Agentic artificial intelligence and advanced packaging technology will be key growth drivers for China’s chip industry in coming years, as the country is expected to increase its share of chipmaking capacity to nearly half of the world’s total by 2028. According to data revealed at Semicon China, the world’s largest chip industry trade show, China’s share of wafer fabrication capacity for mainstre...
Agentic artificial intelligence and advanced packaging technology will be key growth drivers for China’s chip industry in coming years, as the country is expected to increase its share of chipmaking capacity to nearly half of the world’s total by 2028. According to data revealed at Semicon China, the world’s largest chip industry trade show, China’s share of wafer fabrication capacity for mainstream processes was expected to reach 42 per cent of global capacity by 2028. That would mark a rapid...
Giorgia Meloni is seeking to boost gas flows from Algeria, as Italy and Spain vie to secure more North African energy to cushion the loss of Middle Eastern supplies choked off by the Iran war. “We have decided to strengthen our very solid cooperation, including by working on new fronts such as ocean gas and offshore, and this will enable a boost in gas flows,” the Italian prime minister was quoted...
Giorgia Meloni is seeking to boost gas flows from Algeria, as Italy and Spain vie to secure more North African energy to cushion the loss of Middle Eastern supplies choked off by the Iran war. “We have decided to strengthen our very solid cooperation, including by working on new fronts such as ocean gas and offshore, and this will enable a boost in gas flows,” the Italian prime minister was quoted as saying by Ansa Wednesday. She spoke after meetings with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune . Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares will also travel to Algiers on Thursday. Algeria is the main gas supplier for both Italy and Spain, which receive gas from different pipelines. The conflict in the Middle East has closed the critical Strait of Hormuz to most tanker traffic for more than three weeks. That’s kept huge volumes of gas off the global market, while an Iranian attack on a giant LNG plant in Qatar drove prices to a three-year high last week. Italy’s state-controlled Eni SpA has been renegotiating contracts with Algerian supplier Sonatrach, whose gas — sent via pipeline across Tunisia — accounts for about 35% of Italy’s imports. The Algerian firm, however, is pushing for more spot-market sales, Bloomberg reported last week. Separately, Bloomberg reported that Spain is considering increasing the gas it receives from Algeria via the Medgaz pipeline, operated by Sonatrach, Spain’s Naturgy and BlackRock. Italy also brings in liquefied natural gas, and could face protracted tightness in supply following the attack in Qatar, which provided about 31% of the country’s LNG imports last year. Damage to the plant will likely take years to repair, forcing Italy to seek replacement volumes from other exporters such as the US. Flows from Algeria via the TransMed pipeline have averaged about 20 billion cubic meters in recent years, roughly 2 billion a year below 2022-2023 levels, according to Italian Energy Ministry data. A return to those levels would still be insuffic...
Stephen Simpson has upgraded STMicroelectronics ( STM ) as the company pivots toward high-growth opportunities like data centers and robotics, while Trapping Value has moved Wheaton Precious Metals ( WPM ) to a Hold rating following a period of significant market value erosion. Conversely, some analysts are urging caution or suggesting rotations within specific industries. Henrik Alex has downgrad...
Stephen Simpson has upgraded STMicroelectronics ( STM ) as the company pivots toward high-growth opportunities like data centers and robotics, while Trapping Value has moved Wheaton Precious Metals ( WPM ) to a Hold rating following a period of significant market value erosion. Conversely, some analysts are urging caution or suggesting rotations within specific industries. Henrik Alex has downgraded Teekay Corporation ( TK ) to a Sell, citing a steep premium to its net asset value, while Gary Alexander has lowered his stance on Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ) to Neutral, pointing to better value elsewhere in the cybersecurity space. Upgrades STMicroelectronics ( STM ): Upgrade to Buy by Stephen Simpson . The analyst highlights the company’s successful shift in focus toward growth sectors like robotics and data centers, which is helping offset softer demand in the traditional automotive and industrial markets. “Provided that the ongoing hostilities between the United States, Israel, and Iran don’t trigger a broader downturn for the economy, STMicro’s business should recover in 2026, with notable acceleration in the second half of the year continuing into 2027 and beyond. Moreover, while STMicro does face meaningful competition across multiple markets, opportunities in areas like data centers (or DCs), power, robotics, and sensing do support a more bullish outlook.” Wheaton Precious Metals ( WPM ): Upgrade Sell to Hold by Trapping Value . After a significant loss in market capitalization following an expensive streaming deal, the analyst believes the stock’s valuation has finally retreated to a level near fair value. “Sentiment in the precious metals sector has turned extremely bearish, with flows and sentiment indicators suggesting a better entry point for traders.” Downgrades Teekay Corporation ( TK ): Downgrade Buy to Sell by Henrik Alex . The analyst argues that the stock is currently trading at a substantial premium to its net asset value and suggests that investors ...
