylor, Texas, as the company continues to struggle to find customers to use its new chip-making plant on US soil.

The South Korean company will be spending over $37 billion on its semiconductor plant in Texas in the years to come, after Samsung was awarded up to $4.7 billion of funding from the Biden administration and the CHIPS Act. The investment included a fab in Taylor, Texas, which was meant to make cutting-edge chips and be online by 2024... now that has been pushed back until 2026.

A source close to the situation told Nikkei Asia: "The process (of completing the Taylor fab) is delayed because there are no customers. (Samsung) is not in a situation where it can do something, even if it brings equipment in at the moment".

Intel has reportedly significantly restructured its glass substrate workforce after years of development, and would move into off-the-shelf solutions.

In some continued (weird) decisions from new CEO Lip-Bu Tan, rumor has it the company has performed a huge restructuring of its glass substrate workforce. It looks like Intel is shifting away from the strategy of internally producing and fully customizing glass substrates, and would instead use off-the-shelf glass substrates from other companies.

Not just that, but various glass substrate companies are reportedly reaching out to former Intel staffers, with South Korean firms "closely monitoring the situation". Intel had spent years on developing the technology for glass substrates, and had a huge lead in the glass substrate market... but these reports are looking grim indeed.

The gaming news site Kotaku has officially been sold off to a new buyer, which will not be cleaning house of Kotaku's editorial team.

Axios has confirmed that G/O Media has sold the gaming news website Kotaku to Keleops, the same European media company that acquired Gizmodo approximately a year ago. Axios reports that Kotaku won't have any senior staff removed as part of the acquisition and that Keleops actually intends to hire more senior talent.

Keleops CEO Jean-Guillaume Kleis spoke to Axios and declined to comment on how much Kotaku was sold for, and that in the short term, he had no immediate strategy shifts as he has yet to meet with the website's editor-in-chief.

Apple has officially filed a lawsuit against a former employee for allegedly taking company secrets about the Vision Pro mixed reality headset over to Snap, the creators of the popular social app Snapchat.

The lawsuit has been filed against former Vision Pro engineer Di Liu, who has been accused of stealing thousands of confidential files related to Apple's augmented reality headset. The theft of these files was then allegedly taken to Snap, a competitor of Apple.

Moreover, the lawsuit alleges that Liu secretly accepted a job offer from Snap, while also attempting to cover his tracks of the stolen documents by deleting files, which Apple alleges violated the confidentiality agreement he signed when he accepted his position at the Cupertino company.

Here we go, again: Intel's new CEO Lip-Bu Tan is considering massive changes for its semiconductor foundry arm, Intel Foundry, in order to win major customers... with its in-house Intel 18A process node on the chopping block.

In a new report from Reuters, we're hearing that Intel Foundry would no longer market particular chipmaking technologies, which the company has spent billions of dollars developing, to external customers. Lip-Bu Tan assumed the role of Intel CEO back in March 2025, quickly cutting costs and looking for new ways for Intel to be relevant again.

In June 2025, the new CEO started voicing that a manufacturing process that former CEO Pat Gelsinger bet heavily on -- Intel 18A -- was losing its appeal to new customers, according to Reuters' sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Apple has accused an ex-engineer of stealing company secrets for its Vision Pro headset, silently accepting a job at competitor Snap, and deleting evidence by wiping data from his work laptop.

Apple filed a lawsuit on June 24, 2025, in Santa Clara County against one of its ex-staffers, who reportedly transferred confidential files to his personal cloud account in his last days with the company. SiliconValley.com has the report, where ex-Apple engineer Di Liu allegedly violating Apple intellectual property, stealing some of the secret sauce for Apple's Vision Pro headset.

Liu worked at Apple for 7 years before moving to another company -- Snap -- serving in a position of a senior product design engineer, where he had access to the technology used inside of Apple's Vision Pro headset, and its upcoming headsets in the years to come.

Intel's former CEO Pat Gelsinger has said that the decision to step down from the company was a difficult one and that he wanted to finish what he started, but wasn't given the chance... leading us to believe his decision to leave was made by higher powers.

In a new report from PC Watch, Gelsinger said: "The decision to step down from Intel was an extremely difficult one. I wanted to finish what I started, but as you know, I was not given the opportunity".

As the outlet points out, normally when a CEO leaves a company or retires, there's an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) signed, which stops especially important staff from explaining the happenings from behind the scenes. No matter if they're good or bad, the NDA stops this from coming out.

NVIDIA has just reached another all-time record high market cap of $3.77 trillion, with analysts predicting a $6 trillion market cap in the near future.

Loop Capital has raised its price target for NVIDIA to a whopping $250 per share, which would see the company with a mind-boggling $6 trillion valuation. In a new report, Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah said according to Loop's research: "we are entering the next 'Golden Wave' of Gen AI adoption" and that NVIDIA has positioned itself "at the front-end of another material leg of stronger-than-anticipated demand".

Furthermore, Loop Capital supply chain analyst John Donovan says that hyperscale and AI factory (Sovereign, Neocloud, and Enterprise) Gen AI and AI accelerator compute spending ALONE could increase to around $ 2 trillion by 2028 using current compute economics. The analyst firm also suggests a huge $6 trillion market cap for NVIDIA in the near future.

NVIDIA has just reached yet another record-high market cap reaching $3.77 trillion, with its stock price hitting $154.31 at the close of trading, up from its previous closing high of $149.43 earlier this year on January 6, 2025.

