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A robotic arm gets to work at German manufacturer Rittal’s smart factory in Haiger, to the west of Hesse, Germany.

Rittal

Conversational artificial intelligence that can be used to communicate with equipment and generate machine parts. Digital versions of vehicles and planes that can be modified to fine-tune their physical counterparts. And autonomous robots that move as you walk by.

These are just a few of the technologies that will power the factories of the future, according to technologists and industry experts who spoke with CNBC.

In the future, factories will be much more connected, relying on a mix of technologies, from artificial intelligence, data platforms and edge devices to the cloud, robotics and sensors, Goetz Erhardt, Europe lead for Accenture’s digital engineering and manufacturing division, told CNBC.

“These technologies support fully automated, ‘dark’ plants, automated decision-making, enhanced equipment monitoring, and new production networks with recycling and upcycling capabilities,” Erhardt said via email.

Today’s factories — from those used in machinery and automobiles to food processing plants — have progressively become more advanced with regard to adopting technology. Robotic arms involved in the manufacturing process — adding and removing materials, welding and placing goods on pallets — are now a common sight.

More advanced A.I.

As much more advanced artificial intelligence technologies are added into the mix, the industrial manufacturing process could shake up further. Conversational systems such as OpenAI’s GPT could one day become integrated into robotics, enabling more sophisticated, emotionally intelligent machines.

Can China's ChatGPT clones give it an edge over the U.S. in an A.I. arms race?

“Generative AI (AI that makes new content in response to user inputs) has enormous potential in manufacturing for equipment optimization, interaction and intelligence — from robotic processes through to machining,” Simon Floyd, director of manufacturing and transportation industries at Google Cloud, told CNBC.

Google is among the tech world giants looking to capitalize on large language models, which can generate more humanlike responses thanks to the huge amounts of data they are trained on. The company launched its own AI chatbot Bard earlier this year to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Consumer products aren’t the only focus of Google’s AI efforts. The company recently upgraded its cloud platform for manufacturers to more efficiently pull data from machines and detect anomalies in the production process.

Going forward, AI will be able to “converse using natural language with manufacturing equipment to understand the current state and the predicted future performance — therefore assisting people and allowing them to focus on high value tasks,” Google Cloud’s Floyd told CNBC.

Floyd said that Google is already working to achieve this with natural language processing capabilities in its AI tools. The company has also created a language model for robots called PaLM-E, which gathers sensory information from the physical environment, as well as text-based inputs.

Engineers will eventually be able to develop new machinery using generative AI tools, Floyd said.

“In the future, there is potential to generate content from and for many types of manufacturing equipment, ranging from specific repair instructions to software code that is tailored to a specific asset.”

‘Digital twins’

One development many industrialists are excited about is “digital twins” — 3D digital replicas of objects in the physical world that can be modified and updated in parallel with the items they aim to mimic.

One example of a company using digital twins to aid its physical manufacturing is Rolls Royce, whose engineers create precise virtual copies of its jet engines and then install sensors and satellite networks on-board to feed back data to the digital copy in real time.

“For every modern Rolls Royce jet engine up on a plane in the sky, there’s one in the cyber sphere that needs to be maintained, working out how much stress is going through the plane,” said John Hill, CEO of Silico AI, a startup that focuses on digital twins for business processes. “That will depend on how the engine is faring in the atmospheric conditions and pressures in the air.”

Another example is Renault, which created a digital twin for a new “software-defined” car with artificial intelligence capabilities to enhance services.

The Metaverse is grappling with investment scale back

Digital twins form part of the so-called “metaverse,” which embodies the idea that people will spend more of their work and leisure time in huge 3D digital spaces. Some companies are also looking to incorporate the physical world in some iterations of the metaverse. 

Many manufacturers see potential in the “industrial metaverse,” a version of the metaverse tailored to the manufacturing, construction and engineering industries. Accenture’s Erhardt told CNBC that he is mainly seeing use cases in creative collaboration and product development, maintenance and remote repairs, designing and optimizing production operations, and workforce training

“The metaverse could become a game changer for industrial companies once they couple its collaborative, immersive, visual and intuitive dimensions with digital twins fed by integrated data pools across departments, systems, operations technology and IT,” Erhardt said. “This could create a virtual, fully immersive and intuitive simulation of the entire enterprise.”

Safety first

Companies are looking for ways to cut down on more menial tasks in factories with digital technology, amid a wave of labor shortages.

“Previously, automation has not been an option for manufacturing products due to minimal financial resources and investment,” Olivier Ribet, Executive Vice President, EMEAR at Dassault Systèmes, told CNBC.

“However, this is changing rapidly due to technological changes that have decreased costs and democratized automation through low/no code robotics allowing more manufacturing companies to leverage the advantages of automation in terms of precision, efficiency, and productivity.”

