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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) logo is seen while people attend the opening of the TSMC global R&D center in Hsinchu, Taiwan July 28, 2023. In the past five months the improvement has been tremendous," TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said of the Arizona project last week. The $40 billion investment in Arizona allows TSMC to add capacity outside Taiwan, where it faces constraints on land, power, water and labour. "A lot of machines cannot be shut down because it costs TSMC to recalibrate on rebooting," said a chip industry executive. While many equipment and materials makers already have global operations, to meet its exacting standards TSMC has also brought suppliers to Japan from Taiwan, the sources said.

Persons: Ann Wang, TSMC, Mark Liu, Lucy Chen, Brady Wang, Sam Nussey, Fanny Potkin, Sarah Wu, Miho Uranaka, Jamie Freed Organizations: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, REUTERS, TSMC, Reuters, Isaiah Research, Sony, Ministry, Economy, Trade, Industry, Thomson Locations: Hsinchu, Taiwan, Japan, TOKYO, SINGAPORE, TAIPEI, Arizona, Kyushu, U.S, Germany, TSMC

The second person familiar with the plans confirmed the presence of several large U.S. chips companies, including Amkor, their Vietnamese partners, such as tech company FPT (FPT.HM), and Vietnamese and U.S. top officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Chip designing firm Marvell has said it plans to build a "world-class" centre in Vietnam. Vingroup (VIC.HM), Vietnam's largest conglomerate and the parent of Nasdaq-listed electric car maker VinFast , has a unit focussed on AI. Boeing may announce a deal involving the sale of 50 of its 737 MAX jets, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; additional reporting by Fanny Potkin; Editing by William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Joe Biden, Leah Millis, Antony Blinken, Janet Yellen, Marvell, Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio, Fanny Potkin, William Mallard Organizations: Warehouse Union, Pacific Maritime Association, White, REUTERS, Rights, Intel, Google, Marvell, Boeing, Reuters, Sunday, Samsung, Qualcomm, Nasdaq, Thomson Locations: Washington , U.S, Rights HANOI, U.S, Hanoi, Vietnam, China, Taiwan

☆ Qualcomm focuses on AI and auto as Nvidia takes over as world’s biggest fabless chip company
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Katie Tarasov | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Until last month, Qualcomm was also the world's biggest fabless chip company. But Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon is betting that one day, generative AI will be in high demand off the cloud, too. Qualcomm modems are inside all iPhone models currently being made, including the next model set to come out next week. Today, Qualcomm has more than 140,000 patents. The other lawsuit came from Apple, which sued Qualcomm for roughly $1 billion for charging royalties for technologies Apple said Qualcomm had "nothing to do with."

Persons: Cristiano Amon, Amon, Chris Patrick, Irwin Jacobs, Jacobs, Nobody, Jay Goldberg, Patrick, it's, Daniel Newman, Newman, It's, Donald Trump, Stacy Rasgon, Qualcomm's Amon, CNBC it's Organizations: Qualcomm, Nvidia, Amazon Web Services, CNBC, Apple, Quality Communications, D2D, Futurum, Federal Trade Commission, Broadcom, Bernstein Research, GM, BMW, Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Intel Locations: San Diego, China, Taiwan, Asia, That's, U.S, Arizona

Germany, which has been courting the world's largest contract chipmaker since 2021, will contribute up to 5 billion euros to the factory in Dresden, capital of the eastern state of Saxony, German officials said. "There is going to be a real ecosystem for semiconductor manufacturing in Germany," said economy minister Robert Habeck. VOTE OF CONFIDENCETSMC said it would invest up to 3.499 billion euros into a subsidiary, European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC), of which it will own 70%. Semiconductor makers Intel (INTC.O) and Wolfspeed (WOLF.N) have already taken advantage of the subsidies on offer to set up shop in Germany. TSMC said in a statement after a board meeting that approved the German investment that it had also approved a capital injection of not more than $4.5 billion for the Arizona plant as part of the overall $40 billion investment.

