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Reuters reported that SK Hynix is in early talks with Intel to produce memory chips in the United States, potentially through leasing space at Intel's Ohio plant or forming a joint venture involving cloud companies. Shares of both firms rose in premarket trading following the report, though sources cautioned no final decisions have been made.
An investigation by The Guardian found that nearly all of the world's ten largest producers of PFAS, or 'forever chemicals,' intend to expand production to supply the booming data center industry. These chemicals are widely used in cooling systems, AI chips, circuit boards, fire suppression equipment, and cable coatings inside data centers.
SK Hynix is reportedly discussing options with Intel to produce memory chips in the US for the first time, possibly by leasing space at Intel's delayed Ohio fab or forming a joint venture involving cloud companies. SK Hynix has confirmed it is exploring new production sites but says no decisions have been made, and Intel declined to confirm details beyond ongoing investment in the Ohio project.
Cornelis Networks, an Intel spinoff, secured $205 million in funding led by IAG Capital Partners. The company unveiled its Active Compute Fabric, a networking technology designed to reduce GPU idle time by letting chips process and transmit data simultaneously, and it has already begun shipping the product.
Micron unveiled a one-time NT$1 million (~$31,650) cash bonus for Taiwan staff as part of a larger rewards package that guarantees at least NT$1.7 million per worker, calling it the largest such payout in company history. Unions representing roughly 10,000 of Micron's 15,000 Taiwan employees rejected the offer, dismissing it as a distraction and instead demanding a 15% profit-sharing arrangement tied to the company's AI-driven earnings surge.
D-Matrix introduced Raptor, a new accelerator that stacks compute logic directly on top of DRAM dies to tackle memory bottlenecks in generative AI inference. The design aims to bridge the gap between SRAM's speed but tiny capacity and HBM's larger capacity but bandwidth and power limitations, following the company's earlier Corsair and JetStream products.
Z.ai's shares fell more than 10% on Monday after the Beijing-based AI firm unveiled plans to raise roughly $5 billion, combining a discounted share placement worth about $2 billion with a $3 billion zero-coupon convertible bond offering due 2027. This is the company's second major capital raise in two months, following a $4 billion placement in July. Rival Chinese AI firm MiniMax also saw its shares slide about 5% the same day.
AI chipmaker Positron secured $875 million in new funding, backers including NEA, Atreides Management, and Jim Clark, valuing the startup at $5 billion. The company designs specialized chips aimed at running AI models quickly, positioning itself against dominant GPU providers as demand for inference-focused hardware grows.
TSMC posted its highest-ever monthly revenue in August, totaling NT$514.8 billion ($16.35 billion), a 53.3% increase from a year earlier and 10.1% higher than July. This marks the fourth consecutive month of revenue growth for the chipmaker, fueled by sustained demand for AI-related chips.
Alongside unveiling the iPhone 18 and its first foldable, the iPhone Duo, Apple raised prices on its older iPhone lineup by roughly $100 in the US, with steeper increases abroad, including about 20.5% in India. The company also discontinued the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models.
The US Commerce Department is distributing $300 million in CHIPS Act funding equally among D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Quantinuum, giving each $100 million while also acquiring minority ownership stakes in the companies. The money targets hardware manufacturing challenges like cryogenics, semiconductor fabrication, ion traps, and photonics rather than quantum software development.
IDC reports global PC shipments dropped 4.9% in the second quarter, yet HP, Dell and Lenovo all posted double-digit revenue gains in their PC segments by prioritizing pricier, AI-capable machines. Tight memory chip supplies driven by AI infrastructure demand have pushed component costs up, prompting manufacturers to shift production toward premium systems rather than budget models.