TLDR Hardware 2026-11-11

The appropriations fund advanced-technology and advanced-packaging capacity, fab construction, and 2027 R&D, alongside Q3 revenue of NT$1,494.24B and net income of NT$763.06B. The board also set a NT$9.0 per share dividend, approved a strategic-investment vehicle of up to $500M, and approved stakes of up to $500M each in Anthropic (at its IPO price) and OpenAI (preferred stock).

SpaceX plans to attempt a first-ever double-catch launch on November 13 with its Starship Flight 15, aiming to recover both the Starship vehicle and its Super Heavy booster. During this mission, Starship will deploy 26 next-gen Starlink V3 satellites and orbit the Earth for over 22 hours. Success would mark a significant milestone for reusable space technology.

AMD's Zen 6 CPUs enhance performance with a faster branch predictor, a dual decode cluster for single threads, and optimized out-of-order structures to reduce memory stalls compared to Zen 5. The main distinction between Zen 6 and Zen 6c lies in their architectural tuning: Zen 6 focuses on high-frequency performance while Zen 6c increases latency absorption with larger cache sizes and core counts.

The tag finds nearby items over Bluetooth and ultra-wideband, falls back to Google's Find Hub network of over a billion Android devices when out of range, and pairs via Fast Pair on Android 9 or newer. It has a roughly 80 dB speaker, an IP67 stainless steel body, 0.2 inches thickness and 0.4 oz weight, and a replaceable CR2032 rated for up to a year. Without NFC, Lost mode shares the owner's contact details with finders, and a double press rings your phone.

Gemini Robotics 2.5 enhances robot dexterity, reliability, and safety for real-world tasks. It supports diverse robots like Apptronik's Apollo 2 in Mercedes-Benz factories, achieving 96% success in tasks like automotive kitting. Advanced safety features, boosted by Gemini 4 Argon, increase obstacle and human interaction safety by 33% and 43%, respectively.

Boston Dynamics added wheels to its Atlas humanoid for experiments in whole-body control, merging classical motor controls with whole-body reinforcement learning. The experiment, not a product, aimed to test adaptability in unstructured environments and showcased Atlas switching smoothly between rolling and legged motion. This research contributes to the ongoing debate on wheels versus legs in robotics, with implications for agility and real-world functionality.

Meta says Quest developer revenue held steady through September, with in-app purchases overtaking premium app sales. Ahead of VR Glasses launching in Spring 2027, it advises developers to target specific audiences and design seated, hand-tracked experiences for customers primarily interested in entertainment.

LPDDR6 memory is crucial for enhancing performance in autonomous and mobile edge systems like humanoid robots and drones. Effective data hierarchies, improved read/write speeds, and optimized data movement between processors and memory are essential for extending operational time.

Axiom's unsealed False Claims Act suit says Vast's NASA plan for a private ISS astronaut mission left Axiom's name in some sections and swapped in "PAM provider" in others, while Vast calls it competitive rivalry after DOJ declined to intervene.

Oura is buying Counsel Health, whose medical AI with licensed physicians in the loop has been inside the Oura app since June, so ring biometrics can feed directly into care.

Intel and Altera are collaborating to develop sensor-bridge reference systems for robotics and physical AI, aiming to simplify sensor integration and real-time processing.

SoftBank lost 1.12 trillion yen ($7 billion) last quarter, mostly from writing down non-refundable deposits it paid to lock in power-generation equipment for its 8-gigawatt Ohio project and other US data centers, plus Intel's share decline.