European Processor Initiative (EPI) is nearing completion of its first goal. SiPearl, the leading developer behind the Rhea1 processor, has finally reached the tapeout stage after a string of delays, but it will not be ready for delivery until 2026 at the earliest. When the project launched in 2020, SiPearl planned to begin production in 2023; however, the 61 billion-transistor chip only entered tapeout this summer. The design, built on TSMC's N6 process, features 80 Arm Neoverse V1 cores alongside 64 GB of HBM2E memory and a DDR5 interface. While these specifications once looked cutting‑edge, the industry has already moved on, and Rhea1's raw performance may seem dated by the time samples are available. SiPearl initially explored a RISC‑V architecture back in 2019 but abandoned it after early feedback and comments highlighted the instruction set's immaturity for exascale computing.

Development was further interrupted by shifting core‑count debates, with teams alternately considering 72 cores, then 64, before finally settling on 80 cores by 2022. Those back‑and‑forth decisions, combined with evolving performance expectations, helped push the timeline back by years. Despite missing its original schedule, Rhea1 remains vital to European ambitions for high‑performance computing sovereignty and serves as the intended CPU for the Jupiter supercomputer. Thanks to Jupiter's modular design, the system was not left idle; its GPU booster module, running NVIDIA Grace Hopper accelerators, is already operational and approximately 80 percent complete. With the CPU clusters slated for mid-2026 deployment, full system readiness is expected by the end of 2026. To support this effort, SiPearl has recently secured €130 million in new financing from the French government, industry partners, and Taiwan's Cathay Venture. As Rhea1 finishes its goal, work on Rhea2 is already underway, and we can expect more updates about Rhea2 in a year or two.

ZOWIE, the leading esports-focused brand of BenQ Corporation, proudly announces the establishment of its first European Sports Science Lab in Eindhoven. As the third lab in ZOWIE's global network, this new facility underscores the brand's commitment to applying sports science to esports peripheral design, now with strategic emphasis on Europe's thriving competitive scene.

"With the ZOWIE Sports Science Lab, we're bringing scientific methodology to help European pro players unlock their full potential," said Jay Wu, President of BenQ Europe B.V. "Every design is grounded in real-world player data and expert insights, reflecting our dedication to performance-driven product innovation and the future of esports."

Voicemod, the world leader in real-time AI voice transformation, has launched its Voicemod Key hardware device in Europe. After selling out during its initial launch in the US, the company's new portable dongle brings the full Voicemod experience to consoles for the very first time in Europe.

Voicemod Key allows users to transform their voice live using 200 AI voices and access a soundboard with over 800,000 sounds. It works on the new Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation and Xbox - bringing real-time voice transformation to platforms which do not natively support audio input applications.

The new InfinityBook Pro 14 combines infinite portability in an extremely compact and lightweight, yet high-quality all-aluminium chassis with a 500 nits bright high-res 3K display, a large 80 Wh battery, high CPU speed thanks to AMD Ryzen AI 300 processors and full memory upgrade options (2x upgradable RAM, 2x exchangeable M.2 SSD).

Rigid Yet Elegant aluminium Chassis in an Infinitely Compact Form Factor
Despite its rigid and haptically first-class material, the all-metal housing impresses with a very light weight of just 1.45 kg and an extremely slim profile of overall just 17 mm (total height incl. closed lid). On a footprint of 311 x 220 mm, the InfinityBook Pro 14 not only integrates a quiet, white backlit keyboard, but also gives customers the choice between the European, classic ISO and the ANSI keyboard layout commonly used in the US.

NVIDIA GTC Paris at VivaTech -- NVIDIA today announced that it is teaming with model builders and cloud providers across Europe and the Middle East to optimize sovereign large language models (LLMs), providing a springboard to accelerate enterprise AI adoption for the region's industries.

Model builders and AI consortiums Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Bielik.AI, Dicta, H Company, Domyn, LightOn, the National Academic Infrastructure for Supercomputing in Sweden (NAISS) together with KBLab at the National Library of Sweden, the Slovak Republic, the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the University College of London, the University of Ljubljana and UTTER are teaming with NVIDIA to optimize their models with NVIDIA Nemotron techniques to maximize cost efficiency and accuracy for enterprise AI workloads, including agentic AI.