With the new NVIDIA market cap of $3.77 trillion, it passes both Microsoft and Apple at ease, with Microsoft enjoying a $3.66 trillion market cap, and Apple in third position at $3.01 trillion. NVIDIA has been riding the AI wave for a few years now, and without its AI GPUs, I don't think we'd be where we are with AI (generative AI, and more) and neither would NVIDIA's financials.

The company has faced constantly changing US export restrictions, stopping its AI chips from entering China, and seeing the company hurt with $8 billion lost in sales to China, writing off over $4.5 billion in AI chip inventory. This has led NVIDIA to stop counting any sales from China, with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang saying last month that "the $50 billion China market is effectively closed to US industry".

Brian Johnson, otherwise known as "Liver King" on the internet, has been arrested by Austin police over alleged threats against podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan.

The Liver King was arrested on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, by Austin Police Department (APD) detectives, with the APD releasing a statement explaining Johnson was arrested after detectives reviewed several posts on his Instagram profile that revealed Johnson was traveling to Austin, Texas, while continuously threatening Rogan. The APD's statement stated they contacted Rogan, who said he had never interacted with Johnson and considered the posts to be threatening. The APD statement added that, based on the gathered information, the authorities obtained an arrest warrant for Johnson on a charge of Terroristic Threat.

Johnson has been posting several videos of himself calling out Joe Rogan, saying he wants to fight Rogan. In one video, he can be seen wearing a wolf's skin on his head and holding two machine guns, while shouting, "Joe Rogan, I'm calling you out. My name's Liver King. Man to man. I'm picking a fight with you!" In another video, Johnson can be seen ingesting a coffee enema and saying he hasn't "threatened to kill anybody. I picked a fight."

Samsung wants to put itself in a better position when it comes to the US semiconductor market, where the company is offering up to $300,000 for future staffers to join the sales team.

In a new post from the Korean Economic Daily, Samsung hired a former TSMC sales executive earlier this year, and is now seeking new staff in the US which it is offering up to $300,000 to take chip sales away from TSMC. TSMC has been extremely busy building out its semiconductor facilities in the US, while Samsung is also hard at work on new chipmaking plants on US soil, with its new plant in Taylor, Texas expected to enter mass production in 2026.

TSMC Arizona has already started producing chips in the US, making 4nm chips and processors for companies including Apple, AMD, and NVIDIA. A strong flow of customers is needed to succeed in the contract chip manufacturing business, but Samsung has been struggling for years in the semiconductor business and obviously wants to see that change, offering up to $300K for sales execs to pull chip orders away from TSMC.

SKC is conducting quality tests on glass substrates with big tech companies, plans to increase production capacity by up to 10x in the near future.

In a new report from Korean media outlet EBN, semiconductor glass substrates are quickly gaining attention as the next-generation technology suitable for high-performance, high-density semiconductors that generate a lot of heat, as they have a smoother and thinner surface than other existing substrates on the market, paving the way for more fine circuits to be used, and they also have less warping due to heat.

SKC has been focusing on developing glass substrate technology through its subsidiary Absolics, with EBN's new report from multiple sources within the semiconductor industry that SKC is discussing an investment plan to 4x its glass substrate production capacity before the end of 2025 or early 2026, and then expand it 10x in the mid-to-long term.

Apple and Bitmain are expected to use TSMC's bleeding-edge 2nm process node in 2026 and will act as the primary sources of its demand next year.

According to a new report from X, TSMC's new 2nm process capacity is projected to hit 60,000 wafers per month by Q4 2026, while NVIDIA is expected to use TSMC's 3nm node for its next-generation Rubin AI GPUs. TSMC is also expected to transfer some of its existing 5nm production line equipment and capacity to its 3nm process node.

We've been reporting for a while now that Apple would be shifting into using TSMC's bleeding-edge 2nm process node in 2026, but it's interesting -- and expected -- that Bitmain will be adopting the new N2 process node from TSMC. This is because Chinese Bitcoin mining companies have always been one of the first to use bleeding-edge process technologies.

TSMC holds a dominant 35.3% market share of the semiconductor market, revealed in a new report from Counterpoint Research, far ahead of any semiconductor rivals like Intel and Samsung that have been tripping over themselves of late.

TSMC is out and ahead in the number on integrated semiconductor contract manufacturing (foundry) market, which includes both packaging and testing. Analysts at Counterpoint Research pointed out that TSMC holds 35.3% of the foundry market, while Samsung Electronics has fallen down and into 4th place with just 5.9% of the market.

Intel has been throwing billions of dollars into acquiring ASML's bleeding-edge High-NA EUV lithography machines -- and has been slipping for years. Contracting TSMC to make most of its high-end chips, it sits in second place with 6.5% but has ASE on its heels with 6.2% of the semiconductor market.

Google will announce its next-generation Pixel 10 family of smartphones later this year, the first time that it will power its Android-based smartphones with its in-house Tensor G5 processor, which will be mass-produced by TSMC and not Samsung, leaving Samsung scratching its head as to how it lost that big contract.

Google's new in-house Tensor G5 processors will be fabricated on TSMC's new N3E process node using InFO-POP packaging, and Samsung isn't happy about it. According to new reports from The Bell picked up by @Jukanlosreve, Samsung is now "intensively analyzing" why Google made the switch from Samsung Foundry to TSMC... yet it's not so surprising given the South Korean giant has been stumbling with its semiconductor process.

Samsung Foundry reportedly held a strategic meeting to focus on "Why We Lost Google" to TSMC, especially after Samsung and Google have long collaborated together, but then Google did something that Samsung didn't like: made its in-house Tensor SoC project with Samsung, motivated by Samsung's in-house Exynos chips.