High-profile tech and media executives shared their experiences of working in and competing with China with lawmakers who visited California this week.
A delegation of about 10 members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party made the trip west to meet with industry leaders and subject matter experts about key areas of concern when it comes to dealing with China.
Over the three-day trip that kicked off on Wednesday, lawmakers were scheduled to meet with Disney CEO Bob Iger and Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as high-level executives from Google, Microsoft, Palantir and Scale AI. Also on the agenda were events with a group of producers, screenwriters and former studio executives who have experience working with China, as well as with venture capitalists and Stanford University experts, according to a source close to the committee.
The trip highlights the key role tech and media industries play in America’s increasingly complex relationship with China. While these industries often rely on the massive audiences and workforces available in China, dependence on the country raises concerns of human rights and free speech issues because of the government’s censorship controls, as well as supply chain risks.
The trip comes on the heels of a historic meeting in California between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday. That meeting, which former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also praised, enraged the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese government called the meeting a “provocation” and promised “resolute actions.”
In Hollywood, the group of lawmakers from the select committee learned about a range of topics related to competition with China. In a meeting with Disney’s Iger and later at a dinner with unnamed studio executives, censorship of creative content was a big focus, according to the source familiar with the committee’s activities. Executives discussed dealing with self-censorship to try to ensure a movie won’t offend the Chinese government even before filming begins, as well as edit requests they receive from the government in order to show films in the country.
In Silicon Valley on Thursday, according to the source, Microsoft President Brad Smith gave a presentation about artificial intelligence, warning that there is a narrow gap between the U.S. and China in the development of generative AI, which has been made popular by tools such as ChatGPT. He also discussed rare earth mineral mining and processing, which make up key components in certain tech devices. Smith and executives from Google, Palantir and ScaleAI attended a luncheon with committee members.
Lawmakers also met with experts from Stanford University, including those from the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, according to center founding member Steve Blank. In a phone call following the discussion Thursday, Blank said he communicated the need for a defense strategy that involves more public-private partnerships across different industries to get the U.S. up to speed with China. Blank said he was impressed by the bipartisanship and interest he saw from lawmakers in attendance.
“In general, the questions they asked, you would have been very proud to be an American sitting in that room,” Blank said. “They were bipartisan, and they were to the point and they were very smart. These people understand the issues, and they’re trying to help the country be better.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a committee member who represents Silicon Valley, told CNBC in a phone interview ahead of the trip on Tuesday that he was excited for his colleagues to visit his home district. Khanna said it’s always valuable for lawmakers to spend time learning about cutting-edge technologies such as AI, quantum computing and climate tech to better understand how to both regulate and foster it.
“I think it would be wise for every member of Congress to spend a week in Silicon Valley,” Khanna said. “Technology is going to define so many fields from the economy to national security to our issues of citizenship, and we need people to be immersed in it, at least understanding it.”
Khanna and others have described the purpose of the trip as primarily a fact-finding mission. While the conversations will likely inform future policymaking and hearings, lawmakers entered the meetings aiming to learn from industry executives on the ground.
The group was also slated to meet with venture capitalists on Thursday, including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and SV Angel. Khanna expected the VCs would discuss how the government could “better collaborate with the private sector” to stay ahead of China in key areas of emerging technology.
On Friday, lawmakers were set to discuss cryptocurrency with experts at Stanford before traveling to Cupertino to meet with Cook at Apple’s headquarters, according to the source familiar with the committee’s plans.
Khanna said he anticipated the business leaders would inform the policymakers of any progress they’ve made in diversifying their supply chains out of China and how they use export revenue from China to invest in the U.S. When it comes to the meeting with Apple’s CEO, Khanna said he expected Cook would “speak candidly about the supply chain issues,” including the complexities and progress of diversifying production outside of China.
In a phone interview partway through the trip on Thursday, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., said she saw common themes between the sorts of challenges the tech and media industries face when it comes to China and those facing the automotive industry in her home state.
“Every meeting we’ve been in, in my opinion, has related back to Michigan’s economy and our ability to manufacture as a country,” Stevens said. “One of the themes that I came into the committee with as a manufacturing champion and as someone who understands the interrelatedness between manufacturing and tech is: What else do we need to do to incentivize and grow industrial policy in the United States of America?” Stevens said. She pointed to the passage of the Chips and Science Act as an example of incentivizing domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
“Now, we’re looking at other areas specific to supply chain vulnerabilities and weaknesses that are going to impact our economy and, aside from chips, we want to be competitive in quantum and artificial intelligence,” Stevens said.
Apple has confirmedthat it has removed two popular gay dating apps from its Chinese iOS Store, following an order from Beijing’s main internet regulator and censorship authority.
