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United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the first two demonstration satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband internet constellation stands ready for launch on pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on October 5, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States.

Paul Hennessey | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Amazon delayed the launch of its Kuiper internet satellites due to poor weather conditions on Wednesday night.

A United Launch Alliance rocket carrying 27 Kuiper satellites was set to lift off from a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, but ULA said it couldn’t continue countdown operations as “stubborn cumulus clouds” and heavy winds pushed the launch outside its planned window, according to a livestream.

“Weather is observed and forecast NO GO for liftoff within the remaining launch window at Cape Canaveral this evening,” ULA said. The company said it will provide a new launch date at a later point.

Six years ago Amazon unveiled its plans to build a constellation of internet satellites in low Earth orbit, a region of space that’s within 1,200 miles of Earth’s surface. The company aims to sell high-speed, low-latency internet to consumers, corporations and governments, offering connections through square-shaped terminals. Commercial service is expected to come online later this year.

Amazon is racing to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink, the dominant player in the market, with 8,000 satellites already up in the air. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk now has a central role in the White House as one of President Donald Trump’s top advisors, overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Since Musk took on the role, Starlink’s footprint has increased within the federal government.

The clock is ticking for Amazon to meet a deadline set by the Federal Communications Commission, which requires the company to have half of its total constellation, or 1,618 satellites, up in the air by July 2026.

Once it completes its first launch, Amazon expects to ramp up its production, processing and deployment rates. It’s begun prepping satellites for its next mission, which will also hitch a ride on one of ULA’s Atlas V rockets.

WATCH: Amazon launches Project Kuiper

Amazon launches Project Kuiper prototypes to low orbit as tech giant enters satellite internet race

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Amazon emails sellers to gauge how Trump’s tariffs are impacting their businesses

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Amazon emails sellers to gauge how Trump's tariffs are impacting their businesses

Packages ride on a conveyor belt during Cyber Monday, one of the company’s busiest days at an Amazon fulfillment center on December 2, 2024 in Orlando, Florida. 

Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo | Getty Images

Amazon is reaching out to third-party merchants, who account for the majority of products the company sells, to gauge how President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are affecting their businesses.

Members of Amazon’s seller relations team began contacting some U.S. merchants last week, according to an email viewed by CNBC. The email asks how the “current U.S. tariff situation” has impacted sellers’ sourcing and pricing strategies, logistics operations and plans to ship goods into Amazon warehouses.

“I wanted to open a discussion about the current U.S. tariff situation and how it’s affecting our businesses on Amazon, particularly in terms of logistics,” the email says. “As of April 2025, we’re still dealing with the repercussions of various tariff policies, and I believe it’s crucial for us that you share current experiences and strategies.”

Representatives from Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the email, which was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

Companies of all sizes are digesting the impact of Trump’s new tariffs. Earlier this month, the president signed an executive order imposing a far-reaching plan, but within days he reversed course and dropped country-specific tariffs down to a universal 10% rate for all trade partners except China, which faces tariffs of 125%. Stock and bond markets have fluctuated wildly in the past two weeks.

The levies on goods from China could be particularly burdensome for the millions of businesses that rely on Amazon’s third-party marketplace and source many of their products from the world’s second-largest economy. Third-party sellers now account for about 60% of all products sold on Amazon’s website.

Some Amazon sellers told CNBC they plan to hold steady on prices for as long as they can to remain competitive, but that the added cost of the tariffs could ultimately put them out of business if they remain in place.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last week that some sellers may end up passing the cost of tariffs onto consumers in the form of higher prices.

“I understand why, I mean, depending on which country you’re in, you don’t have 50% extra margin that you can play with,” Jassy said Thursday in an interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.

The tariffs have affected other parts of Amazon’s retail business. Last week, the company began to cancel some direct import orders for products sourced by vendors in China, consultants told CNBC. Some vendors of home goods and kitchen accessory items had products ready for pickup by Amazon at shipping ports, only to learn that their orders were canceled.

Amazon shares are down 18% so far this year, while the Nasdaq has fallen 13%.

WATCH: Trump tariffs mean higher prices, big losses for some Amazon sellers

Trump tariffs are raising prices on Amazon and threatening to ruin U.S. sellers who source in China

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Bunq, a neobank for ‘digital nomads,’ accelerates U.S. expansion effort as profit jumps 65%

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Bunq, a neobank for 'digital nomads,' accelerates U.S. expansion effort as profit jumps 65%

Dutch digital bank Bunq is plotting re-entry into the U.K. to tap into a “large and underserved” market of some 2.8 million British “digital nomads.”

