Intel CHIPS Cash

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Intel CHIPS Cash

With $8.5bn in grants and up to $11bn in loans, Intel [INTC] has become the first company to sign a preliminary CHIPS Act package for advanced chipmaking facilities. The US Commerce Department announced Wednesday that the package will boost Intel’s $100bn in US investments, including at large-scale plants in Arizona and Ohio. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is considering blacklisting Chinese semiconductor firms linked to Huawei.

Major AI-Adjacent IPO

Astera Labs priced its IPO at $36 a share on Tuesday. This was well above its target range, which it had boosted on Monday to $32–34 a share. Shares in the firm were set to start trading on Wednesday under the ticker ALAB. Astera produces connectivity hardware for cloud computing data centres; artificial intelligence (AI) has massively increased traffic at such centres. The company made 271 mentions of “AI” in its most recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), TechCrunch reported.

China Revives Defunct EV-Makers

Three defunct electric vehicle (EV) firms are being given a second chance. One of them, Zhidou, which went bankrupt in 2019, has been restructured under the guidance of Geely [0175:HK], and will launch a new EV called Zhidou Rainbow in April. Meanwhile, Tesla [TSLA] is to hike the price of China-produced Model Y vehicles beginning on 1 April, Reuters reported.

Samsung Up 5% On Nvidia Mention

“Samsung is very good, a very good company,” said Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia [NVDA], during a media briefing earlier this week. Huang also hinted that his company is evaluating the South Korean giant’s new generation of high-bandwidth memory chips for its graphics processing units. Samsung shares were up 5% Wednesday on the news. According to Reuters, the firm expects to make $100m in revenue from its next line of advanced chip-packaging products.

Tencent Announces $12.8bn in Buybacks

Tencent [TCEHY] announced Wednesday it is planning to double its stock buyback program to over $12.8bn in 2024, after reporting a lower-than-expected 7% increase in revenue. The news could bring hope to investors concerned about the decline of growth experienced by the tech giant during a Chinese economic downturn. Tencent rivals Alibaba [BABA] and JD.com [JD] have made similar moves.