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Huawei’s official website in China listed details of the Huawei Pura 70 series.

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Huawei launched a fresh line-up of smartphones on Thursday in a bid to continue its resurgence in China and ramp up its challenge to Apple in the market.

The Chinese technology giant took the wraps of the Pura 70 series, which replaces the “P series” of devices that the company first launched in 2012.

It’s the latest sign of growing confidence from Huawei, after the company last year quietly launched its Mate 60 smartphone, which sported a high-end chip. This raised concerns in Washington, because the U.S. had slapped sanctions over the past few years which were designed to stop Huawei from accessing such technology.

These sanctions, which began in 2019, almost wiped out Huawei’s smartphone business.

Now Huawei is trying to stage a comeback. The company’s smartphone shipments in China rose 64% year over year in the first six weeks of 2024, according to Counterpoint Research, while Apple iPhone sales dropped 24% across the period.

Huawei’s latest phones are its latest challenge to Apple, which is the dominant foreign smartphone brand in China.

The Pura 70 series as four devices — the Pura 70, Pura 70 Pro, the Pura 70 Pro Plus and the Pura 70 Ultra — according to Huawei’s official website.

Here are the starting prices in China for each:

  • Pura 70: 5,499 yuan
  • Pura 70 Pro: 6,499 yuan
  • Pura 70 Pro Plus: 7,999 yuan
  • Pura 70 Ultra: 9,999 yuan

Apple’s iPhone 15 in China starts at 5,999 yuan, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at 9,999. So Huawei is challenging Apple directly in the same price categories.

Huawei has packed the devices with premium smartphone features. The back of the phone has a textured covering, while the Ultra version of the gear has a 6.8-inch screen. All of the new phone offerings are equipped with cameras that are a triple-lens setup, with features including long-range zoom and the ability to capture images of objects moving at speed.

The Pura 70 series also runs HarmonyOS 4.2, Huawei’s proprietary operating system which it first released in 2019 after U.S. sanctions cut it off from Google’s Android.

Huawei has not revealed the central processing chip inside the device, after eyebrows were raised at its semiconductor breakthrough last year. Several bloggers on Chinese social media suggest the phone is using a Huawei-designed Kirin 9010 processor, which CNBC could not independently verify.

This would be an upgrade from the Kirin 9000s, which was reportedly used in the Mate 60 last year.

Huawei was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

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Elon Musk’s xAI raising $10 billion at $200 billion valuation: sources

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September 19, 2025

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Elon Musk's xAI raising billion at 0 billion valuation: sources

Elon Musk’s xAI raises $10 billion at $200 billion valuation: sources

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has raised $10 billion from investors that puts the company’s post-money valuation at $200 billion, sources told CNBC’s David Faber.

The valuation for Musk’s AI company is the latest example of skyrocketing valuations for companies that develop foundational AI models. Earlier this month, Anthropic raised $13 billion at a $183 billion valuation. OpenAI, the largest company in the industry, held a secondary share sale that valued it at $500 billion.

The fundraising comes weeks after Musk raised $10 billion in debt and equity at what was believed to be a roughly $150 billion valuation, according to Faber. Last December, xAI raised $6 billion to fund its artificial intelligence development.

However, xAI’s Grok service is widely believed to lag behind Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s GPT models in terms of capabilities and number of users.

Musk said in May that he wants to buy a million AI chips, Faber said. Much of the proceeds of this round of funding could go to building data centers filled with Nvidia and AMD AI chips called GPUs that are needed to develop next-generation AI, as well as to hire expensive talent. The company is currently building a large cluster of AI computers in Memphis, Tennessee.

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

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Top Amazon reseller Pattern opens at $13.50 in Nasdaq debut after IPO raised $300 million

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September 19, 2025

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Top Amazon reseller Pattern opens at .50 in Nasdaq debut after IPO raised 0 million

Pattern Group, one of the leading resellers on Amazon, took the plunge into the public markets on Friday, and saw its stock slip in its Nasdaq debut.

Trading under the ticker “PTRN,” the stock opened at $13.50 after the company sold shares at $14 in its IPO, the middle of the expected range. Pattern’s offering raised $300 million, with half the proceeds going to investors, and valued the company at about $2.5 billion.

The Utah-based company was founded by husband and wife duo David Wright and Melanie Alder in 2013 as iServe Products before changing its name to Pattern in 2019. Pattern currently ranks as the No. 2 Amazon seller in the U.S., based on the number of customer reviews, according to research firm Marketplace Pulse.

