The Wire · Infrastructure
Live coverage of the compute layer — GPUs, data centers, power deals, interconnects, and the economics that decide what every builder pays to run a model.
OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Luna API prices by 80% to $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output, while Terra fell 20% to $2 and $12. Fast mode gives Sol up to 2.5 times Standard speed at twice the price. OpenAI says Sol-assisted kernel work lowered serving cost by 20% and improved token-generation efficiency by more than 15%, while Luna delivers year-old frontier performance at roughly six cents per task-dollar and nearly nine times the speed. The edition connects cheaper models to Amazon's reported $1.8m, 860%-over-budget coding task, Gemini Robotics 2 whole-body control, Nscale's Anyscale acquisition and Okta's roughly $200m Permiso deal.
The United States Department of Justice has charged a man with fraud after he allegedly told clients he could decrypt files locked up by ransomware but actually paid ransoms – and seemingly got away with it for years. The Feds allege that Zohar Pinhasi – aka “Zack Silver” and “Zack Green” – ran a Florida company called “MonsterCloud” that advised ransomware victims not to pay because it had a way to recover encrypted data. “The charges relate to Pinhasi’s claimed ability to decrypt ransomware without paying cybercriminals, purportedly using ‘proprietary tools’ and ‘advanced decryption techniques' on behalf of distressed business owners who came to his company,” according to a DoJ press release. “In fact, Pinhasi allegedly used a portion of his clients’ fees to pay off the ransomware attackers, and then kept the rest, often extracting a substantial markup.” In one case, Pinhasi allegedly charged his client $150,000, paid the $8,200 ransom, and pocketed the rest – but didn’t admit he had paid the ransom. That scheme allegedly worked so well that Pinhasi charged clients more than $19 million and paid more than $8 million in ransom payments. The DOJ’s indictment [PDF] says MonsterCloud’s website mentions its use of “advanced decryption techniques and cutting-edge technology” – the same language found on this monstercloud.com page. The site also contains this claim: “At MonsterCloud, we are not a team of IT Experts. We are the most sophisticated Counter Cyber Terrorism team in the world.” The indictment suggests MonsterCloud was nothing of the sort, and that its claims rang hollow for years. “MonsterCloud's website included ‘testimonials’ and other promotional content, including from at least one compensated spokesperson,” the indictment states. “In May 2019, one such spokesperson – an individual who had provided a paid testimonial for the MonsterCloud website – contacted the defendant Zohar Pinhasi with questions about Pinhasi’s business practices and truthfulness.” “Am
Read full story →Building a PC is a great experience. We sit there with a spreadsheet and multiple browser tabs, pouring over the best CPUs, the best GPUs , PC cases , motherboards , RAM deals, and many more components. The package arrives, and we are excitedly tearing into the boxes, putting the parts on the table, and we are ready to build! We reach into the toolkit and dig out the rusty old screwdriver we used to open a paint can back in 2014. We then spill standoffs and screws over the floor, ready for an unsuspecting foot at 2am! But wait, it doesn't have to be like this! We've all done this, made the mistakes, and now we share my knowledge and that of the Tom's Hardware staff so you don't have to hunt for the Amazon Prime Big Deals . So tool up, and let battle commence! Check out all the PC tool deals on Amazon Precision Kits All the gear, and lots of ideas? You need to start somewhere, and these kits have pretty much every tool that you could need to maintain a PC, all in a handy case. In my office/workshop, I have a general set of screwdrivers for general tasks, and a set of Hoto screwdrivers and bits for servicing my PC and any other parts I review, like motherboards, cases, fans, and more. NEX O1 PRO 3.6V Screwdriver Set: was $49.99 now $28.48 HOTO's wireless screwdriver has three torque settings, charges over USB-C, and looks surprisingly good. This kit comes with a sturdy box and all the bits you will need to keep your PC running. View Deal HOTO SNAPBLOQ S-A01 3.7V Electric Screwdriver: was $99.99 now $79.99 This HOTO SnapBloq 3.7V electric screwdriver includes 56 bits including Slotted, Phillips, Hexagon, Hexagon Security, Torx, Torx Security, Pentalobe, Standoff, Y-Shaped, Tri-Wing, Triangle, Square, U-Shaped, JIS, SIM Card Needle. It also has three torque settings, an integrated light, and charges via USB-C. View Deal 155 Piece Electronics Toolkit: was $59.99 now $37.9 This 155-piece kit has everything you need to get started with your first/next PC build. You get a p
