Good morning. Andrew here. We’re digging deeper into President Trump’s tariff talks with China, which have been postponed for another 90 days. (Some critics are calling it another TACO — short for “Trump Always Chickens Out” — moment.) We’re also still thinking about the implications of the deal Trump reached in which Nvidia will pay 15 percent of revenue from A.I. chip sales to China. Will Beijing view this as state-sponsored capitalism? Will Nvidia — and by extension companies like Apple and Tesla — no longer be viewed as independent businesses but as arms of the U.S. government? If so, is the brand of capitalism that the U.S. has promoted for decades now in question? Let us know your thoughts. We’re also watching the fight that Elon Musk started with Apple (and Sam Altman jumping into the debate). We dive into all of that, and more, below. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.)
Chips, and a trucePresident Trump has again postponed, by another 90 days, one of his biggest trade battles, removing for now a major worry hanging over the global economy. But even as Trump urges China to buy more American products like soybeans, U.S. lawmakers and national security experts are concerned about what the president is willing to agree to — notably potentially giving Beijing greater access to high-end artificial intelligence process technology. The latest: At the White House yesterday, Trump defended an agreement in which Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices could resume selling some powerful semiconductors to Chinese companies. In exchange, Washington will take a 15 percent cut of sales. Trump justified the agreement by calling the Nvidia H20 processors at the heart of it “obsolete” — but left open the possibility that Nvidia could soon sell a stripped-down version of its top-end Blackwell chips to China as well. China hawks continued to denounce the move. “Export controls are a frontline defense in protecting our national security, and we should not set a precedent that incentivizes the government to grant licenses to sell China technology that will enhance its A.I. capabilities,” Representative John Moolenaar, Republican of Michigan and the head of a China-focused House committee, told The Financial Times. Some administration officials have weighed resigning over the decision, the F.T. added, underscoring concerns about what Trump is willing to give to secure a meeting with President Xi Jinping of China and reach a trade deal. But China has muddied the waters when it comes to chips. Beijing has urged companies not to use the H20, particularly for sensitive purposes like government work, according to Bloomberg. Security has been on officials’ minds for some time; they summoned Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s C.E.O., to address whether the H20 had a backdoor vulnerability. Shares in several Chinese chipmakers, including SMIC and Hua Hong Semiconductor, rose this morning on the reports. Who’s winning so far? Nvidia is a big beneficiary, particularly if Trump approves exports of even inferior versions of the Blackwell chip. (The president clearly likes Huang for now, calling him “a very brilliant guy” yesterday.) But Dave Lee of Bloomberg Opinion argues that Beijing is in a good position: It is poised to get more Nvidia chips, helping out its own A.I. industry, while also bolstering its homegrown chips industry. The big question is, what else would Trump give to clinch a deal?
Shares in Intel jump as its relations with President Trump improve. Lip-Bu Tan, the company’s C.E.O., went to the White House yesterday for what Trump called a “very interesting” meeting. Trump praised Tan, saying that his “success and rise is an amazing story” — and he appeared to suggest that he was no longer concerned about the Intel chief after having called for Tan’s resignation because past investments in Chinese companies made him “highly CONFLICTED.” Ford doubles down on electric vehicles. The carmaker yesterday introduced plans to make more affordable electrified models, including a four-door pickup truck with a starting price of $30,000, in an effort to take market share from Tesla. The move comes as E.V. sales growth has stalled, and as the Trump administration is poised to rescind discounts and tax breaks that became popular under the Biden administration. Paramount Skydance strikes its first big deal. Nearly a week after David Ellison took over Paramount, the combined company announced it had secured the U.S. rights from TKO to exclusively stream Ultimate Fighting Championship — a sport that counts President Trump as a big fan — for $7.7 billion. The deal is a potential boost for Paramount’s streaming business, and could bring Ellison closer into Trump’s orbit. Elon Musk threatens a war against Apple. The tech mogul said that his xAI artificial intelligence start-up would take “immediate legal action” against Apple, accusing it of breaking antitrust laws by propping up OpenAI atop its app store rankings. (Grok, xAI’s chatbot, is ranked sixth, and isn’t included in the list of “must-have apps.”) Musk cited no evidence to support his claim, but his threat increases pressure on the iPhone maker as its app store continues to face regulatory scrutiny. Sam Altman of OpenAI, who frequently spars with Musk, also weighed in. Grading Trump’s new pick to lead the B.L.S.More