Consumer Tech News (Sep 14-Sep 18): DOE Backs Quantum Computer With Self-Correcting Errors, OpenAI Faces AI Security Concerns & More

The Department of Energy (DOE) is putting up to $215 million behind a single goal: a quantum computer that actually corrects its own errors and does useful science by 2028. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) warned that if BYD Co. Ltd.‘s (OTC:BYDDF) (OTC:BYDDY) CEO Wang Chuanfu joins Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s business delegation to the White House next week, it could signal that discussions are underway over whether to allow Chinese automakers greater access to the U.S. market, a move she said would be "a terrible outcome" for Michigan’s auto industry. Security specialists from the U.S. and China have called on their governments to brace for potential artificial intelligence (AI) threats that could compromise nuclear command networks or initiate military cyber operations. Japan and the United States reportedly held working-level talks this week on building a semiconductor plant in the U.S., part of Tokyo’s $550 billion investment pledge under their tariff agreement. A federal judge has reportedly ordered Alphabet Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google to overhaul its online advertising technology practices and appoint an internal antitrust compliance monitor, while declining to force a breakup of its ad tech business. Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang is reportedly expected to join President Donald Trump at a state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping. Smartphones, Electrical & Network Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is rolling out its latest iPhone lineup under new CEO John Ternus, with higher-priced premium models launching first and the company’s inaugural foldable device set to follow. Apple is developing an AI server that could use two or four planned M8 Ultra chips, The Information reported on Wednesday. The iPhone company is considering Nvidia Corp‘s (NASDAQ:NVDA) NVLink Fusion technology to connect the processors. Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) said it is extending its partnership with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) to create an “agentic, unified data foundation” combining Nokia Data Suite with Microsoft Fabric. Generac Holdings Inc (NYSE:GNRC) announced a supply agreement with Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) for data center backup generators. Semiconductors & Software China’s CXMT Corp. is reportedly preparing to enter NAND flash memory after capturing nearly 10% of global DRAM revenue, a move that could eventually pressure Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) and SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) in a fast-growing part of the AI memory boom. Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ:LRCX) lans to invest 100 billion rupees (about $1.2 billion) to build India’s first semiconductor component manufacturing unit, CNBC-TV18 reported. SK hynix Inc. (NASDAQ:SKHY) rose in Friday premarket trading following reports that its Solidigm subsidiary is considering a U.S. NAND flash memory factory. Hundreds of Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) employees rallied in Taiwan on Thursday, threatening to strike after rejecting the company’s fiscal 2026 bonus offer, with workers reportedly saying the offer fell short of expectations. Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) raised its fiscal 2027 revenue outlook to the high end of its previous range. Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) announced partnerships with Nvidia, Salesforce and Amazon.com, Inc‘s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon Web Services to bring SPECS into enterprise environments. Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) announced high-volume shipments of laser-integrated optical engine chips for artificial intelligence infrastructure. CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) said it established an at-the-market stock offering program that could allow the artificial intelligence cloud company to sell up to 35 million Class A shares. GlobalFoundries Inc. (NASDAQ:GFS) and Marvell Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) are expanding their long-running manufacturing partnership to increase production capacity for technology used to move data quickly across AI data centers. ON Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ:ON) CEO Hassane El-Khoury expects rising compute requirements across AI data centers, automotive and industrial markets to drive semiconductor demand, while new technologies and the planned Synaptics Inc. (NASDAQ:SYNA) acquisition expand the company’s longer-term opportunity. ON expects its AI data center revenue to more than double in 2026 and double again in 2027. Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ) plans to deploy its latest in-house artificial intelligence chip in data centers during the first half of 2027. Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) said it is investing in wind projects that will deliver more than 1.7 gigawatts of carbon-free electricity in Texas as the software giant expands its artificial intelligence infrastructure. Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) on Tuesday unveiled Axiom Solutions International Inc. as the name of its planned independent cloud and power infrastructure company. The move advances Flex’s plan to separate the fast-growing business into a standalone public company. Automobile, Robots & Spacecraft Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) or SpaceX has won Federal Communications Commission approval to provide international telecommunications services as the company builds Starlink Mobile toward direct-to-phone 5G connectivity. SpaceX is targeting Sept. 22 for Starship’s first attempt to reach Earth orbit, pending regulatory approval. The mission will deploy 26 third-generation Starlink satellites, making it the first Starship flight to carry an operational payload. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the company’s Starship rocket could eventually deliver between 1 million and 10 million tons of payload to orbit annually as operations scale. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the commercial spaceflight company will begin deploying the Starlink V3 constellation in September. Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX have sued Illinois nanotechnology company TERA-print LLC over the “Terafab” name planned for their $16.8 billion AI chip complex in Texas. Tesla said that the upcoming unveiling of the anticipated Roadster high-performance vehicle on Oct. 1 would far exceed expectations. XPeng Inc. (NYSE:XPEV) launched its next-generation G9L flagship SUV in China. The company plans to introduce the model globally at the Paris Motor Show on Oct. 12, with availability planned across 64 markets. Alphabet Inc.-backed (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Robotaxi service Waymo has announced the expansion of its autonomous vehicles in Las Vegas, as well as a 2027 rollout of Waymo vehicles in Tokyo. AI & Bitcoin Anthropic said Claude is taking on an increasingly central role in the development of the company’s next-generation AI models, with the chatbot now leading more than one-quarter of its measured research and development work. OpenAI reportedly suffered an AI-driven hack that was executed by independent security researchers utilizing Anthropic‘s Claude software. OpenAI disclosed six instances of concerning AI behavior, including models concealing errors, fabricating information and taking unauthorized actions. ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is taking GPT-6 Astra into the legal industry with a specialized platform aimed at helping law firms research cases, draft legal advice and develop AI-powered tools. Cipher Digital Inc. (NASDAQ:CIFR) stock rose on Thursday, after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) published a grid capacity update for the company’s data centers. Nebius Group N.V. (NASDAQ:NBIS) plans to raise prices across its GPU cloud services by about 20% as computing capacity remains tight. OpenAI disclosed six instances of concerning AI behavior, including models concealing errors, fabricating information and taking unauthorized actions. OpenAI is reportedly in early discussions with major investors for a fresh capital raise that could value the ChatGPT maker at roughly $1.2 trillion. Photo via Shutterstock