Latest news with #techIndustry
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's tariff changes leave Big Tech in limbo
The tech industry is once again on a knife's edge after President Trump signed an executive action on Monday delaying the implementation of his reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world until Aug. 1. The decision came just days before the prior July 9 deadline when many of Trump's original "Liberation Day" tariffs were to take hold. Trump also began sending out letters to select trading partners, including Japan and South Korea, which he said will face 25% levies if they don't reach agreements with the United States by Aug. 1. For the tech industry, the announcements mark a return to the uncertainty of April, which sent both the S&P 500 and Dow plummeting, as Trump seeks to remake the country's various trade relationships. 'It's been two steps forward, one step back,' explained Deepwater Asset Management managing partner Gene Munster. Read more: 5 ways to tariff-proof your finances 'We're still moving forward, but what it means for Big Tech is that it opens up this unknown about what happens now and in that … December quarter, because any changes probably won't really start to take effect until midway through the September quarter,' Munster added. What happens after the Aug. 1 deadline, though, is anyone's guess. For now, Trump says he won't extend the deadline, but he's also pushed it out twice already. If there's one bright side to the tariff changes, it's that they don't impact the ongoing trade negotiations between the US and China, which could have resulted in price hikes on tech products. According to the US International Trade Commission, Trump's tariffs on the country will largely remain suspended through Aug. 10. Then there are companies like Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL), which have won a reprieve from the immediate threat of tariffs but face individual actions from the Trump administration. Nvidia is contending with a ban on the sale of its chips to China, while Apple is staring down an additional 25% tariff if it doesn't begin building its devices in the US instead of relying on manufacturing in other countries, including China and India. And every tech company is waiting on tenterhooks for the administration to announce its tariffs on semiconductor imports. It all adds up to a confusing summer for Big Tech. Among the biggest challenges for Big Tech is the inability to plan how to address the impact of tariffs in the coming months. What's more, with the US pushing for countries to exclude China from their supply chains, there's no guarantee the current cooling in the trade war between the two superpowers won't go hot again. 'I think the uncertainty, in some ways, is arguably even worse than the tariffs, certainly in the near term, because when you don't know what's going to happen, and there's a threat of relatively high numbers, then people … are going to be more cautious and wait to see what happens,' TECHnalysis Research president and chief analyst Bob O'Donnell told Yahoo Finance. 'And so the question will be, does it just go away again? Is it more TACO tariffs or not?' he added, referring to the acronym for 'Trump Always Chickens Out,' a line of thinking on Wall Street that says Trump's tariff threats are more bluster than actual economic policy. While Apple and Nvidia often come up in tariff discussions, they're far from the only tech companies that could take a hit with the latest round of levy threats. Dell (DELL), for instance, manufactures some of its PCs in Malaysia, which is facing a 25% tariff, and Samsung, which is set to launch its latest smartphones, could get hit with a 25% tariff on devices it ships to the US from its home country of South Korea. Semiconductor companies also face the prospect of tariffs related to the Commerce Department's ongoing Section 232 investigation into the national security implications of producing chips abroad. That puts chip manufacturers in a difficult position as, despite recent announcements that companies like TSMC (TSM) and Samsung are building plants in the US, the majority of semiconductors are still fabricated in Asia. According to Bernstein senior analyst Stacy Rasgon, even if the Section 232 investigation doesn't result in new chip tariffs, semiconductor manufacturers could still be hurt if tariffs on other tech goods push prices higher and force consumers to cut back on spending. Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet Tech companies aren't the only ones left in the lurch amid the latest tariff uncertainty. Levies cloud corporate executives' vision as to the timing of large purchase orders. 