2-nm race: The most closely watched node in foundryland—TSMC’s 2-nm (N2)—is crossing from slides to silicon. Public briefings this year reiterated H2-2025 for N2 mass production and H2-2026 for the N2P shrink, with Fab 22 flagged as the 2-nm anchor and a third Arizona site planned for N2/A16 “by the end of the decade.” In…
Agentic AI Platforms: Google’s agentic stack has moved from demos to developer docs Gemini 2.5 Flash (price-performance “workhorse”), Computer Use that operates a web browser end-to-end, and Gemini Robotics models that plan and control real robots. OpenAI, meanwhile, has leaned into small, reasoning-centric models—o3/o3-mini and o4-mini—aimed at fast coding/math and cheaper deployment. Together, they sketch…
Sodium-ion steps up: CATL has introduced Naxtra, its new sodium-ion battery line, with mass production set to begin in December 2025, positioning the launch alongside its next-generation fast-charging technologies. Early company briefings indicate an energy density of around 175 Wh/kg—comparable to LFP—combined with fast-charge performance and reliable operation across extreme temperatures, from –40°C to 70°C. …
India’s battery capacity: At recent storage and renewables shows, industry experts pegged India’s installed battery manufacturing capacity at ~60 GWh today, with a pathway to ~100 GWh in 2026 as new lines from cell gigafactories and pack integrators come online. Treat that as directional (not guaranteed), but the implications for the power system and transport…
Helion’s “Orion” Fusion Plant: Helion has begun site work on its first grid-connected fusion plant, Project Orion, in Washington state. The company says it remains on track to honor its power purchase agreement (PPA) with Microsoft for first electricity by end-2028, with Constellation Energy as power marketer and transmission manager. Orion targets ≥50 MWe after…
Andhra Pradesh is pitching Amaravati Quantum Valley (AQV) as India’s first quantum tech park. The formal centrepiece is an IBM–TCS partnership to deploy an IBM Quantum System Two in Amaravati—envisioned with a 156-qubit Heron processor, which would be the largest quantum computer in India on go-live. IBM’s newsroom and TCS’s release confirm the plan and…
IIIT-Naya Raipur’s 6G: India’s march toward 6G now includes a concrete cell-free network prototype from IIIT–Naya Raipur (IIIT-NR), funded under the Department of Science & Technology (DST) translation programme. The project—titled “Implementation and Prototype Design for Ubiquitous Connectivity Using Cell-Free Communication in 6G Environment”—targets a live demo in which dozens of distributed access points (APs)…
EV Cells Made in India: India’s EV transition hinges on cells—not just packs. Two big storylines now converge: Ola Electric has secured ARAI certification for its in-house 4680 “Bharat Cell” battery pack and quietly launched a battery energy storage (BESS) product line, while Reliance is pushing sodium-ion cell commercialisation alongside LFP, targeting a 40 GWh…
Ather’s Factory 3.0 at Bidkin: Ather Energy has crossed the 5,00,000-unit production mark—rolled out at its Hosur plant with the family-focused Rizta as the growth driver—and is now building a third, Industry-4.0 factory at Bidkin (AURIC), Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The new “Factory 3.0,” to be constructed in two phases, is designed to lift installed capacity across…
India’s National Quantum Mission (NQM) is an eight-year programme with a total outlay of ₹6,003.65 crore (approved April 19, 2023) to push quantum computing, communication, sensing & metrology, and materials/devices from labs to pilots and products. To deliver that, the government has created four Thematic Hubs (T-Hubs) hosted at leading institutions: DST’s mission pages note…