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By Harshita Mary Varghese (Reuters) -Qualcomm on Monday unveiled two artificial intelligence chips for data centers that will be available next year, diversifying beyond a stagnant smartphones market and sending its shares up 20%. The share gain following the news underscores strong enthusiasm for the company's AI bets while the smartphone chipmaker geared up to compete against Nvidia's AI data center heft. The new chips, called AI200 and AI250, are designed for improved memory capacity and running AI applications, or inference, and will be commercially available in 2026 and 2027, respectively. Global investment in AI chips has soared as cloud providers, chipmakers and enterprises rush to build infrastructure capable of supporting complex, large language models, chatbots and other generative AI tools. Qualcomm said the new chips support common AI frameworks and tools and played up cost-savings for enterprises. The company also unveiled racks based on the new chips, as Nvidia and AMD move from selling chips to providing larger data center systems. Though competition against Nvidia has been heating up, the high costs of switching chip providers and superior performance of Nvidia processors has made it difficult for new entrants to gain traction. Qualcomm said Humain, an AI startup launched by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, will deploy 200 megawatts of its new AI racks starting in 2026. "Qualcomm's entry and major deal in Saudi Arabia prove the ecosystem is fragmenting because no single company can meet the global, decentralized need for high-efficiency AI compute," said Joe Tigay, portfolio manager of the Rational Equity Armor Fund. QUALCOMM DIVERSIFIES Qualcomm is the world's largest supplier of modem chips that enable smartphones to connect to wireless data networks. But it has been diversifying its business to reduce dependence on the smartphone market, which makes up a majority of its sales after losing Huawei as a major customer and client Apple's efforts to develop in-house chips. Over the last two years, it has entered the personal computer market, competing against Intel and AMD to sell chips that power Windows-based laptops. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Maju Samuel)

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(Reuters) -Elon Musk could leave Tesla as CEO if his proposed $1 trillion pay package was not approved, Chair Robyn Denholm warned in a letter to shareholders on Monday. The appeal comes ahead of the November 6 annual meeting, with Tesla's board having faced repeated criticism for not acting in shareholders' best interests and governance experts and advocacy groups questioning its independence and oversight of Musk's influence. The proposed performance-based plan was designed to retain and motivate Musk to continue leading Tesla for at least another seven-and-a-half years, Denholm said in the letter. Musk's leadership was "critical" to Tesla's success, she said, and warned that without a plan that properly incentivizes him, the company could lose his "time, talent and vision". Musk's role was vital as Tesla seeks to become a global leader in artificial intelligence and autonomous technology, she said. The proposed package would grant Musk 12 tranches of stock options tied to ambitious targets, including a market capitalization of $8.5 trillion and milestones in autonomous driving and robotics. Denholm's letter portrays the package as necessary to align Musk's incentives with shareholder value and long-term growth, also urging investors to re-elect three long-serving directors who have worked closely with him. Tesla's board has been under scrutiny for years over its close relationship with Musk. A Delaware court earlier this year struck down his 2018 pay deal, finding it was improperly awarded and negotiated by directors who were not fully independent. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)

