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A worker inspects a circuit board for a smartphone at Dixon Technologies’ Padget Electronics Pvt factory in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. Dixon boasts a market value of more than $2.5 billion and the capacity to produce about 50 million smartphones this year. Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Qualcomm is already designing chips in India as it taps on the country’s pool of talented engineers, Qualcomm India’s president said in an exclusive interview.

“We already have chips that are actually designed completely end to end in India and we are shipping those globally,” Savi Soin, president of Qualcomm India, told CNBC.

The American chip giant designs semiconductors and wireless telecommunications products. Qualcomm is best known for its Snapdragon processors which power some of the top Android smartphones across the world.

Like any chip designer, Qualcomm doesn’t manufacture its own chips. Instead, it relies on chip manufacturers such as TSMC, Samsung Electronics and GlobalFoundries.

“We have more engineers in India now than we have anywhere else in the globe,” said Soin. “We have a lot of engineers here doing end-to-end chip design.”

The chip design process is “highly complex” as it requires “years of R&D, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, and thousands of engineers,” said Semiconductor Industry Association in a report.

An integral part of the semiconductor manufacturing process, chip design defines the requirements for the chip’s architecture and system, as well as how individual circuits will be laid out on the chip.

Local media reported in January that Qualcomm is expanding its Chennai operations with a new design center focusing on wireless technology.

India is a beneficiary of some of China's problems, investment management firm says

The 1.77 billion rupee ($21.3 million) investment will also support Qualcomm’s commitment to the Indian government’s vision of “Make in India” and “Design in India.”

“We saw India 20 years ago as a great R&D center of excellence and a great pool of talent. We’re seeing India as a great market, as [a] great opportunity,” Soin told CNBC’s Sri Jegarajah.

“We are now in discussion with a lot of semiconductor back-ends as well as manufacturing that India is trying to set up. Our CEO committed two years ago that if India sets up semiconductor manufacturing, we will actually help bring volume to that,” said Soin.

India’s chip push

India’s semiconductor ambitions have made huge strides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government approving three semiconductor plants in Gujarat and Assam with investments of more than $15 billion.

“India already has deep capabilities in chip design. With these units, our country will develop capabilities in chip fabrication. Advanced packaging technologies will be indigenously developed in India,” according to a government statement on Feb. 29.

India wants to become a major chip hub to compete against the U.S., Taiwan and South Korea, and has been wooing foreign chip makers to set up operations in the country. Countries such as India stands to benefit as global chipmakers look to diversify operations amid geopolitical uncertainty.

To boost domestic manufacturing capabilities and exports, India has announced billions of dollars worth of production-linked incentives to “attract investment” in key areas and cutting-edge technology as well as to make India “an integral part of the global value chain.”

India aims to be one of the top five semiconductor manufacturers globally in the next five years, Ashwini Vaishnaw, minister of electronics and information technology, railways and communications, told CNBC in March.

India expects to be among 'top five semiconductor nations' in next five years: Minister

“What we have seen is – for example, the PLI benefits – it certainly has brought manufacturing of more and more smartphones into India,” said Soin.

“So we have seen good incentives on IT, telecom and telecom equipment that’s manufacturing here. We are seeing some discussions around the design elements. So we’re hoping that more and more things, some elements of our products that use our technology, get designed in India,” said Soin.

Apple is one of the companies that has diversified some of its manufacturing operations to India amid U.S.-China geopolitical tensions. Apple now assembles about 14% of its iPhones in India, which is twice the amount it produced there last year, according to a Bloomberg report.

Google plans to begin production of its Pixel smartphones in India by second quarter, Nikkei Asia reported February.

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Microsoft launches consumption-based 365 Copilot Chat option for corporate users

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Microsoft launches consumption-based 365 Copilot Chat option for corporate users

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the Microsoft May 20 Briefing event at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, on May 20, 2024. Nadella unveiled a new category of PC on Monday that features generative artificial intelligence tools built directly into Windows, the company’s world leading operating system.

Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images

Microsoft on Wednesday announced a tier of its Copilot assistant for corporate users with a consumption-based pricing model. The new Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat option represents an alternative to the Microsoft 365 Copilot, which organizations have been able to pay for based on the number of employees with access to it.

