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Trade Wars
Intel, AMD's CPU Supply Constraints Impacting PC, Server Makers
A worsening supply constraint in central processing units made by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices is impacting PC and server makers who are already affected by the memory chip shortage, Nikkei Asia reported. PC manufacturers like HP and Dell found that a meaningful 'gap' started appearing at the end of February between the volume of CPUs they required and the volume they could get, managers familiar with the matter told the news outlet, adding that the situation is now much worse than a few months ago. Intel and AMD design CPUs based on the X-86 architecture, which accounted for over 85% of processors used in PCs and about 78% of those used in servers as of 2025, the report added.
The supply crunch is already increasing wait times and pushing up prices for CPUs for servers and PCs, said several industry executives and managers. Some of them expect the situation to worsen in the coming months. Quote prices for CPUs have already risen several times this year, leading to an average price increase of between 10% and 15%, and some are even higher than this rate, the report added. Intel and AMD have recently told clients they will raise the prices for all series of CPUs from March and April, respectively, according to the report.
Read more at Seeking Alpha
Arm Expands Compute Platform To Silicon Products In Historic Company First
Semiconductor design firm Arm announced it will begin making its own chips for AI workloads. The move from chip designer to chipmaker represents the most significant shift in the company’s business model in its 35-year history. For over three decades, the British semiconductor firm had one primary business model: it designed chips and then licensed those designs to other companies, including Apple and Qualcomm, which would then make their own semiconductors based on Arm’s designs. Under this business model, Arm essentially made the blueprints that other companies followed to make their own chips. And every time a company made a chip with Arm’s blueprint, Arm earned a licensing fee. That license fee amounted to about 5% per chip made with Arm’s blueprint, according to Bloomberg, meaning that if a chip cost $100, ARM made about $5 from it.
But now Arm has announced that it will no longer be just a chip blueprint company. It will also begin making and selling its own chips directly to customers, and those chips will be designed to run AI workloads. Arm CEO Rene Haas announced Tuesday the pivot in the company’s business model, revealing the Arm AGI CPU. The chip is specifically designed for AI data center customers who need as much processing power as possible to run agentic AI systems. Arm said it developed the chip alongside Meta to optimize its performance with the company’s existing AI infrastructure, and that the AGI CPU will enable “more efficient orchestration in large-scale AI systems.”
Read more at Fast Company
Merck Reaches Nearly $6 Billion Deal for Cancer Biotech Terns
Merck has reached a nearly $6 billion cash deal to buy the cancer biotech Terns Pharmaceuticals TERN 5.27%increase; green up pointing triangle and its promising leukemia treatment. If it proves to work safely, the experimental drug would give Merck a boost as the company prepares for its top-selling drug, Keytruda, to lose patent protection. Under the terms, Merck would pay $53 a share for Terns, Merck said Wednesday. The deal is worth $5.7 billion including the cash that Terns has on hand.
Terns, of Foster City, Calif., has been developing pills to treat cancer, as well as obesity and metabolic-liver diseases. Its crown jewel is a pill to treat a blood cancer known as chronic myeloid leukemia. Last year Terns reported encouraging study results for the medicine. Merck, of Rahway, N.J., is a cancer-drug powerhouse with a market value of more than $285 billion. Its Keytruda immunotherapy, which notched around $31.7 billion in sales last year, is among the world’s top sellers.
Read more at the WSJ
Air Force Going Fast to Develop ‘New Class’ of Low-Cost Munitions
New approaches to acquisition, faster testing, and lessons from combat are shrinking the Air Force’s timelines for fielding low-cost munitions from years to months. T Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert P. Lyons III, portfolio acquisition executive for weapons, touted three examples of what he called a “new class of affordable, low-cost munitions”: the Extended Range Attack Munition, or ERAM, and two variants of the Family of Affordable Mass Munition as he testifies to the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 24. “These cruise missiles represent a new speed of acquisition,” Lyons said: the programs went from conception to first contract in four months, and from contracts to flying prototypes in four to seven months. The ERAM entered production just 14 months after the first contract was awarded.
The ERAM is an air-launched cruise missile designed to strike high-value fixed targets from standoff ranges with precision guidance at low cost. The program was developed in part to supply Ukraine in its war against Russia. The Air Force awarded contracts to produce the ERAM to Zone 5 Technologies and CoAspire in late 2024. The FAMM program first emerged in the Air Force’s fiscal 2026 budget request. Both programs are moving fast thanks to streamlined acquisition processes and accelerated testing, Lyons said. Those two approaches have featured prominently in the Pentagon’s overall strategy to bolster U.S. munitions production lines and its industrial base.
