Investing in the biggest and most profitable tech companies is a good bet.
Investors can’t go wrong sticking with big tech giants. These companies have billions of users, billions in cash, and billions to invest in artificial intelligence (AI). This points to excellent return prospects for shareholders.
Here are two tech stocks that are no-brainer buys right now.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms‘ (META -1.74%) dominance with more than 3.4 billion people using Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other services every day makes it a low-risk investment. This large base of users drives substantial advertising revenue that funds investment in technology infrastructure, such as AI, to power new features and products for long-term growth.
The stock is up 30% year to date, outperforming the Nasdaq Composite‘s roughly 13% return, supported by strong revenue and profit growth. Revenue grew 22% year over year in the second quarter, with adjusted earnings per share surging 38%. Meta’s AI is making it easier to show people content that grabs their interest, and therefore, generate more ad revenue.
Meta’s profitable ad business provides plenty of resources to advance its technology advantage. The company plans to spend between $66 billion and $72 billion this year on infrastructure. This includes investments to expand its AI capacity, including its multigigawatt Prometheus and Hyperion data centers.
“Meta has all of the ingredients that are required to build leading models and deliver them to billions of people,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the company’s Q2 earnings call.
The opportunities are so significant that Meta has no plans to pull back the reins on capital spending. In fact, Zuckerberg recently revealed at a White House meeting with President Donald Trump and other tech CEOs that Meta may spend $600 billion in the U.S. alone through 2028.
Analysts expect Meta’s earnings to grow 17% on an annualized basis over the next several years. Assuming the stock is still trading at its current forward price-to-earnings multiple of 27, the stock should continue to follow future earnings.
2. Alphabet (Google)
Alphabet‘s (GOOGL -0.15%)(GOOG -0.12%) Google is one of the most valuable online brands. Billions of people use Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Search, and other Google services every day. These platforms provide growing ad revenue and profits that are fueling investments in data centers and AI that bolster the company’s long-term growth prospects.
Alphabet’s Gemini AI has been fundamental to growth this year. Gemini powers AI features across its services, including AI Mode and AI Overviews in Search. These features are leading to increases in user engagement, which is contributing to higher ad revenue. Google’s ad revenue grew 10% year over year last quarter to $71 billion, making up 76% of the company’s total.
Gemini is also fueling innovative tools for enterprises in Google Cloud, where it uses proprietary AI chips to deliver optimized performance for AI workloads. Google Cloud’s revenue grew 32% year over year last quarter, with a growing backlog of $106 billion. It signed the same number of $1 billion-plus deals in the first half of 2025 as all of 2024, indicating strong momentum.
The AI gold rush is causing Alphabet to raise its full-year guidance for capital spending. It now expects capital expenditures to reach approximately $85 billion in 2025, up from the previous estimate of $75 billion. It also plans to increase capital spending in 2026 due to strong customer demand and growth opportunities across the business.
Despite a sharp rise in recent months, the stock still looks reasonably valued trading at 24 times 2025 earnings estimates. With analysts expecting earnings to grow at an annualized rate of 15% in the coming years, investors should expect the stock to potentially double in value over the next five years.
John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
SACRAMENTO — Sneha Revanur has been called the “Greta Thunberg of AI,” which depending on your politics, is an insult or, as the youngs would say, means she’s eating.
That’s good.
Either way, Revanur, a 20-year-old Stanford University senior who grew up in Silicon Valley, isn’t worried about personal attacks, though she’s been getting more of them lately — especially from some big tech bros who wish she’d shut up about artificial intelligence and its potential to accidentally (or purposefully) destroy us all.
Instead of fretting about invoking the ire of some of the most powerful men on the planet, she’s staying focused on the breakneck speed with which AI is advancing; the utter ignorance, even resistance, of politicians when it comes to putting in place the most basic of safety measures to control it; and what all that will mean for kids who will grow up under its influence.
“Whatever long-term future AI creates, whether that’s positive or negative, it’s [my generation] that’s going to experience that,” she told me. “We’re going to inherit the impacts of the technology we’re building today.”
This week, California will make a big decision about that future, as legislators vote on Senate Bill 53.
Because I am a tech idiot who struggles to even change the brightness on my phone’s display, I will use the simplest of metaphors, which I am sure will make engineers wince.
Imagine lighting your gas stove, then leaving on vacation. Maybe it will all be fine. Maybe it will start a fire and burn your house down. Maybe it blows up and takes out the neighborhood.
Do you cross your fingers and hope for the best? Do your neighbors have a right to ask you to pretty please turn it off before you go? Should you at least put a smoke alarm up, so there’s a bit of warning if things go wrong?
The bill is a basic transparency measure and applies only to the big-gun developers of “frontier” AI models — these are the underlying, generic AI creatures that may later be honed into a specific purpose, like controlling our nuclear weapons, curing cancer or writing term papers for cheating students.
But right now, companies are just seeing how smart and powerful they can make them, leaving any concerns about what they will actually do for the future — and for people like Revanur, whose lives will be shaped by them.
If passed, the law would require these developers to have safety and security protocols and make them public.
It would require that they also disclose if they are aware of any ways that their product has indicated it may in fact destroy us all, or cause “catastrophic” problems, defined as ones with the potential to kill or seriously injure more than 50 people or cause more than $1 billion in property damage.
It requires the companies to report those risks to the state Office of Emergency Services, and also to report if their models try to sneakily get around commands to not do something — like lying — a first requirement of its kind in law.
And it creates a whistleblower protection so that if, say, an engineer working on one of these models suddenly finds herself receiving threats from the AI (yes, this has happened), she can, if the company won’t, give us a heads-up about the danger before it’s unleashed.
There are a couple other rules in there, but that’s the gist of it. Basically, it gives us a tiny glimpse inside the companies that quite literally hold the future of humanity in their hands but are largely driven by the desire to make oodles of money.
Big Tech has lobbied full force against the bill (and has been successful in watering it down some). Enter Revanur and the AI safety organization she started when she was 15: Encode.
The California Capitol is nothing if not a mean high school, so maybe Revanur was more prepared than the suits expected. But her group of “backpack kids,” as they have been derogatorily called, has lobbied in favor of government oversight of AI with such force and effect that SB 53 actually has a chance of passing. This week, it is likely to receive final votes in both the Assembly and Senate, before potentially heading to the governor’s desk.
I’m not huge on quoting lobbyists, but Lea-Ann Tratten summed it up pretty well.
Revanur and her group have gone from being dismissed with a “who are you, you’re nothing” attitude from lawmakers to having “an equal seat at the table” with the clouty tech bros and their billions, Tratten said. And they’ve done it through sheer persistence (though they are not the only advocacy group working on the bill).
Tratten was hired by Encode last year when Revanur was backing a much stronger piece of legislation by the same author, Sen. Scott Wiener. That bill, SB 1047, would have regulated the AI industry, not just watched over it.
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed that bill, basically saying it went too far, but still acknowledging that a “California-only approach may well be warranted especially absent federal action by Congress.” He also set up a commission to recommend how to do that, which released its report recently — much of which is incorporated into the current legislation.
