A smartphone with a displayed AMD logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
American semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices has failed in getting a made-for-China AI chip past U.S. regulators and will need to apply for an export license, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
The report said AMD designed the chip to have lower performance than its premium products in order to comply with U.S. export restrictions. But Bloomberg reported the Commerce Department did not clear the chip for sale in China because it was still too advanced.
AMD will now have to obtain a license from the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, the report said.
It’s not clear if the company will apply for the license. AMD and the Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
While the U.S. has restricted sales of products containing the nation’s most advanced semiconductor technologies to China, citing national security concerns, American companies have continued to sell mature or less advanced technologies to the massive market without licenses.
AMD’s products include chips that can be used to develop and train AI models – something U.S. officials have warned that Beijing could use to gain military advantages.
In 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled an initial set of export controls to curb China’s access to advanced semiconductor technologies. Leading AI chip company Nvidia subsequently said it would sell slowed-down versions of their premium AI chips that comply with U.S. restrictions.
Nvidia has since redesigned products to be less powerful for the Chinese market to align with the 2023 restrictions.
In the lead-up to the October restrictions, Nvidia had warned that further U.S. export curbs on its chips to China would risk a “permanent loss” for American semiconductor firms to lead in one of the world’s largest markets.
In Nvidia’s November earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said China and other regions targeted by U.S. export controls had consistently contributed approximately 20% to 25% of data center revenue over the past few quarters.While Nvidia reported blockbuster fourth-quarter results, Kress noted during the February earnings call that data center revenue from China declined significantly following the U.S. export curbs.
Compared with Nvidia, AMD had a smaller foothold in the Chinese AI chip market prior to the trade restrictions. But the company has begun targeting the AI chip market more aggressively, launching a new MI300 product line that is seen as a challenge to GPU products from Nvidia.
It’s not clear which Chinese customers AMD designed the chips for. Some leading Chinese tech giants, such as Tencent have reportedly stockpiled enough advanced chips from Nvidia to train their AI chatbots’ capabilities for “at least a couple more generations.”
Meanwhile, U.S.-sanctioned Huawei is reportedly developing its own chips and chipmaking tools, along with other domestic firms, as Chinese companies attempt to fill the gap created by U.S. restrictions.
Despite restricted sales to China, shares of both Nvidia and AMD have soared amongst an AI frenzy. Nvidia is up more than 250% in the past year while AMD surged over 150%.
President Donald Trump’s trade policies will have a negative impact on Google parent Alphabet‘s core advertising business, an executive from the company said Thursday.
Alphabet, which reported stronger-than-expected revenue in its first quarter of the year, faces an online ads market that’s on edge due to concerns about how Trump’s tariffs will affect the economy and business spending. While the word “tariff” was never mentioned on Alphabet’s investor call Thursday, “macro” was mentioned several times as investors peppered company executives with questions about forward looking economic impacts amid new trade policies.
Several strategists increased their odds of a recession after Trump on April 2 announced tariffs for imports of goods into the U.S. from dozens of countries. On April 9, Trump lowered tariffs on many countries to 10% for three months.
Alphabet will likely be impacted by materials needed for technical infrastructure like data centers that it uses to power efforts in artificial intelligence. It could also see second-hand effects on advertising pull-back from budget constraints.
In Thursday’s investor call, Alphabet executives said it’s too early to tell just how much it will be impacted, but they said that there would likely be headwinds to its advertising business, particularly from the Asia–Pacific region of the world, or APAC.
“Any other factors you’re seeing in advertising verticals or regions or categories that could be showing any signs of weakness?” asked Brian Nowak of Morgan Stanley.
“We wouldn’t want to speculate about potential impacts beyond noting that the changes to the de minimis exemption will obviously cause a slight headwind to our ads business in 2025, primarily from APAC-based retailers,” said Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer.
Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order that will impose a duty representing 30% of the value or $25 per item on shipments worth less than $800 that enter the U.S., starting May 2. The duty jumps to $50 per item on June 1. In February, Trump undid a loophole that since the 1930s had allowed such packages to be imported duty-free. The change brought logistical challenges that resulted in a delay of the implementation of the policy.
Retail, which Schindler said was among the top contributors to its advertising growth in the first quarter, represents at least 21% of Google ad revenue, according to estimates by Oppenheimer & Co. Chinese discount e-commerce apps Temu and Shein, which have been big advertisers in the U.S. in recent years, are of notable concern, and Temu has already pulled way back on spending.
“We’re obviously not immune to the macro environment,” Schindler added.
“Are they starting to react to some of these macro jitters that were we’re all experiencing?” asked Ross Sandler from Barclays about brands that advertise on YouTube.
Schindler said “it’s still too early in the second quarter to have a more specific view of things.” He added that Google has “a lot of experience in managing through uncertain times.”
“If macro weakens and we see more of a slowdown, would you expect to find additional opportunities to cut back more on costs?” asked Doug Anmuth from JPMorgan.
Alphabet CFO Anat Ashkenazi said the company is still looking at spending $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025 but stipulated “the investment level may fluctuate from quarter to quarter due to the impact of changes in the timing of deliveries and construction schedules.”