There are downsides to consider — not least of which job security — as the rise of AI and digital automation in factories has led to worries about the labor market. Generative AI, a relatively recent development, could erase 300 million jobs, Goldman Sachs estimates.

Still, history shows that technological progress doesn’t just make jobs redundant, it also creates new roles— which typically outpaces the number of jobs displaced. Manufacturers are still scrambling for staff, with 41% of manufacturing businesses citing talent pool as a “very significant” barrier preventing full potential, according to a Bain and Company survey.

The hope is that connecting machines to the internet and integrating sensors and predictive AI algorithms will allow them to more safely navigate their surroundings and work collaboratively with humans, rather than replace them, according to Maya Pindeus, CEO of AI startup Humanising Autonomy.

“Think of the factory, you have robot arms, you have different vehicles to move goods around, you have operators, you have safety cameras,” Pindeus told CNBC. 

“What I would look at in the factory of the future is you have high levels of safe automation that can operate around people … I’ve been to factories where you have the big robot arm caged up and it’s really far away from people. It looks very inefficient to me.”

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Tesla shares retreat following sharpest rally since 2013

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Tesla shares retreat following sharpest rally since 2013

Tesla CEO Elon Musk wears a ‘Trump Was Right About Everything!’ hat while attending a cabinet meeting at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 24, 2025. 

Carlos Barria | Reuters

Tesla shares slumped on Thursday, reversing course a day after the electric vehicle maker had its biggest gain on the market since 2013.

The stock dropped 7.3% to close at $252.40 and is now down 38% for the year, by far the biggest decline among tech’s megacap companies. That’s true even after the shares soared 23% on Wednesday, their second-sharpest rally on record.

President Donald Trump sent stocks up on Wednesday after announcing he would pause steep tariffs for many U.S. trading partners for 90 days to allow for negotiations. He set a minimum tariff rate of 10% while negotiations take place, but increased the tariff on China.

The whole market has whipsawed on President Trump’s changing plans, but Tesla has been particularly volatile, rising or falling by at least 5% on 19 different occasions this year.

The slump on Thursday came after the White House clarified that China’s tariff rate now stood at 145%. Beijing announced a reciprocal 84% tariff rate on U.S. goods, effective April 10. And the EU said it approved reciprocal tariffs on U.S. imports.

As questions swirled about the type of deals the U.S. might strike, analysts at UBS, Goldman Sachs and Mizuho cut their price targets on Tesla, with all three citing margin impacts of Trump’s auto tariffs.

“We expect Tesla shares to be volatile but downward sloping considering the rich valuation (especially compared to the other Mag7 stocks) in a skittish market,” UBS wrote. The firm, which has a sell rating and price target of $190, said it also sees “demand concerns.”

Tesla has experienced brand deterioration, declining deliveries and has been hit with protests along with some criminal acts targeting its facilities and vehicles. CEO Elon Musk, one of President Trump’s top advisers, has drawn heat to Tesla for his work in the White House, where he has slashed government spending and the federal workforce. In Europe, he has faced opposition after endorsing Germany’s far-right AfD party.

Tesla sales declined across Europe in the first quarter, according to data from European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and others.

The uncertainty and threat of new tariffs has been troubling for Tesla’s margin outlook. The company sources many parts and materials from suppliers in China, Mexico and elsewhere.

Sales growth for Tesla previously hinged on the company’s ability to manufacture and sell a high volume of its cars and battery energy storage systems throughout Europe and Asia. EV competition has ramped up on both continents recently, and now the company has to contend with highest costs imposed by levies.

Musk has taken his anger out on Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro, calling him a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” in social media posts earlier this week. However, Musk has shown his approval of the administration’s hard line against China, sharing a clip on X of U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussing the matter.

“China’s business model is predicated on this incredible imbalanced economy, and exporting low-cost goods – and subsidized goods – to the rest of the world,” Bessent said in the clip.

Thursday’s selloff provided some relief to Tesla short sellers, who got hammered in the prior day’s rally. According to S3 Partners, Tesla short interest stood around 80.5 million shares, with a 2.8% float as of Thursday. It’s one of the top four equity shorts in terms of notional value, at $17.9 billion. Short sellers bet on the decline in a stock and lose money when it goes up.

WATCH: Tesla faces opportunities and challenges

Tesla faces both opportunities and competition as it enters the Saudi market: S&P Global Mobility

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Trump tariffs mean higher prices, big losses for Amazon sellers that source from China

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Trump tariffs mean higher prices, big losses for Amazon sellers that source from China

President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policy on April 2 didn’t just cause mayhem in the stock market. It sent Amazon sellers into a panic.

