Ahead of MediaTek’s official launch of Dimensity 9400, which takes place on October 9^th, rumors have been circulating that Samsung may feature the chip in its Galaxy S25 next year. Now the first smartphone equipped with the chip has surfaced. According to the reports by Gizmochina, Wccftech and mydrivers, Vivo X200 series will reportedly be the first smartphone powered by the Dimensity 9400 chipset.

It is worth noting that Dimensity 9400 will be reportedly be manufactured with TSMC’s 3nm, according to Wccftech. This will also mark the first 3nm chip in the Android ecosystem, mydriver notes.

For more details, Vivo is anticipated to unveil the Vivo X200 series on October 14th, which includes the Vivo X200, Vivo X200 Pro Mini, and Vivo X200 Pro. According to Gizmochina, all the models will be powered by Dimensity 9400.

Dimensity 9400, by introducing the Arm Cortex-X925 super-large core, is said to offer a 36% performance increase and a 41% improvement in AI performance if compared to Cortex-X4, Gizmochina notes.

While MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 is said to excel in performance, there have been rumors suggesting that the unit price of the SoC has increased by 20%, which could force smartphone manufacturers to adjust the prices of their flagship models, Wccftech notes.

However, as the start price of X200, which is the base model of Vivo’s latest lineup, has been revealed to be 3,999 Yuan (around USD 570) per unit, the aforementioned concern has been eased, Wccftech indicates.

Recent reports indicate that MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 is priced 20% lower than Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which enhance the likelihood for Samsung to adopt the chip in its upcoming S25 to reduce the cost.

Read more

• [News] MediaTek Ventures into AI Accelerators, Aiming to Release Dimensity 9400 in October
• [News] MediaTek Sets Dimensity 9400 Launch Date, Ahead of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4

(Photo credit: Vivo)

In an interview with CNBC, Foxconn’s chairman Young Liu pointed out that as advanced language models keep evolving, the investment in AI boom will continue as well. Liu suggested that the AI boom “still has some time to go,” as advanced language models like OpenAI continue to grow increasingly intelligent with each update.

He stated that the current trend in the technology industry is the development of AI that is as intelligent as humans, or even smarter. This type of AI is referred to as “AGI,” or “artificial general intelligence.”

Citing Liu’s remarks, the report noted that among the discussions about AGI and various levels of intelligence, the intelligence can be categorized into four levels. According to Liu, we are currently at level two, with levels three and four yet to be reached. Liu also noted that the advancement of AI towards greater intelligence will undoubtedly benefit the AI server industry and has been a significant driver of Foxconn’s growth this year.

Regarding the demand for NVIDIA’s new generation Blackwell GPU, Liu remarked that the chip demand was “far beyond our expectations.” He also mentioned that Foxconn is constructing a new factory in Mexico to meet this substantial demand. His comments align with those of NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who has previously characterized the demand for Blackwell as “insane,” according to CNBC.

Despite concerns about potential yield issues with NVIDIA’s GB200, the company remains on schedule to deliver the chips by the fourth quarter of 2024, according to Liu. Foxconn, a key contract manufacturer for the GB200, expects substantial growth fueled by strong demand for AI servers.

Furthermore, Liu suggested that generative AI-related devices will be the next growth area, noting that the company is currently witnessing this trend in the cloud, where demand for generative AI cloud devices is exceptionally strong. In the next phase, the market will see further development of generative AI devices, according to Liu.

(Photo credit: Foxconn)

Supermicro, currently facing serious accounting fraud allegations, announced a comprehensive liquid cooling solution in its press release on October 7th. The company revealed that it is delivering over 100,000 GPUs equipped with this liquid cooling technology to some of the largest AI factories.

As per a report from CNBC, if the average price of the aforementioned GPU is similar to NVIDIA’s $30,000 chips, this order could potentially amount to several billion dollars.

According to Supermicro, this complete liquid solution includes “powerful Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs), cold plates, Coolant Distribution Manifolds (CDMs), cooling towers and end to end management software.” It is designed to reduce power costs and Day 0 hardware acquisition and data center cooling infrastructure costs.

However, CNBC also noted that while the announcement was well-received on Wall Street, Supermicro is approximately nine weeks late in submitting its annual report, which was originally due in August. Later that month, Supermicro stated that it required more time “to complete its assessment of the design and operating effectiveness of its internal controls over financial reporting as of June 30, 2024.”

