M&A News: AMD Continues Buying Spree by Acquiring Untether AI's Engineering Team
Confident Investing Starts Here:
This acquisition follows AMD's recent purchase of compiler startup Brium, as part of its plan to better compete with Nvidia (NVDA). Interestingly, Untether AI's chips, built on an 'at-memory' architecture, had shown significant gains in performance and energy efficiency. Indeed, its speedAI240 Slim card, for example, delivered industry-leading results in MLPerf benchmarks while using less power than competing solutions. The card had already been adopted by companies like J-Squared Technologies and Ola-Krutrim, with the latter having also partnered with Untether to co-develop next-gen data center solutions.
Furthermore, Untether AI had built partnerships with firms like Ampere Computing, Arm (ARM), and NeuReality. This was because its chips addressed a growing demand for AI processors that consume less power than traditional GPUs, which are straining modern data center power limits. Nevertheless, AMD will now integrate Untether's expertise into its product portfolio in order to help expand its AI capabilities across a wider range of markets.
Is AMD a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on AMD stock based on 22 Buys, 10 Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average AMD price target of $126.55 per share implies 8.9% upside potential.
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Fast Company
26 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Why Nvidia and AMD's China pay-to-play deal with Trump could backfire
Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company 's weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. Why Nvidia's and AMD's China deal with Trump could backfire The companies making the most money from the AI boom are the ones selling the processors, such as Nvidia and AMD. On Monday those two chip giants cut a deal with the Trump administration that will allow them to sell their products into the China market. For Nvidia—the dominant provider of AI chips powering the generative AI boom—the agreement means that it can once again sell its H20 chip to Chinese developers. It's the latest chapter in a long saga. The Biden administration blocked the sale of Nvidia's most powerful AI chips to China in 2022, but deemed the sale of the less powerful H20 chip an acceptable national security risk. The Trump administration continued blocking sales of Nvidia's H200 and Blackwell chips. But in April, it went a step further by effectively blocking the sale of the H20 chips, too. The new deal shows that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's charm offensive in Washington, D.C., convinced the Trump administration that the U.S.'s technological, economic, and national security goals are best served when the world's AI models and apps are built to run on chips made by U.S.-based companies (like Nvidia). Or maybe the Trump Administration just wanted a piece of the action all along. The administration exploited its jurisdiction over export policy to extract a percentage of Nvidia and AMD's Chinese sales payable to the U.S. Treasury. 'I said, 'Listen, I want 20% if I'm going to approve this for you, for the country,'' Trump said during a press conference on August 12, describing his negotiation with Nvidia's Huang. He added that Nvidia negotiated the percentage down to 15%. That cut could amount to as much as $3 billion this year, given the high demand for the H20 chips. Trump's demand for 15% is something new in U.S. trade policy. 'The 15% take indeed sets a precedent,' Columbia Business School professor Lori Yue tells Fast Company. 'It may encourage other companies to adopt similar strategies, viewing profit-sharing as a work-around to government bans.' This could lead to a pay‑to‑play arrangement where only the richest corporations can afford to pay the government for permission to sell into a foreign market. Indeed, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted during a TV interview that the approach could spread to other products in other industries. The administration's tax will very likely translate into higher chip prices for Nvidia and AMD's Chinese customers, such as Tencent. The Chinese government has recently blasted Nvidia's H20 chips over security concerns, and the new 15% tax is likely to rankle Beijing even more. The Chinese government would like to see AI developers building their models and apps on top of AI chips from China-based Huawei. The Trump aAdministration may be driving some of Nvidia's Chinese customers to do just that, even if it requires rebuilding their infrastructure and tech stacks. Musk's Grok chatbot is making noise but falling behind Grok, xAI's chatbot, has had a rough week. The model that powers the Grok chatbot on X is Grok 4, which was announced July 9. At the time, xAI said the new model was the most intelligent one in the world. And the model did achieve state-of-the-art performance on several benchmark tests, including the superhard Humanity's Last Exam, on which it scored 25.4%, three points higher than Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro. As of August 11, the Grok chatbot is available free to all X users, even those on the free tier. In one sense, it marked an immediate improvement. The social platform's permissive environment has made it a clearinghouse for all kinds of misinformation and unsupported claims. Now far more people are using Grok to quickly fact-check those statements. 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The chatbot had an opinion, however, telling one user that it had been taken offline after angrily stating that the U.S. and Israel's war on Gaza was a 'genocide.' One user demonstrated that after Grok had been turned on again, it no longer stated that Gaza should be classified as a genocide. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump won the support of some tech billionaires, such as Marc Andreessen and Elon Musk, by promising to use a light-touch approach to regulating tech companies, including AI companies. Now Public Citizen is out with a report detailing the extent to which the administration has dialed back oversight and enforcement actions on the tech industry. In just six months with Trump in the Oval Office, the U.S. government has withdrawn or halted 47 of 143 federal enforcement actions against tech companies, the report states. At the start of Trump's second term, 104 technology companies faced 143 federal investigations and enforcement actions. 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Atlantic
