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Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here. TSMC’s new $100 billion U.S. chip investment could ease Taiwan tensions TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) said it would invest another $100 billion in U.S.operations over the next ten years. This will go toward building three new fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities and an R&D center, the company said. TSMC had already committed $65 billion to building three new chip fabrication facilities near Phoenix, Arizona. One of these fabs, which makes 4-nanometer process chips for smartphones, went into production last year; the other two, which will fab 2-nanometer process chips used in AI acceleration, remain under construction. This move underscores TSMCs dedication to supporting its customers, including Americas leading AI and technology innovation companies such as Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, and Qualcomm, the company said in a press release. The U.S. government currently collects no tariffs on imports from Taiwan, but the Trump administration is said to be considering 100% tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors and electronic devices containing the chips. TSMCs investment promise could go a long way toward forestalling any such plans. TSMC isnt exactly a household name in the U.S., but it plays a huge and growing role in the global economy. As AI moves further into business operations and consumer products, the demand for the powerful and sophisticated graphics processing units (GPUs) that power AI models will continue to grow. U.S.-based Nvidia, which now supplies almost all of the GPUs used for generative AI models, relies heavily on TSMC to fabricate its most powerful chips. If the AI industrys heavy reliance on Nvidia is a problem, its reliance on TSMC is an even bigger issue. TSMCs home country of Taiwan is only 90 miles from the Chinese mainland. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has long viewed Taiwan as a breakaway province, that will eventually have to be reunited with the Chinese homeland, even if by force. A Chinese takeover of Taiwan could cripple global semiconductor supply chains, as TSMC’s highly advanced fabrication processes rely on global partnerships, export-controlled technology, and proprietary expertise that may not be easily transferred. That’s why American lawmakers have been pushing for TSMC to move some of its chip manufacturing capability to the U.S. Such diversification also lets TSMC resist coming under complete Chinese control if Taiwan would ever fall. The company started expanding its fabrication facilities outside of Taiwan in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but its offshoring efforts kicked into overdrive in the early 2020s as geopolitical tensions rose between the U.S. and China. Reagan Institute gives Pentagon a D for defense modernization Every year the Ronald Reagan Foundation issues a report card evaluating how well the Pentagon sources the nations best technologies. This years report finds that while the U.S. remains a global leader in technological innovationparticularly in artificial intelligence, which is playing a growing role in warfarethe Department of Defense (DOD) continues to struggle with modernization. The U.S. remains a global leader in innovation, setting technological standards worldwide and excelling in research, particularly in artificial intelligence, the report states. But the report gives the Pentagon low marks (a D) for modernizing defense systems, with the authors citing concerns about the DODs inability when it comes to integrating new capabilities into production. And while commercial technology adoption has increased in select areas, such as space communications, progress in many other sectors remains stagnant. To address these challenges, the DOD has launched accelerated contracting programs and established the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to source and fund promising defense-relevant technologies. But, according to the report, the Pentagon still struggles to acquire new technology quickly and efficientlyparticularly software, including AI. The reports advisory board includes executives from defense contractors Palantir, Anduril, and Microsoft, as well as a number of venture capitalists with ties to the defense sector including Joe Lonsdale of 8VC, Raj Shah of Shield Capital, and Katherine Boyle of Andreessen Horowitz. Ex-Google engineering VP Anna Patterson unveils her new AI training company A wave of AI infrastructure companies has sprung up to help enterprises (especially ones without teams of PhDs) more easily build and deploy AI models. Anna Patterson, an ex-Google VP of Engineering and founder of Gradient Ventures, is now bringing her new AI training-focused infrastructure company out of stealth. The company, Ceramic.ai, is made up of nine engineers and has so far raised $12 million in seed funding from New Enterprise Associates and others. Enterprises that decide to build AI infrastructure from scratch often run into problems and delays related to technical complexity, Patterson says. With AI infrastructure theres a real dichotomy between what is available to most enterprises, and what the biggest AI labs are using, Patterson tells Fast Company. This can be especially taxing with training and fine-tuning models, which involves both science and art. Ceramics training methods let models get the most out of the available training data and computing power (GPU time). The company organizes training data by topic before introducing it to the model. Ceramic can then help the enterprise customer train its model with its own proprietary domain knowledge. Ceramic gets some of its computing power for training from the cloud GPU provider Lambda. In fact, Patterson says, Lambda has begun referring its prospective enterprise customers to Ceramic for model training. As model developers become more focused on training data to improve their models, many will see the benefit of using a dedicated model training platform developed by AI training experts. More AI coverage from Fast Company: This DOGE stffers GitHub posts might help us understand how Elon Musk wants to bring AI into the government AI Chatbots have telltale quirks. Researchers can spot them with 97% accuracy Hollywoods obsession with AI-enabled perfection is making movies less human Curious about DeepSeek but worried about privacy? These apps let you use an LLM without the internet Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium.