'The example we like to use is you're about to do a major Windows 11 refresh on a fleet of a few 1000 laptops,' Forrester vice president and research director Mark Moccia explained. 'Now, all of a sudden, you get tariffs on the entire machine itself, or parts of the machine that are assembled. Now that means you're going to be paying a lot more potentially for that laptop replacement fleet.' Moccia added. Consumers and corporations are also left wondering what tariffs mean for their wallets. Fears that the levies will send prices of everything from smartphones and PCs to monitors and other accessories have already impacted sales and could hurt them in the second half of 2025. 'In the near term, probably the biggest dynamic we have seen is pull-in activity, not only on products, but also [on] chips,' explained KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst John Vinh. Pull-in, or pull forward, refers to sales of products that customers purchase before they might otherwise choose to in an effort to get ahead of price hikes. 'The three areas where we've seen the most amount of pull-in activities have been in PCs, smartphones, and in data centers. And since it's a pull-forward demand, it doesn't create any new demand,' Vinh explained. 'We've seen the overall supply chain, and the outlook for the second half, and even full-year, to some extent, down ticked a little bit.' Now, countries, industries, and companies have to wait to see how Trump's tariff plan plays out. Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@ Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Planned Nvidia expansion in Israel prompts multiple offers of sites
By Steven Scheer JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Nvidia has received a high number of offers of potential sites to help it carry out a plan to greatly expand its operations in Israel to meet growing demand for artificial intelligence data centres, two sources told Reuters. The Santa Clara-based Nvidia, which has become the most valuable company in history at $4 trillion, earlier this week issued a request for information, or RFI, to buy land to build a new campus near its facility in northern Israel that industry sources estimated would cost billions of dollars and create thousands of jobs. Nvidia, a leading designer of high-end AI chips, entered Israel in 2020 after buying Mellanox Technologies for nearly $7 billion. It is located in Yokne'am, where many tech companies are based, near the northern port city of Haifa. Nvidia in Israel declined to comment beyond its RFI. A third source, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press, said the company received "dozens and dozens and dozens" of offers from municipalities and others, not all near Haifa. Nvidia has set a July 23 deadline for offers to build its campus of up to 180,000 square metres. For its part, the Haifa municipality said it was "currently busy preparing an attractive offer for the company. We think we are the city with the best potential for them." A race among Microsoft,, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, and Tesla, to build AI data centres and dominate the emerging technology has led to a surge in demand for Nvidia's high-end processors. One of the sources said Israel's expertise was "extremely important to the AI era" and Nvidia needed to expand rapidly. The company has already nearly tripled in size in Israel since its acquisition of Mellanox, which a source said contributed to $13 billion in revenue to Nvidia last year. The company has not confirmed the figure. Nvidia has also made a number of other acquisitions over recent years in the country where it has 5,000 employees. It has also built Israel's most powerful AI supercomputer that was a blueprint for Elon Musk's Colossus supercomputer. Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, said the new Nvidia campus will be massive and could house "a few thousand employees". "Nvidia sees its operation in Israel as something which is going to stay here for a very long time and to expand here," he told Reuters. "This declaration is a sign of confidence in Israel." Nvidia's planned expansion in Israel comes as rival Intel - in Israel since 1974, and one of the country's largest employers at 9,350 - has begun to trim its workforce globally. Israel media said a few hundred workers in Israel are being made redundant. A local spokesperson would not comment on numbers, only pointing to Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan's comments in April that the company was "taking steps to become a leaner, faster and more efficient company".
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
I lost my software engineer job in May and have taken up welding. I'm happy to leave the tech industry — AI has changed it.
