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The White House is reducing Intels CHIPS Act award by over $600 million. Initially set to receive $8.5 billion from the domestic silicon production bill, the company will get up to $7.85 billion instead. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Intel has extended some plant openings beyond 2030 government deadlines. However, the Commerce Department said the funding reduction was instead due to a $3 billion military contract Intel was awarded. Intel posted its biggest-ever quarterly loss last month after announcing 15,000 layoffs in August. The chip-makers struggles have reportedly led some government officials to worry about its ability to deliver as a central component of the Biden White Houses CHIPS Act. Intel will receive at least $1 billion in CHIPS Act funding before the end of the year. The company plans to invest $90 billion in the US by the decades end, a reduction from its initial goal of $100 billion in the next five years. The Commerce Department said the chip maker is still on schedule to invest the full $100 billion on projects in four states: Arizona ($3.94 billion), Oregon ($1.86 billion), Ohio ($1.5 billion) and New Mexico ($500 million). One of the outgoing Presidents landmark bills, the CHIPS Act is projected to create over 125,000 jobs across 20 states while spurring US silicon manufacturing and decreasing reliance on foreign manufacturers. Intel is the largest recipient of CHIPS Act money. The Commerce Department has reportedly moved quickly to finalize awards with the bills recipients before the second Trump term begins in January. The President-elect attacked the legislation and its cost during his campaign, and House Speaker Mike Johnson said at the time Republicans probably will try to repeal the CHIPS Act. However, Johnson later walked back his remarks, and analysts predicted after the election that the legislation would likely survive. Earlier this month, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the worlds leading advanced chip maker, was the first to have its grants finalized. It will receive $6.6 billion (including at least $1 billion before the end of the year) for three plants in Arizona, which are expected to create tens of thousands of jobs by the end of the decade. US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has reportedly urged tech companies including Apple, Amazon, NVIDIA, AMD and others to work with Intel because the 56-year-old company is the only US-based logic chip maker. However, most companies were said to have rejected her pleas because Intels chip-making techniques are not as sophisticated as TSMCs, according to a NYT report last month. Although Taiwan is an ally and economic partner of the US, the Biden administration reportedly views reliance on it as increasingly risky as China poses a continual threat to take over the self-governing island. Last month, China held military drills in the sea and sky surrounding Taiwan as a warning after the islands president, Lai Ching-te, reasserted the islands independence in a holiday speech. The US State Department said it was seriously concerned about the show of force.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/intels-chips-act-funding-cut-by-over-600-million-184518662.html?src=rss
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Threads just announced that it has experienced significant growth throughout November, to the tune of 35 million signups. A platform spokesperson told Engadget that the social media app has received more than a million signups every single day for the past three months. To that end, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced 15 million signups for November in the middle of the month. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently informed investors that the app had over 275 million monthly active users. Theres one likely reason Threads is crowing like this. Rival social media app Bluesky has been rapidly growing and snagging a whole lot of positive press. However, its worth noting that Bluesky just passed the 20 million user mark, which my advanced math skills tell me is much lower than 275 million. Threads garnered 20 million users in around a day after launching, though it has the entire weight of Meta behind it, and both Facebook and Instagram display posts from the app to pull in new users. Bluesky basically has word of mouth and a collective seething hatred of X Jay Graber, Bluesky CEO:"I think social media should be basically common infrastructure that society gets to use and evolve it as society evolves, building a more democratic form of social media to reflect a democratic society."https://t.co/x6v5YW0WFT pic.twitter.com/cylOnKkMYV bluesky (@bluesky) November 20, 2024 Threads has also begun to copy some of the pre-existing features from Bluesky. The platform recently introduced custom feeds and the ability to change the default feed to people you follow. Mosseri admitted that it had started pulling forward certain features that were already in the works. In other words, its certainly feeling some kind of heat. This tells me that Meta thinks there can be just one short-form, text-based social media app to rule public attention. Both platforms want to be the next X, now that X is a sludge-filled cesspool of grievance, pornbots and off-putting advertisements. The platform is also home to a whole bunch of Nazis.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-just-announced-it-had-more-than-35-million-signups-in-november-175705975.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
There are a bunch of Black Friday deals on PlayStation products, but here's one that was perhaps a little unexpected. The PS5 Access controller has dropped to $59, which is a record low price. It's slightly over a third off the list price of $90. Sony created this controller to make the PlayStation 5 more accessible to a wider group of players. It released the Access controller last December. The Access controller comes with 19 button caps and three stick caps to help players find a configuration that works best for them. A button cap that takes up two sockets might be a better fit for someone compared with the standard one, for instance. There are 23 swappable tags for the button caps to help players identify which input they've mapped to each button. In addition, there are four 3.5mm aux ports, into which players can plug external buttons, switches and other accessories. It's possible to create as many as 30 profiles with different button and stick settings. Buttons can be disabled to avoid accidental presses too. Meanwhile, there's the option to pair up to two Access controllers and a standard DualSense together as one virtual controller. That way, as many as three people could control the same character, meaning that loved ones and caregivers can offer some direct assistance to those playing the games. Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-ps5-access-controller-is-on-sale-in-a-black-friday-playstation-deal-174747478.html?src=rss
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