Intel on Thursday denied allegations by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing that one of its executives, Wei-Jen Lo, who formerly worked at the Taiwanese chipmaker, had leaked trade secrets.

“Based on everything we know, we have no reason to believe there is any merit to the allegations involving Mr Lo,” Intel said in an emailed statement.

Lo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Intel said the company maintains rigorous policies and controls that strictly prohibit the use or transfer of any third-party confidential information or intellectual property.

“We take these commitments seriously,” Intel said.

The U.S. chipmaker said it has welcomed back Lo and that he is widely respected across the semiconductor industry for his integrity, leadership and technical expertise. “Talent movement across companies is a common and healthy part of our industry, and this situation is no different,” the company added.

TSMC said on Tuesday it had filed a lawsuit in Taiwan’s Intellectual Property and Commercial Court against Lo, its former senior vice president.

Lo, who helped drive TSMC’s mass production of cutting edge 5-nanometre, 3-nm and 2-nm chips, joined Intel in October after retiring from TSMC following a 21-year-long career there.

Before joining TSMC in 2004, Lo worked at Intel for 18 years.

TSMC had said in a statement that “there is a high probability that Lo uses, leaks, discloses or transfers TSMC’s trade secrets and confidential information to Intel, thus making legal actions necessary

Taiwan’s economy ministry said this week that it will cooperate to determine whether the case involves the infringement of core technologies or violations of Taiwan’s National Security Act

Ai+, a new smartphone brand led by Madhav Sheth, has announced a new category, ‘Ai+ Laptab’, in which it plans to launch a smart tablet for India’s hybrid generation of learners, creators, and professionals in Q1 2026.

The Ai+ Laptab will be come in 11 inch, 12 inch and 13 inch sizes, with keyboard and stylus support. “It will be available across India through Flipkart and Ai+’s retail partners,” it said.

Till date, Ai+ has only launched two entry segment smartphones in India.

Ai+ Laptab will run on NxtQ OS, with a dedicated PC Mode for productivity interface. “Users can open multiple windows, manage documents, and even write long-form content with ease. The privacy-first architecture of NxtQ OS ensures zero pre-loaded bloatware, no invasive trackers, and full local control of user data.”

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“The Ai+ Laptab is not just another tablet. It’s our answer to the fluidity of modern life,” said Madhav Sheth, CEO, Ai+ and Founder, NxtQuantum Shift Technologies. “Indian users expect a single device to perform across roles, study, design, video calls, relaxation, without compromise. That’s what the Ai+ Laptab delivers. The Ai+ Laptab brings productivity, utility and entertainment into one space that fits naturally into everyday life.”

The Ai+ further added that this upcoming Laptab is a key step in their broader connected ecosystem, spanning smartphones, wearables, TWS, and computing. “Soon, users will experience deep software continuity across Ai+ devices, with seamless handoffs and integrated experiences.”

Ai+ will launching the Laptab at disruptive price points, the company said.

Chinese regulators have barred TikTok-owner ByteDance from deploying Nvidia chips in new data centers, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing two company employees.

ByteDance bought more Nvidia chips than any other Chinese firm in 2025 as it raced to secure computing power for its billion-plus users amid concerns Washington could curb supply, according to the report.

The reported ban underscores Beijing’s efforts to reduce reliance on U.S. technology, a campaign that has intensified as Washington tightens curbs on exports of advanced semiconductors to China.

In August, Chinese regulators asked local firms to halt new orders of Nvidia AI chips and have since pushed companies to adopt homegrown processors, Bloomberg reported, citing people close to Chinese tech regulators.

“The regulatory landscape does not allow us to offer a competitive data center GPU in China, leaving that massive market to our rapidly growing foreign competitors,” Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters.

ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Reuters reported earlier this month that the Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data centre projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically-made artificial intelligence chips.

China is accelerating plans to build an alternative AI ecosystem and achieve chip self-sufficiency, even as trade tensions with Washington remain in a fragile pause.

Washington has barred sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China, allowing only scaled-down versions such as the H20. Nvidia had introduced a China-specific chip, the RTX6000D, but demand has been tepid, with some major tech firms opting not to place orders. U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this month following talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping that Washington will “let them deal with Nvidia but not in terms of the most advanced” chips.

OpenAI has announced that ChatGPT’s voice mode will now be accessible to users within the chat itself instead of needing users to turn on a separate mode. Previously, users would have to go to the ‘Voice Mode’ option under Settings and select ‘Separate mode,’ to use the voice option. 

This took users to a separate screen with mute and record options.

The company said that this option will still remain for users who want to take the older route. 

The AI chatbot will be able to respond in images as well as you chat with it. Users will also find some upgrades like being able to view map results as well as a transcript of their conversation in the chat. 

Once users want to start typing again in chat, they can tap to “end” the voice mode and go back to text.

The feature is being rolled out for both mobile and web versions. OpenAI advised users to just update their ChatGPT app.

Alibaba released on Thursday its new Quark artificial intelligence glasses in China, heralding the Chinese tech company’s efforts to break into the AI wearables market dominated by Meta globally.

Prices will start from 1,899 yuan ($268.25) for the headset that will be powered by Alibaba’s Qwen AI model and app. Unlike other headsets made by the likes of Meta, the Quark glasses look like regular eyewear, with a black plastic frame.

Alibaba said the glasses would be deeply integrated with its apps such as payment app Alipay and its shopping site Taobao, with users able to use it for tasks such as on-the-go translation and instant price recognition.

The company is making an aggressive push into the consumer AI market after having historically lagged rivals. Earlier this month it launched a major upgrade to its AI chatbot.

The race to find new forms of devices for entertainment and computing, underpinned by AI, has fueled a battle among the biggest technology companies. Instagram-owner Meta overwhelmingly dominates the VR headset industry with about an 80% market share.

Apple sells its Vision Pro headset while Samsung Electronics released its Galaxy XR extended reality headset in October that uses AI features from Alphabet’s Google.

Other Chinese tech companies have also launched similar AI-powered glasses. Xiaomi launched a product in June, while Baidu already has a similar product being sold.

A joint venture between India’s Reliance Industries and Canadian and US companies will invest $11 billion to develop an artificial intelligence data centre in southeastern India, the state government said on Wednesday.

The five-year investment is for a one-gigawatt AI data centre in Visakhapatnam in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Google said last month it will spend $15 billion over the same period on a giant data centre and AI base in the same city, its biggest outside the United States.

The Digital Connexion joint venture is between retail-to-refining giant Reliance, Canadian multinational Brookefield and U.S. real estate investment firm Digital Realty.

The investment will drive “jobs, innovation and global tech investment”, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said in a post on social media platform X.

“This landmark project underscores Andhra Pradesh’s emergence as a leading destination for advanced digital infrastructure and next-generation computing capabilities,” the state government said in a statement.

Demand for AI tools and solutions is surging in India, which is projected to have more than 900 million internet users by year’s end.

Data centres are also an area of phenomenal global growth, fuelled by the need to store massive amounts of digital data and to train and run energy-intensive AI tools.

Leading U.S. AI firms seeking to court users in the world’s fifth-largest economy have made a flurry of announcements recently about expanding into India.

U.S. startup Anthropic said in October it plans to open an office in India next year, with its chief executive Dario Amodei meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

OpenAI has said it will open an Indian office this year, with its chief Sam Altman noting that ChatGPT usage in the country had grown fourfold over the past year.

AI firm Perplexity also announced a major partnership in July with Indian telecom giant Airtel, offering the company’s 360 million customers a free one-year Perplexity Pro subscription.