Connect with us

Published

on

Apple is once again in the crosshairs of a global trade war. This time, the stakes may be even higher.

On April 2, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on a wide range of imported goods, including those from China, India, Vietnam and other countries critical to Apple’s supply chain. That move sent shockwaves through global markets, wiping out over $640 billion in Apple’s market value in just five days.

“It’s the most head-scratching, absurd policy move we’ve seen in years,” said Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities. “Apple is in the eye of the storm.”

CNBC technology reporter Kif Leswing calls it a “massive moment for Apple.”

“Even with all their efforts to diversify production, the company still depends on China, and now they’re facing tariffs from nearly every country they manufacture in,” Leswing said.

While the stock rebounded on Wednesday after Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for select nations, the broader uncertainty around Apple’s global manufacturing model hasn’t gone away. China tariffs remain at a staggering 145%.

“No company is more impacted by this tariff Armageddon than Apple,” Ives said.

Apple still assembles 90% of its iPhones in China, largely through its partnership with Foxconn. China also handles 80% of iPads and over half of Mac computers, according to Evercore ISI.

“Apple’s been trying to get ahead of this,” Leswing said. “They’ve been making iPhones in India, assembling Macs in Malaysia, sourcing from Vietnam, but those countries are now seeing tariffs too. That puts Apple in a really tough spot.”

India, Vietnam and Thailand were all key parts of Apple’s post-COVID diversification strategy. Under Trump’s new plan, imports from many of those countries face tariffs as high as 26% to 46%, although the president reduced most tariffs to 10% on Wednesday.

Still, the message from the White House is clear: Apple needs to make products in the U.S.

In theory, tariffs are meant to bring jobs and production back to the U.S. In practice, moving high-tech manufacturing out of China is neither fast nor cheap.

“If you want an iPhone made in the U.S. and you want it for $3,500, we should make it here,” said Ives. “If you want it for $1,000, you keep it in China.”

The iPhone 16 Pro Max currently starts at $1,199, but one UBS estimate shows that new tariffs could raise the price by $350. Erik Woodring of Morgan Stanley estimates Apple may need to increase prices across the board by 17% to 18% to cover the added cost.

Apple has started building some iPhones in India and iPads in Vietnam, but the company remains heavily reliant on China’s infrastructure, skilled labor force, and dense manufacturing network.

“It would take decades just to move 10% of Apple’s supply chain to the U.S.,” Ives said. “The global supply chain is built in Asia.”

As panic rippled through the markets, Apple kept quiet. The company has declined to comment publicly on the tariffs and has offered no updated guidance to suppliers or shareholders.

That stands in contrast to 2019, when CEO Tim Cook personally lobbied the first Trump administration to exempt iPhones from a previous round of tariffs, and succeeded. This time, no carve-outs have been announced.

“It’s kind of a cipher right now, what Tim Cook is cooking up in Cupertino,” said Leswing. “They’ve said very little.”

According to reporting from 9To5Mac, Apple has started modeling out different tariff scenarios and even chartered at least five planes in late March to stockpile products before tariffs took effect.

Analysts say Apple’s options are limited in the short term. The company is expected to delay price hikes until its next product cycle, likely with the iPhone 17, but that could impact demand in a cooling smartphone market.

Apple already faces pressure over its slow rollout of artificial intelligence features and stagnating hardware innovation. If the tariffs remain in place, or escalate further, the ripple effects could be massive.

“This could throw the U.S. into a self-inflicted recession,” Ives said.

So far, investors are watching closely for signs of a shift in strategy or a more forceful response from Apple leadership.

“Apple is the poster child for the trade war,” said Leswing. “And right now, they’re not saying much at all.”

Watch the video to understand how tariffs are shaking Apple’s supply chain and what it could mean for your next iPhone.

Continue Reading

Technology

Google agrees to pay Texas $1.4 billion data privacy settlement

Published

on

By

Google agrees to pay Texas .4 billion data privacy settlement

A Google corporate logo hangs above the entrance to the company’s office at St. John’s Terminal in New York City on March 11, 2025.

Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images

Google agreed to pay nearly $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle allegations of violating the data privacy rights of state residents, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Friday.

Paxton sued Google in 2022 for allegedly unlawfully tracking and collecting the private data of users.

The attorney general said the settlement, which covers allegations in two separate lawsuits against the search engine and app giant, dwarfed all past settlements by other states with Google for similar data privacy violations.

Google’s settlement comes nearly 10 months after Paxton obtained a $1.4 billion settlement for Texas from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to resolve claims of unauthorized use of biometric data by users of those popular social media platforms.

“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law,” Paxton said in a statement on Friday.

“For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won,” said Paxton.

“This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust.”

Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said the company did not admit any wrongdoing or liability in the settlement, which involves allegations related to the Chrome browser’s incognito setting, disclosures related to location history on the Google Maps app, and biometric claims related to Google Photo.

Castaneda said Google does not have to make any changes to products in connection with the settlement and that all of the policy changes that the company made in connection with the allegations were previously announced or implemented.

“This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” Castaneda said.

“We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”

Continue Reading

Technology

Virtual chronic care company Omada Health files for IPO

Published

on

By

Virtual chronic care company Omada Health files for IPO

Omada Health smart devices in use.

Courtesy: Omada Health

Virtual care company Omada Health filed for an IPO on Friday, the latest digital health company that’s signaled its intent to hit the public markets despite a turbulent economy.

Founded in 2012, Omada offers virtual care programs to support patients with chronic conditions like prediabetes, diabetes and hypertension. The company describes its approach as a “between-visit care model” that is complementary to the broader health-care ecosystem, according to its prospectus.

Revenue increased 57% in the first quarter to $55 million, up from $35.1 million during the same period last year, the filing said. The San Francisco-based company generated $169.8 million in revenue during 2024, up 38% from $122.8 million the previous year.

Omada’s net loss narrowed to $9.4 million during its first quarter from $19 million during the same period last year. It reported a net loss of $47.1 million in 2024, compared to a $67.5 million net loss during 2023.

The IPO market has been largely dormant across the tech sector for the past three years, and within digital health, it’s been almost completely dead. After President Donald Trump announced a sweeping tariff policy that plunged U.S. markets into turmoil last month, taking a company public is an even riskier endeavor. Online lender Klarna delayed its long-anticipated IPO, as did ticket marketplace StubHub.

But Omada Health isn’t the first digital health company to file for its public market debut this year. Virtual physical therapy startup Hinge Health filed its prospectus in March, and provided an update with its first-quarter earnings on Monday, a signal to investors that it’s looking to forge ahead.

Omada contracts with employers, and the company said it works with more than 2,000 customers and supports 679,000 members as of March 31. More than 156 million Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition, so there is a significant market opportunity, according to the company’s filing.

In 2022, Omada announced a $192 million funding round that pushed its valuation above $1 billion. U.S. Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Fidelity’s FMR LLC are the largest outside shareholders in the company, each owning between 9% and 10% of the stock.

“To our prospective shareholders, thank you for learning more about Omada. I invite you join our journey,” Omada co-founder and CEO Sean Duffy said in the filing. “In front of us is a unique chance to build a promising and successful business while truly changing lives.”

WATCH: The IPO market is likely to pick up near Labor Day, says FirstMark’s Rick Heitzmann

The IPO market is likely to pick up near Labor Day, says FirstMark's Rick Heitzmann

Continue Reading

Technology

Google would need to shift up to 2,000 employees for antitrust remedies, search head says

Published

on

By

Google would need to shift up to 2,000 employees for antitrust remedies, search head says

Liz Reid, vice president, search, Google speaks during an event in New Delhi on December 19, 2022.

Sajjad Hussain | AFP | Getty Images

Testimony in Google‘s antitrust search remedies trial that wrapped hearings Friday shows how the company is calculating possible changes proposed by the Department of Justice.

Google head of search Liz Reid testified in court Tuesday that the company would need to divert between 1,000 and 2,000 employees, roughly 20% of Google’s search organization, to carry out some of the proposed remedies, a source with knowledge of the proceedings confirmed.

The testimony comes during the final days of the remedies trial, which will determine what penalties should be taken against Google after a judge last year ruled the company has held an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search.

The DOJ, which filed the original antitrust suit and proposed remedies, asked the judge to force Google to share its data used for generating search results, such as click data. It also asked for the company to remove the use of “compelled syndication,” which refers to the practice of making certain deals with companies to ensure its search engine remains the default choice in browsers and smartphones. 

Read more CNBC tech news

Google pays Apple billions of dollars per year to be the default search engine on iPhones. It’s lucrative for Apple and a valuable way for Google to get more search volume and users.

Apple’s SVP of Services Eddy Cue testified Wednesday that Apple chooses to feature Google because it’s “the best search engine.”

The DOJ also proposed the company divest its Chrome browser but that was not included in Reid’s initial calculation, the source confirmed.

Reid on Tuesday said Google’s proprietary “Knowledge Graph” database, which it uses to surface search results, contains more than 500 billion facts, according to the source, and that Google has invested more than $20 billion in engineering costs and content acquisition over more than a decade.

“People ask Google questions they wouldn’t ask anyone else,” she said, according to the source.

Reid echoed Google’s argument that sharing its data would create privacy risks, the source confirmed.

Closing arguments for the search remedies trial will take place May 29th and 30th, followed by the judge’s decision expected in August.

The company faces a separate remedies trial for its advertising tech business, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 22.

Continue Reading

Trending