But since that veto, Congress has indicated approximately zero interest in taking on AI. And last week, Trump hosted a formal dinner for the titans of AI where they sucked up to the businessman-in-chief, leaving little hope of any federal curbs on their aspirations.
In it, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, gushed, “Thank you for being such a pro-business, pro-innovation President. It’s a very refreshing change. We’re very excited to see what you’re doing to make our companies and our entire country so successful.”
“Like, we know for a fact that we have no affiliation with Elon,” she said.
Still, “people expect us to sort of hide in the corner and stop what we’re doing,” because of the pressure, she said.
But that’s not going to happen.
“We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing,” she said. “Just being a balanced, objective, thoughtful third party that’s able to be this watchdog, almost, as the most powerful technology of all time is developed. I think that’s a really important role for us.”
Right now, AI is in its toddler stages, and it’s already outsmarting us in dangerous ways. The New York Times documented how it may have pushed a teen to suicide.
An AI safety researcher familiar with that blackmail incident, Aengus Lynch, warned it wasn’t a one-off, according to the BBC.
“We see blackmail across all frontier models — regardless of what goals they’re given,” he said.
So here we are in the infancy of a technology that will profoundly change society, and we already know the genie is out of the bottle, has stolen the car keys and is on a bender.
Before we get to the point of having to choose who will go back in time to save Sarah Connor from Skynet and the Terminator, maybe we just don’t go there. Maybe we start with SB 53, and listen to smart, young people like Revanur who have both the knowledge to understand the technology and a real stake in getting it right.
Maybe we put up the smoke alarm, whether the billionaire tech bros like it or not.
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President Trump is scheduled to dine with tech executives from Apple, Meta, Google and OpenAI on Thursday night at a White House event in the newly renovated Rose Garden.
The gathering is the latest example of how the world’s most powerful tech leaders are forging stronger ties with Trump’s second administration.
There’s one high-profile tech executive who won’t be at the gathering: Tesla and xAI Chief Executive Elon Musk, who backed Trump but then feuded with the president after temporarily leading an effort to slash government spending.
Musk posted on X that he “was invited, but unfortunately could not attend” and a representative would show up on his behalf.
The Hill first reported that roughly two dozen tech and business leaders, including Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai and OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman, are on the invite list. The gathering is scheduled to take place after First Lady Melania Trump hosts an event for the new Artificial Intelligence Education task force.
“The president looks forward to welcoming top business, political, and tech leaders for this dinner and the many dinners to come on the new, beautiful Rose Garden patio,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Hill.
Meta declined to comment. Apple and xAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ahead of the dinner, Microsoft and OpenAI announced ways the companies are supporting the White House’s efforts to expand AI literacy. As AI disrupts industries including entertainment and healthcare, workers have expressed anxiety about whether they will lose their jobs.
OpenAI said it’s working with businesses such as Walmart and John Deere to build a platform that will help employers find workers with AI skills. The San Francisco tech company, which also has a platform where people can learn about AI, plans to offer certifications so workers can showcase how much they know about the technology. OpenAI said it aims to to certify 10 million Americans by 2030.
Microsoft outlined several ways it’s trying to help students and workers learn more AI skills through its grants, partnerships and products, including offering a year of Microsoft 365 Personal — which includes the company’s AI assistant Copilot — free for all U.S. college students if they sign up before the end of October.
“AI is the defining technology of our time, and how we empower people to use it will shape our country’s future,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella, who is also expected to attend the dinner, in a video. “That’s why we are so grateful to the President, First Lady and the entire administration for making it a national priority to prepare the next generation to harness AI’s power.”
Silicon Valley tech executives had a contentious relationship with Trump during his first term, sparring with the president over issues such as immigration.
They’ve struck a more friendly tone with the president during his second term as they push for a more hands-off approach to regulation while competing to dominate the artificial intelligence race.
In July, the Trump administration released an action plan that aimed to cut “red tape” so tech companies can quickly develop and deploy AI technology as they go head-to-head with firms in China and elsewhere. Trump tapped venture capitalist David Sacks, who is also expected to attend Thursday’s dinner, to guide the White House’s policy on AI and cryptocurrency.
As tech companies charge ahead, child safety and advocacy groups have raised concerns there aren’t enough guardrails in place to protect the mental health of young people as they spill their darkest thoughts to chatbots.
Trump has also publicly criticized many tech executives before striking deals with them. After Trump called for the resignation of Intel Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan over alleged conflicts related to his reported investments in Chinese companies, tensions cooled after they met. Intel then announced in August that the U.S. government would take a roughly 10% stake in the semiconductor company.
Trump also struck an unusual deal with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices that allows the companies to sell certain chips to China in exchange for giving the U.S. government a 15% cut of those sales.
This raised questions among politicians and legal experts about whether that agreement is legal. Nvidia previously said it would spend up to $500 billion over the next four years on AI infrastructure.
Other tech executives have shown support for building in the United States as they face the threat of tariffs from the Trump administration. They also donated to Trump’s inaugural fund after he won the presidential election and have been showing up at high-profile events.
Apple in August pledged to spend an additional $100 billion on domestic manufacturing, bringing its total U.S. investment commitment to $600 billion after Trump criticized the company for expanding iPhone manufacturing in India.
OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank announced this year that they planned to invest a total of $500 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure over the next four years.
Sept. 4 (UPI) — Several leaders from the tech sector will travel to the White House on Thursday for the fist event in the newly renovated Rose Garden.
Guests expected to attend include Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI founder Sam Altman, among more than two dozen other prominent tech and business guests.
Venture capitalist David Sacks, who has served as the White House czar on AI and cryptocurrency, will also be in attendance.
According to a press release, First Lady Melania Trump will host a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education, at which she will speak, alongside Task Force members and leaders from the private AI technology sphere.
President Donald Trump will then lead an event in the Rose Garden with the guests, which will be the first such happening there since it was renovated under the direction of the Trumps.
“The Rose Garden Club at the White House is the hottest place to be in Washington, or perhaps the world,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement to The Hill.
“The president looks forward to welcoming top business, political, and tech leaders for this dinner and the many dinners to come on the new, beautiful Rose Garden patio,” he added.
Those in attendance will see changes to the Rose Garden such as pavement over the former grassy space, with umbrella-shaded tables set in similar fashion to patio arrangements found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
One top tech leader not on the guest list is Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who served as an advisor to Trump and the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
These tech companies aren’t chasing trends — they’re shaping them.
As a buy-and-hold investor, I closely follow my long-term investments through exchange-traded funds and retirement accounts. I’ve always followed a Warren Buffett-style of investing, in which I look for strong, profitable companies to hold over the long term.
However, I also recognize that tech stocks are way too important — and profitable — to miss out on. Tech stocks represent companies that are at the forefront of innovation and development, leading the world’s charge into the future. Without tech companies, we wouldn’t have a host of massively significant advances that we take for granted today — things like personal computers, online banking, 5G wireless service, the internet, smartphones, and GPS technology. Nor would we have the incredible types of tech that companies are still making rapid progress on today — such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, generative AI, and autonomous vehicles.
