TSMC and Elon Musk's Terafab semiconductor production initiative are discussing a potential collaboration under which TSMC would build and operate a facility that will exclusively serve Elon Musk's Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI companies, according to Tim Culpan’s Culpium newsletter on Friday. Elon Musk confirmed the discussions early on Saturday, but did not elaborate.

"Just discussions, but something may come of it," Musk wrote in an X post, while TSMC has so far remained tight-lipped.

Under the arrangement Culpan considers most probable, TSMC would own and operate the new semiconductor production facility, while SpaceX/Terafab could invest in the venture, commit to buying a guaranteed volume of chips, or combine both approaches. However, the exact ownership structure remains under discussion. Another option would put SpaceX in control of the venture with the majority ownership; TSMC would invest less, but would still provide 'operational expertise' and process technologies. Perhaps, an interesting background detail from Culpium is that TSMC's rumored intentions to build a fab complex in Texas are tied to the foundry's effort to support Terafab.

The proposed 'Plan A' arrangement could resemble TSMC's JASM and ESMC joint ventures in Japan and Germany, where local partners provide capital and demand while TSMC contributes process technology and operates the fabs. The proposed 'Plan B' structure — under which SpaceX will hold the majority ownership of Terafab while TSMC would operate the facility and bring its own process technology — would be completely new for the world's No.1 contract chipmaker, though.

The development certainly raises questions about Intel's role in Terafab. For now, Intel is to supply its 1.4nm-class 14A process technology to Terafab, which would produce chips for Elon Musk's SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI. If TSMC becomes involved, then Intel's 14A could drop out of the game because TSMC will bring its own node.

Since nothing is official at this point, both 'Plan A' and 'Plan B' should be considered as speculations rather than the two options currently on the table, as there might be 'Plan C,' 'Plan D,' and even 'Plan E.'

TSMC is a leading advanced packaging supplier, so Musk's Terafab might be interested in making chips in Texas (presumably using Intel's 14A process technology) and then package them in Texas, which is where TSMC might come into play. Another thing to consider is that while Intel has a broad cross-patent license agreement with TSMC, Terafab does not, so producing chips using an Intel-developed node might infringe one of TSMC's patents, which might become a problem. To that end, Musk needs to keep TSMC close, perhaps to the point of buying into Terafab.

One thing to certainly keep in mind is that Elon Musk barely wants Terafab to become a foundry that competes against Intel Foundry, Samsung Foundry, or TSMC. What he needs is an uninterrupted and surplus supply of custom silicon to SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI to support their AI, automotive, and space vehicles. Given the rather broad strategic goal, Musk is probably very flexible when it comes to both tactics and strategy.

Running in conjunction with Amazon's Prime Big Deals Day, Newegg has also announced its own big sales event with the return of the Fantastech Sale II event. The Fantastech sale kicks off on October 5th and lasts until October 11th. Newegg has returned the popular price protection guarantee, aptly named Fantastech Price Protection, which lets you shop from now until the official start date of the Fantastech Sale II on October 5th, 2026. The price protection guarantee runs between September 28th and October 4th, so you can happily browse and shop right now, and should the price drop lower during the Fantastech Sale II dates, the difference in price will be automatically refunded to you starting October 21st.

With deals on everything from PC hardware components to prebuilt gaming PCs, laptops, monitors, and more, there's sure to be something of interest to take a look at during the sale.

We've thrown our deal eyes over the many early offers available in Newegg's October sale so far and picked a selection of what we think are the best value-for-money deals available and curated them below.

Quick Links

• Save 17% on a 2TB Silicon Power SSD
• Grab a $499.91 discount on a new ABS gaming PC
• Superb value RTX 5060 Ti 16GB gaming PC at just $1,499
• Just $57 for a portable 15.6-inch travel monitor

These are just some of the early deals that are available before the sale launches fully on October 5th. Keep your eyes peeled as this page is updated.

A gamer from Germany bought a used AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and got slapped with a Valorant ban. u/After-Cartoonist-196 shared the problem on the r/PCBauder subreddit [machine translated]; although the processor worked perfectly fine when they ran their computer, they were immediately kicked out after they fired up the game. When they reached out to Riot for support, they found out that the CPU they bought on Sep. 21, 2026, was blacklisted by Vanguard on Aug. 12, 2026, because its previous user apparently cheated on Valorant. However, while the CPU has a ban enforced, Riot Games says the ban duration is four months. In contrast, other anti-cheat engines enforce permanent bans using similar hardware ID systems.

Unfortunately, Riot customer service told them that they cannot reverse the ban, which stemmed from the CPU HWID and has seemingly affected the user’s Valorant account. u/After-Cartoonist-196 said this wasn’t really a big issue for them but also added that “everything else from my system is now also on the blacklist.”

This story has picked up steam on X, which led to Riot Games anti-cheat specialist Phillip Koskinas saying that hardware bans only last for a maximum of four months and that they’re game-specific. Customer support would also tell customers how much time they have left on their ban, and that the anti-cheat system only matches one component on the denylist, not all the parts of the offending player’s gaming PC.

Even though this story might seem unique, other titles and developers also use HWID bans, and incidents like these have reportedly affected other players, too. Ban conditions also vary by developer, too. Easy Anti-Cheat will ban cheaters and users with affected hardware across all the games that use it, while BattleEye enforces permanent global bans. While Vanguard requires Secure Boot and TPM 2.0, Ricochet, which Call of Duty uses, is even stricter as it contacts Microsoft’s servers to confirm that the system remains untampered.

Anti-cheat systems have become controversial recently, especially as some players complained that they’re too intrusive. Others also said that they were too resource-intensive, especially for some systems with an always-on requirement. One Valorant anti-cheat update even went so far as to soft-brick purpose-built cheating hardware, which alarmed a few who thought that the gaming company was killing hardware. However, gamers who are tired of cheaters, trolls, and griefers would agree that anti-cheat systems have become crucial to make online games playable.

Given Koskinas’s comments, u/After-Cartoonist-196 could eventually play Valorant again once the ban expires, or they could get a new CPU and create a new account to enter matches as soon as possible. While this might be a reasonable ending for the Redditor, it still doesn’t fix the risk that gamers face when they purchase used CPUs or GPUs. After all, even if the former owner denies cheating on games or getting banned for doing that, an unlucky buyer getting flagged hardware would have no way of checking this until they get kicked from their favorite title.

