Today's Hardware Pulse
Nvidia and SK Hynix ink multi-year AI memory chip pact
Nvidia and SK Hynix have signed a multi‑year agreement to co‑develop next‑generation memory chips optimized for artificial‑intelligence workloads. The collaboration will focus on memory for Nvidia’s Vera Rubin accelerator and broader AI infrastructure, pairing Nvidia’s AI expertise with SK Hynix’s high‑performance memory capabilities.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Rapidus raises $943M in funding
U.S. Inverter Market Faces Policy, Supply Headwinds Despite Safe Harbor Pipeline
Intertek CEA projects U.S. inverter demand to grow 6% annually through 2028, but developers confront tighter regulations under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) rules and new cybersecurity mandates. Tariffs on imported inverters can reach 45%, yet the cost impact is modest compared with higher-priced foreign modules and batteries. The report highlights a shift toward domestic production, driven by safe‑harbor project pipelines and emerging demand from data centers and AI infrastructure. Technological advances such as grid‑forming and 2000 V inverters are reshaping project economics, while imports will still be needed to meet demand through 2030.
Nvidia, Manufacturer To Build 3 U.S. Plants To Support Data Centers
Nvidia has teamed with Corning to construct three new manufacturing plants in North Carolina and Texas, aimed at scaling U.S. production of optical connectivity and fiber for data centers. The facilities will boost Corning's domestic capacity tenfold for connectivity equipment...
UWB: Why Angle-of-Arrival Positioning Hinges on Antenna Isolation
Ultra‑wideband (UWB) is transitioning from research labs to mainstream products, driven by the IEEE 802.15.4z standard and smartphone integration. While time‑of‑flight ranging provides ~10 cm accuracy, manufacturers are shifting to angle‑of‑arrival (AoA) techniques to reduce anchor density and enable new use...
Could This New Alert System Prevent Work Zone Deaths?
Researchers at Morgan State University have created “Bear Alerts,” a multi‑sensory wearable that uses LIDAR, edge computing and AI to warn highway workers of approaching vehicles up to 400 feet away. In a six‑day pilot near the campus, the system recorded...
Morse Micro Selects Gateworks as the First Global Design House Partner
Morse Micro announced Gateworks as the inaugural partner in its Design House Partner Program, a global effort to fast‑track production‑ready Wi‑Fi HaLow solutions. Gateworks, known for rugged embedded hardware made in the United States, will provide M.2 cards and development...
C-Suites Want Concrete Quantum Use-Cases, Not Hype
Research from QuEra Computing shows a clear pivot in enterprise quantum spending: executives now demand concrete proof of value before committing capital. While 44% of firms plan to increase quantum budgets, a larger 46% expect flat spending, and 10% anticipate...
The App Store for Robots Has Arrived: Hugging Face Launches Open-Source Reachy Mini App Store with 200+ Apps
Today Hugging Face unveiled an app store for its low‑cost Reachy Mini robot, offering more than 200 community‑built applications that can be downloaded for free. Since its July 2025 launch, the $299 desktop robot has sold roughly 10,000 units, with...
Edge Computing Powers Real‑Time AI Performance
AI doesn’t fail because of bad models—it fails because of where it runs. Real operations need ultra-low latency and real-time decisions. With Edge Control from T-Mobile for Business, data is processed at the edge for faster, more secure performance. Managed through T-Platform, a...
Munters Launches Speria Brand as Early Deployments Deliver Measurable Gains in Livestock Performance
Munters FoodTech has launched Speria, a unified climate‑control, sensor, and analytics brand for livestock operations. Early deployments using the Sonar IoT platform have delivered measurable improvements, including double‑digit gains in feed conversion efficiency, lower mortality, and reduced emissions. The system...
546 Two-Qubit Gates Enable Reliable Molecular Energy Calculation
Quantinuum researchers chained 546 two‑qubit gates in a single trapped‑ion computation, integrating Steane quantum error‑correction gadgets directly into quantum phase‑estimation circuits. The approach yielded a ground‑state energy estimate for molecular hydrogen within 13 hartree of the exact value, demonstrating a...