than a week after President Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, he has put forth a new pick for commissioner: E.J. Antoni, an economist who has previously criticized the agency’s practices. But Trump’s choice of the government’s labor statistics chief has again raised concerns about how reliable federal economic data will be — as the bureau prepares to publish a new and potentially crucial reading on consumer prices. Who is Antoni? He’s the chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation and a senior fellow at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, which promotes supply-side economics. Perhaps most notably, he contributed to Project 2025, which was accused of outlining policy initiatives for Trump’s second term. But most important, Antoni has attacked the bureau over how it collects data and revises figures like job growth as it refines preliminary numbers over time. “There are better ways to collect, process, and disseminate data,” he wrote on X last week. “Only consistent delivery of accurate data in a timely manner will rebuild the trust that has been lost over the last several years.” Even some conservatives are worried about Antoni’s independence, a quality that economists say the bureau must have to be seen as credible. “That’s the whole ballgame here,” Michael Strain of the conservative American Enterprise Institute told The Times. (Stan Veuger, also of the A.E.I., gave a blunt assessment of Antoni to The Washington Post: “He’s utterly unqualified and as partisan as it gets.”) Others questioned whether Antoni could carry out the overhaul he has called for: The White House’s budget request for 2026 seeks to cut the bureau’s funding by $56 million. Watch today’s Consumer Price Index report. An especially hot number could renew fears of stagflation — rising inflation and slowing growth — and drive Trump to demand further changes at the bureau. That could further undermine confidence in future readouts by the agency, according to Mike Feroli, JPMorgan Chase’s chief U.S. economist. “If the new commissioner comes in and you see either a lot of firings or a lot of resignations at the levels one and two below that person,” he told The Times, “that is certainly not something that would engender confidence.”
“These measures were taken in response to extraordinary circumstances. The situation in Gaza is a serious humanitarian crisis.”— Nicolai Tangen, the C.E.O. of Norges Bank Investment Management, which oversees Norway’s $1.9 trillion sovereign wealth fund. Norges announced that it had divested its holdings in 11 Israeli companies and terminated contracts with external investment managers in the country. It’s the latest sign of international pressure on Israel amid plans for an offensive in Gaza City, and the killing of five Al Jazeera journalists. A settlement over algorithmic pricingRealPage, a real estate software company, has found itself facing mounting legal scrutiny over whether its pricing algorithm product helps landlords collude on pricing. The latest: Greystar — the largest apartment owner in the U.S. — has reached a proposed settlement with the Justice Department and agreed to stop using RealPage’s software, Danielle Kaye writes. A recap: The department filed a lawsuit last year against RealPage, accusing it of facilitating a price-fixing conspiracy that jacked up rents for millions in the U.S. Officials said it was the first time price-setting algorithms were at the center of a major civil antitrust matter. In January, two weeks before Inauguration Day, the complaint was amended to add six major landlords. Greystar is the second to settle with the Justice Department over RealPage. The agreement, which is subject to court approval, would effectively put an end to Greystar’s use of RealPage’s algorithm, and refrain from other anticompetitive acts, including sharing its sensitive data with competitors. “Whether in a smoke-filled room or through an algorithm, competitors cannot share competitively sensitive information or align prices to the detriment of American consumers,” Gail Slater, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, said in a statement on Friday. Greystar, which also settled over similar claims in a renters’ class-action case, did not admit to wrongdoing in the case, and said that “the settlements provide clarity for Greystar and the industry at large.” Scrutiny is growing. Cities including Philadelphia and San Francisco have moved to ban algorithmic rental price-fixing software. Separately, hotels and meat processors are facing similar claims of collusion in court. “As these systems become more prevalent across our economy, we anticipate that the number of investigations involving these shared algorithms will grow,” Slater said in a statement yesterday. What’s next? Now that two landlords have settled, others are most likely “thinking seriously about that option,” Peter Carstensen, an emeritus professor of antitrust law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told DealBook, adding. It would give companies more legal “wiggle room around the edges.” RealPage declined to comment to DealBook on the Greystar settlement, but it has maintained that its revenue management software is legal. We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times.
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