Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has laid out the most detailed vision yet for the embattled chipmaker’s turnaround—but offered little clarity to employees on the scope or timeline of anticipated job cuts.
Inside the Intel reckoning: layoffs, leadership, and the long road back to relevance. Tan acknowledged both the company’s modest success in Q1 of 2025 and the significant challenges ahead.  “We are navigating an increasingly volatile and uncertain macroeconomic environment, which is reflected in our Q2 outlook.”  The internal memo followed reports earlier this week from Bloomberg that Intel plans to cut approximately 22,000 jobs, or roughly 20% of its global workforce—one of the largest rounds of layoffs in its history. Tan stated only that “these critical changes will reduce the size of our workforce,” and that the reductions would begin in Q2 2025 and continue “as quickly as possible over the next several months.”
Tan, who took over as CEO five weeks ago, is pushing for deep structural and cultural changes across Intel as it seeks to regain competitiveness amid slowing revenue growth, rising global tariffs, and increasing pressure from rivals in AI and advanced semiconductors.  Tan said in the letter. “We are seen as too slow, too complex and too set in our ways — and we need to change.” A key pillar of Tan’s plan is to refocus the company around engineering, while reducing management layers and streamlining decision-making. “We need to get back to our roots and empower our engineers,”. “That’s why I elevated our core engineering functions to the [Executive Team].”  The letter described Intel’s internal bureaucracy as a drag on innovation. “Many teams are 8 or more layers deep, which creates unnecessary bureaucracy that slows us down,”. He also criticized a corporate culture in which “the most important KPI for many managers … has been the size of their teams.”  Tan announced plans to reduce operating expenses to $17 billion in 2025, down from a previous target of $17.5 billion, and to $16 billion by 2026. CapEx spending will also be cut, with gross capital expenditures lowered from $20 billion to $18 billion in 2025. 
The memo also outlined changes to hybrid work expectations. Starting September 1, employees currently on hybrid schedules will be required to work from the office 4 days/week. The current policy of 3 days/week, has been “uneven at best” in its enforcement. Tan framed the changes as essential to rebuilding Intel’s identity. “Intel was once widely seen as the world’s most innovative company. There’s no reason we can’t get back there, so long as we drive the changes needed to improve,”. However, employees seeking concrete information on how the restructuring will affect them were left with few specifics. Tan emphasized decisions on staffing would be made by his leadership team and shared “on an ongoing basis,” but did not address which divisions or geographies would be affected. “We must balance our reductions with the need to retain and recruit key talent,” he wrote. “These decisions will not be made lightly.”  Intel currently employs around 109,000 people worldwide. The company’s Q1 2025 results showed revenue of $12.67 billion, narrowly exceeding expectations. But its forecast for the next quarter—$11.2 billion to $12.4 billion—fell below analyst estimates and sent shares down more than 7% in after-hours trading.  Intel’s transformation comes amid growing competitive threats from companies like Nvidia and AMD, as well as geopolitical tensions with China, one of its largest markets. “I came on board knowing full well this would be the most challenging job of my career,” he wrote. “But also the most motivating and fulfilling.”

The installation of new CEO Lip-Bu Tan at Intel was supposed to be a turning point. But as it turns out, it is leaving behind a new wake of uncertainty that is prompting concern. Apparently, Tan has a wide range of investments, many of which are in China…and some of which are even connected to the Chinese military. This was bad news as far as investors were concerned, and Intel shares plummeted over 7.5% in Thursday afternoon’s trading. Given that Tan put up $25 million of his own money to invest in Intel when he took the CEO slot, it should come as little surprise that he had substantial investments to begin with. Tan’s investments, reports noted, included “hundreds of Chinese tech firms.” The biggest surprise, though, was that at least 8 of these firms had direct ties to the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese military. A review from Reuters found that Tan actually controls +40 Chinese companies outright. He has minority stakes in +600 beyond that as well. And this, investors believe, may “complicate” the notion of getting Intel back up and running. Andrew King with Bastille Ventures noted “The simple fact is that Mr. Tan is unqualified to serve as the head of any company competing against China, let alone one with actual intelligence and national security ramifications like Intel and its tremendous legacy connections to all areas of America’s intelligence and the defense ecosystem.”