Allied Vision EoSens Camera Captures the Physics of Metal 3D Printing at 20,000 Frames per Second
Allied Vision’s EoSens 3CL high‑speed camera captured laser powder‑bed fusion (LPBF) events at 20,000 fps, detecting spatter signatures that correlate with subsurface porosity. Researchers at KU Leuven demonstrated that spatter count and velocity measured in real time match keyhole porosity identified by...
Everything You Need to Know About Uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft
Airbus is developing uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft (UCCA), also known as loyal wingmen, to operate alongside crewed fighters such as the Eurofighter. The first operational capability is slated for the German Air Force by 2029, using the Kratos XQ‑58A Valkyrie...
Raytheon Receives Largest Ever SharpSight Radar Order
Raytheon, an RTX business, landed its biggest SharpSight radar contract to date – 120 units ordered by Blue Raven for global resale and distribution. The partnership lets Raytheon bulk‑produce the platform‑agnostic surveillance radar while Blue Raven leverages its international network...
Valve Releases Full External Specifications for 'Steam Deck' Accessory Manufacturing
Valve has published the full external specifications for its Steam Deck handheld and Dock, including STL and STP CAD files, to enable third‑party accessory creation. The move follows a launch‑day sell‑out that highlighted strong consumer demand. While personal printing and non‑commercial...
INIT to Roll Out 25,000 Contactless Account-Based Validators for Sydney
German firm INIT secured a contract to upgrade Transport for NSW’s Opal ticketing system to an account‑based, cloud‑managed platform, deploying 25,000 contactless validators across Sydney’s buses, trains, light rail, metro and ferries. The Opal 2.0 rollout will store fare balances in...
Corning to Supply Passive Photonics for Inside‑Box SiPh
$GLW moving inside the box. I maintain that Corning becomes a key "co-design" partner for optical as SiPH really starts to ramp in 2028. But those conversations are happening now. "historically, we've had no inside the box content...
Kempower Launches Mega Satellite Flex with CCS and MCS Charging Support at ACT Expo
Kempower unveiled the Mega Satellite Flex, a high‑power charging dispenser that supports both CCS and MCS standards for heavy‑duty electric vehicles. The unit can deliver up to 560 kW via CCS and 1.2 MW via MCS, with 5 m and 2.7 m cable reaches...
Container‑Sized Chip Fabs Offer Affordable Specialty Manufacturing
Okay this is genuinely cool: there's a startup selling shipping-container-sized chip fabs for $5–15M that can train a semiconductor workforce and compete on price with major foundries for specialty applications. started because an MIT grad student was sick of using...
CPU Market Set to Quadruple by 2030
We are tracking this as well going forward. This is the view of the pre-agentic CPU era, and when the CPU TAM is ~$25B. This may look very different as the TAM goes north of $100B in 2030....
The Quiet Layer Keeping the Chip Boom Alive
The semiconductor surge now hinges on keeping fab tools running flawlessly, not just building new fabs. Singapore‑based Global TechSolutions (GTS) refurbishes and upgrades front‑end equipment to OEM‑equivalent performance, cutting downtime and protecting shipment schedules. Its regional footprint across Singapore, Malaysia,...
NY Gets First Private Tesla Supercharger in Northeast
New York is about to get its first-ever privately owned Supercharger site. First such in Northeast US! It's built by EVIO Charging, which is dedicated to build out more Tesla-powered sites. EVwire is first to charge to the scene as always, read...
Hyperscaling Compute: Biggest Historical Bet, Risking Failure
Am I right that hyperscaling compute is the biggest bet in history? Any counter examples? It’s way more expensive than the Manhattan Project, the Apollo project, and railways across the US. If it doesn’t yield AGI, it may also be the...
U.S. Army Expands eBee VISION Fleet with New European Purchase
EagleNXT, through German integrator Dronivo, delivered three eBee VISION unmanned‑air system kits to the U.S. Army's 7th Army Training Command, bringing the service's total inventory to 34 units across six organizations. The platform, a hand‑launched fixed‑wing drone, offers up to...
AI Data Centers Will Match US Residential Power by 2030
The global AI data center industry will consume as much power as residential electricity across 2/3 of the United States by 2030 (950 TWh). We're literally building a parallel electrical civilization — except this one thinks faster and never sleeps.
