AI Research
Amazon to close China-based AI research lab

July 23 (UPI) — Amazon will shut down its AI research lab in a cost-cutting move as tensions flare with China and as other global companies seek to leave the nation because of Chinese influence.
The Shanghai-based Amazon Web Services announced job layoffs last week while as the conglomerate shutters its artificial intelligence and development wing.
The closures were first reported by The Financial Times.
It was due to “strategic adjustments amid U.S.-China tensions,” an applied scientist at the lab, Wang Minjie, wrote on WeChat early this week as Amazon disbanded the team.
It was not immediately clear how many people or jobs were affected.
The Shanghai facility was established in 2018 to focus on areas such as machine learning and processing natural language.
In a statement, company spokesman Brad Glasser said Amazon “made the difficult business decision to eliminate some roles across particular teams” in its AWS division.
Meanwhile, a growing number of American corporate giants, like Microsoft and IBM, have opted to either downsize or end operations in China as geopolitical tensions rise exasperated by U.S. President Donald Trump‘s fluctuating tariff policies.
It came the same day McKinsey & Company, a large U.S. defense contractor, also revealed it was pulling back its own AI base in China as companies look to other nations such as India.
About 300 India-based Chinese workers at FoxConn, Apple’s main iPhone producer, were ordered to return home earlier this month by Chinese authorities as Apple looks elsewhere, too, for its business operations.
Amazon has been actively retreating from China in recent years, going so far in 2019 to shut down the e-commerce giant’s Chinese marketplace.
AI Research
How artificial intelligence is transforming hospitals

Story highlights
AI is changing healthcare. From faster X-ray reports to early warnings for sepsis, new tools are helping doctors diagnose quicker and more accurately. What the future holds for ethical and safe use of AI in hospitals is worth watching. Know more below.
AI Research
AI is becoming the new travel agent for younger generations, survey finds

Is travel planning the next space AI is taking over?
A new survey shows that younger Americans are relying on AI and ChatGPT more and more to construct their vacation itineraries.
The survey of 2,000 Americans (split evenly by generation) by Talker Research found that only 29% of millennials have never used AI for this reason, with just 33% of Gen Z saying the same.
This is a stark contrast to older generations that still rely on old-school, traditional methods to sort their travel plans. Seven in ten baby boomers also say they have never used AI for their travel plans.
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So exactly how are people utilizing AI in this way? The interesting results emerged in Talker Research’s new travel trend report.
The top application for AI in travel planning was found to be asking it to compare flight prices for wherever they’re headed, with 29% of all those polled saying they’ve done this.
A similar amount says AI comes in even before that: Twenty-nine percent of respondents have even asked it where they should go for their trip.
Another one in five even let AI complete a detailed plan for their whole trip, complete with sights to see, local things to do and museums to tick off.
While word of mouth and recommendations from loved ones have always been the most common way to learn about fun places to travel, the survey revealed that there’s a new contender.
YouTube (34%) was crowned as the top resource people use for travel inspo, officially topping recommendations from family (30%) and friends (28%).
The generations were split on this, as unsurprisingly, younger generations were a lot more reliant on social media than older generations.
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While YouTube was the most popular when accounting for every survey-taker, Gen Z was overwhelmingly using TikTok for travel inspiration (52%).
In comparison, just 27% of millennials and only 2% of boomers said they use TikTok for this purpose.
While AI is still fairly new, it’s easy to see this trend growing as the technology becomes more sophisticated.
Survey methodology:
This random double-opt-in survey of 2,000 Americans (500 Gen Z, 500 millennials, 500 Gen X, 500 baby boomers) was conducted between May 5 and May 8, 2025 by market research company Talker Research, whose team members are members of the Market Research Society (MRS) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).
AI Research
If I Could Only Buy 1 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chip Stock Over The Next 10 Years, This Would Be It (Hint: It’s Not Nvidia)

While Nvidia continues to capture headlines, a critical enabler of the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure boom may be better positioned for long-term gains.
When investors debate the future of the artificial intelligence (AI) trade, the conversation generally finds its way back to the usual suspects: Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and cloud hyperscalers like Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet.
Each of these companies is racing to design GPUs or develop custom accelerators in-house. But behind this hardware, there’s a company that benefits no matter which chip brand comes out ahead: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM -3.05%).
Let’s unpack why Taiwan Semi is my top AI chip stock over the next 10 years, and assess whether now is an opportune time to scoop up some shares.
Agnostic to the winner, leveraged to the trend
As the world’s leading semiconductor foundry, TSMC manufactures chips for nearly every major AI developer — from Nvidia and AMD to Amazon’s custom silicon initiatives, dubbed Trainium and Inferentia.
Unlike many of its peers in the chip space that rely on new product cycles to spur demand, Taiwan Semi’s business model is fundamentally agnostic. Whether demand is allocated toward GPUs, accelerators, or specialized cloud silicon, all roads lead back to TSMC’s fabrication capabilities.
With nearly 70% market share in the global foundry space, Taiwan Semi’s dominance is hard to ignore. Such a commanding lead over the competition provides the company with unmatched structural demand visibility — a trend that appears to be accelerating as AI infrastructure spend remains on the rise.
Image source: Getty Images.
Scaling with more sophisticated AI applications
At the moment, AI development is still concentrated on training and refining large language models (LLMs) and embedding them into downstream software applications.
The next wave of AI will expand into far more diverse and demanding use cases — autonomous systems, robotics, and quantum computing remain in their infancy. At scale, these workloads will place greater demands on silicon than today’s chips can support.
Meeting these demands doesn’t simply require additional investments in chips. Rather, it requires chips engineered for new levels of efficiency, performance, and power management. This is where TSMC’s competitive advantages begin to compound.
With each successive generation of process technology, the company has a unique opportunity to widen the performance gap between itself and rivals like Samsung or Intel.
Since Taiwan Semi already has such a large footprint in the foundry landscape, next-generation design complexities give the company a chance to further lock in deeper, stickier customer relationships.
TSMC’s valuation and the case for expansion
Taiwan Semi may trade at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 24, but dismissing the stock as “expensive” overlooks the company’s extraordinary positioning in the AI realm. To me, the company’s valuation reflects a robust growth outlook, improving earnings prospects, and a declining risk premium.
TSM PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
Unlike many of its semiconductor peers, which are vulnerable to cyclicality headwinds, TSMC has become an indispensable utility for many of the world’s largest AI developers, evolving into one of the backbones of the ongoing infrastructure boom.
The scale of investment behind current AI infrastructure is jaw-dropping. Hyperscalers are investing staggering sums to expand and modernize data centers, and at the heart of each new buildout is an unrelenting demand for more chips. Moreover, each of these companies is exploring more advanced use cases that will, at some point, require next-generation processing capabilities.
These dynamics position Taiwan Semi at the crossroad of immediate growth and enduring long-term expansion, as AI infrastructure swiftly evolves from a constant driver of growth today into a multidecade secular theme.
TSMC’s manufacturing dominance ensures that its services will continue to witness robust demand for years to come. For this reason, I think Taiwan Semi is positioned to experience further valuation expansion over the next decade as the infrastructure chapter of the AI story continues to unfold.
While there are many great opportunities in the chip space, TSMC stands alone. I see it as perhaps the most unique, durable semiconductor stock to own amid a volatile technology landscape over the next several years.
Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel, short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft, and short November 2025 $21 puts on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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