Gaming PCs sitting idle could one day earn their owners credits, or even cash, by training AI models, at least if a newly published Microsoft patent application ever becomes a product. Titled "Opportunistic Micro-training on Edge Devices Using Spare GPU Utilization," the filing US-20260349820-A1 from Microsoft Technology Licensing was submitted in April 2025 and made public on November 5. It describes chopping large training jobs into small micro-tasks sized to what each device can handle, then sending them to phones, laptops, and gaming PCs whenever they have spare capacity. Owners would have to explicitly opt in, after which the system could track the work done and apply credits to their account, redeemable for free software, access to the trained model, or money.

To stay out of the way, the system watches GPU and CPU load, memory use, temperature and power draw, and checks less often when the GPU is busy or hot. Apparently, tasks can be paused or stopped when limits are crossed, and results get cross-checked across devices to catch faulty or tampered work. The filing doesn't give a payout rate or list supported hardware, and Microsoft hasn't announced a Windows or Xbox service, so it's impossible to say whether the rewards would cover the extra electricity. Of course, this is only an application for now, and plenty of those never turn into products.

Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVL) and Lumentum (NASDAQ: LITE) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Marvell to acquire Lumentum in an all-stock transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, Lumentum stockholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 4.500 shares of Marvell common stock for each share of Lumentum common stock they own. The transaction has an implied enterprise value of $115 billion for Lumentum, representing approximately $1,132 per share of Lumentum common stock and a premium of approximately 23.9% based on each company's unaffected closing share price as of October 28, 2026, the last trading day before market speculation regarding a potential transaction began. Post-closing, current Marvell stockholders will own approximately 67% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis, while Lumentum stockholders will own approximately 33%.

The AI infrastructure industry is at an inflection point. Rapidly growing bandwidth requirements and the physical limitations of copper-based connectivity are accelerating the transition toward optical technologies. As AI infrastructure scales to increasingly complex architectures, particularly scale-up and scale-in, the industry is shifting from discrete, modular components toward highly integrated optical solutions that require much closer co-design of electrical and optical technologies to deliver greater bandwidth, performance and energy efficiency.

Micron has decided not to bring 4F² DRAM to market, even though it says it invented the cell design and has been researching it for around two decades. Scott DeBoer, Micron's President and Chief Technology and Products Officer, shared the decision during the company's technology webinar on October 21. On paper, 4F² uses vertical channel transistors to shrink each memory cell's footprint by about a third compared with the 6F² layout used in today's DRAM. However, DeBoer argued that real-world density is limited by how closely the capacitors can be packed, not by the cell's footprint, calling the density advantage over 6F² "a bit of a myth." He also said 4F² can be built, but at a higher cost and complexity, and that it runs into fundamental scaling problems at leading-edge nodes, which points toward 3D DRAM instead.

That puts Micron at odds with its rivals. Samsung and SK hynix are both developing 4F² designs, and China's CXMT says its first 4F² product will be a server DDR5 RDIMM due by the end of this year. Micron will keep scaling 6F² instead, with its 1-delta node set to ramp in Boise, Idaho, in the second half of 2027 and the 1-epsilon node after it moving to wafer bonding. 3D DRAM is being developed as a parallel path, but there's no timeline yet, and Micron says it will only switch once the economics make sense. It's a risky bet if rivals manage to make 4F² cheap at scale, especially with memory supply expected to get even tighter in 2027 and 2028, per Micron's own estimates.

Chinese startup Langdao Silex has demonstrated the development of the first homegrown extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) laser source, gradually paving the way for China's complete supply chain independence. The system, named FlintNano LPP-OXXO, reportedly delivers over 15 W of EUV output and uses components that are approximately 90% domestically sourced or developed. It relies on laser-produced plasma (LPP), a technique using high-powered lasers to generate plasma and produce the EUV radiation required for advanced chip manufacturing, similar to the process used by ASML. According to specifications published by Langdao Silex, the FlintNano system employs a 1,000 W driving laser operating at repetition rates between 1 and 20 kHz. Its conversion efficiency exceeds 2%, and the company claims the equipment can operate continuously for more than 100 hours. The prototype is reportedly suitable for wafer exposure testing, although further finetuning is still necessary.

