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CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
China releases AI action plan days after the U.S. as global tech race heats up
SHANGHAI — The tech race between the world's two largest economies just intensified. China on Saturday released a global action plan for artificial intelligence, calling for international cooperation on tech development and regulation. The news came as the annual state-organized World Artificial Intelligence Conference kicked off in Shanghai with an opening speech by Premier Li Qiang, who announced that the Chinese government has proposed the establishment of a global AI cooperation organization, according to an official readout. Days earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump announced an American action plan for AI that included calls to reduce alleged "woke" bias in AI models and support the deployment of U.S. tech overseas. "The two camps are now being formed," said George Chen, partner at the Asia Group and co-chair of the digital practice. "China clearly wants to stick to the multilateral approach while the U.S. wants to build its own camp, very much targeting the rise of China in the field of AI," Chen said. He noted how China may attract participants from its Belt and Road Initiative, while the U.S. will likely have the support of its allies, such as Japan and Australia. In his speech, Premier Li emphasized China's "AI plus" plan for integrating the tech across industries and said the country was willing to help other nations with the technology, especially in the Global South. The category loosely refers to less developed economies, especially countries outside the U.S. and European orbits. Since 2022, the U.S. has sought to restrict China's access to advanced semiconductors for training AI models. Earlier this month, U.S. chipmaker Nvidia said the U.S. was allowing it to resume shipments of a less advanced H20 chip to China after a roughly three-month pause. However, China has been developing homegrown alternatives, which Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang both praised and described as "formidable" during his third trip to China this month. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt met with Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining on Thursday in the city ahead of the AI conference, according to a city announcement. Schmidt did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
Business Insider
3 hours ago
- Business Insider
I left the US after being laid off from Amazon. Living in the Netherlands is more affordable, and my small business is thriving.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Denise Segler, 54, who moved from Seattle to Haarlem, a city in North Holland, the Netherlands, in 2024. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. I fell in love with Europe at 18 during a school trip and promised to live abroad someday. I didn't know when or where, but I would make it happen. Later in life, I found myself divorced, with grown children, and recently laid off from my job. I'm a project manager in Information Technology (IT), and I used to work for Amazon. In January 2023, the company laid off my entire team. After that, I asked myself: What do I want to do with my life? I also questioned what was keeping me in the US. A lot of different things were pulling me toward Europe. I wanted to be my own boss and work as a freelancer. But health insurance in the US is incredibly expensive, and that's not the case in much of Europe. I also think Europeans have a better quality of life and work-life balance. In addition, the political climate in the US added a sense of urgency. Europe was calling my name When 2024 came around, I knew it was finally a good time to take a chance abroad. I had earned higher-level project management credentials and started actively promoting my own business as an IT project manager. I had also taken a trip to Ireland. I spent three weeks there — two on my own, and then my 27-year-old joined me for the last week. During that trip, I realized: OK, I can do this. I can go somewhere unfamiliar and be just fine. I researched different European visas and discovered the Dutch American Friendship Treaty (DAFT) visa. It allows Americans to live in the Netherlands as independent business owners. They just need to maintain a minimum of €4,500 ($5,278) in a business bank account. The visa was attractive to me. I also found out that the Netherlands had more affordable health insurance. Then I looked around, and other things were cheaper: cellphone and internet services. I thought, "Why not give that a try?" While you can do it yourself, I used a Dutch legal professional to file my visa paperwork. The legal office submitted my visa application and documents to the Dutch government on my behalf in August 2024 and let me know the visa was approved in September. I landed in Amsterdam on November 5. The Netherlands is the perfect place for me Before I moved to the Netherlands, I had never visited. But I received a lot of advice from people who had. Everyone had wonderful things to say — it was beautiful, and the people were fantastic. I live just south of Haarlem, the capital of North Holland, in a really cute neighborhood with shops, restaurants, and cafés. I feel very lucky, there's a train station just an eight-minute walk away from my apartment, and I'm right near a shopping area with all kinds of grocery stores. In some ways, the area reminds me of parts of Seattle, like the South Lake Union neighborhood. Before moving to the area, I hired a makelaar, a real estate agent, who helped me find a place to live. There's a housing shortage in the Netherlands, so you have to be either very flexible about where you live or be prepared to spend a lot of money. I was very lucky and ended up getting the first apartment I looked at. I had to pay six months' rent in advance because, as someone new to the country, I didn't have any local rental history. My apartment has a bedroom, a bathroom, and a small second room that I use as an office. There's also a combined