27 minutes ago
- Atlantic
The Damage to Economic Data May Already Be Done
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In an interview recorded on August 4, before his nomination, Antoni proposed eliminating the monthly release of employment data, but the administration has already insisted that that won't happen. BLS data may not be completely tamper-proof, but they're pretty close. The sharpest economic minds in this country, both inside and outside the bureau, pay meticulous attention to the deepest layers of the data, many strata below the headline-unemployment rate and change-in-payroll employment. Deceiving them all would be very hard to do. Unfortunately, that might not matter. Antoni doesn't have to manipulate any data to undermine the reliability of the government's economic statistics. That damage might already have been done. I was a career press official at the Department of Labor who prepared a series of labor secretaries for their TV appearances early on the first Friday morning of every month. The release of the jobs report—'Jobs Day'—is a marquee event in this little corner of the federal government, when the press and the financial world's attention is fixed on the plaza of the Frances Perkins Building, in Washington. I lasted only one Jobs Day into the tenure of Trump's labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, before taking DOGE's buyout deal. I decided to leave the government in large part out of fear of precisely the kind of demands for oaths of political loyalty that were being threatened then and are now being implicitly exacted on every career civil servant at the BLS. Brian Klaas: Will Trump get his Potemkin statistics? Most labor secretaries, understanding the power of jobs data to create or destroy value in the financial markets, have taken a sober and restrained approach to these press appearances. Then there's Chavez-DeRemer. One of her prime talking points has been that 'native-born workers have accounted for all job gains since Inauguration Day.' Every single one. Not a single Russian surgeon or Canadian blackjack dealer got a job after January 20 of this year. In fact, the BLS makes no such assertion. The claim is absurd on its face—the kind of political catnip that a Cabinet secretary in the Trump administration is expected to put forward without shame, as a kind of homage to the boss. The existence of an independent BLS commissioner is predicated on the idea that someone needs to talk about the labor market who is never tempted to say such things. It's a public service, primarily for investors. Might a member of the Cabinet say something iffy as a result of her political loyalties? That's not ideal, but here's someone else you can listen to who doesn't have that problem. Until now, this arrangement allowed the president's representative to attempt to convince the public of the effectiveness of his priorities while reinforcing the objective, nonpartisan genesis of the underlying data. 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Why should we take the time to report our economic circumstances to the government if we believe the government isn't interested in the truth? If fewer Americans think that contributing to the creation of these reports is a valuable use of their time, the civil servants at the BLS will struggle to produce reliable numbers, regardless of what policies Antoni puts into place. The damage to our understanding of the economy would be far more consequential than a month of bad jobs numbers.
Yahoo
an hour ago
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Avicanna Reports Q2 2025
TORONTO, Aug. 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avicanna Inc. ('Avicanna' or 'Company') (TSX: AVCN) (OTCQX: AVCNF) (FSE: 0NN) a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of plant-derived cannabinoid-based products is pleased to announce and report the results of Q2 2025. Management Commentary: 'Q2 marked another milestone in Avicanna's journey, fueled by advancements in our pipeline and deeper engagement with the Canadian medical community. In Canada, we delivered growth across multiple commercial channels, underscoring the strength of our proprietary, high-margin portfolio. Achieving positive adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 2025 reflects the financial discipline and operational focus that continue to drive our performance. These results reinforce our ability to execute our strategy and position us for both domestic and international scale-up' stated Aras Azadian, CEO at Avicanna. Q2 2025 Financial Highlights: Revenue: The Company generated revenue of $6.16 million and $12.48 million for the three- and six-month periods ended June 30, 2025, representing a 1% increase and a 1% decrease, respectively, compared to the corresponding periods in 2024. Gross Profit and Margin: Gross profit for the second quarter was $3.13 million, with a six-month total of $6.73 million, translating to gross margins of 51% and 54%, respectively—up from 47% in the prior-year periods. This improvement was primarily driven by increased service and licensing revenue from international markets. Adjusted EBITDA: For the second quarter, the Company reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.25 million and an adjusted EBITDA gain of $0.18 million for the six-month period. This marks a notable improvement from the same periods in 2024, when adjusted EBITDA losses were $0.44 million and $0.42 million, respectively. The