🌎 Planet Eater

Good morning. Better get your mile in because today is National Exercise Day, for better or worse. Today, we’ll go over a new NASA discovery, a TikTok exposé, and lab-grown chicken nuggets.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy today’s edition.

— Chase Goepfert, Founder

Nvidia shifts production to US as part of $500 billion deal

The US has been making big strides with chip manufacturers lately. Nvidia, the world’s leading semiconductor company, disclosed plans earlier this week to produce some of its AI supercomputers entirely within the United States.

The historic move is a first for Nvidia as it becomes the latest company, along with TSMC, to support the US’s domestic manufacturing efforts.

American interests

Nvidia plays a pivotal role in the tech industry, helping advance AI tech and producing semiconductors worldwide, meaning its decision to move supercomputer production solely to the US is a significant one.

The AI giant has long outsourced its manufacturing abroad, but with new tariffs on imported semiconductors coming soon, Nvidia had to adapt:

• Over the next four years, the company plans to develop, test, and package up to $500 billion worth of AI devices in the US.

• Additionally, Nvidia wrote in a blog post that it commissioned more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing space.

While the company’s spike in US production should prove to be a boon for the nation’s chip manufacturing (the US only manufactures 12% of the world’s chips), Nvidia’s Blackwell AI chips began fully domestic production at TSMC plants in Phoenix.

A broader shift

While Nvidia shifting some of its manufacturing to the US is a big deal, the chip king isn’t the only one who’s begun moving pawns around.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which supplies a vast majority of the world’s most powerful semiconductors, also invested in the United States:

• Last month, TSMC invested $100 billion in US chip manufacturing.

• Additionally, the world’s largest chip manufacturer announced it would be building five new “cutting-edge” fabrication plants in Arizona.

Why does this matter? While the Trump administration’s economic policy has ushered in waves of uncertainty, it has also brought in business within the chip industry’s supply chain, at a time when the US is severely lagging behind in domestic chip production.

Sudan rebels establish rival government amid bloody two-year civil war

The UN has labeled the war as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) says it has formed its own government as its brutal civil war with the Sudanese army has reached the two-year mark.

Vicious conflict

The UN designated Sudan’s civil war as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis after RSF rebels recently attacked the nation’s biggest refugee camp, killing over 400, including 10 humanitarian workers.

• After the takeover, more than 400,000 people were forced to flee or face even worse conditions under the RSF.

The bloodbath was only the most recent onslaught in the two-year civil war, where both sides have committed atrocities.

• The conflict has left roughly 24,000 dead, but sources say the toll is likely much higher.

• Famine has become an urgent crisis, as half the country’s population has no food (~25 million people).

• Over 13 million have been displaced since the conflict began, according to estimates by the UN refugee agency.

How did the war begin? Two men are at the heart of the conflict: the head of the Sudanese military, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF’s commander, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.

The two were once allies, however, tensions rose as the two argued about how to restore civilian rule, which ignited the war not long after.

Power struggle

RSF’s leader, Dagalo, announced the rival government on Telegram, describing the new state as an inclusive, secular government with a “transitional constitution.”

• Many countries, including the US, condemned the signing, citing the RSF’s war crimes.

How Dagalo will establish his government remains to be seen. The RSF controls a large portion of western and southern Sudan, while the Sudanese military dominates the northern and eastern parts of the country, including the capital, Khartoum.

Looking forward: World leaders gathered in London to look for a “pathway to peace,” though a diplomatic breakthrough failed. During the conference, leaders pledged to send hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to ease suffering in the nation.

NASA discovered that stars can “eat” planets

Yet another existential threat I will constantly worry about. Thanks to NASA, humanity was able to discover what is believed to be the first ever observation of a planet being swallowed by a star, giving insight into the evolution of planetary systems.

Planet destroyer

Images from NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope (see overview) shed light on the “surprising twist” that has researchers baffled. Instead of the star expanding and consuming the planet, the planet sent itself into the sun in a strange reversal.

How they discovered the event is equally as interesting:

Researchers observed the planet, found 12,000 light years away, getting brighter, possibly suggesting it was growing into a red giant and engulfing a Jupiter-sized planet in its orbit.

• This is the same process that the sun is expected to undergo when it consumes Earth in around 5 billion years.

