After installing the latest Defender Antivirus update for Windows 11, users have started reporting that their operating system is sending notifications stating "Microsoft Defender Antivirus is turned off." Despite the Defender Antivirus protection working correctly, Windows has been pushing these notifications to users, with many of the TechPowerUp staff experiencing the error themselves. These notifications typically appear when the operating system is freshly booted up or immediately afterward. Interestingly, Defender Antivirus can send out notifications even when notification settings are turned off, and all versions of Windows or Windows Server are affected. Microsoft acknowledged the issue, stating:

MicrosoftWe are working to release a resolution in a future Microsoft Defender Antivirus update and will provide more information when it is available.

Apple is reportedly considering a return to the server market, where the company was once active with its Xserve rack technology. According to The Information, Apple is developing AI-focused M-series chips, which could incorporate several NVIDIA components, including the NVLink Fusion portfolio of technologies and IP. This includes the possibility of interconnecting two or four Apple M8 Ultra chips using NVIDIA NVLink for socket-to-socket communication, while NVIDIA NVLink-C2C manages die-to-die interconnection. Currently planned for launch in 2029, this product would mark Apple's first entry into the server space since debuting Xserve in 2002 and discontinuing it in 2011. Nearly two decades later, Apple's server offering might be making a comeback, building on the success that the Mac mini and Mac Studio are experiencing among AI developers.

For instance, Apple's Mac lineup achieved a record $10.4 billion in sales last quarter, with strong demand from the AI community. Enterprises are even constructing custom racks, mounting multiple Mac Studios to set up local AI inferencing efforts. For the new server design, Apple would delegate every interconnect question to NVIDIA NVLink Fusion, while it focuses on the actual system-on-chip as before. The new rack design would target enterprises and governments, who may already be running Mac clusters locally.

According to hardware leaker Kepler_L2, known for accurate hardware predictions, the next generation of gaming GPUs might be skipped next year, with a full-stack refresh expected in 2028. Reportedly, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 60-Series "Rubin" and AMD's RDNA 5-based Radeon RX 10000 series will only be available in 2028, with some select RDNA 5 GPUs from AMD being made available throughout 2027. The specific model is yet to be determined, but it reportedly carries the codename "AT2." Perhaps AMD will roll out this GPU as either a new flagship design and launch the remainder of the stack later on, or simply as a mid-range or low-end SKU to kickstart the RDNA 5 launch. Thus, we still need to wait and gather more information before making conclusions, so treat this only as a rumor for now.

For example, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-Series SUPER refresh had been planned before, but the recent DRAM scarcity has turned the launch into speculation, with some believing it is entirely canceled, while others believe it will be a stopgap solution before RTX 60 "Rubin" arrives. For AMD, we hope to see RDNA 5 finally compete in the flagship SKU sector again and see more powerful designs from the start.

TRUSTA, the enterprise storage and memory brand of memory leader ADATA, is showcasing its latest AI Scaler Extended Memory solution at AI Infra Summit 2026, one of North America's leading AI infrastructure events, bringing together approximately 8,000 professionals and 250 industry partners across the AI infrastructure ecosystem.

As increasingly complex AI models place greater demands on GPU memory and drive up infrastructure costs, TRUSTA is highlighting its award-winning AI Scaler Extended Memory Solution under the theme "Scale AI Beyond GPU Limits." The integrated hardware-software architecture enables enterprises to deploy on-premises AI with greater scalability and cost efficiency. TRUSTA is also presenting its TD7P51 ECO PCIe Gen 5 enterprise SSD and DDR5 R-DIMM, demonstrating a comprehensive portfolio built for next-generation AI infrastructure.

