Daily Tech & GNSS News Digest - January 26, 2026

Intel’s long-awaited manufacturing comeback arrives as Panther Lake laptops hit shelves, marking the dawn of the “angstrom era” in American chipmaking. Meanwhile, China’s DeepSeek kicks off 2026 with another breakthrough training method, while Alibaba moves to spin off its AI chip unit for a potential IPO. In positioning technology, Trimble’s precision GNSS solution goes standard on Lucid Gravity vehicles.

Tech News

Intel Enters the Angstrom Era with 18A Chips

Intel’s turnaround story just got real. The company’s Core Ultra Series 3 processors—codenamed “Panther Lake”—began shipping to retailers this week, marking the first consumer chips built on Intel’s 18A process technology. This is the most advanced semiconductor process ever developed and manufactured in the United States, putting Intel on par with TSMC’s N2 process.

The technical achievement is significant: Intel becomes the first company to bring high-volume, backside-power-delivery silicon to the consumer market, using RibbonFET gate-all-around transistors and PowerVia technology. Intel claims the new chips deliver up to 77% faster gaming performance, 60% better multithreaded performance, and up to 27 hours of battery life.

Under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took the helm last March, Intel has a turnaround plan that depends heavily on this launch. Early adopters include Oversonic Robotics, which plans to switch from Nvidia to Intel’s Core Ultra 3 chips to power its humanoid robots for healthcare applications.

DeepSeek’s Training Breakthrough Signals China’s AI Resilience

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek ushered in 2026 with a technical paper proposing a fundamental rethink of how large AI models are trained. The framework, called “Manifold-Constrained Hyper-Connections,” is designed to improve scalability while reducing the computational and energy demands of training advanced AI systems.

Analysts are calling it a “striking breakthrough.” Wei Sun at Counterpoint Research told Business Insider that the approach combines techniques to minimize training costs while achieving higher performance. The paper signals that DeepSeek can “bypass compute bottlenecks and unlock leaps in intelligence” despite US chip export restrictions.

One year after DeepSeek’s low-cost generative AI model shocked the industry, China’s AI sector shows no signs of slowing. A Capital Economics report notes that “China will challenge the US as a global leader in AI” and remains “close to the frontier of AI development” despite hardware constraints. Industry watchers expect DeepSeek’s next major model release ahead of the Spring Festival in mid-February.

Alibaba Prepares AI Chip Unit Spinoff

Alibaba is preparing to spin off its chipmaking arm T-Head, tapping into strong investor interest in the AI accelerator business, Bloomberg reported Thursday. The company plans to restructure the unit as a business partly owned by employees, then explore an IPO.

Founded in 2018, T-Head develops chips for computing and storage applications. The spinoff comes as demand for AI accelerators continues to surge globally, with companies seeking alternatives to Nvidia’s dominant—but supply-constrained—data center GPUs.

In related Apple news, the iPhone maker has expanded hardware chief John Ternus’s role to include design work, solidifying his status as a leading contender to eventually succeed CEO Tim Cook. At 50, Ternus is the youngest member of Apple’s executive team.

Additional Headlines

Nvidia’s Rubin platform enters full production: CEO Jensen Huang stunned CES 2026 with news that the next-generation platform is months ahead of schedule, with cloud deployments planned at AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft.
Big Tech earnings week arrives: Microsoft, Meta, and Tesla report Wednesday, followed by Apple Thursday, with Magnificent 7 profits expected to climb 18% in 2026—the slowest pace since 2022.
OpenAI commits to energy infrastructure funding: The ChatGPT maker will pay for grid upgrades at Stargate data center sites, following similar commitments from Microsoft.

GNSS News

Trimble Precision Positioning Powers Lucid Gravity

Trimble announced that its RTX and ProPoint Go positioning technologies are now powering navigation and driver-assistance systems in Lucid Gravity electric SUVs, enabling centimeter-level accuracy even in challenging environments. The Trimble solution is standard on new Lucid Gravity vehicles starting this month, with existing vehicles receiving the capability via over-the-air software update.

The integration addresses a critical challenge for advanced driver-assistance systems: maintaining reliable positioning in tunnels, parking garages, and dense urban canyons where standard GPS signals are weak or blocked. Trimble’s system combines satellite correction data with six-axis inertial sensor inputs to deliver lane-level positioning where it matters most.

This marks a significant automotive win for Trimble, whose RTX correction service has traditionally dominated precision agriculture and surveying markets. The Lucid partnership demonstrates the expanding role of high-precision GNSS in consumer vehicles as manufacturers push toward greater autonomy.

u-blox X20 Platform Brings Centimeter Accuracy to Industrial Applications

Mouser Electronics began shipping the u-blox ZED-X20P all-band high precision GNSS module this week, marking the commercial debut of u-blox’s next-generation X20 platform. The module supports all GNSS constellations—GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, and NavIC—across all frequency bands including L-band, in a compact, energy-efficient form factor.

Key capabilities include centimeter-level accuracy via RTK and PPP technologies, multi-layered security with jamming and spoofing detection, and cryptographic authentication through Galileo OSNMA. The ZED-X20P targets industrial guidance, agricultural automation, UAVs, and robotics applications requiring reliable precision positioning.

The platform’s integration into Syslogic embedded computers enables centimeter-accurate positioning without traditional RTK base stations or expensive reference networks—a significant step toward making high-precision positioning more accessible for autonomous vehicles and industrial automation.

Key Takeaways

Intel’s manufacturing comeback materializes: The 18A Panther Lake launch proves Intel can compete with TSMC at the leading edge, a critical milestone for American semiconductor independence.
China’s AI progress continues despite restrictions: DeepSeek’s training innovations and Alibaba’s chip spinoff show the Chinese AI ecosystem adapting rather than retreating under export controls.
Precision positioning goes mainstream: Trimble’s Lucid integration and u-blox’s new platform signal that centimeter-accurate GNSS is moving from industrial niches into consumer and automotive markets.