The penalties announced by Trump on Wednesday triggered a plunge in world financial markets and drew condemnation from other leaders reckoning with the end of a decades-long era of trade liberalization. In Japan, one of United States' top trading partners, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that the tariffs had created a "national crisis" as a plunge in banking shares on Friday set Tokyo's stock market on course for its worst week in years. Investment bank JP Morgan said it now sees a 60% chance of the global economy entering recession by year end, up from 40% previously. The U.S. tariffs would amount to the highest trade barriers in more than a century: a 10% baseline tariff on all imports and higher targeted duties on dozens of countries. That could jack up the price for U.S. shoppers of everything from cannabis to running shoes to Apple's iPhone. A high-end iPhone could cost nearly $2,300 if Apple passes the costs on to consumers, based on projections from Rosenblatt Securities. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the U.S. had abandoned its historic role as a champion of international economic cooperation. China vowed retaliation for Trump's 54% tariffs on imports from the world's No. 2 economy, as did the European Union, which faces a 20% duty.  The tariffs "clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook at a time of sluggish growth," said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, calling on Washington to work to resolve trade tensions with its partners and reduce uncertainty. American companies with significant overseas production took a hit. Nike shares lost 14% and Apple fell 9%.

"The tariff plan does not appear to be well thought-out. Trade negotiations are a highly technical discipline, and in our view these proposals do not offer a serious basis for negotiations with any country," said James Lucier, founding partner at Capital Alpha.
Economists say the tariffs could reignite inflation, raise the risk of a U.S. recession and boost costs for the average U.S. family by thousands of dollars.

Intel and TSMC have tentativiely agreed to a "joint venture" with Intel Foundry, which would allow TSMC to manage Intel's US facilities. Here's why its a bad idea for Intel and the US: 

1./ TSMC and Intel are two VERY different companies with unique management, workforce, and technology roadmap planning, meaning that fundamentals cannot be merged. And, given that TSMCs ambitions in the US, partnering up with Intel means that the company is having a pretty difficult task on its hands. The only way this could succeed is if TSMC could obtain "complete" management control, but this will be a process that will involve years if not decades. So any alleged benefits by such a JV would still be a long way off

2./ If you look at Intel Foundry's recent progress, the division has managed to find a hold on the market, having recently announced "Risk Production" of its highly anticipated 18A process, an achievement that could mark the firm's economic turnover.

3./ Supposedly part of Intel's new CEO Lip-Bu Tan, core focus will be to "build for clients," with foundry services being a priority, so a TSMC collaboration doesn't look correct or in keeping with Fiduciary Responsibility of "duty of care", "duty of obedianc", and "duty of loyalty" here as one would reasonably expect. 

Samsung has turned to Chinese technology groups to prop up its ailing semiconductor division, as it struggles to secure big US customers despite investing tens of billions of dollars in its American manufacturing facilities. The South Korean electronics group revealed last month that the value of its exports to China jumped 54% between 2023 and 2024, as Chinese companies rush to secure stockpiles of advanced AI ICs in the face of increasingly restrictive US export controls. In one previously unreported deal, Samsung in 2024 sold +3 years’ supply of logic ICs—a key component in manufacturing AI chips—to Kunlun, the semiconductor design subsidiary of Chinese tech group Baidu. The increasing importance of its China sales to Samsung comes as it navigates growing trade tensions between US and China over the development of sensitive technologies.

Samsung announced in 2024 that it was making a $40 Billion investment in expanding its advanced IC manufacturing and packaging facilities in Texas, boosted by up to $6.4 Billion in federal subsidies.  But Samsung’s contract chipmaking business has struggled to secure big US customers, bleeding market share to TSMC, which is investing “at least” $100 billion in IC fabs in Arizona.