Including strong, profitable tech stocks in your portfolio is one of the best ways to give yourself an opportunity to outperform the market. Consider that the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is up nearly 18% in the last 12 months, handily outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500.
Three tech stocks that I think would be great choices for any retail investor’s portfolio are Nvidia(NVDA 1.65%), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM 2.58%), and Meta Platforms(META 2.04%).
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Nvidia
Semiconductor maker Nvidia is the biggest company in the world by market capitalization, so it naturally gets the top position on this list, too. While a recent pullback has driven the market cap from $4.4 trillion down to $4.2 trillion, the tailwinds that have propelled Nvidia’s upward over the last few years are still present — and they won’t be going away any time soon.
Nvidia designs graphics processing units (GPUs) that are used by data centers to provide the computing power required by a host of advanced computing tasks, such as training and running large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Nvidia’s GPUs are designed to be deployed in clusters of hundreds or thousands, boosting the parallel processing power they can apply to workloads. In addition, Nvidia’s CUDA platform provides libraries and tools for developers who are working on software that will be powered by its GPUs. It’s a popular platform with developers, and it’s only compatible with Nvidia’s chips. That added competitive advantage is one reason why I’m confident that it will continue to control the lion’s share of the GPU market for years to come.
Nvidia will release its results for its fiscal 2026 second quarter on Aug. 27, and I think it’s going to be another sterling report. I’ll also be looking carefully at management’s guidance, as the company is expected to resume selling its H20 AI chips to customers in China after being blocked from exporting them to that country earlier this year.
2. Taiwan Semiconductor
As the company that fabricates the advanced chips designed by Nvidia (as well as an array of other chip companies), Taiwan Semiconductor benefits from many of the same tailwinds as the GPU leader. But there are some differences between their businesses that make TSMC stock even more appealing.
As the world’s leading third-party chip foundry, Taiwan Semi manufactured nearly 12,000 products for 522 customers in 2024, employing 288 separate process technologies. It’s involved in about 85% of all semiconductor start-up product prototypes. In short, this is an ideal stock to own if you believe that the semiconductor business broadly will continue to grow, but you want to hedge some of your exposure away from Nvidia.
Taiwan Semi is also moving to limit its exposure to the trade war between Washington and Beijing, and to expand its manufacturing footprint further beyond the island of Taiwan, which China has designs on. The company is in the midst of spending $165 billion to expand its new manufacturing and R&D facility in Arizona and bring some of its most advanced fabrication processes to the U.S.
3. Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms, which operates Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, is the unquestioned king of the social media companies. On average, 3.48 billion people use its platforms every day — and that number is increasing. Its daily active user count was up by 6% in June from a year earlier.
The company leverages that massive audience — and the mountain of information it collects about them — into an impressive revenue stream. Ad impressions were up 11% in the second quarter from the previous year. Overall, Meta reported $47.5 billion in revenue in the second quarter, up 22% year over year.
Meta’s own artificial intelligence platform, Meta AI, has been driving a lot of its recent success. Meta AI’s chatbot can generate content, answer questions, and create images. The company also provides AI-powered tools to advertisers to help them reach the customers they want, making their ads on its social media platforms more effective.
Tech stocks to buy and hold
Companies in the tech sector must constantly innovate in their efforts to stay relevant, and their stocks can sometimes be volatile. But Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor, and Meta Platforms aren’t merely chasing trends — they’re shaping them. I expect that these companies will remain at the forefront of their industries as we move into the second half of the decade, and I view them as good bets to continue outperforming the market. That’s why I like them for any buy-and-hold portfolio.
Volatility isn’t fun, but it’s normal. Buying the dip on high-quality stocks often works out well in the long run.
Investors have been very fortunate over the past couple of years. A tremendous run for technology stocks on artificial intelligence enthusiasm, investments, and rising long-term expectations has carried the broader stock market to impressive heights.
But it seems the market has begun to cool off over the past week or so, with some of the top-performing technology stocks dipping off their highs. As fun as soaring stock prices are, it’s crucial to remember that volatility is a regular part of long-term investing, and that it’s healthy when things take a bit of a breather after an extended run.
It can also be a good opportunity to buy your favorite stocks at lower prices. Three Fools got together to identify three winning tech stocks that still offer that right mix of long-term growth and present-day value. When it was all said and done, Nvidia(NVDA 1.65%), SoundHound AI(SOUN 2.70%), and Netflix(NFLX -0.20%) stood out from the crowd.
Here is what you need to know about each stock right now.
Image source: Getty Images.
This AI accelerator leader is not done rising
Will Healy(Nvidia): It seems nothing can hold back Nvidia’s stock price growth for long. The chip stock is up around 1,400% from its 2022 low as its research spearheaded the rapidly growing AI accelerator industry.
That product has so fundamentally changed the company that its data center segment made up 89% of the company’s revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. This is a dramatic turnabout from three years ago, when the data center segment was not significantly larger than Nvidia’s long-established gaming business.
Also, Nvidia’s profits have risen so dramatically that even with its massive gains, its P/E ratio is only about 56. In comparison, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), whose stock has experienced much lower returns, trades at 94 times earnings.
Moreover, there are no meaningful signs of a slowdown. Grand View Research forecasts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29% for the AI chip market through 2030, and Nvidia has far exceeded that estimate.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2026, its revenue of $44 billion rose 69% from year-ago levels. Even though a company with a $4.2 trillion market cap is unlikely to sustain that growth rate, the aforementioned CAGR makes it likely to continue reporting robust revenue growth.
Additionally, competitive threats have not held it back. DeepSeek’s breakthrough on low-cost AI training earlier this year contributed to a temporary pullback of over 40% in the stock price, but Nvidia recovered quickly. Also, while AMD’s upcoming MI400 release next year could bring competition to Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform, the company still has time to respond to that threat.
Indeed, Nvidia’s massive stock gains and huge market cap might deter some investors from buying. Nonetheless, with its domination of the AI accelerator market and the company’s relatively low P/E ratio, Nvidia stock remains on track for further growth.
A recent pullback in SoundHound AI stock could present an opportunity for long-term investors
Jake Lerch (SoundHound AI): My choice is SoundHound AI. Here’s why.
First, let’s put the recent downturn in context. It’s no surprise that the artificial intelligence (AI) sector is getting hit hard by the recent volatility in the stock market. Many of the stocks in this sector are young companies that are developing cutting-edge technology. Therefore, when the growth trajectory of the industry is questioned, sell-offs can be steep and sudden. Yet, these big sell-offs present an opportunity for long-term investors.
Turning to SoundHound AI specifically, let’s recall that the company is a leader within the voice AI sector. They have solid penetration within the automotive and restaurant sectors.
In addition, one of their primary competitive advantages is their ability to deploy custom voice AI solutions. What this means is that SoundHound works with companies to tailor their specific AI solutions, which are then deployed under the customer’s brand name. This gives SoundHound a leg up on some of its big tech competitors by allowing clients to maintain brand management and data privacy.
