The Big Picture: What were tech's important stories in August?

The UK threatens cross-channel trade (again), and TSMC price rises affect the chip market

Trade is on everyone's minds this month, as the UK appears set to break commitments it made with the EU, and the chip supply shortage continues. Welcome to this month's Big Picture.

In this series, Delta Site Editor Tom Allen looks back at the technology industry's most important stories in the last month, through five different lenses.

One of the promised benefits of Brexit was the ability for the UK to sign trade deals with third countries, without needing to have them okayed by an outside body. That is technically possible now, but last month the government alarmed business leaders by threatening to revise existing data adequacy agreements with the EU - still our biggest market - to do so. Those agreements are essential to ensuring the free flow of data between the UK and the continent.

We also saw the continued effect of the ongoing chip shortage this month, as the world's largest chipmaker TSMC announced a price rise for the majority of its products across the board. The company supplies some of the world's largest firms, including Apple, Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm.

We also covered news about Windows 11, the possible fall of a long-standing monopoly and a massive US data breach. All of this, and more, in this month's Big Picture.