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Rani Molla

Oracle jumps on report it’s involved in TikTok deal

Oracle is up nearly 5% this morning on a CBS report that it’s one of “multiple companies” involved in a deal to operate TikTok in the US. Oracle has long been considered a likely contender.

Whichever US entity ultimately takes over TikTok’s American operations will continue to use parent company ByteDance’s Chinese algorithm, the Financial Times reported earlier today. Concerns that Beijing could use the prized algorithm to manipulate US users and push propaganda was a key reason the government moved to ban the app in the first place, though much of the evidence remains classified.

US social media competitors Meta and Snap initially dropped yesterday on news of an impending deal but have since recovered and don’t seem to be affected premarket today.

US social media competitors Meta and Snap initially dropped yesterday on news of an impending deal but have since recovered and don’t seem to be affected premarket today.

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Republican Presidential Nominee Former President Trump Holds Rally In Butler, Pennsylvania

Tesla investors don’t want Elon Musk involved in politics

The Tesla CEO is spending big on the GOP in midterm elections.

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Report: China’s “Manhattan Project” built an advanced EUV chip fab prototype

The most advanced chipmaking process in the world is currently owned by one company: Dutch chipmaker ASML.

The process, known as extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV), allows for the smallest, most complex semiconductors to be etched onto 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, 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 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% as of 12 p.m. ET.

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, 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 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% as of 12 p.m. ET.

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Google is reportedly working with Meta to expand software support for its AI chips

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.

$100B

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.

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