News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily News: GPU market data infrastructure company Silicon Data has announced the first closing of its $30.5 million Series A funding round, led by Valor Atreides AI Fund, with participation from CME Ventures, DRW, Samsung Next, VanEck, Jump Trading, Wintermute, and others. The funds will be used for GPU benchmark pricing, performance measurement, institutional and alternative data, as well as risk infrastructure for derivatives, insurance, and credit markets.Silicon Data currently collects data from approximately 100 GPU rental platforms across more than 40 countries worldwide, processing over 150,000 verified price records daily. CME Group plans to adopt Silicon Data's benchmarks as the reference price for its proposed cash-settled GPU futures contracts, pending regulatory approval.
According to Yonhap News Agency, a former department head surnamed A at the Korea Food Research Institute filed an administrative lawsuit after being fired for privately mining cryptocurrency in the institution's warehouse, but was ruled to have lost the case by the Seoul Administrative Court on the 3rd of last month. According to the investigation, between February and September 2023, A unauthorizedly installed 2 GPU servers in the idle Promotion Hall warehouse of the institute and used institutional budget to complete air conditioning, network, and electrical renovation projects, cumulatively illegally mining approximately 71 million altcoins. After the incident was discovered, A also forged approval documents attempting to retrieve the GPU servers to destroy evidence. In addition, between August 2023 and May 2024, A used an unauthorized VPN to clock in in violation of regulations a total of 117 times, indirectly causing important scientific research data of the institute to be illegally leaked. The Audit Committee of the National Research Council for Science & Technology launched a special audit on A in 2024, subsequently reported to the police, and requested the institute to impose a dismissal penalty. After A's internal appeals and relief applications to the Local Labor Relations Commission and the Central Labor Relations Commission were all rejected, A resorted to the administrative court, but still ended in defeat. The court ruled that the dismissal "did not involve any circumstances clearly violating social common sense or abuse of discretion." In the criminal case, A was charged with crimes such as theft, violation of the Information and Communications Network Act, and forgery of private documents, sentenced to 1 year in prison in the first instance, and the second instance upheld the original verdict in April this year, formally finalizing the sentence.
Odaily News: SK Hynix's stock price has recently seen a pullback. On August 3, the stock fell 8.79%. Although it rebounded slightly by 0.64% and 5.77% on August 4 and 5 respectively, it plunged another 10.37% on August 6, closing at 1.495 million KRW; on August 7, it dropped a further 4.88%, closing at 1.422 million KRW.Against the backdrop of heightened market volatility, SK Group released an advertisement quoting founder Choi Jong-gun’s famous saying: "Despair and hope are two sides of the same coin; you can turn despair into hope as easily as flipping your palm," and adapted it to: "Unease and anticipation in the AI era are also two sides of the same coin; you can turn unease into anticipation," thereby conveying confidence in the long-term development of the AI industry.Securities institutions believe that short-term stock price fluctuations have not changed SK Hynix's fundamentals, and the market should focus on its HBM4 technology leadership and the earnings stability brought by long-term supply agreements (LTAs). Specifically:1. Hyundai Motor Securities expects SK Hynix's DRAM and NAND bit growth to reach 9.7% and 1.5% respectively in the third quarter. As HBM4 sales contributions expand, even with a higher proportion of LTAs, DRAM average selling prices (ASP) are still expected to rise 19.9% quarter-over-quarter. Companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are advancing plans to build their own hyperscale AI data centers and intend to raise funds for related construction through IPOs. Even if some large tech companies adjust capital expenditures (Capex) in the future, this could be offset by demand from other AI infrastructure. Additionally, regarding competitive concerns over China's CXMT, given the U.S. continued tightening of semiconductor equipment export restrictions, as well as Micron's expansion of domestic U.S. investment, the likelihood of major companies like Apple adopting Chinese memory chips is relatively low.2. SK Securities is also bullish on SK Hynix's competitive advantages, believing that with its leading position in HBM, partnerships with major North American GPU companies, and AI-driven LTA demand, SK Hynix's market position remains solid. Currently, the HBM supply-demand fulfillment rate is below 70%, and the core value of LTAs lies in ensuring profit sustainability and earnings stability through a "mutual binding structure" between customers and suppliers. With value-reassessment initiatives such as an ADR listing progressing, along with dividend income from the sale of SPC assets related to Kioxia, the company's goal of achieving net cash of 100 trillion KRW may be reached earlier than expected. As shareholder return policies gradually become clearer, this will help the market re-evaluate the value of the LTA model and drive a further re-rating of SK Hynix. (Daum)
