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Hand-picked coverage from the Techstrong Semi editorial team.
Intel’s $36 Billion Second Chance: The Technology Is Working. Will the Business Follow?
One year ago, the United States government made an extraordinary bet on Intel. On Aug. 22, 2025, Washington agreed to invest $8.9 billion in the company, converting previously awarded CHIPS Act and Secure Enclave funding into an equity stake. The goal was bigger than rescuing another struggling American corporation. It was to preserve something the […]
Alan Shimel · Aug 12, 2026 · 9 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
Anthropic Plans Custom AI Chip Strategy for Claude
Anthropic is assembling an in-house chip design team to develop custom processors for its Claude family of AI models, a key step in the company’s effort to reduce infrastructure costs and improve AI performance. The company plans to design future AI models alongside custom hardware rather than adapting software to commercially available processors. That approach […]
James Maguire · Aug 6, 2026 · 2 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
NVIDIA Strives to Make GPU-Driven Storage an Industry Standard
At the Future of Memory and Storage (FMS) conference this week, NVIDIA unveiled one of its most significant storage software initiatives to date, announcing that it is open-sourcing its cuFile APIs and the underlying storage software stack that powers GPUDirect Storage. The move is designed to remove one of the biggest bottlenecks facing AI infrastructure: […]
Andy Patrizio · Aug 5, 2026 · 3 min
HP, Asus and Acer Turn to Chinese Memory Supplier as AI Boom Tightens DRAM Market
The AI infrastructure buildout is reshaping another corner of the semiconductor industry, with reports indicating that HP, Asus and Acer have begun using limited quantities of DRAM from China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) in selected notebook computers. The move is yet another sign of the growing strain that AI investment is placing on the global […]
James Maguire · Aug 5, 2026 · 2 min
Beyond the Die: The Definitive Guide to Advanced Packaging in the AI Era
For decades, semiconductor progress was told through the story of the chip itself. That story still matters — but it no longer explains how the most advanced AI systems get faster. The most consequential change is now happening around the die as much as inside it. In Beyond the Die: The Definitive Guide to Advanced […]
Alan Shimel · Aug 4, 2026 · 1 min
Commerce Department Plans $874 Million for Seven Semiconductor R&D Projects
The US Department of Commerce plans to provide up to $874 million in CHIPS and Science Act incentives to seven semiconductor companies developing technologies for AI infrastructure, extending the government’s support for domestic semiconductor research and the US compute supply chain. The funding, announced through letters of intent, still requires additional review before final awards […]
James Maguire · Jul 31, 2026 · 3 min
GlobalFoundries Lands $300 Million in CHIPS Funding
GlobalFoundries has secured a planned $300 million award from the U.S. Department of Commerce to accelerate research and development of silicon photonics technology. The move is aimed at strengthening domestic semiconductor capabilities and addressing one of the biggest bottlenecks in next-generation artificial intelligence infrastructure, namely network throughput. The funding was announced Wednesday as a letter […]
Andy Patrizio · Jul 31, 2026 · 2 min
The Wall We Built Is Becoming Their Foundation
ASML shed about 5% of its market value on Monday because of a report about five machines. The Information reported that a Shanghai-based, state-backed manufacturer has begun mass-producing immersion deep ultraviolet lithography tools, with roughly five units expected to ship this year and about twenty in 2027. For scale, ASML shipped 131 immersion DUV systems […]
Alan Shimel · Jul 29, 2026 · 5 min
Samsung Lands $200 Billion Broadcom AI Chip Partnership in Major Foundry Win
Samsung Electronics and Broadcom have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand a strategic semiconductor partnership that the companies estimate will be worth more than $200 billion through 2030. The partnership is expected to support Broadcom’s growing portfolio of custom artificial intelligence processors and strengthen Samsung’s position in the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure market. The […]
Andy Patrizio · Jul 28, 2026 · 1 min
Intel to Restore Hyper-Threading in Future Xeon Chips
Intel is reversing course on one of its most significant recent processor design decisions, bringing back Hyper-Threading to future versions of the Xeon processor. Hyper-Threading is a technology that allows a processor core to execute two threads at once, sort of. While a Hyper-Threaded core appears as two logical processors to the system, they don’t […]
Andy Patrizio · Jul 27, 2026 · 2 min
Moore’s Law Didn’t End. It Changed Direction
IBM’s “0.7nm chip” is part marketing sleight of hand and part genuine semiconductor breakthrough. Ignore the decimal point. Nanostack—and the decision to build silicon upward—is the real story. Let’s get the marketing out of the way first. IBM says it has introduced the world’s first “sub-1 nanometer chip technology.” More specifically, the company calls this […]
Alan Shimel · Jul 24, 2026 · 9 min
Intel Posts Strong AI-Driven Quarter as Data Center Demand Fuels Growth
Intel reported a stronger-than-expected second quarter as accelerating investment in AI infrastructure lifted demand for its processors, while the company increased manufacturing spending and reaffirmed its strategy to regain semiconductor leadership. The chipmaker posted adjusted earnings of 42 cents per share on revenue of $16.1 billion, comfortably exceeding analyst expectations of roughly 21 to 22 […]
James Maguire · Jul 24, 2026 · 2 min
AMD Challenges NVIDIA’s Dominance with New AI Hardware, Billion-Dollar Partnerships
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is launching a powerful new lineup of artificial intelligence (AI) data center hardware on Thursday, directly targeting market leader NVIDIA Corp. The news, unveiled at an industry event in San Francisco, centers around AMD’s efforts to capture market share in both AI training and inference, the computational work behind processing queries […]
Jon Swartz · Jul 23, 2026 · 2 min
Google Reportedly Developing AI Chip for Gemini
Google is reportedly developing a new custom AI chip designed specifically to run its Gemini family of artificial intelligence models more efficiently, marking the latest in a series of custom chips optimized for AI processing. The chip, internally codenamed “Frozen v2,” is being engineered to accelerate AI inference in a very unique manner. According to […]
Andy Patrizio · Jul 23, 2026 · 2 min