🤖 ASML says next-gen EUV tools ready to mass-produce chips, marking key shift for AI chip production  

ASML Holding's next-generation chipmaking machine is ready for manufacturers to start bringing it into use for production at high volumes, a big step for the chip industry.

The Dutch company produces the world's only commercial extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) tools, which are a critical piece of equipment for chipmakers. This new tool will help chipmakers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Intel produce more powerful and efficient chips. ASML plans to release this data, which represents a key milestone, at a technical conference in San Jose on Thursday, the company's chief technology officer, Marco Pieters, told.

The High-NA EUV tools now experience limited downtime, have produced 500,000 dinner-plate-sized silicon wafers and can draw sufficiently precise patterns that make up the circuits on the chip, the ASML data shows, Pieters said.

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🤝 Meta signs multi-billion-dollar deal to rent Google AI chips

Meta Platforms has signed a multi-billion dollar deal to rent AI chips from Google to develop new AI models. Earlier this week, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) said it would sell up to $60 billion in AI chips to Meta. The Facebook owner earlier this month also signed a deal with Nvidia to buy its current and future AI chips.

Google was pushing to make its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) a viable alternative to Nvidia's market-leading GPUs. TPU sales have become a crucial growth engine of Google's cloud revenue as it seeks to prove to investors that its AI investments are generating returns. Also Meta is also in talks with Google to buy the TPUs for its data centers as early as next year, though the status of those discussions could not be determined. 🤔

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⚡️Trump confirms Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead

President Donald Trump said Saturday that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is dead following a barrage of joint US-Israeli strikes on the nation. The president noted that Khamenei’s killing in a Truth Social post, calling him “one of the most evil people in History.” In his post, Trump again urged Iranians to overthrow the current regime, calling it the “single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”

Iranian state media confirms that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead. 40 days of public mourning have been announced in the wake of Khamenei’s killing and seven days of public holidays.

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🤖 Google wants Intrinsic to be ‘Android of robotics’ as it pushes into physical AI

Earlier this week, Google announced that Intrinsic, an internal robotics software project, will be moved from the “Other Bets” category into the main company. Now Google is aiming to mimic its Android strategy for robots.

Intrinsic’s flagship product, Flowstate, is a web-based platform that allows users to build robotic applications without having to write thousands of lines of code. Intrinsic’s team will work closely with DeepMind’s AI technology stack, Google’s Gemini, infrastructure and cloud teams.

Joining Google allows Intrinsic to amplify collective work across frontier AI spanning R&D through to deployment and daily operations enabling industrial use cases in manufacturing and logistics.

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🇷🇺🇺🇦 Russia and Ukraine agree local truce to allow repairs at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) posted on X that a truce had taken effect in southern Ukraine to enable the restoration of the 330-kilovolt supply line to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Situated in the southeast of the country, the plant is Ukraine’s largest and houses six of its 15 operational nuclear power reactors. Both countries have accused each other of raising the risk of a catastrophic accident by staging attacks near to the plant.

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✈️ Archer to bring Starlink onboard midnight air taxis

Archer Aviation Inc. announced it will work with Starlink to bring stable, reliable and high-speed connectivity to its air taxis, marking Starlink’s entry into the emerging air mobility category and an industry-first collaboration.

Under the agreement, Archer will install Starlink into its Midnight aircraft and conduct testing. Midnight is Archer’s piloted electric air taxi designed to carry up to 4 passengers while producing less noise and emissions than a traditional helicopter. Midnight is built with redundant systems across the aircraft — including 12 total engines and propellers — allowing Archer to target similar levels of safety as commercial airliners. Archer’s goal is to enable passengers in Midnight to travel across cities in 5-15 minutes.

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🇨🇳China’s annual policy summit to focus on tech shift and debt issuance

China is expected to set a 2026 economic growth target of 4.5%–5.0% during its upcoming National People’s Congress (NPC), signaling that policymakers may be willing to accept a slower expansion in exchange for long-term structural health. The annual meeting, which begins on March 5, will serve as a critical platform for Beijing to outline its new five-year plan.