Many sellers on Amazon count on China for manufacturing and assembly due to lower costs and established infrastructure – up to 70% of goods on Amazon come from China, according to Wedbush Securities. With nearly all imports from China being taxed a staggering 145% under the latest tariffs, Amazon sellers are having to decide whether to raise prices or absorb the vastly increased cost of importing their goods.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Thursday told CNBC that its vast network of third-party sellers will likely “pass the cost on” to consumers. He added that Amazon has done some “strategic forward inventory buys” and looked to renegotiate terms on some purchase orders to keep prices low.

Although Trump temporarily lowered tariffs on most countries to 10% on Wednesday, he doubled down on the huge tariffs on goods from China. Before the pause, average tariff rates under Trump were at the highest level since the Great Depression. The “reciprocal tariffs” were far steeper in regions like Southeast Asia. Tariffs also hit U.S. allies at unusual rates, including 20% on the European Union and previously announced 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

Josianne Boisvert of Canadian-based Portable Winch Co. said she “was in a state of shock” when the tariffs were announced. For 20 years, the company has driven its products an hour to the U.S. border for duty-free shipping to American customers. 

“We are questioning ourselves if we just move our focus to Europe,” Boisvert said.

CNBC talked to several Amazon sellers to find out how the new tariffs are having an impact on their decisions about prices and where to manufacture.

Price hikes

In a small warehouse in San Rafael, California, Dusty Kenney showed CNBC hundreds of boxes filled with her PrimaStella brand baby spoons, bento boxes and other kids products. Most of them arrived by sea from China before tariffs went into effect. Paying the added tariffs could put her out of business if they continue, she said.

“I will hold my prices for as long as I can and just absorb those tariffs because I’m already competing against those Chinese sellers that are undercutting me,” Kenney said. Although tariffs will also impact her Chinese-based competitors, the cost of doing business in the U.S. is far higher than in China.

“The administration would like people to think that this is a China problem, and that this is only hurting Chinese-based businesses and helping U.S.-based businesses. But I am a U.S.-based business, let’s be clear,” Kenney said. “Everything’s warehoused here, designed here, photographed here. All the income that comes from that stays here.” 

Several sellers said they are considering raising prices if Trump’s tariffs stick around.

The vast majority of products on Amazon are sold by third-parties, but tariffs will also impact the company’s first-party brands.

That includes Amazon Basics-branded batteries, which compete against the likes of Duracell and Energizer by retailing at lower prices, said Jason Goldberg of the Publicis Groupe. 

If Amazon has to raise the price of its own batteries, he said, “consumers are likely to have a preference for that well-known, familiar brand.” 

The Seattle-based tech company is likely to wait at least six months before passing the tariff costs on to consumers, said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities. 

“The last thing they want to do is right away just pass it to the consumer, because you don’t know how transitory this is,” said Ives, adding that Amazon likely got “well ahead of this” by diversifying its supply chain outside of China.

That’s a strategy many Amazon sellers are also trying.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reviving U.S. manufacturing?

Workers making Care Bears at a factory in Ankang, China.

CNBC

A lot of toy manufacturing moved to Vietnam, Mexico and India in the last five years because of China tariffs during Trump’s first term, Foreman said. But many of the toy factories there are also owned by Chinese companies, he said. 

“So you’re sort of not escaping doing business with the Chinese,” Foreman said. 

Other product categories, like teas, can’t easily be grown in the U.S. because of the climate.

“You need high humidity. Usually you need to be at a very high altitude. And those things only come together in certain parts of the world, ” said James Fayal, who runs high-energy tea brand Zest. With its green tea grown in coastal China and black tea in India, Fayal said he’ll have to pass the cost on to consumers because he doesn’t have a U.S. option.

For the brands that do manufacture in the U.S., the tariffs are creating a competitive advantage, those companies said. 

“Put our products side by side to a competitor’s that is getting it overseas and it’s a night and day difference,” said Dayne Rusch of Vyper Industrial

Vyper’s American-made stools and other shop equipment range in price from $350 to $650 while foreign-made alternatives can sell for less than $40, Rusch said.

At the National Hardware Show in March, Rusch said he was approached by many vendors asking if Vyper would consider manufacturing their products.

“There’s a huge opportunity for OEM manufacturers to start taking on more work from these people that were purchasing overseas and start making it here in the United States,” Rusch said.

The other sells that spoke to CNBC said it’s not financially feasible to relocate manufacturing to the U.S., even though it would allow them to avoid tariffs. 

Some, like William Su, are moving manufacturing completely out of China, but staying overseas. Su set up a factory for his Teamson brand in Vietnam in reaction to China tariffs during Trump’s first term. He’s now in talks to manufacture in India. Trump hit both countries with significant tariffs last week, although they’re temporarily on hold.

