People look at iPhones at the Apple Fifth Avenue store in New York City on May 23, 2025.
Adam Gray | Reuters
Apple has plans to make a folding iPhone starting next year, reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said on Wednesday.
Kuo said Apple’s folding phone could have a display made by Samsung Display, which is planning to produce as many as eight million foldable panels for the device next year. However, other components haven’t been finalized, including the device’s hinge, Kuo wrote. He expects it to have “premium pricing.”
Kuo is an analyst for TF International Securities, and focuses on the Asian electronics supply chain and often discusses Apple products before they’re launched.
He wrote in a post on social media site X that Apple’s plans for the foldable iPhone aren’t locked in yet and are subject to change. Apple did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Apple’s iPhone makes up over half of Apple’s business and remains an incredibly profitable product, accounting for $201 billion in sales in the company’s fiscal 2024. But iPhone revenue peaked in 2022, and Apple is constantly looking for ways to attract new customers and convince its current customers to upgrade to more expensive devices.
The Flex S is another concept device Samsung showed off at MWC. It folds in a more zigzag-like way to make an “S” shape.
Ryan Browne | CNBC
Several of Apple’s rivals, including Huawei and Samsung, have been releasing folding smartphones since 2019.
The devices promise the screen size of a tablet in a format that can be stored in pants pockets. But folding phones still have hardware issues, including creases in the display where it is folded.
Folding phones also have yet to prove they drive significant demand after the novelty wears off.
Research firm TrendForce said last year that only 1.5% of all smartphones sold can fold. Counterpoint, another research firm tracking smartphone sales, said earlier this year that the folding market only grew about 3% in 2024 and is expected to shrink in 2025.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 22, 2025.
Gerry Miller | CNBC
Uber reported second-quarter results on Wednesday that beat on revenue and announced the authorization of a $20 billion stock buyback.
Here’s how the company did versus analysts’ estimates compiled by LSEG:
Earnings per share: 63 cents vs. 63 cents expected.
Revenue: $12.65 billion vs. $12.46 billion expected.
Here are the key segment numbers:
Mobility (gross bookings): $23.76 billion, up 18% year over year
Delivery (gross bookings): $21.73 billion, up 20% year over year
Uber’s revenue increased 18% from $10.7 billion a year earlier. For the quarter ending June 30, net income rose to $1.36 billion, or 63 cents per share,from $1.02 billion, or 47 cents per share, a year ago.
Gross bookings rose 17% to $46.8 billion, and the company reported adjusted earnings of $2.12 billion.
Uber’s “monthly active platform consumers” increased 15% to 180 million in the second quarter. The company said users booked around 3.3 billion trips during the period, up 18% from a year earlier.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in prepared remarks that Uber sees “enormous potential in better serving families across all stages of life.”
Read more CNBC tech news
In the second quarter, Uber launched Senior Accounts, including an “app experience” that features larger text and icons, and other features that allow family organizers to book and manage rides for others.
The company also recently started testing a new feature in the U.S. that allows women riders or drivers to avoid being paired with men in their ride when possible.
In some international markets, Uber Eats’ food delivery service is more popular than ride hailing, and the company is working to increase “cross-platform activity” to drive sales growth, Khosrowshahi said.
Uber shares are up 48% this year as of Tuesday’s close, while the Nasdaq has gained about 8% over that stretch.
Executives will go over results and the company’s outlook on a call with analysts at 8 a.m. ET.
Tesla is now training a new Full Self-Driving model boasting “big” video improvements and size upgrades, CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday on social media.
“Tesla is training a new FSD model with ~10X params and a big improvement to video compression loss. Probably ready for public release end of next month if testing goes well,” the tech billionaire said in an update on the X social media platform.
FSD is a partially automated driving system that seeks to enable Tesla vehicles to navigate and maneuver in driving situations with minimal driver assistance. Owners must keep their hands on the wheel, and remain ready to take over steering or braking at any time. It also serves as an upgrade to the company’s Autopilot driver assistant, which is already available in Europe and China.
The system is based on an artificial intelligence model that helps the car’s cameras and sensors perceive the world around it. Musk’s comment on “10X params” refers to a larger parameter size. In the case of AI models, that usually means it is a bigger model that is trained on more data and is more capable.
FSD has been a central pillar of Musk’s strategy for Tesla’s revenue growth and tech advancement in the increasingly competitive electric vehicle market, where Chinese automakers have stepped up to the plate.
Tesla bulls expect the company’s future will be in autonomy as Musk’s automaker focuses on ramping up its offering of self-driving features.
But right now, the market is focused on how Tesla’s core business of selling cars is doing. And it has been challenging. Tesla most recently reported a 16% decline in automotive revenue in the second quarter and has also been notching steep declines in its European sales.
The company’s stock has taken a bruising this year that has been exacerbated by reputational damage from Musk’s now-severed relationship with the White House administration. Tesla shares were down 23.55% this year as of Wednesday morning.
China is one of Nvidia’s largest markets, particularly for data centers, gaming and artificial intelligence applications.
Avishek Das | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Two Chinese nationals in California have been arrested and charged with the illegal shipment of tens of millions of dollars‘ worth of AI chips, including from Nvidia, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
Chuan Geng, 28, and Shiwei Yang, 28, exported the sensitive chips and other technology to China from October 2022 through July 2025 without obtaining the required licenses, the DOJ said.
The illicit shipments included Nvidia’s H100 general processing units, according to a criminal complaint provided to CNBC. The H100 is amongst the U.S. chipmaker’s most cutting-edge chips used in artificial intelligence applications.
The Department of Commerce has placed such chips under export controls since 2022 as part of broader efforts by the U.S. to restrict China’s access to the most advanced semiconductor technology.
This case demonstrates that smuggling is a “nonstarter,” Nvidia told CNBC. “We primarily sell our products to well-known partners, including OEMs, who help us ensure that all sales comply with U.S. export control rules.”
“Even relatively small exporters and shipments are subject to thorough review and scrutiny, and any diverted products would have no service, support, or updates,” the chipmaker added.
Geng and Yang’s California-based company, ALX Solutions, had been founded shortly after the U.S. chip controls first came into place.
According to the DOJ, law enforcement searched ALX Solutions’ office and seized phones belonging to Geng and Yang, which revealed incriminating communications between the defendants, including those about evading U.S. export laws by shipping sensitive chips to China through Malaysia.
The review also showed that in December 2024, ALX Solutions made over 20 shipments from the U.S. to shipping and freight-forwarding companies in Singapore and Malaysia, which the DOJ said are commonly used as transshipment points to conceal illicit shipments to China.
ALX Solutions did not appear to have been paid by entities they purportedly exported goods to, instead receiving numerous payments from companies based in Hong Kong and China.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security and the FBI are continuing to investigate the matter.
The smuggling of advanced microchips has become a growing concern in Washington. According to a report from the Financial Times last month, at least $1 billion worth of Nvidia’s chips entered China after Donald Trump tightened chip export controls earlier this year.
In response to the report, Nvidia had said that data centers built with smuggled chips were a “losing proposition” and that it does not support unauthorized products.