Last, let’s recall that only a few weeks ago, SoundHound posted a fantastic quarterly report. The company generated an all-time high of $43 million in revenue, which was up an eye-popping 217% from a year earlier. Management highlighted new or expanded business partnerships across the restaurant, automotive, healthcare, finance, and retail sectors. What’s more, the company raised full-year guidance.
According to Yahoo Finance, sell-side analysts now expect SoundHound to generate $166 million in revenue in 2025 and $215 million in 2026, representing growth of 96% and 29%, respectively.
In short, SoundHound remains a promising long-term investment within the AI sector, thanks to its solid growth trajectory. Growth-oriented investors might therefore want to consider it on this most recent pullback.
Netflix isn’t done delivering for shareholders
Justin Pope (Netflix): The streaming king has delivered in a big way for shareholders. Shares have risen over 70% over the past year, even after a recent 10% dip. While that’s not a very big drop, it’s still a dip long-term investors should consider buying.
One of the prettiest charts you’ll see is that of Netflix’s profit margins over time. As more people sign up for Netflix, the company becomes increasingly profitable because it can spread its content costs across more customers. Netflix stopped reporting subscriber numbers at the end of 2024, but paid subscriptions increased by 15.9% year over year in Q4 to 301.63 million, so new customer acquisition still had plenty of momentum at the end of last year.
Additionally, Netflix is beginning to pull multiple growth levers. For instance, Netflix has raised its subscription prices over time and launched an ad-supported membership option a few years ago. It surpassed 70 million subscribers last November, and management expects ad revenue to double this year as some subscribers trade a little convenience for cost savings.
Meanwhile, the future looks bright. Netflix has waded increasingly deeper into live sports, a significant media category that could continue to help drive and sustain subscriptions. Analysts estimate Netflix will grow earnings by an average of almost 23% annually over the next three to five years. I wouldn’t say Netflix’s stock is a once-in-a-lifetime deal at 46 times 2025 earnings estimates, but the stock seems fairly valued for a business with such a strong growth outlook and increasingly fatter profit margins.
Investors who buy and hold Netflix will likely be very happy with their decision a few years from now.
United States President Donald Trump has fired off a social media message calling on the head of the US technology firm Intel to resign from his post as chief executive officer.
Trump’s decision to denounce Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan on Thursday morning sent the company’s stocks tumbling, amid the uncertainty about the future of its leadership.
“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” Trump wrote. “There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!”
Trump’s post appeared to be a response to reports that Tan has invested nearly $200m in Chinese technology manufacturing and chip firms, including some with links to the country’s military.
But the president’s social media message also raises concerns about his apparent willingness to get involved in the affairs of private companies, even calling for dramatic changes in leadership and direction.
Scrutiny on Tan’s ties to China
Tan, a longtime technology investor, is relatively new to his post. He was appointed as Intel’s CEO on March 12, and he also serves on the company’s board of directors.
Previously, Tan served in leadership positions at the software company Cadence Design Systems, and he was a founding partner for the venture capital firm Walden Catalyst Ventures.
His personal investments — and the investments of the venture funds he manages — caught the public’s attention shortly after his appointment at Intel, though.
In April, the news agency Reuters reported that, between March 2012 and December 2024, Tan invested in Chinese firms that create technology for the People’s Liberation Army, China’s armed forces.
For some US politicians, that raised a conflict of interest.
On Wednesday, for instance, Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas posted a letter on social media written to the chairman of Intel’s board of directors, Frank Yeary.
In it, he demanded more information about Tan’s hiring and his investments in China.
Cotton pointed out that, on July 28, Cadence Design Systems agreed to plead guilty to federal charges concerning the sale of technology and intellectual property to China’s National University of Defense Technology.
That plea deal resulted in criminal and civil penalties of more than $140m.
“I write to express concern about the security and integrity of Intel’s operations and its potential impact on US national security,” Cotton wrote in his letter to Yeary.
“Mr Tan reportedly controls dozens of Chinese companies and has a stake in hundreds of Chinese advanced-manufacturing and chip firms. At least eight of these companies reportedly have ties to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.”
In an accompanying message to his social media followers, Cotton added that Intel “owes Congress an explanation”. Intel and Tan have yet to respond to the concerns.
Trump pushes ‘America First’ plan
For years, the US and China have been locked in tense competition for economic and political dominance, and the US has repeatedly accused China of attempting to poach American innovation and spy on its technology firms.
China, meanwhile, has denied such allegations, describing them as part of a US smear campaign.
Founded in 1968, Intel has long been a flagship US technology firm, known for producing computer parts like microprocessors. But in recent decades, the company has struggled to keep pace with its competitors, particularly as artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed Silicon Valley, Intel’s longtime home.
Trump, however, has sought to bolster domestic manufacturing with his “America First” economic agenda, which leverages tariffs to discourage the import of products from abroad.
On Tuesday, the Republican leader even said he planned to impose 100-percent tariffs on foreign chips and semiconductors sold in the US.
But Trump has faced criticism for testing the boundaries of his executive power — and, in some cases, seeking to impose his will on the running of private companies.
Since taking office for a second term, for instance, Trump has withheld federal funds from private universities in order to extract guarantees that those institutions would eliminate their diversity initiatives and implement disciplinary reforms, among other demands.
In an interview with Reuters, analysts appeared split over whether Trump was overplaying his hand.
“Many investors likely believe that President Trump has his hand in too many cookie jars, it’s just another signal that he’s very serious about trying to bring business back to the US,” said David Wagner, the head of equity and a portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, which has invested in Intel.
Meanwhile, Phil Blancato, the CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, told Reuters that Trump ousting Tan could have a chilling effect on US business.
“It would be setting a very unfortunate precedent,” Blancato said. “You don’t want American presidents dictating who runs companies, but certainly his opinion has merit and weight.”
It is unclear how Trump’s pressure campaign against Tan may affect Intel’s future.
Last year, Intel received $8bn in subsidies under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, to build further chip manufacturing plants in the US.
Commissioner’s recommendations for tech companies include measures that have been criticised on privacy grounds.
Australia’s internet watchdog has accused tech giants including Google and Apple of failing to take action against child sex abuse on their platforms.
In a report released on Wednesday, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said tech platforms were failing to implement various measures to protect children, including scanning cloud services for known abuse material and using language analysis tools to detect attempted sexual extortion in messaging services.
Grant said that Apple and YouTube, which is owned by Google, also failed to track reports of child sex abuse and could not say how long it took them to respond to the reports they received.
“It shows that when left to their own devices, these companies aren’t prioritising the protection of children and are seemingly turning a blind eye to crimes occurring on their services,” Grant said in a statement.
“We need to keep the pressure on the tech industry as a whole to live up to their responsibility to protect society’s most vulnerable members from the most egregious forms of harm and that’s what these periodic notices are designed to encourage.”
Grant added that the companies had taken few steps to improve their efforts since being asked three years ago, “despite the promise of AI to tackle these harms and overwhelming evidence that online child sexual exploitation is on the rise”.
“No other consumer-facing industry would be given the licence to operate by enabling such heinous crimes against children on their premises, or services,” she said.
Google disputed the report’s findings, saying they were rooted in “reporting metrics, not online safety performance” and that more than 99 percent of abuse material on YouTube is automatically removed before being flagged.
