Qualcomm vs Nvidia and drones vs dogs

{"text":[[{"start":10.45,"text":"Hello from Yifan, your #techAsia host this week. I’m sending this newsletter from New York after spending an afternoon in a cold ballroom where Qualcomm executives laid out the company’s data centre chip ambitions."}],[{"start":24.5,"text":"It was a busy day for semiconductors. After Nvidia hosted its annual shareholder meeting, where Jensen Huang said AI infrastructure demand will continue for “decades,” memory chipmaker Micron reported blockbuster earnings. After a scary few days that saw SK Hynix and Samsung shares briefly plunge, this came as a reassurance for investors that the feared “AI bubble” is not about to burst."}],[{"start":50.25,"text":"But arguably Qualcomm, the company known for its mobile chips, was the star of this busy day."}],[{"start":56.2,"text":"At its annual investor day in New York, Qualcomm unveiled more details about its data centre chip roadmap, from a new AI accelerator platform to CPUs, ASICs and connectivity chips. Apart from the air conditioning in the ballroom being out of control — CEO Cristiano Amon welcomed reporters to “Siberia” — it was a great day for the company, as its stock shot up more than 14 per cent at one point following the investor meeting."}],[{"start":83.55000000000001,"text":"I was particularly intrigued by a new chip architecture Qualcomm calls high-bandwidth compute (HBC). It’s supposedly a better design than the current GPU-plus-high-bandwidth memory (HBM) set-up in AI racks because it places memory closer to computing power, an approach known as near-memory compute. This reduces how far data must travel between the two, saving time and energy."}],[{"start":106.30000000000001,"text":"Memory chips have become the latest bottleneck in AI development, as we’ve reported extensively at Nikkei Asia. Amon said a new design like HBC will help ease the global memory crunch that some are predicting will last till 2030."}],[{"start":122.05000000000001,"text":"This made me wonder: Both SK Hynix and Samsung have ridden the AI chip boom high, especially with the growing need for HBM for AI data centres. Will a new technology like HBC, that supposedly reduces the need for HBM, further accelerate their rise in the AI era, or are the good days for memory chipmakers coming to an end?"}],[{"start":142.45000000000002,"text":"Qualcomm in China"}],[{"start":144.70000000000002,"text":"Qualcomm unveiled its data centre chip line-up on Wednesday, becoming the latest chipmaker to enter the AI processor race in an attempt to challenge market leader Nvidia."}],[{"start":154.20000000000002,"text":"CEO Amon told Nikkei Asia’s Yifan Yu that the company is eyeing the China market for its data centre products, including designing chips specifically for Chinese customers that are in compliance with US export controls."}],[{"start":167.95000000000002,"text":"China accounted for 46 per cent of Qualcomm’s revenue in 2025, mostly from smartphone chips."}],[{"start":175.20000000000002,"text":"Amon said as the company diversifies its business, its partnerships with customers in China are also expanding, while its existing relationship with Chinese smartphone makers and OEMs is a “strength” it can naturally bring to the data centre business in the country."}],[{"start":190.9,"text":"Nvidia in demand"}],[{"start":193.6,"text":"Nvidia’s AI chips have more than doubled in price on China’s black market as a US crackdown on illicit exports collides with strong demand from Chinese companies, writes the FT’s Eleanor Olcott."}],[{"start":205.7,"text":"The price of the US tech giant’s flagship DGX B300 server has soared to more than Rmb8mn ($1.1mn) over the past six months, up from Rmb4mn, according to FT interviews with multiple Chinese chip traders."}],[{"start":223.64999999999998,"text":"The system, which contains eight Blackwell graphics processing units, typically retails in the US for about $400,000. Nvidia’s RTX 6000 Pro workstation chip, a popular option for start-ups deploying large language models, has risen in cost from about Rmb50,000 at the start of the year to as much as Rmb130,000, according to traders. The RTX 6000 and DGX B300 are barred from export to China under Washington’s chip controls."