According to the Financial Times, new restrictions—affecting the supply of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software suites to Chinese companies—will cause major disruption within the domestic chip design industry. The US government's latest trade amendments are expected to impact Xiaomi and its freshly launched flagship XRING mobile chip family; the first iteration is a compelling first-party effort. Unlike many Chinese tech firms, the popular smartphone specialist can access pretty advanced TSMC node processes. Xiaomi's CEO—Lei Jun—announced his team's 3 nm design during pre-launch preview events.

Days later, closer analysis indicated a selection of TSMC's "N3E" node process. Digital Chat Station—a noted smartphone industry expert—summarized an uncertain future: "under this ban (of EDA tools), XRING chips will not be breaking through a 2 nm barrier, and can only revolve around the (current 'N3E') 3 nm node for a long time. XRING O1 will also be the only time in recent years that it can be on par with current-gen (proprietary) Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek mobile chipsets." Crucially, EDA software plays an important role in creating Gate All Around Field Effect Transistor (GAAFET) structures. TSMC's upcoming 2 nm node process is a GAA product. Tom's Hardware believes that several big Chinese tech players, including Huawei, are in the process of developing in-house EDA tools. Not long after unveiling their XRING flagship, Xiaomi outlined an extended Qualcomm chip deal.

According to a Financial Times (FT) news article, the US Government's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is considering an implementation of additional "export blacklist" entries. Roughly two months ago, a significant update affected the export trade of around eighty Chinese business "entities." Despite a recent "cooling off" of elevated tariff-related activities, significant political tensions still exist between the two powerhouse nations. According to five of FT's unnamed insiders, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT)—a rising star within China's growing memory manufacturing industry—is a potential candidate for "banishment." Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. are (allegedly) already categorized as blacklisted organizations.

Apparently, the nation's most prominent chipmaker and memory module producer (respectively) have managed to sidestep certain restrictions, via offshoot avenues. FT believes that the US administration is actively investigating several of these subsidiaries. CXMT seems to be an independent body, with no military connections—specializing in commercial DDR5 and DDR4 products—but its rising profile has attracted international attention. Around March 2024, Bloomberg heard rumors about the US BIS department's "weighing up" of sanctions, with CXMT in mind. The relatively young DRAM manufacturer (established back in 2016) still trails behind South Korean and Western competitors, in terms of technological advancements—but its initial DDR5 efforts have (supposedly) impressed local evaluators and early adopters.

A month ago, Sony increased its PlayStation 5 home console prices for EMEA and ANZ regions—affecting customers in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. At the time, industry experts surmised that company leadership was considering a similar strategy for a primary market: North America. Instead of freshly implemented 25% upward hikes for certain products/packages, reports suggested a 30% climb—for the North American market. Weeks later, company leadership has discussed this hot topic. During yesterday's (projected) earnings call with investors, top brass confirmed their consideration of "passing along" additional costs to consumers—in response to a reported/anticipated 100 billion yen (~$680 million) impact from US tariffs. They outlined a stockpile of PS5 consoles; enough units have been accumulated for roughly three months of supply—unaffected by adjusted conditions, in the States.

Despite this provision, Hiroki Totoki—Sony's president/CEO—is open to exploring alternative production avenues, in the face of looming extra charges. When asked about this matter, he replied with: "hardware can of course be produced locally, I think that would be an efficient strategy. PS5 is being manufactured in many areas, whether it is going to be manufactured in the US or not—it needs to be considered going forward." In efforts to navigate a trying situation, Nintendo has juggled its geographic manufacturing footprint—recent-ish developments have shifted away from a complete reliance on Chinese facilities. Industry insiders reckon that the bulk of US-bound Switch 2 units will be Vietnamese-made. Like Sony, Nintendo's executive team has publicly disclosed thoughts about future price hikes—maybe following the launch of its much-anticipated "next-gen" hybrid console. Earlier this month, Microsoft upped modern Xbox portfolio price tags—affecting customers across the world.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a technology leader enabling connected intelligent computing, and HUMAIN, a national artificial intelligence (AI) champion advancing Saudi Arabia's goals for AI, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the intent to enter a strategic collaboration for the development of next-generation AI data centers, infrastructure and cloud-to-edge services to meet the rapidly growing demand for AI across the globe, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The MOU was signed during the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh, which was held during the official visit of President of the United States Donald Trump to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The data centers and supporting ecosystem are intended to provide both government and enterprise organizations with access to high-performance and power efficient CPU and AI cloud infrastructure and cloud-to-edge services. These offerings will enable the deployment of AI solutions that can make real-time predictions and decisions, in addition to significantly increasing the availability and value of advanced AI-enabled applications.

