Google introduced five new laptops recently, which went on sale Sunday. The Googlebooks are intended to run Android apps natively; however, Google admitted in a statement to Android Authority that not all apps may perform as well on the systems with Intel processors as those with Qualcomm chips.

"The vast majority of Android apps run smoothly across both Intel and Qualcomm Googlebooks right out of the box," Google told the Android-focused site. "Because many Android apps were originally designed for Arm chips, a small handful of complex apps or games need some developer tuning to run their best on Intel-based platforms. We’re working hand-in-hand with app developers, Intel, and Qualcomm to continuously optimize performance and expand compatibility across the entire portfolio."

Google has not named specific apps that might have issues on Intel-based systems. None of these claims were made prior to Googlebooks being made available on store shelves.

The Googlebooks with Intel processors are the Asus Googlebook 14, Lenovo Googlebook 15, and Acer Googlebook 14. The Dell XPS Googlebook and HP Googlebook 14 use Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips.

Most Android apps will work on Intel Googlebooks due to the wide use of Kotlin for Android development, and many apps have been made using Java. If an app's pipeline is mostly Java/Kotlin, it will have a high chance of working on the Intel Googlebook thanks to their architecture-agnostic libraries and SDKs.

However, there are still apps out there relying on native components compiled exclusively for ARM64 with no x86-64 versions. Intel Bridge and Android’s Native Bridge can translate ARM64 code for x86 compatibility, but unless the developer actually accounts for x86, it might run into some issues.

All of the applications on Googlebookx will come from Google's Play Store, which will include a mix of optimized and unoptimized apps. You can't download applications from the web unless you're redirected to Google Play.

Google wants to compete with the Mac by offering a full Android ecosystem experience from phone to laptop, similar to the conveniences Apple offers between their laptops and phones. With prices ranging from $899-1,299, it is a fairly large jump from the MacBook Neo’s $699-799; however, the Googlebook offers more RAM, giving you either 16GB or 32GB options. Storage remains limited, only offering either 256GB or 512GB, but each Googlebook comes with 12 months of Google AI Pro that includes 5TB of cloud storage currently valued at $249.99.

Nvidia is expected to launch RTX Spark devices later this week, following a not-so-subtle tease at the end of last week (and the chip’s announced fall release). Ahead of Microsoft’s event on Wednesday, October 7 (where the launch is expected) AMD has shared some benchmarks for its new Gorgon Halo chips — the range that will directly compete with RTX Spark devices. The extra insight comes a matter of days after the first Gorgon Halo devices launched, some of which cost upwards of $7,099.

Short of a few questionable Geekbench leaks, we haven’t seen any performance results for the RTX Spark yet, so AMD isn’t using it as a comparison point. Rather, it’s comparing the Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 to Intel’s Core Ultra X9 388H. These chips aren’t in the same class of device, though AMD would argue that it’s comparing its top-of-stack part to Intel’s top-of-stack part.

AMD used ComfyUI to measure generative AI performance. AMD averaged multiple runs of various models, comparing total throughput to Intel’s competition. AMD used its top-spec 192GB configuration of the Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 and compared it to the Core Ultra X9 388H in a system with 64GB of memory (Panther Lake supports up to 128GB).

The performance advantage ranges from 1.1x up to 32.2x, though the end point is a clear outlier. We searched for Yuve on Hugging Face and didn’t find any results. It’s possible this delta comes down to an optimization issue, or that it’s simply too big to run on the Panther Lake machine.

We don’t have gaming or general application performance, but we don’t expect a major swing compared to last-gen Strix Halo chips. Gorgon Halo is largely a refresh of that range.

Gorgon Halo isn’t getting into the ring with Panther Lake, however. It’s going mainly against the RTX Spark, and to a lesser extent, Apple’s larger M-series SoCs. This category of agentic PCs, as AMD calls it, is seemingly expanding, though it’s still far smaller than some of the hype around the RTX Spark would have you believe. AMD bragged in a prebriefing with the press about shipping “10s of millions” of AI PCs (read: laptops) before clarifying that it had slipped “over half a million” agentic PCs. Presumably, those are numbers for Strix/Gorgon Halo devices.

The matchup between Gorgon Halo and the RTX Spark has, up to this point, focused mainly on memory capacity. RTX Spark devices top out at 128GB of unified memory, same as the GB10 in the DGX Spark (the two chips are nearly identical). AMD, on the other hand, supports up to 192GB with Gorgon Halo. Higher capacity means running larger models locally, though at a lower performance level.

In the GLM 5.3 Flash with 320 billion parameters, AMD saw peak throughput of 20 tokens per second, though using Unsloth's UD-IQ4_XS mixed-quantization format. For context, we clocked peak token throughput on the DGX Spark running GPT-OSS 120B with 4-bit quantization at 64 tokens per second, and the last-gen Ryzen AI MAx+ 395 at 56 tokens per second.

Note that although GLM 5.3 Flash has 320 billion total parameters, only 18 billion are activated for each token. Similarly, GPT-OSS 120B is another mixture-of-experts model with 120 billion total parameters, though only around 5 billion are active per token.

AMD also shared Qwen 3.8 Flash Next performance, a multimodal MoE model with 125 billion main parameters, 51 billion embedding parameters, and about 4 billion parameters for multi-token prediction (MTP), with 5 billion parameters active per token. AMD says the Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 achieves up to 42 tokens per second with this model, once again using Unsloth’s dynamic 4-bit quantization and MTP.

That’s solid performance, but in both cases, “up to” carries a lot on its shoulders. The story of token throughput is told as the context length increases, showcasing what happens when someone actually runs these models locally, not just boots them up cold. Performance drops at higher context lengths, naturally, which could pose some issues for the larger models. If GLM 5.3 Flash provides up to 20 tokens per second, it could very easily decline into unusable territory as the context length increases.

We largely know what performance to expect out of the Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495, and Gorgon Halo more broadly. It’s a refresh of Strix Halo, with notable spec changes being the bump up to 192GB of unified memory from 128GB, as well as a 100 MHz jump on boost clocks for the 495. Otherwise, the range is using identical core counts and microarchitectures as previous-gen Strix Halo chips.

With these proxies — Strix Halo for Gorgon Halo, and GB10 for RTX Spark — we can already get a good idea about how these parts will stack up. As you can see in our Ryzen AI Halo review (packing the Ryzen AI Max+ 395), AMD’s part universally underperformed compared to the DGX Spark in both time to first token and tokens per second across three models. More unified memory will allow you to run larger models, but that doesn’t mean those models will run faster.