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Japan’s Seven & i, the parent company of the Japanese 7-Eleven convenience store chain, said Thursday it is selling its supermarket store assets to Bain Capital for about $5.4 billion.The company announced the deal a day after naming Stephen Dacus, its board chairman, to be its president and CEO.It also said it plans an initial public offering in the U.S. of 7-Eleven or SEI, its convenience store business in North America, by the end of 2026. Funds from the IPO and the sale to Bain will be returned to shareholders in the form of share buybacks worth 2 trillion yen ($5.4 billion).Seven & i’s share price jumped 6.1% in Tokyo.The deal follows Seven & i’s rejection of a takeover bid by Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard. Dacus said earlier that the offer had undervalued the potential of the convenience store business and failed to fully address U.S. regulatory concerns.The 7-Eleven franchise includes 86,000 stores in the U.S., Japan, and other Asian nations.Last year, Seven & i announced a restructuring plan to strengthen its U.S. operations and streamline operations, closing some Ito-Yokado supermarkets in Japan.The omnipresent 7-Eleven convenience stores remain popular in Japan, having replaced many mom and pop shops. Convenience stores are a mainstay in many neighborhoods.Seven & i earlier sold its Sogo & Seibu department stores in Japan to Fortress Investment Group, a U.S. fund, for $1.5 billion. It said it also plans to reduce its share in Seven Bank Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer
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The U.S. government will stop sharing air quality data gathered from its embassies and consulates, worrying local scientists and experts who say the effort was vital to monitor global air quality and improve public health.In response to an inquiry from the Associated Press, the State Department said Wednesday that its air quality monitoring program would no longer transmit air pollution data from embassies and consulates to the Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow app and other platforms, which allowed locals in various countries, along with scientists around the globe, to see and analyze air quality in cities around the world.The stop in sharing data was “due to funding constraints that have caused the Department to turn off the underlying network” read the statement, which added that embassies and consulates were directed to keep their monitors running and the sharing of data could resume in the future if funded was restored. The fiscal cut, first reported by the New York Times, is one of many under President Donald Trump, whose administration has been deprioritizing environmental and climate initiatives.The U.S. air quality monitors measured dangerous fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, which can penetrate deep into the lungs and lead to respiratory diseases, heart conditions, and premature death. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution kills around seven million people each year.News of the data sharing being cut prompted immediate reaction from scientists who said the data were reliable, allowed for air quality monitoring around the world and helped prompt governments to clean up the air. “A big blow” to global air quality research Bhargav Krishna, an air pollution expert at New Delhi-based Sustainable Futures Collaborative, called the loss of data “a big blow” to air quality research.“They were part of a handful of sensors in many developing countries and served as a reference for understanding what air quality was like,” Krishna said. “They were also seen to be a well-calibrated and unbiased source of data to cross-check local data if there were concerns about quality.”“It’s a real shame,” said Alejandro Piracoca Mayorga, a Bogota, Colombia-based freelance air quality consultant. U.S. embassies and consulates in Lima, Peru, Sao Paulo and Bogota have had the public air monitoring. “It was a source of access to air quality information independent of local monitoring networks. They provided another source of information for comparison.”Khalid Khan, an environmental expert and advocate based in Pakistan, agreed, saying the shutdown of air quality monitoring will “have significant consequences.”Khan noted that the monitors in Peshawar, Pakistan, one of the most polluted cities in the world, “provided crucial real-time data” which helped policymakers, researchers, and the public to take decisions on their health.“Their removal means a critical gap in environmental monitoring, leaving residents without accurate information on hazardous air conditions,” Khan said. He said vulnerable people in Pakistan and around the world are particularly at risk as they are the least likely to have access to other reliable data.In Africa, the program provided air quality data for over a dozen countries including Senegal, Nigeria, Chad, and Madagascar. Some of those countries depend almost entirely on the U.S. monitoring systems for their air quality data.The WHO’s air quality database will also be affected by the closing of U.S. program. Many poor countries don’t track air quality because stations are too expensive and complex to maintain, meaning they are entirely reliant on U.S. embassy monitoring data. Monitors strengthened local efforts In some places, the U.S. air quality monitors propelled nations to start their own air quality research and raised awareness, Krishna said.In China, for example, data from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing famously contradicted official government reports, showing worse pollution levels than authorities acknowledged. It led to China improving air quality.Officials in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, which struggles with smog, said they were unfazed by the removal of the U.S. monitors. Environment Secretary Raja Jahangir said Punjab authorities have their own and plan to purchase 30 more.Shweta Narayan, a campaign lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance, said the shutdown of monitors in India is a “huge setback” but also a “critical opportunity” for the Indian government to step up and fill the gaps.“By strengthening its own air quality monitoring infrastructure, ensuring data transparency, and building public trust in air quality reporting, India can set a benchmark for accountability and environmental governance,” Narayan said. Adebayo reported from Abuja, Nigeria. Babar Dogar in Lahore, Pakistan, Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, Aniruddha Ghosal in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Steven Grattan in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Taiwo Adebayo and Sibi Arasu, Associated Press
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