}],[{"start":254.49999999999997,"text":"The price rises underline how Washington’s latest clampdown has squeezed the black-market routes used to move restricted chips into China, while also showing that demand for Nvidia’s processors remains strong despite Beijing’s push to replace them with domestic alternatives."}],[{"start":270.59999999999997,"text":"“The loopholes have shrunk. It is becoming more and more risky for intermediaries to trade these chips as prices have surged,” said one trader who sells to large data centre clients."}],[{"start":281.65,"text":"Man’s new best friend?"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":283.79999999999995,"text":"Australia has more than 270,000 livestock dogs, and collectively they contribute around A$3bn ($2.1bn) in value to the country’s economy. But is man’s best friend about to be replaced by drones?"}],[{"start":299.44999999999993,"text":"As a new generation of farmers takes the reins, famous breeds like kelpies, collies and cattle dogs are no longer the only option to help move livestock more efficiently, particularly out in the paddocks and pastures, where drones, AI and other technologies are offering new ways of mustering — or herding — sheep and cattle across vast distances, Nikkei Asia’s Shaun Turton writes."}],[{"start":323.19999999999993,"text":"A 2024 Roy Morgan survey of 1,001 farmers found that 72 per cent were using ag-tech in their operations. Farm management software was the leading technology, followed by electronic tags for animals, satellite analysis and GPS-guided farming. Drones were the fifth most common, followed by remote sensors."}],[{"start":344.8499999999999,"text":"Going big in Japan"}],[{"start":346.94999999999993,"text":"Blackstone plans to invest $30bn in AI data centres in Japan over the next three to five years, the asset manager’s president and chief operating officer, Jonathan Gray, told Nikkei’s Haruki Kitagawa in an interview."}],[{"start":361.29999999999995,"text":"So far, Blackstone has developed data centres in Japan with a combined capacity exceeding 500 megawatts. Gray told Nikkei that the company is in discussions to develop facilities exceeding 1GW, equivalent to the capacity of a nuclear reactor, adding that the risk of not building enough computing resources outweighs AI bubble concerns."}],[{"start":381.94999999999993,"text":"Blackstone will also accelerate its private equity investments in Japan. In June, it launched its largest Asian fund yet, at $13.1bn."}],[{"start":391.6499999999999,"text":"Suggested reads"}],[{"start":393.19999999999993,"text":"Adani sets 10GW nuclear goal as it expands data centre capacity (Nikkei Asia)"}],[{"start":399.29999999999995,"text":"Trump is taking a page out of China’s sovereign AI playbook (FT)"}],[{"start":403.79999999999995,"text":"Malaysia to draft drone industry plan, eyes air taxi services (Nikkei Asia)"}],[{"start":409.34999999999997,"text":"JPMorgan Chase cuts off Anthropic access for its Hong Kong staff (FT)"}],[{"start":414.9,"text":"Robots will replace 700,000 delivery workers ‘sooner or later’, warns JD.com boss (FT)"}],[{"start":422.29999999999995,"text":"SoftBank’s Son says calling AI a bubble is ‘blasphemy’ (Nikkei Asia)"}],[{"start":427.74999999999994,"text":"Activist investor homes in on Japan’s Ajinomoto as chip-related stock (Nikkei Asia)"}],[{"start":434.24999999999994,"text":"Indian entrepreneur to lead WhatsApp as Zuckerberg brings in new blood (FT)"}],[{"start":438.8999999999999,"text":"Japan defence forces used USB drives with China-linked virus: Nikkei investigation (Nikkei Asia)"}],[{"start":446.19999999999993,"text":"Alibaba sues Pentagon over inclusion on Chinese military blacklist (FT)"}],[{"start":451.54999999999995,"text":"#techAsia is co-ordinated by Nikkei Asia’s Katherine Creel in Tokyo, with assistance from the FT tech desk in London.  "}],[{"start":459.84999999999997,"text":"Sign up here at Nikkei Asia to receive #techAsia each week. The editorial team can be reached at techasia@nex.nikkei.co.jp"}],[{"start":477.55,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782613766_3573.mp3"}