Persons: Robert Habeck, TSMC, Germany's Bosch, Habeck, Ben Blanchard, Thomas Escritt, Louise Heavens, Mark Potter Organizations: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, European Union, Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Infineon, Semiconductor, Intel, EU, Sony, Thomson Locations: Dresden, Arizona, TAIPEI, BERLIN, Germany, Europe, Taiwan, China, Asia, United States, Saxony, Netherlands, Ukraine, U.S, Japan

☆ Germany spends big to win $11 billion TSMC chip plant
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC on Tuesday committed 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion) to a factory in Germany, its first in Europe, taking advantage of huge state support for the $11 billion plant as the continent seeks to bring supply chains closer to home. TSMC said it would invest up to 3.499 billion euros into a subsidiary, European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC), of which it will own 70%. The factory will cost around 10 billion euros in total. “There is going to be a real ecosystem for semiconductor manufacturing in Germany,” he said. TSMC said in a statement after a board meeting that approved the German investment that it had also approved a capital injection of not more than $4.5 billion for the Arizona plant as part of the overall $40 billion investment.

Persons: TSMC, Olaf Scholz, Michael Kretschmer, ” Kretschmer, Germany’s, NXP, Robert Habeck, ”, “ It’s Organizations: European Union, Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Germany, Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Germany’s Bosch, Infineon, Semiconductor, EU, Sony Locations: Germany, Europe, Taiwan, China, Asia, United States, Dresden, Saxony, ” Saxony, Netherlands, Ukraine, Arizona, Japan

☆ U.S. will be short 67,000 chip workers by 2030, industry group says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Max A. Cherney | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

July 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. semiconductor industry faces a shortfall of roughly 67,000 workers by 2030, according to an industry association study published on Tuesday. The chip industry's workforce is projected to grow to 460,000 by the end of the decade, up from roughly 345,000 this year. The law also created a 25% investment tax credit for building new chip factories, or fabs, that is worth $24 billion. Roughly half of the future chip industry jobs will be engineers. The shortage of skilled chip workers is part of a larger shortfall of science, technology, engineering and math graduates in the U.S., according to the report.

Persons: John Neuffer, Max A, Christian Schmollinger Organizations: Semiconductor Industry Association, SIA, Oxford Economics, Commerce Department, Intel Corp, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Samsung Electronics Co, Thomson Locations: U.S, KS, San Francisco

☆ How Samsung and Texas Instruments made the Lone Star State the hub of U.S. chip manufacturing
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Katie Tarasov | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Samsung, Texas Instruments, Infineon, GlobalWafers, NXP, X-FAB and Applied Materials have all ramped up Texas operations in recent months. Texas Instruments' fab in Sherman, a town of 45,000 people 60 miles north of Dallas, is an even bigger investment. Texas Instruments was founded in 1930 as Geophysical Service Inc., adopting its current name in 1951. CNBC interviewed Flessner at Texas Instruments' RFAB2 fab in Richardson, Texas, a suburb just north of Dallas. Water and powerTexas Instruments' $17 billion chip fab project in Sherman, Texas, on June 15, 2023.

Persons: It's, Greg Abbott, Abbott, Melissa Hebert, Infineon's, Katie Tarasov, Andrew Evers, it's, Austin that's, Jon Taylor, Taylor, David Plyler, Plyler, Jack Kilby, Kyle Flessner, Flessner, Andrew Evers Flessner, Austin fabs Organizations: Samsung, Republican Texas Gov, CNBC, Lone Star State, Texas Instruments, Infineon, Apple, Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Texas, Service Inc, TI, Local, Texas -, Texas Water, Taylor, Texans Locations: Austin , Texas, South Korean, Sherman , Texas, Texas, China, Taiwan, that's, Arizona, , Texas, Austin, Taylor, U.S, United States, Sherman, Dallas, Richardson , Texas, Richardson, Texoma, Texas - Oklahoma

☆ China's Huawei poised to overcome US ban with return of 5G phones - research firms
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( David Kirton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] A Huawei logo and a 5G sign are pictured at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai, China June 28, 2019. Huawei should be able to procure 5G chips domestically using its own advances in semiconductor design tools along with chipmaking from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co (SMIC), three third-party technology research firms covering China's smartphone sector told Reuters. The firms, citing industry sources including Huawei suppliers, spoke on condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements with clients. The second research firm said it noticed Huawei had asked SMIC to produce chip components below 14 nm this year for 5G products. The forecast yield rate of less than 50% means that 5G chips are "going to be costly", said Doug Fuller who researches chips at the Copenhagen Business School.

