This semiconductor and networking specialist is increasingly the chip of choice for artificial intelligence (AI) processing in the data center space. The dawn of artificial intelligence (AI) saw Nvidia (NVDA +1.53%) take the pole position, as its graphics processing units (GPUs) provided the computational horsepower necessary to handle the rigors of AI. The stock has risen 1,160% since early 2023,...
This semiconductor and networking specialist is increasingly the chip of choice for artificial intelligence (AI) processing in the data center space. The dawn of artificial intelligence (AI) saw Nvidia (NVDA +1.53%) take the pole position, as its graphics processing units (GPUs) provided the computational horsepower necessary to handle the rigors of AI. The stock has risen 1,160% since early 2023, fueled by unprecedented demand for its AI-centric chips. However, 2025 saw a changing of the guard. Broadcom (AVGO 1.67%) stock outpaced Nvidia, rising 49% compared to 39% gains for Nvidia. Let's take a look at what's driving Broadcom higher and why I predict we could see a repeat performance in 2026. The next big winner The speed and flexibility offered by GPUs made them the go-to for AI training and inference in the early days of the AI boom, but priorities have begun to shift. While Nvidia's chips are still best in class and demand remains high, the sheer magnitude of energy consumption has become a consideration. That's where Broadcom's application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) come in. These specialized AI chips can be customized, making them more energy-efficient for specific, repetitive tasks. As a result, data center and cloud operators are shifting the mix of their AI-capable chips, substituting Broadcom's ASICs for a portion of their GPUs to save energy and, ultimately, money. The trade-off is that these ASICs don't offer the same level of flexibility as GPUs, which can be deployed for a wide variety of high-performance computing tasks. In the fourth quarter, Broadcom generated record revenue that accelerated 28% year over year to $18 billion, driving adjusted earnings per share (EPS) that jumped 37% to $1.95. The company left no doubt that AI was fueling the results, as its AI semiconductor revenue accelerated 74% year over year to $6.5 billion. Management expects its AI-driven growth to continue. Broadcom's first-quarter forecast calls for AI semiconduct...
The arrival of 2026 has brought anything but peace to the Middle East , caught in the gravitational pull of rival ambitions and with the uneasy sense that the next war may already be under way. From Gaza to Syria , conflict hotspots are flaring as the region finds itself at the epicentre of a global order in flux. The result is a landscape in which rivalries are multiplying, former partners are pi...
The arrival of 2026 has brought anything but peace to the Middle East , caught in the gravitational pull of rival ambitions and with the uneasy sense that the next war may already be under way. From Gaza to Syria , conflict hotspots are flaring as the region finds itself at the epicentre of a global order in flux. The result is a landscape in which rivalries are multiplying, former partners are pitted against each other and more violence appears inevitable, analysts say. Advertisement “While it is still early days for the Middle East’s emerging order, the premature outlines of flexible alignments are starting to take shape,” said Mona Yacoubian, director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies’ Middle East programme. At the heart of this reordering is an intensifying rivalry between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates , former close allies now pursuing competing visions of regional leadership. Advertisement According to Yacoubian, one bloc is coalescing around Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan, while another draws together the UAE, Israel and India.
China has recorded a five-year peak in the number of provincial governments raising minimum wages, official data showed, as Beijing pledges to “invest in people” to support economic growth over the course of its latest five-year plan. Twenty-seven of the mainland’s 31 provincial-level jurisdictions have increased monthly minimum wages over the past year, with half introducing double-digit rises – ...
China has recorded a five-year peak in the number of provincial governments raising minimum wages, official data showed, as Beijing pledges to “invest in people” to support economic growth over the course of its latest five-year plan. Twenty-seven of the mainland’s 31 provincial-level jurisdictions have increased monthly minimum wages over the past year, with half introducing double-digit rises – outpacing China’s 5 per cent gross domestic product growth rate in 2025 – according to the Post’s calculations based on data released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security this month. The higher pay – part of a broader effort to spur household spending – would mostly benefit factory workers and those in low-paying service roles, such as cleaners, security guards and supermarket cashiers, analysts said. Advertisement “Consumption capacity is directly related to income distribution. If residents have sufficient income, they will be able to consume,” said the authors of a research note by Yuekai Securities on January 11. “To fundamentally solve the issue of weak consumption, the key still lies in reforming [the] income distribution system.” Advertisement Hebei province in northern China recorded the largest increase, raising its minimum wage to 2,080 yuan (US$299) per month from 1,800 yuan – a 15.6 per cent rise since the start of 2025.
