The US government's acquisition of a 9.9% stake in Intel, alongside TSMC's exclusion from such equity participation, highlights contrasting subsidy approaches under shifting US administrations. For TSMC, the exclusion preserves operational independence, and the US-Intel deal may temper regulatory scrutiny over its dominant market position, even as global semiconductor competition intensifies
Meta Platforms has reportedly signed a six-year agreement worth US$10 billion with Google Cloud, marking an unprecedented partnership between two dominant companies in digital advertising. The collaboration underscores both Meta's growing need for cloud computing resources and Alphabet's expanding presence in the cloud services market
Since August 11, 2025, when Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, and following the White House confirmation on August 22 that it would subsidize Intel through the CHIPS and Science Act in exchange for about a 10% equity stake, speculation has swirled around Trump's special mission to save Intel and promote "Made in America.
At the OCP APAC Summit, Ethernet and UALink advocates clashed over data center interconnect architectures. Kurtis Bowman, UALink board chair and AMD's director of architecture and strategy, questioned Ethernet's latency performance in scale-up scenarios, arguing that its technical limits hinder high-performance application scaling
Nvidia's framing of the next AI wave as "physical AI" has fueled investor and industry excitement around humanoid robots, accelerating development. But according to a DIGITIMES report, 2025: The first year of humanoid robots — Global market trends and key technologies, humanoids will represent only 0.2% of the global robotics market in 2025, with usage largely confined to logistics, warehousing, and manufacturing. Broader adoption remains a distant prospect
The Financial Times recently cited sources revealing that before Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan visited the White House on August 11, 2025, to meet with President Donald Trump, a preliminary framework for SoftBank's equity investment in Intel had already been established. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son met with Tan weeks earlier to discuss potential deals
The launch of the Pixel 10 series marks the tenth anniversary of Google's Pixel brand. Over the past decade, the company's smartphone venture has highlighted persistent shortcomings in hardware sales and market execution
History shows that past productivity improvements have always been accompanied by high-density energy conversion and industrial efficiency enhancements: from hydropower, steam, electrification, automobiles and oil, to IT and the internet, and now AI
As automotive computing platforms increasingly demand higher performance, longer lifespans, and near-zero defect rates, chip architecture faces the challenge of balancing system reliability with cost efficiency under stringent automotive standards. Chiplets are emerging as a pivotal pathway to meet these requirements
Reports that Chinese automaker BYD may enter the Taiwanese market through indirect channels have sparked widespread debate, reflecting growing interest—alongside skepticism—toward Chinese electric vehicles (EVs). While some Taiwanese consumers are intrigued by the value proposition, many industry experts remain wary of potential safety and privacy risks
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick recently stated in interviews that the government should not only offer free subsidies but also acquire non-voting stakes to safeguard American taxpayers' interests. A spokesperson from the White House confirmed that discussions are ongoing with Intel regarding a deal for a 10% equity stake
As the US government seriously considers taking a stake in Intel, the company faces more than just a simple transaction; it has become a strategic industry bet. Once the semiconductor leader, Intel's lagging advanced process technology has gradually eroded its ability to compete with TSMC and Samsung Electronics at the 7nm, 5nm, and even upcoming 2nm nodes. Meanwhile, construction delays at the Ohio wafer fab have hindered the US government's carefully crafted blueprint for domestic advanced manufacturing from materializing
Gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors are on the brink of a major transformation. Once hailed as the rising star among third-generation semiconductors, this technology has fallen from grace due to intense price competition in the Chinese market. Now, with global GaN foundry leader TSMC announcing its withdrawal by mid-2027, the entire industry is entering an early era of fragmentation reminiscent of the Warring States period
Like advanced AI processors, high-bandwidth memory (HBM) has been a target of US export curbs under former President Joe Biden. HBM capacity and bandwidth shape the speed and efficiency of AI training and inference. From Nvidia's H100 to the GB200, HBM capacity has grown 2.4 times and bandwidth 2.6 times. Despite that, China still lacks self-developed HBM and cutting-edge AI chips, which have been left exposed to Washington's pressure points
US President Donald Trump recently announced that semiconductor tariffs could reach 300%, yet this has not triggered panic in the chip industry. Supply chain players stress that the market's primary concern is the impact on TSMC, but in reality, whether the tariff rate is 100%, 300%, or even 500%, the US risks mostly harming itself
