Intellectual pilfering

Hey, this is Vlad writing from Tokyo. A case of alleged industrial espionage on a grand scale has us chip geeks excited this week. But first [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hey, this is Vlad writing from Tokyo. A case of alleged industrial espionage on a grand scale has us chip geeks excited this week. But first... Today’s must reads: •  Intel is [in talks]( to become an anchor investor in Arm’s IPO •   Apple shares [closed at a record]( in the latest sign of big tech’s dominance •   Oracle [topped]( sales estimates as AI mania continues Let’s just copy the entire factory A 65-year-old former official at Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest memory chipmaker, was arrested for allegedly [stealing blueprints]( and design plans and trying to replicate an entire factory in China. If true, it’s one for the history books. The location of the alleged criminally designed fab? A mere 1.5 kilometers from Samsung’s existing memory plant in Xi’an. That’s close enough for staff at the original facility to watch its construction from their office windows. But our intrepid intellectual property interloper did more, Korean prosecutors allege. The exec was accused of poaching more than 200 semiconductor experts from Korea and stealing data worth over $200 million. The person worked at Samsung for 18 years, then another decade at a different firm. That’s quite a legacy to risk. The case illustrates the lengths people and businesses will go to to secure the semiconductors they need. It was an international operation, spanning chip companies in China and Singapore, investments from mainland China and elsewhere, and pledges of (an undelivered) $6 billion funding from a Taiwanese firm, according to the Korean authorities. The stakes are high and it’s not just the US and China that are in the game. From Japan, which is spending billions subsidizing a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. factory within its borders, to Korea, India and the EU, just about[every major nation]( is eager to secure a domestic share of chipmaking leadership. In today’s world, chips are the nutrients required to make anything grow, whether it’s a private business or a national economy. Without them, you can’t build electric vehicles, cellular networks or the next great AI innovation after ChatGPT. Nvidia Corp. [briefly](became a trillion-dollar company because it has the best AI-training chips. Oracle Corp. shares also just hit a [record](thanks to sales to artificial intelligence developers. At the same time, supply of the vital components is fragmenting, thanks to growing, US-led sanctions on China, the world’s single biggest market for semiconductors. In Washington, calls to reduce the world’s reliance on major chipmaking centers like Taiwan and Korea are growing, prompting efforts to re-shore manufacturing. Will the future be one of escalating multibillion-dollar IP espionage? That’s a question I’d rather leave open, though maybe this case out of Korea is showing us a glimpse of of what’s possible. Whether it’s the experience of the pandemic-induced supply crunch — and the way it scarred nationally-important industries like automaking — or increasingly polarized international trade, there are good reasons now to discard the old expectation that you’ll simply be able to buy whatever chips you need. —[Vlad Savov](mailto:vsavov5@bloomberg.net) The big story Google is bracing for a [formal antitrust complaint]( from the European Union that could pave the way for massive fines and strike at the heart of the advertising technology that drives most of the US firm’s revenue. Get fully charged The Federal Trade Commission plans to sue Microsoft Corp. in federal court Monday to block the company from closing its $69 billion [acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc](, according to a person familiar with the matter. Salesforce Inc. is elevating [new generative AI features]( in its products and doubling its investment in AI startups. Toyota Motor Corp. executives are sounding more confident in their ability to [build and sell millions of electric vehicles](. More than one in 10 German companies were the victim of a cyberattack last year, according to a new study, with the war in Ukraine prompting a [steep increase in hacking]( in Europe’s largest economy. 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