Read more at Air & Space Forces
Meta Targets $9 Trillion Valuation With New Executive Incentive Program
Meta META -1.84%decrease; red down pointing triangle Platforms is seeking to incentivize its top executives to grow the company at an extremely aggressive pace with a new stock option program that could pay some of them hundreds of millions of dollars. Under the program, executives would only realize the full value of their options if the company hits a market capitalization of more than $9 trillion by 2031—an increase of 500% from its current $1.5 trillion, according to the company and new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The idea of using outsize financial incentives to ensure leaders’ loyalty in a competitive landscape transformed by AI was at the heart of the pitch made by Tesla’s board of directors to the company’s shareholders last fall. Shareholders ended up approving a pay package for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth as much as $1 trillion over 10 years.
Read more at The WSJ
Sony-Honda Joint Venture Scraps EV Plans After Honda Strategy Overhaul
Sony Honda Mobility, the joint venture between Japanese electronics giant Sony and automaker Honda on Wednesday said it would stop developing its Afeela electric vehicles, citing Honda’s strategy reassessment for EVs. The move follows Honda’s move to overhaul its EV business for which the carmaker flagged a writedown of as much as 2.5 trillion yen ($15.7 billion) earlier this month. The JV said the decision left it without a viable path to bring the Afeela models to market. The venture was formed to combine Honda’s experience in engineering and building vehicles with Sony’s software and gaming expertise to catch up with EV rivals.
The JV had been expected to begin deliveries of the Afeela 1 in California late this year and had sought to launch a second model based on a newer prototype as early as 2028. It began taking orders for the Afeela 1 last year, with prices starting at $89,900. In a statement, Honda said the impact from the move on its revised full-year consolidated financial forecasts for the fiscal year ending this month was expected to be immaterial. Sony said it did not expect the discontinuation to have a material impact on its financial situation.
Read more at Ward’s Auto
Audi Confirms Q9 SUV As New Flagship, With US Buyers Firmly In Focus
Audi has finally put a name and intent behind what’s been an open secret for some time: A new range-topping SUV, badged Q9, is on the way — and it’s being developed with the U.S. market very much in mind. Confirmed by CEO Gernot Döllner at the company’s annual media conference, the Q9 will sit above the Q7 as the brand’s largest and most luxurious SUV model. It takes over the role of flagship from the now out-of-production A8 sedan, marking a clear shift in how Audi defines the top end of its lineup.
Audi hasn’t revealed the Q9 yet, but its nameplate and the flagship positioning confirmed by Döllner hint at an SUV noticeably larger than the existing second-generation Q7. Expect a more upright front end with an even more dominant take on the German automaker’s signature single-frame grille, along with a long hood. It’s also a model with broader significance inside its parent company, the Volkswagen Group. The Q9 is being developed together with a future Porsche SUV, codenamed K1, giving it added weight and importance beyond Audi’s own lineup.
Read more at Ward’s Auto
Joby Aviation Showcases The Future Of Urban Air Travel Over San Francisco
Joby Aviation recently flew its electric air taxi over the San Francisco Bay Area, showcasing how future urban air travel might work. The flight passed landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands, demonstrating that electric air taxis are not just a futuristic idea, but closer to real-world operation. Designed to carry up to four passengers, these aircraft are quiet and produce no direct emissions, offering an alternative to road travel in heavy traffic. With six tilting propellers and fixed wings, the aircraft can take off vertically like a helicopter and then fly forward at speeds near 200 mph (320km/h), much faster than cars in city traffic.
This demonstration marked the start of Joby’s 2026 “Electric Skies Tour,” a series of flights in several U.S. cities intended to introduce people to the technology. The tour builds on extensive testing, with the company logging more than 50,000 miles (around 80,500 km) in test flights, showing that the technology is maturing. “By providing clean, quiet service with minimal infrastructure investment we are making flight an everyday reality for the community,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby.
Read more at Travel Tomorrow
Regional Carrier Finnair to Purchase Embraer Jets for First Time
Brazilian jet builder Embraer S.A. will supply 18 E195-E2s to Finnair under a new agreement with an estimated value of $1.31 billion based on list prices for those narrow-body jets. More than that, the supply agreement also includes purchase options and/or purchase rights for 28 more aircraft, or a total of 46 new E195-E2s, taking the potential value of the new booking to approximately $2.31 billion.
The new aircraft will be the first Embraer models in the majority state-owned carrier’s fleet, which currently is comprised of 54 Airbus A320 and A330 series jets.
The twin-engine E195-E2 is the largest of Embraer’s E-Jet E2 series of regional aircraft, with seating capacity for up to 150 passengers. Finnair’s new jets will be configured for 134 passengers. “The E195-E2’s unique combination of efficiency, comfort, and reliability delivers meaningful value – lower fuel burn, lower CO₂, and superior economics,” stated Embraer president and CEO Arjan Meijer. “We look forward to helping Finnair modernize its short-haul fleet to better match demand, reduce emissions, and unlock growth.”
Read more at American Machinist
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