Supermicro, Inc., a Total IT Solution Provider for AI, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, is announcing an expansion of the industry's broadest portfolio of solutions designed for NVIDIA Blackwell Architecture to the European market. The introduction of more than 30 solutions reinforces Supermicro's industry leadership by providing the most comprehensive and efficient solution stack for NVIDIA HGX B200, GB200 NVL72, and RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition deployments, enabling rapid time-to-online for European enterprise AI factories across any environment. Through close collaboration with NVIDIA, Supermicro's solution stack enables the deployment of NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory validated design and supports the upcoming introduction of NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra solutions later this year, including NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 and HGX B300.

"With our first-to-market advantage and broad portfolio of NVIDIA Blackwell solutions, Supermicro is uniquely positioned to meet the accelerating demand for enterprise AI infrastructure across Europe," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "Our collaboration with NVIDIA, combined with our global manufacturing capabilities and advanced liquid cooling technologies, enables European organizations to deploy AI factories with significantly improved efficiency and reduced implementation timelines. We're committed to providing the complete solution stack enterprises need to successfully scale their AI initiatives."

TSMC is adjusting its global investment strategy in response to geopolitical pressures and changing market demands. Encouraged by the US government, the world's largest contract chipmaker has moved up completion dates for its Arizona fabrication plants by as much as six months. This shift is designed to address the growing domestic needs in defense, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing. Originally committed to $65 billion in US manufacturing, TSMC recently increased that total to $165 billion. The expanded plan includes three additional fabs, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research center, all of which are expected to begin operation by 2030. Company executives argue that on-site production will help alleviate supply-chain bottlenecks and reduce cost volatility for American customers, even though chips made in Arizona will carry a premium compared with those produced in Taiwan.

At the same time, TSMC's projects in Japan and Germany have encountered difficulties. In Kumamoto, Fab 1 has not reached its planned utilization levels, and persistent traffic and local infrastructure issues have delayed the start of construction for Fab 2. Some point to labor shortages and conservative order forecasts from automotive and electronics clients as additional factors. In Europe, a slowdown in auto production has weakened demand for semiconductor capacity. TSMC's joint venture with Bosch, Infineon, and NXP in Germany now faces potential delays as partner layoffs and declining sales of combustion engines undermine initial growth expectations. Despite these setbacks, Taiwan remains central to TSMC's operations, hosting nearly half of its nine facilities under construction. For now, TSMC's pause in Japan and Europe appears to be a strategic reallocation of resources to the US, where policy support and urgent demand intersect.

AMD's Radeon RX 9070 16 GB graphics card design launched along with a more capable and popular XT sibling, three months ago. Since then, the first wave of RDNA 4 desktop gaming products have hovered above suggested price baselines—much to the chagrin of brand champions. Yesterday, Germany's ComputerBase highlighted a brief fluctuation in elevated trends. Team Red's general European MSRP—for Radeon RX 9070 cards—is €629, including VAT. A price fluctuation report observed (on June 3): "Alternate.de is currently selling an XFX QuickSilver RX 9070 OC Gaming Edition for the first time at €613 (inc. VAT), thus below the MSRP. The (ComputerBase) editorial team was alerted to this by the community, and the bot for prices and availability for Radeon RX 9000 now also show this offer." Naturally, graphics connoisseur will scoff at this unusually low offer—after all, a mild upcharge grants access to the superior Radeon RX 9070 XT tier (MSRP: €689). The slightly cheaper option does have supporters; mainly due to its more energy efficient operation.

Members of the HotUKDeals community have become obsessed with finding deep graphics card discounts; a lucky few have boasted about acquiring current-gen AMD-based flagships at well below recommended price points. Several discerning customers have taken advantage of anomalous listings, and roundabout utilization of various eBay promotion codes. Pleasingly, a dual-fan Sapphire PULSE RX 9070 16 GB model floated just below British MSRP (£569.99, inc. VAT). Amazon UK's stock—of this barebones option—was quickly depleted, thanks to a tempting £10 reduction. Until the emergence of a current-gen Great Radeon Edition (GRE) design, (generally) AMD's Radeon RX 9070 model was considered an odd duck. A permanent price cut could raise its profile in the future.

