Daily: U.S.-China tech competition to ease?; SMIC closes in on Samsung foundry; Amazon's data centre investments
6 min read.
Highlights
U.S.-China tech competition to ease? U.S.-China tech competition may ease, with high-level officials from both countries meeting in London. The U.S. team is led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Chinese team is led by Vice Premier He Lifeng. It seems hopeful that the two sides may step down on both the chips and rare earths fronts.
SMIC closes in on Samsung foundry. Samsung’s foundry market share is declining steadier still. TSMC is by far the largest foundry, with 67.6% market share, followed by Samsung, whose market share dropped to 7.7%. Third place goes to China’s SMIC, which has grown slightly to 6.0% market share, just 1.7% shy of Samsung.
Amazon’s data centre investments. Amazon invests US$20b to expand data centre infrastructure in Pennsylvania. This follows similar investments in recent days of US$10b in North Carolina and US$5b in Taiwan.
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1. Policy and Geopolitics
1.1
FT (06/10): Trump eyes easing US chip export restrictions to secure Chinese rare earths
A top White House official has said US President Donald Trump would ease restrictions on selling chips to China if Beijing agreed to speed up the export of rare earths, as the two countries began high stakes trade talks in London.
Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said he expected US and Chinese negotiators to reach a deal that would result in China accelerating the export of rare earths and magnets.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent is leading the US team in the talks that opened in London on Monday. Trade representative Jamieson Greer and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick are also part of Washington’s delegation. The Chinese delegation is led by He Lifeng, a vice-premier.
1.2
FT (06/09): Nvidia chief says UK lacks digital infrastructure as Keir Starmer pledges £1bn for AI
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang has warned the UK lacks the digital infrastructure it needs to capitalise on its potential in artificial intelligence, as Sir Keir Starmer pledged another £1bn to expand Britain’s computing power for AI.
Speaking alongside the British Prime Minister at the opening of London Tech Week on Monday, Huang praised the UK for what he called its “Goldilocks” position of having “incredible” AI research talent and the biggest private investment in the technology outside the US and China.
“The [British AI] ecosystem is really perfect for take-off,” said Nvidia’s chief. “It’s just missing one thing. It is surprising: this is the largest AI ecosystem in the world without its own infrastructure.”
1.3
Chosun Daily (06/09): Taiwan's progressive gov't drives chip industry boom with pragmatic reforms
The Southern Science Park symbolizes the industrial policy of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has led the country for most of the 21st century except for eight years between 2008 and 2016. Although construction began under the conservative Kuomintang government in the mid-1990s, the DPP fully supported its development and turned the park into a key hub of Taiwan’s advanced technology sector.
The DPP began a clear shift toward pro-business and pro-growth policies centered on the chip industry around 2016, when President Tsai Ing-wen returned to power. At that time, Taiwan was facing increasing military, diplomatic, and economic pressure from China, capital was flowing out to the mainland, and exports remained stuck in intermediate goods. The economy had stalled, and Taiwan’s per capita GDP, which once surpassed South Korea’s, had fallen behind.
2. Economy, Finance, and Business
2.1
JoongAng Daily (06/09): Samsung's grasp on foundry market's No. 2 spot grows precarious as SMIC plays catchup
Samsung Electronics, the world’s second-largest player in the semiconductor foundry market, is under mounting pressure from China’s SMIC, which is closing the gap in market share. With Taiwan’s TSMC far ahead in first place, Samsung now finds even its hold on the No. 2 spot at risk.
Sandwiched between the top and third-place contenders, Samsung’s position is growing more precarious. Samsung Electronics saw its revenue drop 11.3 percent to $2.893 billion during the same period, with its market share slipping from 8.1 percent to 7.7 percent — a decline of 0.4 percentage points.
The gap in market share between Samsung and TSMC widened from 59 percentage points in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 59.9 in the first quarter of 2025.
While Samsung struggles, China’s SMIC is closing in fast. In the first quarter, SMIC’s revenue rose 1.8 percent from the previous quarter to $2.247 billion — making it the only company among the top three to post growth.
