Qualcomm hands Amazon $4B of warrants to build custom silicon for AWS
Qualcomm hands Amazon $4B of warrants to build custom silicon for AWS

Qualcomm has issued Amazon warrants over 25 million shares worth about $4B, vesting against commercial milestones and up to $60B of server chip purchases, alongside a multi-generation custom silicon deal for AWS. Qualcomm is also one of three chipmaker…

Google’s map of every possible DNA typo could speed up rare disease research
Google’s map of every possible DNA typo could speed up rare disease research

DeepMind has released AlphaGenome Atlas, a petabyte of precomputed predictions for all 9 billion possible single-letter changes in the human genome, free for academic use. Its headline validations came from UK Biobank whole genomes at Exeter and from t…

Irish regulator probes X over age checks, with 10% of turnover at stake
Irish regulator probes X over age checks, with 10% of turnover at stake

Ireland’s media regulator has opened an investigation into whether X’s age assurance and parental controls meet the online safety code, with sanctions of up to EUR 20M or 10% of relevant turnover. X lost a High Court challenge to that code last July an…

Plug-in hybrids emit six times their official rating, and carmakers want the fix cancelled
Plug-in hybrids emit six times their official rating, and carmakers want the fix cancelled

Plug-in hybrids registered in the EU in 2024 emitted an average 145 grams of CO2 per kilometre against an official rating of 24 grams, according to Transport and Environment’s reading of onboard monitor data from 220,000 cars. Carmakers want the 2027 c…

China put a 99.2% duty on a chemical chip fabs need
China put a 99.2% duty on a chemical chip fabs need

China has imposed a cash deposit of up to 99.2% on imports of a Japanese chemical that chip fabs use to build the films inside logic and memory chips. The rate is close to prohibitive. It took effect on Tuesday. China’s Ministry of Commerce published t…

China’s answer to ASML runs on Zeiss lenses, Financial Times reports
China’s answer to ASML runs on Zeiss lenses, Financial Times reports

China’s effort to build its own chipmaking machines finally has a coordinator. It is Huawei. And the flagship machine it is coordinating still runs on German lenses. Eleanor Olcott and Zijing Wu reported the arrangement for the Financial Times, citing …

The US asked Britain to drop its plan to promote trusted news
The US asked Britain to drop its plan to promote trusted news

The United States has asked Britain to abandon a plan to make social platforms promote trusted news. Its central argument is not about Britain at all. The submission sits on the US Embassy website in London, dated 2 September. It answers a consultation…

Palantir gets £21m from Britain’s grid operator, no competition
Palantir gets £21m from Britain’s grid operator, no competition

Britain’s publicly owned energy system operator has handed Palantir a £21.2m contract with no competition. The justification it filed is a plain description of why leaving will be difficult. Lindsay Clark reported the award for The Register on Tuesday….

Google made search worse in Europe, and said so out loud
Google made search worse in Europe, and said so out loud

Google changed how search works in Europe on Tuesday. Then it told everyone the new version is worse. Foo Yun Chee reported the rollout for Reuters, which had the story first. The company is complying with an order from the European Commission, and it …

King Charles to host Huang and Hassabis at private AI summit
King Charles to host Huang and Hassabis at private AI summit

King Charles is convening about 30 senior figures from the AI industry at a Scottish country house this month. He does not intend to tell them what he thinks. Joseph Bambridge reported the plans for Politico. Two people familiar with them spoke on cond…