China bogeyman looms large over American firms’ AI doomsday scenario

When reporters asked Donald Trump this week if he supported calls to slow down the development of artificial intelligence out of growing fears for cybersecurity, public safety and the fate of humanity, he said no. His argument: China. “We’re leading China in AI,” Trump said. “We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to ⁠keep it that way, because whoever wins AI, wins.” Trump was echoing a message the AI industry has put out for years. The US is in a heated technological race with China,…

Taiwan charges nine people for smuggling ‘high-end’ AI servers to China

Taiwanese prosecutors charged nine people Monday, including one from Nvidia and two from Super Micro, for illegally exporting “high-end AI servers” to mainland China, adding another wave of turbulence in the AI ​​rivalry between China and the United States. Prosecutors said the servers involved were graphics processing units known as “B300,” which have been banned from sale to China. Seventy-four servers arrived in China successfully, according to the prosecutors. Of those, 50 were sent through Indonesia, 16 delivered directly to China and eight sent to Japan first, then Hong Kong,…

Stock market turmoil sheds stark light on the opaque AI economy

Even for the rollercoaster world of AI, last week was particularly volatile as investors scrambled to keep up with developments that threatened the dominance of the largest western chipmakers. It began with a double whammy. On Monday, the Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT floated on the Shanghai stock market, soaring by 466% in value to 3.3tn yuan (£365bn). That same day, it was reported that China had developed its own tools to carry out deep-ultraviolet lithography, a technique essential to the computer chip supply chain over which the Dutch company ASML…

Debate over AI’s future divides Silicon Valley as China gains ground

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. This week we’ll be looking at a debate over the future of artificial intelligence that’s dividing the tech industry, as well as how the European Union gave Google a slap on the wrist for anti-competitive behavior. And we’ll also catch you up on the avalanche of lawsuits accusing social media companies of getting young people addicted to their products. Silicon Valley’s divide over the future of AI Over the past week some of the biggest names in tech have weighed in on a debate about…

Nvidia’s revenue blows past Wall Street expectations as AI boom accelerates

Nvidia continued its years-long streak of beating Wall Street’s expectations for growth on Wednesday, reassuring most investors that the AI boom, particularly the global explosion of datacenters, will continue apace. “The buildout of AI factories – the largest infrastructure expansion in human history – is accelerating at extraordinary speed,” said Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, in a statement. “Agentic AI has arrived, doing productive work, generating real value, and scaling rapidly across companies and industries.” Many analysts view Nvidia’s financial performance as a broader referendum on the AI buildout. The most…

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang joins other US bosses on Trump trip to China

The billionaire chief executive of the chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has joined Donald Trump’s China delegation after a reported last-minute invitation, highlighting the US’s AI and tech ambitions. Huang will join a roster of US bosses including the Tesla chief executive and X owner, Elon Musk, the Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, and Goldman Sachs’s David Solomon at Trump’s 36-hour meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. The high-stakes summit is the first overseas trip for Trump since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February. The…

China lags behind US at AI frontier but could quickly catch up, say experts

Beijing’s AI policy is focused on real-life applications but Chinese companies are beginning to articulate their own grand visions Standing on stage in the eastern China tech hub of Hangzhou, Alibaba’s normally media-shy CEO made an attention-grabbing announcement. “The world today is witnessing the dawn of an AI-driven intelligent revolution,” Eddie Wu told a developer conference in September. “Artificial general intelligence (AGI) will not only amplify human intelligence but also unlock human potential, paving the way for the arrival of artificial superintelligence (ASI).” ASI, Wu said, “could produce a generation…

China blocks Nvidia H200 AI chips that US government cleared for export – report

Suppliers of parts for Nvidia’s H200 have paused production after Chinese customs officials blocked shipments of the newly approved artificial intelligence processors from entering China, according to a report. Reuters could not immediately verify the report, which appeared in the Financial Times citing two people with knowledge of the matter. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment made outside regular business hours. Nvidia had expected more than one million orders from Chinese clients, the report said, adding that its suppliers had been operating around the clock…

Trump clears way for Nvidia to sell powerful AI chips to China

Donald Trump has cleared the way for Nvidia to begin selling its powerful AI computer chips to China, marking a win for the chip maker and its CEO Jensen Huang, who has spent months lobbying the White House to open up sales in the country. Before Monday’s announcement, the US had prohibited sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China over national security concerns. “I have informed President Xi, of China, that the United States will allow NVIDIA to ship its H200 products to approved customers in China, and other…

Global markets fall after tech sell-off and fears over Chinese economy

Global markets have fallen after a tech sell-off that fuelled Wall Street’s worst day in a month and weak economic data in China showing an unprecedented slump in investment. Japan’s tech-heavy Nikkei fell 1.8% on Friday, South Korea’s Kospi plunged 2.6% and there was a 1.5% fall in Australia, after a torrid day on Wall Street as Nvidia and other tech companies tumbled over valuation concerns. Nvidia, the $4.5tn (£3.4tn) tech company, led a wider sector decline, falling 3.6% as investors reassessed the value of companies involved in the AI…