Western Digital Chief Product Officer Ahmed Shihab published a long article pointing out that as AI infrastructure expands rapidly, the core competition in the storage field should not be simply reduced to a contest between Flash and Hard Disk Drives (HDD), but lies in whether an AI storage architecture with long-term economic scalability can be built. The AI industry is currently facing a key question: whether the storage architecture chosen this year can support future data scale growth to the PB level or even the EB level. Many AI infrastructure designs do not fail due to insufficient performance, but fall into cost dilemmas after data scale expands. Ahmed Shihab added that Flash and HDD are not in a competitive relationship, but are complementary technologies for different workloads. High-performance scenarios, such as model weights, GPU spillover, KV cache, etc., require low-latency Flash support; while long-term storage needs such as training datasets, logs, checkpoints, compliance records, and large-scale historical data are more suitable for adopting HDDs with cost advantages. Storage architecture in the AI era will be more layered, rather than relying on a single storage medium. "Flash handles performance at critical moments, HDD handles data lifecycle. The direction of future AI storage development is not 'Flash replacing HDD', but precise layering based on different data lifecycles and business requirements." "True infrastructure is not about pursuing dazzling performance, but a reliable foundation capable of supporting long-term AI growth." US stock market trends show, Western Digital
Odaily News AMD, the semiconductor giant, announced the launch of its enterprise-grade AI programming platform, AMD Instinct Coder. The platform combines AMD chips, Supermicro servers, and Spectro Cloud software, aiming to help enterprises deploy AI coding assistants locally, reduce the cost of cloud-based AI models, and protect code and data security.AMD stated that Instinct Coder is an "out-of-the-box" end-to-end AI development platform, integrating AMD EPYC processors, AMD Instinct GPUs, Supermicro AI servers, Spectro Cloud PaletteAI Inference Launchpad software, and the AMD-optimized GLM-5.2 model. It can be used for software development scenarios such as code generation, application modernization, automated testing, and code review.AMD said that compared to relying on cutting-edge cloud-based AI models, Instinct Coder can help enterprises reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 70%, with the fastest payback period shortened to 6 months.AMD noted that more and more enterprises are looking to leverage AI to improve development efficiency, but face two major challenges: on one hand, the cost of invoking top-tier cloud models continues to rise; on the other hand, entrusting enterprise source code, intellectual property, and sensitive data to third-party services poses security and compliance risks.Through a local deployment model, Instinct Coder allows enterprises to maintain control over their data and code while providing more predictable infrastructure costs. The platform supports development tools such as Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Visual Studio Code, and Cursor, with each node supporting up to 50 users (30 concurrent users).Additionally, the PaletteAI Inference Launchpad provided by Spectro Cloud enables AI workload management, model routing, request auditing, and cost monitoring, and supports invoking external models such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or xAI when needed.AMD stated that Instinct Coder aims to help enterprises break free from the high costs of cloud-based AI services, accelerate AI-driven software development processes while ensuring data security and autonomous control.
Odaily News, Citrini analyst jukan posted on X platform, according to TrendForce's latest memory industry research, the DRAM supply shortage is expected to persist through 2027, and the HBM4e certification timeline remains uncertain. NVIDIA has been reassessing the HBM configuration for Rubin Ultra since the third quarter of 2026.The original plan called for a 12-layer stacked HBM4e configuration, but NVIDIA is currently evaluating multiple designs in parallel, including HBM4e 8-layer stacking, HBM4 12-layer stacking, and HBM4 8-layer stacking, with the final specifications yet to be confirmed. In addition to NVIDIA, some CSPs are reportedly also considering reducing HBM capacity for their next-generation custom ASICs.From 2025 to the first half of 2026, NVIDIA used 12-layer stacked HBM4e as the baseline design for Rubin Ultra. However, since the beginning of the third quarter of 2026, NVIDIA has begun reviewing lower-spec alternatives. TrendForce attributes this change to two major supply-side constraints: first, the overall DRAM shortage expected in 2027 will limit the wafer capacity that memory manufacturers can allocate to HBM production; second, uncertainty remains regarding the certification timeline for 12-layer stacked HBM4e and the pace of yield improvement in mass production.TrendForce stated that NVIDIA's primary focus for the Rubin Ultra generation is improving I/O speed, with expanding GPU shipments as a secondary priority. If NVIDIA ultimately decides to downgrade the HBM specifications, it is expected to do so by reducing the number of DRAM stacking layers. Whether HBM4e can complete certification and enter mass production as planned will determine whether Rubin Ultra's I/O speed can be improved from the previous generation Rubin's 8 to 11.7Gbps to 14 to 16Gbps, or be maintained at 11 to 12Gbps through an optimized HBM4 design. Within the same product generation, the number of DRAM stacking layers determines the trade-off between HBM capacity per GPU and the number of GPUs that can be shipped.TrendForce also believes that the final configuration will depend on wafer allocation decisions made by memory manufacturers. On the supply-demand front, HBM bit shipments in 2027 are expected to grow 50% to 60% year-over-year, but are still projected to fall short of demand growth. With supply constraints persisting, HBM suppliers are expected to maintain pricing power throughout 2027. The industry has broadly anticipated significant HBM price increases, and AI chip makers will face the dual pressure of limited HBM supply and rising procurement costs, further strengthening the incentive to adopt lower HBM capacity configurations.