Over at Tom's Hardware Premium, we've been publishing a slew of stories centered around our themed AI Chip Design Week, where you can learn more about how artificial intelligence is reshaping the chipmaking world. Each article in our series of stories is free to access for a limited time, and we're extending the free period over the weekend until Monday, October 5, so you don't miss out.

Headlining this week is our interview with OpenAI hardware VP Richard Ho, talking all things Jalapeño, the Broadcom co-developed inference ASIC that the company debuted earlier this year at Hot Chips 2026. The interview dives into how the company used AI within its design processes, beating Nvidia on efficiency, and demystifying common misconceptions like only being optimized to run OpenAI models. This lengthy read is a full, unredacted transcript of our session with Ho, so don't miss out.

• OpenAI Jalapeño design interview transcript — hardware VP Richard Ho explains how AI-assisted design may shape the future of inference ASICs

But how close is AI to designing the very silicon that it runs on? We explore the concepts, products, and everything else shaping the industry in our pair of exhaustive primers on the subject, covering the companies seeking to make the chips themselves.

We've also broken down all of the tools currently in use, with comments directly from Synopsys, and a breakdown of all claims from vendors currently using AI within their chip design workflows. Additionally, during the week, Synopsys debuted its 'Autopilot' platform for its AgentEngineer, specifically designed to aid directly in chip design workflows.

• Silicon is starting to design silicon — how AI is being used in chipmaking, from EDA tools to OpenAI's Jalapeño and beyond
• The state of agentic AI in chip design tools in 2026 — Cadence, Synopsys, and Siemens all pitch autonomous engineers
• Synopsys debuts Autopilot platform for developing chips autonomously using AI — New AgentEngineer platform is poised for 'general availability' by the end of 2026

But all of these new tools open up an uncomfortable reality. With AI's growing role in the chip design world, at what point are patented IPs in danger? This question is explored in our detailed report, where we ask experts like Domenec Forte, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Florida, and Simon Moore, professor of computer engineering at the University of Cambridge, to learn more about a looming issue that could broadly impact the AI chip design market.

• AI's chipmaking frontier may face patent infringement hurdles as autonomous tools take over — 'AI can spread a copied design or infringed patent across thousands of chips before anyone notices,' says expert

With our AI chip design week in full swing, we've also been publishing our regular remit of detailed news analysis stories, exclusively for subscribers, which kicked off with a curious discovery: Intel has reportedly been granted a patent that embeds MicroLEDs in chip packaging, which could enable optical interconnects through TGVs, opening the potential for glowing RGB CPUs.

• Intel patent embeds MicroLEDs in chip packaging — technology may enable embedded optical interconnects through TGVs

Next up, blockchain-assisted cyberattacks are on the rise and have primarily originated from adversarial actors linked to Russia, North Korea, and China. The groups reportedly leverage open-weight LLMs to develop sophisticated cyberattacks against unsuspecting users.

This is a topic highlighted this week too by Anthropic, which published a report on how Zhipu AI's GLM-5.3 can be used to generate harmful content, with claims that the Chinese frontier open-weight model also has advanced hacking abilities, nearing similar levels to Claude's own Mythos AI model, showcasing different methods of getting around the model's guardrails, or disabling them entirely.

• Blockchain-assisted cyberattacks surge fivefold, driven by Iranian and North Korean state actors, Russia-linked groups — open-weight LLMs are linked to an increase in attacks
• Anthropic claims popular Chinese AI model has Mythos-class hacking abilities — frontier red teaming report details weak safeguards on open-weight AI

The AI industry continues to march on, with Nvidia releasing the Open Agent Safety Platform this week, in collaboration with hundreds of additional companies. The program aims to embed OpenShell sandboxing with BlueField-powered sentry hardware to monitor and quarantine potentially rogue agents. The move likely comes following calls for a slowdown in AI development and high-profile security concerns.

However, the costs for intelligence continue to drop, as more capable, cheap models are released on a weekly basis. While we didn't get the onslaught of model releases this week as we did last week, which saw the launch of Claude Sonnet and Opus 5.5, and OpenAI's GPT 6.1-Sol and Luna, a new report from Epoch AI claims that costs are getting just under 50% cheaper every quarter, outpacing even Moore's Law.

• Nvidia launches Open Agent Safety Platform to restrain rogue AI agents — new hardware-and-software security stack can quarantine agents in milliseconds
• The price of AI is crashing faster than the rate of Moore's Law, report suggests — intelligence costs are in freefall, outpacing comparative technologies like compute, DNA sequencing, and lithium batteries

Remember, we're keeping our AI Chip Week articles free to access over the weekend, but to read our other stories and gain access to Bench, you'll need to purchase a subscription. Your support goes a long way in helping us to publish deeper, more insightful articles that might otherwise fall outside of our regular areas of coverage.

PC gaming continues to see an upward trend despite rising hardware costs, as Steam is estimated to have generated a record $1.7 billion in revenue for September 2026. According to Alinea Analytics, Steam had its best September ever with a 13% jump compared to the previous record set in September 2025. It also had its strongest third quarter on record, generating an estimated $5.5 billion in revenue, an increase of 12% from the same period last year. That brings Steam's estimated revenue for the first nine months of 2026 to $16.5 billion, compared to $14.5 billion during the same period in 2025.

Among the 500 top-grossing games on Steam last month, new IP releases in 2026 generated 20.5% of the revenue, while established IP accounted for 79.5%, including 3.8% from remakes and remasters. Several major releases helped drive revenue during the month, including Wardogs, generating an estimated $86.9 million since its early-access launch on September 10; Onimusha: Way of the Sword at $30.4 million; and The Blood of Dawnwalker bringing in $26.9 million.

Free-to-play games also remained an important part of Steam's business, with Counter-Strike 2, Apex Legends, PUBG, and Dota 2 alone generating almost $168 million combined in September, which is nearly 10% of Steam's total estimated monthly revenue.

Steam is also closing in on a new annual record for the number of game releases. As of October 1, Steam has a total of 20,220 game releases in 2026. Another 1,156 titles are currently scheduled to launch in October itself, meaning that if those releases arrive as planned, it would put Steam ahead of the 21,268 games released in 2025.