The three new battery-powered doorbells add 4K and 2K video resolution, and the company’s budget wired model gets a bump to 2K. | IMAGE: Ring Ring has announced its first battery-powered 2K and 4K doorbell cameras . The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro 2nd Gen ($249.99) offers 4K video resolution and 10x digital zoom, while the Battery Video Doorbell Plus 2nd Gen ($179.99) offers 2K video and 6x zo...
The three new battery-powered doorbells add 4K and 2K video resolution, and the company’s budget wired model gets a bump to 2K. | IMAGE: Ring Ring has announced its first battery-powered 2K and 4K doorbell cameras . The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro 2nd Gen ($249.99) offers 4K video resolution and 10x digital zoom, while the Battery Video Doorbell Plus 2nd Gen ($179.99) offers 2K video and 6x zoom. The Battery Video Doorbell 2nd Gen ($99.99) also has 2K but uses a built-in battery unlike the other two, which have removable batteries. The new doorbell cameras are now available for pre-order and will be released on April 29th. The company also announced an upgrade to its Wired Video Doorbell 2nd Gen ($79.99) , bringing 2K Video to its budget doorbell camera. All the models get the … Read the full story at The Verge.
Meta Platforms is laying off a few hundred people across multiple teams on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Reuters reported earlier this month that Meta was planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company's workforce and that top executives had signaled the plans to other senior leaders and told them to begin planning how to pare back. Accordi...
Meta Platforms is laying off a few hundred people across multiple teams on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Reuters reported earlier this month that Meta was planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company's workforce and that top executives had signaled the plans to other senior leaders and told them to begin planning how to pare back. According to an earlier report in The Information, the cuts would affect Meta's Reality Labs division, social media teams and recruiting operations.
Meta Platforms Inc. is cutting several hundred jobs as part of a restructuring effort that’s impacting several teams at the company, including sales, recruiting and the Reality Labs hardware division. The layoffs will affect employees both in the US and other international markets, according to a person familiar with the matter. Some of the personnel impacted will be offered other jobs, or a chanc...
Meta Platforms Inc. is cutting several hundred jobs as part of a restructuring effort that’s impacting several teams at the company, including sales, recruiting and the Reality Labs hardware division. The layoffs will affect employees both in the US and other international markets, according to a person familiar with the matter. Some of the personnel impacted will be offered other jobs, or a chance to move to another location to stay at the company, the person said. Some members of Meta’s Reality Labs division were asked to work remotely Wednesday in preparation for the cuts, according to two people familiar with the announcement. “Teams across Meta regularly restructure or implement changes to ensure they’re in the best position to achieve their goals,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “Where possible, we are finding other opportunities for employees whose positions may be impacted.” The cuts will impact fewer than 1,000 total employees, according to a person familiar with the matter. Meta had about 79,000 employees worldwide at the start of the year. Meta has been one of tech industry’s most aggressive spenders when it comes to AI. The company projected record capital expenditures this year — as much as $135 billion — and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said that Meta will spend $600 billion on US infrastructure projects by 2028. Zuckerberg previously discussed how AI will disrupt the company’s work flows, and engineers at the company are already using AI agents to help with coding and other projects. Meta has already trimmed its ranks this year. Reality Labs, the internal division developing futuristic hardware like AI glasses and virtual reality headsets, cut more than 1,000 people in January as the company pushed more resources toward artificial intelligence wearables and away from some of its virtual-world products, known as the metaverse.