Persons: Aly, SMIC, Canalys, Doug Fuller, Fuller, David Kirton, Jamie Freed Organizations: Huawei, Mobile World Congress, REUTERS, Huawei Technologies, chipmaking, Semiconductor Manufacturing International, Reuters, Apple, Samsung, China Securities Journal, Copenhagen Business School, Thomson Locations: Shanghai, China, SHENZHEN, Shenzhen, U.S, Washington

☆ China's Huawei poised to overcome US ban with return of 5G phones, research firms say
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( David Kirton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Huawei should be able to procure 5G chips domestically using its own advances in semiconductor design tools along with chipmaking from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co (SMIC), three third-party technology research firms covering China's smartphone sector told Reuters. The firms, citing industry sources including Huawei suppliers, spoke on condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements with clients. [1/2]A Huawei logo and a 5G sign are pictured at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai, China June 28, 2019. The second research firm said it noticed Huawei had asked SMIC to produce chip components below 14 nm this year for 5G products. The forecast yield rate of less than 50% means that 5G chips are "going to be costly", said Doug Fuller who researches chips at the Copenhagen Business School.

Persons: SMIC, Canalys, Aly, Doug Fuller, Fuller, David Kirton, Jamie Freed Organizations: Huawei, Huawei Technologies, chipmaking, Semiconductor Manufacturing International, Reuters, Apple, Samsung, China Securities Journal, Mobile World Congress, REUTERS, Copenhagen Business School, Thomson Locations: SHENZHEN, China, Shenzhen, U.S, Shanghai, Washington

☆ Foxconn pulls out of chipmaking project with India's Verdanta
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Hong Kong CNN —Foxconn says it is exiting an ambitious project to help build one of India’s first chip factories. The news was seen as a blow to the Indian government’s plans to turn the country into a tech manufacturing powerhouse, even as officials have sought to counter that view. In a followup statement Tuesday, Foxconn reaffirmed its commitment to invest in Indian chipmaking. The project had been hailed as a milestone in India’s campaign to attract more investment in manufacturing, a sector sorely needed to help ease unemployment. Prime Minister Modi had framed the project as a significant boost for the economy and jobs.

Persons: Hong Kong CNN — Foxconn, Foxconn, Vedanta, Narendra Modi, “, Young Liu, Ashwini Vaishnaw, ” Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Modi Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Vedanta, CNN, Apple, Indian, News18, Micron Locations: Hong Kong, Asia’s, India, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, China, Taipei, Mumbai, Gujarat

☆ Exclusive: US, Dutch set to hit China's chipmakers with one-two punch
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Karen Freifeld | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

ASML said in March it expects the Dutch regulations to affect its TWINSCAN NXT:2000i and more sophisticated models. But the company's older DUV models, like one called the TWINSCAN NXT:1980Di, could also be kept from about six Chinese facilities by the U.S. The new Dutch regulations will not take effect immediately, sources said, with one person expecting the effective date to be September, two months after publication. ASML is Europe's largest chip equipment company due to its dominance in lithography, one of the central steps in the computer chip making process. Other companies that could be impacted by the new Dutch rules include atomic layer deposition firm ASM International.

Persons: Liu Pengyu, ASML, Karen Freifeld, Toby Sterling, Anna Driver, Stephen Coates Organizations: . Commerce Department, Lam Research, Materials, Embassy, Nikon Corp, Tokyo Electron, U.S, SMIC, International, Thomson Locations: United States, Netherlands, U.S, China, Washington, Japan, ASML'S, Almere, Amsterdam

☆ U.S., Dutch set to hit China's chipmakers with one-two punch
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Japan, home to chip equipment makers Nikon and Tokyo Electron , has since adopted rules to restrict exports of 23 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment that will take effect July 23. ASML said in March it expects the Dutch regulations to affect its TWINSCAN NXT:2000i and more sophisticated models. But the company's older DUV models, like one called the TWINSCAN NXT:1980Di, could also be kept from about six Chinese facilities by the U.S. The new Dutch regulations will not take effect immediately, sources said, with one person expecting the effective date to be September, two months after publication. ASML is Europe's largest chip equipment company due to its dominance in lithography, one of the central steps in the computer chip making process.