Read full story →Singapore’s Monetary Authority, which acts as both central bank and finance industry regulator, wants all local industry players to seek independent review of AI use cases before deployment. The island nation’s combination of strict regulation and low taxes have made it one of the world’s premier finance hubs. One of the roles of Singapore’s Monetary Authority (MAS) is ensuring the nation retains that status, but in its first Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence Risk Management for Financial Institutions, published on Wednesday, warns that AI increases risk. “The use of AI can improve performance across business and functional areas but its complexity and probabilistic nature can lead to greater uncertainty, as well as unexpected or more biased behaviour that is harder to identify compared to the use of simpler methods,” the guidelines state. And that’s MAS’s view of old-school AI: it rates generative AI as even riskier. “The greater complexity of Generative AI gives rise to even greater uncertainty and unexpected behaviour compared to AI,” MAS warns, citing “noise that is inherent in training data, training data that may not be representative, or when the model encounters scenarios that are not present in its training data” as sources of risk. The regulator fears agentic AI “could further amplify these risks.” MAS therefore calls for financial institutions (FIs) to expand their risk management frameworks to cover AI and expects board and senior management to make that happen. The regulator also wants all AI use cases to undergo independent review before going into production. “Prior to deployment, an FI should subject the AI use case, including its underlying systems or models, to reviews by parties not involved in its development to ensure that the relevant controls, such as evaluation and testing, have been adhered to,” the guidelines state. MAS also wants regulated entities to run technology and cybersecurity reviews “to ensure that AI can be deployed into the
Read full story →In its first live event in two years, Microsoft today announced its newest Surface laptop, outlined a host of changes coming to Windows 11, and shared a vision of how local-AI and agentic workflows could reshape personal computing for those in the dev community as well as home enthusiasts. Surface Laptop Ultra Originally teased in May 2026 , the new Surface Laptop Ultra will be Microsoft's first offering to take advantage of the new Nvidia RTX Spark SoC (system on a chip). The device has a starting price of $2,599, and comes in various SoC and memory configurations, with either a 5120-core or 6144-core Blackwell GPU and up to 128GB of LPDDR5x unified memory. It will begin shipping on October 16 and is available for pre-order now. While the new Ultra is clearly focused on the developer crowd, graphical performance was highlighted during the presentation to show off just how capable the laptop can be. By leaning on unified memory allocation rather than the physical VRAM limits of a traditional GPU, the laptop can assign its resources to handle modern gaming tasks as well as local AI development and deployment. The new Gears of War: E-Day was shown running on the system, meaning that even without a traditional gaming GPU, AAA titles are on the table. Read full article Comments
AI may be taking our jobs, our RAM, and our storage... but there's always a light at the end of the tunnel. Amazon's Prime Day invariably triggers a rash of discounts at other retailers, and we just found the best SSD deal you'll come across until Black Friday at the earliest. The Teamgroup T-Force G50 Evo is a 4 TB solid-state drive with a PCIe 4.0 NVMe interface that can be yours for only $399.99 at Newegg with promo code FTTF9875 — or around 10 cents a gigabyte — with free shipping, to boot. Check out the Teamgroup T-Force G50 Evo 4 TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD at Newegg. It's reasonable to wonder if 4 TB isn't too much of a drive to buy. It's likewise reasonable to rebut by stating that there's no end in sight to the AI shortages, that prices for NAND and hard drives have been climbing at insane rates, and that various modern games take up 150 GB to 200 GB of space. In other words: the wise course of action is to acquire this while the price tag only contains three digits before the dot. All-time low price The TeamGroup G50 EVO 4 TB at all-time low pricing. This drive can push 5000 MB/s in reads and 4,500 MB/s in writes, and its large capacity is a perfect fit for large game libraries. View Deal This unit ought to be capable of pushing 5,000 MB/s in sequential reads and 4,500 MB/s in writes. The endurance rating is quite generous for a consumer drive, at 1,200 TB written, and the quoted MTBF is 1,500,000 hours. These figures mean the drive is likely to last longer than the rest of your computer. Teamgroup backs up the figures above with a three-year warranty, and there's a graphene heatsink resting atop the chips to keep temperatures low and NAND happy. You can snag the $399 Teamgroup T-Force G50 Evo 4 TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD at Newegg.