Pavlo Gonchar | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Dutch digital bank Bunq on Tuesday said it’s filed for broker-dealer registration in the U.S. as it looks to further expand across the Atlantic.

Bunq CEO Ali Niknam said the broker-dealer application will be an initial step toward securing a full banking license. He couldn’t offer a firm timeline for when Bunq will secure this authorization in the U.S. — but said he’s excited for its growth prospects in the country.

Obtaining a broker-dealer license will mean Bunq “can offer our users who have an international footprint — which is the user demography we’re aiming for — a great number of our services,” Niknam told CNBC. Bunq mainly caters for “digital nomads,” individuals who can live and work from anywhere remotely.

Bunq will be able to offer most of its services in the U.S. with the exception of a savings account after securing broker-dealer authorization, Niknam added.

Bunq, which touts itself as a bank for “digital nomads,” currently has a banking license in the European Union. It has applied for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) in the U.K. Bunq previously had operations in Britain but forced to withdraw from the country in 2020 due to Brexit.

Bunq initially filed for a U.S. Federal bank charter in April 2023. However, it withdrew the application a year later, citing issues between its Dutch regulator and U.S. agencies. The company plans to resubmit its application for a full U.S. banking license later this year.

65% jump in profit

Beyond the update on international expansion, Bunq also on Tuesday reported a 65% year-over-year jump in profit to 85.3 million euros ($97.2 million). That jump was primarily driven by a 55% increase in net interest income, while net fee income also grew 35%.

Similarly to fintech peers such as N26 and Monzo, Bunq has benefited from a high interest rate environment by pocketing yields on customer deposits sat at the central bank.

Bunq’s CEO told CNBC that, while high interest rates have certainly helped, more generally Bunq is seeing increased usage of the platform and has been focused on cost efficiency from an operational perspective.

“Because we are so lean and mean, and because we have set up all of our systems from scratch … we have been able to not only increase our profits, but also offer very good interest rates in the European market in general, and in the Netherlands specifically,” Niknam said.

Ripple president says crypto 'here to stay' regardless of short-term volatility

More recently, central banks in the EU and U.K. and U.S. have moved to slash interest rates in response to falling inflation and concerns of an economic slowdown, which can bite into bank earnings.

Niknam said he’s not concerned by the prospect of rates coming down and expects potential declines in interest income to be offset by a “diversified” revenue mix that includes income from paid subscription products, as well as new features. Bunq recently launched a tool that lets users trade stocks.

“This is different in continental Europe to the U.K. We had negative interest rates for long,” Niknam told CNBC. “So as we were growing, actually our cost base was also growing because we had to pay for all the deposits that people deposited a Bunq so I think we’re in a great position in 2025

Bunq is coming up against heaps of competition, especially in the U.S. market. America is already served by established consumer banking giants, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. It’s also home to several major fintech brands, such as Chime and Robinhood.

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HPE shares pop after activist Elliott Management takes $1.5 billion stake

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HPE shares pop after activist Elliott Management takes .5 billion stake

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Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise jumped nearly 5% after Elliott Investment Management built a more than $1.5 billion stake in the server maker, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.

The activist investor hopes to engage the company in discussions on how to improve shareholder value, the source said.

Elliott declined to comment on the news. HPE did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request.

Shares of the data center equipment maker have lost more than a fourth in value this year. Last month, the company topped quarterly revenue expectations, but issued weak fiscal full-year guidance. HPE said it was grappling with higher discounting and expected price adjustments to weigh on its top-line growth.

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Elliott has a long history in pushing for changes at some of the world’s largest companies, including Salesforce, Southwest Airlines and Starbucks.

Most recently, the investment management firm took a $1.5 billion stake in industrial software maker Aspen Technology, and said it opposed a deal that would allow Emerson Electric to buy remaining shares of the company in a $7.2 billion deal. In March, the firm named nominees to join the board of oil company Phillips 66, where it has amassed a $2.5 billion stake.

HPE is currently in attempting to buy Juniper Networks for $14 billion, but the U.S. Department of Justice sued to block the deal earlier this year.

Bloomberg first reported the news.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Elliott took a $1.5 billion stake in HPE. A previous version of the story misstated the amount.

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