AI Infrastructure
The Robot-Sized Hole in America’s China Chip Controls
Nvidia delivered another blockbuster earnings report this week, but one line in its outlook was easy to miss. The company said its guidance assumes no data center compute revenue from China. That is different from saying Nvidia expects no revenue from China. Far from it. At almost the same moment, The Wall Street Journal reported […]
Alan Shimel · Sep 1, 2026 · 7 min
NVIDIA’s $3.5 Billion MediaTek Deal Expands Its AI Infrastructure Reach
NVIDIA is investing $3.5 billion in Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek, a deal designed to keep NVIDIA technology central to AI data centers even as hyperscalers develop more of their own processors. For NVIDIA, the transaction is its largest direct investment outside the U.S. Alphabet also participated in the offering, although MediaTek did not disclose the […]
James Maguire · Aug 31, 2026 · 2 min
AI Accelerator Deployment Can Take Four Months or More
Enterprises are finding that deploying AI accelerators is no easy task. In a recent survey, nearly 62% of semiconductor buyers report that it takes at least four months to get from purchasing an accelerator system to generating their first production AI token. The finding comes from The Futurum Group’s “1H 2026 Data Center Semiconductor Decision […]
Andy Patrizio · Aug 31, 2026 · 2 min
Trump Weighs Expanded Semiconductor Tariffs to Drive Reshoring, Raising Alarm Over U.S. AI Growth: Report
The Trump administration is weighing a sweeping expansion of semiconductor tariffs that could extend to laptops, gaming hardware, and data center servers. The preliminary proposal, as reported by POLITICO, aims to pressure tech giants into shifting manufacturing to U.S. soil, but it has sparked intense opposition from industry groups warning of severe economic fallout for […]
Jon Swartz · Aug 27, 2026 · 2 min
NVIDIA Moves Groq 3 LPX Into Full Production for Agentic AI Inference
NVIDIA has moved its Groq 3 LPX inference accelerator into full production, adding specialized hardware to its Vera Rubin platform as the chipmaker addresses a key performance problem facing agentic AI. The new accelerator is built to generate tokens at high speed after an AI model has processed its input. This capability is particularly important […]
James Maguire · Aug 25, 2026 · 2 min
Samsung and SK hynix Take Different Paths to Next-Gen AI Memory
Samsung and SK hynix are pursuing decidedly different strategies to overcome the bandwidth, power, and thermal limitations facing high bandwidth memory (HBM) as AI accelerators become increasingly powerful. At Hot Chips 2026, Samsung outlined a roadmap that moves from conventional HBM to custom HBM and ultimately to a more radical architecture called zHBM. SK hynix, […]
Andy Patrizio · Aug 25, 2026 · 3 min
Gartner Forecasts Semiconductor Revenue to Surge 92% in 2026
Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to reach about $1.6 trillion in 2026 as the AI infrastructure buildout creates exceptional demand for memory and other data center components, according to Gartner. The research firm expects semiconductor revenue to increase 92% in 2026, from $809 billion in 2025. Gartner forecasts another sizable gain in 2027, when worldwide […]
James Maguire · Aug 25, 2026 · 2 min
IBM and Arm Unveil Dual-Architecture Chip Plan for Future Z and LinuxONE Mainframes
IBM and Arm have unveiled a processor design intended to bring Arm-native Linux software directly onto future IBM Z and LinuxONE systems. Well, this is different. At the Hot Chips conference, IBM and Arm revealed they’re working on an Arm chip in which each core can natively execute IBM Z or LinuxONE instructions and ARM […]
Steven Vaughan-Nichols · Aug 24, 2026 · 3 min
Broadcom Eyes Up to $100 Billion in Financing for AI Chip Build-Out
Broadcom is in discussions to arrange a massive debt package to finance AI chips and infrastructure for Anthropic and other AI companies, an initiative that demonstrates how tech vendors are moving beyond sales and are now helping finance deals with customers. The proposed structure could include roughly $30 billion of junior debt and $60 billion […]
James Maguire · Aug 21, 2026 · 2 min
Google Inks $12.2B Custom AI Chip Deal with Marvell, Spurring Tech Stock Shift
Marvell Technology Inc. shares spiked nearly 10% following a regulatory filing revealing that Google has secured the option to buy up to $12.2 billion in Marvell stock. The agreement signals a major expansion in their custom silicon partnership as tech titans rush to build cheaper, viable alternatives to NVIDIA Corp.’s dominant artificial intelligence (AI) processors. […]
Jon Swartz · Aug 20, 2026 · 2 min
