The semiconductor industry is evolving rapidly, expanding opportunities for value-creating innovation in areas such as AI optimisation in fabs, advanced packaging and sustainability. As technology development and commercialisation become more complex, collaboration among stakeholders is becoming increasingly important and a key factor in competitiveness. Lam Research is accelerating ecosystem-building through Lam Capital, its corporate venture arm. Its venture competition connects promising semiconductor and deeptech startups with companies, investors and experts, offering finalists networking and a $250,000 investment offer for the winner.

Circle launched its “Nanopayments” micro-payment USDC infrastructure on a testnet for AI agents and autonomous software. Built on Circle Gateway, it targets environments requiring fast, small-unit payments, including pay-per-call APIs, usage-based billing and machine-to-machine marketplaces. Circle said it solves sub-cent payment limits by batching transactions off-chain and settling them on-chain in bulk. The testnet supports multiple blockchains including Arbitrum, Base and Ethereum.