Tabby Toney left her tech career for welding after being laid off in May. The tech industry's growing reliance on AI led to frustration and a desire for a career change. Toney finds welding creatively fulfilling and plans to pursue it professionally after training. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tabby Toney, a 37-year-old former software engineer based in Oklahoma, about leaving tech for a blue-collar career. It's been edited for length and clarity. My path into software engineering wasn't direct. I followed a friend into tech and started doing manual testing, knowing nothing; I was just doing user-experience work. I self-studied, paid for virtual classes, and bugged all of my software engineer friends until I could get a job as a software engineer. I loved tech because of the intellectual stimulation it provided. I enjoyed the creative problem-solving and critical thinking required to make things happen. That part has been taken away with the industry pushing AI. Last year, I started thinking about a transition out of tech. I was having recurring moments of frustration, and all my friends were having the same issues. I was laid off in May. At first, I thought I'd just take a month off because I was already so burned out. But I don't sit still very well, so I decided to take up welding. I had a feeling I was going to get laid off due to the industry's direction with AI, so I was hoarding all my extra money in preparation. I didn't want to start over again, but I also didn't want to be bored. I needed something to keep me engaged and feeling like I was contributing, but my tech job didn't do that anymore. Like me, I have friends who are completely leaving the tech industry right now. If tech isn't your whole life, it's OK if you want to move on. Now it's a little easier to make the jump. With how often the layoffs are, I feel less like I'm leaving something stable and steady. There's a lot of talk now, like, "Are you just mad because AI is taking your job?" That's not it. I haven't lost a job to AI. I think the problem is the industry's reliance on AI when it's not ready yet. Also, a lot of decisions are being made by non-tech people who don't fully understand how it affects the people who are writing the tech. I started feeling the shift affect me in October of last year, but I didn't want to leave the industry because tech has always excited me. I dreaded the coming interview process if I were to continue looking for software engineering roles. You have to drop everything for two months and study for these assessments, which are like studying for the ACT. I couldn't stand the thought of dropping everything and studying all over again for the interview, so I decided to take a month off, and I haven't looked back. How I picked up welding after getting laid off was pretty random. I took welding in high school, and I remember running around as a kid in my grandpa's garage, where he and my dad did it a bunch. I thought of it as something you do to repair things around your house or farm. But I borrowed some of my family's equipment and tried it again during my month break. I enjoy it because it's creative. However, metallurgy also involves knowing what to use and how to do it in certain situations, so there's still a thinking aspect to it. I also like working with my hands. I'm doing some side jobs for some friends right now, but I'm not at a level of welding yet that I would feel comfortable applying for a job in the field until I at least finish one class, which I start in August. Tech years are like dog years with how fast stuff changes and new inventions, but if we rely on AI to do so much, it almost feels like you're going backward in your skills, unless you're the person creating the AI. I've forgotten things that I previously knew how to do just because I hadn't done them in so long, and I've heard other people say the same thing. The market and the job industry didn't have to go this way because we could've used AI as a supplement. It's great as a helper. With how the industry is now, I'm pretty happy with my decision. I thought I would be a nervous wreck forever, but I was ready. I feel so relieved now that I have left tech and have a new plan. If you have a career change or layoff story that you would like to share, please email the reporter, Agnes Applegate, at aapplegate@ Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Giant Will More Than Triple Its AI Chip Revenue in 3 Years. (Hint: Not Nvidia)
Nvidia grew its data center revenue more than 10-fold in three years as AI spending ramped up. The next three years could see more competition in the AI accelerator space. That favors this one stock that currently trades at a great value relative to other AI chip stocks. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Just about every big tech company in the world is in a race to build more computing capacity than anyone else in order to meet the demands for large language model training and AI inference. The four biggest spenders alone are set to invest over $320 billion in capital expenditures this year, most of which will go toward data centers. A handful of companies have been big beneficiaries of all that spending, not least of which is Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). The chipmaker has seen its data center revenue climb more than 10-fold in three years as big tech buys up its graphics processing units (GPUs) as fast as it can make them. That's led to phenomenal earnings growth for the company and its investors. Demand continues to fuel growth at Nvidia, with expectations for 50% revenue growth in the second competition is starting to catch up with the market leader and another AI giant could grow its AI chip revenue faster than Nvidia over the next three years. What's more, its stock trades at a much more attractive valuation, making it a great buy for investors looking to capitalize on the next round of growth in AI. Nvidia faces competition from two main source: other GPU makers and custom chip designs. When it comes to other sources for GPUs, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) is the only practical competitor for Nvidia. Nvidia has remained a top choice for hyperscalers, offering better performance even though the costs of its chips remain high. Nvidia's proprietary software, CUDA, gives it another way to lock in customers. And Nvidia offers better scaling solutions as well. But AMD showed