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

Donald Trump whispers in Xi Jinping's ear following the conclusion of trade talks in Southeast Asia.

Blackwell GPU's exclusion from high-level trade talks highlights deepening AI ecosystem rift between nations — China aims to build sovereign hardware and software systems without Nvidia

By Luke James published 31 October 25

Premium The trade war takes a breather, but Blackwell is still off the table while Beijing seeks better domestic compute capabilities.

Police bust chip counterfeiting outfit in China, fakes may have made it into PC hardware — GPUs, motherboards, and power supplies potentially impacted by fake Infineon and TI power chips

By Luke James published 30 October 25

Shenzhen authorities have dismantled a counterfeit chip operation that allegedly sold reclaimed and rebranded integrated circuits as premium imports from Infineon and others.

A submersible data center pod is lowered underwater via crane.

China deploys wind-powered underwater data center off Shanghai coast — $226 million project could top 24 megawatts, harnessing the cooling power of the sea

By Luke James published 29 October 25

China has launched what it claims is the world’s first wind-powered undersea data center — a sealed, seawater-cooled cluster sitting 35 meters beneath the surface off the coast of Shanghai.

NZXT hit with civil RICO suit in California over controversial PC rental biz — class-action lawsuit alleges PC Flex Program is a 'bait-and-switch-scheme' that included used and inferior hardware

By Luke James published 29 October 25

NZXT and partner Flex are being brought to court following claims that Flex's rental program is a scam.

Trump salutes as he and Japanese PM Takaichi review the honor guard during at Akasaka Palace.

US and Japan move to loosen China’s rare earths grip — nations partner to build alternative pathways to power, resource independence

By Luke James published 28 October 25

Announced on October 28 in Tokyo, the agreement commits both governments to securing mineral flows and accelerating the deployment of advanced nuclear power.

AMD swoops in to help as John Carmack slams Nvidia's $4,000 DGX Spark, says it doesn't hit performance claims, overheats, and maxes out at 100W power draw — developer forums inundated with crashing and shutdown reports

By Luke James published 28 October 25

Nvidia’s DGX Spark, the company’s new $4,000 developer box powered by the Grace Blackwell GB10 superchip, is under fire after questions were raised about real-world performance and power draw.

Server DRAM prices surge up to 50% as AI-induced memory shortage hits hyperscaler supply — U.S. and Chinese customers only getting 70% order fulfillment

By Luke James published 28 October 25

The DRAM supply chain is choking, and server memory is taking the first hit, with major U.S. and Chinese hyperscalers now receiving just 70% of the server DRAM they order.

Jet engine shortages threaten AI data center expansion as wait times stretch into 2030 — the rush to power AI buildout continues

By Luke James published 27 October 25

Premium The greatest threat to AI datacenter expansion in 2026 might not be compute, land, or capital, but jet engines, as hyperscalers face multi-year waits for turbines earmarked for AI deployments.

Microsoft's OpenAI losses hidden as part of $4.7 billion 'other' expense — stake in AI company still doesn't turn a profit as companies grapple with ongoing contract negotiation

By Luke James published 27 October 25

Microsoft’s AI ambitions are in large part tied to OpenAI, but the financial picture surrounding the connection is pretty murky.

ChatGPT chief Sam Altman says AI could eliminate jobs that aren’t ‘real work’ — comments come among mounting evidence of jobs being replaced by AI

By Luke James last updated 26 October 25

Sam Altman isn’t known for understatement, but even by his own standards, what he said on stage at OpenAI’s DevDay conference earlier this month was pretty problematic.

US–China reach trade framework that could avert 100% tariffs and pause rare-earth curbs — development comes as Trump and Xi prepare to meet this week

By Luke James published 26 October 25

A YouTuber holds up part of a torn-down RTX 5090 up to a camera.

‘Never in your life buy a 5090 Founders Edition’ — repair tech slams Nvidia’s flagship GPU design

By Luke James last updated 26 October 25

The GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition is Nvidia’s flagship GPU, but one repair technician says it comes with a hidden flaw that makes it one of the worst designs he’s seen.

