Free Republic

WASHINGTON – A former top intelligence official who signed on to a letter attacking The Post’s bombshell 2020 reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation has now admitted he knew a “significant portion” of the recovered files “had to be real” – but doesn’t regret dismissing the exposé. ... The Oct. 19 letter — whose signatories included former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former Director of National intelligence James Clapper, and former CIA Director John Brennan — went out of its way to cast doubt on the legitimacy of The Post’s scoop, devoting five paragraphs to explaining “factors that make...

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has cut down its orders to suppliers according to reports in the Taiwanese press. TSMC, which is facing an industry slowdown as its customers struggle with demand slowdown, cut down capital expenditures for 2022 earlier this year, and the firm cited a lack of demand forecasting as the primary reason behind the drawdown. Now, the firm is also rumored to have significantly reduced its 3-nanometer output estimates for this year, in the latest bit of speculation surrounding the advanced chip manufacturing technology scheduled to enter production in the current quarter. Today's report comes courtesy...

A baffled group of chip industry experts, in a symposium discussion published November 4 by the ChinaTalk newsletter, tried and failed to explain Washington’s new export curbs on chip tech to China. A close reading of the Commerce Department’s specifications shows ignorance about the technologies involved and confusion – if not duplicity – about the ban’s implications for China’s military. The experts’ group concluded that the new policy was rushed into effect in panic mode, without weighing its civilian or military implications. The new export controls “will restrict the People’s Republic of China’s ability to both purchase and manufacture certain...

... "Our ambition is to be the No. 2 foundry in the world by the end of the decade, and [we] expect to generate leading foundry margins," Randhir Thakur, the president of Intel Foundry Services, told Nikkei Asia. IFS was set up last year to turn Gelsinger's vision into a reality. For Intel, such a move is not only a new potential revenue source, but also a way to regain a technological edge in chip manufacturing lost to Asia over the past decades. Investors, however, do not seem entirely convinced: Intel's share price has more than halved since it embarked...

Israel has been providing Ukraine with "basic intelligence" on the Iranian drones used by Russia in its invasion, The New York Times said on Wednesday. A senior Israeli official reportedly told the Times about the intelligence sharing, and that a private Israeli firm was also giving Ukraine satellite imagery of Russian troop positions. "We are told that there are allegedly no Iranian drones in Ukraine. Well, we’ll find ways to ensure that there aren't any left, indeed." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Russia's use of Iranian drones Russian forces have been using several variants of Iranian drones in its Ukraine campaign...

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger's carefully assembled house of cards is collapsing around him. And it's not really that surprising when you look at the hand he's been dealt. For those that haven't been following Intel product roadmap that closely, here's a quick recap of where things stand today. The company is stuck on an aging 10nm process; its desktop CPUs are ludicrously power hungry; its dedicated GPUs aren't particularly competitive, even when their drivers do work; its upcoming processor families are hopelessly behind schedule; and it just killed off Optane, which was arguably its most promising development in recent memory....

The most advanced category of mass-produced semiconductors — used in smartphones, military technology and much more — is known as 5 nm. A single company in Taiwan, known as TSMC, makes about 90 percent of them. U.S. factories make none. The U.S.’s struggles to keep pace in semiconductor manufacturing have already had economic downsides: Many jobs in the industry pay more than $100,000 a year, and the U.S. has lost out on them. Longer term, the situation also has the potential to cause a national security crisis: If China were to invade Taiwan and cut off exports of semiconductors, the...

When you think about national security, you probably don’t immediately think about semiconductors. These tiny chips are the “brains” enabling all the computational capabilities and data storage that we take for granted today. Chips power virtually every sector of the economy – including data centers, automotive, healthcare, banking, and agriculture. As a consequence of their widespread use, semiconductors have grown to become a $555 billion global industry, and are the world’s fourth most traded product. Semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging have been cited frequently as one of the main critical supply chain priorities for the nation. A steady source of...

Russian companies have been plunged into a technological crisis by western sanctions that have created severe bottlenecks in the supply of semiconductors, electrical equipment and the hardware needed to power the nation’s data centres. Most of the world’s largest chip manufacturers, including Intel, Samsung, TSMC and Qualcomm, have halted business to Russia entirely after the US, UK and Europe imposed export controls on products using chips made or designed in the US or Europe. This has created a shortfall in the type of larger, low-end chips that go into the production of cars, household appliances and military equipment. Supplies of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin underwent treatment for advanced cancer in April, according to a report quoting three high-ranking US intelligence officials. Newsweek published the report Thursday, citing information the three intelligence officials – who represent three different US intelligence agencies – shared from a recent White House assessment of the Russian leader’s health status. In late May, US intelligence officials put together their fourth comprehensive assessment of Putin’s medical condition. The three officials, from the office of the Director of National Intelligence, a retired senior Air Force officer, and a Defense Intelligence Agency official, said that Putin appears to have...