Microsoft today rolled out an out-of-band emergency Windows 11 patch with KB5129195, which is being distributed to everyone. This emergency update is automatically downloading across every PC, as it fixes crucial issues and patches privilege elevation vulnerabilities. The list of fixes in this update includes a patch for CVE-2026-62721, issues with remote desktop connection, and importantly, a partial fix for faulty USB audio. If readers recall, Microsoft's previous September update disrupted USB audio output on many PCs, affecting USB Audio Class 1.0 devices, where systems that used to work produced no sound. In the latest patch rolling out today, Microsoft noted that 8-channel and 3D audio modes are being fixed, but several other issues remain. For example, the lack of volume controls and the complete lack of audio output are still present for some USB audio devices, so this release doesn't completely fix the problem.

Next, there are a few unconfirmed issues in the previous KB5124008 September update that sites such as Windows Latest are tracking. Today's out-of-band KB5129195 doesn't fix them. These include issues with AMD Radeon GPU users, who are reportedly experiencing system freezing, crashing, driver timeouts, black screens, missing display output, and even immediate errors after reinstalling the driver stack. Separately, Windows Latest also spotted users complaining about File Explorer failing to start or crashing immediately, as well as not being able to access file history. This issue is present in some enterprise environments such as Citrix UPM, FSLogix, Horizon, or ProfileUnity ProfileDisks on both Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2.

Following the passage of similar age verification laws in parts of the US, UK, and Australia, it appears as though the EU will soon require netizens to verify their age online before being allowed to access certain content, according to a report by Euractiv. The publication claims to have a copy of draft legislation that would require age verification in order to access a number of online services. As with most similar laws, the upcoming EU Kids Act has a fairly wide scope, setting its sights on everything from AI and social media to video games. The new law is presented as necessary due to mental health concerns for children and adolescents.

It cites data that shows that children who started using social media before the age of 10 "report 7.5 hours of weekend day screen time, compared to 5.7 hours among those who started after age 14," in addition to concerns of social pressures and risks of isolation, concentration and learning issues, and distressing online content. The act goes on to mention generative AI and the dangers surrounding the possibility of AI-generated deepfakes or dangerous advice given by chatbots, in addition to misuse of personal data by platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X, as well as their related AI services. It claims that the current EU frameworks and legislature are insufficient to protect users against these dangers.

Samsung and Qualcomm are reportedly forming a 2.1D Packaging Alliance to provide customers with access to advanced chip packaging using bridges that connect silicon dies. Interestingly, Samsung and Qualcomm are developing an organic bridge technology that will serve as the adhesive to hold two chips together. For example, Intel already uses a similar approach with its Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) advanced packaging, but it employs small silicon bridges. The new 2.1D packaging alliance will use organic bridges made from materials commonly found in traditional PCBs, such as organic polymer materials like epoxy and copper wiring, to interconnect multiple chips.

This organic bridge uses redistribution layers (RDL), formed by multiple layers of fine circuitry with extremely small wires and space between them. This makes the technology more similar to PCB manufacturing than silicon manufacturing, enabling packaging densities that closely match modern silicon-based EMIB. Reportedly, Samsung will manufacture this 2.1D package using multiple RDLs packaged inside a flip-chip ball grid array package. Ultimately, the company aims for the organic bridge's line width and spacing to be 1.5 to 2 micrometers each, with via sizes of 4 to 5 micrometers. Die-to-die pattern density is targeted at 500 to 1,000 per millimeter.

Global semiconductor revenue surpassed $425bn in 2Q26 reaching another all-time high as the market grew a record 31.4% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), according to new research from Omdia. AI demand and strong memory prices continued to be the leading market dynamics, taking total semiconductor revenue for the first half of 2026 to $752 billion. The 31.4% QoQ increase surpassed the previous sequential growth record of 29.2% in 1Q26. Since Omdia began tracking the semiconductor market in 1Q02, only 10 out of 97 quarters have recorded sequential revenue growth above 10%. The last four quarters beginning in 3Q25, have all recorded double-digit sequential growth, with 3Q26 expected to follow the same trend.

Memory continues to be the primary driver of growth, while other semiconductor components are growing above seasonal patterns and contributing to the robust market.

