Business
American Eagle shares rise on partnership with Travis Kelce, fresh off his engagement to Taylor Swift
American Eagle launches AE x Tru Kolors by Travis Kelce.
Courtesy: American Eagle
Shares of American Eagle rose Wednesday morning after the apparel company announced a collaboration with football star Travis Kelce, just a day after he and singer Taylor Swift said they were engaged.
The stock was up roughly 5% in early trading.
Kelce’s sportswear brand, Tru Kolors, is launching a limited-edition collaboration with American Eagle, pairing the jeans brand with Kelce’s picks, including vintage-inspired T-shirts and “reimagined” varsity jackets. The collaboration was more than a year in the making, Kelce said, but the announcement came just a day after his proposal caused a global internet stir among fans.
“It was an awesome opportunity to team up with an established brand where both sides were excited to truly collaborate on every decision in the design and creative process that brought the ‘AE x TK’ collection to life,” Kelce, the creative director of the collection, said in a statement.
The new pieces are launching in two drops on Wednesday and on Sept. 24.
American Eagle wasn’t the only stock to get a bump from the NFL star’s engagement announcement this week. Shares of Signet Jewelers popped briefly following the proposal as fans focused on Swift’s “cushion cut” engagement ring.
Other companies wasted no time in using the proposal to promote their products, such as Domino’s, Grubhub and Solidcore, among others.
Kelce’s American Eagle collaboration comes after the jeans brand announced a collaboration with actress Sydney Sweeney in July. That team-up captivated the internet over what some critics deemed a tone-deaf campaign for its wordplay of good “jeans” and “genes.”
Shares of the company soared in a meme-stock fashion after the Sweeney promos were unveiled, aided by President Donald Trump calling the campaign the “hottest ad out there.”
The stock is up about 20% since mid-July.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift announced their engagement on Tuesday.
Business
Semicon India 2025: PM Modi receives first made-in-India chip; industry leaders hail nation’s role in global ecosystem – The Times of India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday received the country’s first made-in-India semiconductor chip at the inauguration of Semicon India 2025 in New Delhi. Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw presented the Vikram 32-bit processor, developed by Isro’s Semiconductor Lab, along with test chips from four approved projects.
According to news agency ANI, Vaishnaw said the achievement reflects the country’s rapid progress under the India Semiconductor Mission launched in 2021. “Just a few years ago, we met for the first time to make a new beginning driven by our Prime Minister’s farsighted vision. In a short span of 3.5 years, we have the world looking at India with confidence. Today, the construction of five Semiconductor units is going on at a rapid pace…We just presented the first ‘Made-in-India’ chip to PM Modi,” he stated.Vaishnaw added that despite global policy turmoil, India has emerged as a “lighthouse of stability and growth.” The Vikram processor, fully indigenous, has been qualified for use in harsh launch vehicle conditions, ANI reported.The minister highlighted India’s semiconductor ecosystem push, including the Rs 76,000 crore Production Linked Incentive scheme, of which nearly Rs 65,000 crore has already been committed. He also referred to the Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) Pilot Line Facility launched in Sanand, Gujarat, with CG-Semi expected to roll out chips soon.As per ANI, the government has sanctioned 23 design projects under the Design Linked Incentive scheme, while 10 semiconductor manufacturing projects worth over Rs 1.6 lakh crore have been approved across Gujarat, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh.Industry leaders also hailed India’s growing role. Tim Archer, CEO of Lam Research, said India is laying the foundation for a “resilient semiconductor ecosystem” as the global market moves toward the $1 trillion mark. Kai Beckmann of Merck projected India’s local semiconductor market would reach $100 billion by 2030, while AMD CTO Mark Papermaster highlighted the company’s $400 million India investment plan announced at last year’s Semicon event.Beckmann stressed collaboration, calling semiconductors a “team sport,” while Papermaster praised India’s “extraordinary talent base” and government backing.The three-day Semicon India 2025 aims to position India as a global hub for chip design, manufacturing, and innovation, focusing on building a robust and sustainable ecosystem, ANI reported.
Bethan LewisFamily and education correspondent, BBC Wales News
A mum says she starts to dread the new school year from Christmas because of the cost of uniform and other kits her children will need in September.
Vicky Williams, from Caerphilly, said she gets “anxious” her children will not have everything they need and has to start budgeting months in advance.
It is estimated the minimum cost of sending a child to secondary school has reached almost £2,300 a year, up £600 since 2022, with the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) saying lower and middle-income families face “a real struggle”.
The Welsh government said it was doing everything it could to support families.
Ms Williams starts budgeting at the start of the year for the items her nine and 14-year-old will need.
She said: “I dread it after Christmas – I know if I don’t plan or budget I am going to be struggling August, September time.
“I’ll be getting anxious that my children aren’t going to school with the proper equipment so I’ve got to plan well in advance in order to prepare and be able to afford to buy their uniforms and everything else they need.”
She said while her daughter’s primary school uniform does not require logos, her 14-year-old son needs a separate PE kit, rugby kit and football kit.
Trips are another source of stress and even though schools help parents with payment plans, Ms Williams said sometimes there was not enough notice of upcoming expenses.
“You want your children to get involved in everything, want to go out for trips with their friends, go on a bus and have the experience and everything.
