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Shein and Temu icons are seen displayed on a phone screen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on August 27, 2024. 

Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s tariffs against China, Canada and Mexico target a trade provision that helped fuel the explosive growth of budget online retailers, including Temu and Shein.

Trump on Saturday signed executive orders imposing tariffs on the country’s top three trading partners. Goods imported from Canada and Mexico will be slapped with a 25% tariff, while goods from China will be charged a 10% tax. Energy resources from Canada will have a lower 10% tariff. The duties are expected to take effect on Tuesday.

The orders against China, Canada and Mexico all halt a trade exemption, known as “de minimis,” which allows exporters to ship packages worth less than $800 into the U.S. duty free.

The de minimis provision has existed since the 1930s, but its use has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. The Biden administration took steps last September to curb the “overuse and abuse” of de minimis, arguing it has helped Chinese e-commerce companies undercut competitors with lower prices. Officials have also argued that de minimis shipments are “subject to minimal documentation and inspection,” raising product safety concerns.

The U.S. processed more than 1.3 billion de minimis shipments in 2024, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. That’s up from 139 million a year in 2015, the CBP said.

The loophole has enabled low-cost e-commerce companies like PDD Holdings-owned Temu, Shein, and Alibaba‘s AliExpress, which all have links to China, to offer a virtual smorgasbord of cheap apparel, household items and electronics, such as $15 smartwatches and $3 shoes.

Shein and Temu have gone on a digital marketing blitz over the last few years in an attempt to lure more deal-hungry shoppers. Temu in 2024 vaulted to the top of Apple’s list of the most downloaded free apps in the U.S. for the second year in a row, while Shein came in at number 12.

Representatives from Temu, Shein and Alibaba didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Temu has previously denied that its growth is dependent upon de minimis.

Shein previously told CNBC that import compliance is a “top priority.” Shein’s executive chairman, Donald Tang, has also said he supports efforts to reform de minimis, saying it needs a “complete makeover.”

Their popularity in the U.S. prompted Amazon to launch its own bargain outlet, called Haul, last year that allows third-party sellers to ship goods to consumers directly from China. Amazon reportedly relies on the de minimis trade rule to import items sold on Haul to bypass tariffs, The Information reported, citing people familiar with the program. An Amazon spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to CNBC for a request for comment.

Amazon, eBay and Etsy could stand to benefit from the Trump administration’s clampdown on the de minimis loophole. The companies operate online marketplaces that let third-party sellers market wares directly to consumers, competing directly with Temu and Shein.

Amazon has long connected Chinese manufacturers to American shoppers through its sprawling third-party marketplace. The marketplace is a key component of Amazon’s retail strategy, accounting for about 60% of products sold on the site. Amazon also generates fees by providing fulfillment, shipping, account support and advertising services to sellers.

China-based merchants have made up a sizable contingent of Amazon’s marketplace for many years, though the company acknowledged for the first time in 2023 that they account for a “significant portion.” By some estimates, they outnumber American sellers on the platform, according to data from Marketplace Pulse.

Temu and Shein have also expanded their strategies as the de minimis loophole came under threat. Last year, Temu began onboarding Chinese sellers to its site that have inventory at U.S. warehouses, allowing it to ship packages faster to American shoppers, according to The Information. Shein has also opened distribution centers and a supply chain hub in the U.S.

WATCH: Amazon Haul takes on Temu to bring shoppers cheap goods from China

Behind Amazon's quiet launch of Haul, competing with Temu in ultra low-price items from China

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AI voice startup ElevenLabs pushes global expansion as it gears up for an IPO

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AI voice startup ElevenLabs pushes global expansion as it gears up for an IPO

Founded in 2022, ElevenLabs is an AI voice generation startup based in London. It competes with the likes of Speechmatics and Hume AI.

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

LONDON — ElevenLabs, a London-based startup that specializes in generating synthetic voices through artificial intelligence, has revealed plans to be IPO-ready within five years.

