BEIJING: China&#39;s push to develop top-end artificial intelligence microchips is gaining momentum, but analysts say it will struggle to match the technical might of US powerhouse Nvidia within the current decade.&nbsp;Ramping up its chip industry is a way for Beijing to beat restrictions imposed by Washington on exports of the most advanced chips &mdash; used to power AI systems &mdash; to China.&nbsp;The United States cites national security concerns, such as the risk of giving China a military advantage, as the reason for the block, a geopolitical bind that shows no sign of easing.&nbsp;&quot;China wants chips that policy cannot take away,&quot; said Stephen Wu, a former AI software engineer and founder of the Carthage Capital investment fund.&nbsp;However, &quot;full end-to-end parity with Nvidia&#39;s best chips, memory packaging, networking and software is not guaranteed&quot; by 2030 or even beyond, Wu told AFP.&nbsp;Announcements by Chinese companies of computing upgrades and reports of plans to dramatically increase the output of advanced semiconductors have driven up chip-related shares in the country.&nbsp;But to catch up with Nvidia, China needs to make fast progress on high-bandwidth memory and packaging &mdash; &quot;the hardest and most complex parts of the chip,&quot; Wu said.&nbsp;Other challenges include building the right software to harness the chips&#39; power and upgrading manufacturing tools.&nbsp;&quot;These chips are extremely advanced and tiny, so imagine carving a stone sculpture with a hammer instead of a chisel,&quot; Wu said.&nbsp;&#39;Only way&#39; to succeed&nbsp;&quot;The industry consensus is China at least needs five to ten years to catch up,&quot; said George Chen of The Asia Group, a view reflected by Dilin Wu, research strategist at Pepperstone.&nbsp;&quot;The future is bright, but not yet,&quot; she told AFP.&nbsp;&quot;It&#39;s maybe a 2030 story&quot; as &quot;significant gaps remain in terms of performance, and also in terms of energy efficiency and ecosystem maturity.&quot;&nbsp;Public demand for AI services is booming in China, and while government support for new chips is &quot;substantial,&quot; the investment required is &quot;immense,&quot; she added.&nbsp;Shares in Alibaba, the e-commerce titan ploughing billions of dollars into AI tech, have more than doubled since January.&nbsp;And Chinese chip industry leader Huawei will reportedly double the output of its top Ascend 910C chip in the next year.&nbsp;The hype has also sharply driven up stocks in the smaller chipmaker Cambricon, sometimes dubbed &quot;China&#39;s Nvidia.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;I think this rally can be sustained,&quot; partly because it is driven by Chinese government policy, Pepperstone&#39;s Wu said.&nbsp;Even Xiaomi, whose 2014 venture into chip design was a confessed flop, is turning back to semiconductors.&nbsp;&quot;Chips are the only way for Xiaomi to succeed,&quot; the company&#39;s CEO Lei Jun said in Beijing last month, referring to the production of high-end smartphone chips.&nbsp;&#39;Best in China&#39;China, the world&#39;s biggest consumer of semiconductors, is a huge market for California-based Nvidia.&nbsp;Nvidia chips are still &quot;the best ... to train large language models,&quot; the systems behind generative AI, said Chen Cheng, general manager for AI translation software at tech firm iFLYTEK.&nbsp;Faced with US restrictions, &quot;we overcame that difficulty&quot; by shifting to Chinese-made tech, she said in a group interview.&nbsp;&quot;Now our model is trained on Huawei chips&quot; -- currently the best in China, Cheng said.&nbsp;Meanwhile, Nvidia, the world&#39;s largest company by market capitalization, is under pressure from both sides.&nbsp;The Financial Times reported last month that Beijing had barred major Chinese firms from purchasing a state-of-the-art Nvidia processor, which was explicitly designed for the country.&nbsp;The company must now pay the US government 15 percent of its revenue from certain AI chip sales in China.&nbsp;Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has warned that restrictions on exporting his most cutting-edge semiconductors to China will only fuel the country&#39;s rise.&nbsp;&quot;They&#39;re nanoseconds behind us,&quot; the leather jacket-clad Huang said on a tech business podcast.&nbsp;&quot;So, we&#39;ve got to go compete.&quot;

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The United States cites national security concerns, such as the risk of giving China a military advantage, as the reason for the block, a geopolitical bind that shows no sign of easing.