“But then when the cost of most trips are so high and it’s not doable for some, then you feel guilty then as a parent that your child is missing out.”
The part-time supermarket delivery driver also has a two-year-old and said she was already anticipating “that constant stress and anxiety on my mind that I’ll have three children in school” in two years’ time.
On the Lansbury Park estate, Caerphilly Uniform Exchange sells pre-loved and donated uniform for a minimal cost or items can be swapped for free.
Director Lisa Watkins said about 120 families a month use the Caerphilly shop.
They have other hubs in the borough, an online shop and give free bundles for children referred by schools and social services.
“Some schools have changed their uniform to make things more generic and accessible, but more work could be done definitely”, she said.
“I think that we should be treating school uniform more like workwear. It doesn’t matter if it’s got a hole or a bit of paint on it, you know, that’s kind of what it’s for.”
As well as uniform, the shop also supplies other costumes and outfits.
“Prom is a huge cost to parents at the moment. Things like World Book Day, Children in Need, Christmas Nativity, Christmas jumper days,” Ms Watkins said.
“As time progresses, we find all of these different celebrations and things to take part in but I think there’s little thought on how much it actually burdens parents financially.”
She added parents faced “absolutely huge” financial pressures, and did not want to have “the only child that isn’t going to prom, or hasn’t got the fancy dress outfit, or the new football boots.”
A report published by the CPAG in May estimated the minimum cost of education is more than £1,000 for primary school children and almost £2,300 for secondary school children, a rise of 30% on three years ago.
It said the cost of food for the school day and technology for learning were the main sources of increases for secondary school children.
“This is a really significant amount of money for families,” said Ellie Harwood, senior education policy officer for CPAG.
“It can be a real struggle for households on low and middle incomes to meet the cost and obviously the more children you have the greater the cost”.
Ms Harwood said research had suggested uniform costs had “flat-lined”, which she hoped was a “reflection in changes of school policy”.
At primary level in Wales, universal free school meals “saves families around £500 a year per child”, Ms Harwood said, but a strict means test still applied for secondary age children.
She said access to Welsh government support with the costs of school should be expanded .
“There are a lot of households living in poverty in Wales who cannot currently access free school meals or the school essentials grant,” she said.
“They can’t get help with the cost of school trips.
“We know there’s about 25,000 secondary aged learners who are living in poverty who don’t qualify for support with these grants and with free school meals.”
The Welsh government said: “We are doing everything we can to support families in Wales”.
“We continue to monitor the potential impact of inflation on the number of learners eligible for a free school meal and the School Essentials Grant.”
It said it recognised the “financial burden” of school uniform.
“Our statutory guidance on school uniform policy says that affordability should be a priority, and branded items should not be compulsory.
“We are currently reviewing the impact of the changes to the guidance”.
Business
Semiconductor push: India hosts 20% of world’s chip design engineers; consumption set to cross $120 billion by 2030 – The Times of India
India accounts for around 20 per cent of the world’s chip design engineers, placing it as a key player in the global semiconductor design ecosystem, according to a report by Bastion Research.According to news agency ANI, the report underlined India’s strong position in the global semiconductor chain, noting, “India is already an important piece in the global semiconductor design. You may be surprised to know that approximately 20 per cent of the world’s chip design engineers are based here.”Global technology leaders, including Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, Broadcom, and MediaTek have set up large R&D and design centres across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Noida. This strong presence has enabled India to emerge as one of the world’s leading hubs for chip design, as per ANI.Explaining the division of work worldwide, the report said engineers in the United States define the high-level chip architecture, such as deciding the type of chip, its end use, features, and launch strategy. Indian engineering teams, by contrast, take on the critical execution work — translating architecture into logic, simulating and testing chips, optimising performance, writing drivers and firmware, and fine-tuning electronic design automation tools. The report stressed this was not a “boss versus worker” setup but rather complementary roles between US and Indian teams.The Bastion Research findings also noted India’s policy push to strengthen its semiconductor ecosystem. The government launched the Semicon India Programme in 2021 with incentives worth around Rs 76,000 crore to attract global manufacturers.India’s semiconductor consumption is projected to rise sharply. “We consume about $24 billion worth semiconductors and it is expected to rise to upwards of $100-120 billion by 2030. When India starts to produce those chips, our share will definitely rise,” Sandeep Kumar, CEO of L&T Semiconductor Technologies and chairman of the Semiconductor Product Leadership Forum, was quoted as saying by ANI.The Forum, launched by the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), aims to build an ecosystem for product design, IP creation, and high-value innovation. It is targeting the launch of around 100 new companies by 2035, expected to absorb nearly five lakh workers, including a large number of engineers.Meanwhile, India recently rolled out its first domestically produced chip at CG Semi’s Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility in Sanand, Gujarat. Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who inaugurated the facility last week, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will “soon” dedicate the country’s first chip produced there.The government has so far approved 10 semiconductor manufacturing projects worth over Rs 1.60 lakh crore across six states. Work is also underway on Semicon 2.0, the next phase of India’s semiconductor mission.
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Semicon India 2025: PM Modi receives first made-in-India chip; industry leaders hail nation’s role in global ecosystem – The Times of India
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