A major theme of the upcoming summit is expected to be the "anti-involution" campaign, launched in 2025 to curb the "cut-throat" price wars that have plagued industries like solar and electric vehicles. The government is pushing for a shift toward quality and innovation over sheer production volume. In the technology space, AI still remains the primary market driver, but the focus is moving away from traditional internet giants like Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd ADR and Tencent Holdings Ltd ADR to smaller, specialized firms such as MiniMax Group Inc.

To support its growth ambitions and stabilize domestic demand, China is expected to lean heavily on the bond market. Analysts anticipate the issuance of roughly 1.5 trillion yuan ($219 billion) in ultra-long special sovereign bonds, an increase from last year’s 1.3 trillion yuan. The upcoming plan is also expected to take a bolder stance on the internationalization of the yuan. 

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⚡️🇦🇪 UAE stock markets to remain closed till March 3 amid regional tensions

The UAE bourses – Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Dubai Financial Market – will remain closed on Monday and Tuesday due to the ongoing tensions in the region, the regulatory authority said on Sunday.

“In implementation of its supervisory and regulatory role over the UAE capital markets, and pursuant to the applicable laws and regulations, the UAE Capital Market Authority (CMA) announces that the UAE capital markets (Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and Dubai Financial Market (DFM) will be closed on Monday, March 2, and Tuesday, March 3, 2026,” CMA said.

The Authority said it would continue to monitor developments in the region and assess the situation on an ongoing basis, taking any further measures as necessary.

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✅ California introduces age verification law for all operating systems, including Linux and SteamOS

California's Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in October 2025, requires every operating system provider in California to collect age information from users at account setup and transmit that data to app developers via a real-time API, with the law taking effect on January 1, 2027.

The operating system (OS) providers include Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, Linux distributions and Valve's SteamOS. The law does not require photo ID uploads or facial recognition, with users instead simply self-reporting their age, setting AB 1043 apart from similar laws passed in Texas and Utah. Penalties for non-compliance run up to $2,500 per affected child for negligent violations and $7,500 for intentional ones, enforced by the California Attorney General.

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🇩🇪🇫🇷🇬🇧 Germany, France and UK tell Iran to stop attacks in region

European leaders have urged Iran to seek a “negotiated solution” as they attempt to end the outbreak of war between the US, Israel and Iran through diplomatic means. In a rare joint statement, the leaders of France, Germany and the UK called on the Iranian state to allow its people to determine their own future and condemned Tehran’s retaliatory attacks on US army bases in the region. The statement was signed by Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Keir Starmer.

“France, Germany and the United Kingdom have consistently urged the Iranian regime to end Iran’s nuclear program, curb its ballistic missile program, refrain from its destabilising activity in the region and our homelands, and to cease the appalling violence and repression against its own people,” - it said.

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🤖 Samsung Electronics announces strategy to transition global manufacturing into ‘AI-Driven factories’ by 2030

As part of the transition, Samsung will implement digital twin-based simulations throughout its manufacturing processes and deploy specialized AI agents dedicated to quality control, production and logistics. Samsung will also expand AI integration into Environmental, Health and Safety operations.

At the center of this transformation is ‘Agentic AI’ — first introduced on the Galaxy S26 series. Samsung is progressively introducing humanoid and task-specialized robotics across its production lines, including Operating Robots for line operations and facility management, Logistics Robots for autonomous material handling and transport and Assembly Robots for precision manufacturing tasks.

In infrastructure environments where human access is limited or hazardous, the company will further deploy digital twin-integrated Environmental Safety Robots designed to systematically monitor conditions, identify potential risks and proactively mitigate on-site hazards. Samsung will showcase its industrial AI strategy and digital twin-based manufacturing innovation vision at MWC 2026 in Barcelona.

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⚡️🇬🇧 Britain has joined the blitz on Iran as it allows the US to use its airbases to stop the missile and drone strikes on allies in the Middle East.

The U.K. will allow Washington to use British bases to destroy Iran's missiles and its ability to fire them at Britain's allies in the gulf, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Sunday night.

"The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source in their storage depots or the launchers that are used to fire [them]," he said in a video posted on X. "The United States has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose. We have taken the decision to accept this request."

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