The introduction shows Microsoft’s determination to popularize generative artificial intelligence software in the workplace. Several companies have adopted the Microsoft 365 Copilot since it became available for $30 per person per month in November 2023, but one group of analysts recently characterized the product push as “slow/underwhelming.”

Copilot Chat can be an on-ramp to Microsoft 365 Copilot, with a lower barrier to entry, Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer for AI at work, said in a CNBC interview this week. Both offerings rely on artificial intelligence models from Microsoft-backed OpenAI.

Copilot Chat can fetch information from the web and summarize text in uploaded documents, and people using it can create agents that perform tasks in the background. It can enrich answers with information from customers’ files and third-party sources.

Unlike Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Chat can’t be found in Office applications such as Word and Excel. People can reach Copilot Chat starting today in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app for Windows, Android and iOS. The app is formerly known as Microsoft 365 (Office). It’s also available from the web at m365copilot.com, a spokesperson said.

Some management teams have resisted paying Microsoft to give the 365 Copilot to thousands of employees because they weren’t sure how helpful it would be at the $30 monthly price. Costs will vary for the Copilot Chat depending on what employees do with it, but at least organizations won’t end up paying for nonuse.

“As one customer said to me, this model lets the business value prove itself,” Spataro said.

Microsoft tallies up charges for Copilot Chat based on the tally of “messages” that a client uses. Each “message” costs a penny, according to a blog post. Responses that draw on the client’s proprietary files cost 30 “messages” each. Every action that an agent takes on behalf of employees costs 25 “messages.”

“We’re talking a cent, 2 cents, 30 cents, and that is a very easy way for people to get started,” Spataro said.

Salesforce charges $2 per conversation for its Agentforce AI chat service, where employees can set up automated sales and customer service processes.

The number of people using Microsoft 365 Copilot every day more than doubled quarter over quarter, CEO Satya Nadella said in October, although he did not disclose how many were using it. But sign-ups have been mounting. UBS said in October that it had 50,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, and in November, Accenture committed to having 200,000 users of the tool.

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OpenAI's Sam Altman: Microsoft partnership has been tremendously positive for both companies

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These Chinese apps have surged in popularity in the U.S. A TikTok ban could ensnare them

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These Chinese apps have surged in popularity in the U.S. A TikTok ban could ensnare them

Lemon8, a photo-sharing app by Bytedance, and RedNote, a Shanghai-based content-sharing platform, have seen a surge in popularity in the U.S. as “TikTok refugees” migrate to alternative platforms ahead of a potential ban. 

Now a law that could see TikTok shut down in the U.S. threatens to ensnare these Chinese social media apps, and others gaining traction as TikTok-alternatives, legal experts say. 

As of Wednesday, RedNote — known as Xiaohongshu in Chinawas the top free app on the U.S. iOS store, with Lemon8 taking the second spot. 

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on the constitutionality of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, or PAFACA, that would lead to the TikTok app being banned in the U.S. if its Beijing-based owner, ByteDance, doesn’t divest it by Jan. 19.

While the legislation explicitly names TikTok and ByteDance, experts say its scope is broad and could open the door for Washington to target additional Chinese apps. 

“Chinese social media apps, including Lemon8 and RedNote, could also end up being banned under this law,” Tobin Marcus, head of U.S. policy and politics at New York-based research firm Wolfe Research, told CNBC. 

If the TikTok ban is upheld, it will be unlikely that the law will allow potential replacements to originate from China without some form of divestiture, experts told CNBC.

PAFACA automatically applies to Lemon8 as it’s a subsidiary of ByteDance, while RedNote could fall under the law if its monthly average user base in the U.S. continues to grow, said Marcus. 

The legislation prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services to any “foreign adversary controlled application.” 

These applications include those connected to ByteDance or TikTok or a social media company that is controlled by a “foreign adversary” and has been determined to present a significant threat to national security.

The wording of the legislation is “quite expansive” and would give incoming president Donald Trump room to decide which entities constitute a significant threat to national security, said Carl Tobias, Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond. 

Xiaomeng Lu, Director of Geo‑technology at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, told CNBC that the law will likely prevail, even if its implementation and enforcement are delayed. Regardless, she expects Chinese apps in the U.S. will continue to be the subject of increased regulatory action moving forward.

“The TikTok case has set a new precedent for Chinese apps to get targeted and potentially shut down,” Lu said.

