Latest news with #MI308
Politico
12 hours ago
- Business
- Politico
Did Big Tech just outfox the China hawks?
One of the most dizzying pivots in American policy toward China happened just last week, when two chipmakers — Nvidia and AMD — said that Donald Trump's White House had effectively given its blessing to let them sell high-end artificial intelligence chips to China. Just in April, the White House had banned sales of Nvidia's H20 and AMD's MI308 chips to China. Recent administrations spent years trying to contain China's ambitions in tech — and particularly in AI. My colleague Gabby Miller called it 'policy whiplash' in her Morning Tech newsletter on Thursday. China hawks in Congress are up in arms, worried that the H20 compute power could enable the country to develop state-of-the-art AI models. Republican Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich), chair of the House China Committee, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday insisting on a briefing about the decision. Democratic ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi said the move would 'hand our foreign adversaries our most advanced technologies.' (In fairness, these are not the most advanced technologies — Nvidia's highest-end AI chips are still illegal to export to China.) What's really going on here? Is this just Trump being strategically unpredictable in the middle of a stuck trade negotiation with China? Or is he taking the industry's side against the national-security community? Possibly either. Or both. But to longtime observers, this is also an attempt to take another position in a years-long argument: If countries are going to develop AI, the thinking goes, it's far better to have it built on American tech. Proponents of the H20 exports contend that they further national security by keeping the world dependent on the U.S.'s AI hardware, as well as fortifying its market power. During a CNBC interview on July 15, Lutnick argued that Nvidia's sales get China's developers 'addicted to the American technology stack.' This is also the argument Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been making, according to the New York Times. Nvidia told DFD in a statement, 'America wins when the world builds on the U.S. technology stack. The Government made the best decision for America, promoting U.S. technology leadership, economic growth, and national security.' AMD did not respond to an inquiry. Patrick Moorhead, a former VP at AMD, said a strong market position is important to keeping Chinese competitors at bay. 'Any dollar that's not going to Nvidia is going to Huawei,' he told DFD. Part of the policy tension is simply over risk tolerance, Moorhead said. The national-security community — especially military and defense officials — typically 'just want to take all risk off the table,' he said. Businesses, of course, thrive on a measure of risk — especially when they see big gains at stake. This was clearly in evidence when Trump brokered deals to send tens of thousands of high-end chips to Gulf countries in May, over objections that it would open the door to chip smuggling. 'The White House seems to be prioritizing the economic gains [...] and they have a philosophy about why that won't create challenges on the national security side,' said Michael Horowitz, a deputy assistant secretary of defense under Biden who had concerns that the exports could be harmful in the long term. 'Given the way that China aggressively harvests American technology to improve its military, there are reasons to be nervous.' A White House official told DFD on background that the administration sees its application process for selling chips like H20, which Biden did not restrict, as creating a middle path that promotes the industry while addressing serious national security concerns. In the classic Washington game of 'who's winning,' it looks like this round goes to the chipmakers over the hawks. AI and chip companies have been 'been pretty good at convincing the president to take some measure of risk,' said Moorehead. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang seems to have masterminded this particular about-face. He's been in regular contact with White House allies to protest against export controls, and reportedly convinced Trump to change course on Nvidia's chip sales to China in early July. National security wonks aren't so sure this will work to keep China dependent on America's tech stack. China has been investing more than any other geographic region on building up domestic manufacturing capabilities since 2023. 'Even if China has access to U.S. chips and architectures, they're strategically aware enough to know that they shouldn't rely on a competitor for a technology this vital,' Janet Egan, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told DFD. 'At the end of the day, Chinese firms are going to be actively trying to create alternative ecosystems regardless,' she said. The industry's initial victories on export controls aren't set in stone. Since Trump set the H20 restrictions in the first place, only to revoke them, he could easily pull another 180 in the future. In fact, national security concerns are reportedly holding up UAE chip deals. Plus, the industry-hawk dichotomy can be a bit reductive when it comes to this debate. Chris Miller, a Tufts University historian who wrote the book 'Chip War,' told DFD that chip exports can help or hurt different parts of the tech industry — Anthropic notably called for strong controls on advanced microchips in April. 'Obviously chip companies, at least in the short run, benefit from selling more chips, but then AI companies in the U.S. probably lose out by having stronger Chinese competitors,' he said. In a storyline as complex as chips, China and AI, perhaps it's more accurate to look at Big Tech as a collection of different industries, whose interests don't always align. On the question of the new H20 exports, Miller said: 'It depends on which industry you're talking about — you get different answers.' China-linked hackers breach Sharepoint China-backed groups hacked Microsoft's SharePoint service, the American tech giant said Tuesday, as POLITICO's John Sakellariadis and Dana Nickel report. They add the U.S. has yet to name a culprit. The hack hit some 100 targets, which began to notice the security breach last week. Microsoft named three groups based in China — Linen Typhoon, Violet Typhoon and Storm-2603 — as being responsible for the hack. It added that Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon are Chinese state actors. Internet researchers told POLITICO that the cyberattack exploited a SharePoint flaw to remotely access servers belonging to dozens of organizations around the world. Microsoft said in a statement that it was 'coordinating closely with [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency], [Department of Defense] Cyber Defense Command, and key cybersecurity partners around the world throughout our response.' The company's threat intelligence team also recommended that SharePoint customers install its latest security updates and antivirus programs. A U.S. official told POLITICO that government investigators suspect the hackers were able to infiltrate four to five federal agencies. Officials told John and Dana they had not yet determined how or whether China was involved in the attack. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to POLITICO's inquiries. Congress wants answers on Senate Democrats are pressing the Trump administration on the development of an AI chatbot known as for federal employees. POLITICO's Morning Tech team obtained a letter that 15 Senate Democrats sent to the Department of Government Efficiency initiative and the General Services Administration inquiring about The letter, helmed by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), requests information on the application's use cases, data privacy safeguards and protections against bias. 'Poorly planned AI deployments can risk disrupting workflows and fostering distrust, especially when workers are not adequately trained or consulted,' the letter reads. The outlet 404 Media was the first to report on the government's efforts in June. Based on information from GitHub and audio from internal meetings, 404 Media found that federal officials had considered incorporating AI coding agents and an analytics feature to track AI use across government teams. post of the day THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS Stay in touch with the whole team: Aaron Mak (amak@ Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nvidia and AMD Shares Jump With Sales Set to Resume to China. Is It Too Late to Buy the Stocks?