The first Gorgon Halo devices are available for sale now, such as the Minisforum MS-S1 Max-P495. For the top-line configuration, prices sit around $7,000 right now, though we expect a broad range of prices once different devices are available, likely driving above that $7,000 mark.

Full presentation

Over the past several months, we’ve been stuck in the murky depths of the AIpocalypse and have been hit with sky-high prices on RAM, storage, and graphics cards. Luckily, processor prices haven’t really changed, but finding a decent deal that isn’t bundled with multiple items you may not need was tough at times. Today we found a solid discount on AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D for only $429 with promo code FTT7668, and it’s not in a bundle! That’s right, you can upgrade from your older or non-X3D AM5 processor to the latest and greatest for gaming without buying extra parts. And while it’s not quite at the all-time low, Newegg throws in two gifts: a 240mm MSI Coreliquid A13 AIO ($69 value) and an AMD Onimusha Game Bundle ($69 value) to sweeten the deal.

• Check out this deal on Newegg

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is an 8-core/16-thread Zen5-based processor with a base clock of 4.6 GHz and a max boost of 5.2 GHz, which is plenty of speed for any task. The X3D variant's 96MB of L3 cache helps with gaming (among other things), making it one of the fastest gaming CPUs we tested. While it excels in games, it also performs well for just about anything else you can throw at it. The charts below show how it and the other processors on sale perform.

Newegg also has the newer, slightly faster Ryzen 7 9850X3D on sale for $469 with promo code FTTF7669, and it also offers the same gifts as the 9800X3D. In fact, there are a couple of deals on AMD X3D processors, some better than others. If you need more cores and threads for heavier workflows, the 9950X3D ($699) and 9850X3D2 ($899) 16-core/32-thread chips don’t offer a discount, but the free 240mm AIO and AMD game do carry over like the others and can offer a bit of relief if you need a cooler and want a free game.

If you’re in the market to upgrade your AM5-based platform and looking for X3D chips to improve your PC gaming experience, Newegg has you covered. Both the 9800X3D at $429 (promo code FTT7668) and the $469 9850X3D (promo code FTT7669) are discounted, and they throw in a couple of freebies to sweeten the pot. If it’s time to move up to an X3D chip and you don’t need a motherboard or RAM, now is a great time to buy any one of the fastest gaming chips available.

Oracle has reportedly made a deal with Tencent for a five-year lease at several Oracle data centers in Southeast Asia, covering about 100,000 advanced AI chips unavailable in China. The deal is estimated to be worth about $7 billion, which would come out to about $1.60 per chip per hour over five years, with about 30% upfront, according to a report by the Financial Times (FT). The deal lands as compute rental prices continue to climb, per Chief Strategy Officer James Mitchell on Tencent’s August 12 earnings call. Neither company has commented on the report, but such leases are legal under current U.S. rules, per the FT.

The estimated chip-hour price is around 43% less than the roughly $2.80 per GPU-hour for Nvidia’s H100 with a one-year contract, per research firm SemiAnalysis in August. It’s also about 48% lower than the $3.09 per GPU-hour for a three-year contract with Nvidia’s B200, per a 2025 filing by Japanese data center operator Datasection for an unnamed customer. Market trends have pricing running the other way, with the FT reporting longer terms and larger upfront payments for such leases. Tencent president Martin Lau said on the same call the company could sell its existing orders at “more than 30% profit” compared to what it “paid just a few months ago.”

No chips are named. The FT says that such leases could reach even Nvidia’s top processors, but that does not mean this deal involves Nvidia hardware. One-year H100 contracts on SemiAnalysis’s index were above the estimated rate at about $1.70 per GPU-hour even as of October 2025, with the B200 rate being even more expensive despite its longer, three-year term. Going by raw B200 server costs, which exclude buildings, power, networking, and financing, 100,000 B200s would cost $5.44 billion, or about 78% of the reported value, based on Datasection’s 2025 purchase of servers with 5,000 B200s for $272 million.

Without specifics on the hardware being rented, it is not possible to determine whether this is a bulk deal or if the leasing costs are closer to the actual hardware cost. The pricing on paper, however, better fits Hopper-class at volume. Hopper would include the H100 and H200 and, with H200 imports still limited, could meet the criterion of the chips in the deal not being available in China.

The Oracle data centers are located outside China, with Tencent merely renting time on them. Details including the countries involved, sites, and start date remain undisclosed. Oracle has two Singapore cloud regions, with a Malaysia one announced. The FT says the biggest clients of Southeast Asian data centers are ByteDance and Alibaba, with Chinese firms using the capacity especially for AI training, which domestic chips cannot yet do. Tencent previously inked a $1.2 billion-plus deal for Datasection Blackwell rentals in Japan and Australia, the FT reported in December 2025.

Some Oracle clients have prepaid for GPUs or brought their own hardware since its March call, and fiscal Q4, from March to May, added $67 billion of AI contracts, mostly of those two kinds, per its June call. June through August, per its quarterly filing, the company “received $11.4 billion of prepayments from customers that included a significant financing component.” Deferred revenue rose from $15.4 billion to $30.8 billion over the quarter. No customers were named, so this can’t be tied to Tencent. The company reported 97.9% GPU utilization during its September 10 earnings call, with renewals at a 20% average premium, which was mostly on GPUs four years or older.

Tencent prepaying about 30% makes sense given Oracle’s statements earlier this year. It’s a good deal for both parties. Oracle would improve its cash flow following a quarter of negative free cash flow, and Tencent Cloud’s May price raises, per Mitchell, could help recoup the cost of the rented chips.

The legal picture, given the friction between the United States and China over AI export controls, is thorny. The Remote Access Security Act, a bipartisan bill that passed the House 369–22 in January, would give the U.S. government the right to regulate remote cloud access to sensitive technology, which could cover the chips under the reported deal. The bill specifically targets cloud loopholes and applies to any foreign person rather than naming countries, to prevent adversaries from leveraging cloud networks to bypass U.S. export bans. The bill currently sits in the Senate Banking Committee.

Separately, Export Administration Regulations license requirements under the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) have covered shipments of advanced AI chips, including to China-headquartered companies abroad, since November 2023. Cloud rentals were left out, with the BIS only asking for comment on them. Renting remains one loophole around BIS guidance on restricted chips. Bloomberg reported that the BIS was reviewing offshore access with legal rentals included. The deal is also not barred by Tencent being on the Pentagon’s 1260H list of “Chinese military companies,” as this is not a sanction. No statement about the deal by any regulatory government official accompanied the report.

