Technology news

12 October 2026

1. 1

   Tech selloff pushes Asian markets lower as chip shares fall

   Asian markets fell on Tuesday as a tech-led selloff on Wall Street carried into the region. Investors cut exposure to AI-related shares over stretched valuations and doubts about whether heavy AI spending will pay off, while rising borrowing costs fed fears that interest rates could stay high. Chipmakers faced extra pressure from a Chinese rival's announced memory-chip design progress and labour tension at Taiwan sites that anchor Micron's memory output. Technology names led losses in both cities, with Kioxia, Advantest and SoftBank Group among the sharpest decliners in Tokyo.

   Key facts

   • Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2% to below 68,000, its fourth straight session of losses.
   • Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.8%, or 200 points, to around 24,065 on Tuesday.
   • Reuters reported 1,994 Taoyuan union members, 99% of ballots cast, voted to authorize a strike seeking a 15% profit-sharing bonus.
   • Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said the AI boom had drawn investors whose strategies resembled gambling.
   • Brent crude climbed to around US$105.90 per barrel amid Middle East supply disruption concerns.

   Commentary

   The regional fall simply follows Wall Street; the chip losses do not, since memory makers carry risks of their own alongside doubts about AI returns. Holders of these shares now carry two separate risks at once, and upcoming earnings will show which one weighs more on results.

   Sources: TradingView, Yahoo Finance

2. 2

   Big Tech Turns to Heavy Borrowing to Fund AI Race

   The largest US technology companies are racing to develop advanced artificial intelligence while also supplying computing power to a growing field of startups, a costly race that has changed how they finance growth. Long reliant on rich revenues and rising share prices, they now rely heavily on borrowing to build the technology behind chatbots. One of the latest potential deals involves Elon Musk's SpaceX, which has increasingly focused on the AI segments of its business. Separately, Broadcom-organized financial firms are seeking financing for AI chips, a development reported days before the SpaceX news.

   Key facts

   • Bloomberg News reported SpaceX was in talks with banks and investors to borrow $40 billion for Nvidia chips.
   • Financial firms organized by Broadcom sought $60 billion in financing for AI chips for Anthropic and other companies.
   • Alphabet's Google and Meta Platforms are among the big tech firms borrowing heavily to fund AI.
   • SpaceX owns xAI, operator of the Grok chatbot and the X social platform.

   Commentary

   What changes is who carries the risk: firms that once funded growth from revenue now lean on lenders to pay for chips, tying the AI build-out to credit markets. The deals extend that dependence beyond the biggest names, so a shortfall in returns would reach lenders as well as borrowers.

   Sources: Bloomberg.com

3. 3

   Nvidia joins tech firms including Google, Meta and Microsoft in push to standardize data center development

   Nvidia is teaming up with technology firms including Google, Meta and Microsoft to speed up and standardize data center development, making the electricity-intensive facilities less vulnerable to power constraints and disruptions. In a blog post on Monday, the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker said the open-source approach would unify standards for high-speed computing, power generation and cooling, rather than relying on competing proprietary products. The push comes as developers seek to meet escalating power demands from the global deployment of artificial intelligence, and as data center projects face public pushback over energy consumption and possible cost hikes for other electric ratepayers. Developers are also investing in on-site power facilities, which avoid regional grids but add considerably to project costs.

   Key facts

   • Nvidia contributed key elements of its Vera Rubin rack computing technology to the Open Compute Project.
   • A grid resilience specification with Google, Meta and Microsoft says AI infrastructure should restore near-full load in under two seconds.
   • U.S. data center developers are about 34% short of 97 gigawatts needed through 2028, Morgan Stanley said last month.
   • PwC projects cumulative global data center spending could reach $31.5 trillion by 2050.

   Commentary

   What moved is the power constraint rather than the chip roadmap: the new standards reach past the server rack to the utility grid, which is where the bottleneck sits. Nvidia has much riding on the build-out, so unifying these designs protects its position if power, not hardware, becomes the binding limit.

   Sources: CoStar

4. 4

   East Midlands policing unit drops Palantir AI software after two-year trial

   A unit that tackles serious and organised crime in the East Midlands has decided not to continue using Palantir software after a two-year trial that began in October 2024. The unit did not renew the contract after its Home Office funding ended. Assistant Chief Constable Ian Green said the decision followed scoping work and an assessment of what the software would deliver, including future funding streams. Palantir says its software has improved public services, while Amnesty International UK welcomed the decision. Privacy experts have raised concerns that its tools enable surveillance, and the firm faces questions over its Maven Smart System, which the US has reportedly used to plan strikes across Iran.

   Key facts

   • Palantir must show it has cut links with the East Midlands unit's systems and deleted all its data.
   • The trial fed Leicestershire Police data into Palantir's Foundry operating system, which uses AI and machine learning.
   • The East Midlands unit would not disclose the trial's cost or datasets, citing commercial confidentiality and operational security.
   • Palantir says its software identified 1,000 women in Bedfordshire whose partners have domestic violence histories in a single year.
   • Amnesty International UK is campaigning against a large NHS England contract with Palantir.

   Commentary

   Funding, not the ethics debate, is the stated trigger, which makes this less a rejection of Palantir than a test of whether police budgets will keep paying for it. Palantir's defence rests on other forces' examples rather than this trial, so the decision says more about money than about whether the software works.

   Sources: BBC

5. 5

   Micron reports record fiscal fourth-quarter results and guidance above estimates

   Micron reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $54.23B, up 379% from a year earlier, driven by demand for DRAM and NAND chips used in AI infrastructure. It marked the company's sixth consecutive quarterly revenue record, and guidance for the next quarter topped estimates. Analysts remain divided. Bulls cite 26 strategic customer agreements covering over 35% of expected revenue through 2030 as making Micron more predictable, while skeptics point to Bernstein's forecast of a 43% price increase in 2027 followed by a 52% decline in 2028. The Motley Fool reported that AI data center firm Firmus pulled its IPO for lack of investor demand, a sign AI funding may be drying up and potentially hurting chip suppliers like Micron.

   Key facts

   • Fiscal fourth-quarter non-GAAP earnings per share were $33.42, beating consensus by $1.60.
   • First-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue guidance midpoint is $61.5B versus $57.93B consensus.
   • First-quarter fiscal 2027 EPS guidance midpoint is $38.15, against $35.92 consensus.
   • Fiscal 2026 total revenue reached $133.19B, a 256% increase from the prior year.
   • Management calls 86.25% gross margin the fiscal 2027 floor, with higher margins expected later.

   Commentary

   What moved is the quality of growth: nearly 20 points of the 27% quarterly DRAM revenue gain came from prices, not volume, so earnings hinge on memory prices. Customers' $32B in commitments, mostly cash deposits, shows them paying ahead, yet those price floors have yet to face a real correction, so the next downturn will test those floors.

   Sources: TradingView, The Motley Fool