Business, Financial & Legal - Page 8

Apple has just announced a new $100 billion commitment to America, totaling its US investments at over $600 billion, with the company also launching its new American Manufacturing Program (AMP) that will bring more of Apple's supply chain and advanced manufacturing onto US soil.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said: "Today, we're proud to increase our investments across the United States to $600 billion over four years and launch our new American Manufacturing Program. This includes new and expanded work with 10 companies across America. They produce components that are used in Apple products sold all over the world, and we're grateful to the President for his support".

Apple parts and components manufactured in the US ship to customers across the planet, with around 2/3 of the components made in the US, exported to customers across the globe.

Fitch has downgraded Intel's credit rating by one notch this week, assigning a negative outlook for the future of Intel, with the company now just two notches away from junk credit status.

Intel has been going through some serious trouble lately and still has a few (big) bumps in the road ahead, with Fitch noting serious competition from AMD, Broadcom, and NXP Semiconductors. Fitch analysts explained: "credit metrics remain weak and will require both stronger end markets and successful product ramps, along with net debt reduction over the next 12-14 months" in order for Intel to recover its recent ratings.

Fitch also said that while Intel has a better market position than other similarly rated peers, its financial structure is relatively weaker, facing "higher execution risk".

Apple has announced its Q3 2025 earnings with a hefty $94 billion in revenue, and $23.4 billion in net profits, with iPhone earnings reaching a new all-time high.

Apple reported $94.04 billion of revenue in Q3 2025, up from the $85.78 billion it pulled in Q3 2024, while its operating profits sat at $23.4 billion. The iPhone revenue for Q3 2025 was also strong, delivering $44.58 billion in revenue across the three-month period, with the overall figure growing by 10% from the same quarter of 2024.

The company's Services division generated $27.4 billion in revenue during Q3 2025, compared to $24.2 billion in Q3 2024, while the Mac division made $8.05 billion in Q3 2025, compared to $7.01 billion in Q3 2024. However, the iPad division wasn't as successful, with revenues dropping to $6.58 billion during the quarter, compared to $7.16 billion from the same time last year.

Samsung has secured a huge $16.5 billion foundry contract to make Tesla's next-gen AI6 chip at its new Texas fab, with Elon Musk saying that the strategic importance of this is "hard to overstate".

In a new post on X by the SpaceX and Tesla boss, Elon Musk said: "Samsung's giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla's next-generation AI6 chip. The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate. Samsung currently makes AI4. TSMC will make AI5, which just finished design, initially in Taiwan and then Arizona".

Samsung Foundry will be making next-gen AI6 chips for Tesla at its Texas semiconductor facility, with Musk adding that Samsung "agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency. This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress. And the fab is conveniently located not far from my house".

The future of Intel Foundry is in the hands of external customers like Apple and NVIDIA signing up for its new Intel 14A process node, and if that doesn't happen, the company might be closing the doors to its semiconductor foundry business.

Intel's new CEO Lip-Bu Tan said on Thursday that its engineers were hard at work with customers to jump-start its next-gen contract manufacturing process, after the company announced yet another wave of layoffs that will see 15,000+ jobs slashed.

The company's next-gen Intel 14A process node is crucial to the success of the technology, so much so that if Intel fails to secure big customers for its new node, it might be shutting down its Intel Foundry business for good. If Intel did drop out of the chipmaking race, it would be huge news (on top of the piles of huge news from Intel, and its mostly not good) as Intel is the only US-based chipmaker capable (well, kinda) of making advanced chips.

NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang has said during a recent interview that artificial intelligence is going to create more millionaires in five years than the internet created in 20 years.

The eye-opening statement from the CEO came from a recent podcast hosted by American venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, where he shared many of his thoughts about the recent AI explosion that is being powered by NVIDIA hardware, and, more specifically, what he thinks about the claim that AI is taking away jobs. According to Huang, he doesn't believe this is the case, but instead, we aren't moving fast enough to create new jobs.

Moreover, Huang believes AI is the "greatest equalizer of all time" and gave an example, such as programming, with the CEO saying everybody is now a programmer as people have no need to learn programming languages such as C++, or Python, as they can simply ask an AI to create their idea in those languages.

Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, has commented on the recent layoffs that resulted in approximately 9,000 employees being let go from the company.

In one of Microsoft's biggest sweeping rounds of layoffs, 9,000 employees were let go from various companies under Microsoft's massive umbrella. This round of layoffs has increased the total number of Microsoft layoffs to at least 15,300, and now the company's CEO has responded by thanking those who have been let go for building the foundation the company stands on today.

Microsoft has recently come under fire for being in a financially stellar position while laying off thousands of employees, which was a fact Nadella pointed out during his comments.