improvement reflects both reduced operating expenses and enhanced gross margins. Other Q2 2025 Corporate Highlights: Canadian commercial advancements: The Company completed the second quarter with 50 commercial SKUs and 147 commercial listings representing a 19% increase in total SKUs and a 9% growth in total listings from Q1 2025. The Company sold 50,789 units during the second quarter, a 21% increase against the comparable period in 2024. Avicanna Announced Sponsorship of Pilot Phase II Clinical Study on Osteoarthritis Pain: The multicenter, blinded, randomized placebo-controlled investigator-initiated study is led by Dr. Hance Clarke and conducted at University Health Network. The study is to analyze effectiveness of Avicanna's proprietary oral cannabis extracts for osteoarthritic pain and is Avicanna's first placebo controlled, blinded randomized multicenter trial ('RCT'). The study is funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant and sponsored by Avicanna, which is providing its proprietary CBD and THC capsules produced under Good Manufacturing Practices for the trial. Symposium on Cannabinoid-based Medicine in June 2025: The Symposium, which was held at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, brought key opinion leaders and health care providers to explore cannabinoid-based R&D, medicine, and clinical adoption. The Symposium, which was limited to health care practitioners and researchers, covered a range of topics including emerging evidence and practical clinical applications of cannabinoid-based medicine and featured key opinion leaders, clinicians, researchers, and scientists from various academic, research and clinical organizations and hospitals and industry. Avicanna announced US Patent and Trademark Office issuance of new patent covering topical cannabinoid compositions for clear skin: The USPTO issued patent, No. US 12,343,315 B2, covering a topical gel formulation comprised of cannabinoids in combination with other agents in reference to its potential for treating and preventing skin diseases and conditions including, but not limited to, acne, wrinkles, rosacea and erythema. About Avicanna: Avicanna is a commercial-stage international biopharmaceutical company focused on the advancement and commercialization of cannabinoid-based products and formulations for the global medical and pharmaceutical market segments. Avicanna has an established scientific platform including R&D and clinical development leading to the commercialization of more than thirty proprietary, evidence-based finished products and supporting four commercial stage business pillars. Medical Cannabis formulary (RHO Phyto™): The formulary offers a diverse range of proprietary products including oral, sublingual, topical, and transdermal deliveries with varying ratios of cannabinoids, supported by ongoing patient and medical community education. RHO Phyto is an established brand in Canada currently available nationwide across several channels and expanding into new international markets. Medical cannabis care platform ( is a medical cannabis care platform formed with the aim to better serve medical cannabis patients' needs and enhance the medical cannabis patients' journey. is operated by Northern Green Canada Inc. and features a diverse portfolio of products and bilingual pharmacist-led patient support programs. also provides specialty services to distinct patient groups such as veterans and collaborates with public and private payers for adjudication and reimbursement. provides educational resources to the medical community to facilitate the incorporation of medical cannabis into health care regimens. Pharmaceutical pipeline: Leveraging Avicanna's scientific platform, vertical integration, and real-world evidence, Avicanna has developed a pipeline of proprietary, indication-specific cannabinoid-based candidates that are in various stages of clinical development. These cannabinoid-based candidates aim to address unmet needs in the areas of dermatology, chronic pain, and various neurological disorders. Active pharmaceutical ingredients (Aureus Santa Marta™): Active pharmaceutical ingredients supplied by the Company's majority owned subsidiary Santa Marta Golden Hemp SAS ('SMGH') is a commercial-stage business dedicated to providing various forms of high-quality CBD, THC and CBG to the Company's international partners for use in the development and production of food, cosmetics, medical, and pharmaceutical products. SMGH also forms part of the Company's supply chain and is a source of reliable input products for its consumer retail, medical cannabis, and pharmaceutical products globally. SOURCE Avicanna Inc. Stay Connected For more information about Avicanna, visit our website or contact Ivana Maric by email at info@ Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Statements This news release contains 'forward-looking information' within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information contained in this news release may be identified by the use of words such as, 'may', 'would', 'could', 'will', 'likely', 'expect', 'anticipate', 'believe', 'intend', 'plan', 'forecast', 'project', 'estimate', 'outlook' and other similar expressions. Forward-looking information contained in this news release includes, without limitation, statements related to the Offering, the use of proceeds of the Offering, the receipt of all approvals of the Toronto Stock Exchange in connection with the Offering, statements with respect to the Company's future business operations, the opinions or beliefs of management and future business goals. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to current and future market conditions, including the market price of the common shares of the Company, and the risk factors set out in the Company's annual information form dated April 11, 2025, filed with the Canadian securities regulators and available under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities 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
