SoftBank Backs OpenAI Reform Plan to Keep Nonprofit in Control
SoftBank Group Corp. supports OpenAI's latest plan to turn its for-profit division into a public benefit corporation, even if the overall business remains under the control of its nonprofit.
'The part that we care about is the for-profit business,' SoftBank Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto told an earnings conference Tuesday. 'I don't see the overall direction as bad for us.'
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Why this key chip technology is crucial to the AI race between the US and China
In the largest single foreign investment in US history, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has unveiled a $100 billion investment, drawing global attention and prompting concern in Taiwan. TSMC, which produces more than 90% of the world's advanced semiconductor chips that power everything from smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI) applications to weapons, will build two new advanced packaging facilities in Arizona, among others. Here's everything you need to know about advanced packaging technology, which has seen exponential demand growth along with the global AI frenzy, and what that means for the struggle between the US and China for AI dominance. While the two countries have announced a temporary truce that rolled back disruptive three-digit tariffs for 90 days, the relationship remains tense because of ongoing feuding over chip restrictions imposed by the US and other issues. Last month at Computex, an annual trade show in Taipei that has been thrust under the limelight because of the AI boom, the CEO of chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang, told reporters that 'the importance of advanced packaging for AI is very high,' proclaiming that 'no one has pushed advanced packaging harder than me.' Packaging generally refers to one of the manufacturing processes of semiconductor chips, which means sealing a chip inside a protective casing and mounting it to the motherboard that goes into an electronic device. Advanced packaging, specifically, refers to techniques that allow more chips — such as graphic processing units (GPU), central processing units (CPU) or high bandwidth memory (HBM) — to be placed closer together, leading to better overall performance, faster transmission of data and lower energy consumption. Think of these chips as different departments within a company. The closer these departments are to each other, the easier it is, and less time it takes, for people to travel between them and exchange ideas, and the more efficient the operation becomes. 'You're trying to put the chips as close together as possible, and you're also putting in different solutions to make the connection between the chips very easy,' Dan Nystedt, vice president of Asia-based private investment firm TrioOrient, told CNN. In a way, advanced packaging keeps afloat Moore's Law, the idea that the number of transistors on microchips would double every two years, as breakthroughs in the chip fabrication process become increasingly costly and more difficult. While there are many types of advanced packaging technologies, CoWoS, short for Chips-on-Wafer-on-Substrate and invented by TSMC, is arguably the best known that was thrown under the limelight since the debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT, which sparked the AI frenzy. It has even become a household name in Taiwan, prompting Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), to say that the island is the 'only place that you can say CoWoS and everybody would understand.' Advanced packaging has become a big deal in the tech world because it ensures AI applications, which require a lot of complex computing, run without delays or glitches. CoWoS is indispensable to producing AI processors, such as the GPUs produced by Nvidia and AMD that are used in AI servers or data centers. 'You could call it the Nvidia packaging process if you want to. Almost anyone making AI chips is using the CoWoS process,' said Nystedt. That is why demand for CoWoS technology has skyrocketed. As a result, TSMC is scrambling to ramp up production capacity. In a visit to Taiwan in January, Huang told reporters that the amount of advanced packaging capacity currently available was 'probably four times' what it was less than two years ago. 'The technology of packaging is very important to the future of computing,' he said. 'We now need to have very complicated advanced packaging to put many chips together into one giant chip.' If advanced fabrication is one piece of the puzzle in terms of chip manufacturing, advanced packaging is another. Analysts say having both pieces of that jigsaw in Arizona means the US will have a 'one-stop shop' for chip production and a strengthened position for its AI arsenal, benefitting Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm and Broadcom, some of TSMC's top clients. 'It ensures that the US has a complete supply chain from advanced manufacturing to advanced packaging, which would benefit the US' competitiveness in AI chips,' Eric Chen, an analyst with market research firm Digitimes Research, told CNN. Because advanced packaging technologies key to AI are currently only produced in Taiwan, having it in Arizona also reduces potential supply chain risks. 