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☆ Micron Will Receive $6.1 Billion to Build Semiconductor Plants
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Madeleine Ngo | Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration will give Micron up to $6.1 billion in grants to help build its semiconductor plants in New York and Idaho, the latest multibillion dollar award aimed at ramping up the nation’s production of vital semiconductors. More than a year ago, Micron announced plans to expand its manufacturing footprint in the United States. In September 2022, the company said it would build a $15 billion factory in its hometown, Boise, Idaho, the first new U.S. memory chip plant in 20 years. The complex could eventually include up to four new manufacturing plants. Company officials have said the investment is expected to create roughly 50,000 jobs, including about 9,000 direct positions at its plants.

Persons: Biden, Chuck Schumer Organizations: Micron, Biden Locations: New York, Idaho, United States, Boise , Idaho, U.S, Syracuse, N.Y

☆ U.S. Awards Samsung $6.4 Billion to Bolster Semiconductor Production
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Madeleine Ngo | Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration will give up to $6.4 billion in grants to Samsung, one of the world’s largest chipmakers, the latest in a slew of awards intended to shore up domestic production of cutting-edge semiconductors. The money will help Samsung, the South Korean company, fund its new chip manufacturing hub in Taylor, Texas, and expand an existing site in nearby Austin. Samsung will now build an additional manufacturing plant and upgrade a facility under construction in Taylor. Federal officials said the grants would help create a U.S. hub for the development and production of leading-edge semiconductors. The announcement follows other awards that federal officials have made to semiconductor manufacturers in recent weeks.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Samsung, South Korean, Federal, Commerce Department Locations: Taylor , Texas, Austin, Taylor, Texas, U.S, United States

☆ TSMC Will Receive $6.6 Billion to Bolster U.S. Chip Manufacturing
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Madeleine Ngo | Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration will award up to $6.6 billion in grants to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the leading maker of the most advanced microchips, in a bid to bring some of the most cutting-edge semiconductor technology to the United States. TSMC will also increase its total investments in the United States to more than $65 billion, up from $40 billion. Bringing the world’s most sophisticated chip manufacturing to the United States has been a major goal for the Biden administration. Although semiconductors were invented in the United States, production has largely shifted overseas in recent decades. Only about 10 percent of the world’s chips are made in the United States.

Persons: Biden, TSMC Organizations: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Locations: United States, U.S, Phoenix, Phoenix , U.S

☆ Nvidia Says Growth Will Continue as A.I. Hits ‘Tipping Point’
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nvidia, the kingpin of chips powering artificial intelligence, on Wednesday released quarterly financial results that reinforced how the company has become one of the biggest winners of the artificial intelligence boom, and it said demand for its products would fuel continued sales growth. Nvidia has become known as one of the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks, which along with others like Amazon, Apple and Microsoft have helped power the stock market. Last week, the company briefly eclipsed the market values of Amazon and Alphabet before receding to the fifth-most-valuable tech company. Its stock market gains are largely a result of repeatedly exceeding analysts’ expectations for growth, a feat that is becoming more difficult as they keep raising their predictions. Revenue was well above the $20 billion the company predicted in November and above Wall Street estimates of $20.4 billion.

Organizations: Nvidia, Wednesday, Apple, Microsoft, Revenue

☆ Plans to Expand U.S. Chip Manufacturing Are Running Into Obstacles
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Don Clark | Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In December 2022, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the key maker of the world’s most cutting-edge chips, said it planned to spend $40 billion in Arizona on its first major U.S. hub for semiconductor production. The much ballyhooed project outside Phoenix — with two new factories, including one with more advanced technology — became a symbol of President Biden’s quest to spur more domestic production of chips, the slices of silicon that help all manner of devices make calculations and store data. Then last summer, TSMC pushed back initial manufacturing at its first Arizona factory to 2025 from this year, saying local workers lacked expertise in installing some sophisticated equipment. Last month, the company said the second plant wouldn’t produce chips until 2027 or 2028, rather than 2026, citing uncertainty about tech choices and federal funding. Progress at the Arizona site partly depends on “how much incentives that the U.S. government can provide,” Mark Liu, TSMC’s chairman, said in an investor call.

Persons: —, Biden’s, TSMC, ” Mark Liu Organizations: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Phoenix Locations: Arizona, U.S, Phoenix —

☆ U.S. Awards $1.5 Billion to Chipmaker GlobalFoundries
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Ana Swanson | Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration on Monday announced a $1.5 billion award to the New York-based chipmaker GlobalFoundries, one of the first sizable grants from a government program aimed at revitalizing semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. As part of the plan to bolster GlobalFoundries, the administration will also make available another $1.6 billion in federal loans. The grants are expected to triple the company’s production capacity in the state of New York over ten years. The funding represents an effort by the Biden administration and lawmakers of both parties to try to revitalize American semiconductor manufacturing. Currently, just 12 percent of chips are made in the United States, with the bulk manufactured in Asia.