living and dining area that leads past the kitchen. I spend more on housing but less on everything else I am self-employed, and I am withdrawing from my retirement account for now, which I do not recommend. So budgeting is important. I am paying more for housing in the Netherlands, about €1,735 ($2,041) for my apartment, but all my other bills are significantly cheaper than in the US. I pay €38 ($45) a month for internet and TV, whereas in the US, I paid over $100. My health insurance is also much cheaper here. Legally, you must have health insurance in the Netherlands, and there are a variety of insurance companies to choose from. In the US, I was on COBRA, which cost over $800 a month. Here, I pay €190 ($224) a month. It could be cheaper, but I added dental coverage and extra benefits for chiropractic care. Since I've been here, I've had my teeth cleaned once by a dentist, and that was about €150 ($176). The insurance paid half, and I paid the other half. I worried that food would be more expensive in the Netherlands, but it's not that bad. Produce is pretty cheap. For example, eggs usually come in packs of 10, costing between $3 and $4, depending on the type. The produce here is fantastic. There are farmers markets all over. I go to one every Wednesday, and I have to be careful because I always come back with all kinds of potatoes and cheeses. I think the bread is better here, too; many stores have in-house bakeries. There are pros and cons to living here English isn't an official language of the Netherlands, though most people speak it fluently. French is also commonly spoken, which works well for me. While I wasn't fully immersed in French, I practiced it five days a week for over a decade, starting when I was about nine years old. The locals are generally welcoming. I have seen someone shouting at people speaking a language other than Dutch or English, but only once or twice in the several months that I've been here. No one has been angry with me for speaking English. I think they take me as a tourist and are glad that I have a few words of Dutch. The people here are kind of direct, but I don't mind that much. Once, I went to get my hair cut, and the hairdresser commented, "Oh, you have to color your gray." I said, "No, I like my gray."' It can be hard to make friends, but there are meetup groups and Tinder, if you want to date. I do miss my chosen friends and family, and I have standing phone calls with them every Sunday night. Moving to the Netherlands was the right decision for me My life is more relaxed in the Netherlands because, honestly, I feel safer here. There aren't nearly as many guns, and I'm living in a safer neighborhood than I was in the US. I'm also not worried that a medical emergency is going to bankrupt me. I'm paying significantly less in bills, and the money I am saving every month on health insurance is going toward my savings and my business. My business is also about ready to take off. I joined two networking organizations of business owners, one based in the Netherlands and one based in the UK. I am working with a business coach, and I will be hiring a branding expert next month. My visa expires in July next year. I can request an extension, which I believe would grant me an additional three years. At that point, I would have been here five years, and I can apply for permanent residency, or, after taking Dutch classes, citizenship. I don't know if I want to become a citizen of the Netherlands, but for now, I'm just happy to be here because I can support myself.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump: 50-50 chance of reaching trade deal with EU
President Donald Trump appeared cautiously optimistic on Friday about the chances of reaching a trade deal with the European Union before his self-imposed Aug. 1 deadline. 'I would say that we have a 50-50 chance, maybe less than that, but a 50-50 chance of making a deal with the EU,' Trump told reporters at the White House before heading to Scotland on a private visit and to meet with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The U.S. and EU have been locked in intense negotiations in recent weeks as the deadline looms for Trump to impose a 30 percent tariff on all imports from the 27-country bloc which totaled $605 billion last year. The president on Friday said any deal with the EU countries will have to be one where they 'buy down their tariffs, because they're right now at 30 percent.' In essence, that depends on how willing the bloc is to lower its barriers to American exports, Trump said. Last year, the United States exported about $370 billion worth of goods to the EU. A large portion of those, along with some U.S. services exports, could be hit with EU retaliation if there is no agreement. Still, Trump told reporters he was more optimistic about reaching a deal with the EU than he was about reaching a deal with Japan in the days before Washington and Tokyo reached an agreement last week. 'I would have said we have a 25 percent chance with Japan. And they kept coming back, and we made a deal,' he said. UK 'fine tuning': Trump is spending the weekend in Scotland at his Turnberry and Aberdeen golf resorts, where he will host Starmer and Scottish First Minister John Swinney. Trump told reporters that he and Starmer 'want to talk about certain aspects" of the trade agreement his administration reached with Starmer's government in May. "More fine tuning. And also we're going to do a little celebrating together," the president said. In response to a question, Trump said he did not have much wiggle room to provide more generous terms on his steel and aluminum tariffs for the United Kingom in exchange for London addressing U.S. concerns about its digital services tax. 'Not a lot, because if I do it for one, I have to do it for all. So on that, steel and aluminum — not a lot,' Trump said. As part of the framework agreement inked in May, the U.K. was conditionally promised a quota to export steel to the U.S. at the low 'most-favored nation' rate. However, that provision has not yet been finalized after some in U.S. industry expressed concern.