'Instead of having all eggs in one basket, CoWoS would be in Taiwan and also the US, and that makes you feel more safe and secure,' said Nystedt. While CoWoS got its moment recently, the technology has actually existed for at least 15 years. It was the brainchild of a team of engineers led by Chiang Shang-yi, who served two stints at TSMC and retired from the company as its co-chief operating officer. Chiang first proposed developing the technology in 2009 in an attempt to fit more transistors into chips and solve bottlenecks in performance. But when it was developed, few companies took up the technology because of the high cost associated with it. 'I only had one customer … I really became a joke (in the company), and there was so much pressure on me,' he recalled in a 2022 oral history project recorded for the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. But the AI boom turned CoWoS around, making it one of the most popular technologies. 'The result was beyond our original expectation,' Chiang said. In the global semiconductor supply chain, companies that specialize in packaging and testing services are referred to as outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) firms. In addition to TSMC, South Korea's Samsung and America's Intel, as well as OSAT firms including China's JCET Group, America's Amkor and Taiwan's ASE Group and SPIL are all key players in advanced packaging technologies. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
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an hour ago
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Japan Won't Wait for G-7 Summit for Possible US Trade Deal
(Bloomberg) -- Supply Lines is a daily newsletter that tracks global trade. Sign up here. Next Stop: Rancho Cucamonga! Where Public Transit Systems Are Bouncing Back Around the World ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract US Housing Agency Vulnerable to Fraud After DOGE Cuts, Documents Warn Trump Said He Fired the National Portrait Gallery Director. She's Still There. Japan won't necessarily wait for the Group of Seven Summit set to take place in Canada next week to seal a trade deal with the US if the two sides can agree earlier, Japan's top negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said in Washington DC on Friday. Trade discussions between Japan and the US have 'progressed' but have not yet reached a consensus on a deal to revisit sweeping US tariffs, he said after the fifth round of trade talks that included US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The negotiations come a week before Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is set to depart for the G7 in what he said could be a 'milestone' for the talks. Akazawa did not signal that a deal was imminent but said an agreement will be reached as quickly as possible and emphasized the daily economic damage the tariffs inflict on Japan's economy. He added that there were no plans as of yet for when the next trade meeting may be. 'If the tariffs can be revised, we have absolutely no intention of waiting' until the G-7 summit, Akazawa said. 'We are negotiating with the aim to stop the impact on the Japanese economy as soon as possible, whether it's by a day or by hours or even a second.' A government official who briefed the press in Washington indicated that there's likely to be further talks between Akazawa and his counterparts before a formal agreement between Ishiba and US President Donald Trump. Trump aims to use tariffs as a negotiation tool to balance the US trade deficits with other nations including Japan. He implemented a 25% tariff on imports of cars and car parts from around the world. As with other nations, Japan also saw a doubling of the steel and aluminum levy to 50% this week, and a 10% across-the-board levy on other goods will rise to 24% in early July barring a deal. Missing the timeline could undermine Ishiba's standing ahead of a July upper house election. As the tariffs threaten to push the economy into a technical recession, Ishiba approved an emergency measure tapping reserve funds to help businesses and households cope with the hit from the duties. There are early signs that the tariffs may be minimizing the trade gap. The US gap in goods and services trade shrank 55.5% in April from the prior month, as imports fell by a record 16.3%, Commerce Department data showed Thursday. (Updates with comment in fourth paragraph.) Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again The SEC Pinned Its Hack on a Few Hapless Day Traders. The Full Story Is Far More Troubling Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? What Does Musk-Trump Split Mean for a 'Big, Beautiful Bill'? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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an hour ago
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Prediction: This Hot Artificial Intelligence (AI) Semiconductor Stock Will Skyrocket After June 25
