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.
Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, the largest open-weight model yet: a 2.8-trillion-parameter mixture-of-experts (16 of 896 experts active), 1M-token context, native vision, Kimi Delta Attention and Attention Residuals, in K3 Max and K3 Swarm variants. Moonshot's own benchmarks show K3 beating Anthropic's Opus 4.8, while independent Artificial Analysis scores it clearing Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 but losing to Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol; it lists at $3/$15 per million tokens, roughly half Opus's cost per task. Ask it who it is and it says "I am Claude" — the tell of the distillation Anthropic documented in February (3.4M exchanges from Moonshot, 16M across three Chinese labs via 24,000 fake accounts). Also: Mira Murati's Thinking Machines ships its first model, the 975B open-weight Inkling; an autonomous AI agent breaches Hugging Face and is caught with the open-weight GLM 5.2; and NotebookLM becomes Gemini Notebook with a sandboxed cloud computer in every notebook.
Apple filed a trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI last Friday, and it’s not messing around. The complaint alleges a pattern of misconduct reaching all the way up to OpenAI’s chief hardware officer and claims more than 400 former Apple employees now work at the company. OpenAI’s response so far has been carefully hedged, and the timing couldn’t be worse with the company reportedly eyeing an IPO […]
Read full story →We have been seeing the AMD Instinct MI350P 144GB HBM3E PCIe accelerator everywhere over the past few weeks as this appears to be a popular GPU The post The AMD Instinct MI350P is a HBM PCIe AI Accelerator That Has Been All Over appeared first on ServeTheHome .
Read full story →Your AWS billing estimate might look just a little inflated right now. If you woke up to find an email from Amazon Web Services this morning telling you that you’d gone over your billing threshold by a few hundred million dollars, don’t panic: Something’s gone wrong in the AWS Billing Console, the company admitted. An open issue on the AWS Health Dashboard (archived copy at the time of writing) popped up at 1:33 am Pacific time on Friday informing users that Cost Explorer was “reflecting inaccurate estimated billing data.” As of writing, the issue is still unresolved despite AWS trying several different things to get it fixed. The company apparently identified the root cause within an hour and a half of beginning its investigation, only describing it as “an issue with unit pricing within the estimated billing computation subsystem.” AWS followed up by pausing estimated bill updates, saying customers would continue to see the inflated figures already displayed, but that those estimates would not increase further. “The displayed billing estimates do not reflect actual usage and charges,” AWS explained, noting that customers don’t need to take any action, like, we imagine, flooding the help portal with tickets telling them what they already know, for instance. “Once the issue has been mitigated, we expect full resolution to take multiple hours as we work through recomputing the estimated billing data,” AWS added. The company said it was working through multiple mitigation paths in parallel, including “reverting to the last known good estimated bill computation,” and “rolling back a recent change to the billing computation subsystem.” We owe HOW much? Users took to Reddit and Hacker News this morning to report they’d received overage emails for massive amounts - we weren’t exaggerating with that hundreds of millions opening line. If anything, it was an understatement. Screenshots posted in the Reddit thread showed one user whose AWS charges totaled just $0.19 last month
Read full story →404 Media is turning three years old! We've come a long way with your support, so let's hang out. We're throwing TWO separate events to celebrate: A live taping of the podcast and a special night of talks on Sept. 3, and a big open-bar party on Sept. 4. Subscribers at the Supporter level get free and discounted access to both events! Check your membership status or become a paid supporter of our work here. On Thursday, Sept. 3, meet us at WNYC's Greene Space for 404 MEDIA LIVE! We'll discuss what we've accomplished in the past year, and what's next for our independent, human-made journalism. We'll also welcome a few very special friends to the stage: Matthew Gault joins us for a chat about AI datacenter resistance, and The Abstract's Becky Ferreira hits us with the coolest science to come out this year so far. Supporters get 50% off their ticket to 404 MEDIA LIVE! Don't forget to check your membership status here and subscribe as a paying member for access to 50% off a full price in-person ticket. Can't make it in person in NYC? Join us on the livestream! Grab an access ticket, donate what you're able, and watch for the link we'll send to your inbox before the event. 404 MEDIA LIVE! TICKETS HERE The next night, join us for a bash to celebrate our three year anniversary at Threes Brewing Gowanus. Have a beer, wine or seltz on us, plus light bites throughout the night. Buying a ticket to 404 MEDIA LIVE! gets you 50% off a ticket to the afterparty Friday night . Supporters get in to the party FREE! PARTY TICKETS HERE All of us—Sam, Emanuel, Jason, and Joseph—will be there to celebrate 404 Media growing another year. We love these parties because it's a chance to connect with the people who make all of this possible: you, our subscribers. Thank you for all the fun you've helped us have this year. Supporters, scroll to the bottom of this page to reveal your promo codes. We can't wait to celebrate with you this year. Questions? Email [email protected]