Key Points Nvidia and AMD are both set to benefit from easing export restrictions to China. Nvidia remains the GPU leader, and this news should add billions in sales for the company. AMD has a big opportunity in inference, and the China news will expand its total addressable market. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › The trade war between the U.S. and China recently took an unexpected turn, and the biggest beneficiaries look to be Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD). Both stocks popped after news broke that the U.S. is set to ease chip export restrictions, potentially allowing the companies to resume selling their artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China. China is a huge market that had recently been closed off to the two companies. Nvidia will now be allowed to sell its H20 graphics processing units (GPUs), which were designed specifically to comply with prior export rules, to China. Sales were halted in April after new rules required the company to apply for a license, putting billions of dollars in revenue at risk. But Nvidia said that the U.S. government has assured it that licenses will be granted, and shipments could resume shortly. This marks a major policy reversal and signals that the Trump administration is softening its stance. It's no coincidence that this follows Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's recent meeting with President Donald Trump. Nvidia has made it clear that it supports American job creation and wants to keep AI innovation centered in the U.S., but it was afraid that cutting off China completely would threaten the company's global leadership. It was also set to take a $5.5 billion revenue hit tied to its H20 chips. AMD was also swept up in the news, saying that it expects to restart shipments of its MI308 AI chips once the Commerce Department resumes license reviews. AMD had warned of up to $800 million in lost revenue from the restriction. The shift comes just weeks after Washington and Beijing agreed to ease rare-earth export restrictions and work toward a broader tech trade framework. Nvidia is still the leader of AI infrastructure Bringing the H20 back into China should add billions in incremental sales, but Nvidia wasn't sitting still. It had already been developing a new, fully compliant GPU -- the RTX PRO --aimed at industrial automation and smart factories. This could open up another growth vertical for the company. While the China news is a near-term catalyst, the Nvidia story remains about much more than China. Nvidia is the dominant player in the GPU market, capturing a whopping 92% share in Q1. While the company has arguably the most powerful chips on the market, its real moat is its CUDA software platform. Nvidia created the platform as a way to expand the use of GPUs beyond gaming, and as other markets took time to develop, the company pushed the platform into academic institutions and research labs, which is where early AI efforts were taking place. This led to CUDA becoming the software platform on which developers learned to program GPUs, and led to libraries, frameworks, and tools being built on top of it designed specifically to enhance the performance of its chips for use in AI. Nvidia remains the leader of AI, and with China reopening, the stock got even more attractive. As such, I don't think it's too late to buy Nvidia stock, even after its recent run-up. AMD has a huge inference opportunity AMD isn't Nvidia, and it will likely never overtake its GPU rival. Its AI-related revenue is just a fraction of Nvidia's, but the stock could have far more upside if it can make just modest share gains. The good news is that AMD has carved out a meaningful niche in AI inference, which is eventually expected to become the much larger market compared to AI model training. The company recently said that one of the world's largest AI model developers is using its GPUs to run a big chunk of its daily inference. Importantly, AMD is part of a consortium that is working on the open UALink standard to challenge Nvidia's proprietary NVLink. If successful, it would allow customers to mix and match AI chips, which could open the door for more of AMD's chips being used. The China news helps AMD, as well. The company said it expects to resume shipments of its MI308 chips once it gets license approval. Those chips were designed specifically for the Chinese market in response to prior export restrictions. Reopening China won't make or break the company, but it does provide incremental growth. Overall, AMD is well-positioned as the market moves toward inference. It doesn't need to take a huge portion of this market -- just a slice would be enough to spur meaningful growth. Now, with China back in play, its total addressable market just got bigger. That makes the stock a solid buy, even after its recent run-up. Do the experts think Nvidia is a buy right now? The Motley Fool's expert analyst team, drawing on years of investing experience and deep analysis of thousands of stocks, leverages our proprietary Moneyball AI investing database to uncover top opportunities. They've just revealed their to buy now — did Nvidia make the list? When our Stock Advisor analyst team has a stock recommendation, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor's total average return is up 1,048% vs. just 180% for the S&P — that is beating the market by 867.59%!* Imagine if you were a Stock Advisor member when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,056,790!* The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025 Geoffrey Seiler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Nvidia and AMD Shares Jump With Sales Set to Resume to China. Is It Too Late to Buy the Stocks? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
