China commerce minister says he met Nvidia CEO in Beijing
Wang said at a press conference that Huang had worked very hard over the past few days during his visit to China, but Wang did not provide any details about what was discussed at their meeting.
Nvidia did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
During his third China visit this year, Huang, the founder and CEO of the world's most valuable company, also met with Ren Hongbin, chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the country's Vice Premier He Lifeng.
Chinese officials told Huang they welcomed foreign companies to continue to invest in the country, the Nvidia CEO said at a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday.
At the event, Huang described artificial intelligence models from Chinese firms Deepseek, Alibaba (9988.HK), opens new tab and Tencent (0700.HK), opens new tab as "world class" and said AI was "revolutionising" supply chains.
Huang also said Chinese customers' demand for its H20 AI chip, which was released from U.S. export controls this week, is high but no purchase orders have been fulfilled yet as it awaits U.S. government approval for export licences.
Nvidia has also announced it is developing a new chip for Chinese clients called the RTX Pro GPU, which would be compliant with U.S. export restrictions and designed specifically for smart factories and for robot training purposes.
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
'Great British Energy solar panels' for schools were made in China
The first schools in England to install what the government described as "Great British Energy solar panels" were made in China, the BBC has first 11 schools involved in the GB Energy scheme bought solar panels from Aiko and Longi, two Chinese government said the scheme was "the first major project for Great British Energy - a company owned by the British people, for the British people".Labour MP Sarah Champion said GB Energy should be buying solar panels from companies in the UK rather than China, where there have been allegations of forced labour in supply chains. "I'm really excited about the principle of GB Energy," she told BBC News. "But it's taxpayers' money and we should not be supporting slave labour with that money. And wherever possible, we should be supporting good working practices and buy British if we can."She added: "That means that yes, unfortunately, in the short term, solar panels are probably going to be slightly more expensive."There are solar panels made around the world in Taiwan, Canada, even in the UK."Longi and Aiko both told the BBC they forbid forced labour in their production and supply is the world's leading producer of solar panels and the suppliers in the Xinjiang region have been linked to the alleged exploitation of Uyghur this year, the law was changed to ban GB Energy from investing in renewables if there is evidence of modern slavery in their has dominated the market and, according to the International Energy Agency, the country's global share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels exceeds 80%.Champion, who is chair of the International Development Select Committee, said "abuse in renewable supply chains is insidious and hard to root out".But she urged ministers to exclude known human-rights offenders from winning public contracts.A GB Energy spokesperson said all of the solar contracts issued under the schools initiative complied with the UK's modern slavery rules. The Xinjiang challenge Up to 50% of the world's supply of polysilicon - a key component in solar panels - is estimated to come from the Xinjiang Candlish is the director of GB-Sol, which calls itself the only manufacturer of conventional solar panels in the said polysilicon was "a key social issue facing our industry, with the risk of forced labour in the main mining areas".He added: "The global solar market is so dominated by China that it is difficult to avoid buying Chinese if you want the low cost energy and low carbon benefits of solar PV."Many businesses and governments - including the UK's - buy Chinese solar panels because they are cheaper than those made thirds (68%) of the solar panels imported by the UK came from China in 2024, according to HMRC trade data. That's an increase on the figure in 2023, when Chinese products accounted for 61% of UK solar imports.A report by Sheffield Hallam University in 2023 linked various solar companies to suppliers in the Xinjiang of the report's authors, Alan Crawford, said the general lack of transparency in the entire solar supply chain was greater now than it was in 2023, when his Over-Exposed report was published."Companies that were willing to comment are now silent," he said. 'Ethical supply chains' GB Energy is a state-owned company that was set up by the Labour government to invest in renewables, such as solar its first big investment, GB Energy is spending about £200m on rooftop solar for 200 schools and NHS hospitals across the first tranche of this funding has been spent on the Chinese solar panels for the 11 Department for Education told the BBC which companies had made the solar panels in response to a freedom of information request.A GB Energy spokesperson said the company would "lead the way in ethical supply chains" and insisted there was "no place for forced labour or unethical practices in the UK's energy transition".The spokesperson added: "That is why we are introducing a statutory duty on Great British Energy to prevent modern slavery in its supply chains, and reviewing supplier transparency and disclosure standards to ensure confidence in all public-facing renewable programmes."All contracts issued under this schools and hospitals solar initiative complied with UK procurement rules, including extensive requirements under the Modern Slavery Act."GBE will seek to uphold these requirements in its contracting arrangements and are actively engaging with international partners to raise the bar globally on solar supply chain accountability." China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity against the Uyghur population and other mostly-Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of state-sponsored programmes, detainees are forced to produce goods including polysilicon, a core ingredient in solar panels, according to the US Department of Chinese government has denied all allegations of human rights abuses in and Aiko are both members of the Solar Stewardship Initiative, which is a scheme designed to develop confidence in the supply chain and the responsible sourcing of solar Aiko spokesperson said the company was "committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical business conduct and responsible sourcing"."We take any concerns related to human rights and labour practices seriously and expect our suppliers to do the same," the spokesperson said."As part of our ongoing efforts, we engage with suppliers to promote transparency and continuous improvement in line with international guidelines. We are also closely monitoring global supply chain developments and remain committed to working with stakeholders to support a fair and sustainable solar industry."Longi said it regretted the findings of the Sheffield Hallam University report and "categorically affirms that forced labour has no place within our supply chain".A company spokesperson said the conclusions in the Over-Exposed report "may not fully reflect the comprehensive measures Longi has implemented to ensure full compliance with international labour standards"."Independent third-party audits play a critical role in verifying compliance and identifying potential risks," the spokesperson said."While the complexity of global supply chains presents challenges, Longi remains steadfast in its efforts to eliminate any risks associated with forced labour."
