Articles by Luke James, Contributor

Luke is a freelance technology journalist who has been covering hardware and semiconductors since 2020. He began his career at All About Circuits and has since contributed to EE Power and Laptop Mag. Luke has a particular interest in semiconductors, microelectronics, and the industry shifts that shape the devices we use every day. Above all, he loves making complex technology accessible to experts and enthusiasts alike. Luke's interest in hardcore computing can be traced back to his university studies, when he responsibly spent his very first student loan payment on a custom-built gaming rig equipped with a GTX 780 Ti.

Articles by: Luke James

SoftBank’s $4.2bn OpenAI gain lifts quarterly profits as AI exposure deepens — company swings back to profitability in Q3 results

By Luke James published 16 February 26

Premium SoftBank swung back to profitability in its fiscal third quarter, reporting net income of 248.6 billion yuan — roughly $1.6 billion — for the three months ending December.

Rapidus targets mass 2nm chip production in 2027, quadruples capacity ramp up — company plans to scale to 25,000 wafer starts per month in just one year

By Luke James published 13 February 26

Premium Japan’s state-backed foundry Rapidus plans to begin production of 2nm-class semiconductors in the second half of its fiscal year 2027, with full-scale production expected in 2028.

OpenAI launches GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark on Cerebras chips — marks AI giants first production deployment away from Nvidia

By Luke James published 13 February 26

OpenAI on Thursday released GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark, its first AI model served on chips from Cerebras Systems, marking the ChatGPT maker’s first production deployment on non-Nvidia silicon.

Applied Materials to pay $252 million penalty for selling chipmaking tools to banned Chinese firm — settles over alleged 56 tool exports to chipmaker SMIC following Entity List designation

By Luke James published 12 February 26

Applied Materials must pay a $252 million civil penalty to settle allegations that it illegally exported semiconductor manufacturing equipment to SMIC subsidiaries.

Cadence embeds AI 'super agent' to assist engineers when designing EDA tools — company aims for ‘over a trillion transistors’ by 2030, with AI helping to debug and verify complex projects

By Luke James published 12 February 26

Premium “We’re easily going to get over a trillion transistors… in the package, by the end of the decade,” Cadence Senior Vice President Paul Cunningham claims.

Samsung and SK hynix shorten memory contracts as pricing power shifts back to suppliers — both companies now at 40-50% operating margins

By Luke James published 11 February 26

Premium Samsung and SK hynix have begun moving away from long-term, fixed-price supply contracts, replacing them with shorter agreements and post-settlement pricing mechanisms.

AI.com's $85 million Super Bowl ad campaign falls foul as traffic crashes servers — the campaign allegedly cost $15 million for the ads, $70 million for the domain name

By Luke James published 9 February 26

AI.com bought its way onto the biggest advertising stage in the world on Sunday night, and then the site crashed.

Nvidia says it didn't use pirated books to train its AI models — company asking for Anna's Archive suit to be dismissed

By Luke James published 8 February 26

Nvidia is pushing back against claims that it trained AI models on pirated books, telling a federal court that alleged contact with Anna’s Archive doesn’t amount to proof of copyright infringement.

Key to ultra-dense next-gen data storage could be a new magnetic state found in twisted 2D materials — German researchers reveal 'super‑moiré' magnetic milestone

By Luke James published 8 February 26

Researchers have identified unusual magnetism in twisted, two-dimensional chromium triiodide, revealing long-range spin textures that extend beyond the material’s underlying moiré pattern.

Microsoft purges Windows 11 printer drivers, putting millions of devices on borrowed time — legacy printers face extinction as Microsoft stops distributing V3 and V4 drivers

By Luke James published 7 February 26

Microsoft is preparing a significant change to how printers are supported in Windows 11, ending support for drivers that primarily support older hardware.

Amazon's European data centers challenged by grid delays — up to seven year waits for new connections

By Luke James published 6 February 26

Premium AWS is encountering grid connection wait times of up to seven years for new European projects, a delay that far exceeds the usual two-year timelines.

Russian 'Inspector' spacecraft intercepted communications from a dozen European satellites, report claims — fears Moscow could even manipulate trajectories or crash satellites

By Luke James published 6 February 26

European officials believe that two Russian “Inspector” SIGINT spacecraft operating in geostationary orbit have intercepted communications from at least a dozen European satellites.

