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• New Linux leak may have revealed Intel Battlemage GPUs
• The recent Linux patch had three code numbers
• If true, this could challenge Nvidia's 5000 series GPUs

Intel’s upcoming Arc Battlemage graphics cards have gotten plenty of media attention through rumors, reports, and just recently an official reveal from Intel itself. But a recent Linux leak has revealed several new cards, which could possibly pose a threat to Nvidia’s RTX 5000 series.

According to Tomasz Gawroński, a gaming hardware enthusiast on X, the most recent Linux patch may have revealed at least three new Arc Battlemage cards, which could be the anticipated powerful variants. The listing itself shows three code numbers, with the patch notes stating that it’ll “Add 3 new IDs for BMG.” Gawroński interpreted it as Intel adding three new Battlemage IDs in this patch.

Though there hasn’t been anything concrete in the leaked information establishing that these cards are higher-end models, if they are it could absolutely flip the market on its head. Intel’s graphics cards have been competitively priced since the tech giant first entered the market, with the B580 and B570 models proving as such. If Intel were to launch mid-range and high-end cards with that same mindset, this could strike a critical blow against AMD and especially Nvidia.

Of course, that’s if these code numbers turn out to be anything in the long run. This could all be meaningless in the end, which is why it’s important to take this leak with a healthy pinch of salt.

How this could turn the tables on Nvidia

Nvidia’s RTX 5000 series graphics cards managed to buck the expected trend of prices dramatically increasing every new generation. The flagship RTX 5090, for instance, is only a few or so hundred above the RTX 4090’s launch day MSRP, and the RTX 5070 is one-third of the 4090’s price while nearly matching its performance with the use of DLSS.

But even if the Arc Battlemage cards don’t match the performance of the 5000 series or AMD’s RX 9070, a cheaper price point would allow Team Blue to finally gain traction in the mid-range market as it has in the budget space — after all, there are plenty of gamers looking for cards that better fit their more cost efficient PC builds. We already know that the majority of gamers are still at 1080p, with only a chunk at 1440p as their main monitor resolution.

I, for one, truly hope this is the direction Team Blue goes in. As I’ve been saying for quite some time now, Team Green and Team Red need a fire lit under their backsides in terms of offering truly budget graphics cards. And that fire is clearly the threat of real competition.

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• Lazarus was seen poisoning open source software with infostealers
• The campaign is dubbed Phantom Circuit, and targets mostly European software devs
• Multiple repositories were found poisoned with malware

The notorious North Korean hackers Lazarus have been targeting software developers, particularly those in the Web3 industry, with infostealing malware, grabbing their credentials, authentication tokens, and other valuable data, experts have warned.

Cybersecurity researchers SecurityScorecard released a report detailing the campaign, which included a software supply-chain attack and open-source poisoning.

Lazarus Group, an infamous hacking collective on North Korea’s payroll, was spotted grabbing different open source tools, poisoning them with malicious code, and then returning them to code repositories and platforms such as Gitlab.

Targeting Web3 devs

Developers would then pick up these tools by mistake, and would unknowingly get infected with malware.

The researchers named the operation Phantom Circuit, and apparently ended up compromising more than 1,500 victims. Most of them are based in Europe, with notable additions from India and Brazil.

The modified repositories apparently included Codementor, CoinProperty, Web3 E-Store, a Python-based password manager, and “other cryptocurrency-related apps, authentication packages, and web3 technologies”, citing Ryan Sherstobitoff, senior VP of research and threat intelligence at SecurityScorecard.

The researchers did not say if Lazarus used any known infostealer in this campaign, or created new code from scratch. The group is known for using a wide variety of tools in their attacks.

Lazarus often targets cryptocurrency companies. Some researchers are saying the country is engaging in crypto theft to fund its state apparatus, as well as its weapons program. The group is famous for its fake job campaign, called Operation DreamJob, in which it targets Web3 software developers with fake, lucrative job offers.

During the interview stages, the attackers would trick the candidate into downloading and running infostealers, grabbing their tokens, and those of their employers. In one such instance, Lazarus managed to steal roughly $600 million.

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• Following $500 billion Project Stargate launch, Meta is also dolling out the dollars
• Meta's $65 billion is lower than Microsoft's $80 billion commitment
• AWS is set to spend more than $75 billion while Google has yet to say how much it will spend

If you have a few hundred billion dollars burning a hole in your pocket, you’re probably considering spending it on an AI data center or two. US President Donald Trump recently announced OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle would launch a new AI infrastructure venture called Project Stargate, investing $500 billion over four years across the US. OpenAI noted that $100 billion would be made available “immediately.”

Elon Musk, no stranger to building AI data centers and perhaps a bit miffed about being left out, claimed that Project Stargate doesn’t actually have the money, stating, “SoftBank has well under $10 billion secured.”

While that was unfolding, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made an announcement on Facebook, revealing the company is “building a 2GW+ data center so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan,” while also outlining other AI plans.

A defining year for AI

Zuckerberg's full post reads: “This will be a defining year for AI. In 2025, I expect Meta AI will be the leading assistant, serving more than 1 billion people. Llama 4 will become the leading state-of-the-art model, and we’ll build an AI engineer that will start contributing increasing amounts of code to our R&D efforts. To power this, Meta is building a 2GW+ data center so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan. We’ll bring online ~1GW of compute in '25 and end the year with more than 1.3 million GPUs. We’re planning to invest $60-65 billion in capex this year while also growing our AI teams significantly, and we have the capital to continue investing in the years ahead. This is a massive effort, and over the coming years, it will drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership. Let’s go build!”

$65 billion on capital expenses certainly isn’t nothing, but it pales in comparison to the $80 billion Microsoft plans to invest in fiscal 2025 or the $75 billion-plus AWS intends to spend this year. We don't know how much Google will be pumping into AI infrastructure, but it's going to be a similar figure.

That said, Meta's investment is higher than most would have expected. Reuters points out: “The $60 billion to $65 billion capital spending outlined for 2025 would mark a significant jump from the company's estimated expenditure of $38 billion to $40 billion last year. It is also above analysts' estimates of $50.25 billion for 2025, according to LSEG data.”

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