“Child safety is critical to us,” a Google spokesperson said.
“We’ve led the industry fight against child sexual abuse material since day one, investing heavily in advanced technology to proactively find and remove this harmful content.”
Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Snap, and Discord, which were also included in the report, did not respond to requests for comment.
Tom Sulston, head of policy at Digital Rights Watch, said that while it was important for authorities to take action against online child abuse, some of the tools supported by the internet watchdog would raise serious civil liberties and privacy concerns.
Sulston said that scanning live calls and private messages would require platforms to abandon end-to-end encryption, which prevents communications from being viewed by anyone apart from the sender and receiver.
“That’s a gross invasion of privacy for all of the people making perfectly innocent and reasonable use of the service,” Sulston told Al Jazeera.
“It also has dangerous knock-on effects where the users of that service would be subject to surveillance from hostile actors – foreign governments, criminals, hackers. That’s a huge risk for civic society, activists, journalists and anyone who communicates on the internet.
Breaking encryption would be “disproportionate and dangerous,” Sulston added.
“We don’t expect the post office to open all letters and read them for illegal content – in fact, most countries have laws specifically against this,” he said.
The Trump administration on Wednesday laid out a plan that aims to make it easier for companies to quickly develop and deploy artificial intelligence technology.
The initiative shows how Silicon Valley tech executives who backed Trump during the election are shaping federal policy that will impact their businesses as they compete globally to dominate the AI race.
“Artificial intelligence is a revolutionary technology with the potential to transform the global economy and alter the balance of power in the world,” said David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto advisor, in a statement. “To remain the leading economic and military power, the United States must win the AI race.”
Sacks is a co-founder and partner at Craft Ventures, a venture capital firm in San Francisco.
Tech companies have forged stronger ties with the Trump administration by donating money, showing up at high profile events such as his inauguration and showcasing their U.S. investments.
Shortly after Trump took office, OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank announced that they planned to invest a total of $500 billion in AI infrastructure over the next four years. Billionaire Elon Musk, who runs Tesla and SpaceX, donated more than $280 million to the 2024 election and was tasked with slashing government spending. Apple, which has faced criticism from Trump for building its iPhones overseas, said it would invest $500 billion in the United States.
The AI plan underscores how Trump is taking a different approach to AI regulation than his predecessor, former President Biden, who focused on AI’s benefits but also potential risks such as fueling disinformation and displacing jobs. Trump had revoked Biden’s executive order in January that placed guardrails around AI development.
Tech companies started investing in artificial intelligence long before the rise in popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a chatbot that can generate text and images. But the emergence of more rivals has sparked a fierce competition among companies that are trying to release new AI tools that could reshape industries from healthcare to education.
The rapid pace of technological development has raised concerns about whether the government is doing enough to regulate tech companies and safeguard the public from AI’s potential dangers. Some fact-checkers have noted that AI chatbots can spew out incorrect information. Parents are worried chatbots their children use could pose a threat to their mental health.
But regulation has a tough time keeping pace with how fast technology moves. The government also has to balance concerns that too many rules can hinder how quickly companies can release new AI-powered products. As major tech giants from Google and Meta face OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, they’re also going head to head with rivals in other countries including Chinese AI company DeepSeek.
The plan outlines removing “bureaucratic red tape” and “onerous federal regulation” that would make it tougher for companies to quickly build and develop AI technology. It also mentions revamping permits for data centers, infrastructure needed to power AI systems.
Data centers house computing equipment such as servers used to process the trove of information needed to train and maintain AI systems. But the amount of water and electricity data centers consume concerns some environmentalists.
Ahead of the plan’s release, more than 80 civil rights, labor and environmental groups signed a “people’s AI action plan.”
“We can’t let Big Tech and Big Oil lobbyists write the rules for AI and our economy at the expense of our freedom and equality, workers and families’ well-being, even the air we breathe and the water we drink — all of which are affected by the unrestrained and unaccountable roll-out of AI,” the competing plan said.
The White House’s plan also tries to address one of the biggest concerns about the rapid deployment of AI: the potential that technology could replace humans in some jobs. The building of infrastructure to power AI systems, for example, will create high-paying jobs for Americans, the plan said.
“AI will improve the lives of Americans by complementing their work — not replacing it,” the plan said.
It also said that AI systems must be free from bias. The plan recommends that the National Institute of Standards and Technology eliminate references to “misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change” in its AI risk management framework.
The plan emphasized the importance of national security. It mentioned that the U.S. should export its “full AI technology stack” that includes hardware and software to its allies and partners but deny advanced AI to its foreign adversaries.
Some tech executives on Wednesday quickly praised the AI plan.
Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie said that the plan is “quite strong.”
“It has a clear a mission to win the AI race and accelerate the development and use of AI by removing roadblocks or aiding adoption. Importantly, it focuses on the positive benefits of AI, which we’re all seeing every day,” he wrote on X.
Fred Humphries, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of U.S. Government Affairs, also praised the plan.
“President Trump’s plan will accelerate infrastructure readiness so AI can be built and used here, and help students and workers with skills needed to win in an AI-powered global economy,” he said on X.
July 19 (UPI) — Software developer Astronomer says former Chief Executive Officer Andy Byron resigned amid controversy following his attendance at a recent Coldplay concert.
New York-based Astronomer confirmed Byron’s resignation on Saturday and said co-founder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy is its interim chief executive officer while its board of directors seeks a permanent replacement for Byron.
“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding,” Astronomer officials said Saturday in a post on X.
“Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.”
Byron is married but was caught attending a Coldplay concert with another woman on Wednesday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.
The stadium’s “kiss cam” zeroed in on Byron with his arms wrapped around a woman standing in front of him during the concert, NBC News reported.
When they realized they were on the kiss cam, Byron ducked out of the camera shot, while the unidentified woman covered her face.
Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin noticed the pair’s reaction during the concert and opined: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
The video of the moment went viral, and social media sleuths identified the man as Byron.
Astronomer placed him on leave on Friday before accepting his resignation a day later, according to NBC News.
The tech firm is a relatively small company with fewer than 500 employees and noted the viral incident’s impact on its operations.
“While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not,” Astronomer said in its X post.
“We’re continuing to do what we do best: helping our customers with their toughest data and AI problems.”
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has officially begun taxi tests, marking the first time this one-of-a-kind experimental aircraft has moved under its own power
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has officially begun taxi tests
NASA is testing a new aircraft that could pave the way for a new era of supersonic air travel by addressing an issue at the heart of Concorde’s commercial failure.
The dream of a ‘son of Concorde‘ capable of whisking passengers from New York to London in under four hours is edging closer to reality.
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has officially begun taxi tests, a significant milestone as this unique experimental plane moves under its own power for the first time.
On 10 July, NASA test pilot Nils Larson, alongside the X-59 team comprising NASA and Lockheed Martin staff, carried out the craft’s inaugural low-speed taxi test at the U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.
This taxiing phase signals the final ground test sequence before the X-59’s maiden flight. In the upcoming weeks, the aircraft will incrementally boost its speed, culminating in a high-speed taxi test that will bring it tantalisingly close to lift-off.
