Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is launching a new chip for agentic AI and inference computing, adding to a portfolio of semiconductors designed to drive its artificial intelligence ambitions. The Hangzhou-based company’s research arm, Damo Academy, on Tuesday unveiled XuanTie C950, a central processor unit based on the RISC-V architecture. The CPU is optimized for cloud computing, and it allows custom...
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is launching a new chip for agentic AI and inference computing, adding to a portfolio of semiconductors designed to drive its artificial intelligence ambitions. The Hangzhou-based company’s research arm, Damo Academy, on Tuesday unveiled XuanTie C950, a central processor unit based on the RISC-V architecture. The CPU is optimized for cloud computing, and it allows customers to tailor the chip for their specific inferencing use, Alibaba said in a statement. Alibaba is one of China’s leading AI players, and its chip subsidiary T-Head aims to compete with Nvidia Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. in the country. The Chinese company’s proprietary AI accelerators have already entered mass production, Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu said last week during an earnings call. Wu last year detailed his plan of having Alibaba becoming an all-stack AI technology provider, including hardware. T-head has already made headway in securing major customers and Alibaba is preparing for a separate listing of the chip unit. The company launched its first AI smart glasses in November. It is also planning to introduce basic laptops and other devices for users to access the AI agent tool OpenClaw. RISC-V is an alternative, open source chip design and competes with architectures by Arm Holdings Plc and Intel Corp. The emerging architecture has become popular in China due to persistent geopolitical tensions, with Alibaba being a longtime champion, particularly after Arm was slapped with restrictions in its business with Huawei following a US campaign to control the flow of technology to the Chinese tech firm.
(Bloomberg) -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is launching a new chip for agentic AI and inference computing, adding to a portfolio of semiconductors designed to drive its artificial intelligence ambitions. The Hangzhou-based company’s research arm, Damo Academy, on Tuesday unveiled XuanTie C950, a central processor unit based on the RISC-V architecture. The CPU is optimized for cloud computing, and i...
Getty Images Article Thesis The Middle East conflict escalated rapidly from what some touted to be a few weeks campaign to business and energy infrastructure damages and major global disruptions of critical commodities. Many civilian targets were hit in the Middle East, like the airport of Dubai, some luxury hotels, etc. (and, even after the end of this war, I expect only a gradual reopening). Thi...
Getty Images Article Thesis The Middle East conflict escalated rapidly from what some touted to be a few weeks campaign to business and energy infrastructure damages and major global disruptions of critical commodities. Many civilian targets were hit in the Middle East, like the airport of Dubai, some luxury hotels, etc. (and, even after the end of this war, I expect only a gradual reopening). This increases the continued contention and lengthens potential resolution. The Strait of Hormuz, the world's most critical energy choke point, remains effectively closed for about 20% of global crude oil, LNG, and fertilizers. And the last major (and probably the most important) blow was given by numerous attacks on the energy infrastructure in Iran, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. For example, the Las Raffan LNG complex in Qatar has suffered “extensive damage,” reducing Qatar's processing capacity by about 17%, and some experts suggest that repairs for some facilities could take 3 to 5 years. And what might be even worse is that this attack severely disrupted Qatar's helium production , which typically accounts for about one-third of the global supply. And helium is a critical material in the semiconductor supply chain. South Korea seems to be the most exposed country, with 65% of its helium sourced from Qatar, and South Korea is vital, with Samsung and SK Hynix together controlling most of the global memory production. And without memories, other semiconductors will be affected too. Here is how my portfolio could be impacted and why I’ve been trying to hedge: I have a minor exposure to SE Asia, which is directly impacted, being dependent on Middle East crude oil and LNG. I have a minor exposure to the global transactions industry through about a 0.75x position in Global Payments ( GPN ), which is directly affected by the closure of many Middle East businesses and indirectly by the ripple effects of inflation and, possibly, reduced purchasing power. I have a bit mo...