Sales of Tesla cars in Europe plunged in July, in the company’s seventh consecutive month of declines, while Chinese rival BYD saw a monthly surge, data released on Thursday showed.

New car registrations of Tesla vehicles totaled 8,837 in July, down 40% year-on-year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, or ACEA. BYD meanwhile recorded 13,503 new registrations in July, up 225% annually.

Tesla’s declines took place even as overall sales of battery electric cars rose in Europe, ACEA data showed.

Elon Musk‘s automaker faces a number of challenges in Europe including intense ongoing competition and reputational damage to the brand from the billionaire’s incendiary rhetoric and relationship with the Trump administration.

Tesla has struggled globally in recent times. The company’s auto sales revenue fell in the second quarter of the year and Musk warned that the automaker “could have a few rough quarters” ahead.

One of Tesla’s issues is that it has not had a major refresh of its car line-up. The company said this year that it is working on a more affordable electric car with “volume production” planned for the second half of 2025, with investors hoping this will reinvigorate sales.

Thomas Besson, head of automobile sector research at Kepler Cheuvreux, said Tesla management has been trying to “convince investors that Tesla is not really a car company” by talking about artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomy.

“They talk about almost everything else but the car they’re selling at a slower pace now because effectively, the age of their vehicle is much higher than the competition and the latest products have not been as successful as hoped, notably the Cybertruck,” Besson told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday.

But the U.S. automaker is up against Chinese players, which are launching models aggressively and ramping up their push into Europe. BYD has led that charge, opening showrooms up across the continent and launching its cars at competitive prices over the last two years.

Chinese brands commanded a record market share rate of more than 5% in the first half of the year, which is a record high, according to data from JATO Dynamics released last month.

It’s not only Tesla feeling the heat from Chinese competition. Jeep owner Stellantis, South Korea’s Hyundai Group and Japan’s Toyota and Suzuki, all posted year-on-year declines in European new car registrations in July.

By contrast, Volkswagen, BMW and Renault Group, were among those that logged increases in new European car registrations across the month.

Microsoft on Thursday said that it had terminated two employees who broke into President Brad Smith’s office earlier this week.

The news comes after seven current and former Microsoft employees on Tuesday held a protest in the company’s building in Redmond, Washington, in opposition to the Israeli military’s alleged use of the company’s software as part of its invasion of Gaza.

The protesters, affiliated with the group No Azure for Apartheid, gained entry into Smith’s office and had demanded that Microsoft end its direct and indirect support to Israel.

In a post on Instagram, No Azure for Apartheid said Riki Fameli and Anna Hattle had been fired by the company.

“Two employees were terminated today following serious breaches of company policies and our code of conduct,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement, noting unlawful break-ins at the executive offices.

“These incidents are inconsistent with the expectations we maintain for our employees. The company is continuing to investigate and is cooperating fully with law enforcement regarding these matters,” the statement added.

In the aftermath of the protests, Smith claimed that the protestors had blocked people out of the office, planted listening devices in the form of phones, and refused to leave until they were removed by police. 

No Azure For Apartheid defines itself as “a movement of Microsoft workers demanding that Microsoft end its direct and indirect complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide.”

The Guardian earlier this month reported that the Israeli military had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure to store the phone calls of Palestinians, leading the company to authorize a third-party investigation into whether its technology has been used in surveillance.

Smith said on Tuesday that the company would “investigate and get to the truth” of how services are being used. 

According to Smith, No Azure For Apartheid also mounted protests around the company’s campus last week, leading to 20 arrests in one day, with 16 having never worked at Microsoft. 

No Azure for Apartheid has held a series of actions this year, including at Microsoft’s Build developer conference and at a celebration of the company’s 50th anniversary. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that a Microsoft director had reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the protests.

Microsoft’s actions come after tech giant Google fired 28 employees last year following a series of protests against labor conditions and the company’s contract with the Israeli government and military for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services. In that case, some employees had gained access to the office of Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google’s cloud unit.

— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report. 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said there’s a “real possibility” the company brings its advanced Blackwell processor to China as he urges the U.S. government to open up access for American chipmakers.

He also predicted the artificial intelligence market in the world’s second-biggest economy will grow 50% next year.

“The opportunity for us to bring Blackwell to the China market is a real possibility,” Huang said on Wednesday in a call for Nvidia’s latest quarterly results. “We just have to keep advocating the importance of American tech companies to be able to lead and win the AI race, and help make the American tech stack the global standard.”

Huang personally visited the White House in July and August to secure export licenses for Nvidia’s current-generation chip for Chinese AI, called the H20. In August, the White House announced that President Donald Trump and Huang had struck a deal in which Nvidia would receive export licenses in exchange for 15% of China sales of the H20 going to the U.S. government.

After the meeting, Trump said he was open to making a deal for Blackwell chips, which is Nvidia’s latest AI technology that currently comprises the majority of its data center revenue.

Huang has said that it is better for Chinese AI developers to use Nvidia’s chips rather than force them to use homegrown Chinese options by preventing exports, which could incentivize the Chinese tech industry to catch up.

If Nvidia were to release a Blackwell chip in China, it could spur a large amount of sales as Chinese AI developers opt for the most powerful chips available. Nvidia would have to modify its Blackwell chips for the U.S. market to make them slower in certain aspects in order to comply with U.S. export regulations.

“The Blackwell is super-duper advanced. I wouldn’t make a deal with that,” Trump said in August, before adding that it was possible to make a deal for a “somewhat enhanced in a negative way” version of Blackwell.

Huang’s bullish comments on Wednesday come after the company reported second-quarter year-over-year revenue growth of 56% to $54 billion, despite not selling a single H20 chip to China during the quarter. Nvidia said it released $180 million in H20 inventory to a customer outside of China, which accounted for $650 million in sales.

Nvidia said it is not counting on any H20 sales in the October quarter as part of its forecast for $54 billion in revenue, but that the company could sell between $2 billion and $5 billion in H20 chips, depending on the geopolitical environment.

“If we had more orders, we can build more,” Nvidia finance chief Colette Kress said on the call with analysts.

Nvidia said that while it had received some licenses after the meeting with Trump, the U.S. government has yet to publish official regulations outlining how its cut of sales will work.

“USG officials have expressed an expectation that the USG will receive 15% of the revenue generated from licensed H20 sales, but to date, the USG has not published a regulation codifying such requirement,” Kress said.

Huang told analysts that China is the second-largest AI market in the world.

“The China market I’ve estimated to be about $50 billion of opportunity for us this year, if we were able to address it with competitive products,” Huang said. “And if it’s $50 billion this year, you would expect it to grow, say, 50% per year.”

Recent reports have indicated that the Chinese government is encouraging AI developers to use homegrown chips over those from Nvidia.

“We’re still waiting on several of the geopolitical issues going back and forth between the governments and the companies trying to determine their purchases and what they want to do,” Kress said.

WATCH: Nvidia sales drop more than 4% as chipmaker says no Q2 H20 sales to China-based customers