Neuromorphic AI IP and other most-read stories

And there’s also the long-running legal spat between Arm and Qualcomm, and ADI buying the privately held Empower Semiconductor…

As is customary, for maximum suspense, let’s take them in reverse order as according to Google Analytics:

5. BrainChip adds software partners
BrainChip, the neuromorphic AI IP specialist, is collaborating with MulticoreWare, P-Product and BeEmotion.ai to develop and optimise ML models tailored for the Akida AKD1500 processor. BrainChip sells semiconductor IP and SoC designs. By integrating the expertise of its partners, BrainChip aims to provide customers with a robust library of ‘Akida-ready’ models.

4. Kioxia Q2 profit forecast up 48x y-o-y
Kioxia has forecast a $5.5bn profit for the current quarter – a 48x jump y-o-y. For the fiscal year to the end of March Kioxia had revenue up 37% y-o-y at $14.5bn for a net profit of $3.5bn – double last year’s – and an operating profit up 92.7% to $5.2bn. The improvement was fuelled by demand from datacentre customers, particularly for high-capacity SSDs.

3. Blackstone and Google launch neo-cloud company
Blackstone, the private equity company, and Google are forming a neo-cloud company to acquire, build and rent out datacentre capacity. The initial investment is $5 billion in equity from Blackstone and $20 billion in debt. Blackstone will have the majority interest. The company will use Google TPUs to build 500MW of computing capacity. Some of the datacentres for the venture have been chosen others are under construction.

2. Arm under FTC investigation
In the long-running legal spat between Arm and Qualcomm, the US FTC is to investigate a complaint referred to it by Qualcomm that Arm is engaged in anti-competitive practices. The complaint alleges that Arm created a prosperous semiconductor industry segment by licensing its designs freely, but is now trying to create a monopoly by getting into making and selling proprietary chips.

1. ADI buys Empower Semi for $1.5bn
ADI is to buy privately held Empower Semiconductor for $1.5 billion. “AI infrastructure is fundamentally reshaping how power must be delivered, with energy now the most persistent constraint to scaling next-generation systems,” says ADI CEO Vincent Roche. He added that Empower helps customers redesign their power systems and “achieve the compute densities next-generation AI demands”.