Persons: Mark Rutte, Joe Biden, Liu Pengyu, ASML Organizations: . Commerce Department, Lam Research, Materials, Embassy, Nikon, Tokyo, U.S, SMIC, International Locations: Netherlands, U.S, China, United States, Washington, Japan, ASML'S, Almere

☆ Chipmaker GlobalFoundries forecasts downbeat quarter, shares fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 9 (Reuters) - GlobalFoundries Inc (GFS.O) projected quarterly revenue below estimates on Tuesday as the chip manufacturer takes a hit from slumping sales of smartphones and other consumer electronics, sending its shares down nearly 5% in premarket trading. GlobalFoundries forecast second-quarter revenue between $1.81 billion and $1.85 billion, the midpoint of which was slightly lower than estimates of $1.85 billion, according to Refinitiv. GlobalFoundries' revenue came in at $1.84 billion for the quarter ended March 31, beating analysts' estimates of $1.83 billion, according to Refinitiv. GlobalFoundries reported an adjusted profit of 52 cents per share, exceeding Wall Street estimates of 49 cents per share. Reporting by Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu SahuOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Japan Display forms alliance with China's HKC on chip fabs, auto displays
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, April 10 (Reuters) - Japan Display Inc (6740.T) said on Monday it has formed an alliance with China's HKC Corporation Ltd (HKC) to cooperate on next-generation OLED technology, chip fabrication, and auto displays, sending the Japanese company's shares 10.5% higher. Japan Display and HKC will jointly plan and build fabs using Japan Display's eLEAP OLED technology, targeting mass production in 2025, the Japanese company said. Japan Display is planning more than one plant under the alliance with HKC, Chief Executive Scott Callon told a briefing, adding the tie-up would bring together Japan Display's technology and HKC's cost competitiveness. Japan Display, a maker of phone and computer displays, is on a restructuring drive to turn around its struggling businesses. Japan Display was formed in 2012 when the LCD businesses of Hitachi Ltd (6501.T), Toshiba Corp (6502.T) and Sony Corp (6758.T) merged in a government-brokered deal.

☆ China's Huawei makes breakthrough in design tools for 14nm chips and above - media
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File PhotoSHENZHEN, China, March 24 - Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (HWT.UL) has made breakthroughs in electronic design automation (EDA) tools for chips produced at and above 14-nanometre technology, Caijing financial news magazine reported on Friday, citing a speech by a senior Huawei executive. Huawei will complete testing on the tools this year, rotating chairman Xu Zhijun said in a speech on Feb 28., Caijing reported. Huawei has developed 78 tools related to chip hardware and software, the report added. Chip design companies use EDA software to produce the blueprints for chips before they are mass manufactured at fabs. China is home to a handful of domestic EDA software makers, but experts do not consider them globally competitive.

☆ Huawei makes breakthroughs in design tools for 14nm chips -media
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The announcement comes as Huawei and other Chinese technology companies rush to localise their supply chains in the face of mounting U.S. sanctions. According to a transcript of Xu's remarks published by Caijing, Huawei cooperated with domestic EDA companies to create the software, "basically realising the localisation of EDA tools above 14nm." Chip design companies use EDA software to produce the blueprints for chips before they are mass manufactured at fabs. China is home to a handful of domestic EDA software makers, but experts do not consider them globally competitive. All three overseas EDA companies fell subject to Washington's sanctions against Huawei in 2020.

☆ TSMC founder says he supports US efforts to slow China's chip advances
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Sarah Wu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Morris Chang, the founder of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), speaks on stage during a Chip War book event in Taipei, Taiwan March 16, 2023. In Taiwan, TSMC, Asia's most valuable listed company and a major Apple Inc (AAPL.O) supplier, is widely regarded as the "sacred mountain protecting the country," because of its economic importance. U.S. "onshoring" and "friendshoring" efforts to boost chip manufacturing stateside or in allied countries present a predicament for Taiwan. TSMC is expanding its global production footprint, even as it keeps its most advanced technology in Taiwan. Meanwhile, the Chinese government is plowing billions into bolstering its chip sector, but Chang said China's chip manufacturing technology lags that of Taiwan by "at least five or six years".

