Is Intel Hiding their GPUs
### Article Based on Video Transcription
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#### Intel's Arc Alchemist GPU Facing Major Challenges
According to German tech tester and commenter Igor Wallacek of Igor's Lab, Intel is in hot water with many of its branded partners due to issues surrounding their Arc Alchemist GPU. The trouble began when Intel instructed their add-in board partners to avoid selling the cards on the retail market and instead focus on system integrators and OEMs, which carry a much lower profit margin. This decision has left partners disgruntled, as they now face massive amounts of unsold inventory. Additionally, Intel has reportedly refused to provide a guaranteed price point for their Arc A380 or similar cards, further exacerbating the problem. The situation is compounded by Intel's notably worse RMA and returns policy compared to competitors like NVIDIA and AMD.
As a result, some unknown manufacturers have ceased production of graphics cards entirely, citing quality concerns. Meanwhile, partners who remain on board have reportedly capped their marketing budgets for these cards and are not planning any big launch day pushes. This means the Arc GPU's official release could be much less of a grand extravaganza and more akin to a man standing by the side of the freeway with a sign that says, "Please buy my GPUs—anything helps."
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#### Intel Delays 3-Nanometer Meteor Lake GPU Order Again
In more Intel news, the company has once again delayed its 3-nanometer Meteor Lake tile GPU order. According to TSMC, Intel had initially planned to outsource the production of their TGPU chipsets for their 14th generation processors to TSMC in the second half of 2022. However, these orders were first delayed until early 2023 and have now been pushed further to late 2023. This delay has left TSMC with only one major client—Apple—for their 3-nanometer production line.
It is expected that companies like AMD, MediaTek, and Qualcomm will eventually also seek access to TSMC's 3-nanometer line. However, uptake is likely to be slowed due to limited capital available for expanding the production line ahead of these other companies. If Intel fails to mass-produce its Intel 4 in-house and on schedule, outsourcing to TSMC could offer some financial relief. But if Intel succeeds, it could spell future order cancellations as they move further away from outsourcing. As one commentator quipped, "Poor TSMC—always a bridesmaid, never a bride. You're always useless and barely employed."
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#### Twitter Rejects Elon Musk's Claims in Court
In a significant legal developments, Twitter has rejected Elon Musk's claims in court that he had legitimate reasons to back out of his $44 billion deal to purchase the social media platform. The court ruled that Musk's claims were contradicted by evidence and common sense, as outlined in a 127-page filing. According to Musk, he was "hoodwinked" by Twitter into signing the merger agreement. However, Twitter pointed out that the tool Musk used for his own bot counting—dubbed "Bottom Meter"—even identified *his own account* as a bot.
This machine learning-based tool calculates a score indicating how "bot-like" an account is. In May 2022, Protocol reported that Musk's account scored between four to five, or an 80% likelihood of being a bot. These days, he's getting a 1.2 out of 5 according to RS Technica. As one commentator noted, "If we're all being honest with ourselves, the 80 was much easier to believe—Zuckerberg is a 95."
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#### Quick Bits: Tech News Roundup
**World of Warcraft Mobile Game Scrapped:** Blizzard and Chinese gaming giant NetEase, co-creators of Diablo Immortal, have reportedly canceled an unannounced mobile MMO set in the same universe as World of Warcraft. The cancellation came after the companies failed to agree on financial terms for the title. One analyst speculated, "It might just be tragic—if one was trying to get a payment from the other each time a certain action was performed."
**Google Merges Google Meet and Duo:** Google is officially merging Google Meet and Google Duo. Originally announced in June, the plan was to keep the Google Meet branding while retaining Google Duo's features. However, the existing Google Meet app will still be available until September. This means there are now two apps called "Google Meet." As one commentator joked, "It'll take a few more months for them to combine and form some sort of meat loaf."
**YouTube Testing New Zoom Feature:** YouTube is testing a new mobile app feature for premium subscribers. Those who opt in can now pinch to zoom up to eight times on both portrait and landscape videos. While this feature may satisfy fans of true crime YouTubers, it won't allow for video enhancement—meaning CSI fans will still have to live out their tech fantasies.
**Intel Promises Wi-Fi 7 Speeds:** Intel has announced that laptops equipped with Wi-Fi 7 could reach speeds surpassing 5.8 gigabits per second. This is more than double the current wired speeds on most high-end laptops and nearly six times faster than standard wired devices. The IEEE expects the Wi-Fi 7 standard to be ready by 2024. When asked about what they'd use such fast Wi-Fi for, Intel representatives refused to make eye contact and began trying to clear their browsing history.
**Amazon Buys iRobot:** Amazon has announced a deal to purchase iRobot, maker of the "definitely not sentient" vacuum cleaner Roomba, for $1.7 billion. While it's unclear what Amazon intends to do with an expensive robot army that collects detailed floor plans of people's homes, one commentator joked, "Alexa, play deposity—oops, that's it for tech news today."
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#### Closing Thoughts
Colin wraps up the video by thanking viewers and reminding them to visit the LTT Store for backpacks. He promises to see everyone Monday for more tech news.
"Make sure to go LTT Store, get yourself a backpack—we'll see you here Monday for more tech news... goodbye."