“Samsung and China need each other,” said CW Chung, joint head of Apac equity research at Nomura. “Chinese customers have become more important for Samsung, but it won’t be easy to do business together. Samsung has also fallen behind local rival SK Hynix in the booming market for “high bandwidth memory,” another crucial component in AI chips. As the leading supplier of HBMs for use by Nvidia, SK Hynix’s quarterly operating profit last year surpassed that of Samsung for the first time in the two companies’ history. “Chinese companies don’t even have a chance to buy SK Hynix’s HBM because the supply is all bought out by the leading AI chip producers like Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and Broadcom,” said Jimmy Goodrich, senior adviser for technology analysis to the Rand Corporation research institute. “What Samsung is producing are the scraps that are inferior but still good enough for the Chinese, as there is no local HBM substitute yet.” Samsung is the “biggest supplier of HBM into China,” which is used in Huawei’s Ascend 910 series of AI chips.

Samsung's contract chipmaking business also partnered with Kunlun to produce the Core P800, an AI chip released in February that also incorporates Samsung HBM. A person familiar with Samsung’s thinking said it had hoped to work with Kunlun to produce an even more advanced AI chip, but the project had been put on hold because of new US restrictions that came into force in January.

The curbs, which cap the permitted performance of AI chips produced for Chinese customers by foreign foundries, were tightened after TSMC acknowledged last year it had mistakenly assembled AI chips for shell companies acting on Huawei’s behalf.

“Our business with Baidu has become uncertain since stronger US export controls took effect in January,” said a person close to Samsung, who added it was seeking more leeway from US authorities.  But he noted the restrictions meant that Chinese companies “will take anything they can get, either in terms of HBM or logic foundry capabilities, as Chinese indigenous players are not yet as competitive.” “Samsung producing what may be a very competitive chip for Baidu raises questions as to whether the performance thresholds of US restrictions need to be adjusted—the longer US officials wait, the more of these chips are going to be produced for China.” 

A 43-year-old Russian engineer is accused of secretly supplying sensitive technical information from ASML, NXP, and TSMC to Russia, allegedly to assist in building a 28 nm-capable fab there. The engineer, identified in court documents only as German A., earned about €40,000 and now faces 18-32 months in prison. Though German A. alone could not steal full designs for a semiconductor.  German A. is accused of supplying Russia with confidential technical materials from ASML, GlobalFoundries, NXP, TSMC, and GlobalFoundries, including semiconductor production manuals and various chipmaking machines. The investigators reportedly found that he obtained 105 internal documents from ASML and 88 files related to TSMC. The materials did not contain complete blueprints for building wafer fabrication equipment or something more significant (e.g., a fab itself or how to design a process technology). Still, they were labeled confidential and could support the setup of a basic semiconductor line capable of producing chips at 28- nm-class process technology, which is good enough for military applications. Investigators believe he shared this data via cloud storage and messaging apps and handed over a USB stick in Moscow, allegedly earning around €40,000 in the process.  Both ASML and NXP experienced breaches involving unauthorized access in the past. In late 2023, it was revealed that a cyber group linked to China had been covertly operating within NXP's systems for an extended period. ASML also battles frequent cyberattacks and insider threats: in early 2022, a former Chinese employee stole confidential data. Although that employee, just like German A., lacked access to complete designs needed to construct a fab tool or equip a fab, a broader network of similar operatives could realistically piece together enough to boost the semiconductor industries of China and Russia.

RiVAI Technologies has launched the Lingyu CPU, China’s 1st domestically designed HPC (High-Performance) RISC-V server processor, reflecting the country's ongoing push for greater self-sufficiency in semiconductor development. The Lingyu CPU adopts a one-core, dual architecture approach, integrating 32 general-purpose computing cores (CPU) alongside 8 specialized intelligent computing cores (LPU). The configuration efficiently handles tasks such as inference for open-source large language models. The architecture aims to balance processing power and energy efficiency, thereby lowering the total cost of ownership (TCO).  The push for RISC-V adoption comes in response to ongoing trade tensions and sanctions that have limited China’s access to advanced foreign-made chips. To accelerate this transition, the Chinese government provides policy support, funding, and incentives for companies working on RISC-V technology. Major domestic tech firms, including Alibaba and Tencent, have already started developing RISC-V-based solutions, while state-backed research institutions are working on software optimization for the architecture. This shift could help China build a more self-sufficient semiconductor industry, reducing its dependence on Western technologies. However, challenges remain, including software compatibility and ecosystem development, which will determine the long-term viability of RISC-V as a mainstream alternative to x86 and Arm processors.

