China Considers New Rules to Limit Purchases of Foreign AI Chips Amid Growing Demand 
Micron to Buy Powerchip Fab for $1.8 Billion, Shares Surge Nearly 10% 
Asia Manufacturing PMI Rebounds as Exports and Tech Demand Drive Growth into 2026 
Microsoft Strikes Landmark Soil Carbon Credit Deal With Indigo Carbon to Boost Carbon-Negative Goal 
Trump Pushes Tech Giants to Absorb AI Data Center Power Costs, Citing Microsoft Changes 
China Halts Shipments of Nvidia H200 AI Chips, Forcing Suppliers to Pause Production 
China Imposes 55% Tariff on Beef Imports Above Quota to Protect Domestic Industry 
Publishers Seek to Join Lawsuit Against Google Over Alleged AI Copyright Infringement 
California Attorney General Orders xAI to Halt Illegal Grok Deepfake Imagery 
South Korea Inflation Rises to 2.3% in December, Matching Market Expectations 
USDA $12 Billion Farm Aid Program Draws Mixed Reactions from Row Crop Farmers 
China’s AI Models Narrow the Gap With the West, Says Google DeepMind CEO 
Federal Reserve Begins Treasury Bill Purchases to Stabilize Reserves and Money Markets 
U.S. Dollar Starts 2026 Weak as Yen, Euro and Sterling Hold Firm Amid Rate Cut Expectations 
Trump Delays Tariff Increases on Furniture and Cabinets for One More Year 
Amazon revealed its Nova foundation AI models at the AWS conference, a move poised to disrupt the competitive AI landscape. With advanced content creation tools, Amazon is taking a direct shot at Adobe and Meta.
Amazon Unveils Foundation AI Models at AWS Conference
At its annual AWS conference, Amazon unveiled a stack of new AI platforms called foundation models. These models can generate text, images, and videos, among other things.
Its new products put it in competition with Adobe and Meta, two of its rivals in the race to attract clients looking to automate more of their services.
In a Tuesday announcement, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy unveiled the new "Nova" models. The new services were inspired by a wish list that the developers had, according to Jassy.
"They want better latency. They want lower cost. They want the ability to do fine tuning," Jassy explained.
Amazon Steps Up in AI Race Amid Industry Competition
At the Las Vegas conference, Amazon made its most significant moves to dispel rumors that it was left behind by rivals in the race to build artificial intelligence applications.
The announcement of new artificial intelligence applications for video generation from a single image or text cue has been quite popular, with companies including Adobe, Meta, OpenAI, and ByteDance—the parent company of TikTok—among many others.
Nova Reel Highlights Short Video Capabilities
The six-second films that customers may create with Amazon's Nova Reel software, the company announced on Tuesday, can be utilized for purposes such as product displays on the Amazon website. In the next few months, Amazon will roll out videos that can be up to two minutes long.
Technologists in the entertainment business can't wait to get their hands on these technologies so they can speed up and improve their filmmaking processes. Some people are still concerned that these systems could violate copyright laws.
Canvas Introduced for AI Image Generation
Also on Tuesday, Amazon announced Canvas, a tool it has created to create visuals based on brief written instructions. To make sure the software is used responsibly and to stop harmful content from being shared, Jassy said that Amazon would utilize watermarking.
Additional announcements made on Tuesday will help to reduce the time required to process and evaluate content.