China's chip challenge: The race to match US tech

<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TOKYO: US technology company Nvidia and Fujitsu, a Japanese telecommunications and computer maker, agreed Friday to work together on artificial intelligence to deliver smart robots and a variety of other innovations using Nvidia&#39;s computer chips. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;The AI industrial revolution has already begun. Building the infrastructure to power it is essential in Japan and around the world,&rdquo; Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said, hugging his Fujitsu counterpart Takahito Tokita on stage. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;Japan can lead the world in AI and robotics,&rdquo; Huang told reporters at a Tokyo hotel. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The companies will work together on building what they called &ldquo;an AI infrastructure,&rdquo; or the system on which the various futuristic AI uses will be based, including health care, manufacturing, the environment, next-generation computing and customer services. The hope is to establish AI infrastructure for Japan by 2030. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It initially will be tailored for the Japanese market, leveraging Fujitsu&rsquo;s decades-long experience here, but may later expand globally, and will utilize Nvidia&rsquo;s GPUs, or graphics processing units, which are essential for AI, according to both sides. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The two executives did not outline specific projects or give a monetary figure for planned investments. But exploring a collaboration in AI for robots with Yaskawa Electric Corp., a Japanese machinery and robot maker, was noted as a possible example. AI will be constantly evolving and learning, they said.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fujitsu and Nvidia have been working together on AI, speeding up manufacturing with digital twins and robotics to tackle aging Japan&rsquo;s labor shortages. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tokita said the companies were taking a &ldquo;humancentric&rdquo; approach aimed at keeping Japan competitive. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;Through our collaboration with Nvidia, we aim to create new, unprecedented technologies and contribute to solving even more serious social issues,&rdquo; said Tokita.

Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang, left, and Fujitsu Chief Executive Takahito Tokita shake hands during an announcement in Tokyo Friday

Artificial Intelligence

US technology company Nvidia and Fujitsu, a Japanese telecommunications and computer maker, agreed Friday to work together on artificial intelligence to deliver smart robots and a variety of other innovations using Nvidia's computer chips.

Nvidia and Fujitsu agree to work together on AI robots

TOKYO: Asian shares were trading mixed Tuesday in the absence of key market-driving news in the region, after a seemingly relentless rally continued on Wall Street. Tokyo trading was closed for a national holiday. Australia&#39;s S&amp;P/ASX 200 climbed 0.4% to 8,845.90. South Korea&#39;s Kospi added 0.6% to 3,488.23. Hong Kong&#39;s Hang Seng slipped 1.0% to 26,080.91, as investors continued to watch ongoing talks about US tariffs. The Shanghai Composite dropped 0.7% to 3,800.21. On Wall Street, the S&amp;P 500 rose 0.4% after erasing a modest loss from the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 66 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.7%. It was the third straight day where all three indexes set an all-time high. &ldquo;Every time the market seems to be running out of momentum, it fools most of us by pushing to higher heights,&rdquo; said Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. A familiar face was again the strongest force lifting the market: Nvidia. Wall Street&rsquo;s most valuable company rose 3.9% after announcing a partnership to train and run OpenAI&rsquo;s next-generation artificial-intelligence models. As part of the deal, Nvidia will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI. Oracle also pushed the market higher after climbing 6.3%. It named Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as its CEOs, with current CEO Safra Catz becoming executive vice chair of the technology company&rsquo;s board. Some of the market&rsquo;s sharpest action was among companies agreeing to buy one another. Pfizer said it would buy Metsera and its pipeline of medicines to potentially treat obesity in a deal initially valuing it at $4.9 billion. The payout for Metsera investors could go up sharply if its candidates win approval from federal regulators and achieve other milestones. Metsera&rsquo;s stock jumped 60.7%, and Pfizer&rsquo;s edged up by less than 0.1%. ODP, which runs Office Depot and Office Max, leaped 32.9% after Atlas Holdings agreed to buy it in a deal valued at roughly $1 billion. All told, the S&amp;P 500 rose 29.39 points to 6,693.75. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 66.27 to 46,381.54, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 157.50 to 22,788.98. Stocks have surged since April on hopes that Trump&rsquo;s tariffs won&rsquo;t derail global trade and that the Fed will deliver several cuts to interest rates to boost the economy. The Fed made its first cut of the year last week, and officials indicated more could arrive through the end of this year and into next. The US stock market still faces challenges, though. Chief among them is if the Fed does not cut interest rates as many times as investors expect. The Fed is wary because lower rates can give inflation more fuel, and inflation has stubbornly remained above its 2% target. An update on Friday will show how much prices are rising for&nbsp;US households based on the Fed&rsquo;s preferred measure of inflation, and economists expect it to show a slight acceleration from last month. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.14%, where it was on Friday. In energy trading, benchmark&nbsp;US crude lost 37 cents to $61.91 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 41 cents to $66.16 a barrel. In currency trading, the&nbsp;US&nbsp;dollar rose to 147.76 Japanese yen from 147.74 yen. The euro cost $1.1798, inching down from $1.1802.

