NerdNews

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has reported record fourth-quarter earnings and expects AI chip demand to continue for years. CEO C.C. Wei expressed optimism about AI demand, citing conversations with cloud providers that verified the demand is real. TSMC plans to spend between $52 billion and $56 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, up from $40.9 billion in 2025.

Europe is racing to build its own AI capabilities, dubbed the 'DeepSeek of Europe', to reduce dependence on US-based AI firms. The EU and UK are investing in AI research and development, with a focus on open-source models and sovereign AI. Experts believe that Europe can catch up with the US in AI, citing the success of China-based AI lab DeepSeek.

Google launched the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard for agentic commerce, enabling AI-driven shopping agents to complete tasks from product discovery to checkout. UCP provides a secure, standardized method for AI agents to connect with business backends, supporting multiple payment providers and keeping customer relationships front and center.

In 2025, 55 US AI startups raised funding rounds worth $100 million or more, with some companies raising multiple rounds and others reaching valuations of over $1 billion. The AI industry continues to grow, with companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and others leading the charge.

BioticsAI, the winner of TechCrunch Disrupt's Battlefield competition in 2023, has received FDA clearance for its AI-powered fetal ultrasound product. The technology uses computer vision AI to support fetal ultrasound quality assessment and anatomical completeness. The company plans to scale its product across health systems nationwide and add more features for fetal medicine and reproductive health.

The author shares 10 key takeaways from extensive experimentation with AI coding agents, including the importance of human judgment, the brittleness of AI models beyond their training data, and the potential for feature creep and burnout. While AI coding agents can accelerate software development, they are not a replacement for human expertise and require careful guidance to produce high-quality results.

OpenAI's chief global affairs officer announced that the company's mysterious physical device is on track to be unveiled later this year, with rumors suggesting it may be an AirPods competitor with advanced processing power.

This article discusses the implementation of VPC Service Controls in Google Cloud to prevent data exfiltration. It highlights the importance of extensive discovery, phased rollout, and organizational alignment. The article also provides best practices and lessons learned from a real-world implementation, including the use of Infrastructure as Code, automated validation, and clear exception processes.

Pinterest has published its blueprint for the future of large-scale data processing with its new platform Moka, moving core workloads from Hadoop to a Kubernetes-based system on Amazon EKS with Apache Spark as the main engine. The company has added logging, metrics, and job history services to operate Spark at scale on Kubernetes and has invested in making the platform reproducible through infrastructure-as-code.

Docker's Cagent uses a proxy-and-cassette model to record and replay AI agent interactions, enabling deterministic testing and reproducible behavior. This approach shifts attention from assessing outcomes after execution to making agent behavior reproducible, offering a foundation for testing that looks closer to traditional software engineering.

Valve's upcoming Steam Machine aims to bridge the gap between PC and console gaming, offering a more streamlined experience. With its standardized specs and 'Steam Machine Verified' badge, developers can optimize games for the system, making it easier for players to enjoy their favorite titles without the hassle of managing drivers and graphics settings.

GitLab 18.8 introduces the Duo Agent Platform, which enables organizations to orchestrate AI agents across the development process, reducing bottlenecks and increasing productivity. The platform includes features such as agentic chat, task-specific agents, and workflow automation.

Micron has acquired a chipmaking campus from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation for $1.8 billion, expanding its DRAM manufacturing capacity. The deal includes a 300mm fab cleanroom and is expected to contribute to meaningful DRAM wafer output starting in 2027. Powerchip will exit the legacy chip business and establish a long-term foundry relationship with Micron for advanced packaging wafer manufacturing.

Enterprises are struggling to move AI projects from pilot to production due to infrastructure and operational readiness issues. To overcome this, companies need to build an operational foundation that can support AI as a repeatable workload, including hybrid deployment, data management, and governance.

OpenAI's ChatGPT Go subscription now provides unlimited access to GPT-5.2 Instant for $8, offering expanded features like more messages, uploads, and image creation, with longer memory and context windows.

About 50,000 clandestine Starlink terminals are being used in Iran to bypass the government's internet shutdown. The terminals, which provide high-speed internet access via satellites, have become a lifeline for Iranians trying to share information about the ongoing protests. However, the Iranian government has criminalized the use of satellite internet services like Starlink, and users face substantial risk in accessing them illegally. The situation highlights the importance of satellites in uncovering humanitarian crises and the need to protect them from potential disruptions.

Researchers identified 5 malicious Google Chrome extensions that target HR and ERP platforms, including Workday and Netsuite, by stealing cookies and taking control of accounts. The extensions were available in the Chrome Web Store and were downloaded by 2300 users before being removed.

Researchers discovered a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the StealC infostealer's web panel, allowing them to gather evidence about its back-end operations and identify characteristics of the threat actor's computer, including geolocation and active session cookies.

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warns that pro-Russia hacktivists pose a significant threat to critical services operators, including local authorities and critical national infrastructure organizations. These hacktivists often use simple denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which can still have a significant impact and cause financial and productivity costs. The NCSC recommends that organizations improve their resilience to DoS attacks and consider using third-party DDoS-mitigation services and content delivery networks (CDNs).

Ingram Micro has disclosed that a July 2025 ransomware attack compromised the personal data of 42,521 employees and job applicants. The attack, claimed by ransomware group SafePay, exposed basic personal information, identity document numbers, and employment-related information.