News/AI Chips
Akeana Unveils RISC-V Chip Designs to Challenge Arm Dominance
Akeana, a semiconductor design company, has unveiled new RISC-V chip designs after raising $100 million in funding over the past three years. Product launch and company mission: Akeana has formally introduced its line of intellectual property (IP) solutions, aiming to revolutionize the semiconductor industry with customizable RISC-V processors. The company's goal is to challenge the status quo of legacy vendors and architectures, such as Arm, by offering equitable licensing options and high-performance processors. Akeana's products are designed to cater to various semiconductor markets, from microcontrollers to cloud computing. The company is also actively engaged in AI compute solutions, with plans...
read Aug 12, 2024Intel’s Costly Decision to Pass on OpenAI
Intel's strategic misstep in the AI revolution has reshaped the company's trajectory and position in the tech industry, highlighting the critical importance of foresight and adaptability in the rapidly evolving world of technology. The missed opportunity: Intel declined to acquire a significant stake in OpenAI in 2017-2018, a decision that has had far-reaching consequences for the chip giant's position in the AI market. Under CEO Bob Swan's leadership, Intel passed on the chance to acquire a 15% stake in OpenAI for $1 billion, with the potential for an additional 15% stake in exchange for producing hardware at cost. At the...
read Aug 7, 2024EdgeCortix is Making Energy-Efficient AI Chips for Edge Computing
EdgeCortix is pioneering energy-efficient AI processors and software for edge computing, aiming to deliver near cloud-level performance with improved efficiency and speed. The Japanese startup, founded in 2019, is making waves in the AI chip industry with its innovative approach and rapid growth. A software-first approach to AI hardware: EdgeCortix distinguishes itself by prioritizing software optimization to enhance AI processing efficiency at the edge. The company's MERA Compiler and Software framework forms the foundation of their technology stack, enabling optimized AI deployment on their custom hardware. This software-first strategy allows EdgeCortix to fine-tune their hardware designs based on real-world AI...
read Aug 6, 2024Dept of Commerce and SK Hynix Announce Terms of $4B AI Chip Plant in Indiana
SK hynix's $3.87 billion investment in a new high-bandwidth memory facility in Indiana marks a significant step in bolstering U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capabilities, particularly for advanced AI systems, with the support of federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act. Major investment in U.S. semiconductor production: SK hynix, a leading global semiconductor manufacturer, plans to establish a state-of-the-art high-bandwidth memory (HBM) advanced packaging fabrication and research facility in West Lafayette, Indiana. The company intends to invest approximately $3.87 billion in the new facility, demonstrating a substantial commitment to expanding its U.S. operations. The project is expected to create about 1,000...
read Aug 5, 2024Samsung is Mass-Producing Memory Chips to Enable On-Device AI
Samsung's latest breakthrough in memory chip technology marks a significant step forward in supporting on-device AI capabilities for mobile devices. The South Korean tech giant has initiated mass production of ultra-thin, high-capacity DRAM chips that promise to revolutionize the performance and efficiency of AI-powered smartphones and other mobile devices. Cutting-edge technology: Samsung has begun mass-producing the industry's thinnest dynamic random access (DRAM) low-power memory chips, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in mobile computing. The new chips are 12-nanometer (nm)-class LPDDR5X DRAM packages, available in 12-gigabyte (GB) and 16GB capacities. These memory modules are remarkably thin, measuring just 0.65 millimeters...
read Aug 5, 2024Groq Secures $640M to Supercharge AI Inference Capabilities
Groq, an AI infrastructure company, has secured a massive $640 million in Series D funding, propelling its valuation to $2.8 billion and positioning it as a major player in the rapidly evolving AI inference landscape. Funding details and investor backing: The substantial Series D round was spearheaded by BlackRock Private Equity Partners, with additional participation from other investors, demonstrating strong confidence in Groq's technology and market potential. The $640 million injection will be strategically utilized to scale Groq's operational capacity and accelerate the development of its next-generation Language Processing Unit (LPU). This significant financial backing places Groq in a strong...