‘Only the Beginning,' Says Investor About AMD Stock
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) stock offered little cause for celebration in the latter half of 2024 and into 2025. Despite generating strong revenue amid the ongoing AI boom, the chipmaker's share price tumbled, leaving investors out in the cold. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. That narrative, however, has shifted sharply in recent months. AMD's share price has skyrocketed 83% over the past three months, driven by renewed market optimism, a standout Q1 2025 earnings report, continued AI infrastructure investments by hyperscalers, and a landmark contract in Saudi Arabia. In fact, one investor, known by the pseudonym Cash Flow Venue (CFV), believes that AMD's 'rally has just begun,' citing product traction and international tailwinds as signs of more upside ahead. As supporting evidence, the investor points to the growing adoption of AMD's MI series GPUs by major tech players. With the Instinct MI350 already shipping and the MI400 expected to debut in 2026, AMD's data center strategy appears to be gaining real momentum. 'AMD doesn't slow down its pace, and while it still lags behind Nvidia, it doesn't have to overthrow it to secure a strong #2 position in the market, still securing high demand, growing and profitable sales, as well as customer relationships ensuring future growth prospects,' the investor added. CFV is also buoyed by some recent regulatory developments, as the Trump administration has indicated its willingness to allow the export of advanced AI chips to China. This could reopen the door for AMD's advanced AI chips, specifically the MI308, to be exported to China. Keep on Buying AMD Stock Taken together, these developments give the investor confidence that AMD's rally still has legs, even with the stock trading at a heightened EV-to-EBITDA multiple of 36.8x. 'Given robust financials, product innovation, and renewed China access, I am raising my AMD rating to Strong Buy for continued upside potential,' exclaims CFV. (To watch Cash Flow Venue's track record, click here) Wall Street, meanwhile, shows a mixed stance. AMD holds a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 25 Buys and 10 Holds. However, the average 12-month price target of $144.45 suggests the stock may be overvalued by ~8% at current levels. (See AMD stock forecast) To find good ideas for AI stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks' Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks' equity insights.
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
AMD Stock Gets a Price Target Boost from Citi's Top Analyst Ahead of Q2 Earnings
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will report its Q2 2025 earnings results on August 5. Ahead of the report, AMD stock got a bullish upgrade from Citi's Top analyst Christopher Danely, who raised his price target to $165 from $145. The new price target indicates a 5% upside from current levels. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. However, he maintained a Hold rating on the stock, warning that the China-related gains from the sale of MI308 chips may be short-lived. Danely ranks #644 out of 9,889 analysts tracked on TipRanks. He boasts a 66% success rate and an average return per rating of 11.00%. Analyst Sees Short-Term Upside, But Stays Cautious The five-star analyst believes AMD stock could continue to move higher in the near term, as excitement around AI remains strong. Danely pointed out that investors are growing more optimistic ahead of AMD's earnings, and the broader market continues to favor chip stocks tied to AI. As a result, Danely raised his price target to $165, based on 44x expected 2026 earnings. The new price target reflects growing optimism that rising demand for AI chips could lift AMD stock in the near term. Despite the price target bump, the analyst prefers to remain on the sidelines for now, noting that much of the AI-driven optimism may already be reflected in AMD's share price. Danely cautioned that investor expectations might be too high going into earnings, and a clearer view of the company's outlook will only emerge once results are out in August. What to Expect from AMD's Q2 Earnings Wall Street analysts expect AMD to report earnings of $0.48 per share for Q2, down 30% from the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, analysts project Q2 revenues at $7.41 billion, according to the TipRanks Analyst Forecasts Page. The figure marks a year-over-year increase of about 27%. Is AMD a Good Stock to Buy? On TipRanks, AMD stock has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 25 Buys and 10 Holds assigned in the last three months. The average AMD price target of $144.45 suggests a downside potential of 7.99% from its current price. Year-to-date, shares of the company have gained about 30%.
The Star
4 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Nvidia, AMD to win market share in China as US eases export curbs
The sales resumption of Nvidia's H20 processors and Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD) MI308 chips in China is expected to ease the anxiety of local artificial intelligence companies, according to analysts. Speaking at the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing on Wednesday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he hoped to introduce more advanced chips to China. The H20, designed to comply with US trade curbs, is less powerful than the H200. Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Full access to Web and App. RM 13.90/month RM 9.73 /month Billed as RM 9.73 for the 1st month, RM 13.90 thereafter. RM 12.39/month RM 8.63 /month Billed as RM 103.60 for the 1st year, RM 148 thereafter.