Micron Technology stock has been in red-hot form on the stock market over the past couple of months, and its upcoming quarterly report on June 25 could give it another boost. Micron is on track to deliver outstanding growth in its revenue and earnings, driven by the terrific demand for the company's high-bandwidth memory chips. The stock's attractive valuation makes it a no-brainer buy going into its earnings report. 10 stocks we like better than Micron Technology › Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) stock has made a sharp move higher over the past couple of months -- gaining an impressive 37% as of this writing -- driven by the broader recovery in technology stocks. And it won't be surprising to see this semiconductor stock getting a big shot in the arm when it releases its fiscal 2025 third-quarter results after the market closes on June 25. Micron is heading into its quarterly report with a major catalyst in the form of artificial intelligence (AI) on its side, which could allow the company to deliver better-than-expected numbers and guidance and send its stock even higher. Let's look at the reasons why that may be the case. Micron's fiscal Q3 guidance calls for $8.8 billion in revenue at the midpoint of its guidance range. That would be a massive increase over the year-ago period's revenue of $6.8 billion. Meanwhile, the company's adjusted earnings are forecast to jump by just over 2.5 times on a year-over-year basis. Investors, however, shouldn't forget that the booming demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) that goes into AI graphics processing units (GPUs) manufactured by the likes of Nvidia and AMD could allow Micron to exceed its guidance. Micron's HBM has been selected for powering Nvidia's GB200 and GB300 Blackwell systems, and the good news is that the latter reported solid numbers recently. Nvidia's data center revenue shot up 73% year over year to $39 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, with the Blackwell AI GPUs accounting for 70% of the segment's revenue. Nvidia pointed out that it has almost completed its transition from the previous-generation Hopper platform to GPUs based on the latest Blackwell architecture. What's worth noting here is that the company's Blackwell GPUs are equipped with larger HBM chips to enable higher bandwidth and data transmission. Specifically, Nvidia's Hopper H200 GPU was equipped with 141 gigabytes (GB) of HBM. That has been upgraded to 192 GB on Nvidia's B200 Blackwell processor, while the more powerful B300 packs a whopping 288 GB of HBM3e memory. Micron management remarked on the company's March earnings conference call that it started volume shipments of HBM3e memory to its third large customer, suggesting that it could indeed be supplying memory chips for Nvidia's latest generation processors. Importantly, the terrific demand for HBM has created a favorable pricing scenario for the likes of Micron. The company is reportedly looking to hike the price of its HBM chips by 11% this year. It has sold out its entire HBM capacity for 2025 and is negotiating contracts for next year, and it won't be surprising to see customers paying more for HBM considering its scarcity. This combination of higher HBM volumes and the potential increase in price explains why Micron's top and bottom lines are set to witness remarkable growth when it releases its earnings later this month. Additionally, even more chipmakers are set to integrate HBM into their AI accelerators. Broadcom and Marvell Technology, which are known for designing custom AI processors for major cloud computing companies, have recently developed architectures supporting the integration of HBM into their platforms. So, Marvell's addressable market is likely to get bigger thanks to AI, setting the stage for a potential acceleration in the company's growth. Micron stock has rallied impressively in the past couple of months. The good part is that the company is still trading at just 23 times earnings despite this surge. The forward earnings multiple of 9 is even more attractive, indicating that Micron's earnings growth is set to take off. Consensus estimates are projecting a whopping 437% increase in Micron's earnings this year, followed by another solid jump of 57% in the next fiscal year. All this indicates why the stock's median 12-month price target of $130 points toward a 27% jump from current levels. However, this AI stock could do much better than that on account of the phenomenal earnings growth that it is projected to clock, which is why investors can consider buying it hand over fist before its June 25 report that could supercharge its recent rally. Before you buy stock in Micron Technology, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Micron Technology wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $868,615!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 Harsh Chauhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and Marvell Technology. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Prediction: This Hot Artificial Intelligence (AI) Semiconductor Stock Will Skyrocket After June 25 was originally published by The Motley Fool