read Aug 4, 2024Takeaways from the NY Times’ Investigation into Banned AI Chips in China
The United States' efforts to curb China's artificial intelligence progress through export restrictions on advanced AI chips have met with mixed results, as businesses find ways to circumvent the rules and continue supplying Chinese entities with restricted technology. Persistent trade in restricted chips: Despite U.S. national security restrictions, an active trade in Nvidia chips continues to thrive in China, undermining efforts to limit China's access to advanced AI technology. The New York Times investigation uncovered evidence of ongoing sales and distribution of restricted Nvidia chips in China. This trade persists despite the U.S. government's implementation of one of the most...
read Aug 4, 2024AI Chip Black Market Thrives in China, Defying US Export Controls
The U.S. government's efforts to restrict China's access to advanced AI chips are facing significant challenges, as evidenced by the thriving trade in these technologies in Shenzhen's electronics markets. AI chip black market thrives: In Shenzhen, China, a sprawling electronics market has become a hub for the illicit trade of advanced AI microchips, undermining U.S. export controls. Vendors in the market openly offer to supply various types of AI chips, including those manufactured by U.S. companies like Nvidia. One business owner claimed to have recently shipped servers containing over 2,000 of Nvidia's most advanced chips from Hong Kong to mainland...
read Aug 2, 2024Intel’s Woes Trigger Global Chip Selloff, Dragging Markets Down
Key highlights of Intel's announcement: Intel's shares plummeted nearly 30% on Friday following a series of disappointing news, setting the company up for its worst day since 2000: Intel is cutting over 15% of its workforce, amounting to around 15,000 jobs. The company is scrapping its dividend and reported a $1.6 billion loss in Q2, along with a pessimistic Q3 forecast. Ripple effect on global semiconductor stocks: The Intel selloff triggered a widespread decline in semiconductor stocks worldwide: Major Asian chipmakers, including Samsung Electronics, TMSC, and SoftBank Group, experienced significant losses, with SK Hynix and Tokyo Electron hit particularly hard....
read Aug 2, 2024Not All Semiconductor Firms Are Benefitting from the AI Boom
The boom in artificial intelligence (AI) is not benefiting all semiconductor firms equally, as recent earnings reports highlight the complexities and dominance of certain companies in the chip supply chain. Winners in the AI boom: Companies like Nvidia and AMD are reaping the rewards of tech giants' increased spending on computing resources for training large language models (LLMs) and developing generative AI applications: Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) are widely used for training LLMs, leading to a significant boost in the company's revenue. AMD's new MI300X AI chip is gaining traction, with the company expecting data center GPU revenue to...
read Aug 1, 2024US Chip Innovation Holds Key to AI Dominance and Future Global Leadership
The US faces a critical juncture in maintaining its technological edge in AI and chipmaking, with significant implications for its future economic and geopolitical standing. Government efforts to bolster US chip leadership: The US government has taken notable steps to maintain the country's competitive advantage in semiconductors and AI, recognizing the deep interconnection between these two fields: Export restrictions have been imposed on advanced chips and chipmaking equipment to key geopolitical rivals like China, aiming to protect US technological superiority. The CHIPS Act, passed in 2022, allocates $280 billion to boost domestic microchip manufacturing, signaling a strong commitment to revitalizing...
read Jul 31, 2024U.S. to Exempt Allies from Chip Restrictions
Key developments: The Biden administration is reportedly planning to exempt allies like Japan and the Netherlands from forthcoming restrictions on advanced semiconductor technology exports, leading to a rally in chip stocks worldwide: Reuters reported that the U.S. will exempt key allies from the planned trade restrictions, which aim to limit China's access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The news led to significant gains for major chip companies in Japan, the Netherlands, and South Korea, with shares of Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML climbing as much as 11% in Amsterdam. Industry impact: U.S. chip giants Nvidia and AMD also saw substantial...
