(TMT2024 Global, April 23, April 23) - Today's highlights: Apple has added 8 new Chinese mainland companies to its supply chain, ASML has signed a letter of intent to expand in the Netherlands, TSMC has raised wages by 3% to 5% this year, SoftBank will spend 150 billion yen to enhance AI computing power, the European Union has launched an investigation into TikTok Lite, and Chinese the ranking of invention patent companies for industrial intelligence.
Apple added 8 new Chinese mainland companies to its supply chain
Apple has announced its supply chain list for fiscal year 2023 on its official website. In this list, 8 new Chinese mainland enterprises were added, while 4 Chinese mainland enterprises were eliminated. The 8 new companies include: Baoti Co., Ltd., Jiuquan Iron and Steel, Zhongshi Weiye Technology, Kaicheng Technology, San'an Optoelectronics, Boshuo Technology, Tony Electronics, and Zhenghe Group. The four companies excluded are: Jiangsu Jingyan Technology, Meiyingsen Group, Shenzhen DEREN Electronics, and when profitable. The vast majority of Apple's supply chain companies have committed to achieving carbon neutrality for all apple-related production by 2030. There are only four companies that have not committed to carbon neutrality: Intel, Qualcomm, Microchip, and Synopsys.
Apple buys a lot of capacitive button components
Apple has ordered a large number of capacitive button components from the supplier that will be used in the upcoming iPhone 16 series. The order includes a system-in-package (SIP) module that will be used to integrate the capacitor assembly with two Taptic Engine motors, one on each side of the iPhone. Apple will replace the existing physical buttons on both sides of the iPhone 15 with capacitive buttons to provide haptic feedback to iPhone 16 users.
ASML signs a letter of intent for expansion in the Netherlands
Dutch lithography giant ASML announced on April 22 that it has signed a letter of intent with the Dutch city of Eindhoven to explore expansion plans near the city's northern airport, which could accommodate 20,000 new employees. If the new facility is fully staffed, it will nearly double the number of employees at ASML in the Netherlands. Dutch Economy Minister Adriansens said ASML's latest decision "demonstrates the company's confidence in our business environment and the Dutch cabinet's commitment to supporting the chip industry." ”
TSMC raises salaries by 3% to 5% this year
In April this year, TSMC raised its annual salary by an average of 3%-5%, the same as last year's salary increase. The specific salary increase range will be determined according to the individual's performance, seniority, position and other conditions. In recent years, TSMC has also made major adjustments in its salary structure. Among them, the fixed salary increase is as high as 20%. In addition, TSMC has also launched a global employee stock purchase plan to subsidize employees to buy their own company shares.
TSMC will charge higher fees to customers outside of Taiwan
TSMC plans to charge higher fees to customers who produce chips outside of Taiwan due to the impact of global capacity expansion, power costs, and increasingly sophisticated cutting-edge technologies on its profitability. The world's largest chipmaker said customers should share the "incremental costs" of setting up factories overseas.
OFILM's variable aperture and telescopic modules have been mass-produced
OFILM released its 2023 annual report, achieving operating income of 16.862 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.73%, and net profit attributable to the parent company of 76.905 million yuan, turning losses into profits year-on-year. OFILM recently disclosed that floating macro modules, periscope telephoto macro modules, chip stabilization, variable aperture and telescopic modules have achieved continuous mass production. At present, high-end products such as 7P optical lenses, periscope telephoto lenses, dual-group focusing lenses, and variable aperture lenses have been successfully mass-produced and entered the supply chain of domestic mainstream mobile phone manufacturers. Cutting-edge lens projects such as 8P high-pixel main camera, three-group continuous zoom, and glass-plastic hybrid have been successfully developed.
SoftBank will spend 150 billion yen to enhance AI computing power
SoftBank Group announced that it plans to invest a total of 150 billion yen by 2025 to enhance the computing power of its human AI data center. SoftBank's investment includes the purchase of GPUs from NVIDIA, some of which will be used for its own AI research and development, and some will be leased to other companies in need. Last year, SoftBank invested 20 billion yen in computing infrastructure, and the 150 billion yen announced this time is expected to push SoftBank to become the Japanese company with the highest computing power in the future.
The NVIDIA delegation will visit Vietnam
According to Vietnamese media reports, Keith Strier, vice president of Nvidia, led a U.S. delegation to Vietnam from April 22 to 26. The NVIDIA delegation will travel to Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest economic centers, and negotiate with local companies to establish artificial intelligence research and training centers, install supercomputer systems, and transfer some graphics processing unit (GPU) production to provide supercomputers for the Vietnamese market.