off new chips last month that aim to put many of those advantages to bed. Its MI400 chips, coming in 2026, offer a "rack-scale" system that allows a full rack of AMD chips to function like a single compute engine. That can offer better price performance than Nvidia, providing a legitimate contender for large data centers. It's already received commitments from OpenAI, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft, among others, for its newest series of chips. The other source of competition is custom silicon designs from companies like Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet's Google, and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). Those represent Nvidia's biggest customers, but they're all looking to fill their data centers with more of their custom-designed chips made in partnership with Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) and Marvell Technology. These application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) aren't as flexible as GPUs for generative AI purposes. However, all four of the above have seen excellent results with AI training and inference on their custom solutions. And they're all trying to expand the use cases of those chips in future iterations. Importantly for Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, the cloud providers say their customers are able to generate better price performance with their own chip designs than Nvidia's. And they each have an incentive to sell their customers on custom silicon, since it will lock those customers into their respective ecosystems. But none of the above-mentioned companies are in as good a position as another important AI infrastructure provider. And it can capitalize on the growing spending, no matter which chips customers ultimately decide to build with. When Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, or Marvell want to actually take their designs and get them printed on silicon wafers, they need to contract with a manufacturer. And they all choose the same manufacturer for their needs: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), otherwise known as TSMC. TSMC has become a dominant force in semiconductor fabrication due to two key advantages: its scale and its technology. Both serve to feed one another. TSMC's leading technology means it wins the biggest contracts from the biggest chip designers. As a result, it builds out scale to meet that demand. It also takes that revenue and reinvests it into R&D to ensure it maintains its technology lead. As demand for more advanced chips increases, it's the only company that has the scale that can meet that demand. In a market with booming demand, like we're seeing right now, TSMC can produce considerable returns on its capital spending. And while a down-cycle in demand will put a strain on its profits, management has historically done a good job at forecasting future demand, budgeting appropriately, and positioning for the next cycle. Right now, though, TSMC could see its AI-related revenue more than triple from 2025 through 2027. Management said it's on track to double its AI-related revenue from 2024 this year alone, bringing it to around $26 billion. To triple, it would only need to grow a bit over 20% per year for 2026 and 2027. But management expects 40% average annual growth over the five-year period from 2025 through 2029, implying an average of 28% growth in the next four years after doubling this year. So, even if management is overestimating its long-term prospects, it's still likely to at least triple AI-related revenue by 2027. A key aspect of that growth will be the introduction of its 2nm and 1.6nm processes. TSMC is set to release both manufacturing nodes in quick succession, with the 2nm arriving later this year and the next generation arriving in late 2026. The company is reportedly charging $30,000 per wafer for 2nm chips compared to about $20,000 for 3nm chips. TSMC already has 2nm contracts lined up for AMD, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and others. While AI-related revenue remains a small portion of TSMC's total revenue, it should climb to about 30% of total revenue by the end of the decade based on management's long-term forecast. The company expects about 20% total revenue growth over the next five years, and it should be able to produce strong margins in that period as it ramps up 2nm and 1.6nm production. Overall, earnings growth should keep pace with revenue growth, bolstered by strong demand for AI chips. Meanwhile, the stock trades for a forward PE ratio of less than 25 as of this writing. That makes it an incredible value compared to other AI stocks like Nvidia or AMD, which trade around 35 times earnings. With the strong position TSMC is in right now, it's worth adding to your portfolio. Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $699,558!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $976,677!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,060% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adam Levy has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and Marvell Technology and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Giant Will More Than Triple Its AI Chip Revenue in 3 Years. (Hint: Not Nvidia) was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jim Cramer on Seagate: 'This is an Amazing One'
Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) is one of the stocks listed in our article, Jim Cramer recently discussed these 10 S&P 500 stocks. Coming to STX, Cramer commented: 'In fourth place… this is an amazing one, Seagate Technology of all things, up 67% in the first half after more than doubling from its lows in April. Seagate makes hard drives and flash-based solid state drives, basically storage hardware, the textbook commodity tech product. But right now, the hard drive business is booming, and the company announced a $5 billion buyback a little over a month ago while projecting mid-teens revenue growth through 2028. That's not bad. A technician configuring a network-attached storage drive. Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) provides data storage products that include hard drives, solid state drives, and external storage devices. The company also offers an edge-to-cloud platform intended to support enterprise infrastructure in on-premise and cloud settings. While we acknowledge the potential of STX as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