Just over a year ago, reports suggested that ASML was considering a potential expansion of its presence at the Brainport Industries Campus (BIC)—nearby to Eindhoven Airport. A "2.5 billion Euro" investment—courtesy of the Dutch government—was floated, alongside an estimated creation of ~20,000 new roles. The Veldhoven-headquartered EUVL photolithography equipment specialist seems to be in a comfortable position, but growing demand for top-level ASML gear has warranted an apparent acceleration of new facility plans. According to local news articles, company and Eindhoven municipality representatives have presented an adjusted timeline—a "northern part" of the BIC campus could welcome new recruits in 2028. Last year's target proposed a further out inauguration; possibly in 2030 or thereafter.

Stijn Steenbakkers—the Alderman for Brainport—outlined the sheer scale of the company's futuristic and uncharacteristically huge footprint: "over the past year, we have worked intensively on the first elaboration of the plans, resulting in the preliminary design of the urban development plan (VOSP) that is now available. Our future, prosperity and well-being are not self-evident. With the current economic developments in the world, it is not a question of whether we should invest in our strategic autonomy. This is of vital importance! By making the expansion of ASML at BIC Noord (North) possible, we dare to opt for the new economy: sustainable, focused on high-tech, innovation and offering solutions for major global social issues...The important points in the VOSP are: approximately 20,000 jobs, approximately 428,000 m² gross floor area for production, and support functions such as offices." Steenbakkers and ASML reps will present their proposals to Eindhoven city councillors in September; transportation and other local infrastructure considerations will be taken into account.

Our Stargate project, an unprecedented investment in America's AI infrastructure announced in January with President Trump and our partners Oracle and SoftBank, is now underway with our first supercomputing campus in Abilene, Texas, and more sites to come. We've heard from many countries asking for help in building out similar AI infrastructure—that they want their own Stargates and similar projects. It's clear to everyone now that this kind of infrastructure is going to be the backbone of future economic growth and national development. Technological innovation has always driven growth by helping people do more than they otherwise could—AI will scale human ingenuity itself and drive more prosperity by scaling our freedoms to learn, think, create and produce all at once.

We want to help these countries, and in the process, spread democratic AI, which means the development, use and deployment of AI that protects and incorporates long-standing democratic principles. Examples of this include the freedom for people to choose how they work with and direct AI, the prevention of government use of AI to amass control, and a free market that ensures free competition. All these things contribute to broad distribution of the benefits of AI, discourage the concentration of power, and help advance our mission. Likewise, we believe that partnering closely with the US government is the best way to advance democratic AI.

The first couple of paragraphs within Anthropic's "Securing America's Compute Advantage: (Our) Position on the Diffusion Rule" article are standard fare. Roughly half-way through a read of this policy-related piece, the North American (Amazon-backed) AI startup makes some bizarre claims about the smuggling of AI-oriented products into China. Given ongoing global tensions and growing industry demands, these activities are somewhat expected—but Anthropic leadership described very specific methodologies. As stated within their "Chip Smuggling is a Major Threat" passage: "China has established sophisticated smuggling operations, with documented cases involving hundreds of millions of dollars worth of chips. In some cases, smugglers have employed creative methods to circumvent export controls, including hiding processors in prosthetic baby bumps and packing GPUs alongside live lobsters." Specific bits of hardware were not mentioned in this section, but the author later alludes to the frictionless transfer of thousands of "NVIDIA H100 advanced chips" into Chinese territories.