Failure to use air force effectively, caused failures on the ground and in the air.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. intelligence officials were questioned Tuesday about why they misjudged the durability of governments in both Afghanistan and Ukraine, and whether they need to reform how intelligence agencies assess a foreign military’s will to fight. U.S. intelligence believed the U.S.-backed Kabul government would hold out for months against the Taliban and thought Russian forces would overrun Ukraine in a few weeks. Both assessments were wrong. The U.S. and Western allies are now rushing to aid Ukraine’s resistance against Russia in what has turned into a grinding, violent stalemate. “What we missed was the will to fight...

If you just followed news reports on Ukraine, you might think that the war has settled into a long, grinding and somewhat boring slog. You would be wrong. Things are actually getting more dangerous by the day. For starters, the longer this war goes on, the more opportunity for catastrophic miscalculations — and the raw material for that is piling up fast and furious. Take the two high-profile leaks from American officials this past week about U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war: First, The Times disclosed that “the United States has provided intelligence about Russian units that has allowed Ukrainians...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado—The U.S. intelligence community asked certain commercial satellite companies for help in the earliest days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and their imagery remains vital to countering Russia’s false claims, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Tuesday. But the partnership raises new questions about what protections those firms might be owed if their actions make them a target. “Early on, we also asked a few commercial companies….and those of you who helped know who you are, helped us to rapidly make available imagery like the buildup that was happening around Ukraine’s borders to...

Ukraine’s defense intelligence ministry has released information on over 600 alleged Russian spies based in Europe, Fox News reported. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s intelligence arm released the "list of employees of the FSB of the Russian Federation registered at the address: Moscow, St. Bolshaya Lubyanka" on Monday. The list in Russian contains names, phone numbers, passport numbers, license plate numbers and certain financial details for 620 Russian citizens it alleges are spies. There are also home addresses listed. According to The Telegraph, MI6’s former head Sir John Sawers said that only “10 percent” of Russia’s European spy operations are...

Intel has confirmed plans to build a semiconductor plant in Germany as part of an investment of up to €80 billion ($88 billion) in Europe over the next decade. The initial outlay for the facility in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, is €17 billion ($19 billion). The so-called “mega-site” will actually comprise two factories. Planning will start right away with construction expected to get under way in the first half of next year, as long as Intel gets the thumbs up from the European Commission. Production should commence at what Intel is calling “Silicon Junction” in 2027. As such, the...

Score another notable win for chip giant AMD (AMD) against its heated rival Intel. AMD's market cap currently stands at $188 billion after shares rose nearly 2% in Tuesday's session. Intel's market cap is $182 billion. That marks the second time in a week AMD's market value has climbed above Intel — the first time it happened was a week ago. Followers of this battle may not be surprised to see this one happen (and seeing it continue from here) for several reasons. First, AMD has been winning the battle on Wall Street for sexier investment thesis. AMD last week...

Welcome to the Offical Monkey Werx Channel - our weekly shows consist of Overwatch SITREPS where we will look at aircraft activity around the world, the Monkey Minute, where we will take a quick look at biblical news, and every two weeks, the Watchman Hour, where we will be discussing biblical topics.

Intel Corporation announced Friday that it is investing $20 billion to build two new “leading-edge” chip factories in Ohio.“The investment will help boost production to meet the surging demand for advanced semiconductors, powering a new generation of innovative products from Intel and serving the needs of foundry customers as part of the company’s IDM 2.0 strategy,” the company said in a statement.IDM 2.0 is a new integrated device manufacturing model, which Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced on March 23, 2021.The move is part of Gelsinger’s strategy to restore Intel’s dominance in chip making and reduce America’s reliance on Asian manufacturing...

A Silicon Valley tech giant is set to announce an investment of $20 billion for a chip factory in Columbus, Ohio, a locale strong on manufacturing with data centers for Google, Amazon, and Facebook. Intel's semiconductor factory would employ 3,000 workers in Licking County, in addition to thousands of construction workers and Intel suppliers locating to the area, a source told The Columbus Dispatch.