The company told CNBC it is targeting major global expansion as it prepares for an initial public offering.

“We expect to build more hubs in Europe, Asia and South America, and just keep scaling,” Mati Staniszewski, ElevenLabs’ CEO and co-founder, told CNBC in an interview at the firm’s London office.

He identified Paris, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico as potential new locations. London is currently ElevenLabs’ biggest office, followed by New York, Warsaw, San Francisco, Japan, India and Bangalore.

Staniszewski said the eventual aim is to get the company ready for an IPO in the next five years.

“From a commercial standpoint, we would like to be ready for an IPO in that time,” he said. “If the market is right, we would like to create a public company … that’s going to be here for the next generation.”

Undecided on location

Fundraising plans

ElevenLabs was valued at $3.3 billion following a recent $180 million funding round. The company is backed by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and ICONIQ Growth, as well as corporate names like Salesforce and Deutsche Telekom.

Staniszewski said his startup was open to raising more money from VCs, but it would depend on whether it sees a valid business need, like scaling further in other markets. “The way we try to raise is very much like, if there’s a bet we want to take, to accelerate that bet [we will] take the money,” he said.

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U.S. lifts chip software curbs on China amid trade truce, Synopsys says

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U.S. lifts chip software curbs on China amid trade truce, Synopsys says

Synopsys logo is seen displayed on a smartphone with the flag of China in the background.

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The U.S. government has rescinded its export restrictions on chip design software to China, U.S.-based Synopsys announced Thursday. 

“Synopsys is working to restore access to the recently restricted products in China,” it said in a statement

The U.S. had reportedly told several chip design software companies, including Synopsys, in May that they were required to obtain licenses before exporting goods, such as software and chemicals for semiconductors, to China. 

The U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

The news comes after China signaled last week that they are making progress on a trade truce with the U.S. and confirmed conditional agreements to resume some exchanges of rare earths and advanced technology.

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Datadog stock jumps 10% on tech company’s inclusion in S&P 500 index

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Datadog stock jumps 10% on tech company’s inclusion in S&P 500 index

The Datadog stand is being displayed on day one of the AWS Summit Seoul 2024 at the COEX Convention and Exhibition Center in Seoul, South Korea, on May 16, 2024.

Chris Jung | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Datadog shares were up 10% in extended trading on Wednesday after S&P Global said the monitoring software provider will replace Juniper Networks in the S&P 500 U.S. stock index.

S&P Global is making the change effective before the beginning of trading on July 9, according to a statement.

Computer server maker Hewlett Packard Enterprise, also a constituent of the index, said earlier on Wednesday that it had completed its acquisition of Juniper, which makes data center networking hardware. HPE disclosed in a filing that it paid $13.4 billion to Juniper shareholders.

Over the weekend, the two companies reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, which had sued in opposition to the deal. As part of the settlement, HPE agreed to divest its global Instant On campus and branch business.

While tech already makes up an outsized portion of the S&P 500, the index has has been continuously lifting its exposure as the industry expands into more areas of society.

DoorDash was the latest tech company to join during the last rebalancing in March. Cloud software vendor Workday was added in December, and that was preceded earlier in 2024 with the additions of Palantir, Dell, CrowdStrike, GoDaddy and Super Micro Computer.

Stocks often rally when they’re added to a major index, as fund managers need to rebalance their portfolios to reflect the changes.

New York-based Datadog went public in 2019. The company generated $24.6 million in net income on $761.6 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2025, according to a statement. Competitors include Cisco, which bought Splunk last year, as well as Elastic and cloud infrastructure providers such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Datadog has underperformed the broader tech sector so far this year. The stock was down 5.5% as of Wednesday’s close, while the Nasdaq was up 5.6%. Still, with a market cap of $46.6 billion, Datadog’s valuation is significantly higher than the median for that index.

— CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report.

CNBC: Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel on the cloud computing outlook

Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel on the cloud computing outlook

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