Is the U.S. falling behind China in Africa’s lithium industry?

Published

2 years ago

March 9, 2023

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The demand for lithium is rising as it has become a critical component needed in electric vehicle batteries. In 2021, the world produced 540 thousand metric tons of lithium and by 2030 the World Economic Forum projects the global demand will reach over 3 million metric tons.

Reserves of lithium have been discovered throughout the entire African continent with Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mali all having notable supplies. The price of lithium has skyrocketed. In May 2022, the price was seven times higher than it was at the start of 2021. Mineral-rich nations like Zimbabwe are taking note.

Zimbabwe has been mining lithium for 60 years and the government estimates that its Chinese-owned Bikita Minerals Mine, which is located 300 kilometers south of the capital Harare, has about 11 million metric tons of lithium resources. The country is the sixth largest producer of lithium, and the International Trade Administration projects that once it fully exploits its known resources it could potentially meet 20% of the world’s demand.

“We’ve seen a lot of investments within the mining sector over the past few years,” said Prosper Chitambara, a development economist for the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe. “For us to realize the full potential from the mining sector, it means we have to move up the value chain.”

In December 2022, Zimbabwe passed the Base Mineral Export Control Act that banned the export of raw lithium. However, companies that are in the process of developing mines or processing plants in Zimbabwe are exempt from this ban. That includes Chinese firms Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group and Chengxin Lithium Group which have invested $678 million into lithium projects in Zimbabwe.

“Any government in the world is bound to react when your resources are just flying in all directions,” said Farai Maguwu, director of Zimbabwe’s Center for Natural Resource Governance. “However, the lithium concentrate is still being exported lawfully out of the country. I think the government simply wanted to control the lithium that was being extracted by artisanal miners, which was not being accounted for and it was being smuggled out of the country.”

Artisanal mining, or small-scale mining, is a largely informal method where individuals use basic tools to extract minerals. The Zimbabwean government estimates that artisanal mining plays a critical role in the livelihood of over 1 million Zimbabweans.

“Artisanal miners were the most affected by the ban,” said Joseph Mujere, a lecturer in Modern African History at the University of York. “They had already accumulated loads of raw lithium that they were preparing to sell,” he said.

The Center for Natural Resource Governance estimates the government has lost nearly $2 billion in minerals smuggled across the border through artisanal mining leakage.

“There are two narratives,” Maguwu said. “The political narrative that mining is the savior of the economy. Then the grassroots narrative, which says mining is undermining our livelihoods. We sit in between. We want to see mining contribute to the economy, but not at the expense of the Zimbabwean people.”

While artisanal miners were affected by the export ban, the Chinese have benefited from its exemptions. Both the Bikita mine, which is the largest lithium mine in the country, and the Arcadia Lithium mine are Chinese owned.

In 2022, Chinese mining companies Tsingshan, China Nonferrous and Huayou Cobalt invested nearly $1.5 billion in Zimbabwe and in the same year, Sinomine Resource Group announced its plans to expand its current production at the Bikita mine by investing $200 million into building a new lithium plant.

“When we invest in the Chinese and allow them to come and do what the Zimbabweans are capable of doing, we are building China, not Zimbabwe,” Maguwu said. “Zimbabweans are saying leave room for the Zimbabwean people.”

The Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe declined to comment on this statement.

China accounts for over 70% of global EV battery production capacity, and with over 20 years of consistent commitment to African nations it has placed itself in the right position to access the resources needed to continue this trend.

“The Chinese have played for keeps,” said Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The United States, our relationship is not always permanent. The Chinese are just consistent in that way,” he said.

In December, President Joe Biden welcomed 49 African leaders to Washington, D.C., for the country’s second U.S.-African Leaders Summit and its first since the Obama administration.

“The United States is all in on Africa’s future,” Biden remarked at the summit.

The summit was seen as an important step in trying to restore relations, which were rocky during the Trump administration. Notably missing from the event, however, was Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has been under U.S. travel sanctions since 2002. Foreign Affairs Minister Frederick Shava attended in his place.

“The fact that he came is also still a signal that the U.S. is interested in keeping the door open with Zimbabwe,” Dizolele said.

While the U.S. has made its intentions clear when it comes to engaging in African business, the reality is China has sunk its roots in the continent. It will be tough for the U.S. to make up for the lost time. In 2009, China overtook the U.S. as Africa’s largest trading partner. The country has grown from $121 million in total traded goods with Africa in 1950 to $254 billion in 2021, compared to the U.S. which sat at $64 billion in 2021.

“America has not been consistent in the way it engages with Africa,” said Dizolele. “If you leave and come back 10 years later, that void you left will be filled by somebody else, so it’s important that we be consistent.”

Technology

Mark Zuckerberg says Meta AI has 1 billion monthly active users

Published

10 mins ago

May 28, 2025

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Mark Zuckerberg says Meta AI has 1 billion monthly active users

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears at the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Meta’s AI assistant now has 1 billion monthly active users across the company’s family of apps, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

The “focus for this year is deepening the experience and making Meta AI the leading personal AI with an emphasis on personalization, voice conversations and entertainment,” Zuckerberg said.

The artificial intelligent assistant’s 1 billion milestone comes after the company in April released a standalone app for the tool.

The plan is for Meta to keep growing the product before building a business around it, Zuckerberg said on Wednesday. As Meta AI improves overtime, Zuckerberg said “there will be opportunities to either insert paid recommendations” or offer “a subscription service so that people can pay to use more compute.”

