news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Internet users around the world encounter "Microsoft blue screen"

On July 19, Microsoft's blue screen became a hot topic. Microsoft said on the 20th local time that there was a "defect" in the software update released by CrowdStrike, a US computer security technology company, and the resulting failure was estimated to have affected nearly 8.5 million devices installed with the system worldwide.

A large number of netizens posted pictures showing that their company computers had blue screens, indicating that the computer had encountered a problem and needed to be restarted. At the same time, on the X platform, netizens from the United States, Japan, Mexico, India and other parts of the world also posted pictures showing blue screens, some of which showed the "csagent.sys" error.

The Microsoft blue screen incident affected multiple industries and individuals around the world, including aviation, hotels, banks, schools, and companies. Globally, major U.S. airlines grounded their flights on Friday due to communication problems, and the global network systems of electric car giant Tesla, media company PR Newswire, and healthcare company IQVIA were all affected.

Comment: Experts say that to ensure that users can get timely network security protection, security software is usually updated frequently, and the high update frequency may be the reason why CrowdStrike failed to conduct sufficient testing before launching updates to users. Experts also said that a safer method is to provide a small number of specific user groups for trial after updating the software, and then officially promote it to all users.

U.S. chip companies' market value evaporated by more than $500 billion on Wednesday

On July 17, local time, the share prices of semiconductor companies in the U.S. collectively plummeted, with a total market value evaporating by more than $500 billion. Nvidia's share price fell 6.6%, and its market value evaporated by $205.9 billion overnight. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 6.8%, marking the worst trading day since 2020. However, thanks to the prosperity of AI, the index has still risen by 30% so far this year.

However, among all American chip companies, Intel's stock price rose instead of falling.

Comment: Intel is working to expand its wafer manufacturing capacity and build more chip foundries in the U.S. The Semiconductor Industry Association predicts that by 2032, the U.S. domestic chip manufacturing capacity will triple and is expected to produce 30% of the world's advanced process chips.

Currently, TSMC is still the world's largest chip foundry, and major technology companies such as Apple and Nvidia are TSMC's customers. TSMC is also investing billions of dollars to build new factories overseas, including $65 billion to build three factories in Arizona, USA.

French antitrust regulator investigates Nvidia

On July 15th local time, the French antitrust agency confirmed that it was investigating chip maker Nvidia for anti-competitive behavior.

Benoit Coeure, chairman of the French Competition Authority, said on the sidelines of a press conference on Monday that if the investigation yields results, it would mean Nvidia would be prosecuted.

Comment: In a previous report on competition in generative artificial intelligence, French regulators pointed out that chip suppliers are at risk of abusing their dominant position. Nvidia currently holds about 80% of the market share in the artificial intelligence chip market.

The agency stressed that the industry's over-reliance on Nvidia's CUDA chip programming software is worrying, and mentioned its uneasiness about Nvidia's investment in cloud service providers such as CoreWeave that focus on artificial intelligence.

Chinese researchers discovered another new type of high-temperature superconductor

On July 18, the team led by Professor Zhao Jun of the Department of Physics at Fudan University published a major research result in the journal Nature, successfully developing a high-quality single crystal sample of three-layer nickel oxide La4Ni3O10, and confirming the pressure-induced bulk superconductivity in nickel oxide. The superconducting volume fraction of the three-layer nickel oxide discovered this time reached 86%, which is close to that of copper oxide high-temperature superconductors, and undoubtedly confirms the bulk superconductivity of nickel oxide.

Comment: The mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity has always been regarded as the "crown jewel" of condensed matter physics. However, the physical mechanism behind high-temperature superconducting materials is still unclear, making it difficult to achieve effective and controllable large-scale preparation and application. Scientists around the world are working hard to achieve this goal.

Since the discovery of copper oxide superconductors in 1986, research on their superconducting mechanism has encountered a bottleneck. Zhao Jun said that the discovery of new superconductors can provide a new perspective and platform for research in the field of high-temperature superconductivity.

The number of express delivery orders exceeded 80 billion in the first half of the year

Recently, the State Post Bureau announced the operation of the postal industry in the first half of 2024, and the express delivery industry data hit a new high. The data showed that in the first half of the year, my country's express delivery business volume totaled 80.16 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%, and the business volume hit a new high. Among them, the express delivery business revenue totaled 653.0 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.1%.

In the first half of the year, cross-regional delivery became increasingly active, and the development of non-local business accelerated. In the first quarter, the total volume of non-local express delivery business reached 32.78 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 25.2%, and the proportion in the industry increased to 88.3%. In the second quarter, non-local business continued to develop, and its share in the industry is expected to increase by 1.3% compared with the same period last year.

Comment: From the perspective of demand, both holidays and e-commerce promotions have driven the growth of express delivery business. But on the other hand, as the number of express delivery orders gradually increases, the industry still faces challenges such as low unit prices.

Experts said that from the perspective of industry competition and supervision, the industry's high-quality development is already accelerating. In terms of industry norms, the linkage effect brought about by the express market management measures and express service standards that came into effect in March is expected to continue to have a greater impact on the industry from the second half of this year to the first half of next year.

Haier Smart Home plans to acquire Electrolux's water heater business in South Africa

Haier Smart Home (600690.SH) announced on July 18 that it had signed relevant transaction documents with the Swedish Electrolux Group on the same day, intending to acquire 100% of the shares of Electrolux South Africa Proprietary Limited ("ESA"), a subsidiary of Electrolux engaged in water heater business in the South African market, for 2.45 billion South African rand (equivalent to approximately 980 million yuan) and to take over its home appliance business personnel.

Comment: Electrolux is a well-known home appliance manufacturer headquartered in Europe, and its performance has been under pressure in recent years. Public information shows that Electrolux's operating profit loss in the fourth quarter of 2023 was about 3.2 billion kronor, while its operating profit loss in the same period of 2022 was 2 billion kronor, and its sales remained basically unchanged. Electrolux is facing challenges from Chinese companies in developed countries such as Europe and North America, where it used to have advantages. At the beginning of this year, there were rumors that Midea Group, another leading white appliance company in China, was interested in discussing mergers and acquisitions with Electrolux, but there has been no follow-up so far. Electrolux's sale of its South African water heater business can be seen as "cutting off its arm to survive", and it intends to turn losses around as soon as possible by transferring part of its business.