This week, San Francisco’s attorney general, David Chiu, sent cease-and-desist letters, demanding that Apple and Google remove 13 so-called nudification apps from their app stores, Wired reported. Nudification apps can make it trivially easy to transform ordinary photos of real people into explicit images. The harmful AI tools allow bad actors to remove clothing, change a person’s features, place them in sexualized positions, and swap victims’ faces onto other people’s naked bodies. Chiu's letter warned that app stores were violating "California’s laws that prohibit supporting services that create deepfake pornography," Wired reported. Read full article Comments
ASML is reportedly considering increasing prices of its existing Low-NA EUV lithography tools. The potential price hikes have already upset TSMC, ASML's largest client, reports The Information . But can ASML rapidly raise the prices of the tools it sells to chipmakers? Price adjustments are not going to happen overnight, said Roger Dassen, CFO of ASML, said during the company's quarterly earnings call. But there is one thing to remember about ASML's price hikes: They are going to affect the entire semiconductor industry. "When it comes to Low-NA [EUV tools] pricing, of course, you know that we keep on increasing the productivity of the Low-NA tool, [which] gives us a pretty strong runway for potential price improvements going forward," said Roger Dassen, chief financial officer of ASML, during the company's quarterly earnings call. […] Given the long order lead times that we have, that does not translate into pricing effects tomorrow." ASML just reported record results for its second quarter of 2026, with total net sales of €9.326 billion ($10.67 billion) and net income of €2.918 billion ($3.338 billion). The company now expects net sales between €43 billion ($49.2 billion) and €45 billion ($51.5 billion) in 2026, a range that comfortably exceeds its own guidance and the expectations of industry analysts. More complex, more expensive ASML has generally increased the average selling price of EUV scanners over successive generations as they increase in complexity and productivity, so the idea of higher pricing of EUV tools is not particularly new. The company calls the concept of 'value-based pricing' and gradually increases its average selling price (ASP) based on the value that its tools provide to its operators. (Image credit: ASML) Early ASML Twinscan NXE systems were commonly discussed in the roughly €100 million–€120 million ($115 million-$137 million) range, while later production models such as the NXE:3400C and NXE:3600D moved toward roughly €140 million–€170
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to pay data broker giant Thomson Reuters $125 million for access to its databases of personal data — which includes peoples’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, ethnicity, social media posts, and geolocation information — to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigate what it describes as “voters fraud” and immigration fraud, according to procurement documents reviewed by 404 Media. The document says Thomson Reuters is able to let ICE continuously monitor millions of people and entities of interest. The news comes after President Trump held a conspiracy-laden and unhinged press conference about election security on Thursday , setting the stage for potentially undermining the legitimacy of the upcoming midterm elections. It also follows ICE fatally shooting 2 people in a week. “Due to ICE’s re-prioritized mission, there is need for this data to be readily accessible to support the presidential mandate of the identification of Voters Fraud, Immigration Fraud and National Security,” the procurement document reads . “This data specifically validates and verifies school, benefit, immigration and other eligibility requirements.” Do you work at Thomson Reuters? Do you know about any other data sales like this? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at [email protected]. Thomson Reuters is most well known for running the Reuters news agency, but the company is also a massive data broker and sells access to that data to companies and governments. Its data product, called CLEAR, promises to “Accelerate investigations confidently through a vast collection of public and proprietary records,” according to Thomson Reuters’ website . Thomson Reuters lists some of the data sources that feed into CLEAR, and 404 Media has obtained an internal list. It includes credit header data , which is the personal information someone pr
TSMC's A14 (1.4nm-class) fabrication process has made rapid progress in the last three months and is well ahead of N2 at the same stage of development, according to the company's update provided at its earnings call this week. The technology also faces strong customer interest and engagement across both smartphone and AI/HPC applications. Go deeper with TH Premium: Chipmaking (Image credit: tsmc) A deeper look at the chipmaking supply chain TSMC's $165 billion U.S. investments examined China reportedly reverse-engineers EUV tool China bets on DUV, as EUV blockade reshapes chipmaking "A14 technology development is on track and progressing well. Internal product-like vehicle demonstrated close to 90% device performance and close to 90% 256Mb SRAM yield," said C.C. Wei, chief executive of TSMC, during the earnings call with analysts and investors. A14 — which is expected to enter mass production in 2H 2028 — is making rapid progress in terms of performance and yield improvements. This April, the company disclosed that the production node achieved >85% target transistor performance and >80% 256Mb SRAM yield. Roughly three months later, both figures are approaching 90%, which suggests a gain of around 5% in device performance and nearly 10% in SRAM yield. For comparison, TSMC's N2 demonstrated more than 80% of its target device performance and over 50% yield on a 256Mb SRAM test chip in April 2023. By April 2024, the process had advanced to more than 90% of its target device performance and over 80% SRAM yield. While development trajectories are not directly comparable, the figures suggest that A14 is maturing considerably faster than N2 did at a similar stage of development. The very rapid progress of A14 compared to the relatively slow maturation of N2 at similar stages of development can probably be attributed, at least in part, to TSMC's growing experience with gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet transistors. Back in 2023, the company barely had enough experience with th