China’s CXMT and YMTC to increase memory output — two new fabs could close the gap with the ‘big three’

By Luke James published 4 February 26

Premium China’s two largest memory manufacturers, CXMT and YMTC, are said to each be embarking on an unprecedented expansion spree as they see an opportunity to close the gap with the big-three incumbents.

Notepad++ update server hijacked in targeted attacks — outfit claims Chinese state-sponsored hackers may be to blame

By Luke James published 3 February 26

The Notepad++ project yesterday disclosed that its update server was covertly hijacked in a targeted supply chain attack that began in June 2025,

Trump administration plans $12bn critical minerals stockpile to offset China supply risk — initiative to create 60-day reserve of rare earths for electronics manufacturing

By Luke James published 2 February 26

The Trump administration will soon launch a $12 billion critical minerals stockpile designed to insulate U.S. manufacturing from supply disruptions tied to China’s dominance of mining and refining.

Tim Cook appears on the field at a Super Bowl game

AI infrastructure surge begins squeezing Apple’s component costs — company considering supplier other than TSMC for lower-end chips, report claims

By Luke James published 2 February 26

Apple is beginning to feel the downstream effects of the AI infrastructure boom, as surging demand for data center hardware pushes up component costs and weakens its leverage.

Former Google engineer convicted of stealing GPU and TPU trade secrets for 'Chinese interests' — tried to raise funding for his own start-up

By Luke James published 1 February 26

A federal jury in San Francisco has convicted a former Google engineer of stealing confidential AI infrastructure data and transferring it to benefit Chinese interests.

Malicious OpenClaw ‘skill’ targets crypto users on ClawHub — 14 malicious skills were uploaded to ClawHub last month

By Luke James published 1 February 26

Security researchers are warning that the growing ecosystem around ‘OpenClaw,’ the self-hosted AI assistant formerly known as Clawdbot, has already become a target for malware distribution.

Microsoft data center in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin

Wisconsin towns reportedly signed secret NDAs for billion-dollar data center deals — Microsoft and Meta hide behind confidential agreements

By Luke James published 31 January 26

At least four Wisconsin municipalities are understood to have signed underhanded nondisclosure agreements concerning new data centers while negotiating their development.

China moves into manufacturing disruptive new semiconductor glass substrates as processor packaging competition intensifies

By Luke James published 30 January 26

Premium Glass wafer materials are emerging as a potential and viable alternative to their more conventional, aged organic counterparts.

An Iluvatar chip against a dark background

Newly-listed Chinese chipmaker targets beating Nvidia Rubin platform in just two years — Shanghai Iluvatar CoreX unveils multi-year GPU architecture roadmap with 2027 deadline

By Luke James published 27 January 26

Chinese chip designer Shanghai Iluvatar CoreX Semiconductor has unveiled a multi-year GPU architecture roadmap that explicitly targets Nvidia’s next-gen Rubin platform as its main competition.

SoftBank pauses $50bn AI data center operator acquisition talks — move plunges Stargate data center plans into uncertainty as regulatory roadblocks pose significant challenge

By Luke James published 27 January 26

Premium SoftBank has paused talks to acquire U.S. data center operator Switch, stepping back from what would have been one of its largest deals to date.

Xi Jinping calls AI ‘epoch-making’ as China’s focus tightens on domestic tech — likens change to Industrial Revolution or the dawn of the internet

By Luke James published 26 January 26

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has emphasized the importance of advancing AI in his first formal meeting of 2026 with ministers.

AI chip design is pushing advanced chip packaging to its limits – workarounds exist for limits of 2.5D packaging, but are years away from viability

By Luke James published 14 January 26

Premium As AI accelerators and HPC devices grow larger and more complex, advanced chip design continues to move away from the transistor and toward the package.

Man looking at phone on backdrop of Chinese flag

Qwen boss says Chinese AI models have 'less than 20%' chance of leapfrogging Western counterparts — despite China's $1 billion AI IPO week, capital can't close the gap alone

By Luke James published 13 January 26

Premium China’s AI sector made a splash this month as a cluster of domestic AI firms raised more than $1 billion through IPOs in Hong Kong.

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