Google’s cloud services are to be used to test blockchain technologies for banks, an area where IBM Corp, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc have been courting clients for the past year.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC has employed Google servers in a trial of a new blockchain application for clearing and settlement, consulting firm GFT Group said in a statement yesterday.
The company’s cloud services are also to be used by other bank clients of the firm, Stuttgart, Germany-based GFT said.
GFT is a member of Google Cloud Platform’s Partner Program.
Until now, IBM and Microsoft have been most active in rolling out special developer tools and inviting banks and start-ups to test the new database technology in their massive data centers. Amazon, a leader in cloud service, has also been working with blockchain start-ups.
The blockchain is a distributed ledger where multiple companies — such as banks — can record transactions securely.
The database’s strength lies in its trustworthiness: the difficulty of reversing or changing any transactions that have been recorded.
By facilitating trust and collaboration, the technology promises to make many industries more efficient and reduce costs on everything from international money transfers to paying a supplier.
As companies in the financial, supply-chain, healthcare and other industries rush to try out blockchain, they are opening up a potential new growth area for cloud-services players, like Alphabet Inc’s Google. Testing in the cloud is often easier and can be done faster than tests on a bank’s own computers.
If the tests are successful, cloud services could potentially play a role in blockchain deployments, since a database shared by multiple companies is more easily managed in the cloud.
Worldwide, the public cloud services market should reach US$204 billion this year, up from US$175 billion last year, researcher Gartner Inc said.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
EXPECTATIONS: The firm, which is on track to outpace global foundry industry revenue growth, said it expects constrained advanced process capacity amid stronger AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday increased its projected revenue growth for this year to above 25 percent, as stronger-than-expected demand for premium smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI) devices are to drive greater utilization of cutting-edge 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer chips. In April TSMC estimated 21 to 24 percent annual growth. The firm’s revenue growth is on track to greatly outpace the global foundry industry, which is expected to rise about 10 percent this year. “Over the past three months, we have observed stronger AI and high-end smartphone demand from our customers, which is to boost the overall capacity utilization for our leading-edge
INVESTMENT: The company’s planned complex in Texas would be the first 12-inch silicon wafer fab built in the US in more than 20 years, a GlobalWafers official said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said it secured up to US$400 million in direct funding from the US Department of Commerce under the CHIPS and Science Act for the construction of two new advanced fabs in the US. Its subsidiaries GlobalWafers America and MEMC LLC are to build a 12-inch silicon wafer fab in Sherman, Texas, and another one in Missouri to produce silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers used to make leading-edge chips. “With the support of the [US President Joe] Biden Administration, we are honored to be bringing to American shores the world’s most cutting-edge 12-inch semiconductor
Nikon Corp is fielding strong demand for its legacy chipmaking machines in China, which is mobilizing resources to build its own semiconductor supply chain. Inquiries for the Japanese precision maker’s lithography tools have surged in China, Nikon president Muneaki Tokunari said. The company is set to revamp a lithography machine geared for decades-old manufacturing processes. Its NSR-2205iL1, launching this summer, would serve the market for mature chip technology and Nikon expects to sell more than 10 units of the machine annually, said Tokunari, who is also chief operating officer and chief financial officer. New companies are sprouting up in China to make