Over a century ago, Henry Ford pioneered the mass production of cars and engines to provide transportation at an affordable price. Today, the technology industry manufactures the engines for a new kind of factory—those that produce intelligence. As companies and countries increasingly focus on AI, and move from experimentation to implementation, the demand for AI technologies continues to grow exponentially. Leading system builders are racing to ramp up production of the servers for AI factories—the engines of AI factories—to meet the world's exploding demand for intelligence and growth. Dell Technologies is a leader in this renaissance. Dell and NVIDIA have partnered for decades and continue to push the pace of innovation. In its last earnings call, Dell projected that its AI server business will grow at least $15 billion this year.

"We're on a mission to bring AI to millions of customers around the world," said Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer, Dell Technologies, in a recent announcement at Dell Technologies World. "With the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, enterprises can manage the entire AI lifecycle across use cases, from training to deployment, at any scale." The latest Dell AI servers, powered by NVIDIA Blackwell, offer up to 50x more AI reasoning inference output and 5x improvement in throughput compared with the Hopper platform. Customers use them to generate tokens for new AI applications that will help solve some of the world's biggest challenges, from disease prevention to advanced manufacturing.

EK, a leader in high-performance liquid cooling solutions, proudly presents the EK-Quantum Vector³ Suprim RTX 5090 - Plexi. This meticulously engineered water block is tailored for MSI's flagship Suprim RTX 5090 graphics card, delivering unparalleled thermal performance and a striking visual appeal.

Next-Generation Cooling for the RTX 5090
At the heart of the Vector³ Suprim RTX 5090 lies an advanced cooling engine, featuring an expanded fin array and optimized coolant flow paths. This design ensures efficient heat dissipation from critical components, including the GPU core, VRAM, and power stages. Complementing this is a custom CNC-machined backplate that not only reinforces the structural integrity of the card but also passively cools PCB hotspots, maintaining optimal performance under load.

Originally released 10 years ago on May 19, 2015, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a critically acclaimed open-world role-playing game where players take on the role of monster slayer for hire Geralt as he travels the war-torn Northern Kingdoms in search of his adopted daughter Ciri. With over 50 million copies sold—and over 75 million of the entire Witcher series of games—it has cemented its legacy as a timeless dark fantasy story. The community that has developed around the game since launch continues to grow even a decade later, and to celebrate both The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's enduring legacy and the game's outstanding community, CD PROJEKT RED released a special trailer.

Celebrations also included an anniversary edition of REDstreams, which took place today and featured Geralt's voice actor Doug Cockle, alongside English Adaptation Director Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz. The voice actor took a walk down memory lane, reminiscing on his time as the voice of Geralt, his experience with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and how the role has impacted him over the years.

Data drawn from a new in-game poll called Play2Act showed evidence that gaming has the potential to incentivize greener habits among gamers. 79 percent of those respondents who had played games with green messages or environmental content reported making at least one positive behavioural change after playing these games. Among these players, 47 percent report reducing their environmental impact through energy use or public transport, while 34 percent report making greener consumption choices.

Launched in September 2024, Play2Act is a poll embedded in popular games, designed to explore the role of games in tackling the climate and nature crises. The initiative was developed by PlanetPlay, a not-for-profit platform that contributes to environmental action through games, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Just over a year ago, reports suggested that ASML was considering a potential expansion of its presence at the Brainport Industries Campus (BIC)—nearby to Eindhoven Airport. A "2.5 billion Euro" investment—courtesy of the Dutch government—was floated, alongside an estimated creation of ~20,000 new roles. The Veldhoven-headquartered EUVL photolithography equipment specialist seems to be in a comfortable position, but growing demand for top-level ASML gear has warranted an apparent acceleration of new facility plans. According to local news articles, company and Eindhoven municipality representatives have presented an adjusted timeline—a "northern part" of the BIC campus could welcome new recruits in 2028. Last year's target proposed a further out inauguration; possibly in 2030 or thereafter.

