The world this week--Business The Biden administration said it would provide $6.6bn in direct funding to TSMC to support its facilities in Arizona for manufacturing the world's most advanced semiconductors.
TSMC, based in Taiwan and the world's largest contract chipmaker, will have three sites in Phoenix when it completes a new factory there. It is increasing its investment to $65bn, the largest-ever foreign direct investment in a "greenfield" project, meaning built from scratch, in America.
TSMC supplies chips to Apple and Nvidia for use in smartphones and artificial intelligence. Intel unveiled its Gaudi 3 chip for AI, which it claims is faster and more power-efficient than Nvidia's H100.
It tested the chip on two open-source large language models: Llama, which is run by Meta, and Falcon, a project backed by Abu Dhabi. Intel also announced a plan to create, with other tech companies, an open platform for enterprise AI that will "accelerate deployment" of secure generative AI systems.
Disney is to crack down on users who share passwords to its streaming services. Bob Iger, Disney's chief executive, said the crackdown would be gradually rolled out to different countries starting in June.
Netflix implemented a similar policy last year, and it has since reported a surge in subscribers. Boeing's safety record was in the spotlight again.
An engineer at Boeing alleged that the company took shortcuts on quality and safety when it manufactured 787 and 777 jets, leaving them with potential structural flaws. Boeing described the claims as "inaccurate".
And the Federal Aviation Administration investigated yet another incident involving a Boeing plane, this time an engine panel that fell off a 737-800 during take-off from Denver. Meanwhile, Alaska Air received $160m in compensation from Boeing for the panel that fell off one of its aircraft in January, leaving a gaping hole in the plane.
The airline said it expects further payments. Tesco, Britain's biggest supermarket chain, reported a big rise in pre-tax profit to ￡2.3bn ($2.9bn) for the 12 months ending February 24th.
It expects higher profits this year, as inflationary pressures have "lessened substantially". Meanwhile, John Lewis, a troubled department-store and supermarket chain, appointed Jason Tarry, a former senior executive at Tesco, as its new chair.