On August 27, AI server giant Supermicro was accused of accounting violations, inadequate disclosure of related party transactions, and evading sanctions by selling products to Russia by Hindenburg Research.

The following day, Supermicro also announced a delay in submitting its 2024 fiscal year annual report. According to a report from Wccftech, Supermicro’s latest announcement might be an attempt to alleviate concerns resulted from its delayed annual report.

Read more

• [News] Taiwanese Supply Chain to Benefit from Supermicro’s Order Withdrawal, with Dell and HP as Potential Beneficiaries
• [News] Supermicro Faces Order Withdrawal Crisis, Potentially Benefiting Dell

(Photo credit: Supermicro)

After the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announced reserve requirement ratio and interest rate cuts on September 24, many economists expected that China would introduce more stimulus measures in the near term. In line with these expectations, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) held a press conference on October 8 to unveil the “Implementation of a Basket of Incremental Policies.”

When questioned by reporters about the implementation and details of the policy, the NDRC largely reiterated previous measures, including increasing government investment, boosting the income of low- and middle-income groups, and providing student-related support programs. However, in terms of future policy details, the only mention was that China would continue issuing ultra-long-term government bonds next year to support major projects and would allocate RMB 100 billion of the 2025 government investment budget to critical areas in advance.

Private consumption and investment were also lacking detailed explanations. In recent years, China’s domestic consumption and investment demand have declined due to the ongoing real estate crisis. According to the latest data, China’s retail sales in August grew by only 2.1%, continuing a downward trend, while financial institution loan balances grew by 8.5% year-on-year, marking the lowest growth in nearly 24 years.

Read more at Datatrack

Read more at Datatrack

Overall, compared to the policies announced on September 24, this press conference did not introduce any new major stimulus measures or provide details on policy implementation. Although the NDRC stated that they would release detailed plans soon and expressed confidence in achieving the annual growth target of 5%, the second-quarter GDP growth was only 4.7%, and recent data indicates that domestic demand remains weak, casting doubt on whether the target can be realistically met.

Read more at Datatrack

The market appeared disappointed by the lack of substantive policy announcements. Before the press conference, the CSI 300 Index opened with a 10% gain, but after the event, it gave back approximately 6% of the gains.

Source:  National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)

Following speculations that the highly-anticipated Apple Intelligence will be launched along with the release of iOS 18.1 in late October, Chinese tech giant Huawei is now said to launch the country’s domestic mobile operating system, HarmonyOS Next, on Tuesday, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.

Starting today, HarmonyOS Next will be available on Huawei’s Mate 60 series, the Mate X5 foldable smartphone, and the 13.2-inch MatePad Pro tablet, the report notes, suggesting that the home-grown mobile operating system of China is positioned as an alternative to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.

It is worth noting that Huawei is promoting HarmonyOS Next as a fully independent operating system, which no longer supports Android-based applications, the South China Morning Post states.

HarmonyOS Next had made its debut among local developers earlier in January, the report states. In September, Chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group Richard Yu touted the system, saying that Huawei “covered the path of over a decade of foreign operating system ecosystem development in just one year.”

According to the report, Huawei rallied China’s app developers last month in preparation for the launch. Chinese tech giants like Baidu, JD.com, Meituan, and Tencent Holdings all gathered at the occasion. Citing information provided by Huawei, the report notes that over 10,000 apps and native services have been developed for HarmonyOS Next.

Huawei initially introduced HarmonyOS in August 2019 as an alternative to Android, shortly after the U.S. government placed the company on a trade blacklist in May of the same year, restricting its access to U.S. technologies without approval from Washington.

According to the report, HarmonyOS saw a surge in domestic adoption last year, fueled by Huawei’s re-entry into the 5G smartphone market with the launch of its Mate 60 series.

After the official release of HarmonyOS Next, the new Rotating CEO for the company, Sabrina Meng, will also oversee the launch of Huawei’s upcoming flagship 5G smartphone series, the Mate 70, slated for the fourth quarter, the report notes.

Read more

• [News] Huawei Rumored to Launch New High-End AI Chip, Potentially Rivaling NVIDIA’s H100
• [News] Huawei’s HarmonyOS Project Ready to Hit the Road with Increasing Participation from Chinese Enterprises

(Photo credit: Huawei)