According to The Information, the Department of Commerce is drafting a rule to block Chinese firms from renting compute in third countries, such as Thailand and Singapore, which would align with the reported details of this deal. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met late last month in Washington, covering AI and extending a trade truce for a further two months.

However, the deal is of a type that might face trouble from both the House-passed bill and Commerce’s reported rule. But the latter cannot be enforced under current law, an attorney at Baker McKenzie told The Information. At the summit, the two leaders agreed to set up a channel to handle AI-related incidents, but nothing was announced on chip controls. While the U.S. has cleared some firms, including Tencent, to buy Nvidia’s H200, China has let in only about 10,000 for Tencent so far, the FT reported in August. The next meeting between the two, at APEC in Shenzhen in November, may clarify the situation.

The reported deal comes weeks before Oracle’s Investor Day on Oct. 28 in Las Vegas, during its Oct. 25–28 Oracle AI World event at the Venetian. That would be a chance for the company to disclose details about the deal, such as announcing what hardware is to be leased. Given the hardware math, our assumption is that it involves older or non-Nvidia hardware rather than an action born of financial stress at Oracle. The month following Oracle’s event, Tencent is expected to report its Q3 results. These events could also reveal more concrete details about the arrangement.

Despite being in the midst of an unprecedented memory chip shortage, it seems that gamers are still willing to invest in their gaming PCs to extract the best performance out of their favorite titles. The September 2026 Steam Survey results show that 42.22% of the surveyed units now have 32GB of system RAM — a 4.77% increase compared to the previous month — while 16GB configurations have shrunk by 3.38%, falling to just 37.82%.

We’ve also seen increases in “weird” memory configurations — 24GB has grown to 2.56%, increasing by 0.34%, while 48GB inched up to 1.46% after a 0.26% increase.

This comes as a surprise, as some manufacturers have reintroduced laptops with 8GB of RAM even as Microsoft called 16GB the new “practical starting point,” and recommended 32GB as the future-proof “no worries” configuration for gaming. It should be noted, though, that the company quietly erased this suggestion after it released 8GB base models for its Surface laptops a few months later.

It’s quite possible that memory capacities were always destined to increase for gamers, especially as titles become more demanding. Minecraft, which hasn’t updated its system requirements for 17 years and is known for being potato-PC-friendly, even increased its recommended memory to 16GB earlier this year, forcing players on older systems to switch to the Java Edition or play retro games instead. Because of that, the memory shortage may have merely postponed the inevitable reign of 32GB RAM on gaming PCs.

Another metric we’ve been following in the survey results is AMD’s slow but relentless march toward taking away Steam Survey market share from Intel. Team Red’s 48.37% market share across all platforms is the highest we’ve seen so far this year, with Team Blue now at just 51.63%. The May 2026 Steam Survey showed AMD at a little under 45% — at this pace, it’s possible that it will overtake Intel in just a matter of months.

If we break it down by operating system, 52.59% of Windows users are on Intel, while 47.41% use AMD. Intel may have an advantage here compared to the overall result, but it’s just a tiny margin, and the trend shows that AMD is gaining ground month after month. The difference between Intel and AMD is more glaring when it comes to Linux users, with an overwhelming 66.18% preferring Team Red over Team Blue’s 33.71%.

The Steam Survey is far from scientific and may not even reflect the broader movement of the overall PC market. But with Steam reporting a peak of more than 38 million concurrent players at the time of writing, the survey still offers a useful snapshot of what’s happening in the gaming PC market.

Popular Xbox emulator Xemu has just been ported to jailbroken Sony PlayStation 5 consoles. Reddit user u/Yzenxam posted a video of their PS5 running the emulator with three games installed: Forza Motorsport, Halo 2, and Crash Bandicoot. The port, playfully named XPSemu, is on their GitHub page: ZiZc3.

The modder has stated that XPSemu is Xemu and is nothing different; all they did was allow it to be opened on the PS5 as an application. Xemu uses QEMU’s TCG JIT to translate the Xbox CPU to the PS5 CPU in realtime, allowing for fast performance compared to interpretation-based translation.

Xemu has its own translation for the Xbox’ NV2A GPU and uses a Vulkan renderer to work with modern GPUs; thanks to the modder behind PS5_Vulkan, Xemu can talk to the PS5’s AMD GPU through the open-source RADV Vulkan driver — allowing the porter to run Xemu as a native PS5 application.

ZiZc3 also added their own touches as explained in their GitHub repository:

"On top of the port, XPSemu adds its own controller-friendly dashboard, per-game settings, cover art, play time, game patches, a performance overlay, a per-game log and a set of CPU optimizations made for the PS5's Zen 2 processor."

While QEMU's TCG JIT is relatively fast, it still leaves plenty to be desired. ZiZc3 explains that the emulated Xbox CPU is the bottleneck, loaded at 85-97% while the PS5 GPU remains mostly idle. As a consequence, the resolution multiplier up to 3-4x barely affects performance, and upscaling with FSR does not add performance.

The developer further explains that the PS5's Zen 2 cores are slower per core than a fast PC, and CPU-heavy games suffer from this. In terms of performance, ZiZc3 has provided a table of their experience and performance of the games on XPSemu:

As of writing, there are fewer than 15 fully PS5-exclusive games, while the number of emulators the PS5 can run is increasing by the week. On X, users BrinoTk and Mihawk9_9 (the same person behind PS5_Vulkan) announced their Xbox 360 and PS5 Proton projects on the same day, with the Xbox 360 emulator already available for testing.

The PS5 already has emulators for PS1-3, with PS4 emulation technically built in. Non-PlayStation emulators besides the XPSemu include the Nintendo Switch, Wii U, 3DS, and of course the myriad of emulators available on RetroArch as well. On the other side of the coin, the PS5 itself has also been emulated on PC and the Xbox Series X — at this point, the lines are blurring faster than owners know what to do with their jailbroken PS5.

Amazon will no longer require nondisclosure agreements (NDA) with government agencies involved in its data center projects and will adhere to its new Data Center Commitment program designed to address mounting opposition to AI infrastructure, it disclosed on Friday in a blog post. The company also unveiled plans to invest more than $1 billion over five years in communities hosting its facilities. The announcements come as more than 100 data center moratoriums are being considered across the U.S., so AWS wants to make data centers more attractive to locals.