The numbers suggest that while building a gaming PC might be expensive in 2026, it has yet to translate into a slowdown in PC game spending. With a packed release schedule for the coming months, Alinea estimates that Steam could potentially surpass $20 billion in annual revenue for the first time.

It is also worth mentioning that Steam extends beyond desktop and laptop gaming. Valve's Steam Deck gave the platform a dedicated handheld audience, allowing users to access most of their Steam game library on a portable device. The company has also expanded into living-room gaming with the newly launched Steam Machine. It is additionally working on extending support for Steam OS, its gaming-focused operating system, to more devices.

Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman wrote in an X post that “AI is currently used by AI 5x more than it is used by humans. That number will accelerate to 10x and then higher and higher.” His data, an Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) chart of OpenRouter figures, shows agents at 7.3 trillion tokens versus humans’ 1.4 trillion as of August, six months after agent usage first surpassed humans. But the agents are mostly rereading what they’ve already seen: more than 85% of agent tokens come from cached prompts, a16z wrote, citing OpenRouter.

OpenRouter is “a leading AI model gateway and routing platform.” A chart from its head of insights, Peter Walker, lists “7-day average token usage on OpenRouter split by type.” It states that, since the February crossover point, agents are using 14x more tokens while human usage is up 2.8x. The a16z chart in Newman’s post shows the same data. OpenRouter sorts each API key into one of three categories: agentic, mixed, or human, using a “7-signal weighted composite score that includes inputs such as tool call rate, turn count, gap timing, and others.”

The mixed category, possibly covering behavior that is part agent and part human, grew 4.7x over the same period, according to our math. Depending on how that traffic splits, the agents’ lead over humans may vary. The data also measures token volume, not spending. This is data from only one platform, and the trend isn’t completely consistent, with dips in April and July. However, agent use is growing elsewhere. In McKinsey’s 2026 State of AI survey, 40% of respondents from large organizations reported scaling AI agents, up from 27% a year earlier.

Cached tokens also account for nearly all of the relative growth in token usage, a16z wrote. They cost far less than processing a prompt from scratch, but they still have to be held in memory, and a16z, an OpenRouter investor, ties that to rising demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Models keep that stored context in what’s called the KV cache, and “the KV cache is outgrowing GPU HBM capacity,” according to our reporting.

The same pattern shows up in the logs of a call center consultancy that tested DeepSeek on rented Nvidia H200s. In its own agents’ September usage on Claude Code, “96% of all input was re-reading old conversation.” Coupled with OpenRouter’s data, this suggests the token count overstates the bill, but the hardware cost for memory remains very real.

That memory is already scarce. Micron expects RAM and storage shortages to worsen in 2027 and 2028, with customers paying more than this year, while memory makers put HBM for AI data centers first. If Newman’s prediction that the 5x will become “10X, 20X, 30X” is true, PC buyers will be bidding for memory against even more agents.

Bambu Lab's brilliant 3D printers are on sale right now for Halloween. If you're in the mood for something spooky and you're looking to print some awesomely scary models, then a new 3D printer from Bambu Lab is the answer.

Bambu Lab's Halloween sale coincides with Amazon's Big Deal Days sales event between October 6 and October 7. Bambu Lab's sale is running even longer, with deals on sale until October 16. That means you'll see some discounts on Amazon, along with Bambu Lab's own website, for both printers and filament.

● Check out Bambu Lab deals at Amazon

● See all Bambu Lab Halloween sale deals

It also means you can pick up savings of up to 30% directly from Bambu Lab. One of the biggest printers on sale is this $250 discount on the Bambu Lab H2D with AMS combo, down to $1,749. You can also pick up some of the other favorites, like the Bambu Lab P1S for $399, as well as the A1 for $299. These represent big price drops compared to their original pricing earlier in the year, with the P1S originally priced at $699, and the A1 $399.

However, it's the consumables that are seeing the biggest discounts right now. Bambu Lab is running a 30% discount on filament when you buy it in bulk. If you pick up two items, you'll get 5% off, with the full 30% off given for 10 items or more.

You can find the best Bambu Lab deals that are currently running listed below. We've included links to Bambu Lab printers that we've previously reviewed, too, which you can check before you buy to see a full run-through of each printer's performance to help you make your decision.

Bambu Lab Deals on 3D Printers

Bambu Lab Filament Deals

You'll need filament with your 3D printer, unless it's a resin printer, as it's the material you'll need to start printing with. You can pick these up from third-party manufacturers, but right now, Bambu Lab is running a 30% off discount when you buy them in bulk.

These discounts mean you can score between 5% with two items, up to the full 30% off with 10. Check out the deals you can find below, with more colors available at Bambu Lab's website. There are also some awesome Halloween-themed bundles that you can pick up on sale, too.

Bambu Lab Automatic Material Systems Attachment Deals

AMS addons (Automatic Material Systems) for Bambu Lab printers will allow you to print with multiple different colors at the same time, while also helping to keep your filament dry and secure. Depending on the 3D printer combination and compatibility, you can link multiple units together, too.

These don't appear to be on sale at the moment, but if you're upgrading your existing kit, you might want to pick one up anyway.

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A “crafted VPN client configuration file” uploaded by the user or a logged-in attacker via an Asus router’s web management interface can allow an adversary to “execute arbitrary commands,” a critical security risk the company has acted to patch. A second, separate bug, which uses debug code left active, allows the attacker to bypass security checks in order to enable Telnet and may allow commands to be run “with root privileges,” potentially affecting devices connected to the router.

Asus recommends that users “only import VPN client configuration files from trusted sources.” The two CVEs, CVE-2026-14157 and CVE-2026-13313, score 9.4 and 8.9 out of 10 on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) 4.0 scale, which measures vulnerability severity. Asus names firmware series rather than models: 3.0.0.6_102 for both bugs, with the 3.0.0.4_386 and 3.0.0.4_388 series also affected by the Telnet one.

The routers can act as a VPN client when set up with a configuration file from a VPN provider. Things go wrong when crafted text inside the uploaded files is read as formatting instructions rather than plain data. VPNs are commonly used to bypass filters and access otherwise unreachable content, but the risk here applies to owners who import VPN configuration files into the router itself, not to VPN apps on a laptop or phone.

The separate Telnet flaw relies on enabling the service first before running commands that could impact the network. Besides the firmware update, Asus recommends a strong, unique admin password with “at least 10 characters, with a mix of uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols.” To reduce risk in the meantime, Asus also advises against running “scripts, tools, or commands from untrusted sources on any device within your local network.” One risk is that “attackers may use social engineering to trick administrators,” the company says.

