Cloud Mining Company Wins Chinese Court Case; Regains More Than 485000 AMD Radeon GPUs

Genesis Mining, An Iceland-based cloud mining outfit, recently won a lawsuit in a Chinese court, against a Chinese hosting provider, Chuangshiji Technology Limited. By decree of China’s Supreme Court, the defendant was ordered to return the Radeon RX 470 8GB GPUs it seized from Genesis Mining and by all, we mean all 485681 units.

Genesis Mining’s legal woes began in 2018, when it took Chuangshiji Technology Limited to court, over multiple monetary issues with the latter. The lawsuit, which stretched over a span of several years, was filed in 2019, after the defendant began withholding said RX 470 GPUs, presumably purchased by Genesis Mining. The Genesis lawsuit specifically demanded that Chuangjishi hand over more than 560000 GPUs, along with 60000 ASIC miners after the company terminated its agreement with the company.

Naturally, things didn’t go according to plan for Genesis; Chuangjishi refused to comply and instead, began selling its ill-gotten gains, all without Genesis’ consent.

Sadly, Genesis’ victory in the Chinese court is a Pyrrhic one; while the Icelandic cloud-based mining company may have won back its nearly half a million RX 470 GPUs, China’s recent crackdown on cryptominers and their farms means that the company will have to consider two alternatives: shift its operations out of China and into a country where cryptomining isn’t banned or find new homes for them, the latter being an arduous task, given the age of the RX 470 and its GPU core.

That said, selling them to actual gamers might actually net Genesis a tidy profit, especially given the ongoing chip and GPU shortage that is happening around the world.

Foxconn Reportedly In Discussions To Buy Stake In Malaysian Tech Company DNeX

Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn is reportedly engaging in talks to buy a stake in Malaysian technology company Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX), sources told Bloomberg.

Interestingly enough, the Taiwanese firm lost a bidding war to DNeX a few months ago over the acquisition of chipmaker SilTerra Malaysia Sdn Bhd. According to a Bloomberg source, Foxconn could buy a minority stake in DNeX and help grow SilTerra’s business.

Sources informed the US news outlet that the situation is fluid – the discussions are ongoing and could still possibly lead nowhere. When asked separately by Bloomberg, DNeX said it cannot comment on any specific discussion while Foxconn declined to comment.

In February, DNeX and its Chinese investor partner won their bid to acquire SilTerra from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional for RM273 million. Speaking to reporters later, Foxconn Chairman Young Liu indicated that the firm was still interested in obtaining a partnership with SilTerra.

With the world facing a crippling chip shortage, Foxconn has been expanding its footprint in the semiconductor business. Earlier this month, it entered a joint venture with fellow Taiwanese firm Yageo to form a company dedicated to making chips.

Relatedly, Foxconn itself sees the global chip shortage possibly lasting well into the second quarter of 2022.

Intel Ordered To Pay US$2.18 Billion To Previously Inactive Company In Patent Lawsuit

A US court has ordered Intel to pay US$2.18 billion (~RM8.83 billion) to VLSI Technology for infringing two chip-related patents owned by the latter, Bloomberg said. In a strange twist, VLSI was previously inactive for 20 years from 1999, and then seemingly emerged again in 2019 just to sue Intel, The Verge noted.

Indeed, Intel lawyer William Lee told the court that VLSI didn’t have products and that the lawsuit was its only source of potential revenue. VLSI “took two patents off the shelf that hadn’t been used for 10 years and said, ‘We’d like $2 billion,’” Lee said, according to Bloomberg.

Lee called VLSI’s demand “outrageous” and argued that it didn’t deserve more than US$2.2 million (~RM8.9 million). The jury obviously disagreed, resulting in one of the largest patent-damages award in US history – equivalent to half of Intel’s fourth quarter profit.

Intel said it would appeal the court’s decision.

Here’s where it gets complicated. Electronics giant Philips bought VLSI in 1999. Later, VLSI assets find their way into NXP, a Philips spinoff company that makes chips.

A company named Freescale Semiconductor used to hold one of the patents in question, and SigmaTel the other. Freescale eventually acquired SigmaTel and then was itself acquired by NXP in 2015. Bloomberg Law said the two patents were transferred to VLSI in 2019.

Tim Cook Says Apple Acquires A Company Every Three To Four Weeks

Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed to shareholders on Tuesday that the tech giant buys a company every three to four weeks, the BBC said. Over the last six years, the iPhone maker has acquired about 100 smaller companies, a testament to the company’s deep pockets and immense power.

Cook explained to shareholders that the acquisitions were mostly geared towards obtaining technology and talent. In the past, Apple notably bought headphone company Beats Electronics – famously founded by rapper Dr.Dre – for US$3 billion (~RM12.1 billion) and music recognition software company Shazam for US$400 million (~RM1.6 billion).

A sign of its continuing interest in self-driving technologies, Apple bought Drive.ai, a self-driving shuttle company, in 2019. More recently, over the past year, Apple has acquired artificial intelligence (AI) companies, a virtual reality (VR) events business, a payments startup and a podcast business, the BBC said.

Still, despite its remarkable pace of acquisitions, Apple forks out considerably less money compared to its competitors. Microsoft bought LinkedIn for US$26 billion (~RM105 billion), Facebook bought WhatsApp for US$19 billion (~RM76.8 billion), and Amazon bought Whole Foods for US$13.7 billion (~RM55.3 billion).

The BBC noted that the company’s ten biggest acquisitions put together would still be worth much less than any of those deals. There could be a smart and deliberate rationale behind this – Gizmodo helpfully noted that Apple typically purchases smaller companies that fall way below the threshold where antitrust regulators would step in.

So while Apple is regularly accused of monopolising its iOS app ecosystem, its buying sprees attract far less attention.

Baidu Has Picked CEO And Brand Name For Joint Electric Car Company With Geely

Baidu CEO Robin Li announced that the Chinese search giant had settled on a CEO and brand name for the electric car company it recently formed with Geely. He said this during Baidu’s latest earnings call but didn’t reveal the name of the CEO or the name of the new company.

However, CNBC, citing a source, claimed that the man picked for CEO is Xia Yiping, a co-founder of Mobike – a bicycle-sharing start-up. His LinkedIn profile indicated that he worked for Fiat Chrysler and Ford before co-founding Mobike which was bought over by the Chinese food delivery firm Meituan in 2018. However, Baidu declined to comment when it was contacted by CNBC.

In its electric vehicle venture with Geely, the majority shareholder is Baidu and Li has previously described the company as combining Baidu’s expertise in autonomous driving with Geely’s expertise in the automotive industry. But when the venture was announced, it wasn’t clear if self-driving cars were on its roadmap.

Li put that to rest during the aforementioned earnings call, saying that the company envisioned an “intelligent” vehicle with autonomous driving technology, the South China Morning Post reported. He said the new EV company aimed to launch its first vehicle in about three years.

The electric car initiative is part of Baidu’s big push to diversify away from its core advertising business. Baidu is already looking to enter the chip-making business through a new AI semiconductor company.