Samsung debuts three next-generation memory technologies for AI data centers — zHBM, zNAND-O, and BV-NAND all rely on advanced wafer bonding technologies
Is the AI tokenmaxxing party back on? With the release of the modestly priced Kimi K3 and DeepSeek V4 Flash-0731 over recent weeks, the emergence of competitive, cheap Chinese AI models has now forced companies like OpenAI, which launched GPT 5.6 Luna back in June, to cut prices by a staggering 80% in the wake of the competitive open-weight Chinese models. And OpenAI isn't the only company trying to offer more value to users. Anthropic replaced Opus 4.8 with 5.0, and Google also came out with the affordable Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite models, too.
So, where does that leave the AI industry? Western frontier labs must keep pace with the competition on offer overseas, and the intensifying competition is slimming down margins for what we assume to be already subsidized token costs.
AI companies are now racing to the bottom — crashing token prices and competitive models push companies to cut costs
Within the world of artificial intelligence, other stresses are looming for ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The company is heading to court with tech titan Apple over claims that OpenAI stole trade secrets from Apple. The claim comes amidst OpenAI's development of dedicated AI hardware. OpenAI says it didn't want Apple's trade secrets, and that the Cupertino company was simply getting things wrong. Apple, however, alleges that 13 of its former employees passed along the aforementioned trade secrets, including documents sharing details of unannounced products and screenshots of sensitive materials.
We explore how the lawsuit is developing in this rather unusual offshoot, which centers around products that have yet to see the light of day.
Apple is taking OpenAI to court over alleged theft of trade secrets — ChatGPT maker suggests it doesn't want Cupertino's knowledge anyway
That wraps up most of the major pieces of content that we published this week on Tom's Hardware Premium , with the bonus of being able to access our deep dive into Samsung's new announcements without a subscription.
For all of the other articles in this list, and to use our Bench tool, you can sign up to Tom's Hardware Premium today to read more. We'll be back next week with another roundup to keep you up to date.
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Sayem Ahmed is the Subscription Editor at Tom's Hardware. He covers a broad range of deep dives into hardware, both new and old, including the CPUs,\u00a0GPUs, and everything else that uses a semiconductor. He has worked as a professional tech journalist since 2015 and has written for Gamespot, IGN, and Dexerto. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-25/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Sayem Ahmed Social Links Navigation Subscription Editor Sayem Ahmed is the Subscription Editor at Tom's Hardware. He covers a broad range of deep dives into hardware, both new and old, including the CPUs, GPUs, and everything else that uses a semiconductor. He has worked as a professional tech journalist since 2015 and has written for Gamespot, IGN, and Dexerto.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/this-week-on-toms-hardware-premium-august-7-2026-inside-chinas-lithography-efforts-co-packaged-optics-get-a-spotlight-and-samsung-debuts-next-gen-memory-tech#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/my-account
- Microsoft quietly purges 32GB of RAM recommendations from its website — company reels from the effects of the memory shortage as it released 8GB base models for
- Anthropic co-designing custom AI inference chips to bypass costly Nvidia GPUs — Samsung reported as manufacturing partner for Claude maker
- NVIDIA Harnesses Vera CPU to Speed Up Design of Next-Generation CPUs and GPUs
- Microsoft quietly purges 32GB of RAM recommendations from its website — company reels from the effects of the memory shortage as it released 8GB base models for
- Built in Fort Worth: Wistron Opens Advanced Manufacturing Plant to Produce NVIDIA AI Systems
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.