Business, Financial & Legal - Page 7

Take-Two Interactive, publisher of Grand Theft Auto, Borderlands and the NBA 2k franchise, has filed a lawsuit against Player Auctions, a marketplace that sells online player accounts, items, and virtual currency.

The filing joins Roblox, who lodged a similar notion last month. Take-Two's lawsuit was filed at the US Central District Court of California last week, as reported by Polygon. The company has accused PlayerAuctions of running a 'lawless enterprise' and claims that the marketplace has engaged in 'rampant infringement and other unauthorized conduct' on the site.

The filing itself alleges that PlayerAuctions runs a sophisticated sales platform, and that it actively recruits 'sellers' who engage with hacking software and exploits to create infringing goods. Specifically, they point to 'thousands of listings' that contain heavily modified player accounts, in-game assets, and virtual currency - which they claim were gained through the use of hacking software, cheats, and exploits.

The Las Vegas Sphere may soon get little brother and sister spheres as the company behind the $2.3 billion project is looking to expand its offerings into smaller spherical venues.

Sphere Entertainment's Executive Chairman and CEO James Doland recently spoke to industry analysts and informed them the company is looking into smaller Sphere's that would seat approximately 5,000 people, which is considerably smaller than the Las Vegas Sphere, which on paper can seat about 17,600, but could probably fit as many as 20,000 people standing.

Notably, these smaller spheres would require less property and parking, would be cheaper to build, and would likely attract many more artists that can necessarily fill the Las Vegas Sphere but can comfortably sell out 5,000 seats. There is also another barrier to entry the public may not consider when an artist wants to book the Las Vegas Sphere, and that is the considerable investment in producing custom-made video content for the 160,000-square-foot LED screen.

President Trump has said that Taiwan stole the US chip business from the USA, but didn't blame the country, instead placing the blame on former presidents and administrations.

In a new chat with the press in the Oval Office today, President Trump talked about ex-CEO of Intel, Andy Grove, calling him a great man, and that the fall of Intel started once he was finished as CEO.

President Trump said: "I used to read about him when I was a young man, and he did an incredible job. He really dominated the chip business, and then he died, and I guess they had a series of people who didn't know what the hell they were doing and we gradually lost the chip business, and now it's almost exclusively in Taiwan... they stole it from us, they took it from us".

TSMC chairman C.C. Wei says that its US fabs are fully booked through 2027, with its new 2027 production lines also reserved.

The semiconductor champion has expanded its US operations, announcing with President Trump that TSMC would be spending another $100 billion on semiconductor fabs on US soil, and even with these huge investments, Taiwan will not suffer as there are 11 new production lines being built in Taiwan this year alone... but "it is still not enough" says the TSMC founder.

Wei made the new comments during a joint press conference with Taiwan President William Lai, adding that there isn't enough land in Taiwan for TSMC's new semiconductor fabs, to which President Lai said the government would absolutely step in and help provide more land, water, and electricity to TSMC.

NVIDIA's stock took another major hit this week, dropping nearly 9% in a single day, following President Donald Trump's confirmation that new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China would go into effect. The sell-off wiped over $200 billion from NVIDIA's market cap, bringing it down to $2.73 trillion, its lowest point since September.

Prior to this, NVIDIA had almost fully recovered from the DeepSeek panic selloff, which saw the company lose $600 billion in market value in January after concerns over low-cost AI competition. However, as reported by Yahoo, this latest drop shows how fragile market sentiment remains.

The new 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, alongside a 10% tariff on Chinese goods, have reignited fears of rising manufacturing costs. While NVIDIA's AI chips are produced in Taiwan, which is currently exempt from tariffs, many of its products are assembled in Mexico, meaning these new trade restrictions could impact pricing and supply chains.

President Trump and TSMC just announced the largest single foreign direct investment in US history, with another $100 billion to expand TSMC's operations on US soil.

The ofifcial X account for NVIDIA posted: "TSMC's new fabs will be the foundational pillar of a new technology supply chain centered in the United States. NVIDIA will fully utilize TSMC's global manufacturing network to enhance our supply agility and resilience".

TSMC Chairman and CEO Dr. C.C. Wei, said: "Back in 2020, thanks to President Trump's vision and support, we embarked on our journey of establishing advanced chip manufacturing in the United States. This vision is now a reality. AI is reshaping our daily lives and semiconductor technology is the foundation for new capabilities and applications. With the success of our first fab in Arizona, along with needed government support and strong customer partnerships, we intend to expand our U.S. semiconductor manufacturing investment by an additional $100 billion, bringing our total planned investment to $165 billion".

TSMC has announced its intention to expand its investment in advanced semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, pledging an additional $100 billion.

The company already has $65 billion worth of investments into advanced semiconductor manufacturing operations at its fab in Phoenix, Arizona, with TSMC's total investment in teh US expected to reach $165 billion. This expansion includes plans for 3 new fabrication plants, two new advanced packaging plants, and a major R&D team center, with the company said "solidifying this project as the largest single foreign direct investment in US history".

TSMC expects to create hundreds of billions of dollars of semiconductor value for AI and other cutting-edge chips, with TSMC's expanded investment expected to create 40,000 construction jobs over the next 4 years, as well as creating tens of thousands of high-paying, high-tech jobs in advanced chip manufacturing and R&D on US soil.

NVIDIA and Broadcom are reportedly running manufacturing tests on Intel's new 18A process node, showing some much-needed early confidence for the company and its semiconductor business.

In a new report from Reuters, we're hearing that the two tests haven't been reported previously, and indicate that the companies are moving closer to the decision of whether they'll commit hundreds of millions of dollars worth of manufacturing contracts to Intel Foundry Services (IFS).

NVIDIA and MediaTek are TSMC customers, so winning these two chip giants over would be a huge deal for Intel, while its main CPU competitor in AMD, is "also evaluating whether Intel's 18A manufacturing process is suitable for its needs but it was unclear if it had sent test chips through the factory".

TSMC is expected to begin mass production of its next-gen A16 process node in Taiwan by the second half of 2026, and then "connect Taiwan and the United States" by introducing A16 process production at its third factory in Arizona, USA by 2028.

In a new report from UDN, we're learning that TSMC's first wafer fab in Arizona has begun mass production, with TSMC's Q1 2025 board meeting specially held in the Arizona plant to allow board members to receive first-hand knowledge that mass production was achieved at its new plant in the US.

UDN reports that the market believes that TSMC is showing its attention to the US market, and goodwill to the US government and the new Trump administration. TSMC's next-gen A16 process node is the first angstrom (smaller than nano) process node used by TSMC, with the company's nano process technology named the N series (N3, N4, N5, etc).

AI servers have been used in a fraud case that Singapore announced last week, with NVIDIA AI GPUs that were supplied by US companies like Dell, with banned AI chips from entering China according to a government minister on Monday.

Singapore has charged three men with a fraud case involving smuggling NVIDIA AI GPUs from the city-state to Chinese AI firm DeepSeek. Channel News Asia reports that the cases were linked to the alleged movement of NVIDIA chips from Singapore to be used by DeepSeek, "without identifying its source" reports Reuters.

Singapore's Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam told reporters on Monday that AI servers involved in the case were supplied by Dell Technologies and Super Micro Computer, before they were sent to Malaysia. He said: "whether Malaysia was the final destination... we do not know for a certain at this point" adding that authorities were investigating the case independently after an anonymous tip-off.