China on Monday launched an investigation into U.S. chip giant Nvidia for allegedly violating its anti-monopoly laws, a top government agency said, as the two countries race for global chipmaking dominance. Beijing's state administration for market regulation, the authority on antitrust issues, launched the probe "in accordance with the law", according to a statement shared online. Nvidia is also suspected of violating commitments it made in 2020, the statement said, when it acquired Israeli data center firm Mellanox. Shares in Nvidia dropped Monday after Beijing announced the probe. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China and the United States have in recent weeks clashed over exports of key chipmaking technology, where Nvidia is a major player. Beijing last week said it would restrict exports to the United States of some key components in making semiconductors, after Washington announced curbs targeting China's ability to make advanced chips. Among the materials banned from export are metals gallium, antimony and germanium, China's commerce ministry said in a statement that cited "national security" concerns. In its own latest curbs, Washington has announced restrictions on sales to 140 companies, including Chinese chip firms Piotech and SiCarrier, without additional permission. The move expands Washington's efforts to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China, which can be used in advanced weapons systems and artificial intelligence. The new U.S. rules also include controls on two dozen types of chipmaking equipment and three kinds of software tools for developing or producing semiconductors. The U.S. tech behemoth has seen its profits soar on the back of strong demand for its artificial intelligence technology. In November, Nvidia surpassed Apple to become the highest-valued company in the world as the artificial intelligence boom continues to excite Wall Street. But the Chinese market has been a rare weak spot. The U.S. government in 2023 restricted Nvidia from selling some of its top AI chips to China, which the U.S. sees as a strategic competitor in the field of advanced semiconductors. Although Nvidia in November reported record high quarterly revenue, investors were wary of U.S.-China tensions reheating with the return of Donald Trump to the White House. But during an event in Hong Kong last month, Nvidia's Taiwan-born CEO Jensen Huang told reporters "open science and open research in AI is absolutely global" and that "nothing" would stop that.In promising to shake up Washington, Trump is in a class of his own
Much Sturm und Drang has surrounded some of Donald Trump’s picks for national security and foreign policy positions, but the president-elect has made clear that all matters of war and diplomacy will run through him. President Joe Biden, who huddled with other G7 leaders Friday morning, has had a message for Trump since he won a second term last month: Resist your instinct to turn away from America’s allies. John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser, described Friday’s G7 session as focused on the leaders’ ”shared support to Ukraine,” including the use of a World Bank fund to deliver billions in economic aid to the war-torn country. He also told reporters Thursday that Biden had “made clear, we’re going to continue to provide additional packages right up until the end of this administration.” But in a sweeping interview published Thursday, Trump signaled a much different foreign policy when he takes office. The soon-to-be-47th president has always been skeptical of — and sometimes combative with — international entities. And he hardly has committed to continuing U.S. economic and military aid to Ukraine, including during his “Person of the Year” interview with Time magazine. “I’m going to try and help Ukraine but Europe has to get there also and do their job. They’re not doing their job,” the incoming commander in chief said. “Europe is not paying their fair share. ... But they’ve taken advantage of us, both on NATO and on Ukraine. We’re in for billions of dollars more than they’re in Ukraine. It shouldn’t be that way.” On Capitol Hill in recent weeks, throngs of reporters and television cameras have followed Trump’s picks for Defense secretary, national intelligence director, secretary of State and other global affairs-focused posts. Senators have peppered them with policy questions during private meetings, eager for their views on foreign relations and national security matters. But one word stood out again and again during Trump’s interview with Time: “I.” His answers suggest his nominees likely would be in the business of implementing his policy desires, rather than making their own. “I hope it can be pointed out [that] during my term, there were stories that Iran didn’t have the money to give to any — there was very little terrorism. We had none. I had four years of — we had no terrorism,” he said. “We didn’t have a World Trade Center knocked down. You know, [George W.] Bush used to say, ‘Well, we’ve been a safe country.’ I said, ‘They knocked down the World Trade Center in the middle of your term.’ ” (Fact checkers have termed Trump’s claims of no terrorism under his presidency as false.) “And we got rid of ISIS, 100 percent,” Trump added, also falsely, before blaming Biden because “now they’re starting to come back.” ‘I built the embassy’ Trump, signaling he would soon usher in a more forceful tone as diplomat in chief toward friends and foes alike, suggested he would offer more constructive criticism to Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I think that Israel has done one thing very badly: public relations. I don’t think that the Israel Defense [Forces] or any other group should be sending out pictures every night of buildings falling down and being bombed with possibly people in those buildings every single night, which is what they do,” he said. On the Iran nuclear accord negotiated under President Barack Obama: “I ended that deal.” On his administration moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem: “I did the embassy and in Jerusalem. Jerusalem became the capital.” On a new main American diplomatic facility there: “I built the embassy. I even built the embassy.” It seems in Trump’s view during his second transition, the “I’s” have it. That includes issuing a few warnings for Netanyahu, whom Biden has granted wide latitude in conducting the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. “Well, I had a bad experience with Bibi. And it had to do with Soleimani, because as you probably know by now, he dropped out just before the attack,” Trump told Time, referring to his claim that Netanyahu’s government had agreed to help U.S. forces in an operation that ultimately killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who led the elite Quds Force of the country’s Revolutionary Guard. “I was not happy about that. That was something I never forgot. And it showed me something.” He also said Israelis who blame Netanyahu for Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on their soil were correct, adding that he would be able to work with other top Israeli officials such as Benny Gantz, a former IDF general who was previously the country’s defense minister and deputy prime minister. “I think Benny Gantz is good, but I’m not prepared to say that,” he said when asked if he could “work better” with him than with Netanyahu in a second term. “But you have some very good people that I’ve gotten to know in Israel that could do a good job,” he said. “And I will say this ... Netanyahu rightfully has been criticized for what took place on October 7.” ‘People like it’ Eight years ago, during his first campaign for president, the transition period and his first inaugural address, Trump’s underlying message was that he was the only person who could repair the “carnage” that he said was caused by Democrats like Obama and Nancy Pelosi and even some Republicans, including former President George W. Bush. That list also included internationalists from both parties whom Trump blamed for sending American jobs overseas and bungling the U.S. response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This time, Trump has told interviewers and posted on social media that the current perceived mess was caused by one person: Biden. “[We] have an incompetent fool that’s allowing people to come into our country,” he said. “We have an incompetent fool that drove energy prices so high over such a short period of time. And by the way, you know, he’s gone to a lot of my policies now.” Asked if he understands why some recoiled at his pledge to be a dictator on “day one,” Trump, who received more than 77 million votes and swept all seven battleground states, replied: “I think a lot of people like it.”Firmable Hits 1500 Users, Gaining Momentum in the Australian MarketNone
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US President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue. The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by January 19 while the government emphasised its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk. “President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19 2025, while it considers the merits of this case,” said Mr Trump’s amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case. The filings come ahead of oral arguments scheduled for January 10 on whether the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban, unlawfully restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment. Earlier this month, a panel of three federal judges on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the statute, leading TikTok to appeal to the Supreme Court. The brief from Mr Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office”.
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