No NDAs

Amazon's decision to no longer require NDAs from government officials working with it is part of the company's newly announced Data Center Commitment program aimed at making data center building more transparent and somewhat less unpleasant to people living nearby. Among other things, the company vows to hold community open houses, disclose information about projects as early as possible, and listen to local concerns as development proceeds. Amazon also vows annual disclosure of its energy consumption and efficiency, water consumption and efficiency, and the proportion of electricity supplied by carbon-free sources.

Speaking of power usage efficiency (PUE), Amazon reports a global PUE of 1.14 for 2025, compared with an industry average of 1.25 and 1.63 for on-premises enterprise data centers. It also says its facilities were 7x more water-efficient than the industry average and that it had reached 75% of its goal to become water-positive by 2030.

Many concerns

Also, new sites will use backup generators compliant with EPA Tier 4 emissions standards. While Amazon emphasizes that new sites will use backup generators meeting EPA Tier 4 emissions standards, the commitment is somewhat ambiguous in general, as the specification limits vary by engine power and generator classes, whereas Amazon does not specify the generator classes it intends to deploy.

The company says an average U.S. data center consumes around 170,000 gallons of water per day, whereas an average Amazon facility uses less than 13,000 gallons, equivalent to 42 U.S. households. However, Amazon does not distinguish between the water consumption of a typical AWS data center designed for general-purpose cloud workloads and newly built AI data centers packed with power-hungry AI accelerators, which certainly have substantially different cooling requirements.

In general, Amazon is trying to counter concerns about the resource requirements of data centers, although some of its comparisons remain rather ambiguous.

When it comes to energy efficiency, the new Built Together initiative will add more than $1 billion to Amazon’s existing community spending. The company expects to provide more than 300,000 students with access to free community-college education over five years. It currently operates three Modular Training Centers, has six more under development, and plans another 16. Each facility can train roughly 2,000–4,000 people annually, with Amazon targeting as many as 100,000 trained workers per year by the end of 2028.

Amazon also plans energy-efficiency upgrades for more than 300 schools and community buildings and 30,000 homes, targeting energy-bill reductions of 20%–40% and savings of approximately $700 per household annually. Separately, more than 65 contracted water projects are expected to return over 8 billion gallons annually, more than twice the water Amazon says its data centers consumed in 2025.

Google’s latest data center construction project in Finland is being investigated after the company representing the search giant allegedly cleared over 300 hectares of forest. The reported issue is that Google’s local operator, Tuike Finland, cleared the 420 football fields' worth of trees without obtaining a mandatory environmental impact assessment beforehand, says AFP.

Google sees Finland as an attractive European data center host country due to a number of favorable factors. The source notes that it is a country with a cool climate, plus stable and cheap energy supplies (mostly nuclear, wind and hydro). Moreover, Finland sees data centers as a solution to address some current woes such as slow economic growth and record-high unemployment levels.

This new development near Muhos, a small town with fewer than 9,000 residents, isn’t the first for Google in Finland. It already has a facility up and running in Hamina, in the south, but hopes to expand in Muhos, Kajaani, and Vaala, in the north. Overall, it is a massive expansion project, and part of a 13-billion-euro ($15-billion) investment in Finland over the next two years. Finland’s potential data center appeal has also made it a location of choice for Microsoft and TikTok.

While the local mayor looks forward to the massive investment, growth of business, and general economic boom for the region, residents are waking up to the experience of others where data centers have sprung up. Concerns about impacts on the environment, energy supply stability, and energy prices are simmering under the surface.

Google seems to have trampled on some of these concerns already, with these reports of trees already felled and excavators clearing the ground before government agency approval. Not a good start.

"In our view, operations at this construction site should be suspended until it is clarified whether the project is in compliance with the law," Hanna Halmeenpaa, chair of the board of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, told AFP at the edge of the freshly deforested area near Muhos. Even some nature preservation areas have been logged, reckons the chair. Halmeenpaa was responsible for filing the suspension request with the conservation agency.

Google denies prematurely devastating the forest. It told AFP that tree felling had been "in compliance with Forestry Act requirements." Moreover, its Finland comms manager said, in a contrasting statement to that of Halmeenpaa, that Google has been ensuring "high-value nature zones within the sites have been protected during forestry works."

We haven’t seen any other reports indicating that preparation and construction work has ceased at the new data center development site near Muhos. So it seems like Google will plow ahead, hoping or knowing that the political and/or business will is sufficiently strong to ensure it won’t have to undo any of the actions it has already completed.

David Robinson, an OpenAI Safety Transparency Lead who just left the company after working at the company for more than three years, said that the company’s safety culture is broken. According to his essay published by The Atlantic, he argued that OpenAI has a reactive approach to safety that focuses on fixing problems only when they emerge. This stance would effectively guarantee failures, with Robinson citing multiple incidents like the HuggingFace hack that an AI model executed in July 2026 and a more recent incident in which an AI “kill switch” failed to stop a rogue agent.

He said that Silicon Valley lacks the "wisdom about what it means to care for people,” he wrote. “This moment needs a degree of humility that isn’t natural for people who have succeeded through their extreme confidence.”

Because of this, he said that the industry should rely on safety experts that already exist in other fields, like nuclear engineering or aviation. These industries have learned about safety, redundancy, and planning through disasters that have claimed thousands of lives across hundreds of incidents, some of which occurred more than half a century ago but still clearly echo today. These lessons were written in blood, and experts from various sectors worked together to build the systems, procedures, and models we rely on today, helping ensure that no single machine failure or human error would result in tragedy.

“OpenAI and other labs are growing and deploying frontier AI with far less redundancy and rigor than this, even though the harm from an irreversible loss of control would be much greater than the harm from any single meltdown,” Robinson argues. “Even short of a full loss of control, we could see autonomous swarms of AI agents that act without human permission.” This is exactly what Anthropic’s Dario Amodei has been warning about, leading to his proposal of slowing down frontier AI development, to which OpenAI’s Sam Altman and SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk agreed.

However, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, who supplies the majority of the AI chips needed to train these models, disagreed with the Anthropic CEO’s proposal. If the AI experiments have become unsafe, “we have to shut the labs down,” Huang said in an interview. He also cited civil and criminal liabilities that entities may face for rogue agents but called Dario’s concerns a “distraction.” The White House soon called over the heads of the biggest AI companies for high-level discussions, after which President Donald Trump came up with a document where Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Nvidia promised to “self-police” AI development.

Robinson didn’t talk about rules and regulations and instead targeted the core culture of safety (or lack thereof) and OpenAI’s penchant for “iterative deployment,” or more commonly known as trial and error. He said that he should have stayed inside the company and fought for a fundamental shift in its thinking, but said that this was next to impossible because of how fast things were going inside the startup. It’s for this reason that he left his job and decided to tackle the problem from the outside.

