GoKawiil
Tech News
TSMC posted its sixth consecutive quarter of record profit and forecast fourth-quarter revenue up 58% year-over-year, driven by demand for advanced chipmaking. Executives say wafer capacity is stretched thin as clients including Nvidia, AMD, Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI compete for production slots.
TSMC reported third-quarter net income of NT$763.1 billion, a 68.7% year-on-year jump, with revenue of NT$1.49 trillion, both beating analyst estimates. The company's operating margin hit 58.7%, above its own guidance, and it forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $52.3-54.3 billion, up 58% year-on-year at the midpoint.
Chipmakers are increasingly focusing on advanced packaging techniques, rather than just transistor shrinkage, to boost AI chip performance. Separately, Meta released a new AI model it describes as cutting-edge, while OpenAI appears to be narrowing the capability gap with Anthropic.
The Financial Times reports that Chinese tech companies purchased more than one million Nvidia gaming and workstation GPUs over the past year to cover a shortfall in AI computing capacity. Citing industry insiders, the report says domestic AI chip output has roughly doubled but still falls nearly 1.5 million units short of demand exceeding 5 million chips. Buyers are reportedly repurposing export-compliant Nvidia models like the RTX Pro 6000D, RTX Pro 5000 and RTX 5090 for simpler AI workloads such as prefilling.
Reports indicate that more smartphone manufacturers are exploring active fan systems inside upcoming flagship Android phones. The goal is to manage heat generated by the latest high-performance chipsets, which can throttle speed when devices overheat.
Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire Decart, a San Francisco-based AI startup, in a deal valued at roughly $7 billion. Decart builds software that helps developers switch between different AI chips, according to the report.
Ting-Wei 'Willy' Sun, a third-party broker charged alongside Super Micro co-founder Yih-Shyan Liaw and sales manager Ruei-Tsang Chang, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally reroute Nvidia AI chips to China. Sun's plea is tied to an agreement with prosecutors whose cooperation terms haven't been disclosed, and he's scheduled for sentencing on September 8, 2027. Investigators allege the group disguised real Super Micro servers as dummy units to deceive export inspectors before routing them through Thailand to Alibaba.
Major indexes hit fresh records before a sharp tech selloff on Thursday, with the S&P 500 still finishing the week up 1.2% and the Nasdaq up 0.6% after Friday's rebound. Separately, SpaceX reportedly seeks to raise $40 billion to expand its Nvidia-powered AI compute business and announced a deal to acquire a nationwide wireless spectrum portfolio for Starlink.
IEEE Educational Activities, backed by the IEEE Computer Society, has released a new training program called AI Processor Architecture, Design Principles, and Performance. The five-course curriculum covers core chip design fundamentals, advanced architectures, neural processing units, emerging trends, and deployment across edge, cloud, quantum and IoT systems.
Prosecutors in Taiwan have charged ten company executives over the illegal export of military-grade chips from US manufacturers Texas Instruments and Analog Devices to China. The chips, falsely declared as made in Taiwan and ordered under the guise of Taiwan defense institute names, were allegedly diverted to Chinese military projects including missile and radar systems. The investigation revealed that the chips originated from multiple countries and were shipped through Taiwanese distributors using forged documentation to bypass export restrictions.
Samsung projected its operating profit will top $80 billion for the first time, driven by strong sales of memory chips. The company pointed to continued global demand for advanced chips as businesses expand investment in AI infrastructure and applications.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) announced September revenue of approximately $16 billion, marking a 54.6% increase compared to the previous year but a slight decline of 0.6% from August. The company, a key supplier for Nvidia and Apple, has benefited from rising demand for AI chips and has committed to adopting ASML's advanced lithography technology for future chip manufacturing. Its third quarter revenue is expected to be around NT$1.49 trillion, with earnings to be released next week.