
Thousands of ASUS routers backdoored without malware
GreyNoise and Sekoia warn
Thousands of ASUS routers have been compromised with persistent backdoors in what appears to be a sophisticated campaign aimed at laying the groundwork for a future botnet, according to threat researchers at GreyNoise and Sekoia.io.

Microsoft raids Deepmind for AI talent
Claims Vole is more of a start up than Google
Mustafa Suleyman [pictured] is luring top engineers from Google’s DeepMind into Microsoft’s AI division by claiming that Vole has much more of a start-up mentality these days.

Trump slaps 100 per cent tariff on chip imports
Offers Apple get out of jail free card
Donald Trump is back on the tariff warpath, this time threatening to slap a 100 per cent levy on all semiconductor imports unless the chips are made on US soil.

TSMC staff arrested over alleged tech theft
Two former TSMC engineers and a third suspect detained
A pair of ex‑TSMC engineers and another person have been arrested in Taiwan for allegedly pinching proprietary chipmaking technology.

Nvidia slams idea of backdoors in AI chips
Kill switches would be a gift to hackers, not national security
Nvidia has come out swinging against the idea of embedding backdoors or kill switches in its AI hardware, calling the notion dangerous and unworkable.

Chinese DRAM shift drives RAM price explosion
ChangXin’s AI pivot chokes supply
The price of standard DDR4 DRAM has gone through the roof, with 8-gigabit units hitting $4.12 and 4-gigabit parts climbing to $3.14, according to electronics trading firms cited by Nikkei Asia.

Intel's 18A gamble wobbles
Intel's Panther Lake yields so low insiders are calling it a Hail Mary
Intel is floundering again, this time with its hyped 18A chip process meant to revive its credibility in high-end manufacturing.

China’s chip mega-merger plans stuck in limbo
Too many egos, not enough consolidation
Beijing’s dream of creating a semiconductor supergroup to take on US giants is hitting the rocks, according to a report by the Financial Times.

AMD’s AI chip hype falls flat
Santa Clara outfit fails to impress investors with sluggish data centre gains
AMD fluffed its lines again in the AI chip race, posting second-quarter data centre revenue that barely moved the needle despite the market frenzy around artificial intelligence.

OpenAI throws open its models to keep pace with China
Coughs up open-weight models after DeepSeek rattled its cage
OpenAI has released a pair of open-weight AI models, months after it was outflanked by Chinese upstart DeepSeek and left scrambling to rewrite its strategy.