Quantum and AI Will Co‑lead, Not Compete
I congratulated @jaygambetta on Quantum making it from no show to some show to 1/3 agenda point of the Think keynote - and asked when it will be #1. He answers he doesn't foresee Quantum to overtake AI. Its going...
Chip Fab-in-a-Box Could Democratize Semiconductors
InchFab, founded by MIT alumnus Mitchell Hsing, sells container‑size clean‑room systems priced between $5 million and $15 million. By scaling down to 4‑inch (100 mm) wafers, the startup shrinks traditional fab equipment, delivering a full suite of processes—including lithography, etch, and deposition—while accepting...
Twisting Atom Thin Materials Reveals New Way to Save Computing Energy
A KTH-led study published in Nano Letters shows that twisting two atom‑thin van der Waals antiferromagnet layers creates strong altermagnetic magnons, enabling magnetic‑based information transfer without electric currents or external magnetic fields. The approach leverages twist engineering to alter crystal...
Asus Increases Commercial PC Market Share by 40% in South Africa
Asus announced a 40% jump in its South African commercial PC market share, reaching 5.2% between 2024 and 2025. IDC data shows the company holds 20.39% of the consumer segment and an overall 11.54% share in the country, which is...
Bosch Rexroth to Showcase Smarter, Faster, and Best-in-Class Automation Solutions at Automate 2026
Bosch Rexroth will exhibit its full factory‑automation portfolio at Automate 2026 in Chicago, booth #2810, from June 22‑25. The showcase includes the new TS 7plus conveyor, capable of handling payloads up to 3,000 kg, and the ctrlX AUTOMATION suite featuring cabinet‑free ctrlX DRIVE, ctrlX CORE, and the high‑speed...
Corning's Optics Will Dominate GPU Rack Interconnects
$GLW having a presentation on optics. This slide.. Everywhere you see yellow you see Corning. "And when we add the optical scale up network to interconnect all the switches in every GPU rack, well we add a lot...
Top Quantum Hardware Companies 2026 By Modality
The 2026 quantum‑hardware landscape is organized around six modalities, each dominated by a handful of commercial vendors. Superconducting platforms, led by IBM’s 1,121‑qubit system, hold the highest qubit counts, while trapped‑ion firms such as Quantinuum deliver the best gate fidelities...
New Wi-Fi 7 Network Installed at University of Florida Stadium
Extreme Networks has installed the United States' first collegiate stadium Wi‑Fi 7 network at the University of Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The system delivers ultra‑fast gigabit speeds, sub‑10‑millisecond latency, and the capacity to handle tens of thousands of simultaneous connections. Coverage spans...
NVIDIA Takes Warrants for $500m in Corning Stock as Fibre-Optics Partnership Goes Structural
Nvidia has secured equity‑linked warrants worth roughly $500 million in fibre‑optics maker Corning. The deal gives Nvidia a traditional warrant for up to 15 million shares at $180 each and a pre‑funded warrant for an additional 3 million shares. In return, Corning will...
Zeabuz to Deploy Docking Assist Across Brim Explorer Fleet
Zeabuz has partnered with Brim Explorer to install its ZeaWatch Docking Assist on the MS Bre in the third quarter of 2026, with plans to retrofit the entire Brim Explorer fleet, including vessels on order. The system combines cameras and 4D...
New Samtec SMA Interconnects Capable of 26.5 GHz
Samtec announced the production‑ready launch of a new SMA edge‑mount board connector that operates reliably up to 26.5 GHz with a 50 Ω impedance. The design terminates directly at the PCB edge, minimizing discontinuities and return loss compared with traditional vertical or...
Valve Release the Steam Controller's CAD Files, so You Can Channel Your Inner Archie From Balamory and Design Mods or...
Valve has made the external shell and puck CAD files for its Steam Controller publicly available under a Creative Commons license. The release includes STP and STL models plus an engineering drawing that details critical features and keep‑outs. Valve warns...
How OpenAI’s New Networking Protocol Aims to Solve AI Bottlenecks
OpenAI, together with AMD, Broadcom, Intel, Microsoft and Nvidia, unveiled the Multipath Reliable Connection (MRC) protocol to alleviate network congestion in massive AI clusters. MRC dynamically distributes traffic across hundreds of paths and reroutes around failures in microseconds, targeting the...