☆ Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's bet big on A.I. is paying off as his core technology powers ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Katie Tarasov | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

As the engine behind large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Nvidia is finally reaping rewards for its early investment in AI. Nvidia counts on China for about one-quarter of its revenue, including sales of its popular AI chip, the A100. Nvidia Founder and CEO Jensen Huang shows CNBC's Katie Tarasov a Hopper H100 SXM module in Santa Clara, CA, on February 9, 2023. Nvidia founders Curtis Priem, Jensen Huang and Chris Malachowsky pose at the company's Santa Clara, California, headquarters in 2020. "We invented this new way of doing computer graphics, ray tracing, basically simulating the pathways of light and simulate everything with generative AI.

☆ Alibaba and Ant venture to launch RISC-V chips for payments
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The development comes as Chinese companies continue to invest heavily in chips, in the wake of U.S. export restrictions targeting China's semiconductor sector. Alibaba is one of several Chinese tech companies to pour research and development resources into RISC-V, an alternate chip architecture. The open-source nature of RISC-V's design in theory makes it less susceptible to export restrictions. In 2019, Washington imposed export restrictions on China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (HWT.UL), which threw the company's access to ARM designs in limbo. In late 2022, the United States launched similar export restrictions on Chinese chip fabs and research labs.

☆ U.S. will create at least two semiconductor manufacturing clusters by 2030, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo testifies before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 1, 2022. WASHINGTON — The U.S. will use funds from the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act to create at least two large-scale logic fabs for the manufacture of semiconductors, along with multiple high-volume advanced packaging facilities, by 2030, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced Thursday. U.S.-based manufacturing plants, known as "fabs," will produce advanced memory chips "on economically competitive terms," Raimondo said. "This is fundamentally a national security issue," she said. The Commerce secretary reiterated the government's plans to invest $11 billion in what it calls a National Semiconductor Technology Center.

☆ Startup Unisers raises funds for defect-detecting tools in chipmaking
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Jane Lanhee Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Semiconductor chips are seen on a circuit board of a computer in this illustration picture taken February 25, 2022. So detecting particles soon after they contaminate wafers saves money. "We are the only company which can detect these extremely small, small, smaller than 10 nanometer particles on wafer," Altun told Reuters. The technology in the new machines is the first product from Unisers. The technology of Unisers is also aimed at detecting impurities in materials, another source of defects.

☆ State of the portfolio: What Biden's address means for 10 Club stocks from Caterpillar to Ford
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

President Joe Biden 's State of the Union address put the spotlight on multiple tailwinds that will benefit 10 Club holdings including Caterpillar (CAT) and Ford (F). Linde Linde, a longtime Club holding, supplies industrial gases needed at semiconductor manufacturing facilities, known as fabrication plants. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB.

☆ Dutch, Japanese curbs on chip equipment to China may not be tough enough -industry group
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Karen Freifeld | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Feb 1 (Reuters) - A chip industry group is warning that if U.S. allies do not adopt curbs on semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China that are comparable to U.S. controls, they will not be effective. However, in a lengthy comment dated Jan. 31 on the October regulations, the group expressed concern that the allies' curbs would not be nearly as restrictive as the U.S. controls. It noted that U.S. equipment companies' share of the Chinese market has eroded for the past two years, as Chinese companies anticipated the new curbs. The U.S. Department of Commerce, which issued the October rules and has been working with allies, had no immediate comment. SEMI has over 2,500 members worldwide, including leading U.S. equipment makers Lam Research and Applied Materials.

☆ Factbox: Chinese chipmakers caught in U.S.-China tech spat
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Josh Horwitz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

TSMC is the world's most valuable chipmaker and counts Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) among major clients. Its government-backing and ambition to make high-end chips caught the attention of the United States which put the firm on its Entity List in 2020. To date, most of SMIC's sales are made using the outdated 45 nanometer process node and above. Since late 2020, this specialisation in older chips has proven a boon due to a global shortage of lower-end chips. It produces DRAM at the 19 nanometer node and is moving into the 17 nanometer node - process nodes behind the industry leading-edge.

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