AI vendors are turning to custom hardware as Microsoft turns back the clock on Windows

This week, we learned a lot more about what’s going on inside the datacenter. GPUs may still be king but their exclusive reign on the rack is over. The taskbar's reign at the bottom of the desktop may be coming to an end too.

Register Systems Editor Tobias Mann joins us to talk about why so many vendors are turning to alternate silicon from the likes of Cerebras (theregister.com/systems/2026/08/19/cerebras-cs…)and Marvell (theregister.com/off-prem/2026/08/19/google-pit…) to help power their inference. He also explains why Waymo is designing its own custom chips (theregister.com/edge-and-iot/2026/08/20/waymo-…) in robotaxis rather than continuing to use off-the-shelf silicon from Intel.

As new AI silicon moves forward, Microsoft goes back to the future by finally, after only five years of waiting, allowing users to move the taskbar in Windows 11. It also has belatedly started giving users more control over context menus and given them a closer look at what their neural processing units (NPUs) are doing in task manager. Register Microsoft Ecosystem Reporter Richard Speed weighs in.