If you thought Windows Recall was creepy, buckle up. Microsoft is about to shoehorn even more AI into its desktop operating system, giving Copilot access to every file on your PC. But don't worry, Redmond insists it's totally secure and safe since the agents powering the functionality will run entirely on your PC — some of the time. Microsoft describes the new functionality, announced alongside a new Nvidia N1X powered Surface Laptop, as "hybrid intelligence." Built atop Microsoft's HydraFusion model router, Windows apps and Copilot features will soon be able to use local models when it makes sense and cloud-based models when it doesn't. For example, Windows might use a local model for simple or privacy-sensitive tasks, or decide complex or performance-sensitive requests need OpenAI's GPT-6 or Anthropic's Claude. Local agents will run in Microsoft's Execution Containers (MXCs), agent sandboxes with fine-grained permissions applied at runtime. According to Microsoft EVP of Windows and Devices Pavan Davuluri, MXCs mean Windows is now "the most secure platform for agents." (That claim will surely age well because models never escape their sandboxes and routers never misbehave.) To support this hybrid intelligence functionality, Microsoft is extending support for Windows ML, its inference framework built on the ONNX runtime, to Llama.cpp – one of the highest-performing inference engines for local AI inference. By adding support for Windows ML, Llama.cpp should be able to take advantage of a broader range of accelerators. Microsoft is rolling out its hybrid intelligence functionality to GitHub Copilot — its AI code assistant — next week and its Copilot app over the next few months. The new Copilot features look and sound suspiciously like OpenClaw in a business suit. Copilot's agentic functionality will not have access to your entire file system, opening the door to advanced search functionality and productivity tasks through integrations with Microsoft Office. In a demo
Microsoft revealed the specs and price for its Surface Laptop Ultra, AI PCs that run on Nvidia chips that are designed to run AI models and agents.
TP-Link is facing more legal troubles in the US as Florida and three other states filed lawsuits alleging that it lied to consumers about its connections to China and the risks of its routers being exploited by Chinese state hackers. The lawsuits were filed yesterday, about six months after the Federal Communications Commission announced a sweeping ban on consumer-grade routers produced wholly or partly outside of the US. Numerous router makers have obtained exemptions to the ban, but the Trump administration so far has not granted one to TP-Link. Router makers that received exemptions include Netgear, Asus, Adtran, Amazon and its Eero subsidiary, Calix, Nokia, SpaceX's Starlink division, and others. For now, TP-Link is unable to sell its latest Wi-Fi 8 routers in the US, though models approved before the ban can still be sold. Read full article Comments
The first array of laptops powered by Nvidia's new RTX Spark chip are designed to compete with high-end MacBook Pros - and they've got some high-end prices to match. The flagship Surface Laptop Ultra and RTX Spark laptops from Dell, Lenovo, MSI, HP, and Asus start as low as $2,599 for configurations with an 18-core […]
3D printing is a fun and rewarding hobby, but with it also comes the frustrations of trying to maintain the quality output of your printer and also tidying up the finished look of your prints. You need a host of tools to keep the process running smoothly. Some manufacturers throw a few cheap tools in the box with a new 3D printer, but if they don't, then investing in a dedicated 3D printer toolkit will make a huge difference in caring for not only your 3D printer, but also your creations. We've trawled through the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days sales event and used our expert knowledge to source the tools you absolutely need for your 3D printing toolkit. Quick links Creality 3D printer tool wrap. (Save 32%) Flush Cutters. (Save 21%) 49-in-1 Precision Screwdriver Set. (Now just $5.69) HOTO 24-in-1 Mini Screwdriver. (Save 30%) HOTO Precision Electric Screwdriver Set. (Save 25%) Wuben E7 Mini Flashlight (Save 24%) A large 3D printer tool wrap set This 74-piece 3D printer tool kit from Creality is packed with everything that you need to keep your printer going. This toolkit has everything from a 34-piece screwdriver set to a magnetic project mat. Perfect for a budding 3D printer enthusiast, this is a "one and done" purchase. 