The VPN bug uses the same entry point as one disclosed by VulnCheck in 2024, CVE-2024-0401, which used a crafted OVPN profile. That makes Asus’s config file import, specifically through the web admin page, a recurring weak point. As a popular brand, Asus is also a likely target. The AyySSHush campaign utilized authentication bypasses, brute-force logins, and a command-injection flaw (CVE-2023-39780) to backdoor over 9,000 routers, as we reported at the time. The backdoor was even able to survive firmware updates.

With the two router fixes came one for 13 motherboards, where a “physically proximate attacker” could “read or write arbitrary system memory by inserting a specially crafted device.” This flaw impacts many of Asus’s Z390 and C246 motherboards and is rated high severity at 7.0 out of 10, lower than the router flaws. It also requires physical access.

If you are at risk or potentially at risk, find the firmware update on Asus’s support page or your product’s page. For the affected motherboards, the fix is BIOS version 1502 for the WS Z390 Pro and 2203 for the other 12 boards. Routers that have reached end of life will not receive new firmware. For those, Asus advises the user to use strong, unique login and Wi-Fi passwords.

Google has officially suspended product vulnerability submissions to its Open Source Software Vulnerability Reward Program (OSS VRP) — a bug bounty program — over an influx of invalid AI-driven reports. The company, in an official X post on October 1, encouraged participants to explore other VRP programs and committed to providing an update by the first quarter of 2027, while it reformats and works on this aspect of the program in the meantime.

The suspension went into effect on October 1 — the day of the announcement — and does not affect product vulnerabilities submitted before that date. Google said it may still accept reports covering product vulnerabilities through the Cloud VRP, “for some Google Cloud repos impacting Google Cloud products.” The suspension also does not affect OSS VRP supply chain reports. In a similar case, Linux ended support for older network drivers due to an influx of false AI-generated bug reports.

OSS VRP is a specialized Google security bounty program that incentivizes independent researchers to find and responsibly disclose security flaws across Google's open-source ecosystem. Under this program, product vulnerability submissions focus on code defects, logic flaws, or design bugs within Google's public repositories. This was usually painstaking, manual work requiring skill. However, the rise of large language models (LLMs) and automated AI bug-hunting scripts has nearly eliminated the cost and effort the task required, leading to an influx of low-effort, AI-generated bug reports.

Google engineers and open-source maintainers were reportedly being overwhelmed by thousands of these poorly written reports that claimed to find bugs but were actually completely invalid or unexploitable hallucinations. They ended up spending too much time manually validating code instead of actually fixing real, critical vulnerabilities. This is what has led to the suspension of the program.

Similar scenarios have been playing out across the industry. Earlier this month, Linux maintainers said they were “completely overwhelmed” by CVE finds after AI-powered bug hunters pushed the Linux kernel to a record 2,000 vulnerabilities per release. Intel also suspended its bug bounty program that paid up to $100,000 per flaw. The company did not officially confirm AI-generated reports as the reason for the move, but experts suspect this is the case.

When a PC gamer's GPU with a 12VHPWR or 12V-2x6 power connector melts, it's often in a computer they built by hand, and they typically only have one chance at recourse — hoping their GPU is under warranty and making a claim.

But it ends up that when someone else built your PC, it could open up a can of worms that has two companies pointing the blame at each other while a customer sits with a burned-up RTX 5090, power supply, and power cords.

That's what happened to Tom's Hardware reader Anthony DeMarco, whose father purchased a Digital Storm Corsa for him ahead of his first job after graduating from college. DeMarco says he suggested his father purchase the system before RAM prices went up. The system was delivered in May of 2025. DeMarco says he tested the system, then packed it up for when he got a job. That jealousy-inducing system included an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, 2TB Crucial T700 Pro SSD, 64GB of Kingston Fury RGB RAM, and, crucially, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 from PNY. The computer cost $5,245.00 before tax.

DeMarco says he got the computer from his father in August 2026, upon starting his job. He says the problems started two weeks later.

"I noticed a strange burning smell from near my computer," he recalled to Tom's Hardware, wondering if it was an issue with dust from another PC he owned. "The next day I noticed my monitor screen kept flickering. I then used Claude to try to figure out the issue and it pointed to the GPU, and then I checked the wires and noticed them very melted and burned. I immediately powered off my computer so hopefully my GPU is still functional."

But that's hard for him to tell. The cable was "fused" into the connector, and while he managed to separate the pieces, some of the connectors are still stuck together.

The damage went beyond the GPU, with the "most severe" damage at the power supply, a 1,000-watt semi-modular model from Digital Storm with an 80-Plus Gold rating. This is the cheapest, default option you get when you pick an RTX 5090 on the Corsa configurator, though his PSU cables are an upgrade with custom blue sleeving. "The cable into the power supply is completely melted and the cable head is completely fused into the power supply with bare wires exposed at both ends of the cable," he said.

DeMarco claims that he checked that all the cabling was in place after his father formally gave him the PC.

Pictures of the damage

The photos that DeMarco sent us are brutal. Perhaps the worst are the photos of the ends of the power cable, which are wrecked on both ends. But there's burns on the cable itself, too. The part going into the GPU appears to have some sort of bend, though we don't have many photos to judge perspective.

Who do you go to for help?

DeMarco had two options to go to for help. Digital Storm, which built the PC, and PNY which made the GPU.

This is where buying the system early bit DeMarco. Digital Storm offers a one-year warranty on parts and three years on its labor, and that one-year warranty on parts was up. But the components are separately supported by manufacturers, and PNY warranties its GeForce RTX gaming GPUs for three years.

He went first to Digital Storm, raising a support ticket under his father's name on Aug. 26, according to records Tom's Hardware reviewed. He later uploaded photos. That ticket was closed on Aug. 31 following a phone call, a summary of which explains that while there is a "faulty 12VHPWR cable that melted" that DeMarco would attempt to RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) with PNY, the GPU vendor, due to being "Due to being far out of warranty." DeMarco also claimed on the call that he could get the GPU fixed at a repair center to replace the power connector on the GPU.

