Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving subsidiary, is in talks to raise more than $15 billion in a funding round that would value the company near $100 billion, Bloomberg reports. That’s more than double the valuation from its last round in October 2024, reflecting its lead in driverless ride-hailing.
The most advanced chip-making process in the world is currently owned by one company – Dutch chip maker ASML.
The process, known as extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) allows for the smallest, most complex semiconductors to be etched into silicon chips.
These advanced chips are used in a huge number of crucial industries such as AI, mobile phones, and weapons manufacturing.
A new report from Reuters says that China has completed a factory-sized prototype of an EUV chip fab, in a first that could have huge ramifications for the balance of power in the global technology race.
The prototype was built in a high-security facility in Shenzhen by former ASML employees and made use of secondary markets to acquire older used ASML parts, according to the report. Despite a goal of delivering working chips by 2028, sources say China is likely a couple years behind that schedule.
ASML’s $250 million dollar EUV machines are used to manufacture advanced chips for Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and for chips made by TSMC.
ASML shares were down about 4.8%.
These advanced chips are used in a huge number of crucial industries such as AI, mobile phones, and weapons manufacturing.
A new report from Reuters says that China has completed a factory-sized prototype of an EUV chip fab, in a first that could have huge ramifications for the balance of power in the global technology race.
The prototype was built in a high-security facility in Shenzhen by former ASML employees and made use of secondary markets to acquire older used ASML parts, according to the report. Despite a goal of delivering working chips by 2028, sources say China is likely a couple years behind that schedule.
ASML’s $250 million dollar EUV machines are used to manufacture advanced chips for Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and for chips made by TSMC.
ASML shares were down about 4.8%.
Nvidia dominates the market for AI chips. But its advantage is not limited to hardware.
The company has a growing suite of software tools that are usually paired with its chips, optimized to get the most out of the GPUs crunching the data.
Any challengers to Nvidia’s dominance will need to make it easy for developers to walk away from the Nvidia software-hardware lock-in. That’s what Google and Meta are teaming up to do.
A new report from Reuters says Google is working on an initiative code-named “TorchTPU,” which aims to make it easier for AI developers who use the ubiquitous, open-source PyTorch software framework to switch the hardware layer to Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs).
Meta is a huge backer of the PyTorch project, so the company is teaming up with Google to help develop its TorchTPU software, per the report.
Last month, it was reported that Google is planning on selling TPUs worth “billions of dollars” to Meta, which follows other Big Tech players who are hedging their bets against Nvidia’s dominance.
Any challengers to Nvidia’s dominance will need to make it easy for developers to walk away from the Nvidia software-hardware lock-in. That’s what Google and Meta are teaming up to do.
A new report from Reuters says Google is working on an initiative code-named “TorchTPU,” which aims to make it easier for AI developers who use the ubiquitous, open-source PyTorch software framework to switch the hardware layer to Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs).
Meta is a huge backer of the PyTorch project, so the company is teaming up with Google to help develop its TorchTPU software, per the report.
Last month, it was reported that Google is planning on selling TPUs worth “billions of dollars” to Meta, which follows other Big Tech players who are hedging their bets against Nvidia’s dominance.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles ruled Tuesday that Tesla violated state law by marketing its driver assistance features using “misleading” terms like “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving Capability.”
The DMV adopted an administrative law judge’s findings but softened some of the penalties: instead of suspending Tesla’s manufacturing license, the agency is giving the company 60 days to revise how it uses the term “Autopilot.” If it doesn’t, Tesla could be barred from selling cars in California, its largest US market, for 30 days.
Regulators said Tesla’s marketing suggested something much closer to autonomy — including claims that its system could “conduct short and long-distance trips with no action required by the person in the driver’s seat” — even though the features still require active driver supervision. “...vehicles equipped with those ADAS features could not at the time of those advertisements, and cannot now, operate as autonomous vehicles,” the agency wrote. After the DMV filed accusations against the company in November 2023, Tesla already discontinued use of the term “Full Self-Driving Capability,” replacing it with “Full Self-Driving (Supervised),” and now it must find something else to call “Autopilot.”
Tesla is currently testing its Austin Robotaxis, which use versions of its FSD software, without a safety monitor.
Regulators said Tesla’s marketing suggested something much closer to autonomy — including claims that its system could “conduct short and long-distance trips with no action required by the person in the driver’s seat” — even though the features still require active driver supervision. “...vehicles equipped with those ADAS features could not at the time of those advertisements, and cannot now, operate as autonomous vehicles,” the agency wrote. After the DMV filed accusations against the company in November 2023, Tesla already discontinued use of the term “Full Self-Driving Capability,” replacing it with “Full Self-Driving (Supervised),” and now it must find something else to call “Autopilot.”
Tesla is currently testing its Austin Robotaxis, which use versions of its FSD software, without a safety monitor.
Tesla closed at an all-time high today of over $489. The company has been riding high as it tests its autonomous Robotaxi service without safety monitors and takes a bigger chunk of shrinking EV market share. Its previous high was $479 on December 17 last year.