In February, CNBC reported that Meta was planning to debut a standalone Meta AI app during the second quarter and test a paid-subscription service akin to rival chat apps like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

“It may seem kind of funny that a billion monthly actives doesn’t seem like it’s at scale for us, but that’s where we’re at,” Zuckerberg told shareholders.

During the Meta shareholder meeting, investors voted on 14 different items related to the company’s business, nine of which were shareholder proposals covering topics such as child safety, greenhouse gas emissions and a proposed bitcoin treasury assessment.

Shareholder proposal 8, for example, was submitted by JLens, which is an investment advisor and affiliate of the Anti-Defamation League, and called for Meta to prepare an annual report detailing and addressing hate content, including antisemitism, on its services following January policy changes that relaxed content-moderation guidelines.

Early voting results on Wednesday showed the proposals that Meta’s board did not recommend were unlikely to pass, including one calling for the company to end its dual-class share structure, which gives Zuckerberg significant voting power. Meanwhile, the voting items that the board favored, including those pertaining to approving the company’s board of director nominees and an equity incentive plan, were likely to pass, based on the preliminary results.

Meta said final polling results will be released within four business days on the company’s website and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

WATCH: Okta shares fall more than 11% on uncertain outlook.

Technology

Salesforce turns in strong results and optimistic forecast

Published

39 mins ago

May 28, 2025

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Salesforce turns in strong results and optimistic forecast

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff participates in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2025.

Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Salesforce shares were volatile in extended trading on Wednesday after the sales and customer service software maker reported upbeat fiscal first-quarter results and guidance.

Here’s how the company performed relative to LSEG consensus:

Earnings per share: $2.58 adjusted vs. 2.54 expected
Revenue: $9.83 billion vs. $9.75 billion expected

Salesforce’s revenue grew 7.6% year over year in the quarter, which ended on April 30, according to a statement. Net income of $1.54 billion, or $1.59 per share, was basically flat compared with $1.53 billion, or $1.56 per share, a year ago.

President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. in early April. Co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff sounded positive about the company’s results for the quarter anyway, pointing to its plan, announced on Tuesday, to buy data management company Informatica for $8 billion.

It would be Salesforce’s priciest acquisition since the $27.1 billion Slack deal in 2021. Slack marked the top end of the buyouts Salesforce had made under Benioff. Activist investors raised concerns about all the spending, in addition to slowing revenue growth.

Salesforce sprung into action, slashing 10% of its headcount. Benioff proclaimed that the board’s mergers and acquisitions committee had been disbanded. The company’s finance chief at the time said it would reach a margin expansion goal two years early. And Salesforce started paying dividends to shareholders.

Initial reception to the Informatica announcement was generally favorable. “Salesforce is paying a reasonable multiple for the asset, in our view, and the deal should be more easily digested by investors than some of the company’s large deals in the past (i.e. Slack),” Stifel analysts led by J. Parker Lane wrote in a note to clients. The investment bank has a buy rating on Salesforce shares.

During the fiscal first quarter, Salesforce introduced the AgentExchange marketplace for artificial intelligence agents.

Management sees $2.76 to $2.78 in adjusted earnings per share on $10.11 billion to $10.16 billion in revenue for the fiscal second quarter. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected $2.73 in adjusted earnings per share on $10.01 billion in revenue.

Salesforce bumped up its full-year forecast. It called for $11.27 to $11.33 in adjusted earnings per share and $41.0 billion to $41.3 billion in revenue, implying revenue growth between 8% and 9%. The LSEG consensus included net income of $11.16 per share and $40.82 billion in revenue. The guidance in February was $11.09 to $11.17 in adjusted earnings per share, with $40.5 billion to $40.9 billion in revenue.

As of Wednesday’s close, the stock had slipped about 18% so far in 2025, while the S&P index was unchanged.

Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

WATCH: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff: Data centers and chips are ‘commodities’

Technology

HP sinks 15% as company misses on earnings, guidance due to ‘added cost’ from tariffs

Published

49 mins ago

May 28, 2025

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HP sinks 15% as company misses on earnings, guidance due to 'added cost' from tariffs

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

HP reported second-quarter results that beat analysts’ estimates for revenue but missed on earnings and guidance, in part due to President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Shares sank 15% after the report.

Here’s how the company did versus analysts’ estimates compiled by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 71 cents adjusted vs. 80 cents expected
Revenue: $13.22 billion vs. $13.14 billion expected.

Revenue for the quarter increased 3.3% from $12.8 billion in the same period last year. HP reported net income of $406 million, or 42 cents per share, down from $607 million, or 61 cents per share, a year ago.

For its third quarter, HP said it expects to report adjusted earnings of 68 cents to 80 cents per share, missing the average analyst estimate of 90 cents, according to LSEG. Full-year adjusted earnings will be within the range of $3 to $3.30 per share, while analysts were expecting $3.49 per share.

HP said its outlook “reflects the added cost driven by the current U.S. tariffs,” as well as the associated mitigations.

“While results in the quarter were impacted by a dynamic regulatory environment, we responded quickly to accelerate the expansion of our manufacturing footprint and further reduce our cost structure,” HP CEO Enrique Lores said in a statement.

Lores told CNBC’s Steve Kovach that HP has increased production in Vietnam, Thailand, India, Mexico and the U.S. By the end of June, Lores said the company expects nearly all of its products sold in North America will be built outside of China.

“Through our actions, we expect to fully mitigate the increased trade-related costs by Q4,” Lores said in the interview.

HP will hold its quarterly call with investors at 5 p.m. ET.