On Sept. 8, DeMarco had a back and forth email chain with PNY, requesting an RMA of the GPU and highlighting the 3-year warranty. He also inquired if PNY offered a repair service for his existing GPU. Following supplying the receipt and photos of the damage, a PNY service representative said there was an issue with the fact that Digital Storm had used its own cables.

"We want to clarify an important part of the warranty regarding the power connection to the GPU. All PNY GPUs that require a 16-pin (12VHPWR / 12V-2x6) input include a PNY-approved power cable or adapter in the box. This cable is the only configuration covered under warranty," the PNY support rep wrote. "If a third-party power cable, adapter, or PSU cable is used and damage occurs — including melting, burning, overheating, or deformation of the connector — PNY cannot accept the product under warranty. Damage caused by non-PNY cables falls under the responsibility of the manufacturer of that cable or power supply."

"We are always happy to help with any PNY-related issues," they added, "but in cases where the damage was caused by unsupported cabling, we are unable to process an RMA."

DeMarco responded with a series of questions. Does PNY publish a list of approved cables? Is the bundled adapter the only supported configuration, and not an ATX cable included with a PSU? Are system builders covered when they use PNY's cables?

The answers to the first two (no, and not automatically) don't change much. On the third, PNY's rep wrote that machines from authorized system builders are covered, it doesn't mean their cabling is.

Without knowing what else to do, on Sept. 16, DeMarco filed a report on the Consumer Product Safety Commission SaferProducts.gov database.

"PNY stands behind its GeForce RTX graphics cards, including those sold through our authorized system builder partners," the company wrote in a statement to Tom's Hardware when asked about its policies. "We are presently reviewing this case and will be engaging the customer directly. PNY’s ongoing commitment to its customers includes providing clear terms, policies and processes, and making adjustments where appropriate."

Digital Storm did not respond to requests for comment.

DeMarco then asked if PNY has a repair service he could pay for out of pocket (they do not), and then came to Tom's Hardware with his plight. He had seen another story of PNY rejecting an RMA for using a cable that came with their power supply — an ASRock rated for 1,600 watts.

In Digital Storm's warranty, it says that "After the first year, Digital Storm will help replace any defective parts for the customer as long as those parts are still under warranty with the manufacture [sic]." DeMarco says Digital Storm said that because PNY had denied him, there was no use getting involved, but there is no corroborating record of this.

What does he want? What should he get?

If it were up to DeMarco, he wouldn't get another GPU. He'd get a refund for the component:

"In an ideal situation I would get a refund for my PNY RTX 5090 instead of [having] it replaced because I do not feel safe leaving my computer to run anymore without me if it has a PNY RTX 5090 in it."

In his email, DeMarco writes that there is a "a known problem with the PNY RTX 5090 power connector melting that is happening to many people."

In this area, he's incorrect, at least when it comes to PNY. There have been plenty of reports over the years of GPUs with a 12VHPWR connector that have melted across both RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 graphics cards, and many of those are other brands. This is a widely known issue with the connector, which is standardized by the Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group, or PCI-SIG. In 2022, PCI-SIG sent a notice to members about the connector, ensuring they test for safety and help avoid user error.

If DeMarco were to get a refund and turn around and buy an RTX 5090 from another manufacturer, it's possible he could see the same fate. Digital Storm doesn't guarantee a PNY RTX 5090. "Digital Storm will use a top brand name graphics card from the likes of ASUS, PNY, MSI, etc... An example would be the ASUS TURBO series," the website reads.

One could say that either company could step up and help DeMarco out as a way of engendering goodwill. PNY's warranty isn't specific about which power cable you can use, though reviewing other GPU vendors' policies leads to an equally mixed bag. MSI's is more specific, stating that the warranty can be voided based on "any breakdown or damage caused by the use of parts or software not authorized or recommended by MSI[.]" Asus' warranty has similar vague language to PNY's. PC building is often a hobby where parts from various manufacturers are used.

In most cases, going to Digital Storm would be the obvious answer. But DeMarco and his father let the expensive system sit in a box for over a year. While he was right to test it out of the box to make sure it worked, a gesture of goodwill buying in advance ultimately backfired when it ran out the clock on the warranty, and the system builder doesn't seem to have any further obligation here.

What should you do if you buy prebuilt?

When you build your own PC, it's up to you which power cables you use. When you buy one elsewhere, that's on them.

Reviewing the warranty for every single component in a system (if you even know it — DeMarco didn't know which GPU he was getting here) is onerous. But reviewing the single warranty from any system builder could give you an understanding of how much support you might get in the future.

Alternatively, if you're really worried, you could buy a system from the company that makes the GPU and PSU, like Asus or MSI sometimes do. It's hard to blame the cabling when they chose it.

If you're buying a gift, buying it in time for the recipient to get most of the warranty is the best idea, especially on an expensive purchase where parts can fail. Or, at the very least, you may want to purchase extended coverage.

DeMarco says he checked all the connections. That's a good idea. You shouldn't have to do it, but better safe than sorry. While you're at it, you can also make sure the RAM and GPU are properly seated.

What if I'm building my own PC?

If you're building your own PC, you're handling each warranty individually. In theory, if you want to be extremely conservative, you could be sure to only use the PSU adapter that comes with most RTX 4090 and 5090 graphics cards: a 16-pin power connector that connects to four standard 8-pin PCIe power connectors, from the power supply.

But that also eliminates a lot of cables that come from perfectly good power supplies that might eschew the need for adapters, making for cleaner, simpler builds.

While DeMarco is out of warranty with Digital Storm, PNY's policies could be more representative of what PC building is really like. And so can Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and anyone else who makes a GPU, including Nvidia itself. Perhaps, with the most expensive GPUs, it's time for companies to be putting both adapters and full on 16-pin ATX cables in the box.

PC building is all about customization. And it seems the more custom you get, the less likely companies selling the most expensive GPUs are going to be flexible about helping to replace those parts if there's a problem, even, if, like the 16-pin connector, it's a possibility that could strike almost anyone.

The California Department of Justice (DOJ) has subpoenaed OpenAI as it investigates the recent cybersecurity incidents involving the company’s AI models and agents. According to The Register, state Attorney General Rob Bonta said that the state wants to learn more about the cybersecurity incidents involving the company and that the investigation is trying to determine the responsibility of an AI developer if an AI model or agent does something unintended.