During these initial low-speed trials, engineering and flight teams observed the X-59’s performance on the tarmac, ensuring essential systems like steering and braking are operating correctly. These evaluations are crucial for confirming the aircraft’s stability and control under various scenarios, instilling confidence in pilots and engineers that all systems are functioning optimally.
At the heart of NASA’s Quesst mission, the X-59 aims to revolutionise quiet supersonic travel by transforming the traditionally loud sonic boom into a more subdued “thump.”
This is considered key to the commercial success of any supersonic air travel. Crashing through the sound barrier causes a huge bang that has big consequences for those on the ground. During a 1965 test of the original Concorde over Oklahoma city by the US Air Force, hundreds of reports of smashed windows were made.
The potential to cause this kind of disruption meant that Concorde could only fly certain routes at supersonic, meaning no high-speed flights over land. This crushed the business case for the aircraft in the US as cities such as Los Angeles and New York could not be linked up effectively.
Guy Gratton, associate professor of aviation and the environment at Cranfield University, told the Mirror how NASA’s new ‘quiet’ tech is causing is a huge amount of excitement in the industry.
“From what I’ve been able to read, it does work. As a supersonic aircraft flies, every leading part of the aircraft creates a shockwave, and that shockwave creates a sonic boom. The NASA tech has shaped the aircraft so as the shockwaves move away from the plane in flight, they interact with each other and cancel each other out,” he explained.
The X-59 is expected to reach speeds of Mach 1.5, or roughly 990 mph (1,590 km/h), which could potentially cut the London to New York flight time down to approximately 3 hours and 44 minutes – a significant reduction from the usual 7-8 hour journey.
In 2023, NASA explored the feasibility of supersonic passenger air travel on aircraft capable of reaching speeds between Mach 2 and Mach 4 (1,535-3,045 mph). Information collected from the X-59 will be shared with U.S. and international regulators to help establish new, data-driven noise standards for supersonic commercial flights over land.
The majority of French, Spanish, and German citizens want stricter EU enforcement of Big Tech, according to a new YouGov survey.
Almost two-thirds in France (63%), 59% in Germany, and 49% in Spain said EU enforcement of laws addressing Big Tech’s influence and power is too relaxed, when asked to choose between too relaxed, too strict, or about right.
Only 7% of respondents in France, 8% in Germany, and 9% in Spain felt the enforcement was too strict.
The survey, commissioned by two NGOs—People vs Big Tech and WeMove Europe—follows the EU’s 2022 adoption of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), aimed at regulating tech giants’ impact on users and the marketplace.
Both regulations are caught up in the trade dispute between the EU and the US, in which the US has described the DSA and DMA as unjustified non-tariff barriers.
EU Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera told Euronews last week that the EU would not give in to US pressure on the issue.
“We are going to defend our sovereignty,” Ribera said, adding: “We will defend the way we implement our rules, we will defend a well functioning market and we will not allow anyone to tell us what to do.”
Surprisingly, the survey results also show that the survey participants believed Big Tech holds more power than the EU itself.
Half of French respondents (50%), 48% in Germany, and a majority in Spain (55%) believe that Big Tech companies are “more powerful” or “slightly more powerful” than the EU. In contrast, only 9% in France, 12% in Germany, and 15% in Spain think tech giants are “slightly less powerful” or “much less powerful.”
The survey was conducted on a sample of 2,070 respondents in France, 2,323 in Germany, and 2,077 in Spain.
TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said late Sunday that trade talks with the U.S. have resumed after Canada rescinded its plan to tax U.S. technology firms.
President Trump said Friday that he was suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country.”
The Canadian government said that “in anticipation” of a trade deal “Canada would rescind” the digital services tax, which was set to go into effect Monday.
Carney and Trump spoke on the phone Sunday, and Carney’s office said they agreed to resume negotiations.
“Today’s announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025, timeline set out at this month’s G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis,” Carney said in a statement.
Carney visited Trump in May at the White House, where he was polite but firm. Trump traveled to Canada for the Group of 7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, where Carney said that Canada and the U.S. had set a 30-day deadline for trade talks.
Trump, in a post on his social media network last Friday, said Canada had informed the U.S. that it was sticking to its plan to impose the digital services tax, which applies to Canadian and foreign businesses that engage with online users in Canada.
The digital services tax was due to hit companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a 3% levy on revenue from Canadian users. It would have applied retroactively, leaving U.S. companies with a $2-billion bill due at the end of the month.
Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, called Carney’s retreat a “clear victory” for Trump.
“At some point this move might have become necessary in the context of Canada-U.S. trade negotiations themselves, but Prime Minister Carney acted now to appease President Trump and have him agree to simply resume these negotiations, which of a clear victory for both the White House and big tech,” Béland said.
He said it makes Carney look vulnerable to Trump’s outbursts.
“President Trump forced PM Carney to do exactly what big tech wanted. U.S. tech executives will be very happy with this outcome,” Béland said.
Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne issued a statement after speaking Sunday with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
“Rescinding the digital services tax will allow the negotiations of a new economic and security relationship with the United States to make vital progress,” his statement said.
Trump’s announcement Friday was the latest swerve in the trade war he’s launched since taking office for a second term in January. Progress with Canada has been a roller coaster, starting with the U.S. president poking at the nation’s northern neighbor and repeatedly suggesting it would be absorbed as a U.S. state.
Canada and the U.S. have been discussing easing a series of steep tariffs Trump imposed on goods from America’s neighbor.
Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as 25% tariffs on autos. He is also charging a 10% tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period he set would expire.
Canada and Mexico face separate tariffs of as much as 25% that Trump put into place under the auspices of stopping fentanyl smuggling, though some products are still protected under the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump’s first term.
June 28 (UPI) — President Donald Trump cited potential Canadian taxes on U.S. tech companies as his reason for ending trade talks with Canada on Friday.
The tech taxes on Amazon, Google, Meta and other U.S. tech firms are due on Monday, and Trump said it is a deal-breaker.
“We have just been informed that Canada … has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American technology companies,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Friday.
He called the tax a “direct and blatant attack on our country” and accused Canada of “copying the European Union, which has done the same thing.”
“We are hereby terminating all discussions on trade with Canada, effective immediately,” Trump said.
His administration in the coming week will notify Canadian officials of the tariff that it will have to pay to do business in the United States, Trump added.
Trump last week attended the G7 economic trade summit hosted by Canada and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and sought common ground on trade talks, The Washington Post reported.
Officials at U.S. tech firms oppose the Canadian tax, the amount of which is based on the revenues generated by Canadians’ use of e-commerce sites, social media and the sales of data.
All tech companies that generate more than $14.59 million from such services would be subject to the new 3% Digital Services Tax.
The tax is retroactive to 2022 and could cost U.S.-based tech firms up to $3 billion, NBC News reported.
Upon learning of Trump halting trade talks, Canadian officials on Friday limited U.S. steel imports and placed a 50% surcharge on steel imports that surpass the quota.
Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the surcharge will help to protect Canadian steel against what he called “unjust U.S. tariffs.”