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By Timothy Gardner and Max A. Cherney WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -The U.S. has formed a $1 billion partnership with Advanced Micro Devices to construct two supercomputers that will tackle large scientific problems ranging from nuclear power to cancer treatments to national security, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and AMD CEO Lisa Su told Reuters. The U.S. is building the two machines to ensure the country has enough supercomputers to run increasingly complex experiments that require harnessing enormous amounts of data-crunching capability. The machines can accelerate the process of making scientific discoveries in areas the U.S. is focused on.  Energy Secretary Wright said the systems would "supercharge" advances in nuclear power and fusion energy, technologies for defense and national security, and the development of drugs.    Scientists and companies are trying to replicate fusion, the reaction that fuels the sun, by jamming light atoms in a plasma gas under intense heat and pressure to release massive amounts of energy.     "We've made great progress, but plasmas are unstable, and we need to recreate the center of the sun on Earth," Wright told Reuters.  "We're going to get just massively faster progress using the computation from these AI systems that I believe will have practical pathways to harness fusion energy in the next two or three years."     Wright said the supercomputers would also help manage the U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons and accelerate drug discovery by simulating ways to treat cancer down to the molecular level.     "My hope is in the next five or eight years, we will turn most cancers, many of which today are ultimate death sentences, into manageable conditions," Wright said.  The plans call for the first computer called Lux to be constructed and come online within the next six months. It will be based around AMD's MI355X artificial intelligence chips, and the design will also include central processors (CPUs) and networking chips made by AMD. The system is co-developed by AMD, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). AMD's Su said the Lux deployment was the fastest deployment of this size of computer that she has seen.  "This is the speed and agility that we wanted to (do) this for the U.S. AI efforts," Su said. ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer said the Lux supercomputer will deliver about three times the AI capacity of current supercomputers.  The second, more advanced computer called Discovery will be based around AMD's MI430 series of AI chips that are tuned for high-performance computing. This system will be designed by ORNL, HPE and AMD. Discovery is expected to be delivered in 2028 and be ready for operations in 2029.  Streiffer said he expected enormous gains but couldn't predict how much greater computational capability it would have. The MI430 is a special variant of its MI400 series that combines important features of traditional supercomputing chips along with the features to run AI applications, Su said. The Department of Energy will host the computers, the companies will provide the machines and capital spending, and both sides will share the computing power, a DOE official said. The two supercomputers based on AMD chips are intended to be the first of many of these types of partnerships with private industry and DOE labs across the country, the official said. (Reporting by Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; Editing by Tom Hogue)

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By Timothy Gardner and Max A. Cherney WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -The U.S. has formed a $1 billion partnership with Advanced Micro Devices to construct two supercomputers that will tackle large scientific problems ranging from nuclear power to cancer treatments to national security, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and AMD CEO Lisa Su told Reuters. The U.S. is building the two machines to ensure the country has enough supercomputers to run increasingly complex experiments that require harnessing enormous amounts of data-crunching capability. The machines can accelerate the process of making scientific discoveries in areas the U.S. is focused on.  Energy Secretary Wright said the systems would "supercharge" advances in nuclear power and fusion energy, technologies for defense and national security, and the development of drugs.    Scientists and companies are trying to replicate fusion, the reaction that fuels the sun, by jamming light atoms in a plasma gas under intense heat and pressure to release massive amounts of energy.     "We've made great progress, but plasmas are unstable, and we need to recreate the center of the sun on Earth," Wright told Reuters.  "We're going to get just massively faster progress using the computation from these AI systems that I believe will have practical pathways to harness fusion energy in the next two or three years."     Wright said the supercomputers would also help manage the U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons and accelerate drug discovery by simulating ways to treat cancer down to the molecular level.     "My hope is in the next five or eight years, we will turn most cancers, many of which today are ultimate death sentences, into manageable conditions," Wright said.  The plans call for the first computer called Lux to be constructed and come online within the next six months. It will be based around AMD's MI355X artificial intelligence chips, and the design will also include central processors (CPUs) and networking chips made by AMD. The system is co-developed by AMD, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). AMD's Su said the Lux deployment was the fastest deployment of this size of computer that she has seen.  "This is the speed and agility that we wanted to (do) this for the U.S. AI efforts," Su said. ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer said the Lux supercomputer will deliver about three times the AI capacity of current supercomputers.  The second, more advanced computer called Discovery will be based around AMD's MI430 series of AI chips that are tuned for high-performance computing. This system will be designed by ORNL, HPE and AMD. Discovery is expected to be delivered in 2028 and be ready for operations in 2029.  Streiffer said he expected enormous gains but couldn't predict how much greater computational capability it would have. The MI430 is a special variant of its MI400 series that combines important features of traditional supercomputing chips along with the features to run AI applications, Su said. The Department of Energy will host the computers, the companies will provide the machines and capital spending, and both sides will share the computing power, a DOE official said. The two supercomputers based on AMD chips are intended to be the first of many of these types of partnerships with private industry and DOE labs across the country, the official said. (Reporting by Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; Editing by Tom Hogue)