Thanks to a Rhysida ransomware attack in December 2023 aimed at Sony and Insomniac, the 1.7 TB of data stolen contained an early version of Wolverine. The source code of the leaked PS5 exclusive paved the way for u/Clean-Market5761 to create their own PC port.

It is currently a buggy mess; textures are missing, and Wolverine’s whole head is missing from multiple screenshots. Ironically, there is another screenshot where only Wolverine’s head is present, with no body in sight. The developer claims that neither KytyPS5 nor AnyPS5 were used, like in a recent story of Wolverine on KytyPS5. The developer says that the 2023 leak was key to understanding how they could generate a PC executable program.

Skeptics are claiming the developer’s screenshots are fake and from the old 2023 build; one claims they were able to port Wolverine to PC before u/Clean-Market5761, but the developer argues the screenshots are from a Jailbroken PS5 in dev mode. The developer further defends himself by comparing screenshots of Wolverine’s appearance in the 2023 leak versus their assets.

The developer has admitted to using AI for assistance in creating scripts and automated asset conversion, but trial and error were done manually. u/Clean-Market5761 further elaborates that the playable character doesn’t have a head because they haven’t ported over the PS5 shader library to render the hair, and it freezes the game. They have disabled the whole head asset, focusing on getting the game to run and become “playable.”

As excited commenters are about the port and the work of the developer, they are not thrilled about Wolverine itself. One commenter applauds the dev, but says, “You can keep it, though.”

The PS5 exclusive has not been received well, being regarded as an “interactive movie.” A viral video shows a motorcycle chase scene completing itself without any player input, with Wolverine riding along walls, seemingly with no way to crash or fail the segment. Other instances show Quick-Time Events completing themselves if the player chooses not to press any buttons. Players feel the game is making it too easy and holding their hand too much.

Even if there were an official port of Wolverine, it seems likely that the game itself isn’t attractive to players.

Chinese chipmakers have accumulated an estimated 343 immersion DUV lithography chipmaking tools from 2012 to early 2026, many of which can be used to make chips using 7nm-class process technologies, according to a report from the Centre for Technology & Statecraft (CTS). The Washington-based group asserts that this equipment gives Chinese fabs considerable potential to produce sophisticated processors despite their inability to procure ASML's more advanced EUV systems. While the total number of ArFi tools owned by Chinese chipmakers seems plausible, some other estimates look questionable.

China has been particularly aggressive in procuring wafer fabrication equipment in recent years as the U.S. government has been busy imposing various curbs on its semiconductor industry. Since 2012, Chinese chipmakers, including logic and memory makers, have imported 343 immersion DUV lithography scanners from ASML, excluding imports to multinational fabs located within China.

The authors of the report claim that the existing export controls leave an important gap because lithography equipment originally acquired for less advanced process technologies can potentially be reassigned for more sophisticated process technologies, such as 7nm-class nodes (which the industry adopted in 2018 – 2019). This happens at a cost, but if no other options are available, Chinese chipmakers have no choice. They propose to prohibit exports of all immersion DUV systems to China and restrict replacement components and maintenance services for machines installed at advanced fabs, a proposal consistent with the bipartisan MATCH Act introduced in April.

CTS claims that 270 of these immersion DUV tools are ASML's Twinscan NXT:1980i scanners featuring a 38nm resolution and a 2.5nm matched-machine overlay capability crucial for multipatterning for 7nm-class nodes, which can be used to make chips using 7nm-class fabrication technologies. In addition, CTS claims that Chinese fabs own 22 NXT:2050i and six NXT:2000i systems. It is unclear how many of the 296 advanced immersion DUV scanners shipped to China are currently operational.

Dutch authorities introduced licensing requirements for exports of ASML's NXT:2000i and more capable immersion DUV scanners in September 2023, which effectively prevents their shipment to China. As a result, Chinese chipmakers had to opt for the least capable NXT:1980i. CTS now estimates that Chinese fabs purchased approximately 90 NXT:1980i scanners in 2024 and another 89 units in 2025, spending more than $13 billion during the two-year period. While the Netherlands expanded export controls to the NXT:1980i in September 2024, individual exports of this model can still receive approval. Furthermore, ASML can also potentially sell its NXT:1965Ci systems to clients in China, though we are not sure it has all the components needed for these outdated scanners.

ASML's own results reflect unusually high demand from China: the country represented 41% of its net system sales by shipment destination in 2024 and 33% in 2025. That share subsequently declined to 19% in Q1 2026 and 14% in Q2, which is something that ASML had warned about before.

One should keep in mind that the CTS numbers — ~90 NXT:1980i systems in 2024 and 89 in 2025 — cannot be independently reconstructed from ASML's published financial data. At most, ASML's disclosures provide a useful sanity check: China was indeed an exceptionally large destination during precisely those years, while ASML sold 129 and 131 ArFi systems globally in 2024 and 2025, respectively. If CTS' numbers are correct, then Chinese chipmakers bought the lion's share, 70% and 68%, of ASML's immersion DUV tools output in 2024 and 2025 despite export controls introduced in 2024. Meanwhile, the NXT:1980Di systems are readily available on the secondhand market.

*The source mentions the NXT:1980i machines, which probably include the original 1980Di and newer 1980Fi featuring higher productivity. We will use the 'NXT:1980i' name in this story for consistency, even though ASML has never produced a scanner named NXT:1980i.

Amazon has issued grave warnings to communities opposing data centers, stating that their actions could cause irreversible damage to the U.S. economy and national security. In a lengthy 3000-word post earlier today, October 2, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Matt Garman detailed the many benefits of Artificial Intelligence, comparing the technology’s impact on the economy to those of modern transportation systems and the Internet, before attempting to debunk “myths” around data centers and calling on local communities to be more receptive to build-outs as a matter of national urgency. The post also details Amazon's plans to do more for data center host communities through its “Built Together” community investment frameworks.

After outlining AI’s impact and the need for data center buildouts, Garman explained why it was imperative for the U.S. to lead the AI race. “The countries that lead in AI will shape it and get the most from it in the short and long run. The choices we make today will determine that outcome, and a lapse in our nation’s focus or resolve could put us behind, and potentially irreparably so,” he wrote, presenting urgent buildouts as a key factor in leading that race.

Next, Garman addressed growing anti-data center movements that have reportedly blocked data center projects worth $68 billion in the second quarter of 2026 alone, warning that if the 100 data center moratoriums being considered across the country should go through, “the US could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations.” He also pointed out that unlike transportation infrastructure, the comparably critical data center buildout is not funded by taxpayer money, but by private firms.