Stijn Steenbakkers—the Alderman for Brainport—outlined the sheer scale of the company's futuristic and uncharacteristically huge footprint: "over the past year, we have worked intensively on the first elaboration of the plans, resulting in the preliminary design of the urban development plan (VOSP) that is now available. Our future, prosperity and well-being are not self-evident. With the current economic developments in the world, it is not a question of whether we should invest in our strategic autonomy. This is of vital importance! By making the expansion of ASML at BIC Noord (North) possible, we dare to opt for the new economy: sustainable, focused on high-tech, innovation and offering solutions for major global social issues...The important points in the VOSP are: approximately 20,000 jobs, approximately 428,000 m² gross floor area for production, and support functions such as offices." Steenbakkers and ASML reps will present their proposals to Eindhoven city councillors in September; transportation and other local infrastructure considerations will be taken into account.

Keep the supplies moving with the latest piece of hardware for Porters heading out on a new journey - we're excited to reveal the new DualSense wireless controller - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Limited Edition. We worked closely with Kojima Productions on the controller design, customized with the insignia and motto of Drawbridge in vibrant orange. The DualSense wireless controller—Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Limited Edition will be available in limited quantities for a recommended retail price of $84.99 / €84.99 / £74.99 / ¥12,480. Pre-orders start on May 22, 2025, at 10am local time at direct.playstation.com (where available), as well as participating retailers. The exact launch date and availability for the controller may vary by country/region.

The new controller launches on June 26, 2025 on PS5 alongside Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, where players can join Sam and his companions on a mission to save humanity from extinction. Pre-order the Collector's Edition or Digital Deluxe Edition for Early Access from June 24, 2025.

The Hardware Unboxed team has unleashed some of its sarcastic Aussie wit; in response to an alleged manipulation of GeForce RTX 5060 (non-Ti) review day conditions. In an online dig—directed at Team Green leadership—the Australian media outlet's social media account parodied NVIDIA new product decision-making: "we're not hiding the RTX 5060, we're very proud of it and gamers will love it. Also, we're going to launch the RTX 5060 on May 19th during Computex, and although reviewers have cards right now, we won't be releasing the driver until they go on sale." Mid-way through April, Hardware Unboxed's Tim Schiesser voiced his displeasure regarding a complete lack of GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB evaluation samples—only 16 GB variants were sent out to testers. Curious professional reviewers opted into buying these cheaper variants (out of pocket), including TechPowerUp's W1zzard. Our head honcho's reckoning—of a custom Gainward effort—pointed out far too many compromises.

In a follow-up post, Hardware Unboxed's social media rep took a more measured approach with their disapproval of "controlled conditions." Clarifying the "context" of their earlier rant, they explained: "NVIDIA are trying to hide the RTX 5060, just as they did the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB. The strategy here is to release it the week of Computex when most of the tech media are in Taiwan attending the show. They're also blocking reviewers from accessing the driver early to evaluate the RTX 5060 and provide reviews at the time of release. So as it stands I have multiple RTX 5060 samples, and I won't be able to review any of them until about a week after they go on sale." VideoCardz, and other critics/watchers believe that a rumored "rushed" development of GeForce RTX 5060-series cards (Ti and non-Ti) resulted in an uninspiring repeat rollout of 8 GB and 16 GB VRAM configurations—albeit upgraded to GDDR7 standards.

The Trump administration is preparing to roll back significant portions of the Biden-era rules that govern global chip exports and AI technology transfers. According to Bloomberg's sources familiar with the matter, the so-called "AI diffusion" framework, due to take effect on May 15, will be scrapped in favor of simpler, bilateral licensing agreements. Under the current plan, rather than sorting about 120 countries into three tiers with differing volume caps, the US will negotiate individual contracts with partners like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Even with these changes, restrictions on China's access to advanced chips will stay firmly in place, and may even be reinforced. The proposed regulations are expected to maintain the outright ban on shipments to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, while adding stricter oversight for nations that have previously rerouted US-origin semiconductors toward Beijing's AI and military programs. US officials are also considering lowering the notification threshold for smaller shipments, from 1,700 NVIDIA H100 equivalent units down to around 500, to close loopholes used by alleged smuggling networks.

