Luke James

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

A black LEGO Smart Play brick, glowing and set against a black backdrop.

Lego unveils new smart brick with embedded computer inside — Smart Play platform features tiny 4.1mm custom ASIC with sensors, RGB LEDs, and even a tiny speaker

By Luke James published

LEGO’s Smart Brick turns 25 patents and a standard 2x4 piece into a self-contained embedded system complete with LEDs, a speaker, and a tiny, 4.1mm ASIC.

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China’s top chip foundries move to consolidate as Beijing pushes semiconductor self-sufficiency — SMIC and Hua Hong Semiconductor deals pave the path to unified power

By Luke James published

Premium China’s leading contract chipmakers are pursuing large domestic acquisitions to expand capacity as Beijing doubles down on semiconductor self-sufficiency.

Micron's HBM4

Micron secures $318 million Taiwanese subsidy for HBM R&D as AI memory arms race intensifies — three-year project aims to develop leading-edge, high-performance memory

By Luke James published

Premium Taiwan doubles down on advanced memory by backing Micron’s next-gen HBM development.

A snapshot of Debian's bug tracking homepage.

Debian maintainer criticizes email-managed bug tracker as outdated for modern development — there is a web interface for viewing, but email remains the only way to perform critical functions

By Luke James published

A dispute has flared up inside the Debian project after a senior maintainer criticized the distribution’s bug tracking system as outdated and increasingly unworkable for modern software development.

Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou at MWC in 2023

Huawei’s Ascend and Kunpeng progress shows how China is rebuilding an AI compute stack under sanctions

By Luke James published

Atlas 900 and Ascend supernodes highlight a scaling-first approach as Huawei trades per-chip efficiency for system-level throughput.

SK hynix chips

SK hynix to build first U.S. packaging plant for HBM — plugs critical hole in U.S. supply chain, $3.9B investment challenges TSMC and reshapes AI supply chains

By Luke James published

SK hynix is bringing its HBM ambitions to U.S. soil with a $3.9 billion plan to build its first domestic manufacturing facility — a 2.5D advanced packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank

SoftBank stakes $4B on securing AI data center power and capacity — DigitalBridge purchase indicative of AI industry's increasing investments in energy supply

By Luke James published

Premium SoftBank has agreed to acquire DigitalBridge in a deal valuing the digital infrastructure investor at roughly $4 billion, including debt.

SK hynix's Icheon Campus

U.S. grants Samsung and SK hynix 2026 licenses for chipmaking tool shipments to China — annual approvals replace dated waiver system

By Luke James published

The U.S. government has approved annual export licenses allowing Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to ship chipmaking equipment to their manufacturing facilities in China throughout 2026.

Intel

Former Samsung engineer accused of giving 10nm DRAM data to China's CXMT, handwritten notes detailed over 600 process steps — gas flow ratios, photoresist settings and more critical stages detailed

By Luke James published

Prosecutors allege handwritten notebooks detailed hundreds of optimized manufacturing steps developed over five years.

Jensen Huang smirking to the camera

Nvidia's $20 billion Groq IP deal bolsters AI market domination — hardware stack and key engineer behind Google TPUs included in bombshell agreement

By Luke James published

Premium Nvidia has announced a $20 billion deal to acquire Groq’s intellectual property, though not the company itself, and absorb key members of its engineering team.

LTO tape storage system

Fujifilm to begin shipping 40TB Ultrium tape cartridges in January 2026 — updated LTO Ultrium 10 archival storage can hold 100TB of compressed data in 0.8-inch thick cartridge

By Luke James published

Fujifilm has confirmed that its new LTO Ultrium 10 data cartridges with 40TB native capacity will begin shipping in January 2026.

North Korean IT workers

FBI issues wanted notice for alleged North Korean remote IT workers accused of $900,000 crypto theft — $5 million reward up for grabs for information on DPRK-linked suspects

By Luke James published

The FBI has published a public wanted notice naming four individuals accused of operating as fraudulent remote IT workers on behalf of North Korea.

