After missing a chance to capitalize on the AI boom, "Samsung's profit has plunged," reports CNBC, and "around $126 billion has been wiped off its market value, according to data from S&P Capital IQ." It's gotten so bad that "an executive issued a rare public apology about the company's recent financial performance." [A]s AI applications such as OpenAI's ChatGPT rose in popularity, the underlying infrastructure required to train the huge models they rely on became a bigger focus. Nvidia has emerged as the top player in this space with its graphics processing units (GPUs) that have become the gold standard used by tech giants for AI training. A crucial part of that semiconductor architecture is high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. This next generation of memory involves stacking multiple dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, but it had a small market before the AI boom. That's where Samsung got caught out and failed to invest... SK Hynix saw this opportunity. The company aggressively launched HBM chips which were approved for use in Nvidia architecture and, in the process, the South Korean firm established a close relationship with the U.S. giant. Nvidia's CEO even asked the company to speed up supply of its next generation chip, underscoring the importance of HBM to its products. SK Hynix posted record quarterly operating profit in the September quarter... Analysts said that Samsung is lagging behind competitors for a number of reasons, including underinvestment in HBM and the fact that it is not a first-mover. "It is fair to say that Samsung has not been able to close the gap with SK Hynix on the HBM development roadmap," said Kazunori Ito [director of equity research at Morningstar]. Samsung's ability to make a comeback in the short term appears to be closely linked to Nvidia. A company must pass a strict qualification process before Nvidia approves it as a HBM supplier — and Samsung has not yet completed this verification. But a green light from Nvidia could open the door for Samsung to return to growth and compete more effectively with SK Hynix, according to analysts.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sodium-ion batteries are cheaper than lithium-ion batteries — and they're also more environmentally friendly. And "In the past few years, sodium-ion battery production has increased in the United States," reports the Washington Post, with a new factory planned to manufacture them "in the same way as lithium-ion batteries, just with different ingredients. Instead of using expensive materials like lithium, nickel and cobalt, these will be made of sodium, iron and manganese..." Last month, sodium-ion battery manufacturer Natron Energy announced it would open a "gigafactory" in North Carolina that would produce 24 gigawatt hours of batteries annually, enough energy to charge 24,000 electric vehicles. But sodium-ion batteries are still early in their development compared with lithium-ion, and they have yet to hit the market on a massive scale. "It's unlikely sodium-ion could displace lithium-ion anytime soon," said Keith Beers, polymer science and materials chemistry principal engineer at technical consultancy firm Exponent... The biggest limitation of sodium-ion batteries is their weight. Sodium weighs nearly three times as much as lithium, and it cannot store the same amount of energy. As a result, sodium-ion batteries tend to be larger. Jens Peters, an economics professor at the University of Alcalá in Madrid, said the energy density could be improved over time in sodium-ion batteries. But, he added, "what we found out so far in our assessments is that it is not a game changer." Sodium-ion batteries are touted to be the environmentally friendly alternative to their lithium-ion counterparts, thanks to their raw materials. Sodium, iron and manganese are all abundant elements on the planet, so they require less energy to extract and cost less... Sodium-ion batteries also last longer than lithium-ion ones because they can withstand more charge cycles, said Wendell Brooks, co-CEO of Natron Energy. "Our product can have millions of cycles," said Brooks, "where lithium-ion would have three to five thousand cycles and wear out a lot faster...." Sodium-ion batteries aren't the best fit for smartphones or electric vehicles, which need to store lots of energy. However, one advantage is their low cost. And they could be a good candidate in situations where the size of the battery isn't a concern, like energy storage. "When something is built out to support grid or backup storage, it doesn't need to be very dense. It's staying put," Beers said. Natron will invest nearly $1.4 billion in the factory "to meet the rapidly expanding demand for critical power, industrial and grid energy storage solutions," according to their announcement. "Natron's high-performance sodium-ion batteries outperform lithium-ion batteries in power density and recharging speed, do not require lithium, cobalt, copper, or nickel, and are non-flammable... Natron's batteries are the only UL-listed sodium-ion batteries on the market today, and will be delivered to a wide range of customer end markets in the industrial power space, including data centers, mobility, EV fast charging, microgrids, and telecom, among others."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A commercial roofing firm in Baltimore County is under scrutiny for inflating costs to fix a county-owned building and paying less than a minority-owned subcontractor it partnered with would have been entitled to.

Holcim US announced a planned investment of around $100 million in its flagship Ste. Genevieve, Mo., production plant, expanding capacity by over 600,000 metric tons of cement while also reducing net CO2 emissions. 

Mycocycle, the biotechnology company using fungi to transform construction debris into reusable materials, received a new round of funding that will help it further scale its waste-to-value chain.

Learn why contractors chose to install 82,000 square feet of McElroy Metal’s 24-gauge Medallion-Lok 16-inch standing seam metal roofing for a school district's eighth prototype building.

I'll share the story of my first business exit and what I've learned through my education, certification and evolution in the business of exit planning.

Was your community among the 102 to receive $12.7 million in federal grants to promote workplace safety, health training and education? Check it out!

Data Bridge Market Research expects the text-to-speech market to grow at a compound annual rate of 30.20 percent.

MarketsandMarkets projects 44.8 percent CAGR for the AI agent technology market over the next six years.