In a statement issued to CNBC, a Team Green spokesperson dismissed Anthropic's fanciful claims: "American firms should focus on innovation and rise to the challenge, rather than tell tall tales that large, heavy, and sensitive electronics are somehow smuggled in 'baby bumps' or 'alongside' live lobsters." This very public spat has received mainstream attention; with further coverage documenting additional "to and fro" barbs. NVIDIA criticized Anthropic's anti-foreign competition stance: "China, with half of the world's AI researchers, has highly capable AI experts at every layer of the AI stack. America cannot manipulate regulators to capture victory in AI." Amusingly, Anthropic's operations rely heavily on Team Green hardware—many online critics reckon that top US AI companies are jostling for priority access to cutting-edge GPUs/accelerators. In reaction to NVIDIA's dismissal of their report, a company spokesperson retorted with: "Anthropic stands by its recently filed public submission in support of strong and balanced export controls that help secure America's lead in infrastructure development and ensure that the values of freedom and democracy shape the future of AI."

As disclosed in a new press release—issued by the US Commerce Department—TSMC's North American operation has started another expansion. Last month, Taiwan's leading chip foundry committed a substantial $100 billion investment—eventually leading to a greater production footprint in Phoenix, Arizona. Reports suggest that ground has already been broken, in a low-key manner—as of yesterday (April 29)—at a planned third location, only hours after TSMC's receiving of permits—aka a "thumbs up" from the US government. According to local news outlets, key administrative representatives were in attendance to witness the initiation of construction work. TSMC's third plant is destined to pump out cutting-edge products via a 2 nm (N2) process technology, with Apple, NVIDIA and AMD confirmed as "front of the queue" customers. Despite recent fanfare and celebrations, industry analysts reckon that it will take up to a decade for the foundry's North American operation to solidify a dependable supply chain. In the interim, certain elements will require shipping to overseas locations—for packaging and finalization purposes.

Mid-way through April, we heard about sanctions affecting shipments of NVIDIA's H20 AI chips into China. Despite (rumored) best efforts made by Jensen Huang and colleagues, the US government has banned the export of Team Green's formerly sanction-conformant design. Similarly, NVIDIA prepared a slightly less potent GPU for gaming applications—exclusively for the Chinese market. Despite sporting a restricted GB202 "Blackwell" GPU die, the GeForce RTX 5090D 32 GB is still a monstrous prospect. According to Chinese PC hardware news sources, Team Green representatives have sent alerts to "all" of its Chinese add-in-card partners (AICs)—early warning signs have indicated a possible cut-off of GB202 GPUs in the near future. A member of the Chiphell forum disclosed some insider knowledge and dismissed unfounded speculation about RTX 5090D cards being replaced by "full fat" RTX 5090 options.

sthuasheng commented on Team Green's alleged bulletin—distributed at some point last week: "the notice only said that the supply of RTX 5090D was suspended, ...this did not mean any sales or transportation ban; it urged everyone not to make any speculations or judgments unless there was an official notice issued at a later date. After this notice was issued, each AIC began to notify agents to suspend sales, because the inventory of 5090D has always been very small, so it is necessary to keep these stocks to observe the subsequent situation and deal with the subsequent after-sales. At the same time, we might as well speculate that each AIC and dealer may also have the intention to stockpile 5090D units and then sell them at an elevated price." BenchLife.info decided to reach out to industry moles, following an absorption of various Chiphell whispers.

Japan's central government will adjust its control over cutting-edge chips and quantum computer-related technology—a Japan Times news article proposes that new regulations will come into effect by the end of May. The report suggests that the nation's governing body is expanding its list of export-controlled items to include: "advanced chips, lithography equipment and cryo-coolers needed for the manufacture of quantum computers." The publication has gathered this information from revised foreign exchange laws. According to economy ministry officials, companies will be required to apply for external trade licenses—extra measures are being put in place to prevent the export of cutting-edge items to foreign military organizations. The updated terms are viewed as another step in tightening the supply of advanced semiconductor products to mainland China. Recent global events have paved the way for a new wave of AI chip-related restrictions.