400tmax/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Google ( GOOG )( GOOGL ) revealed a set of new algorithms today designed to reduce the amount of memory needed to run large language models and vector search engines. Shares of major memory and storage suppliers had declined during early market action on Wednesday. Micron Technology ( MU ) was down 4%, Western Digital had slid 4.4%, Seagate Technology ( S...
400tmax/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Google ( GOOG )( GOOGL ) revealed a set of new algorithms today designed to reduce the amount of memory needed to run large language models and vector search engines. Shares of major memory and storage suppliers had declined during early market action on Wednesday. Micron Technology ( MU ) was down 4%, Western Digital had slid 4.4%, Seagate Technology ( STX ) had declined 5.6%, and Sandisk ( SNDK ) had sunk 6.5%. Sandisk revealed today it has entered into a private placement subscription agreement to make an equity investment in semiconductor firm Nanya Technology . The algorithms introduced by Google include TurboQuant, Quantized Johnson-Lindenstrauss, and PolarQuant. TurboQuant is a compression algorithm that optimally addresses the challenge of memory overhead in vector quantization. A mathematical technique known as the Johnson-Lindenstrauss Transform shrinks complex, high-dimensional data while preserving the essential distances and relationships between data points. This algorithm creates a high-speed shorthand that requires zero memory overhead. Finally, PolarQuant addresses the memory overhead problem by using polar coordinates. This allows LLMs to skip the data normalization step because it maps data onto a fixed, predictable “circular” grid where the boundaries are already known. "As AI becomes more integrated into all products, from LLMs to semantic search, this work in fundamental vector quantization will be more critical than ever," said Google research scientist Amir Zandieh and Vahab Mirrokni, VP and Google Fellow, in a blog post . Google plans to present TurboQuant at the International Conference on Learning Representations in Rio de Janeiro in April. More on Alphabet, Sandisk, and Micron Micron Says Go Big Or Go Home As It Ramps Up Capex Far More Than Peers The 'Problem' With Micron's Guidance Micron's Profit Supercycle Mirrors Nvidia - There's Still Time To Buy In Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg among Trump'...
Kira-Yan Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has had discussions with Meta Platforms ( META ) and Google ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) and others about becoming partners in his firms' data center business, Bloomberg reported. Walmart's ( WMT ) Flipkart has also spoken to Adani and his company, the Adani Group, the news outlet added , citing people familiar with the matter. The data centers would be spread across...
Kira-Yan Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has had discussions with Meta Platforms ( META ) and Google ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) and others about becoming partners in his firms' data center business, Bloomberg reported. Walmart's ( WMT ) Flipkart has also spoken to Adani and his company, the Adani Group, the news outlet added , citing people familiar with the matter. The data centers would be spread across India, though specific sites have not yet been finalized, the people added. Adani Group, Meta, Walmart, and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha. More on Alphabet and Meta Meta Platforms: The AI Spending Spree Is Out Of Control Meta Platforms: 16x Adjusted FY2026 P/E Is A Solid Buy Delays, Compute Deals, And Sky-High CapEx: Why I'm Still Bullish On Meta Meta to cut 'a few hundred' jobs across the board, including at Reality Labs Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg among Trump's tech council
Kira-Yan Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has had discussions with Meta Platforms ( META ) and Google ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) and others about becoming partners in his firms' data center business, Bloomberg reported. Walmart's ( WMT ) Flipkart has also spoken to Adani and his company, the Adani Group, the news outlet added , citing people familiar with the matter. The data centers would be spread across...
Kira-Yan Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has had discussions with Meta Platforms ( META ) and Google ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) and others about becoming partners in his firms' data center business, Bloomberg reported. Walmart's ( WMT ) Flipkart has also spoken to Adani and his company, the Adani Group, the news outlet added , citing people familiar with the matter. The data centers would be spread across India, though specific sites have not yet been finalized, the people added. Adani Group, Meta, Walmart, and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha. More on Alphabet and Meta Meta Platforms: The AI Spending Spree Is Out Of Control Meta Platforms: 16x Adjusted FY2026 P/E Is A Solid Buy Delays, Compute Deals, And Sky-High CapEx: Why I'm Still Bullish On Meta Meta to cut 'a few hundred' jobs across the board, including at Reality Labs Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg among Trump's tech council