Semiconductors

Alibaba shares soar on AI and cloud growth

Alibaba’s Hong Kong shares rose over 15%, their most significant single-day gain since early 2023, following strong AI revenue growth. AI-related sales surged triple digits, and the cloud division grew 26% to 33.4 billion yuan ($4.7 billion), exceeding expectations and driving expansion.

The results underline Alibaba’s transformation from a retail-heavy company into a diversified technology player. Analysts say AI is now a central growth driver, with cloud and AI offerings boosting investor confidence despite price war pressures from JD.com and Meituan.

Alibaba is investing in AI hardware and developing proprietary chips to reduce reliance on foreign semiconductors. The strategy aims to build faster, cheaper, and more secure AI systems for domestic and international markets, including Lazada and AliExpress.

Experts view this calculated self-reliance and strong cloud and AI services as a long-term growth driver.

While retail rivals continue to struggle with profit pressure, Alibaba’s leadership has emphasised AI as a core strategic focus.

CEO Eddie Wu emphasised ambitions in artificial general intelligence, with analysts noting AI could protect Alibaba from price wars and support growth across multiple business areas.

Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!

IBM and AMD unite to build quantum-classical supercomputers

IBM and AMD have launched a strategic collaboration to pioneer quantum-centric supercomputing architectures, blending IBM’s quantum computing capabilities with AMD’s strengths in high-performance computing (HPC), AI acceleration, CPUs, GPUs and FPGAs.

Their vision involves creating hybrid systems where quantum components handle atomic-scale or highly complex tasks, such as molecular simulation or optimization, while classical and infrastructure powered by AI processes large datasets efficiently.

The approach aims to unlock new levels of computational power. A demonstration of these hybrid workflows is scheduled for later this year.

Additionally, AMD’s technology may facilitate real-time error correction, a vital step toward achieving IBM’s goal of fault-tolerant quantum computing by the end of this decade.

Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!

NVIDIA’s sales grow as the market questions AI momentum

Sales of AI chips by Nvidia rose strongly in its latest quarter, though the growth was less intense than in previous periods, raising questions about the sustainability of demand.

The company’s data centre division reported revenue of 41.1 billion USD between May and July, a 56% rise from last year but slightly below analyst forecasts.

Overall revenue reached 46.7 billion USD, while profit climbed to 26.4 billion USD, both higher than expected.

Nvidia forecasts sales of $54 billion USD for the current quarter.

CEO Jensen Huang said the company remains at the ‘beginning of the buildout’, with trillions expected to be spent on AI by the decade’s end.

However, investors pushed shares down 3% in extended trading, reflecting concerns that rapid growth is becoming harder to maintain as annual sales expand.

Nvidia’s performance was also affected by earlier restrictions on chip sales to China, although the removal of limits in exchange for a sales levy is expected to support future revenue.

Analysts noted that while AI continues to fuel stock market optimism, the pace of growth is slowing compared with the company’s earlier surge.

Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!

US pushes chip manufacturing to boost AI dominance

Donald Trump’s AI Action Plan, released in July 2025, places domestic semiconductor manufacturing at the heart of US efforts to dominate global AI. The plan supports deregulation, domestic production and export of full-stack technology, positioning chips as critical to national power.

Lawmakers and tech leaders have previously flagged tracking chips post-sale as viable, with companies like Google already using such methods. Trump’s plan suggests adopting location tracking and enhanced end-use monitoring to ensure chips avoid blacklisted destinations.

Trump has pressed for more private sector investment in US fabs, reportedly using tariff threats to extract pledges from chipmakers like TSMC. The cost of building and running chip plants in the US remains significantly higher than in Asia, raising questions about sustainability.

America’s success in AI and semiconductors will likely depend on how well it balances domestic goals with global collaboration. Overregulation risks slowing innovation, while unilateral restrictions may alienate allies and reduce long-term influence.

Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!

Jetson AGX Thor brings Blackwell-powered compute to robots and autonomous vehicles

Nvidia has introduced Jetson AGX Thor, its Blackwell-powered robotics platform that succeeds the 2022 Jetson Orin. Designed for autonomous driving, factory robots, and humanoid machines, it comes in multiple models, with a DRIVE OS kit for vehicles scheduled for release in September.

Thor delivers 7.5 times more AI compute, 3.1 times greater CPU performance, and double the memory of Orin. The flagship Thor T5000 offers up to 2,070 teraflops of AI compute, paired with 128 GB of memory, enabling the execution of generative AI models and robotics workloads at the edge.

The platform supports Nvidia’s Isaac, Metropolis, and Holoscan systems, and features multi-instance GPU capabilities that enable the simultaneous execution of multiple AI models. It is compatible with Hugging Face, PyTorch, and leading AI models from OpenAI, Google, and other sources.

Adoption has begun, with Boston Dynamics utilising Thor for Atlas and firms such as Volvo, Aurora, and Gatik deploying DRIVE AGX Thor in their vehicles. Nvidia stresses it supports robot-makers rather than building robots, with robotics still a small but growing part of its business.

Would you like to learn more about AI, tech, and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!

NVIDIA eyes recovery in China after export deal ahead of Q2 report

NVIDIA is due to report its Q2 2026 financial results after the US market closes on 27 August, and analysts are expecting strong performance.