U.S. trading partners threatened to ratchet up a trade war with the United States on Thursday as President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs ignited fears of steep price hikes in the world's largest consumer market. Stocks suffered a global meltdown, as analysts warned the tariffs could upend global supply chains and hurt corporate profits. The Dow fell nearly 4%, its biggest one-day loss in percentage terms since June 2020. The S&P 500 lost nearly 5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined nearly 6%, its worst day in percentage terms since the pandemic era of March 2020. The penalties announced by Trump on Wednesday triggered a plunge in world markets and drew condemnation from other leaders reckoning with the end of a decades-long era of trade liberalization. The U.S. tariffs would amount to the highest trade barriers in more than a century: a 10% baseline tariff on all imports and higher targeted duties on some of the country's biggest trading partners. That could jack up the price of everything from cannabis to running shoes to Apple's iPhone for U.S. shoppers. China vowed retaliation for Trump's 54% tariffs on imports from the world's No. 2 economy, as did the EU, which faces a 20% duty. French President Emmanuel Macron called for EU countries to suspend investment in the US. Other trading partners, including South Korea, Mexico and India, said they would hold off for now as they seek concessions." The consequences will be dire for millions of people around the globe," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said. Trump has slapped a 24% tariff on Japan and a 25% tariff on South Korea, both home to major U.S. military bases, and htting Taiwan with a 32% tariff as the island faces increased military pressure from China. In Europe, Trump has already upset NATO allies with demands for higher defense spending and potential concessions to Russia in its war in Ukraine. Canada and Mexico, the largest U.S. trading partners, were not hit with targeted tariffs on Wednesday, but they already face 25% tariffs on many goods and now face a separate set of tariffs on auto imports.

Arm Holdings expects its share of the global market for data center central processing units to surge to 50% by EOY 2025, up from about 15% in 2024 with gains driven by the boom in AI, a senior executive said. It struggled to make headway in the lucrative data center market for nearly two decades as switching over from the once-dominant x86 chips made by Intel and AMD means clients have to rewrite software as well as change up parts of hardware. "We've gotten to the point where software is actually being developed for Arm first and foremost,". Amazon has designed in-house Data Center CPUs with Arm tech that accounted for +1/2 of the capacity for chips it added over the last two years. Alphabet's Google and Microsoft have also made Arm-based data center chips, though their efforts are more recent than Amazon's.  Arm's CPUs are often used as a "host" chip inside of an AI computing system and act as a kind of traffic controller for other AI chips. Nvidia, for example, uses an Arm-based chip called Grace in some of its advanced AI systems which contain two of its Blackwell chips. Arm's tech in many cases offers lower power consumption than rival processors made by Intel and AMD. As AI data centers use huge amounts of electricity, Arm's chips have become increasingly popular among cloud computing companies. Awad added that data center chips often use more of Arm's intellectual property (IP) and the company typically receives "a lot higher aggregate royalty rate" than chips for less complex devices. UK-headquartered Arm, which is 90% owned by Japan's SoftBank Group, does not make chips itself but sells the fundamental building blocks and other intellectual property to cloud computing companies and firms like Apple and Nvidia to use to design chips for laptops, smartphones and data center processors. Arm generates revenue by billing companies for a license to use its tech and collects royalty payments for each chip sold.

