President Trump reversed earlier export restrictions, allowing Nvidia to resume sales of H200 Artificial Intelligence chips to approved customers in China, a move that triggered strong national security criticism and concerns about bolstering Chinese military capabilities. In response, Nvidia is developing location verification technology to help detect and prevent chip smuggling, as lawmakers and regulators scrutinize how these exports are controlled. The decision is being closely watched by competitors such as ASML and SK Hynix, which are navigating their own exposure to shifting United States and European export regimes targeting China.
Broadcom reported upbeat Q4 and full year financial results driven by large Artificial Intelligence infrastructure deals and announced a dividend increase as demand for its networking and accelerator products stayed strong. At the same time, a cloud industry lobby argued that European Union antitrust regulators made a mistake in clearing Broadcom’s VMware acquisition, keeping regulatory overhang alive despite the company’s growth narrative. In consumer and energy hardware, Samsung launched its triple folding Galaxy Z TriFold smartphone and won a major LFP battery contract for energy storage systems in the United States, while SK Hynix adjusted its HBM and DRAM capacity strategies as large scale fabs faced pressure around power supply and infrastructure.
TSMC’s potential US investment could exceed 200 billion, and the company is simultaneously confronting greater geopolitical scrutiny over cybersecurity, national security law protections for its trade secrets, and a possible 4nm expansion at a second plant in Japan. Intel pledged significant support for India’s semiconductor mission as it trims jobs in other regions, but it also faces lawsuits alleging, along with AMD, that it failed to prevent chips from ending up in Russian missiles, and questions inside the company about its chief executive’s simultaneous role as a private investor. AMD rolled out new enterprise Artificial Intelligence GPUs, asserted that its MI300X outperformed Nvidia’s H100 in large language model inference throughput, and introduced EPYC Embedded 2005 Series processors, while Marvell pushed its Golden Cable initiative and PCIe retimers to speed scaling of Artificial Intelligence data centers, and Qualcomm deepened its edge and automotive Artificial Intelligence portfolio through its Ventana Micro acquisition, Snapdragon Ride Flex, and surveillance focused deals.