<figure><div><img src="https://imgproxy.divecdn.com/EXC-IODrvXuXzREhuPMhmGyouNzCTmqJPWn1iLrp_CQ/g:ce/rs:fill:1600:900:1/Z3M6Ly9kaXZlc2l0ZS1zdG9yYWdlL2RpdmVpbWFnZS82STVBMzM4NmIuanBn.webp"/></div></figure><p>Bank of America analysts project data center demand will outpace planned utility capacity additions by more than 100 GW through 2030, increasing reliance on on-site gas generation and battery storage.</p>
It may be the peak of summer right now, but it's never too early to start thinking about the new school year or setting off for college. Grab your essentials now before the rush, and don't risk losing out on the best back-to-school deals. This time of year is great for finding deals on laptops, monitors, power banks, and more. Also, if you are already registered with a student ID, you can often grab the best deals at retailers that offer student discounts. Companies like Dell and Samsung often have some amazing student offers to take advantage of. $400 off MacBooks at Best Buy $599 Dell XPS 13 Laptop for students Back to School tech deals at Amazon Apple's 2025 MacBook Pro with M5 includes a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. This configuration has 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. View Deal Sign up for a student discount on the latest Dell XPS 13 laptop. Inside is a Series 3 Intel Core 5 320 processor and 8GB of RAM, with a small 512GB SSD for storage. View Deal This very powerful gaming laptop sports an ample 32GB of RAM plus an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti laptop graphics processor. You will be able to play the latest games and run hardware-intensive software applications. View Deal This Alienware laptop contains Intel's Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU with a 36MB cache, 24 cores, and speeds of 2.1 to 5.4 GHz on the P-Cores. Graphics are powered by an RTX 5070 with 8GB of GDDR7 VRAM. Save 10% with your student discount. View Deal A powerful and portable battery pack that you can use to charge or power your phone or laptop. With a 145W output, it can easily power most laptops, even gaming laptops. View Deal Featuring the Hero sensor with a 12,000 DPI, this lightweight mouse with 6 programmable buttons is perfect for a budget gaming and productivity mouse for school or college. The G305 sports a large 250-hour battery, and onboard memory for saving your profiles. View Deal This model of the Omen 16 features an AMD CPU with the Ryzen AI 7 350 processor taking center stage. Accompanying the
Apple filed a trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI last Friday, and it’s not messing around. The complaint alleges a pattern of misconduct reaching all the way up to OpenAI’s chief hardware officer and claims more than 400 former Apple employees now work at the company. OpenAI’s response so far has been carefully hedged, and the timing couldn’t be worse with the company reportedly eyeing an IPO […]
<figure><div><img src="https://imgproxy.divecdn.com/gTNMxb-h7oMypi9IymJHxq_p_oAryjPuR4N7FBmPs00/g:ce/rs:fill:1600:900:1/Z3M6Ly9kaXZlc2l0ZS1zdG9yYWdlL2RpdmVpbWFnZS9TY3JlZW5zaG90XzE2MS5wbmc=.webp"/></div></figure><p>At its monthly meeting, FERC set data center reliability standard deadlines, ordered CAISO and SPP to report on “seams” issues and advanced a complaint over cost recovery for a New Jersey power line.</p>
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that Google may not be able to claim intermediary liability protection for YouTube content it reviews as part of a commercial partnership with a creator. The case stems from a €750,000 fine imposed on Google Ireland by Italy's communications regulator in 2022 over YouTube videos promoting online gambling. Before entering the revenue-sharing agreement, under which Google placed pre-roll ads on the creator's videos, the company reviewed the channel's content. The regulator argued that this examination undermined Google's claim that it acted as a neutral intermediary exempt from liability. Google appealed against the fine, and the case was referred to the CJEU. The court rejected Mountain View's reading of the liability exemption, leaving Italy's Council of State to decide the dispute. The exemption still applies where "the service provider has neither knowledge of nor control over the information which is transmitted or stored." However, in this instance, Google was aware of the content. The court held that the exemption "does not apply" to a platform operator that agreed commercial terms with a channel where the operator "carried out an examination of the content of that channel," including its main theme, its most-viewed or newest videos, or the associated metadata. In effect, the ruling limits Google's ability to rely on its "intermediary service provider" defense when it has reviewed a channel as part of a commercial partnership. In those circumstances, the platform may be unable to claim the liability exemption for the content at issue. This doesn't mean Google is liable for everything on YouTube, but the megacorp needs to be more careful with channels where it has commercial deals that come with a level of content review and specific knowledge that can forfeit intermediary status. A Google spokesperson said: "We are disappointed by the CJEU's decision, which we will need further clarity on. We will rai
A $400 million chip-backed loan points to the next wave of AI infrastructure deals.
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.