He said the Canadian government is prepared to take additional actions, if necessary.
June 27 (UPI) — South Korea’s three-dimensional dental scanner maker Medit is facing a lawsuit filed by an Israeli company in a U.S. federal court for alleged patent violations.
According to court documents filed this month in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Densys accused Medit of infringing on two of its core U.S. patents related to intraoral scanning.
The lawsuit alleges that Medit’s line of scanners and associated software incorporate patented technology of Densys without authorization.
“Medit knowingly developed, has sold, sells, and offers to sell the accused product(s) in an infringing manner that was known to Medit or was so obvious that it should have been known to Medit,” Densys claimed in the complaint.
Seeking a jury trial, Densys is demanding damages, an injunction, and enhanced penalties for what it argues is willful infringement.
Founded in 2000, Densys is a dental technology company. It specializes in intraoral 3D scanning systems, which are used to create real-time digital impressions of a patient’s mouth.
MBK Partners, one of the largest private equity companies in Asia, channeled $1.8 billion in early 2023 to purchase Medit, the world’s third-largest 3D dental scanner manufacturer.
Thereafter, Medit struggled in both the top and bottom lines.
The Seoul-based corporation logged $203 million in turnover in 2022, up 44.07% from the previous year, for $84 million in net profit, up 38.18% year-on-year.
Under the ownership of MBK, however, its sales more than halved to $93 million in 2023 and the firm turned to a loss of $20 million. In 2024, Medit recorded sales of $105 million and netted a deficit of $17 million.
1 of 3 | Jensen Huang, founder and chief executive officer of NVIDIA, unveils the latest RTX 5070 laptop processors on stage during the 2025 International CES at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on January 6. File Photo by James Atoa/UPI | License Photo
June 21 (UPI) — Leaders of many European nations say they need to do more to develop technological infrastructure to ensure digital sovereignty instead of relying on services from global tech firms.
A recent forum discussion on the market dominance of global corporations assessed the “blurring of the boundaries between economic and political control” among European nations by tech firms.
A consensus of attendees at the ongoing Berlin Summit 2025 agreed European nations need to coordinate their efforts to develop infrastructures to “avoid path dependencies and long-term dependence on global platform players,” Forum New Economy reported on Friday.
“European countries are highly dependent on companies from the USA and China in a variety of technological infrastructures, from cloud services and social media to generative artificial intelligence,” Forum New Economy reported.
Such companies dominate European markets and are increasing their control of digital infrastructures, innovation networks, supply chains, data flows and research agendas.
An example is Microsoft earlier this year suspending the business email account for International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan.
The action occurred within months of the ICC issuing a warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Although the tech firm suspended Khan’s ICC email account, Microsoft officials said it still is providing services for the ICC.
The company also announced their intent to support the digital sovereignty of European nations.
“We’ve operated in Europe for more than 40 years, and we have been and always will be a steadfast partner to Europe,” Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in a social media post on Friday.
Microsoft is supporting European sovereignty and that of its respective nations with several existing and new tech offerings, Nadella said.
The services include Microsoft Sovereign Cloud, Data Guardian, External Key Management and Sovereign Private Cloud.
The existing and new offerings “bring digital sovereignty to all European organizations” and”unlock new sovereign ways to run private sovereign clouds,” Nadella said.
“These new offerings build on decades of pioneering work in sovereign cloud solutions by ourselves and to our partners,” he added.
US tech giants Apple and Meta will not face sanctions immediately for failure to meet obligations under the EU’s digital rulebook, an EU spokesperson told Euronews.
In April, the Commission fined Apple €500 million and Meta €200 million for non-compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and gave both companies 60 days to bring their practices in line with EU rules. That grace period ends on 26 June, after which they risk periodic penalty payments.
According to the spokesperson, financial penalties will not be applied automatically but only after the Commission conducts a preliminary analysis and shares its findings with the two tech giants as part of an ongoing exchange process.
Apple was fined €500 million for preventing developers from directing users to alternative offers or content outside its platform—an action deemed contrary to DMA rules.
Meta received a €200 million fine for its “pay or consent” model, which the Commission found problematic. The model forces users to either consent to the use of their personal data for targeted advertising or pay for an ad-free subscription—limiting user choice.
In response, Meta introduced a revised version of its personalised advertising model in November 2024, which uses less personal data. The Commission is still evaluating this system while continuing its discussions with the company.
Compared to past antitrust enforcement, the fines issued in April were relatively modest. Under former EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, tech giants were subject to more substantial penalties.
In April, EU officials explained that the lower fines reflected the short duration of the violations since the DMA implementation started in 2023 and the Commission’s current focus on achieving compliance rather than punishing breaches.
US digital services have been drawn into the trade war that has been escalating between the US and the EU since mid-March. In response to US tariffs, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to impose a tax on digital advertising revenues.
Meanwhile, a report by the US Trade Representative, published in early April, labelled EU digital regulations as a barrier to US exports.
The DMA is designed to prevent dominant digital platforms from abusing their market power. It aims to open up digital ecosystems controlled by Big Tech and ensure users enjoy real freedom of choice online.
SOMETHING a bit different. It’s not a car review. It’s a world-first look at Apple CarPlay Ultra.
Most of you with a newish car will hook up your iPhone and use the central touchscreen for music and maps.
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Apple’s first motoring collab is with Aston Martin – but expect CarPlay Ultra in more motors soonCredit: simon thompson
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It’s all very slick. All very easy. All very Apple. No handbook requiredCredit: simon thompson
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There’s some cool updates on the central touchscreen tooCredit: simon thompson
CarPlay Ultra allows you to use two screens. So you can have Waze or Apple Maps filling the driver’s display in front of you.
Finally.
Apple’s first collab is actually with Aston Martin but you can guarantee CarPlay Ultra will be popping up in other motors in the near future.
There’s some cool updates on the central touchscreen too.
Swipe right for an Apple Watch-style dashboard with up/down toggles for weather, clock, calendar and more.
There’s a simple button to deactivate the bloody annoying driving assistance tech. We like that too.
Plus, car-specific buttons for hill descent control and noisy exhaust mode.
Radio station favourites are linked to your device. So when you’re driving you’ve got talkSPORT and when your partner’s at the wheel they’ve got Magic FM. Or vice versa.
It’s all very slick. All very easy. All very Apple. No handbook required.
The funny thing is, when the DBX arrived in 2020 it didn’t even have a touchscreen. Now it’s top of the class. Dreamy lines. V8 engine. Cutting-edge tech. Aston Martin is on it.
Apples’s big announcements from WWDC with a flurry new features for the gadgets you already own
Artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data centres led to a spike in electricity demand between 2020 and 2023.
The United Nations’ digital agency says that operational carbon emissions for the world’s top tech companies rose an average of 150 percent between 2020 and 2023 as investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and data centres drove up global electricity demand.
Operational emissions for Amazon grew 182 percent in 2023 against 2020 levels, while emissions for Microsoft grew 155 percent, Facebook and Instagram owner Meta grew 145 percent, and Google parent company Alphabet grew 138 percent over the same period, according to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
The figures include the emissions directly created by the companies’ operations as well as those from purchased energy consumption. They were included in a new report from ITU assessing the greenhouse gas emissions of the world’s top 200 digital companies between 2020 and 2023.