Surrounded by her colorful baby products in California, Kenney told CNBC she considered opening her own manufacturing site. 

“But that’s way over my head and out of my budget,” she said. “I would love to be able to manufacture in the U.S., but the truth is that the infrastructure is not there.”

With fewer factories in the U.S. than in China, Kenney said the cost to make her products domestically would be double or triple what she pays now.

“The people in China are hungry for the work,” she said. “They’ll get back to you right away. They make sure you get your shipments right away. They’re on it.”

Ending ‘de minimis’

There is one tariff announcement Trump made that’s a boon for U.S-based sellers like Kenney: closing the loophole known as “de minimis.” 

This exemption allowed orders under $800 to avoid paying duties and taxes, and it’s what made absurdly low prices possible on direct-from-China sites like Temu, Alibaba and Shein. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it processed more than 1.3 billion de minimis shipments in 2024, up from over 1 billion shipments in 2023.

Chinese sellers send small orders directly to U.S. customers to keep shipments under the $800 limit. U.S. sellers like Kenney don’t often qualify for de minimis because they ship in large quantities by the pallet, bringing products to their warehouses for quality checks instead of shipping straight to customers from Chinese factories.

Kenney used to sell her most popular product, a set of six silicone baby spoons, for $9.99 on Amazon. She’s reduced the price to $7.99 to compete with knockoffs that sell for as low as $3 on Temu.

“I’ve even had them rip off all of my photos and content that I’ve created and use it to sell their knockoff products,” Kenney said.

Dusty Kenney showed CNBC some of her PrimaStella brand kids feeding products she sells on Amazon, at her warehouse in San Rafael, California, on March 25, 2025.

Katie tarasov

Trump briefly put de minimis on hold in February. Days later, he temporarily reinstated the loophole because huge numbers of Chinese packages started piling up at U.S. post offices and customs offices ill-equipped to collect duties at such a fast pace. 

The president on April 2 again announced that he was ending de minimis, effective May 2. 

The White House said “adequate systems” are now in place to collect tariffs. It added that the loophole is being closed to target “deceptive” Chinese-based shippers who “hide illicit substances, including synthetic opioids, in low-value packages to exploit the de minimis exemption.”

Foreman of Basic Fun said his Tonka Truck goes through many layers of inspection before landing on Amazon. 

“Anything that comes in on de minimis is not going through that safety scrutiny at all,” Foreman said. “Small packets that might have included a dress or some kind of tchotchke might have been stuffed with illegal drugs or things like that, might be counterfeit, might be bootlegs or knockoffs.”

Some Amazon sellers were benefiting from de minimis, particularly on its separate direct-from-China site Amazon Haul, which launched in November to compete with Temu. But killing de minimis will be a net positive for Amazon because it will hurt competitors like Temu, said Ives at Wedbush Securities. 

De minimis is a “loophole that’s been tugging at Amazon really for the last 18 months,” Ives said. 

What remains to be seen is how Trump’s tariffs will shift in coming weeks and what tariffs other countries will impose on U.S. goods. Those pose a risk for Amazon and its U.S. merchants that sell to foreign customers.

“It just has a cascading impact across the entire economy,” Goldberg of Publicis Groupe said. “Uncertainty is really bad for business, regardless of who wins or loses on any specific tariff.”

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Apple drops 4% after notching best day since 1998

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Apple drops 4% after notching best day since 1998

Apple shares declined more than 4% Thursday, giving back some of Wednesday’s gains that pushed the iPhone maker to its best day since January 1998.

The technology giant, down 13% so far this month and down 23% since the start of 2025, surged more than 15% Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on some tariffs and dropped the tariff on most countries to 10% to allow negotiations.

The news spurred a widespread market rally that pushed the Nasdaq Composite to its second-best day ever and biggest one-day gain since January 2001, while the S&P 500 recorded its third-biggest gain since World War II. The tech-heavy index was last down more than 3% as markets reversed course.

Tesla dropped 6%, while Meta Platforms and Nvidia declined about 4% each. Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon were last down about 2% each.

Semiconductor stocks reliant on production and manufacturing outside the U.S. also slumped, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF shedding nearly 5% after a 17% gain and its best session ever. While the sector has been excluded from the recent tariffs, chipmakers have sold off on fears that tariffs will eat away at demand and hurt the economy. Targeted tariffs also remain on the horizon.

On Semiconductor, Marvell Technology, Micron Technology and Apple suppliers Qorvo and Skyworks Solutions plunged more than 7% each. Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom and Intel fell at least 5% each.

WATCH: Ives: Buckle up—Tech is heading into a period of major volatility

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