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(Reuters) -Qualcomm on Monday unveiled two artificial intelligence chips for data centers, with commercial availability from next year, as it pushes to diversify beyond smartphones and expand into the fast-growing AI infrastructure market. The new chips, called AI200 and AI250, are designed for improved memory capacity and running AI applications, or inference, and will be available in 2026 and 2027, respectively. Global investment in AI chips has soared as cloud providers, chipmakers and enterprises rush to build infrastructure capable of supporting complex, large language models, chatbots and other generative AI tools. Nvidia chips, however, underpin much of the current AI boom. Qualcomm, to strengthen its AI portfolio, agreed to buy Alphawave in June, which designs semiconductor tech for data centers, for about $2.4 billion. In May, Qualcomm also said it would make custom data center central processing units that use technology from Nvidia to connect to the firm's artificial intelligence chips. Qualcomm said the new chips support common AI frameworks and tools, with advanced software support, and added they will lower the total cost of ownership for enterprises. The San Diego-based company also unveiled accelerator cards and racks based on the new chips. Earlier this month, peer Intel announced a new artificial intelligence chip called Crescent Island for the data center that it plans to launch next year. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

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(Reuters) -Qualcomm on Monday unveiled two artificial intelligence chips for data centers, with commercial availability from next year, as it pushes to diversify beyond smartphones and expand into the fast-growing AI infrastructure market. Shares of Qualcomm surged nearly 15% on the news. The new chips, called AI200 and AI250, are designed for improved memory capacity and running AI applications, or inference, and will be available in 2026 and 2027, respectively. Global investment in AI chips has soared as cloud providers, chipmakers and enterprises rush to build infrastructure capable of supporting complex, large language models, chatbots and other generative AI tools. Nvidia chips, however, underpin much of the current AI boom. Qualcomm, to strengthen its AI portfolio, agreed to buy Alphawave in June, which designs semiconductor tech for data centers, for about $2.4 billion. In May, Qualcomm also said it would make custom data center central processing units that use technology from Nvidia to connect to the firm's artificial intelligence chips. Qualcomm said the new chips support common AI frameworks and tools, with advanced software support, and added they will lower the total cost of ownership for enterprises. The San Diego-based company also unveiled accelerator cards and racks based on the new chips. Earlier this month, peer Intel announced a new artificial intelligence chip called Crescent Island for the data center that it plans to launch next year. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

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

(Reuters) -Qualcomm on Monday unveiled two artificial intelligence chips for data centers, with commercial availability from next year, as it pushes to diversify beyond smartphones and expand into the fast-growing AI infrastructure market. The new chips, called AI200 and AI250, are designed for improved memory capacity and running AI applications, or inference, and will be available in 2026 and 2027, respectively. Global investment in AI chips has soared as cloud providers, chipmakers and enterprises rush to build infrastructure capable of supporting complex, large language models, chatbots and other generative AI tools. Nvidia chips, however, underpin much of the current AI boom. Qualcomm, to strengthen its AI portfolio, agreed to buy Alphawave in June, which designs semiconductor tech for data centers, for about $2.4 billion. In May, Qualcomm also said it would make custom data center central processing units that use technology from Nvidia to connect to the firm's artificial intelligence chips. Qualcomm said the new chips support common AI frameworks and tools, with advanced software support, and added they will lower the total cost of ownership for enterprises. The San Diego-based company also unveiled accelerator cards and racks based on the new chips. Earlier this month, peer Intel announced a new artificial intelligence chip called Crescent Island for the data center that it plans to launch next year. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

