A trio linked with a US technology supplier have been charged over a ploy to smuggle American artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, the Department of Justice said on Thursday. The individuals allegedly conspired to sell billions of dollars' worth of technology to buyers in China by faking documents and using dummy equipment to slip past audits, according to the DOJ. The goods in question included Nvidia-made semiconductors, highly coveted AI chips which are subject to export controls. In August 2025, two Chinese nationals were also arrested and charged with illegally shipping millions of dollars' worth of Nvidia chips to China. The DOJ said in a statement on Thursday that it had arrested US-citizen Yih-Shyan Wally Liaw and Taiwanese citizen Ting-Wei Willy Sun, while Ruei-Tsang Steven Chang, a Taiwanese citizen, remains a fugitive.

Why physical AI is becoming manufacturing's next advantage From simulation driven development to real world execution, Microsoft and NVIDIA are helping manufacturers leverage AI to cross the industrial frontier with confidence. For decades, manufacturers have pursued automation to drive efficiency, reduce costs, and stabilize operations. That approach delivered meaningful gains, but it is no longer enough. Today's manufacturing leaders face a different challenge: how to grow amid labor constraints, rising complexity, and increasing pressure to innovate faster without sacrificing safety, quality, or trust. The next phase of transformation will not be defined by isolated AI tools or individual robots, but by intelligence that can operate reliably in the physical world . This is where physical AI--intelligence that can sense, reason, and act in the real world--marks a decisive shift.

This underlines the necessity to explicitly evaluate and finetune FMs on such expert tasks, arguably ones that appear the most in practical real-world applications.

As the data center backlash grows, support is growing for server factories and the hundreds of jobs they're expected to bring. Last month, Pamela Griffin and two other residents of Taylor, Texas, took to the lectern at a city council meeting to object to a data center project. But later, they sat back as council members discussed a proposed tech factory. Griffin didn't speak up against that development. A similar contrast is repeating in communities across the US.

China's Renewable Energy Revolution Is a Huge Mess That Might Save the World A global onslaught of cheap Chinese green power is upending everything in its path. No one is ready for its repercussions. There's a particular kind of sci-fi nerd who equates fusion tech with utopia. If we could only harness the engine of the stars, it would uncork near limitless energy and neatly sweep away a whole mess of humanity's problems. But how would that work exactly? What would the transition look like?

Where Are All the New Cars? New cars were scant at CES this year, largely because the center of gravity for the auto world has moved--technologically and geographically--to China. This robotaxi built by Uber, Lucid, and Nuro was one of the few cars announced at CES, and it's not even one you can buy. Some years ago now, a very senior Mercedes executive in the US confided in me that CES was "the second-most important car show in the world, after Detroit." Before the auto world's full-on EV boom, this was quite the thing to admit--shocking, in fact--but it marked the subsequent carmaker takeover of the world's largest tech show. This year in Las Vegas, however, the cars were almost nowhere to be seen.

I walked literal miles to find what's here. Recyclables in the trash is my metaphor here. Every third booth at CES showed off some new AI product or other. If you wanted to find a robotic lawn mower, throw a rock. Humanoid robots, smart locks and super thin TVs were everywhere.

The crop of next-generation TVs arriving this year has more accurate colors than ever, thanks to a fancy new kind of backlighting. For how excellent they've come to look, today's televisions come with a brain-numbing assortment of acronyms for shoppers to parse. It's like the scariest dinner party I've ever attended. Remember LED, QLED, Mini LED, Micro LED, OLED, QD OLED? Sadly, all these acronyms do actually mean something, and this year's popular newcomer--RGB LED--implies shockingly accurate colors. Hiding behind upcoming panels from Hisense, Sony, Samsung, and LG announced at CES 2026, RGB LED (unhelpfully also called Micro RGB or RGB Mini LED) is the hot panel technology to talk about this year.

The supply shortage of the RAM needed to build phones and PCs isn't going away. But a few companies have a plan to solve it. A supply shortage is the last thing tech companies want to talk about at CES . The annual trade show is their chance to promote new products and drum up excitement for what's coming, not discuss the one thing that could make selling new products in 2026 an uphill battle. But I've read the reports.

This year, the right-to-repair movement got a boost from--surprisingly--big tech, tariffs, and economic downturn. It has been a big year for the right to repair, the movement of advocates pushing for people to be able to fix their own electronics and equipment without manufacturer approval. The issue has gathered broad support from technologists, farmers, military leaders, and politicians on both sides of the aisle. It is popular with just about everyone--except the companies who stand to gain if the parts, instructions, and tools necessary to fix their products remain under lock and key. Three US states passed right-to-repair laws this year, including in heavily Republican states like Texas where the measure received a unanimous vote in both the House and Senate.