India pledges $20 billion to boost chips and smartphones as Modi pushes for an Indian mobile brand
India pledges $20 billion to boost chips and smartphones as Modi pushes for an Indian mobile brand

India pledged 1.9 trillion rupees ($19.7 billion) in combined incentives for domestic chip and smartphone production on Wednesday. The cabinet approved 1.28 trillion rupees ($13.3 billion) for semiconductors, covering chip design, machine fabrication, …

Britain’s flagship AI data centre can’t get the power to switch on
Britain’s flagship AI data centre can’t get the power to switch on

Britain wants to be an AI superpower. One of its flagship data centres cannot get the electricity to switch on. Nscale’s £2bn Essex site has the money, the planning permission, and a grid connection, but no power arriving in time. Nscale has the cash, …

Pasqal’s SPAC filings reveal a $2bn French quantum bet, and a French kill switch
Pasqal’s SPAC filings reveal a $2bn French quantum bet, and a French kill switch

France’s Pasqal is heading to Nasdaq at a $2bn valuation, roughly 100 times its revenue. Its own filings spell out two things. Quantum computing might never pay off. And Paris can veto who owns the company. Pasqal, the French quantum-computing firm, is…

‘Listing is a must’: China’s LimX raises $200m as the humanoid IPO race heats up
‘Listing is a must’: China’s LimX raises $200m as the humanoid IPO race heats up

China’s humanoid gold rush just minted another contender. LimX Dynamics has raised $200m at a $2.21bn valuation. And its founder says the race to list has become do-or-die. A Shenzhen humanoid startup has become the latest name in China’s robot boom to…

The father of reinforcement learning is leaving Carmack to build his own AI
The father of reinforcement learning is leaving Carmack to build his own AI

One of the most decorated minds in AI is striking out alone. Richard Sutton shared the 2024 Turing Award for founding modern reinforcement learning. On Monday he said he is leaving John Carmack’s startup Keen Technologies to start a new one, Oak Lab. H…

Intel is putting 5 billion euros into Ireland, and Europe just got one of the few EUV fabs on the continent
Intel is putting 5 billion euros into Ireland, and Europe just got one of the few EUV fabs on the continent

Intel is committing 5 billion euros, around $5.7bn, to expand its campus at Leixlip in Ireland. The money is aimed at data-centre processors for AI and high-performance computing, Bloomberg reports. It is a serious share of the company’s budget. The su…

The AI boom broke the memory market, and the bust could be brutal
The AI boom broke the memory market, and the bust could be brutal

The AI boom has broken the memory market’s oldest rule. Prices that should be falling are soaring instead, and the AI memory crunch will not ease until 2028. The hangover, when it comes, could be brutal. Memory is meant to be boring. For decades DRAM a…

Yann LeCun’s new VC fund lasted eight hours. Then it vanished
Yann LeCun’s new VC fund lasted eight hours. Then it vanished

A shiny new VC firm named the AI pioneer as a partner on Friday morning. By Friday night, the fund did not exist. Yann LeCun has had a busy year. Now he has had a strange one. On Friday, a new venture firm called Extelligence Invest named the man often…

Home robots already walk. 1X’s new hands try to solve the part that actually matters
Home robots already walk. 1X’s new hands try to solve the part that actually matters

Humanoid robots learned to walk years ago. The thing still tripping them up is the hand. 1X has given its NEO home robot new hands, and they are the most interesting thing about it. A robot can stride across a stage and still be useless in a kitchen. L…