Nexperia's China parent Wingtech declares cash-flow risk despite massive 280% profit surge - car production shutdowns loom as Dutch state tightens grip

By Luke James published 26 October 25

Wingtech, the Chinese parent company of Dutch chipmaker Nexperia, has warned investors of a potential cash flow squeeze if it fails to regain operational control of its European subsidiary.

A worker at Apple's Houston facility works on an assembly line.

Apple's Houston-built AI servers are now shipping, according to CEO Tim Cook — custom silicon to power Private Cloud Compute

By Luke James published 24 October 25

Apple CEO Tim Cook took to X yesterday, October 23, to announce that Apple’s “American-made advanced servers” have begun shipping from a new Houston facility to Apple’s own data centers.

European think tank suggests punitive DUV machine export ban following China's latest round of rare earth export controls

By Luke James last updated 23 October 25

Premium Think tank suggests tighter semiconductor controls amid rare earth tensions.

The ProEnergy PE6000 turbine on display during the Data Center World Power show in San Antonio, Texas.

Data centers turn to commercial aircraft jet engines bolted onto trailers as AI power crunch bites — cast-off turbines generate up to 48 MW of electricity apiece

By Luke James published 22 October 25

Faced with multi-year delays to secure grid power, US data center operators are deploying aeroderivative gas turbines to keep AI infrastructure online.

Microsoft rushes out emergency Windows 11 patch after botched update breaks Recovery — restores USB keyboard and mouse input inside WinRE for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2

By Luke James published 21 October 25

Microsoft has issued a patch for Windows 11 after an update released on October 14 quietly broke the Windows Recovery Environment on some systems.

Nvidia's China presence hits zero, says CEO Jensen Huang, and companies are already working around it — Alibaba reduces reliance on H20 as U.S. and China division deepens

By Luke James published 21 October 25

Premium Alibaba Cloud has revealed a new GPU pooling system that slashed the number of Nvidia accelerators needed for large-scale inference by more than 80%.

Alibaba Cloud says it cut Nvidia AI GPU use by 82% with new pooling system— up to 9x increase in output lets 213 GPUs perform like 1,192

By Luke James published 20 October 25

A paper presented at SOSP 2025 details how token-level scheduling helped one GPU serve multiple LLMs, reducing demand from 1,192 to 213 H20s.

Musk challenges legendary AI researcher Karpathy to an AI coding showdown against Grok 5 — gets a polite 'no' to an IBM Deep Blue-like showdown

By Luke James published 20 October 25

Elon Musk has proposed a public coding contest between xAI’s Grok 5 and former OpenAI research lead Andrej Karpathy, comparing it to the 1997 showdown between Garry Kasparov and IBM’s Deep Blue.

The Intel i386 turns 40 years old — 275,000 transistors running at 16MHz changed personal computing forever

By Luke James published 19 October 25

Intel's i386 brought 32-bit registers to x86 and paved the way for Windows 3.0 and Linux.

North Korean state-sponsored hackers slip unremovable malware inside blockchains to steal cryptocurrency — EtherHiding embeds malicious JavaScript payloads in smart contracts on public blockchains

By Luke James last updated 18 October 25

Google says DPRK group UNC5342 is using EtherHiding to deliver backdoors and steal crypto, marking the first nation-state adoption of a tactic built for takedown-resistant attacks.

Jensen Huang is interviewed at a Citadel Securities event.

Jensen says Nvidia’s China AI GPU market share has plummeted from 95% to zero — the Chinese market previously amounted to 20% to 25% of the chipmaker's data center revenue

By Luke James published 18 October 25

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last week that the company’s share of China’s advanced AI accelerator market has collapsed from roughly 95% to zero as US export controls continue to bite.

Micron is preparing to exit China’s data center memory market completely, report claims — Beijing banned company's chips from 'critical information infrastructure' in 2023

By Luke James published 17 October 25

Micron is reportedly preparing to halt sales of server memory chips to data centers in mainland China, after its business there failed to recover from a 2023 cybersecurity ban.

Amazon reveals 960 megawatt nuclear power plans to cope with AI demand — Richland, Washington site tapped for deployment of Xe-100 small modular reactors

By Luke James published 17 October 25

Amazon has revealed plans to help build one of the United States’ first modular nuclear power campuses in a move designed to supply carbon-free electricity for its growing AI and cloud workloads.

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