Fujitsu Limited today announced that it will begin global sales of its next-generation CPU, FUJITSU-MONAKA, designed and developed in Japan, starting November 2026. This will include sales of the processor as a standalone product to cloud and data center operators and server vendors. Additionally, the company will launch the made-in-Japan Fujitsu MONAKA Server equipped with the FUJITSU-MONAKA CPU, offering high reliability and power efficiency as a sovereign AI infrastructure. Fujitsu MONAKA Server will be made broadly available from November 2026 to data center operators, enterprises, and the academic and HPC sectors in Japan and Europe, as well as to the defense sector, contributing to national security.

The FUJITSU-MONAKA CPU integrates Fujitsu's extensive expertise in processor and server development, achieving world-class computational performance and data supply capabilities with a maximum operating frequency of 3.8 GHz and memory transfer speed of 8800 MT/s. It delivers twice the AI inference throughput and superior power efficiency compared to other CPUs, effectively halving the number of servers and power consumption required for equivalent processing loads.

New photos shared by HKEPC allegedly show pallets of brand-new, boxed GeForce RTX 5090 cards being unpacked at AI server assembly sites. Notably, these firms are not using the RTX PRO 6000 or dedicated data center accelerators NVIDIA actually markets for that work. The cards in question are standard retail RTX 5090s, the same cards gamers have struggled to find at anywhere close to MSRP, being pulled straight from their packaging and slotted into multi-GPU AI rigs. It must be mentioned that some elements of these photos appear to be altered, or at least edited with AI, so take these with a bit of caution.

Despite that, the current situation is not entirely new. During the crypto boom, miners bought up GeForce cards in bulk while gamers got squeezed out, and NVIDIA eventually responded with Lite Hash Rate models that throttled mining performance without touching gaming specs. That restriction got fully bypassed within about a year. This time, the workload is AI instead of mining, but the outcome for gamers looks familiar. As a result, retail RTX 5090 pricing has reportedly climbed past $5,000 on some listings, more than double its $1,999 launch price. Industry analysts even warned about this possibility months ago, and we now have a good idea why the RTX 5090 is at the price it's at.

AMD launched the Gorgon Halo Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 in May 2026, and the powerful new APU seems to finally be making its way into the wider mini PC and laptop market, with Colorful being the latest brand to launch new workstations based on the new AMD silicon. Colorful has launched two new systems under its Colorfire brand: the Lingchuang Mini Pro mini PC, with the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495, and the Ryzen AI Max+ 395-powered Lingchuang K16, a new mobile workstation laptop.

Colorful hasn't revealed much about the new mini PC other than that it can be configured with up to 196 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 unified memory, 160 GB of which can be assigned to VRAM to feed the Radeon 8065S. Pricing has not yet been announced, but configurations will start at 96 GB for the Lingchuang Mini Pro. The Lingchuang K16, meanwhile, has been listed on Chinese storefront, JD.com, with a price of ¥34,999, which converts to around $5,218 at the time of writing.

Chinese semiconductor maker SMIC has increased its market share as the world's third-largest chipmaker. According to the latest report from TrendForce, SMIC now holds 5.4% of the semiconductor manufacturing market share in Q2 this year, a slight increase from 5.1% in Q1. In the three-month period ending in June, SMIC generated about $3 billion in revenue from domestic companies producing homegrown silicon. This marks a significant improvement compared to $2.2 billion in Q2 2025, with a slight increase in market share from that period's 5.1%. This indicates that overall capacity has increased across the supply chain.

SMIC's most advanced manufacturing nodes include the SMIC N+2, a 7 nm-class node used by Huawei to manufacture its Ascend series of AI accelerators and other infrastructure parts, and the SMIC N+3, a 5 nm-class node for its customers. The company uses DUV to print silicon designs but faces significant challenges in achieving its silicon ambitions as it currently has no access to EUV tools, since ASML has restricted exports of its EUV scanners, and it is the only company manufacturing EUV machinery at scale.

