Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 9

TSMC is reportedly securing a secret deal with South Korean memory manufacturer SK hynix, which would see the two companies teaming up to make next-gen memory products for AI, along with processors and GPUs.

HBM memory is one of the hottest parts of any AI GPU, and SK hynix has been leading the charge for a while now. But with the relationship between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and SK hynix, we should expect the two companies to combine the best of what they do -- chip packaging and memory fabrication -- to compete, and I'm sure, hopefully, dominate South Korean rival Samsung.

The unconfirmed reports of TSMC and SK hynix teaming up together would see a change in the HBM memory market, as they're essential to AI systems and products, which have insatiable demand right now. There has been absolutely no slowdown, and no slowdown is forecasted for the years ahead when it comes to the world of AI.

Entertainment giant Disney has purchased a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games and teamed up with the company to create something incredible.

This partnership intends to develop a new expansive, open, persistent, and social universe that will seamlessly "interoperate" with the popular game Fortnite and let fans "play, watch, shop and engage" iconic characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, and more.

The news was revealed during Disney's Q1 FY24 Earnings call, where it was said this new experience will be built entirely in Unreal Engine and will give players the ability to "create their own stories and experiences, express their fandom in a distinctly Disney way, and share content with each other in ways that they love."

A regional court in Germany has ruled that Intel infringed on a patent covering an integrated voltage regulator technology that belongs to R2 Semiconductor, which could see select Intel processors banned from being sold in Germany. It's not just Intel but also Dell and HP products that use the affected Intel processors in the patent dispute.

Intel has bitten back at R2 Semiconductor, accusing the Palo Alto, California-based company of using a low-quality patent and that it would appeal the decision. The regional court in Dü Dusseldorf, Germany ruled against Intel on Wednesday, issuing an injunction against sales of Intel Core series CPUs, including "Ice Lake," "Tiger Lake," "Alder Lake," and Xeon Scalable "Ice Lake Server," processors.

Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs are still out in the wild, so these processors might disappear from the market if Intel isn't successful in its appeal. It doesn't mean that the 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs will disappear from the market overnight, so there's no need to worry right now.

The creator behind the insanely popular Elonjet has now fallen into the crosshairs of Taylor Swift's lawyers as the programmer created a website dedicated to tracking the location of musicians' private jet.

The programmer is Jack Sweeney, a University of Central Florida student who quickly came into the public spotlight with his Elonjet X account that automatically posted the location of Elon Musk's private jet. The account gained so much attention that it sparked a response from Musk, who offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete the account, citing it as a security risk. Sweeney declined the offer and responded by saying, "Any chance to up that to $50k?".

Notably, the accounts Sweeney has created use public flight data available to anyone on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website. The programmer has received a cease and desist letter from lawyers representing Taylor Swift, with the letter labeling Sweeney's sharing of the FAA data as "stalking and harassing behavior." Furthermore, Swift's lawyers claim the musician has experienced "direct and irreparable harm, as well as emotional and physical distress" as a result of Sweeney's actions.

TSMC is a leader in semiconductor manufacturing, but now the company is the world's largest semiconductor maker by revenue, beating out the big tech titans, including Intel, NVIDIA, and Samsung in TSMC's dust.

Taiwan-based analyst Dan Nystedt, reports from compiled numbers from calendar-year revenue figures, not fiscal-year revenue. These figures also include revenue from other sources within each company and aren't just from income derived from manufacturing silicon.

TSMC Is now the world's largest semiconductor company in the world, earning $69.3 billion in 2023 which is much more than Intel earning $54.2 billion in the same year. Samsung dropped down to $50.9 billion, while NVIDIA is still doing good with over $58 billion for 2023.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has just announced plans to build a second fab in Japan, which will be run by Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (JASM) which is a majority-owned TSMC subsidiary.

The new fab in Japan will build 6nm and 7nm-class process nodes, which when TSMC's new facility is operational in Japan, will make it the most advanced semiconductor production facility for logic chips in Japan. TSMC expects its new Japan-based fab to begin operation this year, with plans to begin operation by the end of the 2027 calendar year.

TSMC's production of 6nm and 7nm chips from its second fab in Japan will make chips for automotive, industrial, consumer, and HPC-related applications. It's expected that over 3400 high-tech professional jobs will be created from this new deal, that's expected to exceed $20 billion with "strong support from the Japanese government".

Tucker Carlson has had some gigantic interviews and hundreds of millions of views on interviews with world leaders (and many others) since his exit from Fox News... but nothing compares to his latest interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Tucker flew out to Moscow, Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin, with the new interview between Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin not live yet, but it's coming very soon, with Tucker releasing a "trailer" to his news ahead of the interview release. Patrick Webb got an early look at the interview, where he has some choice quotes from Putin early.

Tucker asked who Putin thinks runs the United States, to which the Russian President replied: "The same forces which have always run it. You may change presidents but you do not change those in real power. That is who we have to deal with. Joe Biden is just a facade for this power structure".

ASUS has just announced it's made Fortune's list of 2024 World's Most Admired Companies, which is the 9th time ASUS has received this honor.

The company was recognized for its extraordinary achievements in areas including global competitiveness, social responsibility, product service quality, and more. ASUS continues its technological innovation, maintaining its global leadership in areas like motherboards, computers, monitors, graphics cards, peripherals, routers, and more.

The company also has collaborations with strategic partners like AMD, Intel, NVIDIA and others, which has continued to strengthen its presence in gaming, commercial, and industrial markets. The new AI market has also been a huge push for ASUS, which has rapidly advanced its AI applications, integrating cloud services, efficient computing power, and big-data platforms, as well as expanding into diverse fields such as smart healthcare, smart transportation, smart manufacturing, smart education, smart cloud, and smart retail.

Joe Rogan signed on for an exclusive deal over at Spotify in 2020, which was reportedly worth up to $100 million, but now the world's biggest podcast will be staying over at Spotify for an undisclosed amount of time and for reportedly much more money.

"The Joe Rogan Experience" will be staying over at Spotify, but according to reports from The Wall Street Journal, the new deal will include a revenue-sharing model based on ad sales that will enable Rogan to publish his podcast on multiple platforms. Under this new deal, Spotify will be able to control ad distribution across the multiple platforms the "The Joe Rogan Experience" will appear on.

Rogan confirmed the show was returning to YouTube in an Instagram post celebrating the new deal, "In addition to being available on Spotify, the show will soon be available on additional platforms like Apple, Amazon, and YouTube." The podcast has more than 2,200 hundred episodes and has featured a wide range of guests, each chosen by Rogan himself based on his personal interest in the guest.

Raytheon has just announced a new $20 million contract through its Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems (SSMARTS) consortium to develop a next-gen, multi-chip package that will be used in ground, maritime, and airborne sensors and built by AMD.

Under the new contract, Raytheon says it will package state-of-the-art commercial devices from partners like AMD to create a compact microelectronics package that will convert radio frequency energy to digital information with more bandwidth and higher data rates. This new chip will enable new system capabilities designed with higher performance, lower power consumption, and reduced weight.

Colin Whelan, president of Advanced Technology at Raytheon, said: "By teaming with commercial industry, we can incorporate cutting-edge technology into Department of Defense applications on a much faster timescale. Together, we will deliver the first multi-chip package that features the latest in interconnect ability - which will provide new system capabilities to our warfighters".