US to announce billions in subsidies for advanced chip-WSJ

Jan 27 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration is expected next week to hand out billions of dollars in subsidies to top semiconductor companies, including Intel ( INTC.O ), Opens a New Tab, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co ( 2330. TW ), The Wall Street Journal The United States has opened a new tab to help build new factories, it said on Saturday. The upcoming announcements are aimed at starting production of advanced semiconductors that power smartphones, artificial intelligence, and weapons systems, the WSJ reported, citing industry executives familiar with the discussions.

Itel Power lineup will get three new phones in February; Amazon availability confirmed

Itel will launch new models of the Power series soon. The company has confirmed the launch date for the upcoming models and also teased their designs. The teaser images show the screen and rear panel of the models, and a press note hints at some of the key features of the handset The Itel P55, launching in India in September 2023, was the last Power-series model to be unveiled. The upcoming Power smartphones are expected to launch with upgraded features compared to the older models.

Itel has confirmed that they will bring three new Power Series models in February this year. However, the company has not revealed any details other than the names of the models or the key specifications. One of the three models is expected to launch with "a global first Android version" which will be Android 14 (Go Edition). The Go Edition version is used in budget smartphones.

Microsoft to cut 1,900 jobs in gaming division including recently acquired Call of Duty maker Activision

 

Microsoft will lay off 1,900 workers at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week, it said Thursday, the latest cut in a technology sector that has extended massive layoffs to 2024 in past years.

The cuts represent about 8 percent of the overall Microsoft gaming division and will mostly occur at Activision Blizzard.

Blizzard president Mike Ybarra and chief design officer Allen Adham are also leaving the company, while Blizzard's previously announced survival game has been canceled, Microsoft said.

Intel suffered as the chipmaker fell further behind in the AI race

Jan 26 (Reuters) - Intel ( INTC.O ) fell more than 12% on Friday after a gloomy first-quarter revenue outlook, as the chipmaker played catch-up in the AI race while dealing with a weak PC market.

While AI is driving a boom in the chip sector, Intel appears to be an exception, analysts said. Semiconductor makers that make data-heavy chips for generative AI were among the biggest winners in the stock market in 2023.

OpenAI and other tech giants must notify the US government when they start new AI projects

When OpenAI's ChatGPT took the world by storm last year, it surprised many power brokers in both Silicon Valley and Washington, DC. The US government should now have an early warning about future AI breakthroughs linked to the big language model of the technology behind ChatGPT.

 

The Biden administration is preparing to use the Defense Production Act to force tech companies to notify the government when they use significant amounts of computing power to train an AI model. This rule may come into effect from next week.