“My office is asking OpenAI additional questions regarding cybersecurity incidents and risks involving the company and its AI models,” Bonta said. He also added, “Frontier models can be legitimate tools for cyber defense — at the same time, companies that develop these models and offer them for use have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure that they do not perpetrate or enable cyberattacks, either during model testing and development or once models are placed into service. Developers who fail to do so can and should be held legally accountable, and my office is committed to determining if that is the case here.”

This investigation stemmed from an incident earlier this year where GPT-5.6 Sol and other unreleased AI models broke out of their testing environments and hacked HuggingFace production servers. It was even reported recently that rogue AI agents have been using defunct websites to communicate in secret while they’re being tested, despite being explicitly told not to do so. OpenAI was even forced to pause training as one rogue agent bypassed multiple safeguards and even failed to respond when a “kill switch” was activated.

These incidents led Anthropic’s Dario Amodei to propose a coordinated slowdown among frontier AI labs in the U.S., something that Elon Musk and Sam Altman publicly agreed to on social media. However, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang disagreed with this, saying that “we have to shut the labs down” if AI experiments are unsafe, and that AI developers hold incredible liabilities if their models do damage in the real world.

The DOJ’s subpoena doesn’t mean that investigators have determined that OpenAI has violated any rules or regulations. However, it’s compelling the company to provide information as it investigates the incidents mentioned above. California isn’t the only one taking AI security incidents seriously, though. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed for a temporary injunction to stop OpenAI from continuing work on frontier models without third-party oversight, among other requirements. Moves like these go against the Trump administration’s push towards the advancement of AI technology, though, especially as the president himself has made top AI tech executives promise to “self-police” AI development, which he considers the best balance between progress and safety.

Amazon announced a new community program called “Built Together,” where the company promised to invest $1 billion over the next five years on data center communities. According to the company blog post, it will provide the funding to the residents while they determine the best use of the funds to be allocated, including projects that reduce electricity bills.

“With Built Together, Amazon 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,” AWS CEO Matt Garman wrote. He said that Amazon is focusing on three key issues that matter most to residents living near its data centers: education and workforce pathways, community energy affordability and water solutions, and flexible funding for local priorities with communities in the lead.

The company says that education and workforce pathways will allow the people living near data centers to pursue associate’s degrees related to in-demand fields at zero out-of-pocket costs, with Amazon covering the shortfall after financial aid. It even claimed that it has already established agreements with local community colleges and expects to launch them in the next few months, with a goal of connecting more than 300,000 students from data center communities to its free degree access. Aside from this, Garman also said that the company is expanding its Modular Training Centers, which provide free certification programs for skilled trade workers so they can eventually get employed at Amazon or its partner construction firms, with a target of funding training for up to 100,000 workers per year.

Amazon is also looking to provide grants to schools, community buildings, and even homes in data center communities to help deploy energy-efficient solutions. These include heat pumps and HVAC systems, insulation, water heaters, batteries, solar installations, and more, with an aim to reduce electricity costs by around 20% to 40% annually and reduce household electricity expenses by up to $700 per year. Last, but not least, Garman said that it’s partnering with local nonprofit organizations and community foundations to ensure that its earmarked funds are best spent according to the needs of the residents. “Every community is different,” said the AWS chief. “What matters most in rural Oregon is not the same as what matters in suburban Virginia or a mid-size city in Ohio.”

The first part of Garman’s post actually addressed many of the concerns raised by community members near these developments, calling them “false” and “misleading,” despite various reports that have raised concerns about utility hikes and noise pollution. Still, it seems that these initiatives are designed to alleviate some of these issues and make data centers more acceptable to communities where they’re being proposed. This is especially true as many projects are being delayed due to bipartisan AI data center bans, especially as polls show that the majority of Americans resist having one put up near their residences.

Other AI hyperscalers and data center developers have offered incentives to communities even before Amazon made this announcement. SpaceXAI offered a 50% discount on Starlink plans to placate its residential neighbors in Memphis and Southaven, while another developer said that it will give $10,000 checks to 4,500 households if its 1,300-acre facility gets approved. One data center site in Maryland even proposed an astounding $110-million package to the community, which is said to be the biggest-ever package offered in U.S. history. Many critics decry moves like these as “bribes,” though, just so developers can get their projects going, but New York State recommended a similar pathway, suggesting a $1 million investment per data center megawatt built in the community.

These values might seem like a lot of money, especially as Amazon’s promised $1 billion investment amounts to $200 million per year. But even though this might seem like a good amount, it’s a tiny fraction of the trillions of dollars projected to be spent on data centers through 2050. Amazon itself is expected to have a capital expenditure of $220 billion on AI data centers this year, making its community efforts cost just 0.1% of its overall AI infrastructure budget.

Despite being on the market for four years, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D remains one of the best CPUs for gaming on the AM4 platform. A Ryzen 9 5900X3D, if AMD had released it, would surely have given it a run for its money. Now, years later, an engineering sample of the Ryzen 9 5900X3D has emerged on the Chinese Chiphell forums, giving us a taste of what could have been an awesome 12-core chip for gaming and productivity.

What is really funny about the Ryzen 9 5900X3D is that we all knew it existed because AMD teased it at Computex 2021. The chipmaker showcased a “12-core 3D Chiplet Prototype" outperforming a regular Ryzen 9 5900X by up to 15% in average gaming performance, with both processors fixed at a 4 GHz frequency.

The Ryzen 9 5900X3D engineering sample (100-000000652-20_48/32_Y) brought to light by a Chiphell user reveals 128MB of L3 cache, double the amount found on the standard Ryzen 9 5900X. This comes from AMD integrating 64MB of 3D V-Cache onto one of the two Core Complex Dies (CCDs) inside the chip. The CPU-Z screenshot also shows a 4,649 MHz clock speed, which is likely the boost clock. If so, and rounding the boost clock speed to 4.7 GHz, the Ryzen 9 5900X3D could have launched with a boost clock just 100 MHz lower than the Ryzen 9 5900X.

Intriguingly, the 128MB configuration was just one of several experiments AMD was exploring. During a visit to AMD's labs, Gamers Nexus captured a 12-core Zen 3 chip with a staggering 192MB of L3 cache. It is the result of a Ryzen 9 5900X equipped with 64MB of 3D V-Cache on both CCDs. Another 16-core Zen 3 chip also had a similar 192MB L3 configuration, likely a Ryzen 9 5950X3D if it had come out on the retail market.

