EU Probes SAP Over Software Practices That May Hinder Competition

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The European Commission has launched an antitrust investigation into SAP, saying the German software giant’s business practices may have unfairly restricted rivals in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market.

SAP is the global leader in ERP software, which companies use to manage finance, HR, supply chains, sales, and procurement. The probe focuses on SAP’s aftermarket practices, raising concerns that customers may be locked into its services and face higher costs.

“We are concerned that SAP may have restricted competition in this crucial aftermarket, by making it harder for rivals to compete, leaving European customers with fewer choices and higher costs,” said EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera.

The investigation leaves SAP exposed to potential fines of up to 10% of its annual global sales.

Reuters previously reported that SAP had offered concessions to ease regulators’ concerns after complaints from European businesses about its ERP policies.

The Commission highlighted several practices under scrutiny:

  • preventing customers from switching to rival support and maintenance providers,

  • blocking customers from ending support for unused licenses,

  • extending initial on-premises ERP license terms to prevent early termination,

  • charging reinstatement and back-maintenance fees when customers return after leaving.

SAP said it does not expect any financial hit from the probe. “We do not anticipate the engagement with the European Commission to result in material impacts on our financial performance,” the company said, while adding that it was working closely with regulators.

SAP defended its policies as being based on long-standing global software standards and compliant with competition rules.

Australia’s Teen Social Media Ban Praised at UN

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promoted his government’s world-first ban on social media for teens under 16 during an event in New York, calling the move a necessary step to address the “constantly evolving” risks digital platforms pose for children.

The law, which takes effect in December, makes Australia the first country to prohibit those under 16 from creating social media accounts. Instead of blanket age verification, the government wants platforms to use artificial intelligence and behavioral data to estimate user ages.

“It isn’t foolproof, but it is a crucial step in the right direction,” Albanese said at the Protecting Children in the Digital Age event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised the measure, saying she was “inspired by Australia’s example” and that Europe would be “watching and learning” as it considers its own policies.

Australia’s center-left government introduced the law citing research linking excessive social media use among young teens to mental health issues, bullying, misinformation, and harmful body image content. The minimum age for accounts will rise from 13 to 16.

Albanese framed the law as both sensible and overdue, saying it would give teens “three more years of being shaped by real-life experience, not algorithms.”

TSMC and Chip Design Firms Use AI to Cut Energy Use in Next-Gen Chips

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The chips powering artificial intelligence consume enormous amounts of electricity, but Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, unveiled new efforts on Wednesday to make them more efficient—by using AI-powered software in the chip design process.

Speaking at a Silicon Valley conference, TSMC showcased strategies it says could boost the energy efficiency of AI chips by as much as 10 times.

Nvidia’s flagship AI servers, for instance, can draw up to 1,200 watts under heavy workloads—comparable to the electricity used by 1,000 U.S. homes if run continuously. TSMC’s approach centers on a new generation of chiplet-based designs, where multiple smaller chips made with different technologies are packaged together to function as a single processor.

To enable these designs, chipmakers are increasingly turning to AI-driven software tools. Partners like Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys debuted new products on Wednesday, built in close collaboration with TSMC. These tools have shown they can outperform human engineers in solving complex design problems—and in a fraction of the time.

“That helps to max out TSMC technology’s capability, and we find this is very useful,” said Jim Chang, deputy director of TSMC’s 3DIC Methodology Group. “This thing runs five minutes while our designer needs to work for two days.”

Still, physical constraints remain. As chips scale up, moving data on and off them via traditional electrical connections is reaching its limits. New approaches, such as optical interconnects to transfer information between chips, must be made reliable enough for deployment in massive data centers.

“Really, this is not an engineering problem,” said Kaushik Veeraraghavan, an engineer at Meta’s infrastructure group during his keynote. “It’s a fundamental physical problem.”