read Jul 24, 2024Lambda Launches On-Demand H100 GPU Clusters, Democratizing AI Training Access
Key details: Lambda, a GPU cloud company, is launching 1-Click Clusters that provide on-demand access to Nvidia's powerful H100 GPUs and Quantum 2 InfiniBand clusters: The service targets companies that need to train AI models for shorter periods and cannot afford long-term GPU contracts. Customers can reserve 2 to 64 nodes on the Lambda cluster for a minimum of two weeks, with pricing depending on the number of nodes and time period required. Lambda's offering focuses on AI model training, unlike cloud providers like AWS and Azure that primarily support AI inference. Addressing a market need: The new service aims...
read Jul 22, 2024Nvidia Is Developing Custom AI Chip for China, Navigating US Export Restrictions
Nvidia developing custom AI chip for Chinese market: Nvidia is working on a new version of its Blackwell AI chip series specifically for China, known as the B20 for now, in order to adhere to US export rules while still profiting from China's computing market. The B20 could be a less powerful version of the B200 chip announced earlier this year, and Nvidia is partnering with Chinese firm Inspur on the launch, according to Reuters' sources. In 2022, the US barred the sale and shipment of advanced AI chips to China, but Nvidia has been redesigning its AI chips to...
read Jul 21, 2024Qualcomm Hopes to Boost AI App Development By Making Its Models Available to Developers
Qualcomm makes its AI models available to app developers, empowering them to create AI-enabled applications that harness the capabilities of the company's powerful Hexagon neural processing unit (NPU) in its Snapdragon X Elite platforms. Simplifying AI development for Snapdragon X Elite: Qualcomm has made its trained AI models, optimized for the 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU, accessible to registered software developers through its AI Hub: The AI Hub offers a variety of models for tasks such as image classification, object detection, semantic segmentation, and generative AI, which can be easily deployed in applications like vision, audio, and speech. Developers can filter...
read Jul 19, 2024OpenAI Pursues Custom AI Chips, Threatening Nvidia’s Dominance in the Market
OpenAI, the leading artificial intelligence company, is exploring the development of its own AI chips to bolster its supply chain and reduce reliance on Nvidia. Discussions with chip designers: OpenAI is in talks with Broadcom and other semiconductor designers about creating a custom AI chip: The company aims to address shortages in its supply chain and decrease dependency on Nvidia, which has been a key supplier of AI chips for OpenAI's advanced language models. OpenAI has also hired former Google chip staffers to support its chip development efforts, signaling a serious commitment to pursuing this initiative. Previous plans for chip...
read Jul 18, 2024AI Chip Shortage to Persist Until 2025-2026 Despite Doubling Production, Says TSMC
The global shortage of AI chips is expected to persist until 2025 or 2026 due to surging demand, according to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Despite doubling production, TSMC is struggling to keep pace with the high-performance computing chips now accounting for over half its business. Unprecedented demand for AI chips: TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, has seen an explosion in orders for advanced processors used in AI applications: Much of the demand is driven by Nvidia, whose AI-focused GPUs are in high demand from companies like OpenAI, Meta, and Tesla for powering next-generation AI systems. TSMC originally hoped...
read Jul 18, 2024TSMC’s AI-driven profits Soar as Chip Supply Struggles to Meet Demand
TSMC's second-quarter profit beats expectations as the AI chip boom continues, with robust demand for advanced chips used in AI applications stretching chip supplies. Strong financial performance driven by AI demand: TSMC reported impressive second-quarter results, surpassing revenue and profit expectations: Revenue reached NT$673.51 billion ($20.82 billion), up 40.1% from a year ago, beating estimates of NT$657.58 billion. Net income increased 36.3% year-over-year to NT$247.85 billion, exceeding the LSEG SmartEstimate of NT$238.8 billion. Tight supply and capacity expansion: The explosive demand for AI has led to a supply crunch, with TSMC working hard to meet customer needs: CEO C.C. Wei...