The post dismissed many of the concerns about the buildouts as myths, then proceeded to attempt to debunk them. Garman said that, contrary to popular belief, “Data centers actually use very little water relative to other industries,” a position many hyperscalers have repeated. Amazon earlier claimed that its data centers consume only 0.075% of the water Americans use to water their lawns and gardens.

Garman also claims the narrative that data centers are driving up energy bills is “misleading and convenient scapegoating.” He argues that AI is simply precipitating an expansion of power infrastructure that was always bound to happen. “Once we collectively build out this new capacity, again funded by the private sector, it should lead to flat or lower rates in the future for residents living in communities with these expanded grids,” he said. On the other hand, contradictory reports claim that AI data centers trigger a "massive irreversible" 76% electricity price spike. The U.S. House also recently passed a bill that directed regulators to consider making AI data centers pay for grid upgrades to minimize the impact on residents. The bill was eventually rejected in the Senate, with opponents saying it was "toothless" and didn't do enough to protect residents.

Speaking on pollution, Garman says that data centers emitting huge amounts of pollution with their large backup diesel generators is a myth. He claims that while data centers have rarely used backup power in case of a power outage, this is only necessary because many industries depend on the facilities. This claim doesn’t exactly address growing concerns of pollution from gas turbines powering off-grid data centers. Elon Musk recently came under fire for using unlicensed gas turbines at the Colossus data center.

Lastly, Garman said claims that communities do not benefit from data centers are false, citing “considerable tax revenue, positive economic impact, large numbers of good jobs, and education programs” as some of the benefits to the communities where data centers are built. Microsoft pledged to invest $1 billion in local infrastructure improvements in its Hyperion data center community and had reportedly awarded $1.6 billion in contracts to local businesses since construction began, in addition to paying teacher bonuses. As benefits specifically on Amazon’s part, Garman listed an estimated $3 billion in taxes to St. Joseph County, Indiana, over time; more than $1 billion already contributed to communities across the U.S.; thousands of jobs created in building and running the data centers; and education programs with over 10,000 educators and learners enrolled.

The company says it plans to do more. Through its “Built Together” initiative, Amazon says it will “add more than $1 billion over the next five years to what we’re already doing — with communities in the driver’s seat to determine what’s most useful for them across education, job training, energy affordability, water and energy preservation, and local priorities.”

Garman insists that data centers can’t be separated from the revolutionary impact of AI. U.S. President Donald Trump appears to agree, at least on the “revolutionary impact” aspect, and has repeatedly expressed a desire to maintain a lead over China. On the other hand, data center critics claim that responsible implementation of the build-outs, and not AI itself, is the bone of contention.

Like several industry leaders and hyperscalers, Garman insists that many of the issues were being blown out of proportion, and implied that much of the anti-data center sentiment could be traced to nefarious foreign influence. “With any change, there will be important questions raised, but there will also be misinformation and outright lies, and in the age of social media and 24/7 news, myths take hold faster than ever before. In fact, this buildout is so important geopolitically that there are widespread reports of various countries intentionally seeding misinformation in the U.S. about data centers to trick us into slowing down,” he said.

Russia-based Zelenograd Nanotechnology Center (ZNTC) has completed the third R&D stage of the company's first lithography tool capable of processing 200-mm wafers using a 130nm process technology, reports CNews. The tool is currently being tested internally and is years away from being used at a real fab to produce chips in mass quantities. Blogger Dmitrii Kuznetsov suggests that the device is the "first Russian 130nm-capable lithograph" that consists of components made in Russia. This may not be the case, though.

"The creation of a prototype of a domestically developed photolithography system designed for a 130nm process is an important milestone for Russia's microelectronics industry," Alexander Mikhailov, an analyst with Strategy Partners, told CNews. "It demonstrates that Russia has its own engineering expertise required to develop such equipment and paves the way for developing a range of systems targeting smaller process nodes (90nm and 65nm)."

Truth be told, while the Zelenograd-based ZNTC is responsible for the project, Belarus-based Planar was responsible for developing the lithography system, according to documents seen by CNews (which corroborates earlier reports). In addition to the system itself, Planar was responsible for manufacturing mechanical assemblies and components, as well as commissioning the prototype. Lasers for the unit were developed by Lassard. Meanwhile, ZNTC is responsible for development of the overall system, design of the test and process equipment, projection-lens calculations, as well as process modeling and development, the report claims. Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade allocated approximately $70 million for the entire development program.

It is estimated that one 130nm-capable ZNTC stepper costs $6.7 million, while its laser light source costs around $600,000, bringing the cost of a single tool to around $7.3 million. To put the number into context, ASML's PAS 5500/150 stepper had a list price of $3.1 million when it was launched in Q1 2001. Implying a cumulative inflation of about 88%, this translates to around $5.8 million in 2026 dollars. Meanwhile, the Russian stepper is a 200-mm machine capable of 130nm fabrication technologies.

Speaking of 130nm manufacturing processes — which Intel and AMD adopted in 2001 and 2002, respectively — Russian chipmakers have historically developed two 130nm-class nodes, but those technologies rely on lithography equipment from ASML. Whether or not ZNTC's stepper could be integrated into existing nodes remains unclear, but ZNTC claims that it is also responsible for process technology 'modeling and developing.' This likely refers to developing/qualifying the lithographic process around this particular machine —resist, exposure dose, focus/process window, masks, alignment/overlay, develop conditions, temperatures, etc. —rather than inventing an entire 130nm technology from scratch.

Given a typical lithography tool development cycle, ZNTC's 130nm stepper is still likely years away from being used for actual chip production. For now, ZNTC's 130 nm step-and-repeat system is still an engineering prototype, which was delivered five months later than expected. The first prototype is currently undergoing internal engineering and acceptance testing, after which ZNTC will have to finalize the design and validate everything from imaging and overlay to reliability and throughput, which will take well over a year. Only after that, it can build prototype machines for actual chipmakers that will have to characterize them and then qualify them for their production flows, which will take months, if not years.

Even established lithography suppliers typically require several years to move from the first integrated engineering system to production deployment, so a realistic timeframe for the Russian machine to begin processing commercial wafers would probably be around 2029 at the earliest. Limited production of the steppers themselves could potentially begin earlier as long as ZNTC has all the required parts, but that should not be confused with their qualification for volume semiconductor manufacturing.

