Twelfth night of attacks in the Iran war: first US soldiers killed, Tehran threatens "an eye for an eye"Houthis attack two Saudi oil tankers in the Red SeaUS and Saudi Arabia sign civilian nuclear agreementReformer Drapatyi becomes commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armyUkraine's drones strike Russia's ports and commercial warehouses, Kyiv appeals to the UN Security CouncilUS House approves record defense budget of over a trillion dollarsMerz makes Thorsten Frei leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary groupSevere wildfires in southern Europe: tens of thousands fleeing in Spain and FranceRubio meets China and Russia on the sidelines of the ASEAN forumUS court sets trial of Venezuela's ex-president Maduro for June 2027Tesla earns less despite rising salesEU approves Paramount's multibillion-dollar takeover of Warner Bros. subject to conditionsGreece blocks new EU sanctions package against RussiaAlphabet quadruples profit and plans AI investments of up to 200 billion dollarsAutonomous OpenAI AI hack alarms Congress and the digital ministryAlphabet's AI billions drive chip stocks, Intel and AMD secure China dealsTwelfth night of attacks in the Iran war: first US soldiers killed, Tehran threatens "an eye for an eye"Houthis attack two Saudi oil tankers in the Red SeaUS and Saudi Arabia sign civilian nuclear agreementReformer Drapatyi becomes commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armyUkraine's drones strike Russia's ports and commercial warehouses, Kyiv appeals to the UN Security CouncilUS House approves record defense budget of over a trillion dollarsMerz makes Thorsten Frei leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary groupSevere wildfires in southern Europe: tens of thousands fleeing in Spain and FranceRubio meets China and Russia on the sidelines of the ASEAN forumUS court sets trial of Venezuela's ex-president Maduro for June 2027Tesla earns less despite rising salesEU approves Paramount's multibillion-dollar takeover of Warner Bros. subject to conditionsGreece blocks new EU sanctions package against RussiaAlphabet quadruples profit and plans AI investments of up to 200 billion dollarsAutonomous OpenAI AI hack alarms Congress and the digital ministryAlphabet's AI billions drive chip stocks, Intel and AMD secure China deals
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Semiconductor Industry

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The global semiconductor market has been experiencing an unprecedented boom since the rise of generative artificial intelligence, because the construction of data centers unleashes an enormous hunger for high-performance GPUs. At the center is the Taiwanese contract manufacturer TSMC, which produces the bulk of the world's most advanced chips and supplies, among others, Nvidia, AMD and Apple, while Nvidia dominates in AI accelerators and Intel and AMD wrestle for market share. TSMC is investing massively, for example with billions in new plants in Arizona, and is regarded as the most important gauge of the global AI buildout, with the company posting record figures of around 40 billion dollars in revenue in the second quarter of 2026. At the same time, the US is tightening its export controls on advanced AI chips to China, which is causing Nvidia billions in losses and prompting Beijing to take countermeasures and launch massive support programs of its own for the domestic chip industry. Asian chip stocks are thereby regarded as central beneficiaries and price barometers of the AI cycle.

Der Pragmaticus: Wie konnten ASML, TSMC und Nvidia so mächtig werden?finanzen.net: KI-Nachfrage treibt TSMC anHandelsblatt: China prüft schärfere Exportkontrollen für KI und Halbleiter

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Thursday, 23 July 2026Technology

Alphabet's AI billions drive chip stocks, Intel and AMD secure China deals

Asian semiconductor stocks rose after Alphabet's announced AI spending of up to 200 billion dollars buoyed the sector. At the same time, Intel and AMD are said to have signed long-term contracts for server processors with Chinese customers as prices rise. The oil price at a six-week high dampened the gains.

The AI boom is feeding through to the chip industry. Bloomberg (US) reports that Asian semiconductor stocks rose after Alphabet announced it would invest up to 200 billion dollars in AI computing power this year. The business-liberal Handelsblatt (Germany) reports that the Nikkei and Kospi advanced despite the oil price climbing to a six-week high, because the semiconductor industry benefits from the investments. According to a report marked exclusive by Reuters (United Kingdom), Intel and AMD signed long-term contracts for server processors with Chinese customers as prices climb; these figures rest on unnamed sources and should therefore be assessed with caution. Taken together, two forces overlap: demand for AI chips and the geopolitical tensions over access to the Chinese market. The shared finding is that Alphabet's spending plans give the chip industry fresh momentum.

BloombergHandelsblattReuters