Inkhabar webdesk

By Max A. Cherney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -U.S. Republican Senator Tom Cotton has asked the Commerce Department to investigate Singapore-based Megaspeed for allegedly diverting Nvidia chips used for artificial intelligence, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Monday. The letter cites an October report in The New York Times that detailed the alleged diversion of Nvidia chips by Megaspeed, a cloud computing company. According to the report, Megaspeed funneled Nvidia chips to Malaysia and Indonesia that appeared to serve customers in China remotely. Megaspeed did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Singapore Police Force on Tuesday said that "investigations are ongoing into Megaspeed for suspected breaches of our domestic laws." In July, Reuters reported that demand for repairs of banned Nvidia products boomed, which was also cited by Cotton in his letter. In 2024, Reuters reported that China had obtained high-end Nvidia AI chips in spite of a ban. "As the Trump administration recently indicated, export controls are an important tool as he navigates America through perilous times against an increasingly aggressive and emboldened adversary," Cotton wrote. "The pervasiveness of chip smuggling undermines the president and allows U.S. adversaries access to advanced technology where the U.S. maintains significant leverage." Cotton said he would continue to work with U.S. President Donald Trump to curb illegal diversions of U.S. chips. His letter was addressed to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Cotton previously introduced legislation that would require location verification of chips after they are sold. Last week, Trump unveiled levies of 100% on China's U.S.-bound exports and new export controls on "any and all critical software" by November 1. On Sunday, China said the latest tariffs were hypocritical.     (Reporting by Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus.)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) -Following the largest crypto liquidation in history last Friday, options market investors are bracing for more volatility and further declines in bitcoin and ether, aggressively positioning in trades that offer protection against another potential freefall. Market participants said the crypto sector on Friday saw more than $19 billion in liquidations across leveraged positions as panic selling and low liquidity triggered sharp swings. The plunge came after U.S. President Donald Trump announced late on Friday a 100% tariff on Chinese imports and threatened export controls on critical software.  Crypto analysts said this was the largest wipeout in a 24-hour period in the market's history, nine times larger than the February 2025 crash and 19 times bigger than the March 2020 meltdown and the FTX collapse in November 2022. Bitcoin fell as low as $104,782.88 during the October 10-11 period, down more than 14% from its high of $122,574.46 on Friday. It was last up 0.6% at $115,718.13. The world's largest cryptocurrency hit a record high above $126,000 on October 6. Ether, the second biggest digital currency, dropped 12.2% to a low of $3,436.29 on Friday. It last changed hands at $4,254, up 2.4% on the day.  Altcoins took an even bigger hit as HYPE (-54%), DOGE (-62%), and AVAX (-70%) all experienced steep drawdowns before recovering to post more modest losses. Trump over the weekend softened his rhetoric on China, however, noting that "it will all be fine" and the U.S. did not want to "hurt" China. That helped the crypto recovery. China on Sunday blamed the U.S. for the escalation, but did not roll out further countermeasures. "Last Friday, you saw volatility just jump across the board, not only for short-dated, but also for long-dated maturities. The sentiment around short-dated volatility is that more people are worried about downward turns," said Sean Dawson, head of research at Derive.xyz in Canberra. Data from Derive.xyz, a crypto options trading platform, showed heavy "put" buying from traders in bitcoin and ether, which suggested hedging against potential downside risks. In bitcoin, there were hefty purchases of puts conferring the right to sell bitcoin at strike prices of $115,000 and $95,000 for the October 31 expiry, according to Dawson. There was also a sharp reversal from call buying to call selling at the $125,000 strike for the October 17 expiry, suggesting a bearish short-term view.  Calls in the options market reflect expectations that the price will increase. For ether, Nick Forster, Derive.xyz co-founder, said traders focused on the $4,000 strike for the October 31 expiry and $3,600 strike for the October 17 expiry. He also noted substantial buying of $2,600 puts for the December 26 expiry. Those strikes, he said, are indicative of growing bearish sentiment through year-end. Despite the meltdown, Willy Woo, a leading onchain crypto analyst with more than a million followers on X, noted that bitcoin investor flows have been holding up well and may be the reason it fared better than expected against a sharp decline in stocks. In contrast, Woo said he saw a large drop in ether flows while Solana continued a decline. He believes that capital in altcoins is likely rotating into bitcoin rather than leaving the system. Altcoins, also known as alternative coins, refer to cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin, which are often treated as high-risk, high-reward investments. Some altcoins deliver massive returns, but many fail or lose liquidity. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is widely viewed as a "blue-chip" crypto asset, widely-held by institutions. "The good news is that this (crash) has cleaned out the excessive leverage and reset the risk in the market, for now," said Nic Puckrin, crypto analyst and co-founder of The Coin Bureau.  "However, bitcoin now faces another uphill battle to break past key resistance levels that will allow it to reach a meaningful new all-time high this year." ​ (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reportinng by Michelle Price; Editing by Alden Bentley)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Federico Maccioni DUBAI (Reuters) -The first 200 megawatts of a planned 5-gigawatt artificial intelligence campus in the United Arab Emirates should come online next year, an official from Abu Dhabi-backed cloud and AI firm G42 said on Tuesday. The UAE, a major oil exporter, has been spending billions of dollars to become a global AI hub, looking to leverage its strong relations with Washington to secure access to technology. During a Gulf visit by U.S. President Donald Trump in May, the UAE signed a multibillion-dollar deal to build one of the world's largest data centre hubs in Abu Dhabi with U.S. technology. G42 said at the time that the project would be powered by nuclear and solar power, as well as natural gas. DISCUSSIONS ONGOING FOR REST OF PROJECT Technology giants Nvidia, OpenAI, Cisco, and Oracle, along with Japan's SoftBank, are working with G42 to build the first phase, known as Stargate UAE, set to go online in 2026. "Building towards the (first) 1 GW, we have 200 MW that should come online next year," G42 acting group chief global affairs officer Talal Al Kaissi said at the AI and tech GITEX conference in Dubai. "The rest of the four gigawatts, we're also in deep discussions with other hyperscalers from the U.S.," Al Kaissi said. However, the deal to build the campus has not been finalised amid security concerns due to the UAE's close ties to China, Reuters has previously reported, citing sources. Middle Eastern deals will require export licences from the Trump administration, and G42's past ties to China have drawn scrutiny in Washington due to concerns around Beijing's access to advanced semiconductors including via third parties. Al Kaissi said he regularly visited Washington to support good working relations. (Reporting by Federico Maccioni. Writing by Ahmed Elimam. Editing by Mark Potter)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)