Thermaltake, a leading PC DIY brand for premium hardware solutions, launches the AX1000 TG AI Workstation Chassis and AX200, a scalable workstation platform engineered for AI computing, content creation, private server infrastructure, and other demanding professional workloads. Designed with a dual-system architecture and modular expansion concept, the AX1000 provides the foundation for high-performance computing, while the stackable AX200 expands cooling, storage, and power capacity as workloads grow. Both the AX1000 and AX200 are available in black and snow.

AX1000 TG AI Workstation Chassis
The AX1000 is engineered for dual-system operation and supports up to two XL-ATX or SSI-EEB motherboards. With up to 20 PCIe expansion slots, it supports multiple high-end GPUs up to 630 mm in length, enabling parallel processing for compute-intensive and AI-related workloads. Its high-density design accommodates up to twenty-four 3.5" HDDs or 2.5" SSDs and up to twenty-nine 120 mm or 140 mm fans, with support for up to two 420 mm AIO radiators or two 560 mm DIY radiators.

With the ongoing issues seemingly related to the now-ubiquitous 12V-2×6 connectors melting from high power draw—seemingly made worse by power spikes caused by NVIDIA's DLSS 5—it seems prudent to find ways to reduce GPU power draw as much as possible, and one Redditor has conducted testing to prove it's possible to do so without affecting DLSS 5 performance.

In their testing, u/om_the_best found that undervolting an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 managed to reduce power draw by as much as 47 W while maintaining the same FPS and image quality using DLSS 5. According to the modder, the undervolt "can allow you to use DLSS 5 while keeping power consumption roughly the same as when running without DLSS 5 and without an undervolt."

Samsung Electronics today announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with Mistral AI to enhance its semiconductor engineering and manufacturing capabilities that will reinforce its leadership in AI chip technologies. The announcement of the partnership was made during the state summit held in Paris between South Korea and France. Under the agreement, Samsung will integrate Mistral's AI services and solutions—including its flagship large language model, Mistral Large—across its semiconductor operations to develop customized on-premises AI models optimized for intelligence-driven infrastructure.

Mistral's powerful AI platform is expected to provide Samsung with a unique stack of tools that will transform how semiconductors are designed and manufactured. The on-premises enterprise solutions will especially ensure security and flexibility required to process highly sensitive technologies and operational data entirely within the boundaries of Samsung's semiconductor infrastructure, maintaining total control over its mission-critical technologies.

HP Inc. today announced a collaboration with Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open-source solutions, to give organizations more choice in where AI workloads run, whether locally, in the cloud or across both environments. In collaboration with Red Hat, HP is developing an open, enterprise-grade AI platform to deliver purpose-built AI infrastructure powered by Red Hat AI Factory with NVIDIA.

HP's open enterprise-grade AI platform aims to help companies maximize local AI inference throughput with up to 20 PFLOPS FP4 AI performance, reduce environment setup time and deployment risk, and improve GPU utilization through optimized CUDA libraries, scheduling, and multi-GPU workload orchestration. Red Hat AI Factory with NVIDIA is an integrated AI platform, built on the industry-leading infrastructure of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift, for deploying and managing AI models, agents and applications across the hybrid cloud.

TrendForce's latest findings on the memory industry reveal that sharp rises in traditional DRAM contract prices have led to a 59.5% QoQ increase in total DRAM industry revenue, reaching nearly US$154.73 billion in 2Q26.

Growing demand for AI servers, fueled by expanding LLM training and AI inference, has driven higher shipments of HBM3e, LPDDR5X, and high-capacity RDIMMS. The surge in agentic AI applications is further boosting RDIMM demand across various capacities.