Naturally, China has expressed concern regarding upcoming changes—they anticipate problems affecting supply chains and normal commercial exchanges between enterprises. According to the Japan Times report, the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing: "hopes Japan will make sure the measures don't hinder the economic and trade development between the two countries." The two nations have enjoyed a cordial semiconductor-centric trade relationship, skewed more in favor of Japan. Industry watchdogs believe that Chinese manufacturers have generated significant demand for Japanese-made production equipment. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has updated its documents. According to the latest report, 42 new entities worldwide have been added to a list of: "foreign companies and organizations that would be subject to export oversight on any dual-use items. The additions come into effect on Feb. 5, it said. A total of around 110 Chinese companies, research institutions and other entities are on the list."

Hello Everyone! First up, thank you all for all the feedback following the announcement of House Ecaz. We're very happy with how the faction is coming together and we can't wait to hear your thoughts on Arrakis' newest arrival when the game launches out of Early Access later this month, which conveniently leads us to our next announcement...

We are very proud to share that Dune: Spice Wars launches out of Early Access and into 1.0 on the 14th of September! With release now within spitting distance, we thought it would be a good time to address some of the burning questions we've been getting of late and give some details on what to expect from this major milestone in D:SW's development! So read on for the official Dune: Spice Wars 1.0 F.A.Q...

According to Business Insider, Twitter has made a substantial investment into hardware upgrades at its North American datacenter operation. The company has purchased somewhere in the region of 10,000 GPUs - destined for the social media giant's two remaining datacenter locations. Insider sources claim that Elon Musk has committed to a large language model (LLM) project, in an effort to rival OpenAI's ChatGPT system. The GPUs will not provide much computational value in the current/normal day-to-day tasks at Twitter - the source reckons that the extra processing power will be utilized for deep learning purposes.

Twitter has not revealed any concrete plans for its relatively new in-house artificial intelligence project but something was afoot when, earlier this year, Musk recruited several research personnel from Alphabet's DeepMind division. It was theorized that he was incubating a resident AI research lab at the time, following personal criticisms levelled at his former colleagues at OpenAI, ergo their very popular and much adopted chatbot.

Silicon manufacturers in South Korea and Taiwan have questioned the requirements outlined in the United States Chips and Science Act - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol spoke on Thursday March 30, and said that there was a growing concern within companies Samsung Electronics Corporation and SK Hynix Inc. with regard to criteria for new U.S. semiconductor subsidies. Excess profit sharing is one area of contention, as the U.S. government will expect dividends to be paid under special conditions. The companies are also reluctant to meet the requirements of submitting detailed information about fab capacity and yield estimates. Leaders are pointing to the potential sensitive nature of exposing too much confidential corporate strategy to bodies in the USA, and sources within Samsung and SK Hynix are worried that budgetary planning information will be revealed in minute detail.

The CHIPS Act grants a $52 billion pool of research and manufacturing funds, and subsidies would be sourced from it. SK Hynix's parent group is considering an application in order to gain access to funding via the CHIPS Act, the SK Group has formed plans to invest $15 billion of its own money into the U.S. chip manufacturing sector - a North American location for an advanced chip packaging plant is being decided upon. Samsung has invested a substantial $25 billion into its Texas operation, so is eligible to receive U.S. government subsidies as well.

On Monday 27 March U.S. President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act in order to form a budget of $50 million, to be spent on domestic and Canadian production of printed circuit boards (aka PCBs). This move was deemed as important to matters of national defense, and technology has been cited as key part of North American security efforts. In a memo issued that day, Biden stated that without presidential action under the act: "United States industry cannot reasonably be expected to provide the capability for the needed industrial resource, material, or critical technology item in a timely manner."

PCBs form the basis of vital components that are integrated into military-purpose missiles and radars, in addition to electronics utilized for energy distribution and the nation's healthcare. The President continues to outline the importance of the Defense Production Act: "I find that action to expand the domestic production capability for printed circuit boards and advanced packaging is necessary to avert an industrial resource or critical technology item shortfall that would severely impair national defense capability."