The Hot Take: MacRumors posting about it give it more merrit to me.
Apple has held "exploratory" talks with Intel and Samsung about manufacturing the main processors for its devices in the United States, reports Bloomberg ($).
Apple is said to have had early-stage talks with Intel about using its chipmaking services, while Apple executives have reportedly visited a Samsung plant under construction in Texas that will also make advanced chips.
The talks are said to be preliminary, and no orders have been made so far, according to the report's sources who asked not to be identified. Apple is also said to have concerns about using technology that is not made by its longtime chip partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), so the talks could still go nowhere.
Apple is said to be seeking potential additional suppliers beyond TSMC as a way to avoid recent shortages almost entirely driven by the current build-out of AI data centers.
Heavy demand for Mac mini and Mac Studio models - sought-after because of their suitability for running local AI models - is also said to have been another factor. On an earnings call last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that Mac mini and Mac Studio supply is constrained, and he said it may take "several months" for Apple to achieve supply-demand balance.
Neither Intel nor Samsung can reliably provide the kind of production and scale that TSMC offers, so it's not clear how much, if anything, will come out of the discussions. Apple has already worked with TSMC to help expand its plant in Phoenix, which is now producing a limited number of chips for Apple and expects to make 100 million chips for the company in 2026.Tags: Bloomberg, Intel, SamsungThis article, "Apple Eyes Intel and Samsung as Backup US Chipmakers" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
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By ckasprzak | TkOut
| May 6, 2026 |
Gaming
The Hot Take: This just makes me sick, GPU, RAM and now gaming controllers? What is this world coming to.
Valve's new Steam Controller sold out almost immediately, and they're now being sold on eBay for as much as $399. PC gamers obviously aren't happy, but there's a good reason why scalpers feel the need to do what they do.
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The Hot Take: USA domestic manufacturing is taking off, TSMC announcing huge expansions in Arizona. Intel getting that Federal injection is definitely keeping them alive and making them relevant again. Probably also why Nvidia dumped money into Intel too to make sure there is choice states side.
TSMC is turning into a victim of its own success as the world's preferred chip foundry, leaving its heretofore prized customers such as Apple in a bind of sorts as they suddenly find themselves crowded out by AI hyperscalers. In its frustration, Apple is now reportedly exploring the possibility of dividing up its silicon load between Samsung, Intel, and TSMC rather than remaining largely TSMC-exclusive. Apple is looking for contingencies by tentatively probing Intel and Samsung as additional vectors for manufacturing its custom chips According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple has already held "early-stage talks" with Intel for using its [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/apple-quietly-courts-intel-and-samsung-for-its-most-critical-chips-as-tsmcs-advanced-nodes-remain-choked-under-ai-demand/
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The Hot Take: Would just consider this verified he joined Intel.
Intel appoints Alex Katouzian to lead client computing and physical AI efforts and confirms Pushkar Ranade as CTO, signaling a deeper shift toward AI-driven and edge computing systems
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The Hot Take: Interesting, wonder is he'll be working on any RISC-V stuff for Intel.
Intel has made two big changes: the appointment of Alex Katouzian from Qualcomm in the Client Computing & AI segment, along with Purskar Randae as CTO. Alex Katouzian Appointed to Lead Intel's Client Computing & Physical AI Group Press Release: Intel Corporation today announced two key leadership appointments to strengthen its core product business and advance the companyâs innovation agenda. Alex Katouzian will join Intel as executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing and Physical AI Group. In this role, Katouzian will align Intelâs client computing business with emerging physical AI systems that span robotics, autonomous machines, [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-appoints-qualcomm-alex-katouzian-to-lead-client-computing-physical-ai-lip-bu-tan-reshapes-top-ranks/
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The Hot Take: Well look at that! Probably was because of the memory crunch so they wanted to head off flak but they got it anyway.
Microsoft has quietly retracted its own documentation that suggested 32GB RAM is the âno worriesâ upgrade for gaming, and 16GB RAM is the baseline. This support document was likely written using a large language model, and Windows Latest first spotted it before it was taken down. Microsoft also nuked a document that recommended Copilot+ PCs for gaming.
Microsoft has a âLearning Centerâ where it publishes guides and marketing articles to promote various Windows features, and these rank well in search results. Itâs mostly used by Microsoft to push a narrative and also make it easier for users to make a choice when they search the web.
In the first week of April, Microsoft quietly published a support document titled âGaming features: What the best Windows PC gaming systems have in common.â
Image Courtesy: WindowsLatest.com
At first, the document might appear to be about Windows 11âs gaming features, but it goes a step further and builds a narrative around the memory requirement.
In the support document, Microsoft clearly notes that:
âFor most players, 16GB RAM is a practical starting point. Moving to 32GB RAM helps if you run Discord, browsers, or streaming tools alongside your games. That extra memory also gives newer titles more breathing room as memory demands continue to rise.â â Microsoft.
â16GB RAM is the baseline; 32GB is the âno worriesâ upgrade,â the company concluded in the support document, which was first spotted by Windows Latest.
This was later picked up by other outlets and the gaming community, and it didnât go well with gamers. It wasnât surprising, given that RAM prices are soaring and Windows 11âs obsession with Electron or WebView2 isnât helping.
It also created confusion because Microsoftâs official Windows 11 system requirements still list 4GB RAM as the minimum. However, regular low-end PCs are mostly sold with 8GB of RAM. Recently, Microsoft has been mostly pushing Copilot+ PCs, which mandate 16GB of RAM for AI features.