Technavio projects 34 percent CAGR for smart speakers driven by voice commerce and smart home popularity.

Wispr Flow provides voice dictation that works in every app on Macs with auto-edits and AI commands.

Funding will accelerate Gladia's transition from a speech-to-text API to an end-to-end audio infrastructure provider for agent assistance, sales enablement tools, and AI meeting assistants.

[This Day] *IPMAN says it expects to agree petrol price with Dangote refinery in 48 hours*Crude nears two-week low as OPEC cuts demand view

[Nile Post] Government has put the 2025/26 budget projections at Shs57.4 trillion which is lower than this year's shs72.1 trillion budget.

[New Zimbabwe] THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) says local companies recently struggled to snap up US$25 million floated on the market in a development indicating limited ZWG availability in the market.

[Premium Times] MTN Nigeria hopes to use the cash to bridge the working capital gap in the short term.

"DCSA plays a critical role in executing Trusted Workforce 2.0 objectives as the largest provider of personnel vetting services," Heather Green said.

The post DCSA rolling out continuous vetting to a million more feds first appeared on Federal News Network.

President Biden has signed a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills that Congress just passed, ending the threat of a potential partial government shutdown.

The post Biden signs $1.2 trillion funding package after Senate’s early-morning passage ended government shutdown threat first appeared on Federal News Network.

The second of two large spending packages keeps agencies funded for the rest of 2024. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

The post Senate passes $1.2 trillion funding package in early morning vote, ending threat of partial shutdown first appeared on Federal News Network.

In the first three weeks of October, USPS delivered 97.8% of mail-in ballots on time within its one-to-five-day standard for first-class delivery.

The post USPS delivers millions of mail-in ballots, resumes normal operations in hurricane-struck states first appeared on Federal News Network.

If you choose the invest-for-the-long haul course you may, as 112,000 rank-and-file federal and postal workers have done, become a TSP millionaire. But the keys are long-term investing and doing what the proven winners have already done.

The post Wanna be a TSP trillionaire? Ask one! first appeared on Federal News Network.

For some, TSP (with its generous government match) will provide one-third to as much half the money they have to spend in retirement. Regardless of the percentage, it’s a lot. So how do you become a TSP millionaire?

The post Wanna be a TSP millionaire: Have you got the right stuff? first appeared on Federal News Network.

Lawmakers have introduced a $1.2 trillion spending package that sets the stage for avoiding a partial government shutdown for several key federal agencies.

The post Congress unveils $1.2 trillion plan to avert government shutdown and bring budget fight to a close first appeared on Federal News Network.

Amazon is buying MGM, the studio behind James Bond, for €6.9 billion

Meat company JBS confirms it paid a $11 million ransom following its recent cyberattack

The 720p resolution plan with advertisements is currently available in 12 territories. #netflix #streaming

Musk's backing of Trump sees Tesla's value rise above the trillion dollar mark

Humanitarian crisis in Gaza: 2 million at risk of famine

OpenAI has nearly doubled what investors think it's worth—but there's a catch.

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the nonprofit managing the .ORG domain, recently announced it now oversees 11 million registrations. Jon Nevett, PIR's CEO, attributes this growth to what he describes as a "responsible" expansion, emphasizing a focus on security and community support.

Chronic kidney disease affects over 800 million people and can lead to kidney failure. Here are the symptoms, causes, and stages to protect your kidney health.

With over 20 quadrillion ants worldwide, ants dominate the Earth's biomass. Learn why these social insects thrive in nearly every environment.

Find all the latest Cyber Rebellion codes here! Keep reading for more.

It's a packed week, with Earth Day, Arbor Day, The City Nature Challenge and more!

Worldwide, over 10 billion birds are on the wing this fall; learn how you can help monitor and protect them

Astronomers have, for the first time, mapped the 3D filamentary structure of a famous dandelion-shaped supernova remnant.

The post Astronomers Map a Dandelion Supernova appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Location: Sciences Library Library- QE185.F68 2014

Mortgage rates are at their highest levels in 22 years and house prices are at record highs. Hardworking Americans cannot get on the property ladder, and retirees are struggling to sell in order to downsize. The Biden administration has done little to help alleviate the problem. This Washington Examiner series, Home Economics, will investigate how we got here, the toll on people around the country, and the alternatives people are embracing to survive the market. Part three of this four-part series focuses on the supply side problems in the housing market.

Unprecedented deaths of sea lions along California's Central Coast

Entrepreneur Emmet Stephenson and his daughter are giving $150 million to City of Hope to fund an award for innovation research in pancreatic cancer. It's the largest single gift the center has received.

Unless officials take action to develop new medications, drug-resistant infections could kill nearly 2 million people a year in 2050.

Meat producer BrucePac is recalling nearly 10 million pounds of meat and poultry products sold at Trader Joe's, Target, Kroger and other retailers because they might be contaminated with listeria.

Golfer Jon Rahm is reportedly jumping from the PGA Tour to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf and is expected to receive a lucrative payday for his move.

Former President Trump, in his first post-conviction fundraising swing, raises millions of dollars throughout California.

The Gene Roddenberry foundation will award $1 million to an early-stage venture focused on harnessing artificial intelligence in service of humanity.