Chinese AI labs are increasingly ordering domestic AI accelerators, and one of the leading AI labs, DeepSeek, has reportedly placed an order for 160,000 Huawei Ascend 950DT chips. Late last year, Huawei revealed that the company is preparing a series of chips and rack-scale solutions to meet domestic AI demand, and now we are seeing large orders starting to materialize. For reference, the Huawei Ascend 950DT AI accelerator has a memory capacity of 144 GB, built on Huawei's own HBM memory design. This in-house solution delivers a bandwidth of nearly 4 TB/s, aligning perfectly with Huawei's vision. The chip can achieve about one PetaFLOP of FP8 peak compute, or about two PetaFLOPS of FP4.

DeepSeek, one of the leading Chinese AI labs, will use Huawei's Ascend 950DT chips for large-scale inference operations and will deploy them in a single data center located in Inner Mongolia. The overall system will deliver a peak of 160 ExaFLOPS at FP8 or about 320 ExaFLOPS at FP4 precision. The system will also have about 23 PB of total HBM memory, meaning that the large-scale inferencing operations will be able to serve thousands of customers concurrently without any issues.

Microsoft has published a quick-start guide showing developers how to build a native WinUI 3 app for Windows 11 in about 30 minutes using AI. The workflow runs on free tools, VS Code,.NET 10, GitHub Copilot's free tier, and Microsoft's winapp CLI, so Visual Studio isn't needed. The guide covers scaffolding a project, using an AI agent to add features like a settings page, testing the result, and packaging it as an MSIX installer for the Microsoft Store.

The agent used here, called winui-dev, isn't the general Copilot chatbot most Windows users already know. Rather, it's a specialized plugin with skills for WinUI design, code review, UI testing, packaging, and migrating older apps. Microsoft also recommends connecting it to its Learn MCP server so it pulls current WinUI documentation instead of relying on training data, since WinUI 3 is newer and less represented in AI training sets than older frameworks like WPF and UWP.

At IFA 2026, GEEKOM showcased its latest GeekBook X16 Pro, designed to be a thin and light powerhouse. At the heart of this system is AMD's latest "Gorgon Point" APU. The showcased unit features an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470, which includes four "Zen 5" cores and eight "Zen 5c" cores, totaling 12 cores and 24 threads. Paired with this CPU cluster is AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics for a solid experience in 3D rendering, gaming, and local AI performance. The system includes 32 GB (8 GB x 4) of soldered SK hynix LPDDR5 RAM running at 8533 MT/s and a 2 TB Lexar SSD.

The entire laptop body is crafted from aerospace-grade magnesium alloy in a precision-milled CNC unibody design. It hosts a 16-inch 2560x1600 IPS screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate, 100% sRGB coverage, and integrated eye protection features. Inside, the system is powered by a 77 Wh high-capacity battery, providing up to 17 hours of standby time, while charging is handled by a 65 W GaN PD Fast Charging adapter. Wired connectivity includes a single 3.5 mm audio jack, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A, a USB 3.2 Type C, a USB4 running at 40 Gbps transfer speed, and an HDMI 2.1 port. Wireless connectivity features Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4, while audio is managed by stereo speakers with DTS:X Ultra Audio.

Today, HP Inc. announced its new HP OmniBook Ultra 16 and HP OmniBook X 14 along with new details around the upcoming HP OmniDesk, all powered by NVIDIA RTX Spark and Windows. Together, the devices expand HP's portfolio of next-generation AI PCs designed for creators, developers, entrepreneurs, gamers, and advanced AI users. First previewed at Computex in June, the world's thinnest RTX Spark laptops bring personal agents, local AI, advanced content creation and RTX technologies into premium designs, redefining how people create, develop, play, and work on their PCs.

Samuel Chang, Senior Vice President and Division President, Consumer Personal Systems at HP Inc."As AI transforms the way people create, develop, game, and work, HP is focused on delivering devices that help bring intelligent experiences directly into everyday workflows," "The HP OmniBook Ultra 16, HP OmniBook X 14, and HP OmniDesk powered by RTX Spark represent a new generation of Windows PCs designed for developers, creators, gamers, and innovators who want local intelligent assistants and AI-powered applications, including open-source tools working alongside them."