Persons: Biden, GlobalFoundries Organizations: Monday, GlobalFoundries, General Motors Locations: New York, United States, Asia, Malta, N.Y

☆ Nvidia Triples Quarterly Revenue, but Sales in China Are a Concern
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A start-up driving the artificial intelligence revolution may be in turmoil, but the semiconductor supplier propelling its innovations seems to be getting only stronger. On Tuesday, Nvidia continued its string of blistering quarterly earnings reports, driven by stellar sales for A.I. Microsoft uses thousands of those chips to handle calculations for OpenAI, the generative A.I. Nvidia said revenue for its third quarter, which ended in October, tripled from a year earlier to $18.1 billion, while profit surged nearly fourteenfold, to $9.2 billion. The sales figure was nearly $2 billion higher than the company had predicted in August and much higher than analysts expected.

Persons: Sam Altman Organizations: Nvidia, Microsoft

☆ Lakers take down Grizzlies for third straight win
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Field Level Media | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/126] Nov 14, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) with guard Max Christie (10) before playing against the against the Memphis Grizzlies at Crypto.com Arena. The Lakers improved to 5-0 at home this season, while two victories in their win streak have come during in-season tournament games. Xavier Tillman and Desmond Bane each scored 15 points for the Grizzlies, who don't play again until Saturday at San Antonio. The Grizzlies' Bane and the Lakers' Russell also were assessed technicals. Los Angeles also grabbed its first halftime lead of the season, going up 74-51 at the break by shooting 55.6 percent from the field.

Persons: Austin Reaves, Max Christie, Gary A, Vasquez, D'Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Russell, James, Santi Aldama, David Roddy, Xavier Tillman, Desmond Bane, Steven Adams, Brandon Clarke, Achilles, Derrick Rose, Ja Morant, Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard, Davis, Aldama, Bane, Los Angeles Organizations: Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Crypto.com, NBA, Lakers, Grizzlies, Clippers, San, Thomson Locations: Los Angeles , California, USA, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Los

That decision gives U.S. officials new sway over companies in the Netherlands and Japan, where some of the most advanced chip machinery is made. In particular, U.S. rules will now stop shipments of some machines that use deep ultraviolet, or DUV, technology made mainly by the Dutch firm ASML, which dominates the lithography market. Peter Wennink, the chief executive officer, said that it was “just a handful” of Chinese chip factories where the company would not be able to ship certain tools. But “it is still sales that we had in 2023 that we’ll not have in 2024,” he added. ASML’s technology has enabled leaps in global computing power.

Persons: Vera Kranenburg, ASML, “, ”, Peter Wennink, we’ll, Liesje Schreinemacher Organizations: Clingendael Institute, U.S . Department of Commerce Locations: Netherlands, Japan, U.S, China, Dutch, United States

☆ Arm, a British Chip Designer, Juggles Challenges Before 2023’s Biggest I.P.O.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He reports to Masayoshi Son, the head of SoftBank, which owns Arm and plans to sell a portion of the British company this week in the year’s biggest initial public offering. And Mr. Haas must juggle the demands of more than 200 companies that use Arm’s technology. Ten of the biggest — including Apple, Google, Samsung and Nvidia — have been negotiating for stakes in the highly anticipated Arm offering as artificial intelligence drives explosive demand for more powerful chips. “It’s only going to get more and more complex,” Mr. Haas said in a speech in May at a trade show in Taiwan. How Arm performs will also influence the market for public listings, which has been quiet for much of the year.

Persons: Rene Haas, Masayoshi, Rishi Sunak, Haas, It’s, Mr, “, I’ve Organizations: Officials, Apple, Google, Samsung, Nvidia Locations: British, Beijing, Washington, Taiwan

☆ Nvidia Revenue Doubles on Demand for A.I. Chips, and Could Go Higher
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

They also sharply raised the interest in what Nvidia might say the next time about chip demand for its current quarter, which ends in October. Nvidia projected third-quarter sales of $16 billion, nearly triple the level a year ago and $3.7 billion more than analysts’ average expectations of around $12.3 billion. Other tech companies like Google and Microsoft are spending billions and making little on A.I., but Nvidia is cashing in. Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, said major cloud services and other companies were investing to bring Nvidia’s A.I. Until recently, Nvidia got the biggest share of its revenue from sales of GPUs for rendering images in video games.

