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

China warns of fresh chip shortage as Nexperia dispute escalates again - Dutch headquarters allegedly locked Chinese staff out of IT systems

By Luke James published 9 March 26

China's commerce ministry warned on Saturday of a renewed global semiconductor supply chain crisis, after Nexperia's Netherlands disabled IT accounts for all employees at its Chinese operations.

An official render of the Canon i-Sensys MF750, one of the printers impacted by these vulnerabilities.

Norwegian gov't consumer watchdog calls out ‘enshittification’ of video games, connected devices, and others — claims hardware deliberately degraded after purchase

By Luke James last updated 8 March 26

“Companies can degrade the functionality of your car or effectively destroy your connected washing machine with a software update,” says the report.

Palmer Luckey’s retro gaming venture seeks $1 billion valuation as FPGA-based Nintendo 64 clone launch nears — ModRetro's M64 console plays original N64 cartridges, supports 4K resolution

By Luke James published 8 March 26

Palmer Luckey is said to be in talks with investors to raise funds for ModRetro at a $1 billion valuation as the retro gaming company prepares to ship its second product.

Seagate FireCuda X1070 SSD spotted at retailers — listed at $829.99 before any official announcement

By Luke James published 8 March 26

Seagate's unannounced FireCuda X1070 NVMe SSD appeared on Amazon and Best Buy listings this week before its product page went offline.

Nintendo sues the US government over tariffs — Japanese videogame giant seeks 200 billion refund with interest

By Luke James published 7 March 26

The lawsuit targets duties that forced Switch 2 accessory price hikes and delayed preorders last year.

Iranian drone strikes hit three AWS data centers in the UAE and Bahrain — Iran confirms it targeted Amazon cloud infrastructure

By Luke James published 7 March 26

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated it targeted the Bahrain facility specifically because AWS hosts U.S. military workloads there.

Apple pulls $4,000 512GB Mac Studio upgrade option as AI RAM squeeze continues, raises 256GB upgrade price — M3 256GB upgrade now costs $2,000

By Luke James published 6 March 26

The 512GB option, which was exclusive to the M3 Ultra chip and previously cost $4,000, no longer appears on Apple's configuration page.

As Frank Yeary retires from Intel, the company picks an engineer to chair its board — Intel Foundry governance issues to be resolved, and looking back at the Yeary years

By Luke James published 5 March 26

Premium Intel’s board of directors is getting a new independent chair, effective May 13, following the company’s Annual Stockholders’ Meeting.

China's top chip execs claim ASML alternative 'small, fragmented, and weak' — Chinese industry titans call for national effort to invest in advanced chipmaking tools

By Luke James published 5 March 26

China's most senior semiconductor executives issued a public call this week for a consolidated national effort to build a domestic alternative to Dutch lithography giant ASML.

Spiralling memory spot prices could trigger 'industry cycle collapse,' report warns — NAND wafer costs surge 25% in a single month

By Luke James published 5 March 26

DDR5 16G (2Gx8) chips averaged $39, up 7.4% month-over-month, while 1Tb TLC flash wafers jumped 25% to $25.

OpenAI building GitHub alternative after frequent platform outages and disruptions — a public OpenAI code repository would directly compete with one of its biggest investors

By Luke James published 5 March 26

OpenAI is building its own code repository, prompted by a rise in GitHub outages and disruptions that left its engineers unable to work for hours at a time.

An image of five Fortnite characters standing abreast, facing the viewer

Trump administration weighs forcing China's Tencent to sell its stakes in Epic Games, Riot Games, and Supercell — meetings held over security risk ahead of China summit with Xi Jinping

By Luke James published 4 March 26

The Trump administration is actively debating whether to allow Chinese tech giant Tencent to keep its ownership stakes in several major gaming companies, including Fortnite creator Epic Games.

AI memory crunch forces DRAM market into 'hourly pricing' model, report claims — small and medium-sized businesses fighting for survival

By Luke James published 3 March 26

According to DigiTimes, these companies began struggling to absorb soaring memory costs in the second half of 2025.

2026 will bring sharpest PC declines in over a decade — PC shipments to fall 10.4%

By Luke James published 3 March 26

Premium The forecast puts 2026 on track for the steepest device shipment contraction in over a decade, according to Ranjit Atwal, senior director analyst at Gartner.

Entry-level PC market to ‘disappear’ by 2028 — rising memory prices pile more strain on consumer PC market

By Luke James published 2 March 26

A 130% surge in combined DRAM and SSD prices by the end of 2026 will push PC prices up 17% compared to 2025 levels and wipe out the sub-$500 PC market.

California introduces age verification law for all operating systems, including Linux and SteamOS — user age verified during OS account setup

By Luke James published 1 March 26

The law's broad definition of an "operating system provider" pulls in not just Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, but Linux distributions and Valve's SteamOS.

OpenAI strikes deal with Pentagon following Claude blacklisting — Anthropic to challenge supply chain risk designation in court

By Luke James published 28 February 26

Altman’s announcement came not long after President Trump “ordered” every federal agency to immediately stop using Anthropic's technology.

OpenAI raises $110 billion in largest-ever private tech funding round, Nvidia throws in $30 billion — AI startup now valued at $730 billion

By Luke James published 28 February 26

$50 billion from Amazon, $30 billion from Nvidia, and $30 billion from SoftBank, with additional investors expected to join as the round progresses.

Trump bans Anthropic AI from federal agencies after firm refuses to unlock capabilities — Anthropic cites risks of autonomous military applications, mass domestic surveillance

By Luke James published 27 February 26

"We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again," said Trump.

Amazon invests $50 billion in OpenAI, comitting to 2 gigawatts of Trainium silicon — AWS to become exclusive cloud distributor for Frontier enterprise platform

By Luke James published 27 February 26

Premium The investment is part of a $110 billion funding round that values OpenAI at $730 billion pre-money, with Nvidia and SoftBank each contributing $30 billion.

ISSCC 2026: AMD discloses how the Instinct MI355X doubled per-CU throughput despite lower compute unit count — 'We are actually matching the performance of the more expensive and complex GB200'

By Luke James published 27 February 26

Premium Taking to the stage at ISSCC, AMD’s Ramasamy Adaikkalavan talked through how AMD managed to fit nearly double the compute throughput into the same die area as its predecessor,

Rapidus secures $1.7 billion from Japan’s government and private investors for 2nm chip production — company says it is in active discussions with more than 60 potential customers

By Luke James published 27 February 26

Under the arrangement, the government will initially hold roughly 10% of Rapidus's voting shares and the majority of its stake in non-voting stock.

HP says memory costs doubled in one quarter, now account for 35% of PC build materials

By Luke James published 26 February 26

Interim CEO Bruce Broussard told investors the company has responded by securing long-term supply agreements for the year and has "qualified new suppliers".

Microsoft clarifies Windows 11 printer driver policy — support for legacy printers is not ending

By Luke James published 25 February 26

Microsoft confirmed today that Windows 11 is not ending support for legacy V3 and V4 printer drivers despite previous reports

Rare-earth mine in Bayan Obo, a mining town in Inner Mongolia in China.

Trump administration to use Pentagon AI to set mineral reference prices — gallium and germanium among first four targets

By Luke James published 25 February 26

The AI pricing tool purports to cut Chinese manipulation out of critical minerals markets.

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