April 22, 2024
Wall Street’s Bull Run Falters as Investors Retreat Amid Market Volatility: The market rally of 2024 is facing significant challenges as Wall Street’s once-unyielding bulls start cashing out their gains, driven by a surge in Treasury yields, the ascendancy of hawkish Federal Reserve policymakers, and heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Equity volatility has spiked in response, with the S&P 500 experiencing a daily decline for every session this week and the top tech titans closing nearly 8% lower.
Micron Will Receive $6.1 Billion to Build Semiconductor Plants: The Biden administration is set to grant Micron up to $6.1 billion in funds to facilitate the construction of new semiconductor plants in New York and Idaho. This investment marks the latest multibillion-dollar initiative aimed at bolstering domestic production of essential semiconductors and is part of the CHIPS Act passed in 2022. The grant will enable Micron to complete two new chip manufacturing plants in New York by the end of the decade, in addition to an existing plant under construction in Idaho, and is expected to create approximately 50,000 jobs, including around 9,000 direct positions at the plants.
House Passes Legislation for Potential TikTok Ban in the U.S.: The House of Representatives has approved a bill that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States if its China-based parent company, ByteDance Ltd., fails to sell its stake within a year; however, the app’s disappearance from American screens may not be imminent due to potential legal challenges and court delays should the measure become law.
The Secret Art of Chip Graffiti: Chip designers have long etched whimsical imagery onto their creations, from cartoon characters to inside jokes, as a form of artistic expression and to mark their contributions. However, as design automation tools improved and product cycles accelerated, companies became less tolerant of these unauthorized embellishments, leading to a decline in chip graffiti over time.
Microsoft’s OpenAI Partnership Could Face EU Antitrust Probe, Sources Say: The European Union’s antitrust regulator is gathering evidence to determine if Microsoft’s $13 billion investment in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, could restrict or distort competition within the EU internal market. While no definitive decision has been made, the Commission is examining whether Microsoft’s non-voting position on OpenAI’s board could fall under the EU Merger Regulation and potentially raise competition concerns.
New York’s Rich Get Creative to Flee State Taxes. Auditors Are On to Them: New York’s wealthy residents are using creative methods to avoid state taxes, including frequenting states with lower tax rates and using private jets to maintain a presence in those states. However, auditors are increasingly vigilant, scrutinizing these methods to ensure compliance with tax laws.
Google Workers Arrested After Nine-Hour Protest in Cloud Chief’s Office: Nine Google employees were arrested for trespassing after staging a nine-hour sit-in protest in the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, demanding the company cancel its $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with the Israeli government and military. The protesters, led by the ‘No Tech for Apartheid’ organization, were opposing Google’s involvement in providing cloud services, artificial intelligence tools, and other infrastructure to support the Israeli government, which they believe is complicit in human rights abuses against Palestinians.
Too Many Models: The AI landscape is being flooded with a deluge of new models, with over a dozen unveiled or discussed just this week, ranging from large language models to specialized multimodal and image generation models. While this proliferation of AI models represents incremental progress, it can be overwhelming for even AI specialists to keep up with, and the average user only needs to be aware of a fraction of the full number of models being developed.