Industry reaction has been mixed but largely positive. Chipmakers saw their share prices climb when news of the repeal broke, citing hopes for clearer rules and fewer compliance headaches. Governments in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe are watching closely and urging Washington to provide detailed guidance during the transition to avoid market disruptions. The AI diffusion rule was introduced in January 2025 with the goal of drawing countries such as India, Malaysia, and Poland into a more stringent export regime. Critics have argued that its complex, tiered system stifled innovation and diplomatic flexibility. The incoming framework will instead rely on targeted, outcome-driven accords that tie access to strategic investments and broader trade incentives. An official announcement could come as soon as Thursday, just before President Trump's trip to the Middle East. Final details are expected to be released in the coming weeks, marking a new chapter in US semiconductor diplomacy.

Slimbook, a Linux hardware manufacturer based in Europe (Spain) unveiled Kymera Black, a highly configurable desktop computer designed for gamers, content creators and hardware enthusiasts. This latest model focuses on flexibility, performance and durability. Kymera Black comes with options for AMD or Intel processors, capable of housing up to the latest AMD Ryzen 9 or Intel Ultra 9 CPUs. It can support up to 192 GB of DDR5 RAM running at 6000 MHz, as well as a wide variety of storage options up to 4 TB NVMe 5.0 SSDs (NVMe 5.0 optional depending on motherboard) and 80 TB of HDD capacity. For networking, it can feature up to Wi-Fi 7 (depending on motherboard) and 2.5G Ethernet connectivity, and up to 1200 W Platinum power supply units.

This desktop PC features a matte black metal chassis with modular components, removable panels, and washable dust filters. The case uses a combination of tempered glass and metal side panels with an optional 8-inch front display to monitor system temperature, fan speed, and component performance in real time. In terms of software, the Kymera Black offers a wide selection of pre-installed Linux distributions. These include the Ubuntu-based Slimbook OS with GNOME or KDE Plasma, as well as Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, KDE neon, Debian, elementary OS, Pop!_OS, Linux Mint, Fedora, openSUSE, Manjaro, EndeavourOS, and Lliurex.

In February, we announced Battlefield Labs as our most ambitious community collaboration in franchise history to validate the future of Battlefield. Today, we'll update you on our initial learnings and how we'll continue to scale testing into the future.

Across our four initial play sessions with a small group of core Battlefield players across Europe and North America, we've completed thousands of hours of gameplay, had hundreds of thousands of player spawns, and seen over a million environmental objects destroyed, including walls, windows, crates, and buildings your squad crashed the helicopter into.

The global semiconductor industry is experiencing notable shifts, largely influenced by the rapid expansion of the Mainland China market. From 2010 to 2024, China's share of global semiconductor equipment sales rose significantly, from just 6% in 2010 to 38% in 2024. On the other side McKinsey reports that market shares in Taiwan, Korea and Japan are declining. Taiwan has started to build semiconductor fabs in the US and Europe, while Japan has seen few new fab projects despite TSMC's upcoming Kumamoto plant. At the same time, the US and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa have kept their market shares steady.

Globalization helped the semiconductor industry grow from 2010 to 2019, during this time Chinese semiconductor companies expanded, with local firms growing by about 21% each year. But growth slowed from 2019 to 2023 because of US sanctions on Huawei which affected its chip division HiSilicon. Even without HiSilicon, China's semiconductor industry still grew by 9-10% in that period. Experts think this growth will continue in the future, a trend that the current US tariffs are only accentuating. China's growing importance in industries like electric vehicles (EVs) and commercial drones is pushing its semiconductor goals even further. In 2023, China accounted for 60% of all new EV registrations around the world. At the same time, political tensions between countries have made China more eager to build a self-reliant domestic semiconductor ecosystem. China is testing a domestic extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system at Huawei's Dongguan facility. The system uses laser-induced discharge plasma technology and is scheduled for trial production in Q3 2025, with mass manufacturing planned for 2026.