Expenditures will go toward technical infrastructure, primarily for servers, followed by data centers and networking, executives said in February.
The company is still focused on “driving efficiency and productivity throughout the organization,” Ashkenazi said on Thursday’s call, pointing to her 2024 comments, where she said the organization can “always push a little further” when it comes to cost cutting, which has included cuts to headcount and real estate.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai also mentioned “efficiency” as a means of trying to keep a lean-enough company to weather potential macro storms.
“If the macro environment were to change and become more downwardly volatile, how should investors think about the investments that are must-make this year, almost fixed in nature, versus where there might be more flexibility?” asked Eric Sheridan from Goldman Sachs.
Pichai responded that the company plans to continue consolidating teams and cutting back on costs elsewhere, which he said “should help us have a more resilient organization, irrespective of macroeconomic conditions.”
The Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, US, on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Intel Corp. is scheduled to release earnings figures on April 24.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Intel CFO David Zinsner said President Donald Trump’s tariffs and retaliation from other countries has increased the likelihood of a recession.
“The very fluid trade policies in the U.S. and beyond, as well as regulatory risks, have increased the chance of an economic slowdown, with the probability of a recession growing,” Zinsner said on the company’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday.
Intel reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, partially because some customers stockpiled chips ahead of tariffs, the company said. However, guidance for revenue and profit was below expectations, pushing the chipmaker’s stock down more than 5% in extended trading.
Intel’s forecast for the current quarter is $11.2 billion to $12.4 billion. Zinsner said the range is “wider than normal” due to uncertainty caused by tariffs.
The company’s outlook underscores how sensitive manufacturers are to trade restrictions, even for companies that are committed to building products in the U.S. While Intel manufactures some of its advanced processors domestically, it also partners with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung in Korea to manufacture chips, and imports chipmaking machinery from ASML in Europe. The company also needs parts and materials that come from China.
Zinsner said the tariff environment makes it harder for Intel to predict its performance for the quarter and the year, and added that it’s now anticipating that the total market for its chips could shrink, especially if consumers stop buying new computers.
“The biggest risk we see is the impact of a potential pullback in investment and spending, as businesses and consumers react to higher costs and the uncertain economic backdrop,” Zinsner said.
Although Intel has enough production in disparate places around the world to mitigate some of the tariffs, the company “will certainly see costs increase,” he added.
One possibility is that consumers may opt for laptops and other computers based around older-generation chips, which are less expensive, said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, CEO of Intel Products.
“The macroeconomic concerns and tariffs have everybody kind of hedging their bets in what they need to have from an inventory perspective,” Holthaus said on the earnings call.
Beyond tariffs, Intel faces efforts by the U.S. government to require licenses to ship advanced chips for artificial intelligence to countries like China.
Intel’s earnings report on Thursday was its first under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who was appointed to the job last month. Tan said he planned to cut Intel’s operational and capital expenses in order to make the company more efficient.
A Waymo rider-only robotaxi is seen during a test ride in San Francisco, California, U.S., December 9, 2022.
Paresh Dave | Reuters
Alphabet reported Thursday that Waymo, its autonomous vehicle unit, is now delivering more than 250,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the U.S.
CEO Sundar Pichai said Waymo has options in terms of “business models across geographies,” and the robotaxi company is building partnerships with ride-hailing app Uber, automakers and operations and maintenance businesses that tend to its vehicle fleets.
“We can’t possibly do it all ourselves,” said Pichai on a call with analysts for Alphabet’s first-quarter earnings.
Pichai noted that Waymo has not entirely defined its long-term business model, and there is “future optionality around personal ownership” of vehicles equipped with Waymo’s self-driving technology. The company is also exploring the ways it can scale up its operations, he said.
The 250,000 paid rides per week are up from 200,000 in February, before Waymo opened in Austin and expanded in the San Francisco Bay Area in March.
Waymo, which is part of Alphabet’s Other Bets segment, is already running its commercial, driverless ride-hailing services in the San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin regions.
Earlier this month, Waymo and its partner Uber, began allowing interested riders to sign up to try the robotaxi service in Atlanta when it opens this summer.
The early pioneer in self-driving technology, Waymo has managed to beat Elon Musk-led Tesla and a myriad of now-defunct autonomous vehicle startups to the U.S. market.
Tesla is promising that it will be able to turn its Model Y SUVs into robotaxis by the end of June for a driverless ride-hailing service it plans to launch in Austin.
After about a decade of promises and missed deadlines, Tesla still does not offer a vehicle that’s safe to use without a human at the wheel ready to steer or brake at all times.
Musk criticized Waymo’s approach to driverless tech on his company’s first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday. Musk said Waymo autonomous vehicles are “very expensive” and made in only “low volume.” Tesla’s partially automated driving systems rely mostly on cameras to navigate, while Waymo’s driverless systems rely on lidar technology, other sensors and cameras.
Would-be competitors to Waymo also include Amazon-owned Zoox, Mobileye, May Mobility and international autonomous vehicle companies such as WeRide and Baidu’s Apollo Go.