AI Infrastructure
Google’s reported 2028 chip plan puts inference efficiency at the centre of the AI race
A reported Google chip project would make tokens per watt, not raw model size, the next crucial benchmark.
Semiconductors
Funding
SK Hynix Turns the AI Chip Frenzy Into a $26.5 Billion Cash Call
SK Hynix priced its US listing on Friday to raise $26.5bn, turning investor appetite for AI infrastructure into one of the biggest stock sales on record, the Guardian reports. The chipmaker is selling about 18 million Nasdaq-listed depositary shares at $149 each after the deal was reportedly more than seven times oversubscribed. The memory specialist has become one of the clearest financial winners from the datacenter build-out because it supplies high-bandwidth memory used alongside Nvidia ac
AI Infrastructure
South Korea Unveils $1 Trillion AI and Semiconductor Investment Blitz
President Lee Jae-myung announced the strategy Monday, flanked by the heads of Samsung and SK Hynix, framing it as a "great leap forward" centred on a "triple axis" of semiconductors, physical AI, and data centres. Samsung and SK Hynix will invest 800 trillion won ($518bn) to build two new chip fabrication sites each in the southwest, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said. SK Group, GS Group, and Naver will commit 550 trillion won ($356bn) to AI data centres. Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon ann
China AI
Nvidia's AI Chip Sales Stall in China as Huawei Takes the Lead
Nvidia's advanced AI chip sales in China are stalling as domestic competitors led by Huawei capture market share, the Los Angeles Times reports. CEO Jensen Huang visited Beijing during President Trump's May summit with Xi Jinping — his celebrity status drew crowds on the street. It did not translate into chip orders. Controls imposed by Washington have restricted Nvidia's ability to sell its most advanced processors into China, and the gap is being filled by local manufacturers. Huawei's Asc
AI Infrastructure
Qualcomm Acquires Modular for $3.9 Billion in AI Software Platform Play
Qualcomm has confirmed the acquisition of Modular Inc. for approximately $3.9 billion in stock, adding an AI-native software platform that the chipmaker plans to use as a silicon-agnostic compute layer spanning devices, edge, and data centers. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026. Source: Bloomberg Modular, founded by former Google engineers, built a platform designed to make AI development and deployment more efficient across heterogeneous hardware — running the same code
AI Infrastructure
OpenAI Unveils Jalapeño, Its First Custom AI Chip Built With Broadcom
OpenAI and Broadcom have unveiled Jalapeño, the ChatGPT maker's first custom AI accelerator chip — a purpose-built ASIC designed specifically for large language model inference rather than the general-purpose GPUs that have dominated the market. Source: VentureBeat The chip reportedly cuts inference costs by about 50% compared to existing solutions, and its development timeline was extraordinary: just nine months from schematics to fabrication readiness, accelerated by using OpenAI's own model
Hardware
OpenAI Unveils Jalapeño, Its First Custom AI Chip — and It's a Direct Shot at Nvidia
OpenAI has unveiled its first custom-built AI inference processor, developed in partnership with Broadcom and named Jalapeño, according to TechCrunch. The chip went from initial design to manufacturing in just nine months, and early test results show significantly better performance-per-watt than current alternatives, Business Today reports. Jalapeño is designed specifically for LLM inference — the process of running pre-trained models in response to user queries — rather than the far more com