TSMC wafer

Nexperia China seeks new wafer suppliers amid legal standoff with Dutch parent, could take 6 months for qualification — chip shortages have suspended some automotive production lines as Nexperia faces wafer shortage

By Luke James published

Nexperia’s China unit is moving to line up new wafer suppliers over the next six to nine months amid a deepening legal and operational dispute with its Dutch parent company.

Jensen speaking

Nvidia reportedly backs away from its effort to make its own public cloud, team reorg eases friction with customers — chipmaker shifts unit's focus to internal R&D

By Luke James published

Premium Nvidia has reorganized its cloud computing group, further scaling back its ambitions to operate a public cloud service that would directly compete with Amazon Web Services.

A Tesla Megapack cluster deployed in a desert environment.

How China’s control of battery supply chains is becoming a critical risk for U.S. military power and AI initiatives — reducing reliance will take nearly a decade

By Luke James published

From AI data centers to military drones, the U.S. is increasingly dependent on battery technologies and materials dominated by Chinese firms.

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China chipmaker SMIC raises wafer prices by about 10% as memory demand tightens capacity

By Luke James published

The adjustment comes as China’s largest foundry runs near full utilization and faces sustained demand from domestic customers building inventories of memory and logic chips.

SK hynix logo building

SK hynix expands U.S. presence with new Bellevue, Seattle office in efforts to get closer to its largest customers — offices near Nvidia, Amazon, and Microsoft highlight co-designed HBM efforts

By Luke James published

Premium SK hynix is expanding its U.S. presence with a new office in the Seattle metropolitan area, placing the world’s leading HBM supplier within minutes of Nvidia, Amazon, and Microsoft.

Donald Trump and Jensen Huang speaking at a press conference.

Former Chinese gaming company with China govt ties accused of smuggling banned AI GPUs — Nvidia’s biggest Southeast Asia customer exposes the limits of U.S. AI export controls (Updated)

By Luke James published

U.S. export policy is colliding with the realities of globalized supply chains, reseller-driven distribution models, and explosive demand for AI accelerators in China.

Nvidia H200 NVL PCIe GPU

Nvidia prepares shipment of 82,000 AI GPUs to China as chip war lines blur — H200 shipments with 25% tax to begin as US loosens restrictions

By Luke James published

U.S. policy reversal opens the door for mid-February exports.

ASML

Chinese fabs are reportedly upgrading older ASML DUV lithography chipmaking machines — secondary channels and independent engineers used to soup up Twinscan NXT series

By Luke James published

Premium Chinese fabs are quietly extending the useful life and performance of older ASML deep ultraviolet lithography systems by upgrading key subsystems, as Beijing pushes to sustain advanced chip output.

A Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti 20GB engineering sample.

Another unreleased Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti 20GB Founders Edition engineering sample surfaces on the second-hand market — a previous sample sold for $1,999 on eBay earlier this year

By Luke James published

An engineering sample of an RTX 3080 Ti has surfaced in the secondhand market, according to a post on the Nvidia subreddit.

Biren Technology

China's premier GPU maker Biren kicks off Hong Kong IPO — GPU startups vying for Nvidia's crown race to fund AI chip development

By Luke James published

Shanghai Biren Technology has begun bookbuilding for a Hong Kong initial public offering aimed at raising as much ad US$624 million as Chinese AI chipmakers accelerate listings to fund expansion.

Time waits for no man

NIST warns several of its Internet Time Service servers may be inaccurate due to a power outage — Boulder servers 'no longer have an accurate time reference'

By Luke James published

NIST has warned that several of its Internet Time Service servers could be providing inaccurate time following a failure of the primary atomic time scale at its Boulder, Colorado campus.

Steam cover art

Steam app is now 64-bit only on systems that support it, 32-bit support enters final countdown — 32-bit users will stop receiving updates in 2026

By Luke James published

Valve has begun the final phase of its plan to end Steam support for 32-bit versions of Windows, with a December Steam client update that changes how the platform runs on modern systems.

Microsoft data center

China's new nation-spanning network eclipses 100 Gbps transferring 72 terabytes across 1,000km — experimental research network designed to connect thousands of virtualized networks across the country

By Luke James published

China has brought online a national experimental research network designed to support experimentation on future network designs and to improve data transmission quality.

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