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Showing posts from August 22, 2023

Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Other Arm Clients Turn Chip Firm's IPO Into Tug of War for Semiconductor Influence

A scramble among Arm Holdings's clients, comprising the world's biggest technology companies, to snap up shares in its initial public offering (IPO) is testing the semiconductor designer's adherence to not picking sides in the chip industry. Customers of Arm that have held talks about taking a piece of the IPO include Apple , Amazon , Intel , Nvidia , Alphabet , Microsoft , Samsung Electronics and TSMC , Reuters has reported. Arm is hoping for a valuation of up to $70 billion (roughly Rs. 5,80,600 crore) in the IPO, which will launch on the Nasdaq next month. These companies' interest is fueled by a desire to expand their commercial relationship with Arm and make sure that their rivals do not gain an edge, according to people familiar with the discussions. This is because Arm's customers view its semiconductor designs as an indispensable resource. They are used by more than 260 technology companies to make over 30 billion chips annually, powering 99 percent of

US FTC to Probe Qualcomm's Israeli Chipmaker Autotalks Aquisition Deal: Report

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected to open an in-depth probe on Wednesday of Qualcomm's purchase of Israeli auto-chip maker Autotalks , Politico reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. In May, Qualcomm had said it would acquire Israel's Autotalks, a maker of chips used in crash-prevention technology in vehicles, but had not disclosed the terms of the deal. Autotalks, which makes dedicated chips used in the V2X communications technology sector for manned and driverless vehicles, would help Qualcomm expand its automotive-related business. Last week, EU regulators had also said that the US chipmaker would have to seek EU antitrust approval for the planned takeover. The EU competition watchdog said 15 EU countries, including France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden, had asked it to examine the deal. Qualcomm, Autotalks and the FTC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Earlier in August, Qualcomm ha

VMware, Nvidia Partner to Develop Software Tools for Companies That Want Their Own AI

VMware on Tuesday said it has developed a new set of software tools in partnership with Nvidia  aimed at businesses which want to develop generative artificial intelligence in their own data centers rather than the cloud. VMware, which is close to being acquired by chip firm Broadcom  in a $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,73,000 crore) deal, makes software that corporations use to run their privately owned data centers. For more than two decades, VMware's tools have been used by businesses to divvy up the computing power in central processor chips, which are the brains of traditional servers. On Tuesday, the company released a new set of tools help designed to manage Nvidia chips, which dominate the market for AI systems that can read and write text in human-like ways. Companies like Microsoft , for example, are offering cloud-based systems that can read through a business team's emails and chats and help generate a short update on a the team's progress.  Raghu Raghuram, VMwa

Meta Releases SeamlessM4T AI Model to Translate Languages in Real-Time

Facebook parent company Meta Platforms on Tuesday released an AI model capable of translating and transcribing speech in dozens of languages, a potential building-block for tools enabling real-time communication across language divides. The company said in a blog post that its SeamlessM4T model could support translations between text and speech in nearly 100 languages, as well as full speech-to-speech translation for 35 languages, combining technology that was previously available only in separate models. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he envisions such tools facilitating interactions between users from around the globe in the metaverse, the set of interconnected virtual worlds on which he is betting the company's future. Meta is making the model available to the public for non-commercial use, the blog post said. The world's biggest social media company has released a flurry of mostly free AI models this year, including a large language model called Llama that poses a ser