Around the middle of March, GMKtec's EVO-X2 Mini PC design attracted international media attention—thanks to Dr. Lisa Su's autograph adorning a special presentation sample. During festivities, this relatively young Chinese brand—founded back in 2019—introduced the "world's first" AI mini PC equipped with AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU. This flagship "Strix Halo" chip leverages Zen 5 and RDNA 3.5 technologies; the latter aspect forms the basis of an impressively potent Radeon 8060S iGPU. This integrated graphics solution has surpassed or matched some worthy (previous-gen) discrete competitors, and apparently performs admirably in LLM inference workload scenarios. At the tail end of March, GMKtec opened up pre-orders for its $2000+ headline product—starting off in China. Back then, potential international buyers were intrigued—many envisioned a pleasing wider distribution of EVO-X2 Mini PC retail stock. Given that GMKtec had semi-recently expanded its sales operation into Europe, hopes were elevated.

As reported by TechRadar last week, Eurozone tech enthusiast prayers were answered—their coverage outlined an intriguing pre-order campaign: "buyers can unlock a reduced pre-sale price of €1,499 for the base model by paying a $100 deposit. Those who want the higher configuration need to place a €200 deposit to qualify for a discounted €1,799 final price. All orders must be completed by May 7 to receive the full discount." Days later, VideoCardz and Notebookcheck noted a similar promotion—rolled out for North American audiences. Officially, the EVO-X2 Mini PC is (tentatively) set to launch on May 20—well ahead of Framework's projected "early Q3 2025" debut shipment of "tiny 4.5L Mini-ITX" Desktop units. Time limited promo prices are in effect until next week—the 64 GB and 128 GB RAM EVO-X2 package are currently discounted: $1399 and $1799 (respectively). As expected, GMKtec's official US webshop also requires pre-order deposits—refer to these details below.

Xbox players worldwide are facing sticker shock this week as Microsoft quietly implemented significant price increases across its latest hardware lineup and select first-party titles. The standard Xbox Series X with 1 TB of storage now carries a suggested retail price of $599.99, up from $499.99. The digital-only Series X has jumped to $549.99, and the special Galaxy Black 2 TB edition now lists at $729.99, compared with its original $599.99 launch price. Meanwhile, the more affordable Xbox Series S saw its 512 GB model climb from $299.99 to $379.99. A newly introduced 1 TB version of the Series S is now priced at $429.99. European customers will pay €349.99 for the base Series S and €599.99 for the standard Series X, while in the United Kingdom, those figures are £299.99 and £499.99, respectively.

Microsoft has also raised prices on accessories. The basic wireless controller increased from $59.99 to $64.99 in the U.S., and the Xbox Wireless Headset now costs $119.99 in North America. Some specialized peripherals, such as the Adaptive Controller and Adaptive Joystick, remain at their previous prices, relieving gamers needing those devices. On the software side, specific first-party titles launching this holiday season will carry a $79.99 price tag instead of the usual $69.99. Digital buyers will continue to benefit from Xbox Play Anywhere, which allows a single purchase to cover both console and PC versions at no extra charge. Importantly, Xbox Game Pass subscription fees are unchanged for now, even though Microsoft tweaked console and subscription pricing as recently as mid-2024 and made a minor adjustment in June 2023. In a statement, Xbox leadership acknowledged that these changes will be tough on fans. Still, the leadership said rising development, manufacturing, logistics costs, and ongoing trade-policy uncertainties drove them.

Last Saturday, Scythe Group announced the closure of its European branch. This followed mid-April reports of unusually low stock numbers in Germany—at the time, ComputerBase.de and its community highlighted the complete absence of the manufacturer's flagship Mugen 6 CPU air cooler at regional retail outlets. The site published an investigative article on April 22; presenting an important Consumer Protection Forum filing. Apparently "economic difficulties" have warranted the initiation of "preliminary insolvency proceedings"—as a result, Scythe EU GmbH faced an uncertain future. Looking back in TechPowerUp's news archive, the last official introduction of brand-new products—Mugen 6 standard and Black Edition coolers—happened around early February. Also within the same month, TPU's crazyeyesreaper reviewed the brand's "highly-recommended" Fuma 3 model. Despite releasing consistently high-grade and top-performing products; Scythe has faced aggressive competition across Europe—Chinese brands have flooded regional markers with cheaper alternatives. In particular, Thermalright has gained plenty of attention and uptake—due to a rapid cadence and wide variety of highly-acclaimed new releases.

