Dutch firm ASML makes one of the most important pieces of machinery required to manufacture the most advanced chips in the world. U.S. chip curbs have left companies, including ASML, scrambling to figure out what the rules mean in practice.
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ASML, one of the most important semiconductor equipment companies in the world, beat top and bottom line expectations, but said it forecasts its revenue for this year will be similar to that of 2023.
Here’s how ASML did versus LSEG consensus estimates:
Net sales: 7.2 billion euros ($7.82 billion) versus 6.9 billion euros expected
Net profit: 2.05 billion euros versus 1.86 billion euros expected
ASML had previously said that it expects fourth-quarter net sales between 6.7 billion euros and 7.1 billion euros with a gross margin between 50% and 51%.
Net sales for the fourth quarter rose 12.5% year-on-year, while the company reported a gross margin of 51.4% in the fourth quarter.
ASML said it expects first-quarter net sales of between 5.0 billion euros and 5.5 billion euros.
“We maintain our conservative view for the total year and expect 2024 revenue to be similar to 2023. We also expect 2024 to be an important year to prepare for significant growth that we expect for 2025,” said ASML CEO Peter Wennink said in a statement on Wednesday.
ASML reported 27.6 billion euros in revenue for 2023, higher than the 21.2 billion euros of the year before. That was a 30% year-on-year rise.
China sales in focus
ASML, a Dutch company that makes a machine required in the manufacturing of the world’s most advanced chips, has been caught in the broader technology battle between the U.S. and China.
The Dutch government, following U.S. pressure, introduced curbs in June on the export of advanced semiconductor equipment. And in October, the U.S. tightened its own export controls on advanced semiconductors and chipmaking tools to China.
This month, ASML said the Dutch government partially revoked its license for the shipment of its NXT:2050i and NXT:2100i lithography systems in 2023 to China. These are systems required to make less advanced chips.
In a pre-recorded video released Wednesday, ASML Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen said the company does not expect to get export licenses for the NXT:2000i and more advanced machines. Dassen also said it expects some China chip manufacturing plants not to get export licenses for the NXT:1970i and NXT:1980i immersion tools.
ASML previously said that export restrictions would impact 10% to 15% of China sales. There would be a similar impact in 2024, Dassen said.
ASML’s top end tools, known as extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, have never received an export license. To date, ASML has not shipped one of these machines to China.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg plans to visit South Korea, scheduling key meetings during the trip, according to a statement by Meta on Wednesday, which did not provide further details. Reportedly, Zuckerberg is anticipated to meet with Samsung Electronics chairman Jay Y. Lee later this month to discuss AI chip supply and other generative AI issues, as per the South Korean newspaper Seoul Economic Daily, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
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Meta extended its ban on new political ads on Facebook and Instagram past Election Day in the U.S.
The social media giant announced the political ads policy update on Monday, extending its ban on new political ads past Tuesday, the original end date for the restriction period.
Meta did not specify the day it will lift the restriction, saying only that the ad blocking will continue “until later this week.” The company did not say why it extended the political advertising restriction period.
The company announced in August that any political ads that ran at least once before Oct. 29 would still be allowed to run on Meta’s services in the final week before Election Day. Other political ads will not be allowed to run.
Organization with eligible ads will have “limited editing capabilities” while the restriction is still in place, Meta said. Those advertisers will be allowed to make scheduling, budgeting and bidding-related changes to their political ads, Meta said.
Meta enacted the same policy in 2020. The company said the policy is in place because “we recognize there may not be enough time to contest new claims made in ads.”
Google-parent Alphabet announced a similar ad policy update last month, saying it would pause ads relating to U.S. elections from running in the U.S. after the last polls close on Tuesday. Alphabet said it would notify advertisers when it lifts the pause.
Nearly $1 billion has been spent on political ads over the last week, with the bulk of the money spent on down-ballot races throughout the U.S., according to data from advertising analytics firm AdImpact.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2024 (L), and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 2, 2021.
Reuters
Physical Intelligence, a robot startup based in San Francisco, has raised $400 million at a $2.4 billion post-money valuation, the company confirmed Monday to CNBC.
Investors included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, OpenAI, Thrive Capital and Lux Capital, a Physical Intelligence spokesperson said. Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital are also listed as investors on the company’s website.
Physical Intelligence’s new valuation is about six times that of its March seed round, which reportedly came in at $70 million with a $400 million valuation. Its current roster of employees includes alumni of Tesla, Google DeepMind and X.
The startup focuses on “bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world,” per its website, and it aims to do this by developing large-scale artificial intelligence models and algorithms to power robots. The startup spent the past eight months developing a “general-purpose” AI model for robots, the company wrote in a blog post. Physical Intelligence hopes that model will be the first step toward its ultimate goal of developing artificial general intelligence. AGI is a term used to describe AI technology that equals or surpasses human intellect on a wide range of tasks.
Physical Intelligence’s vision is that one day users can “simply ask robots to perform any task they want, just like they can ask large language models (LLMs) and chatbot assistants,” the startup wrote in the blog post. In case studies, Physical Intelligence details how its tech could allow a robot to do laundry, bus tables or assemble a box.
To Barry Diller, a friend of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the decision for The Washington Post not to endorse a candidate in tomorrow’s presidential election was “absolutely principled” — and poorly timed, he said Monday on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
“They made a blunder — it should’ve happened months before, and it didn’t, and that’s the issue with it,” Diller said.
Diller is chairperson of both online travel company Expedia and IAC, which owns media platforms and websites like Dotdash Meredith and Care.com. He and Bezos appear to have been close friends for years, with Diller and his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, hosting Bezos’s engagement party to fiancee Lauren Sanchez.
The decision not to endorse a presidential candidate in the 2024 race or for future presidential races came directly from Bezos, the paper’s owner, according to an article published by two of the Post’s own reporters.
The move prompted public condemnation from several staff writers, a flood of at least 250,000 digital subscription cancellations and the resignations of at least three editorial board members.
Bezos defended his position in his own op-ed late last month, calling the move a “meaningful step in the right direction” to restore low public trust in media and journalism.
“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” Bezos wrote, emphasizing that the decision to not endorse a candidate was made “entirely internally” and without consulting either campaign. “I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it.”
Diller said he spoke to Bezos following the decision.
“I think it was absolutely principled,” Diller said. “The mistake they made — and it was a mistake admitted by him — was timing.”