 A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center left, and the foreign exchange rate between US dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquart

Business

Asian stocks were mixed, rising in Australia and South Korea but falling in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Wall Street hit record highs, boosted by Nvidia’s AI deal, Oracle’s leadership changes, and major acquisitions by Pfizer.

Asian markets mixed as US stocks reach new highs

NEW YORK: Chipmaker&nbsp;<a href="https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/openai-and-nvidia-announce-strategic-partnership-to-deploy-10gw-of-nvidia-systems" style="color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">Nvidia</a>&nbsp;will invest $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a partnership announced Monday that will add at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia AI data centers to ramp up the computing power for the owner of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. Per the letter of intent signed by the companies, the first gigawatt of Nvidia systems will be deployed in the second half of 2026. Nvidia and OpenAI said they would be finalizing the details of the arrangement in the coming weeks. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1970160403029033286&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Flogin%2F&sessionId=b23bf05197d79a6bca5195207989a0c0a10965b4&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 650px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;"></iframe></div></div>&ldquo;This partnership complements the deep work OpenAI and Nvidia are already doing with a broad network of collaborators, including Microsoft, Oracle, SoftBank and Stargate partners, focused on building the world&rsquo;s most advanced AI infrastructure,&rdquo; the companies said in a release. Those companies pledged to invest at least $100 billion in building data centers for OpenAI in January. $100B equity stake&nbsp;The Nvidia-OpenAI partnership also comes about 10 days after OpenAI said it had reached a new tentative agreement that will give Microsoft a $100 billion equity stake in its for-profit corporation. OpenAI is technically controlled by its nonprofit. Speaking on CNBC, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the new data centers that Nvidia will build are in addition to the previously announced projects. &ldquo;Building this infrastructure is critical to everything we want to do,&rdquo; Altman said. &ldquo;Without doing this, we cannot deliver the services people want. We can&rsquo;t keep making better models.&rdquo; He said both Nvidia and Microsoft are &ldquo;passive investors,&rdquo; and OpenAI&#39;s nonprofit and board controls the company. Lawsuit&nbsp;OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015, and its nonprofit board has continued to control the for-profit subsidiary that now develops and sells its AI products. OpenAI&rsquo;s corporate structure and nonprofit mission are the subject of a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk, who helped found the nonprofit research lab and provided initial funding. Musk&rsquo;s suit seeks to stop OpenAI from taking control of the company away from its nonprofit and alleges it has betrayed its promise to develop AI for the benefit of humanity. Earlier this month, the attorneys general of California and Delaware warned OpenAI that they have &ldquo;serious concerns&rdquo; about the safety of ChatGPT, especially for children and teens. &nbsp;&#39;Deeply troubling&#39;The two state officials, who have unique powers to regulate nonprofits such as OpenAI, noted &ldquo;deeply troubling reports of dangerous interactions between&rdquo; chatbots and their users, including the suicide of one young Californian after he had prolonged interactions with an OpenAI chatbot. The parents of the 16-year-old California boy, who died in April, sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, last month. OpenAI says it has 700 million weekly active users. Also, just last week, Nvidia announced that it was investing $5 billion in fellow chipmaker Intel, which has struggled to keep up with the frenzied demand for artificial intelligence.

Nvidia will invest $100 billion in OpenAI to expand its AI computing infrastructure, including at least 10 gigawatts of data centers, starting in 2026. This partnership, alongside investments from Microsoft and others, aims to enhance ChatGPT’s capabilities.