A woman in China who suffers from baldness on the top of her head because of a skin disease has been cruelly divorced by her husband, arousing much sympathy on social media. The 36-year-old, who lives in Shangqiu, central Henan province, said her husband did not care for her at all; instead he has disdained her since she became ill two years ago, Henan TV reported. “I have devoted myself to the fa...
A woman in China who suffers from baldness on the top of her head because of a skin disease has been cruelly divorced by her husband, arousing much sympathy on social media. The 36-year-old, who lives in Shangqiu, central Henan province, said her husband did not care for her at all; instead he has disdained her since she became ill two years ago, Henan TV reported. “I have devoted myself to the family. I take care of our child, wash clothes, prepare food and do other domestic chores,” the wife, surnamed Li, was quoted as saying. Li’s illness-induced bald patch is clearly visible as she is interviewed by a reporter. Photo: Baidu “I have never seen such a ruthless man,” she said. Advertisement Li sought help from the media because she was “despondent and often in a daze” because of the man’s attitude. Two years ago a big patch of her hair suddenly turned grey. Doctors diagnosed it was caused by vitiligo, a chronic skin condition which leads to pigment loss in skin, hair and mucous membranes. Advertisement Since then, her outer appearance has aged dramatically.
English rugby long ago gave up trying to explain the phenomenon that is Harlequins. Quantum physicists would struggle. Two weeks ago here, we watched this same team put 60 past the hitherto unbeaten Stormers from South Africa on the way to qualifying from the Champions Cup, a competition for the best domestic sides in Europe and, as if that were not enough, South Africa, a land of frightening beas...
English rugby long ago gave up trying to explain the phenomenon that is Harlequins. Quantum physicists would struggle. Two weeks ago here, we watched this same team put 60 past the hitherto unbeaten Stormers from South Africa on the way to qualifying from the Champions Cup, a competition for the best domestic sides in Europe and, as if that were not enough, South Africa, a land of frightening beasts and double World Cup-winners. This is the same team that won in La Rochelle only last weekend to clinch that home tie in the last 16. Ridiculously, it was Quins’ win against all odds on the west coast of France that afforded Leicester last-gasp entrance by default into that very same elite of the elite. Well, you would never have guessed it, had you been here to witness the latest capitulation at the Stoop, a 34-7 humiliation on Saturday. Only one team in it, is the cliche that most readily comes to mind. Leicester, who have it all to play for in the Prem, in a way that Harlequins do not, utterly dominated their hosts up front, from which flowed all else. The bonus point takes them into the top four. Cameron Henderson, not required by Scotland, was magnificent again in the engine room; Tommy Reffell, not required by Wales (really?), maddening at the breakdown, and Joe Heyes, very much required by England, squeezed penalty after penalty out of the Harlequins scrum. This was no bad place to be if you were Six Nations-spotting. Indeed, Leicester’s props will probably be facing each other across the road in a fortnight, when England entertain Wales on the opening weekend. Their dominance here at the scrum, against props, it should be said, who were clearly ailing with injuries in the first half, earned the Tigers licence to do what they liked elsewhere, safe in the knowledge a penalty was never far away. All the more remarkable, given Leicester had not trained until Wednesday, 12 of their players and four of their staff having picked up E coli on the trip to Cape Town last w...
EFL regulations mean guests at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium Hotel can’t watch the game – our writer checks in for a trip into the dark It seems perfectly reasonable that anyone booking a “Superior Room with Pitch View” at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium Hotel, located inside the Bloomfield Road Stadium, would expect a hotel room with a view of the pitch. And that is exactly the case exc...