The Hsinchu and Kaohsiung plants in Taiwan serve as the primary facilities for 2-nm wafer production, with a new report stating that full-scale manufacturing of this technology is expected to commence later this year. Before this phase, TSMC had achieved an impressive 60% yield during the trial production. With both facilities operational, the semiconductor giant could churn out up to 50,000 monthly wafers, with the maximum capacity of 80,000 units. The demand for 2-nm chips is said to be higher than 3nm, and according to fresh estimates, TSMC can generate sales of $30.1 billion for both Q3 and Q4 2025.  Pilot production on 2nm technology at the Hsinchu plant has exceeded exceptations, allowing TSMC to commence operations a quarter ahead of schedule  According to Economic News Daily, both the Hsinchu and Kaohsiung will handle the imminent demand, with Dan Nystedt mentioning on X that each of these plants can bring in sales of ~$30.1 Billion for both Q3 and Q4 2025.   Much of this revenue will be thanks to Apple, which is said to be preparing the A20 for the iPhone 18 launch that is scheduled to happen in H2 of 2026. Qualcomm also intends to keep pace with Apple, as it is rumored to unveil not one, but two SoCs that will be mass produced on TSMC’s 2nm process, of which one of them will likely be the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2. Perhaps the only competition TSMC has at this time is Samsung, which was previously reported to have achieved a 30 percent yield on its 2nm GAA process during the trial production run of the company’s Exynos 2600. Historically, TSMC might have been late in gravitating to the newer lithography, but it has always stood tall when maintaining consistent wafer output.

Sunlin Chou, who passed on December 5th, 2018, played his role and made contributions to the semiconductor industry in developing a new business model for semiconductor R&D. While his legacy had faded since he retired in 2005, his career included filling Gordon Moore’s shoes as a key technologist in the 2nd Gen of Semiconductor Technical Leadership. Sunlin Chou’s last position was running the Technology side of Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group. He was in that group of “Shadow Warriors” who ran R&D. They seldom get any public light, and only the people in their company know what they do. Yet they bear a tremendous burden. They must decide among the myriad of technologies, which ones deserve attention, funding, etc. They must ply the foggy seas of the tech triangle that lie between customer need, realization in product, and manufacturability. It is a place where shipwrecks occur all too often. For Sunlin, the challenge was even greater. He had to fill Gordon Moore’s shoes. That meant not only being right, but also being above industry politics. You can learn a lot from someone who has successfully sailed these seas. At the core of Sunlin’s values was the belief that all problems should be dealt with systematically. He was one of the most systematic individuals you would ever meet, exemplary in many ways: every hair was always in a precise place, clothing all in alignment, shoes polished, and a poker stare that came from years of making many calculated gambles on future technology. This is exactly how he dealt with the issue of reviving Intel’s prowess after the 1985 debacle.  Sunlin’s role in this was to develop a new business model for R&D. While many people were looking for an outside solution, like consortia, Sunlin was looking inside to see how the process could be streamlined. Most knew the model wasn’t working well. R&D often never led anywhere for the companies that funded it (Xerox Parc being the best example). It was a money sink, because few innovations ever made it to the business side of an organization. Yet few did anything about it. -- Sunlin looked at these problems and saw the opportunity. -- Sunlin’s most important contribution is his R&D Pipeline model, where he applied the first systematic approach to the whole development cycle. Central to his method was a strong understanding of Moore’s Law and how it impacted product life cycles. It led to his decision to set technical direction based on its relentless progression. This led to node planning. What came next was truly innovative. First, he covered the horizontal time line with a flow model that started with the research infrastructure outside Intel; then feeding it inside to research; then to path finding, on to development; and finally, to manufacturing – all synchronized to the nodal clock. To do this, he had to create a Copy-Exactly infrastructure for R&D that had never existed. Plus, everything had to be tightly coupled at the hand-off points, which is where most fail. This was done with exacting business processes. Second, he also covered the vertical technology line, integrating the test, assembly, and process roadmaps into a single cohesive strategy/roadmap. It doesn’t get more systematic than this. The result was that Intel was able to shift into high gear, running on a 24-month nodal clock.