2.2
Reuters (06/10): Amazon to invest $20 billion in Pennsylvania to expand cloud infrastructure
Amazon.com said on Monday it plans to invest at least $20 billion in Pennsylvania to expand data center infrastructure, adding on to the billions of dollars the technology giant has committed to the expansion of artificial intelligence.
This underscores Big Tech's commitment to making hefty investments to support booming generative AI technology, as the world's biggest companies race each other to deliver the most sophisticated AI models and cloud services.
The investment in Pennsylvania comes less than a week after Amazon said it will invest $10 billion in North Carolina and announced plans to invest more than $5 billion in its new cloud infrastructure in Taiwan.
2.3
FT (06/09): US chipmaker Qualcomm agrees to buy UK’s Alphawave in $2.4bn deal
US semiconductor group Qualcomm has agreed a $2.4bn deal to buy chip designer Alphawave, marking the latest tech company departure from the London market.
The companies’ boards said Qualcomm’s cash offer represented a price of 183p per Alphawave share, a 96 per cent premium to the closing price on March 31, the last trading day before Qualcomm announced its bid. They said the deal valued Alphawave at $2.4bn, less than half the valuation at which it went public just over four years ago.
The deal will advance Qualcomm’s ambitions in artificial intelligence by expanding its intellectual property portfolio in data centre and 5G networking, at a time when big tech companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure.
2.4
Bloomberg (06/09): B.Grimm, Digital Edge to Invest $1 Billion in Thai Data Center
Thai power producer B.Grimm Power Pcl and Digital Edge DC will jointly invest about $1 billion in a Thailand data center as demand rises for artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other digital services across Southeast Asia.
The data center, which will have a capacity of 100 megawatts, is expected to begin commercial operations in the fourth quarter of 2026, B.Grimm Power’s Chief Executive Officer Harald Link and Digital Edge CEO John Freeman said during a joint press briefing on Monday. It will be located in eastern Chon Buri province, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Bangkok.
3. Technology
3.1
TrendForce (06/09): Intel Reportedly Launching Next-generation Xeon CPUs in 2026, Reclaiming Data Center Market
Intel is preparing to expand its data center portfolio with next-generation Xeon processors, as Diamond Rapids and Clearwater Forest are confirmed for a 2026 release by Michelle Johnston Holthaus, CEO of Intel Products, at the BofA Global Technology Conference on June 3. Once dominant in the workstation CPU market, Intel has seen its lead challenged in recent years, as the rise of AI shifted industry demands and AMD gained momentum with its highly competitive EPYC lineup.
To reclaim its leadership, Intel is placing high hopes on its next-generation Xeon server processors. Wccftech, citing Intel’s Products CEO, notes that customers are already deploying Granite Rapids, while Clearwater Forest (E-core) and Diamond Rapids (P-core) are set to follow in 2026—efforts aimed at helping Intel gradually rebuild its market share.
3.2
Tom’s Hardware (06/10): Nvidia RTX 5050 won't use GDDR7 memory— entry-level GPU tipped to use Samsung & SK hynix GDDR6 modules instead
Rumors have made it clear that the RTX 5050 might use older GDDR6 memory rather than speedier GDDR7 (or even GDDR6X for that matter). Benchlife.info reports that Nvidia add-in board partners have confirmed the RTX 5050 will use GDDR6 memory from two suppliers, Samsung and SK hynix.
3.3
EE Times (06/10): Momentum Builds on RISC-V European Adoption
As the RISC-V Europe Summit convened in Paris, the open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) continued its march towards mainstream adoption, sparking discussions among European experts about the continent’s role, its unique strengths, and persistent challenges.
In an exclusive interview for EETimes, Teresa Cervero of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and Stefan Wallentowitz from Munich University of Applied Sciences, members of the RISC-V Summit Europe steering committee, offered their perspectives from the heart of European academia and research, areas instrumental in fostering the early growth of RISC-V.
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