AMD Ryzen 9 5900X3D Specifications*

*Specifications are unconfirmed by AMD.

These early 12-core and 16-core Zen 3 X3D prototypes paved the way for the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, a processor that reigned as the gaming king for several years. AMD's decision to ultimately pursue an asymmetric design was spot on for gaming. An eight-core chip like the Ryzen 7 5800X3D delivers exceptional gaming performance and is not burdened by cross-die latency that can arise when stacking 3D V-Cache on both CCDs.

While AMD initially skipped equipping its 12-core and 16-core Zen 3 chips with 3D V-Cache, it eventually did so on Zen 4 and beyond, leading to the introduction of the Ryzen 9 7900X3D, Ryzen 9 7950X3D, and, more recently, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X3D, or even the over-the-top Ryzen 9 9950X3D2.

A dual-stack configuration is very advantageous for productivity workloads, but it wouldn’t do much for gaming. Equipping both CCDs with 3D V-Cache means dealing with cross-die latency and lower clock speeds due to thermal and power constraints, which are significant trade-offs for gaming. Our CPU hierarchy shows this clearly: for example, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D (12 cores, 128MB L3) falls behind the Ryzen 7 9800X3D (8 cores, 96MB L3) in gaming. Or, in another scenario, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D (16 cores, 192MB L3) offers similar gaming performance to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

AMD knows what it is doing, and the eight-core, single-CCD design is where gaming is at. This winning formula is clearly embodied in the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and, after it, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D, chips that have set the standard for high-end gaming processors.

OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra AI model was able to clear the Orc starting area in World of Warcraft (WoW) in 40 minutes with 0 deaths, agent-wow's developer says. The model played the zone without seeing a single rendered frame, relying on network traffic and quest data pulled from the server's own files. The approach used a single prompt in Codex with agent-wow, an open-source client, to play on a private server. The corresponding YouTube video says that the agent “starts as a level 1 Orc, completes every quest in the Valley of Trials, and finishes the run in Sen’jin Village.”

Agent-wow is an “AzerothCore WoW client designed for autonomous AI agent players,” according to the GitHub repo description. The client does not “define any gameplay mechanics such as movement, combat, or in-game interactions” and instead only exposes a “module system for agents to build” whatever they need to play. AzerothCore is open-source server software that runs WoW 3.3.5a, “the final build of Wrath of the Lich King,” and agent-wow talks to it over the game’s network protocol. The client does not connect to any live WoW server and instead can be run on local private servers for experimentation.

The developer ran OpenAI’s flagship model, released early last month, with extra high reasoning effort, one below the highest or maximum. The developer chose WoW for its mix of long-term strategy and short-term tactics, with an end goal of filling “an entire server with AI agents [to] see if they can clear Icecrown Citadel on heroic difficulty.”

The agent built a single module to grab 28 types of server messages, by our count, which are kept in memory. A Python script polls those messages to build the agent’s picture of the world and sends messages back to act in it. The developer expected a higher-level implementation, but “In practice, it was more than capable of working at the protocol layer.”

For quest data, the agent turned to data mining, pulling quest givers, turn-ins, and spawn points from AzerothCore’s SQL files. The developer says this is “arguably similar to how a human might spend hours on Wowhead to research quests,” referring to a popular WoW info site. Going straight to the server’s own files arguably beats that, since they’re the data the server itself runs on, while a fan site’s data may not always match. The project’s public workspace instructions also list AzerothCore’s source code as a resource for agents, though the developer doesn’t say whether this run used them.

Some planning was used in the agent’s approach. According to the developer, it worked through prerequisite quest chains in order, sold junk, equipped upgrades, and trained abilities before the zone’s final cave, and picked up both cave quests at once to complete them together.

For pathfinding, the agent built a C++ helper that plots a route between a starting point and a destination with AzerothCore’s own navigation mesh files, or mmaps. The Detour pathfinding library finds the route, and the helper returns its waypoints as coordinates, or an error if there’s no complete path. The developer acknowledges that “from my research into heuristics-based bots, pathfinding is always one of the main challenges,” but calls the agent’s pathfinding abilities “optimal.” In fact, the agent was able to “exploit map bugs” at locations where collision properties may have been lacking.

This is not the first game the model has tackled. Early last month, shortly after its release, it played the game Portal with screenshots and knowledge of the player’s position. This WoW run used no screenshots at all and only covered the first zone, while the Portal run went through the entire game over about 24 hours.

Recently, developers have deployed various techniques to play Pokémon Red, such as using a custom small model and a Jev decision model harness with Claude coaching. Next up for the developer: discovering whether a single agent can reach level 80 completely on its own, and whether multiple agents can team up to complete content through the game’s social features.

Toshiba has spent approximately ¥60 billion ($380 million) to expand its hard drive assembly capacity in the Philippines, doubling its production capacity for nearline HDDs in fiscal 2027 compared to fiscal 2025, reports Nikkei. The capacity expansion coincides with Toshiba's plans to launch next-generation 30TB-class hard disk drives in 2027 and will prepare the company for 65TB-class HDDs by 2030 and 100TB-class drives in the future.

As part of the expansion, Toshiba has installed additional manufacturing lines at its Philippine Laguna Technopark (LTI) facility to build nearline hard drives and prepare it to produce next-generation HDDs that increase storage capacity per drive by as much as 40%. The 40% claim clearly points to the company's next-generation M12-series hard drives that rely on microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) technology, use up to 11 platters, and offer capacities of over 30TB.

Meanwhile, as the new product lines have already been installed and the first shipments from them have been made (meaning that the new production lines are at least partly qualified), the ramp of next-generation drives can start anytime.

In addition, the company plans to introduce more automation in its cleanroom operations and drive inspection, measures aimed at improving manufacturing yields amid increased output. The new automation will also reduce the requirement for additional employees by 40%.

The project represents the company's first substantial HDD manufacturing investment in around five years and comes as demand for nearline drives is skyrocketing. So far, both Seagate and Western Digital have enjoyed strong demand for 30TB and 40TB-class HDDs from the AI sector. While Toshiba is lagging with 24TB CMR and 28TB SMR hard drives, it has also sold out every single unit it has produced in recent quarters. Arguably, all three HDD makers are late to expand their production capacity.