Intel is planning more layoffs that will reduce its global workforce down from 90,000 to 75,000 in a new move from CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

Intel had 108,900 employees as of December 2024, with plans to end 2025 with around 75,000 employees through layoffs and attrition, which results in a 24.6% decrease in its staffers after plans of 15,000+ new job cuts in the coming weeks and months.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a statement: "Our operating performance demonstrates the initial progress we are making to improve our execution and drive greater efficiency. We are laser-focused on strengthening our core product portfolio and our AI roadmap to better serve customers. We are also taking the actions needed to build a more financially disciplined foundry. It's going to take time, but we see clear opportunities to enhance our competitive position, improve our profitability and create long-term shareholder value".

Samsung was approached by NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang in 2018 to enter into a long-term collaboration, but the Korean tech giant turned Huang down in what might be one of its most regrettable decisions in recent memory.

A new report by Korean media has revealed that Samsung turned down an offer by Huang for a long-term collaboration on joint HBM development, which included a partnership with the foundry business and work on the CUDA ecosystem together. Fast forward to today, Samsung's semiconductor and HBM businesses aren't looking very healthy at all, with reports saying that both are operating at a loss and are unable to maintain healthy yields or pick up on market trends.

The report states that NVIDIA had the forward-thinking to know that HBM development was going to be integral for the future and approached Samsung to be its supplier due to how prominent the company is in the DRAM and NAND chip spaces.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang reportedly secretly met with Samsung Electronics back in 2018 to discuss co-development of HBM, a possible switch from TSMC to Samsung Foundry, and to work together closely on CUDA.

According to a semiconductor industry source, CEO Jensen Huang secretly visited Samsung Electronics in 2018 and made three proposals. The first was to expand the HBM development that Samsung and NVIDIA were jointly pursuing to a higher level. The second was to jointly develop foundry technology beyond 8nm. The third involved jointly fostering NVIDIA's software ecosystem, CUDA.

The source, who requested anonymity, stated: "at the time, Samsung rejected all three of CEO Jensen Huang's proposals". They added that "CEO Jensen Huang lamented, 'There is no one at Samsung to discuss long-term strategy with me'". At the time, Jensen wasn't able to meet with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong. Samsung as a whole was significantly subdued due to the prosecution's investigation and trial against Chairman Lee, which had fully commenced in 2027, and that it's understood long-term decision-making "wasn't smooth".

Astronomer CEO Andy Byron has officially resigned from his position as company CEO after a video of him cuddling the chief people officer of the same company at a Coldplay concert went extremely viral.

The clip has been shared around on social media, and due to the slow response from the company and Byron, many phony statements were published online, along with conspiracy theories and accounts impersonating the CEO. One viral piece of misinformation was that the company's HR officer was in attendance at the concert.

Astronomer released an official statement on Friday where it stated the company's Board of Directors had launched an official investigation into the matter and that it would be sharing details soon. That statement was followed up by another on the same day that revealed cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy was "currently serving as interim CEO given Andy Byron has been placed on leave."

Meta investors filed a lawsuit against company CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executive staff, both current and former, on Wednesday, with some of the claims of the suit citing the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, and the scandal that took place in 2018 where it was revealed Facebook users' personal information was being misused and Meta, then-Facebook, was in violation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations.

The investors claim that Meta didn't fully inform them of the risks associated with Facebook users' personal information being misused, which resulted in the company having to pay a $5.1 billion penalty to the FTC, along with facing significant fines in Europe amounting to a $725 million privacy settlement.

The investors behind the lawsuit are now demanding that Zuckerberg and other former and current leadership reimburse the company for the fines it had to pay, which the suit claims total as much as $8 billion, including legal fees.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan told employees this week that he doesn't consider Intel among the world's leading chip companies, saying: "Twenty, 30 years ago, we are really the leader. Now I think the world has changed. We are not in the top 10 semiconductor companies".

The company is too far behind to catch up with NVIDIA in developing technology to train AI, with the new CEO saying that customers are giving Intel failing grades, and that a turnaround for Intel would be a "marathon". Tan said that the recent layoffs that he ordered are a move to make Intel more like its chip-making rivals NVIDIA, AMD, and Broadcom. Tan said "we have to be humble" and that Intel staff need to listen to customers, and respond to their needs.

Intel has a market cap of only $100 billion right now, and if you compare that to NVIDIA, which recently hit a milestone $4 trillion market cap, Intel is not just behind, it's almost like a sinking ship in comparison. Intel replaced its CEO Pat Gelsinger, falling radically behind AMD in the CPU business, and has failed the AI business and left it to NVIDIA.

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.