She added that other Chinese apps that could be impacted by increased scrutiny this year include popular Chinese e-commerce platform Temu and Shein. U.S. officials have accused the apps of posing data risks, allegations similar to those levied against TikTok.

The fate of TikTok rests with Supreme Court after the platform and its parent company filed a suit against the U.S. government, saying that invoking PAFACA violated constitutional protections of free speech.

TikTok’s argument is that the law is unconstitutional as applied to them specifically, not that it is unconstitutional per se, said Cornell Law Professor Gautam Hans. “So, regardless of whether TikTok wins or loses, the law could still potentially be applied to other companies,” he said. 

The law’s defined purview is broad enough that it could be applied to a variety of Chinese apps deemed to be a national security threat, beyond traditional social media apps in the mold of TikTok, Hans said. 

Trump, meanwhile, has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hold off on implementing PAFACA so he can pursue a “political resolution” after taking office. Democratic lawmakers have also urged Congress and President Joe Biden to extend the Jan. 19 deadline

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Nvidia-backed AI video platform Synthesia doubles valuation to $2.1 billion

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Nvidia-backed AI video platform Synthesia doubles valuation to .1 billion

Synthesia is a platform that lets users create AI-generated clips with human avatars that can speak in multiple languages.

Synthesia

LONDON — Synthesia, a video platform that uses artificial intelligence to generate clips featuring multilingual human avatars, has raised $180 million in an investment round valuing the startup at $2.1 billion.

That’s more than than double the $1 billion Synthesia was worth in its last financing in 2023.

The London-based startup said Wednesday that the funding round was led by venture firm NEA with participation from Atlassian Ventures, World Innovation Lab and PSP Growth.

NEA counts Uber and TikTok parent company ByteDance among its portfolio companies. Synthesia is also backed by chip giant Nvidia.

Victor Riparbelli, CEO of Synthesia, told CNBC that investors appraised the businesses differently from other companies in the space due to its focus on “utility.”

“Of course, the hype cycle is beneficial to us,” Riparbelli said in an interview. “For us, what’s important is building an actually good business.”

Synthesia isn’t “dependent” on venture capital — as opposed to companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Mistral, Riparbelli added.

These startups have raised billions of dollars at eye-watering valuations while burning through sizable amounts of money to train and develop their foundational AI models.

Read more CNBC reporting on AI

Synthesia’s not the only startup shaking up the world of video production with AI. Other startups offer solutions for producing and editing video content with AI, like Veed.io and Runway.

Meanwhile, the likes of OpenAI and Adobe have also developed generative AI tools for video creation.

Eric Liaw, a London-based partner at VC firm IVP, told CNBC that companies at the application layer of AI haven’t garnered as much investor hype as firms in the infrastructure layer.

“The amount of money that the application layer companies need to raise isn’t as large — and therefore the valuations aren’t necessarily as eye popping” as companies like Nvidia,” Liaw told CNBC last month.

Riparbelli said that money raised from the latest financing round would be used to invest in “more of the same,” furthering product development and investing more into security and compliance.

Last year, Synthesia made a series of updates to its platform, including the ability to produce AI avatars using a laptop webcam or phone, full-body avatars with arms and hands and a screen recording tool that has an AI avatar guide users through what they’re viewing.

On the AI safety front, in October Synthesia conducted a public red team test for risks around online harms, which demonstrated how the firm’s compliance controls counter attempts to create non-consensual deepfakes of people or use its avatars to encourage suicide, adult content or gambling.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology test was led by Rumman Chowdhury, a renowned data scientist who was formerly head of AI ethics at Twitter — before it became known as X under Elon Musk.

Riparbelli said that Synthesia is seeing increased interest from large enterprise customers, particularly in the U.S., thanks to its focus on security and compliance.

More than half of Synthesia’s annual revenue now comes from customers in the U.S., while Europe accounts for almost half.

Synthesia has also been ramping up hiring. The company recently tapped former Amazon executive Peter Hill as its chief technology officer. The company now employs over 400 people globally.

Synthesia’s announcement follows the unveiling of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s 50-point plan to make the U.K. a global leader in AI.

U.K. Technology Minister Peter Kyle said the investment “showcases the confidence investors have in British tech” and “highlights the global leadership of U.K.-based companies in pioneering generative AI innovations.”

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