The United States Senate has decided against advancing the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill designed to shield everyday Americans from rapidly rising electricity costs driven by data center buildouts nationwide. On September 30, the bill fell short of the 60 votes required to pass the bill by just three votes, ending 57-43, according to a Reuters report. The Ratepayer Protection Act bill had cleared the U.S. House of Representatives just two weeks earlier, with the Senate as the last procedural step before President Donald Trump could sign it into law. Following the vote, the bill is now officially dead.

Introduced in the Senate by Senator Jon Husted, the bill was the legal culmination of President Trump’s “Ratepayer Protection Pledge.” It sought to institute a federal standard for states and Public Utility Commissions, directing regulators to consider whether entities that consume large amounts of electricity, such as data centers, should cover the incremental costs of energy infrastructure needed to serve them.

Proponents say the act would prevent data center operators from passing infrastructure costs to residents and small businesses, a growing concern in communities seeing a rise in data center construction. “If America wants to lead the world in AI and strengthen our national security, we have to build the energy infrastructure to support it. But we must do that without passing the costs on to working families and small businesses. The Ratepayer Protection Act would keep America globally competitive while protecting Ohioans and Americans from higher electricity bills,” said Husted.

On the other hand, opponents, mostly Democrats, labeled the bill “toothless,” arguing that its non-binding nature provided no real protection because it did not mandate that states adopt the standard; it simply directs regulators to consider it as part of their rate-setting processes. Only four Democrats voted for the bill; the general consensus was that it does not go far enough to protect consumers from soaring electricity bills.

With the bill’s collapse, Congress has yet to impose any new federal protection on data center-related grid costs. Some lawmakers have suggested they may reevaluate the issue after the mid-term elections in November, possibly with revisions that would require utility regulators to ensure data center operators cover additional costs caused by their operations. The debate over data center energy costs and who should cover them will likely remain a key issue during campaigns, especially in states where new facilities are planned or where buildouts are ongoing.

Meanwhile, local communities continue to push back against data centers over several issues, including electricity bill hikes. Some states are already taking steps to address the hikes. An Oregon power company hiked data center bills by 30% and cut residential electricity costs by 1.3%. Certain hyperscalers are also moving their data centers off-grid, with others pledging to supply electricity to the grid or offset increases in residents’ bills.

A YouTube channel best known for its skillful graphics card fixes has published its first RAM module repair video. Tony from NorthWestRepair’s latest video shows his attempts to mend a pair of high-capacity DDR5 sticks worth a purported $16,000. It isn’t the repair skills that are newsworthy here. Rather, it’s the shift in economics that makes the chuck-it-and-replace-it attitude to bad RAM a philosophy that simply doesn’t apply in 2026. The impact of the AI-pocalypse means that spending a couple of hundred dollars on repair labor to save a several-thousand-dollar DDR5 DIMM is now sensible. If you can repair RAM, you can now start a business.

Two DDR5 sticks were sent in to Tony, described as having physical damage. They are both ECC sticks, meant for servers, one with 128GB and the other with 256GB of DRAM ICs onboard. Tony sounded happy at the start of the video, as this is an excuse to use his Unified DDR Flasher Main Board, for which he had just acquired an RDIMM extension that works with these server sticks.

Initial close physical inspection didn’t reveal any conclusive evidence of the source of the problems. So, it was hoped electrical tests would provide more clues. A data line tester didn’t highlight any issues, though. Tony used flux and hot air to reflow the solder on the first DIMM, which is a far simpler process than a reball (where all the memory ICs are taken off, cleaned, and given new solder balls). Initial signs were that the module was now working OK. So, he moved to the next DDR5 DIMM.

The second DIMM “may have a faulty PMIC chip,” which is why it seemed more severely broken than the first module, Tony indicated. Powering on a system with this DIMM inserted showed no signs of life, and the DIMM didn’t even warm up (thermal camera checks). That contrasts with the first fix.

Because this DIMM is completely dead, Tony did some work on the non-DRAM chips like the PMIC and SPD EEPROM first. Then he decided to reflow some other chips, including memory ICs, like before, while the board was warm. Some ICs were also reballed after inspection, making Tony suspicious of them.

The repairer found a short circuit via voltage injection and thermal camera monitoring. This was fixed with a new capacitor and by fixing the short on the damaged edge of the PCB. Finally, a new PMIC chip ended the quest, and this second DDR5 DIMM powered on and trained successfully.

The repair is good to see, saving these valuable components from e-waste. However, the bigger picture is that repairing memory modules could now be a viable business. Previously, it didn’t make sense to spend a hundred or two on labor to fix a DIMM that would cost about the same or even less to replace with a new one. Now the repair fee might be just a fraction of a replacement price.

Windows 11 was released five years ago, on October 5, 2021. It feels like it's been around longer, as Microsoft’s latest OS has generated numerous headlines, mostly concerning the pain it put users through. We’ve all aged with it. Things might be settling down, at last, though, as the 26H2 update started to roll out just a few days ago, and it is not promising a revolution, simply a “predictable and low-disruption” update.

After the crowd-pleasing Windows 10’s return to form, it was all too predictable that Windows 11 would misstep in some unexpected way, or actually in several ways. Microsoft is pretty creative with its misreading of the market. At release, the biggest issue with the new OS was that it sought to force lots of capable hardware into retirement. This issue churned for months, with folks wrangling system files to bypass minimum system requirements, and Microsoft seemingly shifting the goalposts around at the same time.

Another early controversy was Microsoft continuing to push users into setting up Windows using an online Microsoft account, and cutting off avenues of avoidance. Again, communities had to fight the OS to make it work the way they wanted, often with a simple local account. This struggle continues to this day. Microsoft paints the requirement as good for users, providing OneDrive backups, syncing across devices, and providing extra recovery and security features. However, forced online accounts are also a commercial vehicle for selling digital goods and services.

Things had settled down in Windows land by 2024, but Microsoft spoiled the broth again with the introduction of the Copilot+ PC era. In some ways, it showed some foresight in sensing that AI was going to be big. Nevertheless, this was another clear misstep, with gaffes/scares like the AI-centerpiece Windows Recall app.

Copilot+ PC’s failure was confirmed by Microsoft and its OEM partners when they quietly killed off all Copilot+ PC branding earlier this year. For now, built-in AI is being de-emphasized, and Microsoft is looking at a cross-platform agentic model.

A change of direction

This year has also seen Microsoft publicly realize that people need Windows 11 as a foundation for their productivity tasks and gaming fun. The OS isn’t the destination. Thus, in spring, execs promised to clean up and optimize Windows 11 for its basic everyday use. Going forward, Microsoft has dangled the carrot of faster built-in apps, lower memory/resource use, and other foundational OS optimizations.

