Hardware & Semiconductors

Intel is in advanced talks with Google and Amazon for EMIB-based chip packaging services worth billions annually, positioning its foundry division as a credible alternative to TSMC's constrained CoWoS capacity.

TSMC's Compact Universal Photonic Engine enters volume production in 2026, with NVIDIA's Spectrum-X Photonics switches and AMD's new $280 million R&D hub positioning optical interconnects as the successor to copper wiring in AI infrastructure.

The industry association's latest 300mm Fab Outlook report forecasts an 18 percent jump in equipment spending this year, with investments projected to exceed $150 billion for the first time in 2027 as AI demand drives historic commitments to advanced capacity across all major regions.

Water treatment giant Ecolab is buying CoolIT Systems from KKR in an all-cash deal that values the Calgary-based liquid cooling company at roughly 18 times its price just three years ago, reflecting the explosive demand for direct-to-chip cooling in AI data centers.

Intel's Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus ship with additional efficiency cores, native DDR5-7200 support, and aggressive pricing that undercuts their predecessors by up to $100, though AMD's X3D chips retain the gaming crown.

Meta unveiled the Ray-Ban Meta Blayzer Optics and Scriber Optics, its first AI-powered smart glasses engineered from the ground up for prescription wearers, priced at $499 and shipping to U.S. retail on April 14.

The Semiconductor Industry Association reported February 2026 sales of $88.8 billion, a 61.8 percent year-over-year surge driven by AI infrastructure spending, as the chip market remains on pace to cross $1 trillion in annual revenue for the first time.

The Linux Foundation launches the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation with 47 members including AMD, Nokia, NVIDIA, and Verizon to build an open-source radio access network stack for 5G and 6G, backed by the Pentagon's FutureG office.

A Google Quantum AI whitepaper shows fewer than 500,000 qubits could break elliptic curve cryptography in minutes, a 20-fold improvement over prior estimates that accelerates the post-quantum migration timeline.

London-based consumer electronics startup Nothing is developing AI-powered smart glasses with cameras, microphones, and speakers for a first-half 2027 launch, alongside new AI-focused earbuds arriving later in 2026, as CEO Carl Pei reverses his earlier resistance to the wearable form factor.

South Korean fabless chip designer Rebellions has closed a $400 million pre-IPO round led by Mirae Asset and the Korea National Growth Fund, bringing total funding to $850 million as the company launches rack-scale inference platforms and prepares for a public listing.

TSMC's US footprint could triple from $165 billion to $465 billion under a proposed tariff deal, with four Arizona fabs already fully booked before construction is complete.