data center operator Core Scientific disclosed in its second-quarter regulatory filing that it paid $41.9 million to terminate the Bitcoin mining machine contract with Block and its Proto division, with related losses amounting to $41.9 million. Both the agreement and future equipment deliveries have been canceled. The agreement, announced in July 2024, originally called for Proto to supply 3nm mining chips, corresponding to approximately 15 EH/s in hashrate, and included options for additional purchases. Core Scientific stated that it will no longer invest in new mining machines to maintain or expand hashrate, will generate cash flow from existing mining machines, and will sell or retire machines as appropriate. Core Scientific's second-quarter hosting revenue increased from $10.6 million in the same period last year to $137 million, accounting for 83% of total revenue; self-mining revenue fell 66% year-over-year to $21.5 million, representing 13% of total revenue. The company stated that quarterly Bitcoin production decreased by 53% year-over-year, and it continues to shift power from mining equipment to high-density computing systems such as GPUs.
Odaily, July 21 - Microsoft and French AI startup Mistral AI announced an expansion of their strategic partnership on July 21, signing a multi-billion dollar agreement centered on European AI infrastructure to enhance AI computing capabilities in the region. Under the agreement, Microsoft will leverage Mistral's expanded European GPU infrastructure to support its cloud computing and AI services. This infrastructure will be based on thousands of Nvidia Vera Rubin GPUs.In terms of products, the Mistral Medium 3.5 and OCR 4 models are now available on the Microsoft Foundry platform, and Mistral Medium 3.5 has also been integrated into Microsoft Copilot Studio for agent applications, document processing workflows, and industry-customized workflows. Additionally, the two parties will expand AI deployment options through Azure and Azure Local, supporting cloud, cloud-connected, and fully offline environments, targeting industries with high data compliance requirements such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing.
According to The Block, Bernstein stated that before the compliant computing power futures planned by CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange are approved, AI computing power derivatives adopting crypto market mechanisms have already launched. Currently, Architect's offshore trading platform AX has launched GPU perpetual futures, while Kalshi has listed GPU rental price event contracts regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Odaily News Alex Svanevik, CEO of on-chain analytics platform Nansen, stated that when enterprises begin effectively using Chinese large language models, the bubble in the AI industry may burst. While the U.S. regulatory environment could limit this process, the overall trend remains that Chinese models are continuously becoming more efficient, capable of running on non-cutting-edge hardware, while global GPU supply (including non-Nvidia chips) is increasing.Alex Svanevik also pointed out that the recent decline in H100 and H200 GPU rental prices reflects a shift in the supply-demand structure of computing power. He raised the question of how to interpret the market signal of declining GPU rental prices. As model efficiency improves alongside expanding computing power supply, the AI infrastructure market may be entering a phase of repricing.