3D Printer Tool Kit: was $37.99 now $25.71 You get everything that you could ever need to keep your 3D printer running at optimal efficiency, and best of all, it rolls up into a tool wrap View Deal Essential cutting tools Whether you are cutting your filament, cleaning out supports, or removing cable ties, wire/flush/side cutters are an essential part of the 3D printer toolkit. Sometimes you get a pair with your printer, but if you don't, or you need a spare set, then this pair of snips is a good alternative for you. These cheap cutters are superb for 3D printing, electronics, and some general home maintenance tasks. Model makers and electronics hobbyists can also use these cutters to trim parts of dried knots and dribbles. Flush Cutters: was $7.97 now
This article is crossposted from IEEE Spectrum ’s careers newsletter. Sign up now to get insider tips, expert advice, and practical strategies, written i n partnership with tech career development company Parsity and delivered to your inbox for free! When I changed careers at 30 to become a software engineer, I expected it to be hard. I expected to struggle to fit in, and I expected to bomb a lot of interviews (I did). What I didn’t expect was how few people would support me. As a parent, I get it now. A career change is a risk, and the people who care about you tend to project their fears onto you. They don’t want to watch you struggle or fail, so they discourage you or just don’t offer much enthusiasm. Right now is a strange time to be in engineering, or knowledge work in general. Plenty of us are excited about what AI means for our jobs. More of us are nervous, and I think that fear is justified. Employment for entry-level software developers has fallen nearly 20 percent since late 2022, according to Stanford’s 2026 AI Index , and it can feel like the knowledge we spent our careers building is being commoditized. Lately I’ve seen a flood of social media content telling software developers to go into the trades. YouTubers are telling you to become a plumber or a goat herder. But before you do that, I want to warn you, there is no EASY path. Even if you want to become a goat herder. I’ve changed careers once so far, but my business has forced me through several pivots that felt a lot like career changes—new audiences, new skills, new identity. Here’s what I’d tell anyone considering a change, whether you’re moving into engineering, leaving it, or finding a new speciality. Find someone who’s done it and ask how This is exactly what I told my oldest son, who’s getting ready to enter the job market full-time. Outside of the primary social media feeds, the internet is full of free and paid communities on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other sites. Reddit works, too, if you ca
We're in San Francisco today to hear what's next for Windows and Surface. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Windows and Surface chief Pavan Davuluri will all be holding a "conversation on how local AI will shape the next chapter of the PC." Microsoft and Nvidia have been working together on the […]
<p data-block-key="i2ubs">Company will lease 240MW of capacity in Navi Mumbai</p>
<p data-block-key="mk76y">Tam Pledger speaks with Mark Gusakov of The Digital Infrastructure Alliance about solving AI-driven power deficits, fostering community, and integrating nuclear energy to sustainably support the growing digital economy.</p>
An independent briefing for builders: the whole field read continuously, every story scored for relevance, and the noise left off the page.
300+ curated sources. Every story scored 1–10 for builder relevance by Claude's frontier model. The filler never makes it to the page.
GPUs, datacenters, power deals, and inference economics: the infrastructure layer that decides what every builder pays. Our signature coverage.
Every story is sourced. Every score is computed. We show our work and link to originals.
Every briefing closes with The Call: one falsifiable claim with a date on it. When we're wrong, we say so in print. Opinions are cheap; ours get scored.