The UN agency linked the sharp uptick to recent breakthroughs in AI and the demand for digital services like cloud computing.
“Advances in digital innovation – especially AI – are driving up energy consumption and global emissions,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, who heads the ITU.
While these innovations mark dramatic technological breakthroughs, left unchecked, emissions from top-emitting AI systems could soon hit 102.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, the agency said.
“Currently, there are no standards or legislative requirements for companies to disclose their AI emissions or energy consumption, which makes understanding the impact of AI on company-level energy use less straightforward,” the report said.
“However, data from company reports show an increasing trend in operational emissions for companies with a high level of AI adoption.”
A car drives past a building of the Digital Reality Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia, the US, in March 2025 [File: Leah Millis/Reuters]
The AI and cloud computing boom has led to a similar spike in electricity demand from data centres, which help power digital services. Electricity consumption by data centres has grown 12 percent year-on-year since 2017, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Data centres alone consumed 415 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity – or 1.5 percent of global power demand. If the demand for data centres continues to grow at this pace, it will hit 945 TWh by 2030, surpassing Japan’s annual electricity consumption, according to the IEA.
Power-hungry digital companies, meanwhile, consumed an estimated 581 TWh of electricity in 2024, or roughly 2.1 percent of global demand, according to the report, although demand was highly concentrated among top firms.
According to data supplied by 164 out of 200 companies in the report, just 10 generated 51.9 percent of their electricity demand in 2023, the report said. They were China Mobile, Amazon, Samsung Electronics, China Telecom, Alphabet, Microsoft, TSMC, China Unicom, SK Hynix and Meta.
Publicly available emissions data for 166 out of the 200 companies revealed that they emitted 297 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year in 2023, the same as the combined emissions of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s salvo against Chinese students, promising to “aggressively revoke” their visas, is the latest move in heightening tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Despite a temporary tariff truce reached between them earlier this month, divisions between Washington and Beijing remain wide, with recent ruptures over higher education, artificial intelligence (AI) chips and rare earth minerals.
Here’s all we know about how relations between China and the United States are worsening despite diplomatic efforts.
What did the US and China agree on tariffs?
A US-China trade spat escalated after Trump’s administration raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 percent earlier this year, with cumulative US duties on some Chinese goods reaching a staggering 245 percent. China retaliated with 125 percent tariffs of its own on US goods.
Under an agreement reached on May 12 following two days of trade talks in Geneva, tariffs on both sides were dropped by 115 percentage points for 90 days, during which time negotiators hope to secure a longer-term agreement. For now, the US has maintained a 30 percent tariff on all Chinese goods while Beijing has a 10 percent levy on US products.
In the weeks since the temporary reprieve, however, Washington and Beijing appear to have had only limited discussions.
On Thursday, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that trade talks between the US and China are “a bit stalled”, and may need to be reinvigorated by a call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
In the meantime, the Trump administration has announced new, strict visa controls on Chinese university students and told US companies to stop selling their advanced chip software used to design semiconductors to Chinese groups.
Why is the US targeting Chinese students?
On Wednesday, Rubio announced that the US will “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese students studying in the country. He also pledged to ramp up scrutiny of new visa applicants from China and Hong Kong.
The Trump administration’s decision to carry out deportations and to revoke student visas is part of wide-ranging efforts to fulfil its hardline immigration agenda.
China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the US, behind India. Chinese students made up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the US during the 2023-2024 academic year – more than 270,000 in total.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticised the decision to revoke visas, saying it “damaged” the rights of Chinese students. “The US has unreasonably cancelled Chinese students’ visas under the pretext of ideology and national rights,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.
The Trump administration also banned Harvard University from enrolling any foreign students on May 22, accusing the institution of “coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party”. That move has since been blocked by a US federal judge.
Still, the largest portion of foreign students at Harvard – almost 1,300 – are Chinese, and many top officials, including the current leader Xi Jinping, have sent their children to the Ivy League school.
How is the US taking aim at Chinese semiconductors?
On May 13, just after the end of trade talks in Geneva, the US Commerce Department issued guidance warning American firms against using Huawei’s Ascend AI semiconductor chips, stating that they “were likely developed or produced in violation of US export controls”.
The move marked the latest in a series of efforts by the Trump administration to stymie China’s ability to develop cutting-edge AI chips. The tiny semiconductors, which power AI systems, have long been a source of tension between the US and China.
China’s Commerce Ministry spokesperson fired back against the guidance last week, accusing Washington of “undermining” the consensus reached in Geneva and describing the measures as “typical unilateral bullying and protectionism”.
Then, on May 28, the US government ramped up the row by ordering US companies which make software used to design semiconductors to stop selling their goods and services to Chinese groups, The Financial Times reported.
Design automation software makers, including Cadence, Synopsys and Siemens EDA, were told via letters from the US Commerce Department to stop supplying their technology to China.
Why is the US targeting Chinese semiconductors?
The US has been tightening its export controls on semiconductors for more than a decade, contending that China has used US computer chips to improve military hardware and software.
Chinese officials and industry executives deny this and contend that the US is trying to limit China’s economic and technological development.
In his first term as president, Trump banned China’s Huawei from using advanced US circuit boards.
Huawei is seen as a competitor to Nvidia, the US semiconductor giant which produces its own-brand of “Ascend” AI chips. In April, Washington restricted the export of Nvidia’s AI chips to China.
But Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, recently warned that attempts to hamstring China’s AI technology through export controls had largely failed.
How could China be affected by US measures?
The suspension of semiconductor sales will limit supplies for aerospace equipment needed for China’s commercial aircraft, the C919, a signature project in China’s push towards economic and transport self-reliance.
Christopher Johnson, a former CIA China analyst, told The Financial Times that this week’s new export controls underscored the “innate fragility of the tariff truce reached in Geneva”.
“With both sides wanting to retain and continue demonstrating the potency of their respective chokehold capabilities, the risk the ceasefire could unravel even within the 90-day pause is omnipresent,” he added.
Will China ease restrictions on rare earth minerals exports?
US officials had expected the Geneva talks to result in China easing its export restrictions on rare earth elements. So far, there have been few signs of that, however.
Rare earth minerals are a group of precious minerals required to manufacture a wide range of goods in the defence, healthcare and technology sectors.
Rare earth metals, which include scandium and yttrium, are also key for producing components in capacitors – electrical parts which help power AI servers and smartphones.
China processes some 90 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals and instituted export controls in April to counter Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, triggering alarm among US companies.
Last week, for instance, Ford temporarily closed a factory in Chicago which makes utility vehicles after one of its suppliers ran out of a specialised rare earth magnet.
In most new cars, especially elevate vehicles (cars with robotic technology allowing them to “climb” over obstacles), these high-tech magnets are used in parts which operate brake and steering systems, and power seats and fuel injectors.
The restrictions on the supply of rare earth minerals provide Beijing with a strategic advantage in future negotiations, as it can limit supplies of crucial technologies for US industry.
