Micron to invest $9.6 billion in western Japan plant, report says Signage at the Micron Technology booth at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai is seen on Nov. 6. Micron Technology will spend ¥1.5 trillion ($9.6 billion) to build a plant in western Japan to make memory chips for artificial intelligence applications, Nikkei newspaper reported. The move comes as Micron looks to diversify advanced chip production outside of Taiwan, Nikkei said, citing people familiar with the matter. The new factory will manufacture high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component for working with AI processors such as those made by Nvidia, according to the report. Micron will build the facility within the compound of its Hiroshima plant, starting in May, with plans to launch HBM shipments around 2028, Nikkei said. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will subsidize up to ¥500 billion of the costs for the project, the newspaper said.

A driver takes his hands off the wheel of an Isuzu self-driving truck during a test run in Mukawa, Hokkaido, on Nov. 18. In the face of a serious shortage of drivers in the logistics industry, Japan's government and commercial vehicle-makers are accelerating experiments aimed at putting self-driving trucks into practical use. They are aiming to attain Level 4 autonomous driving, or driving without human intervention under certain conditions. In addition to carrying out the trials, they will also make efforts to gain the public's understanding for self-driving trucks to ease concerns. Autonomous driving for large vehicles carries a risk of being rejected by the public with a single accident, a senior official of a commercial vehicle-maker said. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

US President Donald Trump is arriving in Asia for a whirlwind week of diplomacy, which includes a much-anticipated meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. Top of the agenda between the two will be trade - an area where tensions between the world's two biggest economies have once again been ramping up. Trump lands in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, as a summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, begins on Sunday. He will then visit Japan and finally South Korea, where the White House says he will meet Xi. So what are the wins Trump and other leaders are hoping for, and what are the pitfalls?

SoftBank has raised at least $24 billion in loans and bonds so far in 2025 and is seeking to raise more in the overseas bond market. SoftBank Group is returning to the overseas bond market for the second time this year amid an aggressive fundraising push for artificial intelligence, led by its bet on OpenAI. The Japanese technology investment giant is looking to raise about $1.5 billion to $2 billion in the dollar debt market, and about €500 million ($580 million) from euro-denominated notes, according to people familiar with the matter. A spokesperson for SoftBank said the bond deal size hasn't been finalized, declining to comment further. With a heavy emphasis on new AI investments, SoftBank's billionaire founder Masayoshi Son has pledged as much as $500 billion for a project known as Stargate and announced a planned $30 billion stake in OpenAI earlier this year.

OpenAI has unveiled ChatGPT Atlas, a long-anticipated artificial intelligence-powered web browser built around its popular chatbot, in a direct challenge to Google Chrome's dominance. OpenAI on Tuesday unveiled ChatGPT Atlas, a long-anticipated artificial intelligence-powered web browser built around its popular chatbot, in a direct challenge to Google Chrome's dominance. The launch marks OpenAI's latest move to capitalize on 800 million weekly active ChatGPT users, as it expands into more aspects of users' online lives by collecting data about consumers' browser behavior. It could accelerate a broader shift toward AI-driven search, as users increasingly turn to conversational tools that synthesize information instead of relying on traditional keyword-based results from Google -- intensifying competition between OpenAI and Google. Shares of Alphabet, which owns the Chrome browser, were down 1.8% in afternoon trading.

OpenAI has rolled out a social app powered by Sora 2, its artificial intelligence video generator, which was quickly flooded with videos featuring iconic Japanese intellectual property. In a short video widely shared online, Pokemon frolic through a lush green field while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman watches from the sidelines. He then turns to the camera and says, "I hope Nintendo doesn't sue us." Named for the Japanese word for "sky" due to the product's "limitless potential," according to company lore, the platform was released to a handful of users last week and was quickly flooded with videos featuring iconic Japanese intellectual property (IP), including Pokemon, One Piece and Dragon Ball Z. Such videos, which are only possible to generate because of OpenAI "training" Sora 2 on the work of human creators, have been widely branded "AI slop" by critics.

MUNICH - Blocked from the U.S. market, Chinese self-driving technology firms are accelerating their push into Europe, setting up headquarters, striking data deals and road-testing -- prompting alarm from local rivals over competition concerns. In China, the world's largest car market, more than half of cars sold -- including many entry-level models -- now offer autonomous driving technology, sometimes as standard. Beijing is pushing its companies to dominate autonomous-vehicle development globally while crafting national regulations to provide a clear roadmap at home. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks in Washington in July. OpenAI signed a multiyear partnership Monday with chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices as the ChatGPT-maker continues an investment spree to secure massive amounts of computing power for rolling out generative artificial intelligence. The companies announced the plan to develop AI data centers that the chipmaker said would bring in tens of billions of dollars in new revenue over the next five years. AMD's share price surged 35% when markets opened on news of the agreement that would see the company deliver six gigawatts worth of chips to the ChatGPT-maker. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

Competition heats up to challenge Nvidia's AI chip dominance Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. New York - The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution has whetted the appetites of Nvidia's competitors, who are seeking to close the gap on the chip giant, which has so far been the central playmaker in the AI revolution. Virtually unknown to the general public just three years ago, Nvidia now boasts the world's highest revenue, driven by sales of its graphics cards -- or GPUs (graphics processing units) -- the processors that are key to building the technology behind ChatGPT and its rivals. While it was not the first to develop GPUs, the California-based group made them its specialty starting in the late 1990s, at the very beginning of cloud computing, and thus has unique experience in the field. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

Residents leave their apartment building, which was damaged by a Russian drone strike, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Sunday. LVIV, Ukraine - NATO member Poland said it scrambled aircraft early on Sunday to ensure its air safety after Russia launched airstrikes on Ukraine, with Ukrainian officials reporting missiles and drones raining down on the Lviv region near the Polish border. Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness, Poland's operational command said in a post on X. Eastern-flank NATO members are on high alert after Poland shot down suspected Russian drones in its airspace in September and drone sightings and air incursions, including in Copenhagen and Munich, have led to chaos in European aviation. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.