Readers might recall that EUV lithography tools are banned from being sold in China, as the United States government previously pressured the Dutch government to halt sales of these advanced tools. In fact, ASML has never shipped a single EUV scanner to China, as the Dutch government, under pressure from the United States, blocked exports in 2019. Not a single system has been deployed, but ASML continues to ship DUV systems to Chinese customers. More importantly, developing a light source is only one part of building a complete EUV scanner. Such systems also require extremely precise reflective optics, sophisticated wafer positioning mechanisms, and complex integration across numerous subsystems.

A Delaware jury has found that Arm breached its Architecture License Agreement (ALA) with Qualcomm, but the award is about as small as it gets. Reuters reports that Qualcomm gets just $2 in nominal damages, $1 for each of the two claims it won. The jury agreed that Arm withheld software patches and verification tools Qualcomm needed to validate its custom Oryon CPU cores, and that Arm intentionally interfered with Qualcomm's business with Meta. That second claim ties back to October 2024, when Arm's 60-day notice to cancel Qualcomm's license ended up with Bloomberg, a leak Qualcomm pinned on Arm. Arm won the rest of the claims, most of which were about pricing under its separate Technology License Agreement (TLA).

The bigger question, however, is still open. Judge Maryellen Noreika has yet to decide whether Arm's breach lets Qualcomm stop paying royalties under the ALA for five years, which, by some estimates, could be worth billions of dollars. Arm argues that provision is an unenforceable penalty. Unsurprisingly, both sides are spinning the result in their favor, with Qualcomm saying it was "gratified" by the verdict and Arm pointing out that it won most of the claims. This is the second round between the two companies. In December 2024, a jury found that Qualcomm didn't breach its license by acquiring Nuvia, and the court entered a final judgment in Qualcomm's favor in September 2025. Arm has since appealed that ruling, and it's reasonable to expect an appeal here too, depending on how the royalty question goes.

Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM), in collaboration with Siemens, announced new research aimed at advancing IBM's nanostack architecture, a new transistor architecture unveiled by IBM earlier this year. The collaboration will bring together IBM's leadership in semiconductor device innovation and Siemens' expertise in electronic design automation (EDA), process simulation, lithography optimization, and advanced manufacturing software to accelerate the development of nanostack.

Nanostack is the industry's first known three-dimensional, nanosheet-based design, vertically stacking and staggering transistors to pack more transistors onto a chip, with nearly 100 billion transistors in a space the size of a fingernail at its current 7 angstrom node. The design also unlocks the use of different material combinations within each stacked layer to optimize performance and power efficiency of each transistor independent of the other. These innovations power substantial leaps in energy efficiency, performance, and SRAM scaling.

ASML today reported its Q3 2026 financial results, with gross revenue totaling €11.7 billion, a gross margin of 57.5%, and a net income of €5.0 billion. ASML also provided updates on its system sales by region, revealing that shipments to China have become one of its strongest areas for system sales. Chinese semiconductor manufacturers are rushing to stockpile more tools. In the previous Q2, net system sales to China accounted for 14% of ASML's sales. In the latest Q3, this figure has grown to 23%, nearly a quarter of all ASML's system sales. In Q3, Taiwan remains the largest buyer of ASML equipment at 32%, followed by South Korea at 31%. China takes third place with 23%, and the United States follows with 13%.

The strong demand from China is reportedly due to Chinese memory and storage makers stockpiling enough lithography tools from ASML to support their expansion plans for the next three years, even if they are cut off from the supply chain. According to earlier reports, memory maker CXMT and storage giant YMTC have secured sufficient DUV lithography tools from ASML to support their growth plans for the next three years, despite increasing tensions and potential bans on exporting these older DUV tools to China. The United States government is reportedly pressuring the Dutch government to completely halt tool exports to China.

Rapidus Corporation today announced that it will establish the Rapidus Collaborative Open Rapid Ecosystem (CORE), a global ecosystem framework to support the development and mass production of cutting-edge semiconductors.

