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Honor launched the Magic Vs foldable smartphone globally in a bid to take on Samsung in the premium end of the handset market.

Honor

BARCELONA, Spain — Chinese smartphone maker Honor launched its foldable phone globally on Sunday, as it looks to compete with Apple and Samsung in the premium tier of the market.

The Honor Magic Vs was first launched in China in November. Now the company is bringing the device to a number of markets abroad, including the U.K., Germany and countries in Latin America.

It marks the Chinese firm’s ambition to expand into the latest smartphone technology — foldables — at the high end of the market, where it will compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung.

Honor was spun off from Huawei, after a number of U.S. sanctions cut the Chinese telecommunications giant off from critical chips and access to Google’s Android mobile operating system, crushing its smartphone business. As a separate entity, Honor has access to Android and to the components that it needs for its high-end devices.

Huawei sold Honor to a consortium of buyers that includes the government of its headquarters city, Shenzhen. Honor was the budget brand under Huawei, but has looked to market itself as a premium player since its independence, filling the gap that Huawei once did.

Honor launched its first smartphone overseas toward the end of 2021 and has since moved aggressively to bring more models to countries outside of China.

The company has been trying to distance itself from Huawei and establish itself independently.

“Although Honor is operating as a completely independent entity, it still has to regularly explain that is it not part of Huawei. Over time this is becoming less of an issue, but it is still a challenge it faces,” Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight, told CNBC via email.

Honor Magic Vs specs

The Honor Magic Vs is a so-called foldable smartphone. These are devices that have a screen that can bend. Honor said it has tested the device by folding it and opening it up to 400,000 times with no problem.

Honor’s smartphone runs Android and has a 7.9-inch display when it is fully open. The phone also has a second display on the outside of the device when it is folded, which is 6.45 inches.

The Magic Vs will be offered at a price of 1,599 euro ($1,690) to the European market. It will compete with foldable devices from Samsung and Chinese firm Oppo on the world stage.

But the foldable phone category, which was pioneered by Samsung, is still in the early phases. Foldable devices accounted for only 1.1% of total smartphone shipments in 2022, according to IDC, and this share is expected to increase to just 2.8% in 2026.

The Magic Vs is one of the first foldable devices available in markets outside of China, as Honor attempts to get ahead in the nascent segment of smartphones.

High-end push

While Honor has emerged as one of the biggest smartphone players in China, it has yet to find similar success overseas. It will be hoping its more premium devices can help it win users abroad.

At its peak in 2020, Huawei had managed to become the number one smartphone player in the world, overtaking Samsung and Apple by launching premium devices, equipped with some of the latest technology. Since its smartphone business has been crippled, there has been a big gap left that companies like Samsung, Apple, and other players like Xiaomi, have taken advantage of.

Honor will be hoping to wrestle back some of those users.

“I’ve been impressed by the products that Honor has unveiled and some of the DNA harking from its roots as formally being part of Huawei are clear in the quality of the products. Huawei was snapping at Samsung’s heels when it got stopped in its tracks by the U.S. administration and was setting the benchmark amongst Chinese smartphone makers,” Wood said.

“Honor now needs to assert its independence and start on the long road of establishing its brand in Western markets in a similar manner to other Chinese phone makers. This took Huawei nearly a decade, so there is a significant journey ahead for all those companies seeking to compete with Samsung and Apple.”

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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Lyft to buy taxi app Free Now for $200 million to expand into Europe

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Lyft to buy taxi app Free Now for 0 million to expand into Europe

Lyft logo is seen in this illustration taken June 27, 2022.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

U.S. ride-hailing firm Lyft on Wednesday announced that it’s buying European taxi app Free Now in a 175 million euro ($199 million) deal.

The company said that the acquisition — Lyft’s first in Europe — is expected to close in the second half of 2025, and that, once combined, the two companies will serve over 50 million combined annual users.

Founded in 2009 as myTaxi, Free Now is a ride-hailing platform headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company has been jointly owned by German automotive giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz since 2019.

The app is available in over 150 cities across nine countries, including Ireland, the U.K., Germany and France. Beyond traditional taxi and ride-hailing services, Free Now also offers other mobility options including e-scooters, e-mopeds and e-bikes.

Free Now has been joint-owned by German automotive giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz since 2016.

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

The startup is earnings-positive on the basis of Earnings Before Interest, Debt and Amortization, generating gross bookings over 1 billion euros in 2024, according to a company fact sheet.

Acquiring Free Now will give Lyft a route to expand into the highly competitive European ride-hailing market, where it will come up against the likes of Uber, Estonia’s Bolt and Israel’s Gett.

Lyft’s closest domestic rival, Uber, has a lengthy head start on the firm, having first launched in the U.K. back in 2012. It has since been beset by a series of regulatory issues.

London’s transport regulators tried to ban Uber two times over safety concerns. The company was eventually awarded a fresh license to continue operating in the city in 2022.

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