Intel’s new CTO and AI Chief Sachin Katti is taking over responsibilities of Intel’s AI road map and strategy, the business unit most recently known as the Data Center and AI Group (DC&AI) will be split apart and “refocused” so that the Data Center part will focus on CPUs. These changes were detailed in memos sent last Thursday to Intel employees by Katti, and Karin Eibschitz, the interim GM of what is now being called the Data Center Group. Lip-Bu Tan also expanded the roles and responsibilities for Katti— already a part of Tan’s executive leadership team as the head of Intel’s Network and Edge Group (NEX). This will put him in charge of Intel’s “overall AI strategy and AI product road map as well as Intel Labs and our relationships with the startup and developer ecosystems,”  Eibschitz’s division will continue to handle Data Center CPUs and Katti taking over Data Center accelerator chips such as GPUs in his newly configured AI and CTO organization.  The Data Center Group will collaborate with new horizontal engineering teams—reporting directly to Tan and led by long-time technical leaders Rob Bruckner, Mike Hurley and Lisa Peace—as well as Katti’s new CTO and AI organization. In Tan’s memo to Intel employees, said he has asked each member of his executive team to “identify opportunities” for further organizational changes in support of his goals to reduce bureaucracy and speed up decision-making. “As I said last month, Intel is going to act like a disruptor again by giving engineers the freedom to innovate,”. “We will simplify the way we work so that it’s easier to get work done. And we will empower smaller, more focused teams to create great products and delight our customers,”. “Right now, we are implementing the highest-level [organization] changes while we continue to work through further refinements,” Eibschitz said of the Data Center Group.

A significant concern has arisen following Lip-Bu Tan's appointment:

Extensive Investments in China: Through his venture capital firm Walden International and other holding companies (Sakarya Limited, Seine Limited), Tan controls +40 Chinese companies and holds minority stakes in +600 others, with these stakes valued at potentially +$200 million.  -- Critically, investments have been made in, or alongside, Chinese companies linked to the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Chinese state-owned groups, or government funds. These Concerns center on investments in firms like SMIC (China's top foundry, Tan was an early investor and board member until 2018; Walden reportedly exited in 2021 after SMIC was sanctioned by the US for military ties), Dapu Technologies (identified as a PLA contractor), HAI Robotics (reportedly bids for PLA contracts and works with surveillance firms), Intellifusion (a surveillance tech firm on a US trade blacklist for alleged human rights abuses), QST Group (whose sensors were reportedly found in Russian military drones), and Wuxi Xinxiang (supplier to YMTC, which is on US blacklists).  
 Given Intel's vital role as a US defense contractor and a key player in national technology infrastructure, Tan's deep financial integration with entities in a strategic competitor nation, particularly those with military or state ties, raises serious national security alarms and potential conflict of interest issues. Critics question his suitability to lead Intel under these circumstances. The past investment in SMIC is also seen by some as problematic for the CEO of a company trying to build its own foundry business.  -- These investment patterns have drawn scrutiny from the U.S. Congress (House Select Committee on the CCP).  While holding these investments is legal unless a company is on a specific U.S. restriction list, ethical concerns are raised regarding ties to surveillance firms or military suppliers. Intel has stated Tan completed required SEC disclosures regarding potential conflicts. There's discussion about whether divestment from potentially conflicting holdings should be required.

The paper examines the broad range of methods, tools and strategies available to designers and attempts to distill the best of each in a bid to generate a coherent, 'systematic creative design' philosophy. Although using the Soviet-originated Theory of Inventive problem Solving, TRIZ as its foundation, the proposed design method also encompasses elements of, amongst others, QFD, Design for X, Value Engineering, Axiomatic Design and Robust Design. The paper describes the ongoing process of integrating these methods and reviews their deployment on a broad spectrum of real engineering design case studies.

Some Intel investors and Wall Street analysts remain pessimistic about the prospects of a TSMC and Intel JV ending in any kind of a positive outcome.  Intel and TSMC have reached an understanding to constitute a JV that would then manage Intel's US-based fabs. The arrangement would also rope in other IC designers such as Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and Apple. TSMC would reportedly retain a 20% stake in the JV, financed via its in-kind contribution of technology and expertise.  This arrangement, however, raises quite a few questions. After all, Intel and TSMC have completely different chip fabrication processes that are barely compatible with each other, if at all, and it is for this reason that Citi has now cast serious doubts on the viability of the proposed JV:  "We do not believe TSMC operating/forming a JV with Intel would work given differences in manufacturing and operations." Citi then goes on to "question the wisdom of fabless companies investing in this JV," noting: "We believe Intel foundry has proven over the] years it cannot compete with TSMC, and forcing a company to use vastly inferior manufacturing would destroy the shareholder value of a fabless company such as Qualcomm or Broadcom."  Instead, Citi thinks Intel should exit the chip fabrication business entirely: "Given the highly unlikely chance of Intel merchant foundry succeeding and subsequent drag on cash flow, we continue to believe Intel would be best served by exiting the merchant foundry business and focusing on its core CPU business."