Today, semiconductor development requires more than just manufacturing technology; it is essential to integrate the entire semiconductor value chain—including research institutions, EDA, IP, design and manufacturing—to provide customers with a development and production infrastructure they can rely on. Further, amid a global shortage of cutting-edge semiconductor talent, it is crucial to build a design ecosystem that enables customers to begin development at an early stage by collaborating with design-related companies.

TDK Corporation (TSE:6762) has successfully demonstrated, for the first time in the world, a direct retinal projection (DRP) display for smart glasses using a meta-optic mirror. The flat mirror uses nanoscale reflectors, measures just 150 nm thick and can be embedded directly into a lens. With a visible-light transmittance of approximately 80 percent, it enables smart glasses with transparency equivalent to that of ordinary eyeglass lenses, giving them a natural appearance suitable for everyday use. TDK will exhibit a prototype at CEATEC 2026, beginning on October 13, 2026, and at electronica, November 10-13, 2026.

TDK has established technologies for an ultra-compact full-color laser module (FCLM), one of the smallest of its kind in the world, and a visible-light full-color laser control device capable of achieving 4K resolution. The company has also been developing the key devices required for DRP in smart glasses. Conventional DRP systems used a curved mirror mounted in front of the user's eye to project images onto the retina, making it difficult to achieve smart glasses with a natural appearance. By arranging unique nanoscale reflectors on a plane and creating a structure that changes the angle of light reflection depending on the position of the mirror, it is possible to reflect laser light incident from various angles at the reflection angle necessary for DRP. Therefore, it is possible to replace conventional curved mirrors.

Sony today announced that it is extending its AI upscaling efforts to the base PlayStation 5 model, expanding beyond the flagship PlayStation 5 Pro. This new technology, called Quick Spectral Super Resolution (QSSR), was developed from Project Amethyst in collaboration with AMD. QSSR is a simplified version of the Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) used in the PS5 Pro. The neural network architecture has been streamlined in a way to get maximum visual fidelity, and its performance has been fine-tuned to maximize the computing capabilities of the base PS5 model.

Sony currently considers PSSR the "gold standard" for the PS5 Pro, while QSSR serves as a lower-tier option, but the only viable AI technology that can run on PS5. Both technologies will continue to coexist, catering to different console generations, and we may see an enhanced version of PSSR in future PS6 consoles. The first few titles to support QSSR include Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei, and game developers are working on updates to bring more titles in line with QSSR. You can check out visual comparisons below.

Montage Technology announced the mass-production of its DDR5 Clock Driver Plus (CK01P), designed to deliver stable and reliable clocking for next-generation client memory modules.

Compliant with the JEDEC DDR5CKD01 clock driver specification, the CK01P primarily targets next-generation client memory modules, including DDR5 CUDIMM, CSODIMM, CQDIMM, and CAMM and supports data rates of up to 9200 MT/s. The CK01P supports three clock operating modes—single PLL, dual PLL, and PLL bypass—to accommodate a wide range of system requirements. Featuring a zero-phase-delay clock architecture, the device supports programmable per-channel delay and allows output characteristics to be configured through control registers, enabling flexible adaptation to different DIMM network topologies. In addition, unused clock outputs can be disabled to further reduce power consumption.

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced it has been ranked the top third-party DRAM module supplier in the world, according to the latest rankings by revenue from analyst firm TrendForce. Kingston retains its number 1 position with an estimated 62% market share.

TrendForce reported that the global DRAM module market generated approximately $21.2 billion in revenue in 2025, representing a 59% YoY increase and a significant acceleration from the 7% growth recorded in 2024. The market's expansion was driven by rising DRAM prices and stronger shipment volumes during the second half of the year. According to the report, Kingston's revenue grew 48% YoY in 2025, reinforcing its leadership position in a market where the top five DRAM module suppliers accounted for 77% of total revenue. Kingston alone represented nearly two-thirds of the market.

Sony has filed a patent for a PlayStation controller that can read payment details from a nearby credit card or phone, letting players pay for games without typing in card information. The filing, titled "Video Game Controller-Driven Information Transfer," was submitted in March 2025 and published on September 17, 2026. The controller acts as a go-between for a payment method and the console. When the system asks for payment, the player brings a phone, credit card, or gift card close to the controller, which picks it up via NFC, Bluetooth, or direct contact, then confirms the read with a light, sound, or vibration before passing the details along. One diagram shows a gift card being swiped to add funds to an account, skipping the usual back-and-forth of typing in codes.

