Connect with us

Published

on

The European Union is so far the only jurisdiction globally to drive forward comprehensive rules for artificial intelligence with its AI Act.

Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images

The European Union on Wednesday presented a plan to boost its artificial intelligence industry and help it compete more aggressively with the U.S. and China, following criticisms from technology firms that its regulations are too cumbersome.

In a press release, the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, outlined its so-called “AI Continent Action Plan,” which aims to “transform Europe’s strong traditional industries and its exceptional talent pool into powerful engines of AI innovation and acceleration.”

Among the ways Europe plans to bolster regional AI developments are a commitment to build a network of AI factories and “gigafactories” and create specialized labs designed to improve the access of startups to high-quality training data.

The EU defines these “factories” as large facilities that house state-of-the-art chips needed to train and develop the most advanced AI models.

The bloc will also create a new AI Act Service Desk to help regional firms comply with its landmark AI law.

“The AI Act raises citizens’ trust in technology and provides investors and entrepreneurs with the legal certainty they need to scale up and deploy AI throughout Europe,” the Commission said, adding the AI Act Service Desk will “serve as the central point of contact and hub for information and guidance” on the rules.

The plan bears similarities to the U.K.’s AI Action Plan announced earlier this year. Like the EU, Britain committed to expand domestic AI infrastructure to aid developers.

Hindering innovation?

The launch of the EU’s AI plan arrives as the bloc is facing criticisms from tech leaders that its rules on everything from AI to taxation hinder innovation and make it harder for startups to operate across the region.

The bloc’s landmark legislation known as the AI Act has proven particularly thorny for companies in the rapidly growing artificial intelligence industry.

The law regulates applications of AI based on the level of risk they pose to society — and in recent years it has been adapted to cover so-called “foundational” model makers such as OpenAI and French startup Mistral, much to the ire of some of the buzziest businesses in that space.

At a global AI summit in Paris earlier this year, OpenAI’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane told CNBC that European political and business leaders increasingly fear missing out on AI’s potential and want regulators to focus less on tackling risks associated with the technology.

“There’s almost this fork in the road, maybe even a tension right now between Europe at the EU level … and then some of the countries,” Lehane told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal in February. “They’re looking to maybe go in a little bit of a different direction that actually wants to embrace the innovation.”

The U.S. administration has also been critical of Europe over its treatment of American tech giants and fast-growing AI startups.

At the Paris AI summit in February, U.S. Vice President JD Vance took aim at Europe’s regulatory approach to AI, stressing that “we need our European friends in particular to look to this new frontier with optimism rather than trepidation.”

“There is a real emphasis on easing the burden of regulation and removing barriers to innovation, which in part is likely to reflect some of the concerns that have been raised by the US government,” John Buyers, global head of AI at law firm Osborne Clarke, told CNBC over email.

“This isn’t only about the EU: If they are serious about eliminating legal uncertainties caused by interpretation of the EU’s AI Act, then this would be a real boost for AI developers and users in the UK and the US, as the AI Act applies to all AI used in the EU, regardless of where sourced.”

Continue Reading

Technology

Spotify restores service after Wednesday outage

Published

on

By

Spotify restores service after Wednesday outage

The Spotify logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 4, 2023.

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Spotify was down Wednesday, with about 50,000 reports of an outage on Downdetector.

The company posted an all-clear to social media site X just after noon EDT, thanking listeners for their patience.

“Spotify experienced an outage today beginning around 6:20am EDT. As of 11:45am EDT, Spotify is back up and functioning normally,” the company said in a statement.

The music-streaming giant did not provide additional details about the scope of the outage.

Users peppered the replies to the company’s outage announcement with frustrations and memes.

“I’ll just hum to myself,” wrote user @alexissTyler.

Read more CNBC tech news

The company recently reported its first profitable year and said it paid a record $10 billion in royalties to the music industry.

Nearly 1,500 artists generated more than $1 million individually, according to Spotify’s annual Loud and Clear Report, and more than 80% of those in that pool did not have a song reach the app’s Global Daily Top 50 Chart.

The app has added new advertising features in recent months.

Earlier in April, the company released new generative artificial intelligence ads and reported that automated ad channels drove $2 billion in ad spending with digital audio since the beginning of the year.

Out of the company’s 675 million monthly active users, more than half are free users who are served ads when they stream music.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

Continue Reading

Technology

AMD expects $800 million hit from U.S. chip restrictions on China

Published

on

By

AMD expects 0 million hit from U.S. chip restrictions on China

Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, attends the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, Feb. 10, 2025.

Benoit Tessier | Reuters

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices slid more than 5% on Wednesday after the company said it could incur charges of up to $800 million for exporting its MI308 products to China and other countries.

“The Company expects to apply for licenses but there is no assurance that licenses will be granted,” AMD said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The new U.S. license requirement, which applies to exports of certain semiconductor products, would hit inventory, purchase commitments and related reserves, AMD said in the filing.

Read more CNBC tech news

AMD is one of the companies that builds the hardware behind the artificial intelligence boom. The company claims its AMD Instinct MI300 Series accelerators are “uniquely well-suited to power even the most demanding AI and HPC workloads,” according to its website.

It generated a “record” revenue of $25.8 billion in 2025, according to its February earnings release, but the new export restrictions could slow growth.

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

hide content

AMD one month stock chart.

Nvidia, an AMD competitor, released a similar disclosure on Tuesday. The company said it will take a quarterly charge of about $5.5 billion for exporting H20 graphics processing units.

China is Nvidia’s fourth-largest region by sales, after the U.S., Singapore, and Taiwan, according to the company’s annual report. More than half of its sales went to U.S. companies in its fiscal year that ended in January.

–CNBC’s Kif Leswing and Jordan Novet contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Technology

Chip stocks fall as Nvidia, AMD warn of higher costs from China export controls

Published

on

By

Chip stocks fall as Nvidia, AMD warn of higher costs from China export controls

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers the keynote for the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, on March 18, 2025.

Brittany Hosea-small | Reuters

Technology stocks declined Wednesday, led by a 5% drop in Nvidia, as the chipmaking sector signaled that President Donald Trump‘s sweeping tariff plans could hamper demand and growth.

Nvidia revealed in a filing Tuesday that it will take a $5.5 billion charge tied to exporting its H20 graphics processing units to China and other countries and said that the government will require a license to ship the chips there and other destinations.

The chip was designed specifically for China use during President Joe Biden’s administration to meet U.S. export restrictions barring the sale of advanced AI processors, which totaled an estimated $12 billion to $15 billion in revenue in 2024. Advanced Micro Devices said in a filing Wednesday that the latest export controls on its MI308 products could lead to an $800 million hit.

Read more CNBC tech news

Chipmaking stocks have struggled in the wake of President Donald Trump’s sweeping U.S. trade restrictions, sparked by fears that higher tariffs will stifle demand.

The disclosures from Nvidia and AMD are the first major signs that Trump’s fierce battle with China could significantly hamper chip growth. The administration has made some exemptions for electronics, including semiconductors, but has warned that separate tariffs could come down the road.

Adding to the sector worries was a disappointing print from Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML. The company missed order expectations and said that tariff restrictions create demand uncertainty. Shares fell about 5%.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF fell more than 4%, with AMD plunging more than 5%. Micron Technology, Marvell Technology and Broadcom sank about 2% each. Equipment makers Applied Materials and Lam Research fell about 3% each.

The declines spilled over into the broader market and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which dropped nearly 2%. Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Tesla lost about 2% each. Amazon, Microsoft and Apple were last down about 1% each.

Continue Reading

Trending