BofA's Vivek Arya also recently denigrated this proposal, noting that splitting up Intel "could be time-consuming and complicated given:

1) Extensive approval requirements from global (China) regulators due to Intel's dominant ~70% share of PC/server CPU

2) Mismatch between Intel and TSMC’s manufacturing processes,

3) TSMC’s ongoing fab expansion plans in Arizona with the ability to serve AI customers,

4) Broadcom's existing low-levered but high-debt ($ 58 billion net debt) balance sheet, and

5) Constraints of Intel's CHIPS Act funding (design needs to own 50 %+ of manufacturing) and ROI requirements from co-investment partners ..."

Private equity firms prioritize profits over people, buying and flipping businesses across industries, which leads to degraded services, inflated costs, and widespread corporate control that undermines competition and societal well-being. Private equity is identified as a major yet overlooked factor contributing to economic struggles. Private equity firms manage investments from wealthy individuals, often using leverage to acquire businesses. Private equity firms prioritize profit over the well-being of the businesses they acquire.

The Dimensity 9400 is substantial proof that MediaTek is no longer a company that is sidelined to deliver entry-level and mid-ranged chipsets, but that does not explain why the company has not introduced a Snapdragon X Elite competitor, or, at the very least, a Snapdragon X Plus one. Turns out it has, but this SoC will be found in a completely different set of machines for whatever reason. The Kompanio Ultra 910 is the newest release from the Taiwanese firm, and looking at its specifications, we are definitely excited about what comes next. -- Chromebooks featuring the Kompanio Ultra 910 will be available in the coming months, but the latest chipset release sounds like a missed opportunity for MediaTek  -- The Kompanio Ultra 910 is fabricated with the best available technology, with MediaTek stating that the silicon is mass produced on TSMC’s 2nd-gen 3-nm process, the same one utilized for Apple’s M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max. The Kompanio Ultra 910 sports no low-power cores, with its 8-core configuration sporting an Arm Cortex-X925 operating at up to 3.62GHz, a Cortex-X4 and Cortex-A720, the chipset can achieve a high bandwidth as it supports LPDDR5X RAM up to 8,533MHz.

The new chipset also flaunts impressive AI capabilities thanks to MediaTek’s 8th-gen NPU, which delivers up to 50TOPS AI performance and faster LLM speculative speed support. Even though the Chromebooks outfitted with the Kompanio Ultra 910 are not intended for gaming, MediaTek claims that the 11 GPU cores belonging to the Immortalis-G925 deliver ‘PC-grade raytracing capabilities’. The Kompanio Ultra 910 can also support up to two 4K external monitors to boost productivity, with the inclusion of Wi-Fi 7 up to 7.3Gbps and Bluetooth 6.0. It is surprising that MediaTek’s latest silicon will only be found in Chromebooks later in 2025. It is possible that Qualcomm’s and Microsoft’s exclusive agreement of only using the former’s Snapdragon range of chipsets prevents competitors like MediaTek from stepping foot into this realm. MediaTek has an ace up its sleeve by partnering with NVIDIA to debut an AI PC in H2 2025, with the impending release likely stirring up the competition to newfound levels.