Potentially, the same link could also transfer player IDs, let guests join multiplayer sessions, or send screenshots and clips to a phone. Another scenario describes trying a demo at a store or expo, then tapping a phone to the controller to add the full game to your library for later. This is just a patent, though, and Sony files plenty of these that never turn into actual products. The controller in the diagrams looks like a regular DualSense, with no mention of a new device specifically built for this purpose. Sony has filed several unusual controller patents in the past, including AI that fills in controller inputs and a fully touchscreen design, so this is another example of exploring ambitious ideas, even though they may never ship. There's no confirmation that this is headed for the PS5 or PS6.

Qualcomm announced today that it is continuing its licensing agreement with Apple, as the previous agreement has ended. In a brief press statement, John Han, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL), stated that the company is "pleased to extend the Apple license agreement," which will take effect starting April 1, 2027. The end date of this new licensing agreement is still unknown, as the company did not disclose the exact terms, monetary value, or end date.

As readers may recall, in September 2023, Apple renewed its licensing deal with Qualcomm to obtain 5G modems for its products. This license was valid for three years and is now expiring, requiring a renewal. In its iPhones, Apple has started using a combination of in-house modems, known as C-series SoCs, along with Qualcomm-provided 5G modems. In 2019, Apple purchased Intel's modem business for $1 billion, acquiring the engineers and patents needed to jumpstart its own modem design and production. Early last year, with the launch of the iPhone 16e, Apple unveiled the C1 modem, its first-generation in-house 5G modem, which has since evolved into the upgraded C2 5G cellular modem design, now shipping with the iPhone 18 Pro lineup.

According to anonymous sources close to Reuters, Intel and SK hynix are in talks to start DRAM production lines in the United States for the first time. This means that Intel might either collaborate with SK hynix to acquire memory IP technology in a joint venture or SK hynix could lease part of Intel's facility in Ohio. In the first scenario, a joint venture between Intel and SK hynix would significantly alleviate supply chain pressures, as hyperscalers, fabless chip designers, and others are in urgent need of more DRAM. Since these firms would likely consume all the DRAM produced in the coming years, both Intel and SK hynix would have a substantial financial interest in the joint venture.

On the other hand, if SK hynix decides to lease Intel's facilities in Ohio, the South Korean memory giant would pay premiums for leasing the facility while retaining all production for itself. Reuters couldn't determine which specific technology would be the focus of the facility, but the primary goal is to produce regular planar DRAM, HBM, and some storage solutions with NAND Flash. Intel declined to comment on the rumor but noted that the Ohio investments are continuing regardless. SK hynix stated that the company has not finalized its decision or any cooperation but did not explicitly rule out the possibility of future collaboration. Therefore, an official decision should be announced soon.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), today announced a major milestone in memory innovation with the successful demonstration of the world's first 512 GB DDR5 module on multiple server platforms. The achievement reinforces Micron's leadership in high-performance, high-capacity server memory and provides enterprise data center and cloud customers with a path to support large and demanding AI, analytics, in-memory database and simulation-heavy workloads with greater efficiency. Leading semiconductor enablers, AMD and Intel, are both actively validating the module, which will deliver speeds up to 9,200 MT/s.

The module's high capacity is possible due to Micron's advanced vertical interconnect packaging innovations. This product vertically stacks DRAM dies interconnected by through-silicon vias (TSVs) to maximize density within individual DRAM packages while preserving the performance modern data center architectures demand. The module enables up to 12 TB of DDR5 DRAM in a single 24-slot dual-socket server.

At the annual Hot Chips conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today is announcing the first dual-architecture mainframe processor, which is being designed to enable enterprises to run operating systems and applications on both the IBM and Arm compute platforms in future IBM Z and LinuxONE systems. This marks the first processor milestone to emerge from the IBM and Arm collaboration established in April 2026, and represents a significant advance in enterprise computing. The new processor is being developed to allow organizations to run Arm-native Linux environments simultaneously with z/OS and Linux on IBM Z, while benefiting from IBM's established security, reliability, and scale.

