The Hot Take: Again this is a great sign that Intel is definitely clawing back.
In a mutually beneficial deal, Intel repurchases 49% of Fab 34 from Apollo for $14.2 billion, reducing pressure on its margins, but paying a hefty $3 billion premium to the financial company.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: The Fab competition is heating up states side from the look of it.
A new report claims TSMC wants an Arizona âGigaFabâ cluster that can rival what it produces in Taiwan. DigiTimes says TSMCâs US plans have already âexceeded expectationsâ and the outfit is now eyeing a total of 12 fabs. The idea is to mirror the kind of fab network it runs in Hsinchu, Taiwan, only with more cactus and less typhoon risk. The report reckons TSMCâs and Taiwanâs combined US investment could hit half a trillion dollars, with the spending framed as groundwork for something bigger than a couple of token plants. That is a lot of concrete for a country that still argues about potholes. DigiTimes claims TSMC will add two more wafer fabs and two more advanced packaging fabs in Arizona, taking the state to 12 projects in total. The pitch is that this is not just TSMC shipping in kit and engineers, but a wider supply chain shift, so more production stays on US soil. Of course, building chips in the US is not cheap. The report flags higher costs for facilities, labour and depreciation per wafer, but says the early phases are ploughing on regardless. For some reason, the planners seem to be only interested in building data centres in the hottest places in the US, making issues like water and power really tricky. âSupply chain sources say that the plan for these 12 factories is TSMCâs largest overseas investment in history. It has transformed from an initial risk diversification base into an important extension base for advanced processes and packaging, becoming a key to the reconstruction of semiconductor manufacturing in the United States.â DigiTimes ties the fresh confidence to a recent US-Taiwan tariff agreement, with the US administration supposedly lining up incentives via economic and labour support. If that is the deal, Arizona is about to become an expensive negotiating chip. Experts quoted in the report argue the scale was inevitable because 70 per cent of TSMCâs customers are US fabless firms. They want supply security without the political choke points that come with keeping everything in Taiwan. That demand keeps dragging TSMCâs capex higher quarter after quarter, because it is stuck feeding both the front-end wafer crunch and the back-end packaging crunch. Every AI compute outfit wants a slot, and TSMC is the one holding the clipboard. Someone even floated that TSMC could surpass the Fruity Cargo Cult Apple in market value by 2030, which is the sort of prediction that always sounds clever until the next cycle bites. Â
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: So USA looks to be having 3 foundries that will be able to produce 2nm chips. This is great news.
Samsung Electronics has reportedly moved into the equipment installation and testing phase at its foundry in Taylor, Texas, transitioning from construction to operational setup for 2nm production. More than 3,000 engineers from Samsung and global equipment suppliers have begun gathering at the site, according to ET News, signaling the start of large-scale ramp-up activities.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: This is GREAT indication that Intel is clawing its way back.
Intel's US$14.2 billion buyback of its Ireland fab stake signals a shift beyond austerity, reflecting improved finances, renewed confidence in AI-driven CPU demand, and a strategic move to regain full control of key manufacturing capacity amid persistent global semiconductor supply constraints.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Interesting. I mean with the limitless compute of quantum computing it's more than possible.
New research from Google suggests that future quantum computers will develop quickly enough to pose a risk to elliptic-curve cryptography, used in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, as soon as 2029, and its researchers say action should be taken now to prepare.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: I'm sorry optimization is optimization. Stop crying.
Intelâs Binary Optimization Tool (BOT) has come under scrutiny following a technical analysis conducted by Geekbench, which examined how the software impacts benchmark performance.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Whoa, now if publishing house start publishing native you might get my buy in.
Steam just released its March hardware and software survey, and it's clear that the PC gaming market is going through a massive flux as inflated prices force buyers into new (and old) areas.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Following intels steps on the Arc? Also, how much space are the pre-compiled shaders going to consume of diskspace?
NVIDIA has introduced a new beta feature called Auto Shader Compilation, or ASC, through the latest NVIDIA App update, and it targets a familiar pain point in modern PC gaming: long initial loading phases and shader compilation stutter in DirectX 12 titles.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: I love they have a virtical mouse too, but this doesn't look mechanical and they're focus last I knew was on Ai products. Nothing i'll be using any time soon, but hopefully gets others to get more options to market.
Razer has introduced the Pro Type Ergo wireless keyboard, expanding its productivity-focused lineup with a device that blends ergonomic design and integrated workflow controls.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Let's milk the architecture untit the pleebs scream, beg and plead for a new architecture... All while ringing out as much cash from the Ai market......
Thereâs an easier way: A manufacturer could simply release the most expensive gaming graphics card in the series, and the market would eventually settle down. For NVIDIA, however, that moment seems to be a long time coming. Since early February, reports have been circulating that an even more powerful Blackwell modelâpositioned above the GeForce RTX [âŚ] Source
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