sources say NVIDIA has begun pitching its first independent central processing unit (CPU) product, Vera, to Chinese clients. Designed specifically for Agentic AI systems, the chip has entered mass production, marking NVIDIA's attempt to further expand its presence in the Chinese market with a CPU offering.According to sources, some Chinese clients have already shown interest in Vera. One major Chinese cloud computing company plans to procure over 300 servers equipped with dual Vera CPUs for testing, and will decide whether to expand procurement after the tests are completed.Built on the Arm Holdings architecture, Vera is NVIDIA's first independent CPU product. NVIDIA has previously stated that Vera's performance in AI agent-related computing tasks is 1.8 times that of comparable competitor products, and expects the product to contribute approximately $20 billion in revenue by the end of this fiscal year (ending January next year).The report notes that as the AI industry's focus gradually shifts from model training to inference computing, CPUs and custom chips are gaining more attention. Vera also positions NVIDIA to directly compete with Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which have long dominated the server CPU market.Sources indicate that due to strict U.S. export restrictions on high-end GPUs, CPUs face relatively smaller regulatory hurdles in the Chinese market compared to GPU products. Currently, some Chinese clients plan to first deploy Vera chips for testing in overseas data centers. Meanwhile, software ecosystem compatibility and existing domestic AI chip deployment frameworks may still impact the subsequent large-scale adoption of Vera. (Reuters)
Nasdaq-listed Alpha Compute has announced the completion of its acquisition of a majority stake in GAMEE, a gaming and digital rewards platform, securing a 60% controlling interest. The transaction has now met all regulatory and closing conditions.According to the agreement, Alpha Compute acquired GAMEE from Animoca Brands for a consideration of approximately $11 million, implying an enterprise valuation of roughly $18 million. The transaction structure includes cash, stock, and future performance-based earnouts, along with an EBITDA milestone incentive clause over two years. Additionally, approximately 878 million GMEE tokens associated with Animoca are also included in the transaction arrangement.Following the transaction, Alpha Compute will establish a new AI gaming division named Alpha Games, with GAMEE founder Bozena Rezab serving as Executive Vice President. GAMEE will be integrated into Alpha Compute's AI infrastructure system, working in synergy with its GPU computing platform.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, announced plans to launch futures contracts with "computing power" as the underlying asset, designed to track cost changes for GPUs and other computing resources supporting the AI industry. The product still requires regulatory approval. According to reports, ICE will collaborate with financial infrastructure company Ornn to develop a related derivatives pricing system based on its GPU Cost Index. This index will be used to underpin computing power futures contracts. (Bloomberg)
AethirClaw has officially launched CARA (Pre-configured Crypto AI Agent), running on Aethir's decentralized GPU infrastructure. Equipped with over 50 skills, it covers core crypto scenarios such as real-time market monitoring, whale wallet tracking, on-chain analysis, social media sentiment monitoring, and project due diligence, and users can use it out-of-the-box without any technical configuration.The platform supports payments via credit card as well as USDT, USDC, and ATH tokens. Aethir also disclosed that it will soon launch a Model-as-a-Service (MaaS) layer, running mainstream open-source large models on Aethir's decentralized GPU infrastructure, and expand multimodal capabilities including text-to-image and video generation.
According to the Ethereum Foundation’s official website, its Ecosystem Support Program (ESP) allocated a total of $9.856 million in Q1 2026, with funding concentrated on core infrastructure areas including cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs, security audits, and protocol research. Key funded projects this quarter include: - In the ZK domain: formal verification of zkVMs, GPU-accelerated R1CS witness generation, and intermediate representation optimization for LLZK; - In security: cryptanalysis of Poseidon, cross-platform canonical signing libraries for ERC-7730, and specification-compliance testing for ePBS; - In node and client development: Erigon zkEVM extensions, Besu HSM compliance integration, and the multi-node validator Vero; - Additionally, privacy tools (Kohaku SDK, Tor bridge extensions), continued operations of the Layer 2 transparency platform L2BEAT, and R&D for the Lighthouse client’s transition to the Fusaka fork. On ecosystem development, ESP simultaneously supported Ethereum developer events in Seoul, Hong Kong, Vancouver, and Buenos Aires, advanced updates to the Ethereum climate impact assessment, and backed policy research initiatives by the European Decentralization Institute (EDI).
Decentralized GPU cloud computing infrastructure platform Aethir confirmed that its Ethereum-related bridge contract was attacked. The team promptly disconnected the affected contract and, in collaboration with major exchanges, blacklisted the hacker’s wallet, limiting losses to under $90,000. Earlier, blockchain security firm PeckShield estimated losses at $400,000. The attacker exploited Aethir’s cross-chain smart contract, AethirOFTAdapter, to transfer stolen funds from BNB Chain to Tron. Aethir stated that its Ethereum mainnet ATH token supply remains unaffected. It plans to release a detailed compensation plan and incident analysis next week and will collaborate with exchanges including Binance, Upbit, and Bithumb to freeze funds. Web3 security platform ZeroShadow is assisting with the investigation. In 2025, Aethir achieved $127.8 million in revenue and deployed over 440,000 GPU containers globally.