With more than 22 million developers worldwide, the Arm software ecosystem supports a broad and growing range of applications from cloud to edge, including the cloud-native and AI software increasingly shaping modern infrastructure. This new processor will bring that ecosystem to the IBM platforms known globally for transaction processing and data-intensive operations. Arm workloads will benefit from IBM's enterprise-grade capabilities, including enhanced reliability, hardware-level fault detection and recovery, advanced encryption, secure key management, and AI acceleration.

According to the Netherlands-based NU portal, the United States government (USG) might pressure the Dutch government to compel ASML to halt nearly all exports of chip-making equipment to China. The report indicates that the Netherlands-based ASML is under pressure to stop exporting its machinery to Chinese clients, as the USG is lobbying against the export of these machines to mainland customers. Readers may recall that the most advanced Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools are already banned from being sold in China, as the USG previously pressured the Dutch government to halt sales of these advanced tools. In fact, ASML has never shipped a single EUV scanner to China, as the Dutch government, under USG pressure, blocked exports in 2019.

In the years following that ban, export restrictions have shifted focus to older Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) scanners, requiring a national export license before shipping to China. However, a new bipartisan bill is now before Congress to tighten export controls even further. Called the Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware (MATCH) Act, the USG is considering forcing allied countries to implement a technological ban on exporting even the older DUV machines. This could mean that ASML might nearly cease all exposure to China, as the older DUV tools are targeted by US export restrictions.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) today unveiled Micron Research Labs, a U.S.-based long-horizon premier research institution headquartered in Boise and backed by a planned $10 billion investment over the next decade. Building on Micron's technology and manufacturing leadership, the new hub will bring together customers, academia, government and the broader semiconductor ecosystem to pursue breakthroughs beyond today's technology roadmaps and help define what's possible in the decades ahead. Key research areas include critical memory technologies, advanced memory and compute architectures, packaging and future semiconductor manufacturing.

As the first dedicated memory research hub of its kind in the U.S., Micron Research Labs will center on a flagship Boise campus designed to support advanced research across critical technology domains. The planned investment will also fund extensive university collaborations, global satellite labs and deep ecosystem partnerships, creating a connected research network focused beyond the next generation of technologies for the AI era.

Universal Display Corporation (UDC) (Nasdaq: OLED), a global leader in energy-efficient OLED technologies and materials, today unveiled OLEDX, a proprietary device architecture designed to improve how light is extracted and utilized within an OLED, while giving display makers greater control over how that light is delivered to the viewer. UDC introduced OLEDX during an invited presentation at the International Meeting on Information Display (IMID 2026) in Busan, Korea, where the Company also highlighted its breakthrough OLEDX laboratory results that represent one of the most significant advances in OLED energy efficiency since the invention of phosphorescent OLED technology.

UDC's phosphorescent technology first transformed the OLED industry by setting a new standard for efficiently generating light within a device. Since then, one of the industry's most persistent challenges has been how to get the generated light out of the device and to the viewer's eye, with much of the light remaining trapped or lost inside an OLED display. OLEDX addresses that challenge through a novel display architecture that redirects trapped light into useful output. The result is a platform that enables display makers to unlock new levels of efficiency while providing greater control over how light is utilized and emitted. This added flexibility creates new opportunities to enhance display performance and support the evolving requirements of applications ranging from smartphones, IT and TV devices to next-generation foldable, rollable and conformable displays.

LG Display, the world's leading innovator of display technologies, announced today that it has successfully developed a dream OLED patterning method that is free from the conventional fine metal mask (FMM) process, using its own proprietary technology. Its groundbreaking FMM-less method delivers much greater flexibility in mass production as well as brighter panels with longer lifespan and lower power consumption.

The company will unveil FLiPP (FMM-Less innovative Pixel Patterning) for the first time in the world at the International Meeting on Information Display (IMID) 2026 in Busan, where LG Display will host a dedicated exhibition hall for three days from Aug. 19.