Now, over the weekend, Microsoft quietly removed the document, redirected the URL to the Learning Centerâs homepage, and also blocked the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive) from surfacing the retracted document. Microsoft wonât tell us what really happened there, but itâs obvious that the company does not want the document to spread further.
Iâve reached out to Microsoft for more details, but havenât heard back at the time of writing this story. However, itâs important to note that this is not the first time Microsoft has tried to sell 32GB RAM as the new normal.
Microsoft also deletes the February 2026 document that recommended Copilot+ PCs for gaming, and advocated for 32GB RAM
In February, Windows Latest spotted a document on the Learning Center that advocated for 32GB RAM for serious gamers, and 16GB for most games.
â16 GB is plenty for most games,â the company said. â32 GB is ideal for serious players who run the most demanding titles or use heavy mods.â
âIf youâd rather skip the part-matching headache, Copilot+ PCs come pre-configured with the latest CPUs, GPUs, and thermal designs tuned for gaming, so you can dive straight into the action,â Microsoft explained in a document.
Now, Microsoft has nuked the February document as well and removed all references to âCopilot+ PCs for gamingâ from the Learning Center.
Itâs actually a good move because Copilot+ PC branding doesnât automatically imply a gaming PC. A gaming laptop can be a Copilot+ PC if it has the required NPU (AI chip), but most Copilot+ PCs are still not optimized for gaming. The flagship Copilot+ PC is a Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme hardware, and it cannot run most games natively.
Microsoft linking Copilot+ PCs directly with gaming was misleading, especially for buyers who may assume every Copilot+ PC is built for serious gaming.
What is a âCopilot+ PC?â
Thankfully, Microsoft has removed all documents and recently committed to RAM management improvements.
Windows 11 has a memory problem, largely due to Electron-based apps and WebView2 dominating the app store. Satya Nadella also confirmed that Microsoft is trying to optimize Windows for low-RAM devices and win back fans.
Microsoft is testing as many as 18 improvements, faster startup apps, taskbar, Start menu, File Explorer (explorer.exe) reliability fixes, and a bunch of other changes to help reduce Windows 11âs RAM appetite.
The post Microsoft quietly deletes Windows 11 doc pushing 32GB RAM for gaming after outrage appeared first on Windows Latest
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The Hot Take: If this all is true they have a winner on their hands.
Intel's Z-Angle Memory (ZAM) is approaching completion as it races towards taking a bite at the AI boom while challenging HBM as a viable alternative. Intel's ZAM Challenges HBM As A Big Memory Innovation In the High-Bandwidth, High-Capacity Segment Offering 2x The Speed of HBM4 Z-Angle Memory or ZAM has been stirring up a lot of talk in the memory segment. The upcoming memory standard is being developed by Intel and SoftBank & aims to offer a low-power, high-density replacement to HBM. Now, new details have been shared that provide more insight into ZAM memory. For starters, the new memory [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-zam-memory-threatens-hbms-ai-throne-with-2x-the-bandwidth-of-hbm4/
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By ckasprzak | TkOut
| May 3, 2026 |
Gaming
The Hot Take: Movies are ALL about the remakes, why not video games and move to competitors engine tech? Sure!
Halo leaker RebsGaming reports that Halo Studios is already working on remakes for the second and third installments in the sci-fi first-person shooter franchise. Halo 2 and Halo 3 are currently in early development, presumably powered by Unreal Engine 5 like the first game's remake; this builds on a previous claim from a former Halo Studios developer, and is now backed by two additional sources, one of whom provided verification to RebsGaming and confirmed the trilogy remakes will proceed regardless of how well the upcoming Halo: Campaign Evolved performs. A separate source (the same one who leaked an unreleased Campaign [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/halo-2-halo-3-unreal-engine-5-remakes-reportedly-in-development/
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The Hot Take: Closed source finally making it onto OSS OS, nice!
AMD has taken a major step toward enabling native open-source HDMI 2.1 support on Linux by submitting new patches for its AMDGPU driver. AMD Moves Closer to Open-Source HDMI 2.1 Support on Linux With New AMDGPU FRL Patches It appears that the HDMI 2.1 support is finally arriving to Linux as AMD has submitted the new Fixed Rate Link (FRL) patches for its AMDGPU driver. This has been one of the longest-standing limitations that affected Radeon GPUs on the platform. There have been years of restrictions tied to the HDMI Forum (Org behind the HDMI standard) policies that prevented upstream [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/amd-finally-cracks-hdmi-2-1-on-linux-after-years-of-forum-lockout/
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The Hot Take: RISC-V breaking the GPU strangle hold on GPU's? YES PLEASE.
Tenstorrent made a bold claim during their TT-Deploy livestream, saying they are going to crush everyone at everything, including AI, with their Galaxy servers. Tenstorrent Galaxy Supercluster Offers 10x Faster GenAI Video, And Destroys Current-Gen GPUs With "Blitz Mode", Offering 350+ Tokens/s In DeepSeek R1 Jim Keller and his Tenstorrent are on a mission to challenge the existing AI hierarchy with their RISC-V-powered platforms. As such, the company unveiled its latest Galaxy Blackhole servers for AI at scale. With Galaxy Blackhole, Tenstorrent offers a fully Networked and native AI solution that includes compute, memory, and networking, all unified into a [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/tenstorrent-vows-to-crush-everyone-galaxy-blackhole-hits-350-tokens-on-deepseek-r1-undercut-nvidia-gb300-ai-tco/
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