Connect with us

Published

on

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan speaks during the New York Times annual DealBook Summit in New York City on Nov. 29, 2023.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan cited the surging stock prices of Nvidia and Arm as an example of how blocking mergers can lead to increased innovation.

Speaking at a Bloomberg and Y Combinator conference on Tuesday, Khan said that when the $40 billion merger was called off due to “significant regulatory challenges” in 2022, it forced both companies to innovate and create new products.

The remarks suggest Khan and the FTC see the blocked Nvidia deal, which Khan said would have been “the largest semiconductor chip merger in history,” as an example of a successful antitrust action that doesn’t hamper companies from pursuing financial success or embracing new technologies such as artificial intelligence.

“The trajectories of both companies in the wake of this action has illustrated how organic growth and competition can spur firms to further innovate in ways that benefit the business and public alike,” Khan said at the conference.

The evidence, Khan said, is in the company stock prices.

“Not only has Nvidia remained the leading AI chipmaker in the AI chip arms race, with a surging stock valuation, but Arm ended up going public and has a forward earnings multiple that is more than double Nvidia’s,” Khan said.

In September 2020, Nvidia announced plans to acquire Arm for $40 billion in cash and stock. Both firms hailed the deal as a way to create the premier computing company for the “age of AI.

But the acquisition quickly met resistance from regulators in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Arm’s core technology, its instruction set architecture, is used by companies such as Apple, Google and Qualcomm to build processors. Arm is often described as a “neutral supplier” that doesn’t compete with its customers.

Those companies and regulators worried that Nvidia could control access to Arm’s architecture, giving it the power to foreclose access to a key input needed to make their chips. Nvidia said it would invest in Arm and allow other companies continued use of Arm’s chip designs, preserving the company’s licensing model.

The FTC sued in late 2021 to block the merger, and in combination with pressure with other regulatory challenges, the deal collapsed less than three months later.

“Our team determined that giving one of the largest chip companies control over the computing technology and designs that rival firms rely on to develop their own competing chips would be bad for competition and hamstring innovation of next-generation technology,” Khan said Tuesday.

Nvidia shares have rocketed since the deal was called off as the company has established a leading position in AI chips. Nvidia’s value has nearly tripled mostly on the strength of sales of its AI chips for servers such as the A100 and H100. It’s now worth just under $2 trillion, the third-most valuable U.S. company.

Arm stock has more than doubled since the company went public in August 2023, although SoftBank still owns 90% of the company’s shares. Investors have bid up its share price in the hope that its technology will be essential for developing and deploying AI software.

Arm is now worth more than $143 billion, and, as Khan noted, investors have given the company a high earnings multiple, suggesting that they see strong growth in the company’s future.

Representatives for Nvidia and Arm declined to comment.

Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO:

Continue Reading

Technology

Apple’s 3-day loss in market cap swells to almost $640 billion

Published

on

By

Apple's 3-day loss in market cap swells to almost 0 billion

(L-R) Apple CEO Tim Cook, Vivek Ramaswamy and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem attend the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th U.S. President in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025.

Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images

While the stock market broadly fared better on Monday than in the prior two trading days, Apple got hammered once again, losing 3.7%, as concerns mounted that the company will take a major hit from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The sell-off brings Apple’s three-day rout to 19%, a downdraft that has wiped out $638 billion in market cap.

Apple is one of the most exposed companies to a trade war, analyst say, due largely to its reliance on China, which is facing 54% tariffs. Although Apple has production in India, Vietnam and Thailand, those countries also face increased tariffs as part of Trump’s sweeping plan.

Among tech’s megacap companies, Apple is having the roughest stretch. On Monday, the only stocks to drop in that group of seven were Apple, Microsoft and Tesla.

The Nasdaq finished almost barely up on Monday after plummeting 10% last week, its worst performance in more than five years.

Analysts say Apple will likely either need to raise prices or eat additional tariff costs when the new duties come into effect. UBS analysts estimated on Monday that Apple’s highest-end iPhone could rise in price by about $350, or around 30%, from its current price of $1,199.

Barclays analyst Tim Long wrote that he expects Apple to raise prices, or the company could suffer as much as a 15% cut to earnings per share. Apple may also be able to rearrange its supply chain so that imports to the U.S. come from other countries with lower tariffs.

Apple declined to comment on the tariffs.

WATCH: Apple plummets on Trump tariffs

Apple plummets on Trump tariffs: Here's what you need to know

Continue Reading

Technology

Apple’s highest-end iPhone could see $350 price hike in U.S. on Trump tariffs, analyst predicts

Published

on

By

Apple's highest-end iPhone could see 0 price hike in U.S. on Trump tariffs, analyst predicts

A customer checks Apple’s latest iPhone 16 Plus (right) and Apple’s latest iPhone 16 Pro Max (left) series displayed for sale at Master Arts Shop in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on Sept. 26, 2024.