EFL regulations mean guests at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium Hotel can’t watch the game – our writer checks in for a trip into the dark It seems perfectly reasonable that anyone booking a “Superior Room with Pitch View” at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium Hotel, located inside the Bloomfield Road Stadium, would expect a hotel room with a view of the pitch. And that is exactly the case except – bizarrely – when Blackpool are actually playing, with some hotel guests recently scuppered by the smallest of fine print when booking: “Due to the EFL rules and regulations, bedroom curtains have to be kept drawn throughout a match.” Failure to do so could result in a £2,500 fine. Ouch. Across the 14 years that I have worked for the Guardian, there have been a few occasions where I have been tempted, perhaps after a stressful shift, to go and lie down in a dark room. I just didn’t think that this could be an actual assignment. But off I go to Blackpool to investigate this special type of 3pm blackout, and shortly before kick-off between Blackpool and League One relegation rivals Northampton, I find myself pulling a very heavy curtain across a panoramic window facing the Bloomfield Road pitch and the Blackpool Tower beyond. That’s my daylight done for the day. Continue reading...
A generation of overexposed children are being used by their parents for social media clout. What happens when they start to speak out? A child is born. Before they even landed “Earthside”, in the language of Instagram, a scan of them as a foetus in utero was uploaded to a waiting audience. The room in which they will sleep – the pale pastel paintwork, the carefully curated nursery furniture – is ...
A generation of overexposed children are being used by their parents for social media clout. What happens when they start to speak out? A child is born. Before they even landed “Earthside”, in the language of Instagram, a scan of them as a foetus in utero was uploaded to a waiting audience. The room in which they will sleep – the pale pastel paintwork, the carefully curated nursery furniture – is all there, ready, waiting: an advertorial empty of its model. Then comes the photo of the baby being born, held aloft to their audience while still covered in vernix, eyes not yet open, their mother smiling, hair perfect. From now on, their every moment and milestone is documented for the camera and monetised. That first smile, first word, first step, all mediated by a device and sent to an audience of strangers, many of whom have formed a parasocial relationship with that mother, that father, that child. The child comes to know and understand the black mirror that is regularly put in front of them. There will be days when the child happily performs for the camera; others when they push it away, when they don’t want to be filmed. A natural feeling, but one they may well have learned to suppress. Because performing for the camera makes mummy and daddy happy, although they don’t call it performing. They call it authenticity. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Before he sought out an adult sleep coach, Thorsten had spent countless hours trawling online advice about sleep. “I devoured advice and implemented it all,” he said. “From the moment I got out of bed, virtually everything I did was tailored towards getting a good night’s sleep the following night.” Thorsten is not an insomniac and his disordered sleep patterns came out of nowhere. “Every few week...
Before he sought out an adult sleep coach, Thorsten had spent countless hours trawling online advice about sleep. “I devoured advice and implemented it all,” he said. “From the moment I got out of bed, virtually everything I did was tailored towards getting a good night’s sleep the following night.” Thorsten is not an insomniac and his disordered sleep patterns came out of nowhere. “Every few weeks, I’d have inexplicable periods when I would wake up at 4.30am and couldn’t get back to sleep,” he said. “After a couple of days, I would be making mistakes at work, be bad tempered at home and would start seriously worrying about the impact of sleeplessness on my long-term health.” View image in fullscreen Increasingly, adults are seeking out one-to-one sleep consultants. Photograph: Mavocado/Getty Images It was his colleague who suggested he employ a sleep coach. “It was the first I’d heard of sleep coaches for adults but when I asked around, it turned out a load of my colleagues had used one over the past two to three years,” he said. “It was like this hidden world I’d never known existed.” It seems paradoxical, but at a time when advice is just a click away and “sleep hygiene” is taken as received wisdom, increasing numbers of adults are seeking out one-to-one sleep consultants. Stuart Thompson, founder of the Still Method, started his sleep consultancy for adults two years ago in response to demand. “I was getting so many adults asking me for sleep training that I realised there was a new and real need that was not being catered for,” he said. “I’d never seen people like this before: a cohort who had never struggled with sleep previously but were unable to help themselves, despite spending considerable time researching all tricks of the trade, as regards achieving consistent, quality sleep,” he said. Thompson had his lightbulb moment when he began talking to his new clients about their efforts to go it alone. “I realised they were drowning in too much information,” he...