Scythe's April 26 official notice stated: "To All Valued Clients, we deeply regret to inform you that SCYTHE EU will be ceasing operations. Moving forward, SCYTHE-branded products and customer support will remain available through our European distributors and online e-commerce platforms. During the transition period with our distributors/e-commerce channels, there may be some unfinished matters, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. SCYTHE will continue to uphold the principles of responsibility and integrity, ensuring consumer rights are protected in accordance with the law. We sincerely thank you for your support and loyalty to the SCYTHE brand over the years."

SORA, a French innovator and the only European provider of ultra-high-performance artificial intelligence (AI) inference chips, today announced that it has successfully raised $46 million in a new fundraising round.

The investment was led by Otium and a French family office with additional participation from Omnes Capital, Adélie Capital and co-financing from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund.

If you're a fan of science fiction movies, you've probably seen the story where countries come together to avert or overcome a crisis. These films usually begin with some unexpected dangerous event—maybe an alien invasion, a pandemic or rogue robots. Earth's smartest scientists and engineers work non-stop to discover a solution. Governments pool their resources and, in the end—usually at the very last possible second—humanity triumphs. This might seem like a Hollywood fantasy, but believe it or not, this movie plot is playing out in real life right now. No, we aren't facing an alien invasion or fighting off AI overlords, but the earth does face some pretty serious crises. And nations of the world are working together to develop technology to help address those problems.

For example, the LUMI supercomputer, located in Kajaani, Finland receives a portion of its funding from the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), an effort that pools EU resources to create/provide exascale computing platforms. Additional funding comes from LUMI consortium countries, which include Finland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland. According to the Top500 list published in November 2024, LUMI is the 8th fastest supercomputer in the world and the fastest supercomputer in Europe. The final configuration of the LUMI supercomputer can sustain 380 petaflops of performance, which is roughly the equivalent of 1.5 million high-end laptops. It's based on the HPE Cray EX platform with AMD EPYC CPUs and AMD Instinct MI250X GPUs. According to the Green500 list, LUMI is also the world's 25th most energy efficient supercomputer. It runs on 100% hydropower and the waste heat from the facility is recaptured to heat about 100 homes in Kajaani.

MSI Japan has announced that the PRO Z890-S WiFi Project Zero motherboard with back-routed power connectors will go on sale in Japan on May 2 for ¥42,980 (tax included). It uses Intel's Z890 chipset on an LGA1851 socket and a 12+1+1+1-phase digital power design. The board comes in a white-silver finish and measures 243.84 × 304.8 mm in ATX form factor. Memory support consists of four DDR5-8800 slots (up to 256 GB). Storage options include four SATA 3.0 ports, one PCIe 5.0 × 4 M.2 slot and two PCIe 4.0 × 4 M.2 slots. Expansion slots are one PCIe 5.0 × 16, one PCIe 3.0 × 1 (in ×16 shape) and two PCIe 4.0 × 4 (in ×16 shape). On the networking side, it offers Wi-Fi 7 with up to 5.8 Gbps throughput (via an EZ Antenna) and a 2.5 GbE LAN port using the Realtek 8125D controller. A Thunderbolt 4 header supports up to 40 Gbps connections.

Audio is handled by a Realtek ALC897 codec. A key change from earlier PRO models is that all power, fan, storage and I/O connectors are located on the board's rear. This layout can make cable routing neater if the PC case allows access behind the motherboard tray. MSI has covered the front side of the PCB since there are no connectors there. Although the PRO series is not aimed at high-end overclocking, the BIOS includes one-click overclock presets for CPU and memory. The board also features an EZ PCIe Clip II on the first slot for simpler graphics card removal. In Europe, the PRO Z890-S WiFi PZ is expected to retail for around €365.