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POLAND – 2023/07/31: In this photo illustration an AMD logo seen displayed on a smartphone with stock market percentages on a laptop screen. (Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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U.S. chip design firm Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday unveiled new processors to power artificial intelligence-enabled PCs as it seeks to gain leadership in the AI PC race against rivals like Nvidia and Intel.

AI PCs are personal computers equipped with processors designed to perform AI tasks, such as real-time language translation and summarization.

Referring to them as the most powerful chips yet for business PCs, AMD said the Ryzen Pro 8040 series processors for laptops and the Ryzen Pro 8000 series processors for desktops are built with the advanced 4-nanometer technology.

These processors are expected to power PC models from brands including HP and Lenovo from the second quarter of 2024, AMD said in a press release Tuesday.

These new AMD chips will compete against Nvidia’s and Intel’s chips that are specifically designed for AI PCs.

Like Nvidia, AMD doesn’t fabricate its own chips. Instead, it outsources the manufacturing of its chips to semiconductor foundries, mainly to the world’s largest contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

TSMC currently produces 3-nanometer chips and plans to commence mass production of 2-nanometer chips in 2025. Typically, a smaller nanometer size yields more powerful and efficient chips. 

In January, AMD announced the next-generation Ryzen 8000G series desktop processors which are able to provide “immense power and dominant performance for intensive workloads including gaming and content creation.” The 8000G series is built on the 4-nanometer process.

AMD and Intel have talked up AI PCs as a new era for the industry. Last year saw an AI boom after ChatGPT’s launch in November 2022.

AMD CEO Lisa Su: Everyone will want an AI PC as the technology progresses

U.S. consulting firm Gartner estimates shipments of AI PCs will consist of 22% of all PCs in 2024. The research firm expects 54.5 million units of AI PCs to be shipped by the end of the year.

“The rapid adoption of on-device GenAI capabilities and AI processors will eventually become a standard requirement for technology vendors,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior director analyst at Gartner.

However, this could present challenges to vendors as they would face difficulties “differentiating themselves from competitors” and increasing revenue, said Atwal.

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China suspends some critical mineral export curbs to the U.S. as trade truce takes hold

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China suspends some critical mineral export curbs to the U.S. as trade truce takes hold

Crystals of gallium are seen in a laboratory at Freiberg University of Mining and Technology in Saxony, Germany on 13 September 2023.

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China has rolled back a number of restrictions on its export of critical minerals and rare earth materials to the United States, in a sign that a trade truce between the world’s two largest economies is holding.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said Friday that it would suspend some export controls on critical minerals used in military hardware, semiconductors and other high-tech industries for a year.

The suspended restrictions, first imposed on Oct. 9, include limits on the export of certain rare earth elements, lithium battery materials, and processing technologies.

The export relaxations follow talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30.

Beijing also reversed retaliatory curbs on exports of gallium, germanium, antimony and other so-called super-hard materials such as synthetic diamonds and boron nitrides. Those measures, introduced in December 2024, were widely seen as retaliation for Washington’s expanded semiconductor export restrictions on China. 

China classifies such materials as “dual-use items,” meaning they can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

Beyond military applications, these critical minerals are used across the semiconductor industry and other high-tech sectors — sectors at the heart of U.S.-China trade tensions.

Beijing has also suspended the stricter end-user and end-use verification checks for exports of dual-use graphite to the U.S., which were imposed in December 2024 alongside the broader export ban.

China dominates global production of most critical minerals and rare earth elements and has increasingly used its export policies as leverage in trade disputes. 

As part of the latest China-U.S. trade deal, the U.S. has agreed to several concessions, including lowering tariffs on Chinese imports by 10 percentage points, and suspending Trump’s heightened “reciprocal tariffs” on Chinese imports until Nov. 10, 2026.

The U.S. will also postpone a rule announced Sept. 29 that would have blacklisted majority-owned subsidiaries of Chinese companies on its entity list.

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CNBC Daily Open: Too early to fret about tech pullback?

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CNBC Daily Open: Too early to fret about tech pullback?

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on November 07, 2025 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

November is historically the best month for the S&P 500, which gains an average of 1.8% during the period, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.

But the first full trading week of the month saw stocks caught in November rains.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost more than 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed around 3% — that’s its largest weekly loss since the tech-heavy index slumped 10% in the week ended April 4.

A few months ago, tariffs were the shadows that stalked stocks. Now, it’s fears that artificial intelligence-related stocks are trading at prices disconnected from what the firms are actually worth.

“You’ve got trillions of dollars tied up in seven stocks, for example. So, it’s inevitable, with that kind of concentration, that there will be a worry about, ‘You know, when will this bubble burst?‘” CEO of DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, Tan Su Shan told CNBC.

Goldman Sachs’ CEO David Solomon also thinks choppy waters might be ahead.

“It’s likely there’ll be a 10 to 20% drawdown in equity markets sometime in the next 12 to 24 months,” Solomon said Tuesday at the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in Hong Kong.

That said, a pullback isn’t necessarily bad for stocks. It could even present “buying opportunities” for investors, according to Glen Smith, chief investment officer at GDS Wealth Management.

After all, earnings have been “reassuring” despite worries about tech stocks’ high valuations, Kiran Ganesh, multi-asset strategist at UBS, told CNBC. That means the rain might not last and the rally could find a way to run a little longer.

— CNBC’s Lee Ying Shan, Hugh Leask and Lim Hui Jie contributed to this report.

What you need to know today

Major U.S. index were mixed Friday stateside. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up more than 0.1%, but the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.21% lower. The pan-European Stoxx 600 lost 0.55%. U.S. futures rose Sunday evening stateside.

China consumer prices pick up in October. The consumer price index, released Sunday, showed a 0.2% growth year on year. It beats analysts’ expectations of zero growth and is the first month since June that prices rose.

U.S. government on track to end shutdown. Enough Democratic senators had agreed to vote for a deal that would fund the U.S. government through the end of January, a person familiar with the deal told CNBC.

Another missed jobs report. The ongoing U.S. government shutdown — which is now the longest ever — means the Bureau of Labor Statistics couldn’t release its monthly employment data. Here’s what economists would have expected the report to show.

[PRO] Stocks that could bounce after sell-off. Using CNBC Pro’s stock screener tool, we found several names that are oversold, according to their 14-day relative strength index. This implies they could be due for a recovery in prices.

And finally…

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A global wealth boom is fueling a rise in family office imposters

Fundraisers and fraudsters are presenting themselves as family office representatives, seeking to dupe gullible investors — and then there are also imposters who are in it just for an “ego boost,” several industry veterans told CNBC.

An information vacuum seems to have encouraged imposters. In many markets, genuine single family offices, or SFOs, are exempt from registering so long as they manage only family money. That privacy norm often makes verification hard, said industry experts.

Lee Ying Shan

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Week in review: The Nasdaq’s worst week since April, three trades, and earnings

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Week in review: The Nasdaq's worst week since April, three trades, and earnings

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