Persons: Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s, ” Organizations: Nvidia, Google, Microsoft

☆ Arm, the Chip Designer, Files for an I.P.O. Expected to Be Among the Largest
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Santul Nerkar | Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Why It MattersThe move will provide Arm’s parent company, SoftBank, with more capital to further invest in start-ups. In the filing, Arm said more than 30 billion Arm-manufactured chips were shipped last fiscal year. But Arm technology is also found in myriad other products, including home appliances, cars and industrial equipment. Arm was a public company until 2016, when SoftBank bought it for $32 billion. SoftBank has taken huge losses since that failed acquisition, posting a $3.3 billion loss in this year’s first quarter.

Persons: Masayoshi Son, SoftBank, Rene Haas Organizations: Apple, Nvidia, Vision

☆ How Nvidia Built a Competitive Moat Around A.I. Chips
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Over more than 10 years, Nvidia has built a nearly impregnable lead in producing chips that can perform complex A.I. trend early, tailoring its chips to those tasks and then developing key pieces of software that aid in A.I. That has turned Nvidia, for all intents and purposes, into a one-stop shop for A.I. chips, Nvidia today accounts for more than 70 percent of A.I. revolution became clear when it projected a 64 percent leap in quarterly revenue, far more than Wall Street had expected.

Persons: Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s Organizations: Nvidia, Google, Meta, IBM, Wall

China has effectively scuttled a $5.4 billion deal by Intel, the Silicon Valley semiconductor giant, in the latest sign of the frayed business ties between China and the United States. Intel, which has long had operations in China, said Wednesday that it had “mutually agreed” to terminate a planned merger with Tower Semiconductor, an Israeli chip manufacturer. The announcement came after China’s antitrust regulators failed to rule on the transaction before a deadline set by the companies. The planned merger, announced in February 2022, passed antitrust reviews in the United States and Europe. But it ran into a lengthy delay in China, where regulators review mergers of companies that earn a certain amount of revenue in the country.

Organizations: Intel, Tower Semiconductor Locations: China, United States, Europe

☆ Silicon Valley, Cradle of Computer Chips, Gains Big New Research Center
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Silicon Valley got its name from computer chips, but no longer plays a central role in shaping how they are made. A major supplier to the industry hopes to change that. Silicon Valley hasn’t seen a comparable semiconductor construction project in more than 30 years, industry analysts say. The company expects to invest up to $4 billion in the project over seven years, with a portion of that money coming from federal subsidies, while creating up to 2,000 engineering jobs. What sets Applied Materials’ move apart is that it focuses on research, rather than manufacturing, and is a substantial new commitment to the industry’s original hub.

☆ Commerce Dept. Outlines Plans to Fund Cutting-Edge Chip Research
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Ana Swanson | Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The plans are part of the Biden administration’s effort to reinvigorate semiconductor manufacturing and ensure that the United States has a steady supply of chips necessary to feed its factories and support its national defense. The Commerce Department has been charged with doling out $50 billion to revitalize the industry, including $11 billion devoted to research and development. “It should be on areas that no one company can solve alone,” she said. Companies, universities, lawmakers and local governments have been lobbying the administration to set up an outpost of the new organization in their area. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader and an author of the legislation that funded the semiconductor investment, said in a statement Tuesday that he was pushing to make Albany, N.Y., a site for the new organization.

☆ Gordon Moore, Intel Co-Founder and Author of Moore’s Law, Dies at 94
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Asa Fitch | Don Clark | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Gordon Moore , the electronics pioneer who co-founded Intel Corp. and whose groundbreaking theories defined the tempo of innovation in semiconductors, has died at the age of 94. A 1965 article by Mr. Moore published in the trade journal Electronics predicted the pace of miniaturization in computer chips and anticipated the development of home computers, smart wristwatches, automatic controls for cars and other inventions as electronic components etched on squares of silicon become smaller, faster and cheaper. Moore’s Law, as his prediction became known, proved a remarkably accurate observation about how quickly engineers would create advances in digital technology that have led to countless fixtures of modern life.

☆ Photos show the tragic mass stranding event the killed a super pod of 200 whales in Australia
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

200 long-finned pilot whales have now died in the mass stranding event. The episode comes two years after 380 pilot whales were stranded and died in the same harbor area. - About 200 pilot whales have perished after stranding themselves on an exposed, surf-swept beach on the rugged west coast of Tasmania. GLENN NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty ImagesThis event comes just two years after the largest mass whale stranding happened in the same harbor. The largest ever recorded whale mass stranding was in 1918, when approximately 1,000 pilot whales came ashore on the Chatham Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

(CNN) Around 200 whales have died and just 35 remain alive following a mass stranding in Australia this week, rescue teams say. The pilot whales were found Wednesday stranded on an exposed beach along the coast of Tasmania. Rescue efforts are ongoing to save the remaining whales. "We are primarily focused this morning on really getting into that rescue operation and getting [the whales] released," Brendon Clark of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service told the Australia Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday. "We are conscious that some of them may re-beach themselves and so we'll be monitoring that."

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