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U.S. consumer spending on Temu fell about 36% in May compared to a year earlier, while it fell 13% over the same period on Shein, according to trend data from Consumer Edge.

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Temu and Shein are pivoting to Europe as their business in the U.S. takes a major hit from unfavorable trade policies. But the China-founded budget e-commerce apps may not receive a warm reception in their new target markets. 

In recent weeks, complaints have been filed against Temu and Shein in the EU, accusing them of unsavory business tactics. That comes as the bloc prepares a new two-euro flat fee on previously customs-free small packages from online marketplaces like Temu and Shein. 

Experts say the new developments could be ominous signs for the platforms, as their business has already suffered from the May closure of a small package tariff exemption in the U.S., as well as new duties at 54%, or $100 for those sent through the postal service. 

“As regulatory and trade pressures intensify in the U.S., Temu and Shein are increasingly turning to Europe and the UK as critical growth markets,” Anand Kumar, associate director of research at Coresight Research, told CNBC. 

However, Kumar said that the companies have begun to face regulatory headwinds in Europe and the U.K. that echo the scrutiny they’ve encountered in the U.S. 

“The EU’s proposed €2 customs fee is more than a minor surcharge—it’s a strategic regulatory move aimed at curbing the unchecked growth of ultra-cheap cross-border e-commerce, and it could reshape how platforms like Shein and Temu operate in Europe over the next 2–3 years,” he added. 

Europe pivot 

Temu and Shein have boosted their ad spending in Europe, particularly in the U.K. and France, according to a report from Reuters, reflecting their shift away from the U.S.

The growing importance of the EU and U.K. to the two companies has also been reflected in data from Consumer Edge Research, which traces consumer trends based on a sample of credit and debit card info. 

According to the data it sent to CNBC, Temu’s consumer spending in the U.S. fell about 36% in May from a year earlier, while Shein’s fell 13% over the same period. The company added that its data shows that some of Temu and Shein’s U.S. customers have shifted their spending toward legacy department stores and fast fashion retailers. 

Those trends coincide with data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower showing that app usage of Temu and Shein in the U.S. is slowing significantly.

However, the opposite trends for the platforms were observed in the U.K. and EU. In May, year-over-year consumer spending growth reached 63% in the EU and 38% in the U.K. Shein experienced growth of 19% in the EU and 42% in the U.K. over the same period. 

For Temu, Consumer Edge data showed that growth was especially pronounced in the key market of France, Europe’s second-largest economy.  

To capitalize on the momentum in Europe, Temu and Shein have been aggressively expanding their operations across the region, including ramping up warehouse capacity, experimenting with localized business models, as well as significantly increasing digital ad spending in key markets like the U.K., France and Germany, according to Coresight’s Kumar. 

“This expansion is not merely opportunistic—it signals a strategic shift in how these companies envision their next phase of growth,” he said. 

“That said, the European market is not without its challenges. The region enforces stricter regulations on product safety, consumer protection, and fair competition, all of which require Temu and Shein to invest more in compliance and operational transparency,” he added. 

Experts say that those challenges and the EU’s potential duties on small-value packages may be signs of more pressures to come for Temu and Shein. 

Scrutiny intensifies 

According to French local media, the wording of an “anti-fast fashion” bill, which is under debate in the French National Assembly, was recently rewritten to single out ultra-cheap platforms like Shein and Temu. 

The bill, first approved by France’s lower house of parliament in March last year, seeks to penalize fast-fashion products for their environmental impact.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the pan-European consumer organization BEUC filed a complaint with the European Commission against Shein over its use of deceptive techniques, or “dark patterns” that cause overconsumption. 

That comes after the European Commission announced its own investigation into Shein’s compliance with EU consumer law in February and, in May, urged Shein to respect EU consumer protection laws. 

BEUC has also filed a complaint against Temu, while 17 of its members filed the same complaint with their competent national authorities, the group said. 

Xiaomeng Lu, director of geotechnology at Eurasia Group, told CNBC that the latest scrutiny Temu and Shein are experiencing in the EU is reminiscent of that in the U.S. 

Shein reportedly planning to list in Hong Kong this year, not in London

“[Temu and Shein] offer cost effective solutions and an efficient supply network that fare well in the fast moving fashion world. However their labor practices and human rights standards may not fully align with high value markets like the EU and U.S.,” Lu said. 

That conflict and “rising protectionism” globally are the “key drivers of these regulatory reactions,” she added.

In the U.S., officials had also taken issue with Temu over its alleged non-compliance with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which prohibits the import of goods made with forced labor from China’s Xinjiang region.

According to Coresight’s Kumar, Europe, for its part, is progressing toward stricter oversight through the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive — which EU member states have until July 2026 to integrate into their national laws. 

The directive would compel companies operating in the EU to identify and mitigate human rights abuses in their supply chains, disclose environmental impact and sustainability metrics and face legal consequences for failing to take adequate preventive steps.

That means Temu and Shein will face stringent compliance demands in the EU, Kumar said. However, the region still offers meaningful opportunities for expansion in an increasingly protectionist global trade environment, he added. 

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AMD stock continues rally after OpenAI deal, now up 43% this week so far

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AMD stock continues rally after OpenAI deal, now up 43% this week so far

Lisa Su, chair and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), during a Bloomberg Television interview in San Francisco, California, US, on Monday, Oct. 6, 2025.

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AMD stock climbed 11% on Wednesday, continuing a massive run since OpenAI announced plans to buy billions of dollars of AI equipment from the chipmaker earlier this week.