It comes following reports of the apps — Blued and Finka — suddenly disappearing from the iOS App Store over the weekend.
In a statement shared with CNBC, Apple confirmed that it was behind the action and defended the company’s position, stating that it must follow the laws of the countries where it operates.
“Based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, we have removed these two apps from the China storefront only,” the company said, though they clarified that the apps had already been unavailable in other countries.
However, a “lite” version of the Blued app is still available for download on the China App Store, CNBC confirmed Tuesday.
The Wire had been the first to report that Apple had made the move at Beijing’s order.
The disappearance of Blued and Finka is the latest example of China’s crackdown on app stores in recent years.
Grindr, a popular gay dating app from the U.S., was removed from the iOS store in 2022, days after the Cyberspace Administration of China began a crackdown on content it considered illegal and inappropriate.
Later in 2023, Beijing announced new policies requiring all apps serving local users to register with the government and receive licenses. That move had resulted in a wave of foreign apps being removed from iOS.
The following years have also seen regulators continue to appeal directly to companies like Apple to remove certain apps due to issues with their content.
In April 2024, Apple removed Meta’s WhatsApp and Threads from iOS following an order from the CAC, citing national security concerns.
Apple has proven a willingness to comply with these requests in China, which represents its largest oversea market outside the U.S.
The takedown of Blued and Finka also likely reflects increasing crackdowns and censorship of the LGBTQ community in China. In recent years, the government has shuttered major advocacy groups, including the Beijing LGBT Center.
While homosexuality was decriminalized in China in 1997, same-sex marriage remains unrecognized.
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Nov. 10, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Investors piled back into artificial intelligence names on Monday stateside. Shares of Nvidia jumped 5.8%, Broadcom advanced 2.6% and Microsoft climbed 1.9% to end its eight-day losing streak, its longest consecutive decline since 2011.
Market watchers are hoping that another historically long streak — the U.S. government shutdown — could soon be snapped as well. The U.S. Senate has voted in favor for a deal to reopen the government, though it still has to pass through the House and then be signed into law by President Donald Trump (who has already given it his approval).
CoreWeave on Monday reported its third-quarter earnings. It rents out Nvidia cards to AI-related firms, such as Google and Microsoft, a business model that ties it intimately to the AI trade. The company’s revenue swelled 134% year on year, but it still reported a net loss and gave lower-than-expected guidance for this year.
The general shape of those figures — high revenue and high losses — broadly reminds one of OpenAI, the industry-leading, money-bleeding startup that kickstarted the AI frenzy. Though it would of course be a stretch to equate the two companies and the factors driving their finances.
Still, Mark Haefele, CIO of UBS’s global wealth management, thinks “AI-related stocks should drive equity markets.” With the U.S. government shutdown in sight to end (hopefully this doesn’t jinx it), that’s another obstacle surpassed for markets.
What you need to know today
And finally…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 15, 2025.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week ordered his officials to complete a road map by Dec.1 “for the long-term development of the extraction and production of rare and rare earth metals.”
Moscow has fallen behind peers like China when it comes to the exploitation of its deposits of rare earth elements. While lagging behind the big players, Russia is still estimated to possess the fifth largest known reserves of rare earths, totaling 3.8 million tonnes, the United States Geological Survey stated. That’s above the U.S. which is seen with 1.9 million tonnes.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (L) and the CEO of the SoftBank Group Masayoshi Son pose during an AI event in Tokyo on November 13, 2024.
Akio Kon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank said Tuesday it has sold its entire stake in U.S. chipmaker Nvidia for $5.83 billion.
The firm said in its earnings statement that it sold 32.1 million Nvidia shares in October. It also disclosed that it sold part of its T-Mobile stake for $9.17 billion.
The announcement came after SoftBankposted a $19 billion gain on its Vision Fund in its fiscal second quarter, helped by investments in ChatGPT maker OpenAI and electronic payment services firm PayPay.
The Vision Fund has been aggressively pushing into artificial intelligence, investing and acquiring firms throughout the AI value chain from chips to large language models and robotics.
While the Nvidia exit may come as a surprise to some investors, it’s not the first time SoftBank has cashed out of the American AI chip darling.
SoftBank’s Vision Fund was an early backer of Nvidia, reportedly amassing a $4 billion stake in 2017 before selling all of its holdings in January 2019.
Despite its latest sale, SoftBank’s business interests remain heavily intertwined with Nvidia’s.
That Tokyo-based company is involved in a number of AI ventures that rely on Nvidia’s technology, including the $500 billion Stargate project for data centers in the U.S.
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