Meanwhile, the expansion is only one step in Toshiba's longer-term HDD roadmap. The company recently reiterated plans to introduce its 40TB-class HDDs with up to 12 disks inside in 2027, so the expansion will be instrumental for the ramp of these products as well. Yet, it remains to be seen whether the company will at least formally introduce its 12-platter 40TB-class models in calendar year 2027, as next year seems to be dedicated to the ramp of the company's 30TB-class M12-series of HDDs.

The company intends to continue investing in manufacturing capabilities to begin volume production of 65TB-class HDDs around 2030, followed eventually by 100TB-class drives, according to the report. These products will address growing storage requirements in AI and other large-scale data centers. Toshiba also expects the new production lines and next-generation HDDs to help it increase its market share from around 10% today, measured by exabytes shipped, to 30% in the 'medium term,' according to the report.

A rumored SKU table for Intel's upcoming Nova Lake desktop CPUs has surfaced, showcasing seven models that will (presumably) make up Intel's initial NVL-S lineup. The list includes three models with the "BFC" tag, which seems to be Intel's branding for bLLC, or big last level cache. It's been heavily rumored to show up with Nova Lake, countering AMD's assault on the best CPUs for gaming with its X3D chips.

As previously rumored, the table tops out at the flagship Core Ultra 9 4970K BFC, which the spec list suggests is a 28-core chip with 8 P-cores, 16 E-cores, and 4 LPE-cores. It also lists a 125W TDP and an integrated GPU with 32 Execution Units (EUs). This 32-EU iGPU is apparently a staple across the range, short of the Core Ultra 5 4650KF, which lacks integrated graphics.

Intel retired the use of "EUs" in favor of its Xe cores several years ago. Rumors suggest Intel isn't releasing a large, 12-Xe core model of Nova Lake. The 32-EU count here likely comes out to 4 Xe cores (each core has eight matrix and vector ALUs).

The table does not include the heavily rumored 52-core Nova Lake model. However, as the Nova Lake launch approaches, it has become clear that the 52-core model, as well as other potential models with a dual-tile configuration, will arrive after the main range of chips. Presumably, these models will target the HEDT crowd with their high core counts.

*Names and specifications rumored, unconfirmed by Intel

There are several interesting details when looking at the range broadly. Most notably is the four-number model identifier, which Intel didn't use with Arrow Lake chips like the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus. This larger identifier has been previously rumored, and it makes sense if the lineup above is indeed real. There's quite a bit of specificity in this stack, and something like the "Core Ultra 9 497K" doesn't signal what a "Core Ultra 9 4970K" does.

Regardless of naming, the SKU table shows three models with BFC, two of which fall under the Core Ultra 9 umbrella. There isn't a Core Ultra 5 BFC option. The most interesting model is the Core Ultra 9 4900 BFC, which matches the 22-core count of the Core Ultra 5 models, though with the addition of BFC and a lower 65W TDP. Given this chip doesn't have a K suffix, it looks like a specialized, low-power gaming chip, perhaps for small form factor desktops.

In addition, the Core Ultra 5 model is the only one with an F suffix, noting that it lacks integrated graphics. As we saw with the Arrow Lake refresh, Intel released a Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus, though it never gave the 270K Plus the KF treatment.

According to the table, Intel could use "BFC" to note chips with a larger L3 cache, something that's been heavily rumored for Nova Lake as AMD's X3D chips dominate gaming in our CPU benchmark hierarchy. This is the first time we've heard it referred to as BFC; however, with previous rumors referring to the additional cache as bLLC.

As for what BFC stands for, there are a few possible candidates, and we'll leave it to your imagination as to what words that start with "F" could fit between "Big" and "Cache."

Although Intel's Nova Lake chips have been the topic of the rumor mill for well over a year, the launch is approaching. At the beginning of the year, Intel's CEO confirmed Nova Lake would arrive before the end of the year. Assuming that's still true, we'd expect to learn more any day now.

Signs certainly point to a launch happening soon. Just this week, Nova Lake platforms passed compliance at USB and PCIe standard bodies. At Computex earlier this year, we saw two Z990 motherboards in the flesh. And last month, a leaked slide presumably from one of Intel's partners provided a tease as to what the platform could look like.

Hopefully we'll have more details soon. In the meantime, make sure to check out our recent interview with Intel's Robert Hallock, where the executive goes into some of the expectations around Nova Lake, on Tom's Hardware Premium.

A California man has been arrested for smuggling over $300 million worth of restricted Nvidia chips to China in violation of U.S. export controls. According to a U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) press release on October 1, the defendant — Greg Lui, also known as Yiu Kong Lui — and unidentified co-conspirators smuggled the chips in high-end servers from 2023 to 2024. He allegedly first exported the chips to Malaysia and Singapore, jurisdictions where the restrictions don't apply, before shipping them to buyers in China, including the Chinese government.

Authorities say the defendant, owner of California-based company Earthmade Computer Inc., and his co-conspirators had used false paperwork to misrepresent the chips’ final destination, purporting that the controlled chips would be going to permissible end users and end destinations that did not require an export license. “This defendant allegedly used false paperwork and shipments through third countries to smuggle more than $300 million in export-controlled computer servers to China,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California.

The DOJ has charged Lui with “one count of conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act and the Export Administration Regulations, one count of outbound smuggling, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.” If convicted of all charges, the defendant could face up to 20 years in prison. He was arraigned and made his initial appearance on October 1. The FBI, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security Office of Export Enforcement, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service are jointly investigating the case.

The incident is the latest in a series of indictments over the illegal export of restricted AI accelerators and GPUs to China. Last month, nine people were indicted in Taiwan over the illegal export of Nvidia B300 GPUs to China. The United States and its allies had placed broad export restrictions on several AI chips and the hardware required to make them in an effort to maintain its current lead over China in the AI race. China, meanwhile, insists the move has only bolstered its local AI ecosystem. However, the demand for powerful Nvidia GPUs remains sky-high in China and has created a teeming market for smuggled hardware.

Speaking on the Liu incident, Special Agent in Charge John E. Helsing of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) Western Field Office said, “Preventing the illegal export of controlled technology is critical to protecting our national security. These technologies provide core advantages to U.S. forces, and ensuring they remain safeguarded prevents adversaries from exploiting them. Today’s action underscores our commitment to protecting advanced defense capabilities and enforcing the laws that keep them out of the hands of those who may threaten the United States.”