AI chip startup Etched announced $1 billion in contract orders for its "frontier inference clusters," systems designed to accelerate AI model inference. The company also revealed it has raised $800 million to date, including a $500 million round closed in December.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated the company prioritizes US national security over business, even if it impacts revenue from markets like China. He addressed smuggled chips, stating Nvidia would not support them, and discussed China-specific chips, strong AI demand, and shareholder returns.
Micron and Qualcomm reported significant gains driven by AI demand, with Micron's gross margin topping major tech companies. Meanwhile, Middle East tensions led to oil price declines as tankers exited the Strait of Hormuz, and Europe experienced a record-breaking heatwave causing widespread disruption.
SK Hynix shares surged over 12% after announcing plans for a Nasdaq listing to raise up to $29.4 billion and following strong quarterly results from rival Micron, reinforcing expectations of persistent demand for AI memory chips.
Cerebras Systems' shares fell nearly 20% despite exceeding Q1 earnings expectations, as the AI chipmaker forecast a narrower full-year gross margin of 38-41%. CEO Andrew Feldman attributed this to temporary equipment rental from a customer to boost capacity.
OpenAI launched 'Jalapeño,' its first custom AI chip, developed with Broadcom, to power ChatGPT and future AI models like GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark. This move aims to control hardware, reduce Nvidia reliance, and make AI faster, more efficient, and affordable.
Open source AI startup Reflection has signed a $6.3 billion deal with SpaceX for access to AI chips and hardware at SpaceX's data center in Tennessee. The deal, starting July 2026, aims to support Reflection's open-weight AI strategy.
Amazon's $8 billion investment in AI startup Anthropic is now worth $74.2 billion on paper, reflecting Anthropic's meteoric rise in valuation. The partnership also includes cloud infrastructure services and AI chip commitments.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed plans for the company's in-house AI chips, Trainium, to compete with Nvidia. AWS is in talks to sell Trainium chips to other companies, with strong demand reported for current and future versions.
Seoul stocks opened at a fresh record high Friday, surpassing 9,000 points, driven by a chip rally fueled by the artificial intelligence boom. Major chipmakers saw gains, with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix leading the charge.
Wall Street closed higher, recovering losses from the Fed meeting. The AI chip sector saw gains as Apple indicated price hikes due to rising memory costs. Amazon's stock rose on reports of selling custom chips to data centers.
AWS is considering selling its custom AI chips, Trainium, to other companies for data center use. This move could pose a significant challenge to Nvidia's current AI chip market dominance, with potential annual revenues estimated at $50 billion.
Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that price increases for Apple products are unavoidable due to soaring demand for AI memory chips. He cited supply chain issues and rising component costs, comparing the situation to a "hundred-year flood."
The price of high-purity tungsten hexafluoride has surged over 200% year-on-year to over 1,700 yuan ($251) per kg due to supply bottlenecks and rising demand from the semiconductor industry. Japanese producers Showa Denko Kanto and Central Glass plan production suspensions in July, potentially disrupting supply to major chipmakers like Samsung Electronics.
An analysis in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung highlights Taiwan's indispensable role in AI chip production, creating a deep global economic dependency. This reliance poses significant risks due to Taiwan's geopolitical situation and vulnerability to natural disasters.
Huawei is considering deploying its new Ascend AI chips in its cloud and AI services across Latin America, according to Mark Chen, president of Huawei Cloud Latin America. This move could increase Chinese hardware presence in a region traditionally served by US suppliers.
Samsung Electronics is in discussions to produce a key component for Google's next-generation AI chip, codenamed 'Ispfish.' The chip's main processor will be made by TSMC, while Samsung is expected to handle the memory I/O Die using its 2nm process.
Experts suggest Taiwan's potential AI chip export controls on China are part of a 'tech cold war' and a barometer for US-Taiwan strategic alliance deepening. The move aims to prevent China's military advantage via AI and secure supply chains.
A tiny AI-powered chip developed by Xinsijie (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. can analyze water quality in real-time by detecting unique spectral 'fingerprints' of substances in water. This technology, integrated into a 'Spectral AI Water Quality Monitoring Network', significantly reduces pollution detection time from days to seconds and is being piloted across China, demonstrating the power of hard tech in environmental governance.
South Korea's exports surged 86% year-on-year to $28.6 billion in the first 10 days of June, reaching a new record high driven by a boom in semiconductor shipments fueled by global AI demand. Imports also rose, resulting in a $5.28 billion trade surplus.
South Korea's KOSPI index saw a dramatic 48-hour swing, falling 8.29% then rebounding 8.18%, driven by AI chip demand and sensitivity to US Federal Reserve policy. The concentration in chipmakers like Samsung and SK Hynix amplified the volatility.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declines Senate Banking Committee invitation to testify on AI development, China business, and export controls, citing inability to attend, amid growing US scrutiny on AI technology sales to China.
The US added 172,000 jobs in May with an unchanged unemployment rate of 4.3%, indicating a resilient labor market. Despite this, US stocks fell sharply due to a sell-off in AI chip stocks, with the Nasdaq down 4%.
South Korea's stock market is surging, driven by AI chip demand and tech giants like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. However, the nation's currency, the won, is struggling, down 11% against the US dollar, due to reliance on oil imports and global energy shocks.
