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U.S. and China trade more blows in battle for semiconductor chip supremacy

Dec 5, 2024
This week, the White House added to the list of Chinese companies blocked from receiving certain American chip technology.
Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images

Intel, a household name in chips, is reportedly a takeover target

Sep 23, 2024
The company is known for making a chip called a central processing unit, often referred to as the brain of a computer.
Intel has lost market share in microprocessors and hasn't made a complete pivot to graphics processing units, or GPUs, which are needed for artificial intelligence.
I-Hwa Cheng/AFP via Getty Images

Phoenix’s semiconductor boom was supposed to change their lives, but did it?

Aug 15, 2024
Months after completing a semiconductor technician training course, two workers share their stories.
Students in the Semiconductor Technician Quick Start training course at Mesa Community College practice using hand tools while wearing “bunny suits,” the required workwear at fabrication plants.
Maria Hollenhorst/Marketplace

Wall Street's question for Big Tech: When will all that money you're spending on AI finally pay off?

Jul 30, 2024
For now, it's boosting other parts of the economy — chipmakers and contractors that build data centers, for example.
Investors want to see AI spending start to pay off, but building AI-supportive infrastructure takes time.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Looking for a “fresh start” amid Phoenix’s semiconductor boom

The federal government is spending billions to support semiconductor manufacturing. But trainees seeking chipmaking jobs may have to wait.
Students in the Semiconductor Technician Quick Start training course at Mesa Community College practice while wearing “bunny suits,” the required workwear at fabrication plants.
Maria Hollenhorst/Marketplace

CHIPS funds are heading to Phoenix, “ground zero for the new economy”

An influx of federal investment in the Arizona metropolis is meant to energize the nation's tech industry and accelerate job creation. Will it work?
President Joe Biden arrives at the TSMC facility in Phoenix to speak in December 2022. TSMC was recently awarded $6.6 billion in CHIPS Act funding.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

The US is known for designing chips, not making them. Can the CHIPS Act funding change that?

Feb 21, 2024
This week, the Biden administration said it’s awarding $1.5 billion to chipmaker GlobalFoundries to expand its manufacturing here, in the largest grant under the CHIPS Act so far.
President Joe Biden arrives to deliver remarks at Wolfspeed, a semiconductor manufacturer, in Durham, North Carolina, on March 28, 2023.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

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$5 billion Intel deal scrapped after China dragged out regulatory approval

Aug 22, 2023
Intel recently scrapped a $5 billion deal to buy an Israeli semiconductor manufacturer — primarily because China dragged its feet on giving the regulatory green light for the deal.
Intel's semiconductors are found in electronic devices around the globe.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

How AI is reshaping the computer chip industry

May 24, 2023
Semiconductor company NVIDIA seems to be leading the race in hardware AI.
Nvidia, the computer chip designer, has seen its stock price more than double since the start of the year to about $300 a share.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The debt limit is not a tool for "extortion," Biden adviser Lael Brainard says

The new head of the National Economic Council on inflation, supply chains, jobs and post-SVB bank regulation.
The investing in America agenda “is transformative," Lael Brainard says. "It has the power to reindustrialize the U.S. economy."
Drew Angerer/Getty Images