Valve Says Steam Controller Sold Out Faster Than Expected, Restock Planned
Valve announced that its newly launched $99 Steam Controller sold out in minutes, far exceeding demand forecasts. The company pledged to increase production and provide a timeline, while scalpers have already listed the device for $200 or more on resale...
China Unveils Fully Domestic CPU‑Only Exascale Supercomputer LineShine
China announced LineShine, a fully domestic CPU‑only exascale system that officials say will exceed 2 exaflops and surpass the United States' El Capitan. The 47,000‑CPU machine reflects Beijing's push for hardware independence amid tightening U.S. export controls.
Sennheiser Spectera Module Now Available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons
Sennheiser has released a Spectra module for Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, allowing the wireless receiver to be controlled via tactile button panels or touchscreens. The integration adds an engineer mode and fast instrument‑swap functionality, extending Spectra’s utility beyond audio to...
Enphase Launches IQ Solid-State Transformer to Power AI Data Centers
Enphase Energy introduced its IQ Solid-State Transformer (IQ SST), a modular power‑conversion system that delivers regulated 800 VDC to AI data centers. The design uses 342 smaller GaN‑based modules, aiming to boost efficiency, cut emissions and simplify serviceability for high‑density computing facilities.
Samsung Hits $1 Trillion Market Cap as AI‑driven Profit Surges Eightfold
Samsung Electronics broke the $1 trillion market‑cap barrier on May 5, 2026, after its first‑quarter operating profit surged more than eightfold to 57.2 trillion won (≈$44 bn). The rally, driven by soaring AI‑related memory sales, lifted the stock over 15% and marked the...
Wisycom RF Solutions Support Gravity Media’s Live Cycling and Marathon Broadcasts
Gravity Media relies on Wisycom’s RF over Fiber and wireless gear to deliver live coverage of major cycling races and international marathons, including the Tour of Italy, Tour of Denmark, and Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam marathons. The company uses...
Dell & Lenovo Now Sponsoring The Linux Vendor Firmware Service
Dell and Lenovo have become the first premier sponsors of the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS), each contributing $100,000 annually. The LVFS, which powers firmware updates on Linux via the fwupd client, recently celebrated more than 145 million updates shipped. Their...
Enhanced Datalogic Safety Laser Scanners From AutomationDirect
AutomationDirect has launched enhanced Datalogic safety laser scanners that employ time‑of‑flight measurement to protect machinery, robotic cells, and mobile automation. The new models cover up to 72 m² with a 275° scanning angle, delivering reliable detection in demanding environments. Master, standalone...
Hammond NEMA 1 Hinged Lay-In Wireways From AutomationDirect
AutomationDirect has added Hammond's new CW series carbon‑steel lay‑in wireways, rated NEMA 1 and featuring hinged screw covers for quick access. The wireways are offered with optional knockouts and a full line of compatible fittings and accessories. Designed for industrial control...
EleQtron Secures $62 Million Series A, Backed by Retail Giant Schwarz Digits
eleQtron announced a €57 million ($62 million) Series A round led by Schwarz Digits, the tech arm of Europe’s largest retailer. The funding, one of the biggest in European quantum computing, will expand production, cloud access, and its proprietary MAGIC trapped‑ion platform,...
Samsung, Qualcomm Claim 5G FWA vRAN First
Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm Technologies validated 5G Power Class 1 (PC1) for fixed wireless access (FWA) on a virtualized RAN, claiming the first industry demonstration of high‑power device transmission combined with a fully software‑driven network. Using Samsung’s vRAN stack, 3.7 GHz massive...
The Material Problem Hiding in Plain Sight: Why RFID Credential Substrates Matter More Than Ever
The hospitality industry is moving away from PVC RFID key cards as EU plastics rules and ESG reporting make the 520,000‑ton annual waste stream a reportable liability. Hotels are adopting wood‑based and hybrid substrates that meet ISO/IEC 7810 dimensions, maintain RF...
'Fire Box 4647, Final Rounds': N.H. FD Retires 154-Year-Old Fire Alarm Box System After Final Call
Manchester’s fire department retired its Gamewell telegraph fire alarm system, a network first installed in 1872, after the final master box (4647) sent its last signal on May 1, 2026. The hard‑wired copper‑line system, once a staple of public‑safety communications, saw its...