Tech industry
Chips, AI models, devices and the companies that make them: product roadmaps, supply chains, leadership changes and the regulation that shapes them.
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Most recently updated firstSep09
TSMC Arizona: From a $12 Billion Fab to a $265 Billion Gigafab Cluster
TSMC’s Arizona project began in 2020 as a planned US$12 billion, 5nm fab with production targeted for 2024. The first fab shifted to N4, was delayed to 2025 because of a shortage of skilled equipment-installation workers, and entered volume production in late 2024; customers including NVIDIA, AMD and Apple have since cited Arizona-made chips or products.
Sep09
OpenAI Frontier Models: From GPT-4 to GPT-6 Astra
OpenAI began this frontier-model line with GPT-4 in March 2023, then expanded it through cheaper, longer-context, multimodal, and reasoning-focused models. GPT-5 later combined fast and reasoning modes behind a router, while GPT-5.6 moved from a U.S.
Sep09
Nvidia Data Center GPUs: Hopper, Blackwell and Vera Rubin
Nvidia announced the Hopper H100 in March 2022 and said it began shipping Hopper-based H100 GPUs in November 2022. Blackwell was announced in March 2024, then encountered a mask change intended to improve yields; Nvidia later reported billions of dollars of Blackwell sales in its first sales quarter and said Blackwell Ultra production was ramping in August 2025.
Sep09
US Export Controls on Nvidia AI Chips to China: A100 to H20 to H200
The United States first imposed an immediate license requirement on Nvidia’s A100 and H100 exports to China in August 2022, then converted and broadened the restrictions through BIS rules in October 2022 and October 2023. Nvidia responded with China-specific A800, H800 and then H20 products, but the H20 also became subject to licensing in April 2025, leading to a $4.5 billion charge and lost sales.
Sep09
Nvidia's Dealmaking: From Mellanox and the Failed Arm Bid to Groq and Hugging Face
Nvidia began this period with its $6.9 billion agreement to acquire Mellanox in 2019, which closed in 2020 after China imposed six years of conduct conditions and established networking as a major part of Nvidia’s data-center business. Its proposed $40 billion purchase of Arm then failed in 2022 after challenges from the FTC and UK competition authorities and a European Commission Phase 2 review.
Sep09
Every iPhone Launch: From the 2007 Original to the September 2026 Event
Apple introduced the original iPhone in January 2007 and began sales that June, initially as a $499/$599 AT&T-exclusive 2G phone; it reached one million sales in 74 days and one billion cumulative units in 2016. Successive generations added the App Store and 3G, Retina displays and Apple chips, LTE and Lightning, Touch ID and then Face ID, larger screens, advanced cameras, 5G, satellite emergency features, USB-C and hardware positioned for Apple Intelligence.
Sep09
Intel Foundry and 18A: From IDM 2.0 to a Government-Owned Stake
Intel began its IDM 2.0 strategy in March 2021, retaining in-house manufacturing while creating Intel Foundry Services and funding new Arizona fabs. It set a five-nodes-in-four-years roadmap to Intel 18A, then relaunched the operation as Intel Foundry in 2024, with Microsoft and AWS announcing 18A designs.
Sep09
HBM Supply Race: SK hynix, Samsung and Micron from HBM3E to HBM4E
The race began with Micron and SK hynix entering HBM3E volume production in early 2024, while Samsung sampled a higher-capacity HBM3E product but did not secure a first-wave Nvidia position. JEDEC published the HBM4 standard in April 2025, but Nvidia’s later Rubin specification change pushed the expected HBM4 production window into the end of the first quarter of 2026.
Sep09
Apple CEO Succession: How Tim Cook Handed Apple to John Ternus
Apple’s modern succession structure began when the board appointed Tim Cook CEO after Steve Jobs resigned in August 2011, with Arthur Levinson becoming non-executive chairman later that year. John Ternus rose from Hardware Engineering to Apple’s executive team in 2021, while Apple cycled through planned leadership changes in finance, operations, AI, legal, policy, and design during 2024–26.
Sep09
AMD Instinct: From MI300X to Helios and the Gigawatt Deals
AMD introduced the Instinct MI300X in June 2023 and made it available in December, then moved to an annual accelerator roadmap spanning MI325X, MI350, MI400 and later series. Cloud deployments expanded from Azure and Oracle to production inference at Microsoft and Meta, while AMD launched the MI400 series and Helios rack-scale systems in July 2026.
Sep09
US Export Controls on AMD's AI Chips in China: From the MI250 License to MI308 and MI325X
U.S. controls first touched AMD directly in 2019, when Commerce placed its Chinese THATIC joint-venture partners Sugon and Hygon on the Entity List.
Sep09
SpaceX Starship Test Flights: From the First Launch to Orbit
NASA selected a refuelled Starship derivative as its Artemis lunar lander in 2021, making the Starbase flight-test campaign part of the Moon program's critical path. After Flight 1 damaged the pad and was destroyed, SpaceX progressed through hot staging, controlled reentries, soft splashdowns and tower catches, while FAA investigations and licence changes followed several losses.
Sep07
Tesla Robotaxi and Cybercab: From the 2019 Promise to Driverless Rides
Tesla’s robotaxi plan began with Elon Musk’s 2019 prediction of more than one million autonomous taxis by 2020, a target that did not materialize. The company later shifted to a purpose-built vehicle: it unveiled the no-steering-wheel, no-pedals Cybercab in October 2024, began paid Model Y robotaxi rides in Austin with safety monitors in June 2025, and introduced limited driverless Cybercab rides in Austin on September 3, 2026.