Nvidia to invest $100 billion in OpenAI 

NEW YORK: Wall Street is rising toward more records on Thursday as Nvidia and Intel lead a rally for technology stocks after announcing a deal that includes a $5 billion investment.&nbsp;The S&amp;P 500 rose 0.5% and was on track to squeak past its all-time high, which was set at the start of the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 88 points, or 0.2%, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher. Both were likewise flirting with records.&nbsp;Intel soared 29.3% and was heading toward its best day since 1973 after Nvidia said it would buy $5 billion of the chipmaker&rsquo;s stock. It&rsquo;s part of a collaboration where the pair will develop products for data centers and personal computers. Nvidia climbed 3.4% and was by far the strongest force lifting the S&amp;P 500 because it&rsquo;s Wall Street&rsquo;s most valuable company.&nbsp;Encouraging reports on the economy, meanwhile, helped send Treasury yields climbing in the bond market. One report said that growth in manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region was much stronger than economists expected. Another said that fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than expected.&nbsp;The second report could indicate the pace of layoffs is slowing, and it was a relief after the prior week&rsquo;s data showed a disconcerting leap to a four-year high. The job market has slowed so much that the Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut its main interest rate for the first time this year in order to give it some help.&nbsp;The Fed also indicated more cuts may be on the way this year and next, though Chair Jerome Powell warned that the Fed is stuck in a precarious position and may have to change course quickly. That&rsquo;s because the economy is in the unusual situation where the job market is slowing when inflation is remaining stubbornly high at the same time.&nbsp;The Fed is in charge of fixing both, but it has only one tool to do that. And helping one by moving interest rates often hurts the other in the short term.&nbsp;Expectations are high on Wall Street for the Fed to keep cutting interest rates, and a halt in cuts could send stocks tumbling. Critics say stock prices have already shot too high and become too expensive, in part because of the heavy bets on continued cuts in rates.&nbsp;On Wall Street, Novo Nordisk saw its stock that trades in the United States rise 5.8% after the Danish company said a newly published study showed its once-a-day pill version of Wegovy helped people lose significant weight. It also said that its Ozempic product reduced the risk of heart attack, stroke and death for patients versus another treatment for some people with type 2 diabetes.&nbsp;Stocks in the cryptocurrency industry also jumped to strong gains, including rises of 7.8% for Coinbase Global, 11.3% for Bullish and 6.1% for Circle Internet Group. Bitcoin has climbed above $117,500 following the Fed&#39;s cut to interest rates.&nbsp;On the losing end of Wall Street, the company behind Olive Garden and other restaurant chains sank 9.5% after it reported a profit for the latest quarter that was below analysts&#39; expectations. Darden Restaurants also raised its forecast for revenue growth this fiscal year, but not by much more than analysts expected.&nbsp;Cracker Barrel fell 4.8% after the restaurant chain likewise reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave a forecast for revenue in its upcoming fiscal year that fell short of analysts&rsquo;, as the controversy over its planned logo change continues to play out.&nbsp;The Walt Disney Co. slipped 1.5% after the entertainment giant announced that its ABC television division had suspended Jimmy Kimmel&rsquo;s late-night show indefinitely after comments that he made about Charlie Kirk&rsquo;s killing led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say they would not air the show.&nbsp;Earlier in the day, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called Kimmel&rsquo;s comments &ldquo;truly sick&rdquo; and said his agency has a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and Disney accountable for spreading misinformation.&nbsp;In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed performance in Asia.&nbsp;London&rsquo;s FTSE 100 added 0.2% after the Bank of England held its main interest rate steady.&nbsp;South Korea&rsquo;s Kospi rallied 1.4%, and Hong Kong&rsquo;s Hang Seng fell 1.4% for two of the world&rsquo;s bigger moves.&nbsp;In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.11% from 4.06% late Wednesday. It&rsquo;s a notable move after it had briefly dropped below 4% on Wednesday, weighed down by expectations for continued cuts to interest rates by the Fed.

Wall Street is rising toward more records on Thursday as Nvidia and Intel lead a rally for technology stocks

Articles tagged with "Nvidia"

China's chip challenge: The race to match US tech

Nvidia and Fujitsu agree to work together on AI robots

Asian markets mixed as US stocks reach new highs

Nvidia to invest $100 billion in OpenAI

Wall Street rises toward more records as Intel and Nvidia rally

China's chip challenge: The race to match US tech