Consensus forecasts place revenue at around US $45.9 billion, up about 50 percent year-on-year, driven by ongoing demand for Blackwell GPUs, data centre expansion and redistribution of AI infrastructure investments globally.

Export changes are also pivotal. After entering a deal to resume H20 chip sales to China, despite revenue-sharing conditions, NVIDIA could reclaim as much as US$8 billion during Q2, mitigating past losses caused by restrictions.

Beyond geopolitical shifts, the Blackwell Ultra GPU is central to growth. Offering up to 50 times faster AI inference than earlier models, it is increasingly stocked by cloud providers and hyperscalers. Markets view this as a strategic advantage, fueling long-term AI momentum.

Risks remain. Gross margins may recover from prior pressure due to licensing charges, but margin expansion depends on supply and TAM realisation. China’s policy environment is also uncertain, making future guidance cautious for some analysts.

Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!

Arm to build its own chips with AI focus

Arm Holdings has hired Amazon’s AI chip lead, Rami Sinno, to design its own complete chips. Known for Amazon’s Trainium and Inferentia processors, Sinno brings key expertise to Arm’s new direction in chip manufacturing.

Arm has traditionally licensed chip designs to companies like Apple and Nvidia, but now aims to build chips and complete systems. The firm is expanding teams with experience from HPE, Intel and Qualcomm, signalling a significant shift in its business model.

Backed by SoftBank, Arm plans to invest profits in chip development to rival Nvidia and reduce reliance on traditional licensing.

Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!

Microsoft and AMD develop new gaming chips

Microsoft plans to equip its next-generation Xbox console with AI-focused hardware, including a dedicated neural processing unit.

Vice President Jason Ronald confirmed that the company is working with AMD to develop chips for gaming consoles, PCs and cloud platforms.

New AI capabilities are expected to transform gameplay and provide developers with tools to create immersive, previously unattainable experiences.

Microsoft’s experimental Xbox Ally X device, developed with ASUS, is already used to test AI integration in real-world scenarios.

Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!

Sam Altman urges rethink of US–China AI strategy

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has warned that the United States may be underestimating China’s rapid advances in AI. He argued that export controls on semiconductors are unlikely to be a reliable long-term solution to the global AI race.

At a press briefing in San Francisco, Altman said the competition cannot be reduced to a simple scoreboard. China can expand inference capacity more quickly, even as Washington tightens restrictions on advanced semiconductor exports.

He expressed doubts about the effectiveness of purely policy-driven approaches. ‘You can export-control one thing, but maybe not the right thing… workarounds exist,’ Altman said. He stressed that chip controls may not keep pace with technological realities.

His comments come as US policy becomes increasingly complex. President Trump halted advanced chip supplies in April, while the Biden administration recently allowed ‘China-safe’ chips, requiring Nvidia and AMD to share revenue. Critics call the rules contradictory and difficult to enforce.

Meanwhile, Chinese firms are accelerating efforts to replace US suppliers, with Huawei and others building domestic alternatives. Altman suggested this push for self-sufficiency could undermine Washington’s goals, raising questions about America’s strategy in the AI race.

Would you like to learn more about AI, tech, and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!

Nvidia prepares new AI chip for China amid Washington’s hesitation

As if Trump’s recent shifts in chip export policy regarding the scaled-down chip models were not enough to reopen supply to the Chinese market, after all the earlier tariffs and bans, Nvidia is now quietly developing a new AI chip for China, even as Washington continues to debate how much cutting-edge US technology Beijing should be allowed to access.

According to Nvidia’s latest statements, the chip, codenamed B30A, will be based on Nvidia’s latest Blackwell architecture and is expected to outperform the company’s current China-approved model, the H20.

Namely, the novelty comes just days after President Donald Trump weighed permitting scaled-down versions of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to be sold in China. His comments marked a potential shift in US policy, but the approval remains uncertain, with lawmakers in both parties warning that even weaker versions of top-end chips could still give Beijing an edge in the global AI race.

Technically, the B30A will be less potent than Nvidia’s flagship B300, but it retains advanced features such as high-bandwidth memory and NVLink connectivity, which are crucial for fast data processing.

Nvidia hopes to send early samples to Chinese customers next month, though final specifications have yet to be confirmed.

‘Everything we offer is with full government approval and designed for commercial use,’ the company said in a statement.

The stakes are high, as China accounted for 13% of Nvidia’s revenue last year, and losing that market could push customers toward domestic rivals like Huawei.

Analysts note that Huawei’s chips are improving, particularly in raw computing power, though they still lag in software support and memory performance, areas where Nvidia remains dominant.

At the same time, Beijing has been pushing back. Chinese experts recently raised concerns that Nvidia’s chips could pose security risks, and regulators have reportedly warned Chinese tech firms about buying the H20.

Nvidia denies any such vulnerabilities, but the warnings illustrate how political friction is weighing on commercial strategy.

Alongside the B30A, Nvidia is also preparing another chip, the RTX6000D, built for AI inference rather than training. That model has weaker specifications designed to comply with strict US export thresholds.

Nvidia plans to start shipping small batches of the RTX6000D to Chinese clients as early as September, which seems to indicate that the company is trying to balance Washington’s restrictions with the need to preserve its foothold in one of the world’s most lucrative AI markets.

Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!