Later this year, the dedicated News tab will be removed from Facebook’s parent company, Meta, in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Following the company’s decision to ban news content in Canada, where it must pay publishers under a new law, this decision was made. The dedicated News tab will be gone from Facebook starting in December of this year, while news organisations in the UK, France, and Germany can still publish links, Reels, and other information there.
According to Meta, the business has no plans to renew or create new partnerships for news material in these nations, but it will uphold any current Facebook News agreements it currently has with publishers there. Furthermore, Meta has no plans to release new, specially crafted products.
This choice is consistent with Meta’s plan to devote more funds to programmes and goods that cater to user interests. Less than 3% of what users see in their Facebook feeds consists of news information, with a higher emphasis being placed on short-form videos, social interactions, and engagement with a variety of interests and passions. Despite this change, Meta continues to be dedicated to giving users access to trustworthy information across all of its platforms and to working with independent fact-checkers to combat disinformation.
This response to the Online News Act, which requires the major social media platforms pay news organisations and enter into licencing agreements for utilising their content, comes after Meta recently blocked news items on Facebook and Instagram in Canada.
A86: AMD Commits $400 Million Investment in New Bengaluru Campus, Boosting India’s Semiconductor Ecosystem
As a statement of commitment to the Indian semiconductor industry, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has declared its plan to invest about $400 million in India over the next five years. With this huge investment, a new AMD campus will be built in Bengaluru (Bangalore), Karnataka, which is expected to grow to be the company’s largest design hub. By 2028, the project is projected to create about 3,000 engineering positions, greatly enhancing India’s tech labour force.
The campus in Bengaluru, which measures an astonishing 500,000 square feet (46,500 square metres), will have modern laboratory facilities. I appreciate AMD’s decision to establish its largest R&D design centre in India and the extension of the India-AMD cooperation, said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Skill Development, and Entrepreneurship. It will undoubtedly be crucial in creating a top-notch ecosystem for semiconductor design and innovation. In addition, it would open up a wealth of opportunities for our enormous pool of highly qualified semiconductor engineers and researchers and will help realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of making India a magnet for global talent.
In 2001, AMD opened a location in New Delhi and since then, the company has expanded to employ more than 6,500 experts throughout India. With the addition of the Bengaluru campus, AMD will have ten locations throughout India, including facilities in Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
In addition to its large investment in India, AMD is committing $135 million over the next four years for semiconductor research and development in Ireland. This financing will concentrate on developing data centre, networking, 6G, and generative AI technologies. To assist with these R&D activities, AMD intends to employ about 290 engineers and researchers in Ireland.
In 2022, AMD paid $49 billion (initially proposed at $35 billion) to acquire FPGA manufacturer Xilinx, which included Xilinx’s Irish manufacturing and engineering centre. Since then, the AMD Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC was produced in major part in the Ireland R&D facility, which has grown to be one of the company’s biggest in Europe.
The commitment of AMD to Ireland’s innovation ecosystem was expressed by Ruth Cotter, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Communications, and Human Resources. She said, “By further investing and expanding our presence in Dublin and Cork, we are committed to continuing to both drive innovation in Ireland and to support the European semiconductor ecosystem.”
The company’s data centre business has performed well, witnessing a little uptick from $1.293 billion to $1.295 billion year over year. AMD reported a nine percent year over year decline in revenue in its first financial quarter, which was mostly related to the falling PC market. The major investments AMD has made in Ireland and India show how committed the company is to advancing semiconductor technology and growing its worldwide presence.