The Chinese Ministry of State Security has reportedly ordered local governments and state-affiliated organizations to remove Windows 10 installations from their systems as the central government seeks to completely diversify away from Western technology. However, the irony is that this is not the standard Windows 10 OS we are all familiar with. The software was developed by C&M Information Technologies (CMIT), a joint venture between Microsoft and China Electronics Technology Group, and was specifically modified to meet Beijing's security requirements. Based on Windows 10 Enterprise, this government version removes or disables several consumer-facing features, keeps activation and updates within China, and supports the use of Chinese cryptographic standards.

According to Bloomberg, the central government has reportedly moved up the planned obsolescence date, and instead of lasting until February 2027, the retirement is happening now. Despite receiving a highly customized version of Windows 10, Beijing now seems increasingly uncomfortable with maintaining a foreign-origin operating system at the core of sensitive government infrastructure. However, China does have a replacement plan for the Windows operating system.

Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) today announced that it intends to invest more than $3 billion over the next five years to expand its global research and development (R&D) lab network. The planned multi-site expansion is expected to add infrastructure and capabilities to increase experiment capacity by more than 50%. Lam's R&D approach combines specialized labs worldwide, each purpose-built to accelerate a distinct step of the innovation cycle, with deep customer collaboration that includes locations near customer facilities. Together, Lam's labs operate as an integrated 24/7 network, enabling innovation in parallel and at scale. With this investment, Lam intends to further compress product development cycles for customers, from pathfinding to fab deployment.

"In the AI era, the pace of innovation is relentless, requiring chips with new architectures, different materials, and complex features engineered with nanoscale precision. Our ability to increase velocity throughout the R&D process has become a decisive advantage," said Tim Archer, president and chief executive officer of Lam Research. "We are investing with the intention of staying ahead of what our customers need, further strengthening our global innovation engine to deliver the next generation of semiconductor breakthroughs."

Kioxia Corporation, a subsidiary of Kioxia Holdings Corporation (TOKYO: 285A) and Sandisk Corporation (Nasdaq: SNDK) today unveiled their new 9th-generation, high-performance 2 Tb QLC 3D flash memory technology designed to support the growing storage demands of AI-driven infrastructure. The technology demonstrates how architectural innovation can help storage advance at the fast pace required by AI-driven workloads, while supporting more capital-efficient manufacturing.

Leveraging the companies' CMOS directly Bonded to Array (CBA) architecture, the new technology combines an advanced CMOS wafer with a proven memory-array platform, along with significant design and device innovation, to deliver performance improvements and enable faster deployment of advanced storage solutions for cloud and data-intensive applications. Compared with the previous 8th-generation 2 Tb QLC, the new technology delivers higher write and read bandwidth due to a 6-plane architecture and performance enhancements, and better write and read power efficiency. And it also delivers a NAND interface speed of 4.8 Gb/s, a 33% improvement over 8th-generation devices.

Nanya Technology Board of Directors announced on August 5 that the company has launched its largest investment program, committing up to NT$346.6 billion (around $10.7 billion) to its Fab5A facility through 2026-2029. The project covers 10 nm-class processes from 1b through 1e nodes and introduces EUV lithography. Nanya has also increased its 2026 capital expenditures budget by 34% to NT$69.7 billion (around $2.16 billion). The extra NT$17.7 billion is going toward advance payments for equipment to keep Fab5A on schedule. The production roadmap has wafer starts being produced in the second half of 2027, reaching 30,000 wafers per month in 2028 and 35,900 in 2029. The maximum planned capacity is around 45,000 wafers monthly. The 1c pilot production has already begun, while the 1d node is under development and expected to enter pilot production soon. Nanya Fab5A investment, when completed, is estimated at roughly $16 billion, deployed in phases based on market demand.

Commercially, Nanya is having a strong run. July revenue hit NT$43.87 billion (around $1.3 billion), up 49.3% month over month and 719.6% year over year, driven by continued DRAM price increases, particularly sharp gains in DDR4 contract prices. Remember that just a year ago DDR4 module prices overtook DDR5 for the first time, with Nanya among the biggest beneficiaries. Its customers include giants like NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, with the future looking great for the Taiwanese company. Its long-term agreements reportedly now cover about 50% of production capacity, with short-term contracts gradually converted into long-term agreements.