read Jul 15, 2024AMD Reveals New AI Chips With 35x CPU Performance
AMD unveils next-generation AI PC architecture with powerful new NPUs and Zen 5 CPUs, aiming to lead the AI computing era. Key details of AMD's AI PC architecture: AMD executives revealed the company's latest AI PC architecture, which includes a new neural processing unit (NPU) in the AMD Ryzen AI chips, offering significant performance improvements over CPUs and integrated GPUs: The NPUs in AMD's Ryzen AI processors can operate on AI models at 35 times the performance per watt of a standard CPU and achieve eight times the performance of an integrated GPU. The third generation of AMD Ryzen AI...
read Jul 12, 2024AI Chip Startup Groq’s Explosive Growth Hints at Looming Industry Disruption
Groq, an AI chip startup, has achieved an unprecedented developer adoption rate, attracting 280,000 users to its platform in just four months, potentially the fastest hardware adoption in history. Groq's innovative chip architecture drives rapid adoption: The startup's unique approach to AI inference chips eliminates external memory, which co-founder Jonathan Ross identifies as the primary bottleneck in traditional GPU-based systems: By removing this bottleneck, Groq aims to significantly improve the speed of AI inference, drawing a comparison to the unacceptable latency of a Google search taking 10 seconds to return results. The company's explosive growth has led to challenges in...
read Jul 12, 2024SoftBank’s $600M Graphcore Deal Is a Bold Challenge to Nvidia’s Dominance
SoftBank's acquisition of UK AI chip startup Graphcore marks a significant push into the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. The deal, reportedly valued at over $600 million, positions SoftBank to become a key player in the AI chip industry, despite the dominance of American giant Nvidia. Strategic move to capitalize on AI growth: SoftBank's owner, Masayoshi Son, sees the acquisition as a crucial step in making his company a major force in the development of AI technology: The deal comes at a time when AI is becoming increasingly pivotal across various industries, with the potential to revolutionize computing and...
read Jul 11, 2024AMD Acquires Silo AI for $665M, Boosts European AI Presence
AMD strengthens its AI capabilities with the acquisition of Silo AI, a prominent European AI startup, for $665 million. Silo AI's background and expertise: The Finland-based startup, described as the "largest private AI lab in Europe," has a proven track record of providing AI solutions to major companies: Silo AI has worked with renowned firms such as Philips, Rolls-Royce, and Unilever, showcasing its ability to deliver AI-driven solutions across various industries. The acquisition of Silo AI follows AMD's purchase of another AI startup, Nod.ai, last year, demonstrating the company's commitment to expanding its AI capabilities. AMD's AI strategy and competitive...
read Jul 11, 2024AI Chip Startup Groq Nears $300M Funding, Faces Audit Amid Nvidia Dominance
Groq, an AI chip startup, is close to securing over $300 million in funding led by BlackRock, potentially doubling its valuation to $2.2 billion. However, the deal comes with the requirement of a financial audit, which is atypical in the competitive AI market. Key details of the funding round: The BlackRock-led investment is expected to finalize within the next two weeks and will significantly boost Groq's financial standing: The funding amount exceeds $300 million, which will more than double the startup's valuation from its previous $1.1 billion in 2021. BlackRock's requirement for a financial audit is unusual in the current...
read Jul 10, 2024Andreessen Horowitz’s AI Chip Play: Fueling Startups, Shaping the Industry’s Future
Andreessen Horowitz's Oxygen initiative aims to support AI startups by providing them with scarce AI chips in exchange for equity, highlighting the critical role these chips play in the AI industry. Key details of the Oxygen initiative: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has secured a large supply of AI chips, including over 20,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, to strategically support its AI portfolio companies: The chips will be provided to startups in exchange for equity, giving a16z a stake in these companies and their potential success. The initiative is named "Oxygen" to emphasize how essential these chips are for AI companies to survive...
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