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(Corrects paragraph 5 to remove reference to Edison Electric Institute supporting Wright's move, and adds EEI comment on looking forward to working with FERC) WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright this week directed federal energy regulators to consider a rule aimed at speeding up the connection of power-hungry data centers to electric grids.  Wright sent the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission a rule on Thursday that allows customers to file joint, co-located load and generation interconnection requests. The energy department said the rule would reduce study times and costs for improving the grid, while reducing the time needed for additional power to come online. The rule also pushes FERC to mull whether reviews for grid projects, which sometimes take years, can be done in 60 days.  As U.S. power demand spikes for the first time in two decades on artificial intelligence, President Donald Trump's administration is trying to boost power capacity, mainly from fossil fuel and nuclear plants, and grid access for the data center industry.   Energy secretaries can direct FERC, an independent panel of the Energy Department set to have a 3-2 Republican majority, to consider rules, but cannot force it to adopt them.  The Edison Electric Institute, which represents publicly traded electric utilities, appreciates the administration's "leadership to accelerate energy to win the AI race and fuel our economy," said president and CEO Drew Maloney. EEI looks forward to working with FERC to strengthen the grid and drive down costs for customers, Maloney said. An environmentalist slammed Wright's move. "Pushing FERC to rubber-stamp connections in just 60 days while the government's shut down and Trump builds a $300 million White House ballroom shows (how) out of touch his administration is from everyday Americans," said Camden Weber of environmental group Center for Biological Diversity. Wright also urged FERC to consider a rule to remove burdens for preliminary hydroelectric permits.  Malcolm Woolf, president and CEO of the National Hydropower Association, praised Wright's move. "It is incumbent upon FERC, the Trump Administration, and Congress to ensure that third parties, such as Federal resource agencies, do not unduly inhibit hydropower development and instead foster its necessary growth to meet current challenges."       (Reporting by Timothy Gardner; additional reporting by Laila Kearney and Nichola Groom; editing by Diane Craft)

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(Reuters) -The Indian government has approved the first batch of seven projects worth over 55 billion rupees ($625.75 million) to boost domestic manufacturing of electronics components. The approval includes four projects by Kaynes Circuits India, covering multi-layer and high-density printed circuit boards (PCBs), camera modules and laminates, along with projects by SRF, Syrma Strategic Electronics, and Ascent Circuits, the electronics and IT ministry said on Monday. India has been stepping up efforts to boost electronics manufacturing, launching a series of incentive programs, including production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes and the Semiconductor Mission, to attract global and domestic investors and expand local manufacturing capacity. The projects, which will be located in the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, are expected to produce components worth 365.59 billion rupees and create over 5,100 direct jobs, according to the ministry. The move aims to reduce import dependence and strengthen supply chains for sectors including defence, telecom, electric vehicles and renewable energy. Electronics manufacturing has gained momentum in India as global giants, including Alphabet's Google and Apple, expand their supply chains away from China. India's electronics manufacturing sector is set to grow to 6 trillion rupees in fiscal year 2027, from 1.46 trillion rupees in 2022, brokerage Motilal Oswal said in a note in December. ($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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(Refiles story to fix spelling of operating system name Humain One in paragraph 2) RIYADH (Reuters) -Saudi-based AI startup Humain, set up by the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, plans to launch a computer operating system this week that enables users to speak to a computer to tell it to perform tasks, the company said on Monday. It sees systems such as its new product, Humain One, as an eventual alternative to icon-based systems like Windows or macOS that have dominated personal computer operating systems since the mid-1980s, a company spokesperson said. "Rather than looking at icons where you click for discrete applications, now you (…) speak your intent," CEO Tareq Amin said at the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh. While other companies are working on similar products, Humain aims to be the first to officially launch its system. Humain was launched in May under the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, and is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It offers AI services and products, including data centres, AI infrastructure, cloud capabilities and advanced AI models.   A computer's operating system is the software that acts as the bridge between the user and the machine, managing hardware resources and providing essential services for all other programs. The Humain spokesperson, who declined to be named, said that the company started developing the new operating system shortly after it launched as a company in May. It has been testing the operating system internally for its own payroll and human resources systems, he said. Amin also said on Monday that Humain plans to build approximately 6 gigawatts of data center capacity, but did not say where.  (Reporting by Yousef Saba; Writing by Andrew Mills and Tala Ramadan; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Susan Fenton)

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