Cerebras Debuts CS-4 System to Accelerate AI Inference
Cerebras Systems has unveiled the CS-4, a rack-scale computing system built to greatly speed up AI inference, as the chipmaker pushes to compete with NVIDIA and other providers of AI infrastructure. The CS-4 includes three of Cerebras’ new Wafer Scale Engine 3 Turbo, or WSE-3T, processors. These unusually large chips are designed to keep more […]
James Maguire · Aug 19, 2026 · 2 min
The Neoclouds’ Indispensability Trap
Jim Chanos has a point about CoreWeave. The famed short-seller recently argued that neocloud moats are “both dug and filled” by Nvidia. His reasoning is straightforward: Nvidia supplies the GPUs that neoclouds rent to customers, influences their allocation and pricing, and possesses the ability to weaken or bypass the intermediaries whenever it chooses. Chanos went […]
Alan Shimel · Aug 17, 2026 · 10 min
Kioxia, SanDisk Unveil Faster QLC Flash Aimed at AI Infrastructure
Kioxia and SanDisk have introduced their 9th-generation 2Tb QLC 3D flash memory, combining an updated CMOS design with their existing memory-array technology. The new architecture is intended to increase storage performance while improving power efficiency and allowing NAND technology to scale more cost-effectively. It is designed, not surprisingly, to address the rapidly expanding storage requirements […]
Andy Patrizio · Aug 14, 2026 · 1 min
AI Infrastructure Spending to Top $1T by 2030
Two market research reports have come to the same conclusion: the AI infrastructure market. He will soon surpass the $1 trillion mark. The only difference between the two is how far the market will go. One report by Dell’Oro Group says the worldwide data center IT semiconductors and components market is poised to reach $1.8 […]
Andy Patrizio · Aug 14, 2026 · 3 min
AI-Driven Chip Shortage Triggers Washington Lobbying War as Apple Seeks Chinese Supplier Relief
An explosion in artificial intelligence (AI) development has ignited a severe global memory chip crunch, igniting an aggressive lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill as non-AI sectors scramble to secure critical components and protect failing supply pipelines. Driven by data centers vacuuming up massive volumes of high-bandwidth memory and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) to train advanced […]
Jon Swartz · Aug 10, 2026 · 2 min
Intel Unveils Starfire Space Processor to Bring AI Computing to Orbit
Intel has introduced the Starfire processor, a new system-on-chip (SoC) designed to deliver artificial intelligence and high-performance computing capabilities aboard satellites and spacecraft. The processor, developed for U.S. government and aerospace missions, combines an 18A-based CPU and neural processing unit (NPU) with an Intel 3-based Xe graphics processor in a Foveros 3D package. The design […]
Andy Patrizio · Aug 10, 2026 · 2 min
Tesla, SpaceX Commit $16.8 Billion to Build Massive AI Chip Factory in Texas
Elon Musk is putting his money where his mouth is, unveiling plans for Tesla and SpaceX to invest $16.8 billion to build a massive semiconductor manufacturing complex in Texas, Called Terafab, the facility will be built in Grimes County, Texas just outside of Houston. When completed, it will be the largest building in the world […]
Andy Patrizio · Aug 10, 2026 · 2 min
SK Hynix Invests $38 Billion to Expand AI Memory Chip Production
In a sign of the growing demand for memory chips driven by AI’s growth, SK Hynix plans to spend approximately $38 billion to build two semiconductor fabrication facilities in South Korea, a major expansion for the company. The company’s board approved investments totaling 54.3 trillion won, with 35.2 trillion won allocated to a new fabrication […]
James Maguire · Aug 7, 2026 · 2 min
AMD Acquires Taalas to Bolster AI Inference
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has agreed to acquire Toronto-based AI startup Taalas, snapping up the inference startup ahead of rivals Intel and NVIDIA. Taalas, founded in 2023 and emerging from stealth mode in 2024, is privately held, so terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 2023, Taalas has taken an unconventional approach to […]
Andy Patrizio · Aug 7, 2026 · 3 min
AMD Posts Record Q2 Revenue as AI Data Center Business More Than Doubles
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reported record second-quarter revenue and sharply higher profit on Tuesday, driven by surging demand for its data center processors and AI accelerators. AMD reported revenue of $11.5 billion for the quarter ended June 27, 2026, up 50% from a year earlier, while GAAP net income climbed 163% to $2.3 billion. Diluted […]
Andy Patrizio · Aug 6, 2026 · 2 min