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
HAMISH MCRAE: Why ARE we so scared of investing?
On to 10,000? The FTSE 100 share index spent Friday flirting with the 9,000 mark, pushing through it twice before closing at 8,992. It makes you think. If shares can do this well with all the chaos for world trade, plus the miserable performance of our economy, and I'm afraid our own Government, what on earth might they do as and when the clouds lift? And not just here. The S&P 500 hit an all-time high, with Germany's DAX just about there too. Actually, the clouds over world trade did lift a little on Thursday. Jensen Huang, chief executive of the US chip-maker, Nvidia, met China's commerce minister, Wang Wentao, and there was a hint that China and America might start to co-operate on trade in semiconductors, rather than head into a full-scale trade war. As a result, the shares of what was already the world's most valuable firm shot up further, giving it a market value of $4.25 trillion and leading to talk of it becoming the first $5 trillion enterprise. That pulled up some other US giants, including Microsoft, now worth $3.8 trillion. This pattern of uneven economic news but booming share prices was given a new twist last week by Rachel Reeves. In her Mansion House speech, the Chancellor urged people to invest in equities, arguing that the benefits outweighed the risks. Now, you may think that many of her actions have had quite the reverse effect by discouraging anyone from putting their savings into the market: increases in capital gains tax, making pension pots liable for inheritance tax from 2027, and so on. We will have to wait and see what she plans to do about cash Isas – whether she will try to cut or end them – but if she really wanted to get more people investing in shares, she would at the very least allow the capital gains tax allowance to be indexed against inflation. True to form, there was a yawning gap between what she says and what she does. But actually, she's right. We have written here about the relentless selling of UK shares by pension funds and insurers since 1997, when they owned nearly half the market. By 2022 they were down to owning 4.2 per cent of it. But private investors have also been in headlong retreat. In the 1960s more than half the shares on the London Stock Exchange were owned by individuals. By the 1990s, they owned 20 per cent, and in 2022, 10.8 per cent. Foreigners, who accounted for less than 10 per cent of the market in 1979, had 57.7 per cent of quoted shares, an all-time high. Those figures are two and a half years out of date. Why the Office for National Statistics can't give us a more recent tally of who owns British enterprises, I don't know. I would have thought it was rather important. However, it is just possible that, despite the negativity of this Government, black holes in its finances and all that, interest among ordinary savers is starting to pick up. We do know that there are nearly 5,000 Isa millionaires. Indeed, this most recent uplift in the markets has probably pushed the number well above that level. It also seems that Generation Z is prepared to risk money by buying cryptocurrencies. The most stunning statistic I have found on this is that the Financial Conduct Authority reckons that as of August last year, 12 per cent of UK adults owned cryptoassets. That's seven million people. Since the prices have doubled since then, with Bitcoin up from about $60,000 to close to $118,000 now, they have done well out of it. As we all know, there is nothing there: no physical assets, no commercial entity, no products or services, no dividends. But whatever you think about investing in crypto – I think it's nuts – it does at least show seven million Britons aren't afraid to take a punt. What we need to do is to harness this spirit by hammering home the message that successful investment is a long game. Yes, there are risks, including that governments like this one will clobber savers with yet higher taxes. But keep putting money into solid companies, reinvest the dividends, and you will eventually have a nice nest egg. For once, our Chancellor is right.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Democrat mayor slammed for spending tens of thousands of taxpayer money on AI to do city employees' jobs
A California politician is slammed after spending tens of thousands of taxpayer money on AI to do his employees' jobs. San Jose Mayor, Matt Mahan, spent more than $35,000 to purchase 89 ChatGPT licenses - at $400 per account - for city workers to use. By next year, the city intends to have 1,000, or about 15 percent of its workers, trained to use AI tools for a variety of tasks, including pothole complaint response, bus routing, and using vehicle-tracking surveillance cameras to solve crimes. Mahan staff even used it to help draft talking points before a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new business, and he used it to help write a $5.6billion budget for the new fiscal year. Mahan is now pushing a growing number of the nearly 7,000 government workers running Silicon Valley's biggest city to embrace artificial intelligence technology. 'The idea is to try things, be really transparent, look for problems, flag them, share them across different government agencies, and then work with vendors and internal teams to problem solve,' Mahan said in an interview. 