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Taiwan is adding AI servers and advanced chips to its controlled export list, aligning its policy with U.S. trade restrictions on China. Violators will now face criminal charges under the Foreign Trade Act, punishable by up to five years in prison and fines around $92,500, according to Bloomberg.
Black Forest Labs has launched FLUX 3 Image Klein, a 5.6-billion-parameter open weights model for text-to-image generation, image editing and multi-reference generation using up to 10 reference images. The release includes a base model, a step-distilled low-latency version, and FP8, INT8 and NVFP4 builds made with NVIDIA, all under the FLUX Kommunity License. The company says internal evaluations place it ahead of larger open models and some closed models like Ideogram V4.5 and FLUX.2 [pro] despite having fewer parameters.
Reports and rumors indicate Nvidia's RTX 5090 flagship GPU is being phased out, with no replacement expected until at least 2028. Retail prices have climbed from a $1,999 MSRP to over $7,500, and Micro Center is said to be ending its stock of the standalone card, leaving prebuilt PCs as one of the remaining purchase routes.
Amulya Vishwanath, who spent seven years in product marketing for Nvidia's robotics platforms, has founded Techable VC, an early-stage fund investing in physical AI across robotics, materials science and life sciences. On TechCrunch's Equity podcast, she said robotics is still in a 'Lego era,' with basic components like actuators, robotic hands, software and safety standards still being developed.
Nvidia's RTX Spark chip is now shipping in laptops from multiple manufacturers, with prices starting at $2,599 for a 24GB Asus ProArt P14 at Best Buy. Configurations scale up to 128GB of unified memory, with models like the Asus ProArt P16 reaching nearly $7,000 and HP's OmniBook line topping out around $5,300. Microsoft's new Surface Laptop Ultra with 48GB of memory is also among the initial retail offerings.
Microsoft has launched the Surface Laptop Ultra, a new flagship Windows laptop built around Nvidia's new RTX Spark N1X 'superchip,' aimed at handling on-device AI, gaming and content creation in one machine. At 4.4 pounds, it's lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro but is the thickest among the new wave of N1X-powered laptops, including HP's OmniBook Ultra.
Microsoft's new Surface Laptop Ultra, built with an Nvidia RTX Spark N1X chip, starts at $2,599 and can be configured up to $5,899 depending on processor and memory. The base 24GB unified memory model ships with Windows 11 Home, while higher-tier configurations come with Windows 11 Pro and up to 64GB of memory. During a review briefing, Microsoft gave only a vague answer when asked whether the 24GB base model has enough memory for tasks like running AI models locally.
The Verge's staff spent a week testing Nvidia's new Arm-based RTX Spark N1X processor across five laptops, including Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra, Asus's ProArt P16, Lenovo's Yoga 9n and HP's OmniBook Ultra. All units share the same 20-core CPU with 6,144 CUDA cores, though a cheaper 18-core variant with fewer CUDA cores also exists, with prices ranging from $2,599.99 to $6,999.99. The chip combines RTX Blackwell graphics with large unified memory pools of up to 128GB, aimed at running local AI models.
Microsoft has released the Surface Laptop Ultra, a premium Windows-on-Arm laptop built with Nvidia to showcase its new RTX Spark chips, which are designed to run AI models locally alongside demanding games and creative software. The top-spec model costs $5,900 and features a 15-inch 3:2 MicroLED touchscreen reaching 2,000 nits, an all-aluminum design, and a new Magnetic Connect charging port built into a USB-C port.
A Washington Post investigation citing an internal fundraising spreadsheet found Apple and Nvidia each committed $25 million to fund Trump's planned $600 million White House ballroom, tying them as the largest donors alongside the Adelson Family Foundation and Charlie Ergen's household and donor-advised fund. Together these four donations make up roughly 30% of the $333 million in contributions documented. Other tech firms named include Google (via a $22 million settlement-linked trust), Microsoft and Palantir ($10 million each), Amazon and Meta ($5 million each), and smaller sums from HP, Micron, Salesforce, Cisco, Coinbase, Ripple, ServiceNow and T-Mobile.
Nvidia and Cisco have confirmed making multimillion-dollar donations to the renovation of a White House ballroom championed by President Trump, joining a donor list reported by The Washington Post to exceed $330 million. Nvidia and Apple each reportedly gave $25 million, while Cisco confirmed a $5 million contribution; Amazon, Palantir, ServiceNow, Meta and Microsoft were also named as major donors, funneled through a nonprofit trust.
The Washington Post obtained a donor list showing tech, telecom and crypto companies as the largest contributors to President Trump's White House ballroom project, totaling more than $183 million. NVIDIA, Apple and Dish Network co-founder Charles Ergen each gave $25 million, with Microsoft, Meta, Palantir, Google, Amazon, Cisco, Blackrock, Lockheed Martin, Gemini and Coinbase among other donors. About $77 million of the funds remain unaccounted for since the donations aren't subject to public disclosure or campaign finance rules.