Firdous Nazir | Nurphoto | Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs could lead Apple to raise the price of the iPhone 16 Pro Max by as much as $350 in the U.S., UBS analysts estimated Monday.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is Apple’s highest-end iPhone on the market, and currently retails for $1,199. UBS is predicting a nearly 30% increase in retail price for units that were manufactured in China.

Apple’s $999 phone, the iPhone 16 Pro, could see a smaller $120 price increase, if the company has it manufactured in India, the UBS analysts wrote.

Shares of Apple have plummeted 20% over the past three trading days, wiping out nearly $640 billion in market cap, on concern that Trump’s tariffs will force the company to raise prices just as consumers are losing buying power.

“Based on the checks we have done at a company level, there is a lot of uncertainty about how the increased cost sharing will be done with suppliers, the extent to which costs can be passed on to end-customers, and the duration of tariffs,” UBS analyst Sundeep Gantori wrote in the note.

Apple, which does the majority of its manufacturing in China, is one of the most exposed companies to a trade war. China has a potential incoming 54% tariff rate — before new increases were proposed Monday. Smaller tariffs were also placed on secondary production locations, such as India, Vietnam and Thailand.

JPMorgan Chase analysts predicted last week that Apple could raise its prices 6% across the world to offset the U.S. tariffs. Barclays analyst Tim Long wrote that he expects Apple to raise prices, or it could suffer as much as a 15% cut to earnings per share.

If Apple were to relocate iPhone production to the U.S. — a move that most supply chain experts say is impossible — Wedbush’s Dan Ives predicts an iPhone could cost $3,500.

Morgan Stanley analysts on Friday said Apple could absorb additional tariff costs of about $34 billion annually. They wrote that although Apple has diversified its production in recent years to additional countries — so-called friendshoring — those countries could also end up with tariffs, reducing Apple’s flexibility.

After last week’s “reciprocal tariff announcement, there becomes very little differentiation in friend shoring vs. manufacturing in China — if the product is not made in the US, it will be subject to a hefty import tariff,” Morgan Stanley wrote.

Last week, the firm estimated that Apple may raise its prices across its product lines in the U.S. by 17% to 18%. Apple could also get exemptions from the U.S. government for its products.

WATCH: Apple plummets on Trump tariffs

Apple plummets on Trump tariffs: Here's what you need to know

Continue Reading

Technology

Elon Musk’s brother slams Trump tariffs, calls them ‘permanent tax on the American consumer’

Published

on

By

Elon Musk's brother slams Trump tariffs, calls them 'permanent tax on the American consumer'

Kimbal Musk, co-founder of The Kitchen Community, speaks during the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, May 3, 2016.

Patrick T. Fallon  | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Elon Musk’s younger brother, Kimbal, took to the social network X on Monday to lambaste President Donald Trump’s tariffs, calling them a “structural, permanent tax on the American consumer.” He also said Trump appears to be the “most high tax American President in generations.”

“Even if he is successful in bringing jobs on shore through the tariff tax, prices will remain high and the tax on consumption will remain the form of higher prices because we are simply not as good at making things,” Kimbal Musk wrote on X, one of the companies in his brother’s extensive portfolio.

The younger Musk owns a restaurant chain called The Kitchen, is a board member at Tesla and a former director at SpaceX and Chipotle. He has also co-founded and invested in other food and tech startups, including Square Roots, an indoor farming company, and Nova Sky Stories, a creator of drone light shows that he bought from Intel.

Elon Musk is a top advisor to Trump, overseeing the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, an effort to drastically cut federal spending, largely through layoffs, and consolidate or eliminate agencies and regulations. However, his relationship with some key figures in the Trump administration has been showing signs of strain in recent days as the president’s sweeping tariffs have led to a dramatic selloff in stocks, including for Tesla, which is down 42% this year and just wrapped up its worst quarter since 2022.

Over the weekend, Elon Musk took aim at Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro, disparaging his qualifications in a post on X.

“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” Musk wrote, after Navarro told CNN on Saturday that “The market will find a bottom” and that the Dow will “hit 50,000 during Trump’s term.” It’s currently at about 38,200.

Musk also said that Navarro hasn’t built “sh—.” Navarro told CNBC on Monday that Musk is “not a car manufacturer” but rather a “car assembler,” dependent on parts from Japan, China and Taiwan.

Tesla was seeking a more moderate approach to trade and tariffs in a recent letter to the U.S. Trade Representative.

According to Federal Election Commission filings, Kimbal Musk this year has contributed funds to the Libertarian National Committee and Libertarian Party of Connecticut. In 2024, while his brother became the biggest financial backer and promoter of Trump, Kimbal donated to Unite America PAC, a group that markets itself as a “philanthropic venture fund that invests in nonpartisan election reform to foster a more representative and functional government.”

A representative for Kimbal Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

WATCH: Tesla Q1 deliveries worse than expected

Tesla Q1 deliveries worse than expected

Continue Reading

Trending