On Monday, the ChatGPT maker entered into an agreement to potentially own 10% of AMD, based on its stock price and partnership milestones.

AMD now has a market cap of $380 billion after climbing 4% on Tuesday and 24% on Monday. Shares are up 43% so far this week, on pace for the best weekly gain since April 2016.

The partnership with OpenAI, which has historically been closely linked with Nvidia, has bolstered investor confidence that AMD will be a viable competitor to Nvidia in AI chips.

Read more CNBC tech news

AMD CEO Lisa Su told reporters on Monday that the deal was a “win-win” and that its AI chips were good enough to be used in “at-scale deployments,” or very large data centers like the kind OpenAI and cloud providers build.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Wednesday reacted to the deal on CNBC’s Squawk Box, saying it was “surprising.”

“It’s imaginative, it’s unique and surprising, considering they were so excited about their next-generation product,” Huang said. “I’m surprised that they would give away 10% of the company before they even built it. And so anyhow, it’s clever, I guess.”

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Google adds limits to ‘Work from Anywhere’ policy that began during Covid

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Google adds limits to 'Work from Anywhere' policy that began during Covid

Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., during the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco, California, US, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025.

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Google is continuing to put restrictions on remote work, this time with a popular policy called “Work from Anywhere” that was established during the Covid pandemic.

The policy has allowed employees to work from a location outside of their main office for up to four weeks per calendar year. According to internal documents viewed by CNBC, working remotely for even a single day will now count for a full week.

“Whether you log 1 WFA day or 5 WFA days in a given standard work week, 1 WFA week will be deducted from your WFA weekly balance,” according to a document that was circulated over the summer, shortly before the change went into effect.

Google isn’t altering its current hybrid schedule, which was also put in place during the pandemic, allowing employees to work from home two days a week. WFA days are distinct from that policy, giving staffers the flexibility to work remotely, but not at home.

“WFA weeks cannot be used to work from home or nearby,” the document says.

Google didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

Tech companies are increasingly forcing employees to spend more time in the office, with the peak of Covid now about five years in the past. Microsoft said last month that employees will be expected to work in an office three days a week starting next year, switching from a policy that allowed most of them to work from home 50% of the time or more with manager approval. Amazon went further, instructing corporate staffers to spend five days a week in the office.

Google began offering some U.S. full-time employees voluntary buyouts at the beginning of 2025, and has notified remote workers from several units their jobs would be considered for layoffs if they didn’t return to offices to work a hybrid schedule.

According to the latest changes, employees can’t work from a Google office in a separate state or country during their WFA time due to “legal and financial implications of cross border work.” If in a different location, employees may be required to work during the business hours that align with that time zone, the rules state.

The WFA update doesn’t apply to all Google staffers and may exclude data center workers, and those who are required to be in physical offices. Violations of the policy will result in disciplinary action or termination, the document says.

The issue came up at a recent all-hands meeting.

A top-rated question that was submitted on Google’s internal system described the update as “confusing.”

“Why does even one day of WFA count as a whole week, and can we reconsider the restriction on using WFA weeks to work from home?” the question said.

John Casey, Google’s vice president of performance and rewards, said at the meeting that WFA “was meant to meet Googlers where they were during the pandemic,” according to audio obtained by CNBC.

“The policy was always intended to be taken in increments of a week and not be used as a substitute for working from home in a regular hybrid work week,” Casey said.

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Jensen Huang says Trump’s H-1B changes would’ve prevented his family from immigrating

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Jensen Huang says Trump's H-1B changes would've prevented his family from immigrating

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on H-1B visas: My family wouldn't have been able to afford the $100,000 fee

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Wednesday that his family’s immigration to the U.S. “would not have been possible” with the Trump administration’s current policy.

President Donald Trump announced in September that employers would have to pay a $100,000 fee for each H-1B visa, a temporary worker visa granted to foreign professionals with specialized skills.

Huang, who was born in Taiwan and later moved Thailand, immigrated to the U.S. at nine years old with his brother. His parents joined them around two years later.

“I don’t think that my family would have been able to afford the $100,000 and and so the opportunity for my, my family and for me to be here … would not have been possible,” Huang told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Trump’s sudden price hike was a shock to the tech sector, which relies heavily on foreign talent, especially from India and China.

Read more CNBC tech news

Amazon was the top employer for H-1B holders in fiscal year 2025, sponsoring over 10,000 applicants according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Tech juggernauts Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google were also among the top H-1B employers, with over 4,000 approvals each.

“Immigration is the foundation of the American dream,” Huang said, “this ideal that anyone can come to America and through hard work and some talent, be able to build a better future for yourself.”

Huang added that his own parents came to the U.S. so that his family could “enjoy the opportunities” and “this incredible country.”

The CEO confirmed that Nvidia, which currently sponsors 1,400 visas, would continue covering H-1B fees for immigrant employees. Huang said that he hopes to see some “enhancements” to the policy so that there’s “still some opportunities for serendipity to happen.”

While his own family’s journey would have been blocked by Trump’s immigration policy, Huang said Trump’s changes will still allow the U.S. “to continue to attract the world’s best talent.”

And other tech executives have expressed support for the changes, with Netflix‘s Reed Hastings calling the fee “a great solution” in a post on X.

“It will mean H1-B is used just for very high value jobs, which will mean no lottery needed, and more certainty for those jobs,” Hastings wrote.

In September, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told CNBC’s Jon Fortt that he also backed Trump’s changes.

“We need to get the smartest people in the country, and streamlining that process and also sort of outlining financial incentives seems good to me,” Altman said.

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