Well, it seems like the DRAM industry is expected to witness uncertainty once again, as Samsung is reportedly planning to implement a global price rise. This surely isn't a good time for consumers at all, since, apart from all the uncertainty in the market associated with Trump tariffs, companies are reportedly trying to combat them by "front-running" the announcements and importing products in huge volumes to avoid additional taxation. Similarly, according to the Korean media outlet MK, the Korean giant plans to increase DRAM and NAND prices by up to 3%-5%, keeping in light the demand from the semiconductor industry and how competitors like Micron are increasing prices as well. Based on the data from DRAMeXchange, DDR5 memory module pricing has risen by up to 12%, and the demand was mainly from HPC servers, while NAND pricing saw a 9% rise. This has shown that demand is definitely there, but it isn't from the consumer PC segment but rather from the AI market, which is why prices have seen such a rise. With companies like Samsung and Micron announcing a price hike, this means that prices would soar further ahead, which isn't good for the consumer markets. Consumer RAM pricing could rise notably in the upcoming months, and it won't be wrong to say that now might be the best time to get your DDR5 modules, given that with Trump tariffs and trade uncertainities, the consumer PC markets will see a tremendous rise in pricing.

Microsoft has pulled back on Data Center projects around the world, Bloomberg reports, suggesting that the company is wary of expanding its cloud computing infrastructure too rapidly. Microsoft has halted talks for or delayed development sites of data centers in the U.K., Australia, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, per Bloomberg. A spokesperson told the publication that Microsoft makes its plans years in advance and that the changes demonstrate “the flexibility of [its] strategy.” As recently as February, Microsoft reiterated earlier plans to allocate more than $80 billion of its cash to capital expenditures in 2025, primarily AI data centers. As Bloomberg points out in its piece, it’s hard to know how much of the company’s recent pullback reflects its expectations of diminished demand versus temporary construction challenges, such as shortages of power and building materials. Microsoft previously said that it would shift its Data Center expansion focus for 2025 from new construction to fitting existing facilities with servers and other computing equipment.

Arm Holdings just made a quiet but telling move in the AI chip war by pursuing a potential acquisition of UK-based Alphawave to lock in next-gen tech, then backing out. The tech in question, a high-speed data transfer solution called serializer-deserializer (SerDes), is the unsung hero behind how ICs talk to other essential ICs for training and running AI models at scale. Alphawave shares popped nearly 45% on the news, their best day in +3 years. While the deal fizzled out, the message was clear: Arm is thinking bigger than just licensing IP.

Why does it matter? Because SerDes isn't just another piece of silicon, it's the plumbing for tomorrow's AI infrastructure, and right now, Broadcom, Marvell, and even Nvidia are way ahead. Arm, backed by SoftBank and traditionally a behind-the-scenes IP powerhouse, doesn't currently offer SerDes at the bleeding edge. There's more at play here, as Alphawave has ties to a blacklisted Chinese firm, that may have thrown a wrench into the talks. The strategic takeaway is that  Arm wants in on the $60 Billion custom AI IC market projected by 2028. And SerDes is the toll gate. If they can't buy it, they'll have to build it and fast. Because as demand for HPC (High-Performance Compute) AI chips surges, whoever controls the chip-to-chip highway will end up owning the map. Building it from scratch? Insiders say it takes a specialized team and at least 2 years. Which explains why Arm has quietly started hiring chip designers and floating internal memos about launching its own processors.

Suraj Gajendra, Vice President of Automotive Products and Software Solutions at Arm focuses on Arm's latest innovations in the automotive sector, including the introduction of Kleidi AI, a suite of software libraries for optimizing AI applications on Arm CPUs, and the critical role of chiplets and standardization in enabling scalable compute architectures. Suraj Gajendra's insights reflect a forward-thinking approach to automotive technology, emphasizing the importance of AI, modular hardware, standardization, and collaboration to shape the future of automotive computing. Understanding these principles is essential for anyone involved in the automotive industry. Sharing insights on Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs), the importance of cloud-to-car infrastructure, and the need for robust security strategies to ensure safe and resilient automotive solutions. He emphasizes the significance of AI in enhancing vehicle performance and user experience, and introduces Cy AI, which focuses on optimizing automotive applications. He 

advocates for the use of chiplets to create a modular and scalable hardware architecture, and highlighted how chiplets can reduce costs and improve flexibility across different vehicle models. Suraj stresses the importance of standardization in chip design and software development to ensure compatibility and interoperability, encouraging a collaborative approach among industry players to establish common standards.  He explains the evolution of SDVs and their reliance on software for functionality and updates with an emphasis on the importance of safety, security, and data protection in software development.