The company describes itself as an “ecommerce accelerator” that helps more than 200 brands optimize their sales on online marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, Target and TikTok Shop. It sells tens of thousands of products across categories ranging from health and wellness, consumer electronics, as well as beauty and personal care. Some of its brand partners include Nestle, Panasonic and Skechers.

The tech IPO market has roared back to life in recent months after an extended dry spell. Ticket reseller StubHub debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, though its stock dropped in its first two days of trading. Online lender Klarna and Gemini, the crypto firm founded by Cameron and Tyler Wiklevoss, started trading last week. Peter Thiel-backed cryptocurrency exchange Bullish, design software company Figma and stablecoin issuer Circle have also recently hit the market.

In the second quarter, Pattern reported revenue growth of 39% from a year earlier to $598.2 million. The company recorded net income of $16.4 million in the second quarter, compared with $11.3 million a year earlier. Operating income came in at $30.1 million for the period versus $23.1 million in the same period last year.

The company competes with millions of merchants who hawk their wares on Amazon’s sprawling marketplace, where third-party vendors now account for more than half of all goods sold on the site. Pattern said 94% of its 2024 revenue came from consumer product sales on Amazon, with a “substantial majority” in the U.S.

Pattern isn’t the first Amazon seller to pursue an IPO. Pharmapacks, once the top U.S. Amazon seller, eyed going public via a special purpose acquisition company in 2021, before nixing those plans and filing for bankruptcy a year later.

Pattern is hitting the market at a time of major global trade uncertainty, a factor it acknowledged in its prospectus. President Donald Trump‘s tariff threats against trade partners have, for the past five months, sent shockwaves through markets and shaken businesses globally.

“There is significant uncertainty as to the potential actions of the U.S. government with respect to international trade policy and the impact of tariffs, particularly with respect to trade between the United States and China,” Pattern wrote in the filing.

Pattern said the tariffs and trade tensions between the U.S. and China could negatively impact demand for its products, or harm its ability “to sell brand partner products at prices consumers are willing to pay.”

CEO David Wright told CNBC in an interview on Friday that the company was trying to hold its offering “a few months ago,” but delayed because of the tariffs, which were first announced in April. Klarna and StubHub put their IPOs on hold after the market plummeted on Trump’s initial announcement.

But the company’s top risk, according to its prospectus, is its reliance on Amazon and what can happen if the ecommerce giant makes significant alterations.

Pattern said that should Amazon restrict its ability to sell products, terminate the relationship or see any big changes due to litigation or regulation, it “could adversely affect our continued growth, financial condition and results of operations.”

Wright said the Amazon challenge is unavoidable.

“No matter what you’re doing in this space, you’re going to be playing with them,” Wright said. As for Amazon suspending certain brands and sellers, “so long as you stay within the line, they’ve been a great partner for us,” he said.

WATCH: Barclays sees around 20 tech IPOs by year-end

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Apple CEO Tim Cook says iPhone price hikes are not tied to tariffs

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September 19, 2025

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Apple CEO Tim Cook says iPhone price hikes are not tied to tariffs

iPhone 17 goes on sale: Apple CEO Tim Cook opens flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City

Apple CEO Tim Cook said price hikes on the newest iPhone models aren’t tied to President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans.

“There’s no increase for tariffs in the prices to be totally clear,” Cook told CNBC’s Jim Cramer from Apple’s Fifth Avenue store location in New York City, as the latest iPhone model launched in stores worldwide.

It is one of the first instances in which Cook has decisively addressed tariffs in relation to iPhone prices.

Earlier this month, Apple increased the price of its iPhone 17 Pro model by $100, while maintaining the prices of its entry-level phones. It also introduced an Air model that replaced the Plus at steeper price point.

Many analysts had widely anticipated price hikes despite Cook’s attempts to dodge tariffs.

To circumvent the levies, Apple has pivoted its supply chain to import iPhones to the U.S. from lower tariff countries, such as India and Vietnam. Apple has historically produced a majority of its products in China.

Cook has also made public appearances with Trump as the company commits at least $600 billion toward bolstering U.S. manufacturing and supporting suppliers.

During the June quarter, Cook revealed that the company took an $800-million hit from costs tied to tariffs.

At the same time, Apple faces questions about its slow AI rollout, as well as rising competition in international markets such as China.

“We have AI everywhere in the phone,” Cook told CNBC on Friday. “We just don’t call it” that.

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