'It's always bumpy with new technologies.' Mahan said adopting AI tools will eliminate drudge work and help the city better serve its roughly 1million residents, but some residents are angry he's spending money on the program when the city is already in a deficit. He is not the only public or private sector executive directing an AI-or-bust strategy, though in some cases, workers have found that the costly technology can add hassles or mistakes. While some government agencies have been secretive about when they turn to chatbots for help, Mahan is open about his ChatGPT-written background memos that he turns to when making speeches. 'Historically, that would have taken hours of phone calls and reading, and you just never would have been able to get those insights,' he said. 'You can knock out these tasks at a similar or better level of quality in a lot less time.' However he added that 'you still need a human being in the loop. You can't just kind of press a couple of buttons and trust the output. You still have to do some independent verification. You have to have logic and common sense and ask questions.' However, not everyone is happy about his purchase. 'Here's a real idea for AI that works: Replace Matt Mahan with AI,' one wrote on X. 'After all, AI has been writing Mahon's speeches & possibly X posts & replies! An 'authentic' mayor, indeed.' 'If AI is being used in San José government, the results are invisible to the taxpayers footing the bill. Mahan's obsession with tech gimmicks is just a distraction from his failure to lead on the issues that matter: public safety, housing, and restoring pride in our neighborhoods,' another wrote. 'San José doesn't need more tech talk. It needs results.' Another complained of the deficient the city is in. However, not everyone is happy about his purchase. 'Here's a real idea for AI that works: Replace Matt Mahan with AI,' one wrote 'Matt, pass that good stuff you are smoking. SJC is in a recession, a $43 million SJ budget deficit & all factors blamed r Sanctuary/ DEI related,' they wrote. One of San Jose's early adopters was Andrea Arjona Amador, who leads electric mobility programs at the city's transportation department. She has already used ChatGPT to secure a $12million grant for electric vehicle chargers. Arjona Amador set up a customized 'AI agent' to review the correspondence she was receiving about various grant proposals and asked it to help organize the incoming information, including due dates. Then, she had it help draft the 20-page document. Arjona Amado started using it to help save time. 'The way it used to work, before I started using this, we spent a lot of evenings and weekends trying to get grants to the finish line,' she said. The Trump administration later rescinded the funding, so she pitched a similar proposal to a regional funder not tied to the federal government. Arjona Amador, who learned Spanish and French before she learned English, also created another customized chatbot to edit the tone and language of her professional writings. With close relationships to some of the tech industry's biggest players, including San Francisco-based OpenAI and Mountain View-based Google, the mayors of the Bay Area's biggest cities are helping to promote AI adoption. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a plan Monday to give nearly 30,000 city workers, including nurses and social workers, access to Microsoft's Copilot chatbot, which is based on the same technology that powers ChatGPT. San Francisco's plan says it comes with 'robust privacy and bias safeguards, and clear guidelines to ensure technology enhances - not replaces - human judgment.' San Jose has similar guidelines and hasn't yet reported any major mishaps with its pilot projects. Such problems have attracted attention elsewhere because of the technology's propensity to spew false information, known as hallucinations. ChatGPT's digital fingerprints were found on an error-filled document published in May by US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' commission. In Fresno, California, a school official was forced to resign after saying she was too trusting of an AI chatbot that fabricated information in a document. Earlier this year, when OpenAI introduced a new pilot product called Operator, it promised a new kind of tool that went beyond a chatbot's capabilities. Instead of just analyzing documents and producing passages of text, it could also access a computer system and schedule calendars or perform tasks on a person's behalf. Developing and selling such 'AI agents' is now a key focus for the tech industry. More than an hour's drive east of Silicon Valley, where the Bay Area merges into Central Valley farm country, Jamil Niazi, director of information technology at the city of Stockton, had big visions for what he could do with such an agent. These include allowing the parks and recreation department to use an AI agent to help residents book amenities or check how busy they are before visiting. Six months later, however, after completing a proof-of-concept phase, the city didn't buy a full license for the technology due to the cost. The market research group Gartner recently predicted that over 40 percent of 'agentic AI' projects will be canceled before the end of 2027, 'due to escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls.' San Jose's mayor remains bullish about the potential for these AI tools to help workers 'in the bowels of bureaucracy' to rapidly speed up their digital paperwork. 'There's just an amazing amount of bureaucracy that large organizations have to have,' Mahan said. 'Whether it's finance, accounting, HR or grant writing, those are the kinds of roles where we think our employees can be 20 [to] 50 percent more productive - quickly.'
