For a few years, Intel Optane felt like it was cheating. Random reads that beat any SSD on the market. Latency low enough to make a spinning hard drive feel like a relic. And the most interesting side? A whole new memory tier that nobody else could touch. Then it just quietly stopped existing.

The modern gaming landscape has changed drastically over the past decade. In the early-to-mid 2010s, games like Grand Theft Auto V, Far Cry 4, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt heavily favored strong single-core performance. This played directly into Intel's strengths. With its focus on strong single-core performance and fewer but faster cores, Intel's CPUs dominated gaming for years.

I'll admit, I had a preconceived notion in my mind about what the results of this comparison would look like. The Core Ultra 9 would be superior to everything but maybe the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, right? Absolutely, unequivocally wrong.

TSMC plans four more Arizona fabs, bringing its total US investment to $265 billion and expanding chip capacity amid surging AI demand and geopolitical risk.

The post TSMC’s $265B US Expansion: Four New Chip Fabs Planned appeared first on TechRepublic.

TSMC plans four more Arizona fabs, bringing its total US investment to $265 billion and expanding chip capacity amid surging AI demand and geopolitical risk.

The post TSMC’s $265B US Expansion: Four New Chip Fabs Planned appeared first on TechRepublic.

Intel is reportedly using ASML’s High-NA EUV technology to produce Panther Lake chips, marking a key test of its advanced manufacturing comeback.

The post Panther Lake Gives Intel an Early Lead in High-NA Chipmaking appeared first on TechRepublic.

Intel is reportedly using ASML’s High-NA EUV technology to produce Panther Lake chips, marking a key test of its advanced manufacturing comeback.

The post Panther Lake Gives Intel an Early Lead in High-NA Chipmaking appeared first on TechRepublic.

Microsoft paused the July Windows 11 update for some Dell PCs after an Intel driver conflict raised performance and power-use concerns among users and IT teams.

The post Microsoft Halts July Windows 11 Update for Some Dell PCs appeared first on TechRepublic.

Microsoft paused the July Windows 11 update for some Dell PCs after an Intel driver conflict raised performance and power-use concerns among users and IT teams.

The post Microsoft Halts July Windows 11 Update for Some Dell PCs appeared first on TechRepublic.

There's no shortage of aging desktop CPUs on the used market. If you're thinking about buying one—or already have one in your system—and keep hearing that it's no longer worth using, it can be hard to know whether that's actually true.

According to the Wall Street Journal (paywalled), Apple agreed to use Intel's U.S. chipmaking plants after White House officials pressured Tim Cook during tariff-relief talks last summer. MacRumors reports: In August 2025, Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Washington to lobby the Trump administration to drop its proposed 100 percent tariff on semiconductor imports -- a levy that would have raised costs across Apple's product line. Apple reportedly secured an exemption after pledging to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S., although many of those investments were already planned. During the meetings, president Trump and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick are said to have urged Cook to use Intel's fabrication plants to make some of Apple's chips. The link between the tariff talks and the Apple-Intel deal had not been previously reported. Almost a year later, Trump announced via his Truth Social platform that Apple would begin using Intel-made chips in some products. "We need to design and build our Chips right here in America," the president posted. The news sent Intel shares to record highs. According to a person familiar with the negotiations cited by the WSJ, Apple plans to have Intel make chips for both Mac laptops and iPhones. The report doesn't say which chips or in what volume, and Apple is expected to remain reliant on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, for the majority of its custom silicon.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AI chip maker SambaNova has raised at an $11 billion valuation months after Intel was rumored to be trying to buy it for about $1.6 billion.

The U.S. has made a generational bet on AI to drive productivity, economic growth and national security. That bet is strongest when markets remain open.

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