However, the planet wasn’t engulfing anything. Further images from the JWST showed it wasn’t as bright as it should have been if it were a red giant; instead, the planet’s orbit got smaller and smaller until it was swallowed by the star.

Why is this a big deal? The unexpected twist challenges long-held beliefs about how dying planets interact with their stars. It not only deepens our understanding of cosmic evolution but also opens new questions about how—and when—planets meet their end.

In partnership with The Rundown AI

Learn AI in 5 minutes a day

What’s the secret to staying ahead of the curve in the world of AI? Information. Luckily, you can join 1,000,000+ early adopters reading The Rundown AI — the free newsletter that makes you smarter on AI with just a 5-minute read per day.

Sign up to start learning.

TikTokers promise you can buy luxury brands for cheap… are they right?

Generally, when something seems too good to be true, it usually is. A wave of viral TikTok videos have tried “exposing” US and European luxury brands by saying their products are actually made in China… and that you can buy them directly from Chinese manufacturers for cheap.

The hysteria has gained a lot of traction as consumers fear that Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods (which are now up to 245%) will bar them from getting products at a reasonable price.

Are the videos true?

For the most part, no. One video on TikTok, which has amassed over 15 million views, claimed that 80% of all luxury handbags are made in China, but this claim is simply false.

• The top-selling luxury handbag brands are Prada, Saint Laurent, and Hermès. All three have extensive documentation of their manufacturing… and they aren’t made in China.

• The US and Europe have very strict labelling policies, meaning for the product to say it’s made in a certain country, “all, or virtually all” of the item has to be made in that country, per FTC regulations.

Not to mention, many of the influencers claiming to “expose” these luxury brands are selling fakes of their own, hoping to make a profit. Experts say anyone offering factory products directly to American consumers probably isn’t legit.

Fake or not, some people are buying them anyway:

• According to Appfigures, Chinese wholesale app DHgate rose from no. 352 on the top non-game free apps on the Apple App Store to no. 2 in less than a week.

Retailers are fighting back: Some brands, like Lululemon, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci, have denied the allegations and warned consumers to be aware of counterfeit products and misinformation.

Lab-grown food has officially reached nugget size

Mmmmm, looks appetizing. Researchers claim they made a breakthrough in lab-grown food production after creating nugget-sized pieces of chicken using a device that copies the way blood vessels work.

Winner winner, chicken dinner

Lab-grown meat has been considered an alternative to slaughtering animals for years, and is projected to be available for commercial use in half a decade. That being said, previous attempts at growing nuggets haven’t been as successful:

• Food scientists were only able to create chicken strips that were less than one millimeter wide.

This is mainly because thicker pieces of meat are harder to develop without the help of blood vessels, since they trap nutrients and oxygen in the tissue, keeping them healthy.

How did they do it? The intriguing method, developed by researchers at the University of Tokyo, imitates blood vessels, allowing tissues in the lab-grown meat to become stronger.

• The result was a 10-gram, bite-sized chunk of chicken with a more unique texture than other lab-grown meat.

The technique could have several applications: The research team at the University of Tokyo thinks they can apply the same method to create even larger pieces and eventually even develop lab-grown organs.

FAST FACTS
Catch up on this week’s weird news

Texas Talent: Texas Roadhouse has become the largest casual dining chain in the United States, surpassing Olive Garden, per CNBC.

Content Cops: TikTok is introducing Footnotes, the platform's version of a community notes feature. In addition to being able to "add relevant information to content" on the platform, US users can now apply to become contributors.

AI Algorithm: OpenAI, the AI giant known for its Large Language Models, is developing a social network centered around its viral ChatGPT image-generation tool. We can only hope it’s as good as Instagram in 2013.

Phony Prospects: Fake job candidates—who are often agents of foreign governments looking to steal trade secrets—have become a big problem. According to the research firm Gartner, 25% of job seekers will be fake by 2028.

Parental Partner: Who doesn’t want their parent as a boss? The number of small businesses where an adult child of the owner works has doubled since 2018.

Thank you for reading our newsletter! We strive every day to provide you with an objective experience that makes the news easy and entertaining to read. If you’d like more from us, please don’t hesitate to follow our socials below 👇