欧盟对TikTok Lite展开调查
The European Commission has announced a new investigation into whether TikTok's TikTok Lite, launched in France and Spain, violates the Data Services Act, finding that the app's features are predisposed to cause addiction in children and that there is a lack of risk assessment and mitigation measures. The European Commission requires TikTok to submit a risk assessment report within 24 hours and provide other necessary information by May 3. In response, a TikTok spokesperson said: "We are disappointed with the decision, the TikTok Lite Rewards Center is not open to users under the age of 18, and there is a daily limit on video viewing tasks. ”
Meta will open up its VR/AR operating system to third parties
Meta has announced that it will expand its VR/AR operating system, Meta Horizon OS, so that it will be open to third-party hardware manufacturers to design and produce their own VR headsets. This means that Meta will follow Microsoft's example of the open Windows operating system and provide software support for the entire VR/AR industry. Several vendors, including ASUS ROG and Lenovo, are already adapting Meta Horizon OS to their upcoming devices.
Meta前高管Jason Taylor将加入微软
Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott announced that former Meta executive Jason Taylor will join Microsoft as corporate vice president and deputy CTO to help the company "build next-generation systems that advance the frontiers of artificial intelligence." Taylor previously worked at Meta from 2009 to 2022, most recently as vice president of corporate infrastructure.
Mistral negotiates a €500 million financing
French AI startup Mistral is in talks to raise a €500 million funding that could double its valuation to at least €5 billion, following several investors who have offered to invest in the company, which is only a year old. Mistral's three founders, led by CEO Arthur Mensch, are considering their next move. Just four months ago, they closed a funding round that raised around 400 million euros, valuing the startup at 2 billion euros. The one-year-old French start-up was approached by multiple investors, who saw it as Europe's OpenAI.
Negotiations between SAFTSE and Informatica fell through
Negotiations between Salesforce and data management software company Informatica fell through when the two parties could not agree on terms. Earlier this month, Salesforce was discussing a deal to acquire Redwood City, Calif.-based Informatica, which could be valued at around $10 billion. If it had gone through, the deal would have been one of the largest acquisitions in Salesforce history.
Seagate and Western Digital raised the price of hard drives
Seagate, a giant in the HDD space, has sent a letter to customers announcing that it will implement price increases for new orders and additional demand, and expects prices to continue to rise in the coming quarters. Previously, Western Digital has raised prices for two major categories of products, mechanical hard drives and solid state drives, and said that it will more actively implement a price adjustment strategy according to market changes.
ROHM and STMicroelectronics expand SiC wafer supply contract
STMicroelectronics announced the expansion of its existing multi-year, long-term 150mm silicon carbide (SiC) wafer supply agreement with SiCrystal, a ROHM company. The new multi-year agreement involves the supply of larger quantities of silicon carbide (SiC) wafers produced in Nuremberg, Germany, with an estimated minimum value of $230 million.
iFLYTEK Spark V3.5 update was released on April 26
iFLYTEK officially announced that its Spark model will launch an updated version of V3.5 on April 26, which will become the first large model that supports long text, long graphics and long voice at the same time. This update will also debut the Spark image and text recognition model, multi-emotional super-anthropomorphic synthesis, one-sentence replication and other functions. At the same time, for the enterprise-level application market, iFLYTEK will also launch an intelligent twins platform.
Sichuan's first AI model was successfully recorded
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) issued an announcement on the "Registered Information on Generative Artificial Intelligence Services", and Changhong's "Yunfan" became the first "large model" in Sichuan to be successfully recorded. In November 2023, Changhong built the world's first smart home appliance AI platform based on large models through self-developed AI technology-Changhong Yunfan AI large model, taking the lead in applying generative artificial intelligence to TV terminals. Changhong Yunfan AI large model has five capabilities: multi-dimensional perception, multiple understanding, multi-task management, multi-mode interaction, and content stimulation.
Chinese artificial intelligence invention patent enterprise ranking
IPRdaily, a global intellectual property comprehensive information service provider, released the ranking of Chinese artificial intelligence invention patent enterprises. The list counts the artificial intelligence invention patents applied for and published in China in the past ten years, and Tencent, Baidu, Ping An, State Grid, Huawei, Ant Group, Alibaba, JD.com, OPPO, and China Mobile rank among the top 10 Chinese enterprises.
The issue of AI returns looms over Big Tech's earnings reports
The question of the return on AI looms over the earnings reports of big tech companies. With some tech giants reporting their latest quarterly earnings, this issue will be a concern in the tech industry. The enormous potential offered by the technology behind ChatGPT has spurred massive investment in the infrastructure needed to generate text, images, or videos. However, the current data may not yet adequately show whether the end users of this technology – whether it's the companies applying it to their business operations, or the people who use it in their daily lives – are ready to pay for it.