Ugreen, a leading global consumer technology company, hosted the Ugreen Smart Living Launch Event on Sept. 1 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. At the event, Ugreen unveiled HomeAgent and the new MagFlow Series and named New England Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez its Global Brand Ambassador.

This launch marks Ugreen's AIoT debut and a broader vision for what intelligence in the home should do. Home cameras have traditionally focused on recording risks, while meaningful everyday moments can be overwritten before families recognize their value. Ugreen HomeAgent is a groundbreaking agentic AI local hub unifying local storage, computing, and control into one device. It is designed to activate household data, provide proactive assistance, and keep users in control through a trusted local-first architecture.

The opening keynote at IFA 2026 was held by AMD and our team on the ground was there to see it. During the event, AMD announced the Threadripper Halo Station, a liquid-cooled workstation built around the 96-core Threadripper PRO 9995WX CPU codenamed "Shimada Peak" and up to four AMD Instinct MI350P accelerators. The system is designed around one specific use case: run AI models with more than one trillion parameters locally, without a cloud connection. Jack Huynh, AMD's SVP and GM of Computing and Graphics, described it as a new class of workstation bringing supercomputer-class compute to individual users and developers. The Threadripper PRO 9995WX Zen 5 CPU has 96 cores and 192 threads, 5,4 GHz boost frequency and supports up to 2 TB of DDR5 system memory.

Going further down the specifications, each MI350P card features 144 GB of HBM3E running at 4 TB/s, offering a bandwidth 14 times higher than any LPDDR5X variant. At IFA 2026, AMD presented a configuration based on two MI350P PCIe cards for a total of 288 GB of HBM3E memory. Users can upgrade the system to four cards and 576 GB of HBM3E. This amount of accelerator memory is enough, says AMD, to hold a trillion-parameter model entirely on-device. Each Instinct MI350P card has a TBP of up to 600 W and is liquid-cooled independently, as is the CPU. Complete system specifications, availability and pricing have not been announced.

Minisforum, a Global Edge Computing Solution Brand & System Integrator, today unveiled two new local AI computing solutions powered by the AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ PRO 495 processor: the AI Mini Workstation MS-S1 MAX-P495 and the AI Agent NAS N5 MAX-P495. The new solutions mark Minisforum's continued commitment to democratizing AI computing by bringing powerful local AI capabilities to a broader range of users and real-world applications. With up to 131 TOPS of AI compute performance, 192 GB of memory at 8533 MT/s, and up to 160 GB of graphics memory, the two solutions support larger models, more complex AI workloads, and next-generation edge AI applications.

Lineup Highlights:
1. AI Agent NAS N5 MAX-P495
AI data infrastructure, storage + compute, and persistent AI. Engineered for local data management and AI processing, the N5 MAX-P495 offers massive bandwidth and high-density compute:

NVIDIA has agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, with CEO Jensen Huang announcing the deal in a blog post today. NVIDIA says that Hugging Face is to remain an independent company and, more importantly, an open platform. This means that there will be no hardware restrictions for users and they can continue to build or deploy through the platform regardless of whether they use NVIDIA hardware or not. Hugging Face was founded in 2016 as a chatbot company and, from 2021, evolved gradually into a main point for the AI community. Currently, is hosting over 3 million models, 500,000 datasets, and 1 million applications. These are used by more than 18 million developers, researchers, and creators, while over 200,000 companies use the platform to discover, evaluate, and deploy. NVIDIA is already the platform's largest contributor of open models and data, with more than 500 models and 250 open datasets published there.

Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clément Delangue said on X that the company approached NVIDIA because scaling further requires more compute, support, and infrastructure. "For it to happen at larger scale, it needs more compute, more support, more collaboration and more visibility," Delangue wrote on X, adding that NVIDIA committed to keeping the platform open, independent, and compute-agnostic. Both sides outlined that multi-cloud and multi-accelerator support will continue, and that model builders from across the ecosystem, not just those using NVIDIA hardware, will keep being supported.