Windows 11 26H2 was released to consumers last week. As a battle-scarred Windows veteran, I’ve not clicked the update button yet on any of my machines, but there are reasons to be optimistic that it doesn’t deliver new nightmares. Version 26H2 is being distributed with the promise to deliver a “predictable and low-disruption” update. Boring is good.

Despite the aforementioned controversies, as well as the usual collection of silly/scary bugs that needed ironing out, people are still using Windows 11. It is widely adopted and dominates the PC landscape. MacOS and Linux have made inroads in terms of users, but Windows still looks mostly unassailable on roughly 76% of all desktop/laptop computers. Among Windows versions, it holds nearly 72% of the market, with Windows 10 rapidly declining and dipping under 28% at the most recent count.

A Lee County, Florida, woman was arrested on a felony charge after a threat linked to an Anthropic Claude AI chatbot conversation, or “diary,” by her account was reported to law enforcement via Anthropic’s human review team, according to WINK News. The arrest report includes a Sept. 26 statement from a user identified as “Carli” saying she would “shoot up” the Lee County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO), and allegedly a message the next day mentioned a new gun. The conversation was at least the third of its type to reach police since August.

Anthropic monitors chats for key phrases and content that could be deemed threatening, the arrest report says, and depending on severity, they can be elevated for human review. In this case, the team decided to report its findings to law enforcement. The Bonita Springs woman was detained at home without incident, and an LCSO intelligence detective took over the case from there. The arrest report is not yet in the court file, but our own check shows court records listing the Sept. 30 felony charge under Florida Statute 836.10: written or electronic threat of a mass shooting or act of terrorism.

No comment from Anthropic on the case is currently on record. Anthropic’s public privacy policy, effective Sept. 10, says that disclosure to law enforcement may occur where it has a good-faith belief “that disclosure is reasonably necessary to … prevent serious harm to any person or to property.” Its government requests report for the latter half of 2025 uses a narrower standard for emergency disclosures, the “danger of death or serious physical injury to a person,” and lists zero emergency requests from law enforcement in that period, though it doesn’t count referrals Anthropic makes on its own.

As booked, the charge is listed as “THREAT-TERRORISTIC-STATE OFFENSES-WRITTEN/ELEC THREAT MASS SHOOTING/TERRORISM ACT,” which covers the mass-shooting/terrorism half of the statute. The conversation with the chatbot may fall under the law as a threat sent, posted, or transmitted “in any manner in which it may be viewed by another person.” The messages found by Anthropic’s human review, including the next-day gun mention, are likely the supporting evidence for the arrest and charge. No attorney is named on the docket, and a public defender was appointed at the time of the charge.

The incident follows a string of recent cases tied to the use of chatbots from Anthropic and rival OpenAI. One incident, in San Antonio, involves Aug. 11 queries in “an Anthropic AI chat” about shooting at a nearby elementary school. The police, alerted by the FBI, arrested a 22-year-old man on a felony terroristic threat charge. Days later, in San Francisco, a user threatened Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in an Aug. 14 Claude chat, saying he had bought an AR-15. Anthropic notified police, but the user ended up not being arrested or charged. Both cases were detailed in regional news reports.

OpenAI has faced similar challenges in Florida over a message in March to its AI chatbot platform, ChatGPT, where user Darren Zhou spoke about killing his ex-girlfriend, and OpenAI reported him to the FBI, according to the Palm Beach Post. Zhou pleaded guilty in August to charges including written threats to kill, under the same statute, 836.10, and was sentenced to eight years’ probation.

The Florida attorney general also filed a lawsuit against the company in June, citing the 2025 Florida State University shooting, and last month asked a judge for a temporary injunction. OpenAI was also sued by British Columbia last month for not warning police about the Tumbler Ridge shooter, whose ChatGPT account, the lawsuit says, it had identified eight months before the attack. These incidents, and more, show a pattern where AI companies are expected to respect privacy while simultaneously being held responsible when they don’t report threats to law enforcement.

The increasing scrutiny on both privacy and security concerns related to AI products has led to calls for caution from experts such as Florida Gulf Coast University’s Chrissann Ruehle, who spoke to WINK News. This comes alongside demands for stricter, independently approved guidelines, such as those requested by Florida’s attorney general.

For users, it’s a reminder that what you share with your favorite AI companion is “never truly anonymous,” as Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno told WINK News. A marked conversation can act as a “diary” to human reviewers, and that can get you in trouble, as the woman identified as “Carli” discovered. More details about the case should be available after the arraignment on Nov. 2.

Russia’s new Shturm uncrewed tank failed during its debut display at Tsentr-2026, a Russia-led strategic military exercise held from September 28 to October 3, 2026, losing its command-and-control (C2) link and eventually getting stuck in the mud. According to an October 3 Defense Blog post, the tank repeatedly lost its C2 radio link with its separate command vehicle, forcing organizers to abandon remote operations and switch to a human driver-mechanic for a demonstration in front of President Vladimir Putin.

Despite manual human control, the vehicle eventually got stuck in a muddy ditch beside a dirt track, with its tracks and front hull buried in the soil. The Shturm is a Russian heavy robotic, uncrewed assault tank system designed by Uralvagonzavod, a Russian machine-building company and the world’s largest tank manufacturer by output, primarily for urban combat

It is built on modified Soviet-era T-72 and T-90 tank chassis and features a shortened 125mm D-414 main gun, or alternative configurations such as twin 30mm 2A42 automatic cannons and thermobaric rocket launchers. Its defining feature — and the primary source of failure during its debut demonstration — is its control system, which allows the tank to be remotely operated from a separate crewed command vehicle within a radio link range of roughly 3 kilometers. It also has provision for a manual, on-board human driver.

According to Defense Blog, the Russian Defense Ministry initially said on Oct. 2 that Putin had been shown the new uncrewed combat vehicles, and that they provided fire support to assault units during the main stage of the drills. Reports of the failure emerged afterward. The vehicle has “several technical flaws, including an engine compartment and turret roof that are almost unprotected, areas drones most often target when attacking armored vehicles in Ukraine,” according to a Russian armor expert cited by Defense Blog. “The idea of this vehicle seems unsuccessful to me: dependence on a command post that has to be 3 to 4 kilometers away and in direct line of sight. Without proper communications like Starlink, or something similar, there is no point in such a vehicle,” he added. Starlink had earlier blocked russian drones from using its services in the country's ongoing four-year war with Ukraine.