SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Hewlett-Packard and Dell Inc are keeping a close eye on a big jump in wages for workers that assemble Apple Inc’s iPhone in China, and could be forced to nudge up prices for their own products if labor costs keep rising.

Major contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group — which counts Apple, HP, Dell, Nokia and Motorola Mobility among its major clients — last week raised wages for its workers in China by 16-25 percent, the third hike since 2010.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O: Quote, Profile, Research) warned that delays in ramping up new manufacturing technology are affecting sales of its PC graphics chips and that smartphone chip-customer Samsung Electronics (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) has become a rival.

Anxious to move beyond its traditional business of designing graphics chips for personal computers, Nvidia has jumped into mobile devices and late last year unveiled its new Tegra 3 processor.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Nvidia Corp warned that delays in ramping up new manufacturing technology and a struggling PC industry are impacting its business; the chipmaker also scaled back its outlook for growth in its smartphone and tablet business.

Anxious to move beyond its traditional business of designing graphics chips for PCs, Nvidia has jumped into mobile devices and late last year unveiled its new Tegra 3 processor.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc is in very active discussions at the board level about what to do with its steadily growing hoard of cash and securities, Chief Executive Tim Cook said on Tuesday, responding to calls for the world’s most valuable electronics company to put its massive cash reserves to work.

Cook, in one of his rare appearances before investors, also talked about a “jaw-dropping” opportunity in smartphones. He also said the iPad tablet trajectory was “off the charts,” adding that he foresaw tablets surpassing the personal computer market in unit sales eventually – eroding Microsoft Corp’s Windows dominance.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Texas Instruments (TXN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is expecting the chip industry to see a “sharp snap-back” in demand once a major inventory correction is over, Chief Executive Richard Templeton said.

Chip companies including TI and rival Broadcom Corp (BRCM.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have suffered in recent quarters from a slowdown as manufacturers across the board reduced their chip inventories due to concerns that economic weakness could hurt demand.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – By day, Robert Leitao manages a Catholic church in Southern California. By night, he indulges his other passion: predicting Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) results.

Leitao is part of a cadre of amateur forecasters, bloggers and hobbyists who sift through reams of data every quarter to guess at Apple’s quarterly results – often putting professional analysts to shame by coming up with more accurate predictions.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Micron Technology Inc Chief Executive and Chairman Steve Appleton died in a plane crash on Friday, a major loss for the U.S. semiconductor industry.

Micron said 51-year old Appleton was killed in a small plane accident in Boise, Idaho, where the U.S. memory chipmaker is headquartered, and would provide more details later.

SUNNYVALE, California (Reuters) – Advanced Micro Devices’ new chief executive delivered an enthusiastic pitch in his debut before Wall Street analysts, telling them he was getting the struggling PC chipmaker “fit to fight” in a quick-changing computer industry.

At AMD’s first analyst day since 2010, Rory Read said the company would leverage its PC chip technology to attack the fast-growing mobile computing segment and emerging markets but stay away from the smartphone market.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith likes the questions he is receiving from Wall Street these days a lot more than the concerns many investors voiced last year about the PC chip giant’s ability to adapt to consumers’ growing preference for smartphones and tablets.

After investors eyeing tepid PC sales shunned Intel’s shares for much of 2011, the stock has rebounded since September and recently hit a four-year high as the company promotes a new category of premium notebooks and shows off a mobile processor that may finally put it in the mobile race.

By Noel Randewich

(Reuters) – Advanced Micro Devices Inc forecast lower quarterly revenue as a shortage of hard drives and a shaky economy hurt PC makers, sending its shares lower in after-hours trading.

The PC chipmaker’s fourth-quarter adjusted earnings beat expectations, but revenue for the quarter just ended and revenue projections for the current quarter came in a bit below many analysts’ expectations.