Nvidia NVDA +4.25% ▲ reported record sales and strong guidance Wednesday, helping soothe jitters about an artificial intelligence bubble that have reverberated in markets for the last week.
Sales in the October quarter hit a record $57 billion as demand for the company’s advanced AI data center chips continued to surge, up 62% from the year-earlier quarter and exceeding consensus estimates from analysts polled by FactSet. The company increased its guidance for the current quarter, estimating that sales will reach $65 billion—analysts had predicted revenue of $62.1 billion for the quarter.
Shares in the world’s most-valuable publicly listed company rose almost 5% in premarket trading Thursday.
“We’ve entered the virtuous cycle of AI,” said Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang. “AI is going everywhere, doing everything, all at once.”
Wednesday’s result will allow investors to breathe a sigh of relief. Each Nvidia quarterly earnings report has come to be seen as a financial Super Bowl of sorts as the AI boom has taken off. The company is regarded as a bellwether for both the health of the tech industry and the market as a whole.
This quarter, however, the stakes seemed higher. Rarely has an earnings report from a single company been greeted with such nervous anticipation.
In recent weeks, investors have sold off big tech names, worried that companies are spending far too much money on data centers, chips, and other infrastructure in the race to design and operate the world’s most powerful AI models, with little hope of recouping their investments in the near term.
Adding to the pressure is a flurry of recent AI deals structured using what critics have dubbed “circular” funding mechanisms—broadly referring to suppliers like Nvidia making large capital investments in the businesses of the customers who buy their products. Just a few months ago, investors viewed such deals with enthusiasm, pumping up shares for a variety of AI-related companies, but this week one such deal—between Nvidia, Microsoft and Anthropic—was greeted warily.
This week, 45% of global fund managers surveyed by Bank of America said that an AI stock-market bubble was one of the biggest risks facing the market.
A number of bearish moves by high-profile investors have also rattled tech markets. Last week, Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group sold its entire $5.8 billion stake in Nvidia to divert that money to other AI investments, while a hedge fund run by influential billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel unloaded its entire $100 million Nvidia stake in the third quarter.
Earlier this month, Michael Burry—who famously predicted the popping of the subprime mortgage securities bubble and was profiled in the Michael Lewis book “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine”—revealed in a securities filing that he was betting against the stocks of both Nvidia and AI-heavy defense analytics firm Palantir.
“The last few weeks, there have been some escalating cracks in the AI landscape,” said Matt Stucky, chief portfolio manager for equities at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company, an Nvidia shareholder. “Nvidia is the beneficiary of a lot of AI spending, and market forces are pushing back harder and harder on that spending.”
Quarterly net income was $31.9 billion, 65% higher than a year earlier. Sales of Nvidia’s Blackwell line of graphics processing units—its most powerful chips yet—were “off the charts,” Huang said. Revenue from Nvidia’s data center segment set a record at $51.2 billion, beating analysts’ expectations of $49 billion.
The potential for revenue increases may be limited going forward after the Trump administration announced earlier this month that it is not considering allowing a version of the Blackwell chip to be sold in China, a fast-growing AI market that represents tens of billions of dollars in potential sales.
Half of the company’s long-term opportunity will come from customers’ transition to accelerated computing and generative AI, Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer, said on a call with investors. While sizable purchase orders for Nvidia’s Hopper Platform never materialized in the quarter due to geopolitical issues with China, the company remains committed to engaging with governments, she added.
In separate news, the Commerce Department approved the sale of up to 70,000 advanced artificial-intelligence chips to two companies based in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, a big win for the Middle Eastern nations as they seek to catch up in the AI race. The approvals are a reversal from earlier this year, when some administration officials rejected the idea of exporting directly to the state-backed companies over security concerns.
Terms of the deal will allow U.S. firms to sell up to 35,000 of Nvidia’s GB300 servers or their equivalents to both G42, a state-run AI firm based in Abu Dhabi, and Humain, a Saudi government-backed AI venture, government officials said. Nvidia competitor Advanced Micro Devices also has an agreement worth billions of dollars to work with Humain.
Nvidia’s stock price more than doubled between early April and late October, rising from the low $90s to more than $200 per share, but has lost ground in the last few weeks as bubble worries have grown. So far this year, it’s up about 30%.
Nvidia Corp. NVDA +5.50% ▲ etched its name deeper into history books Wednesday, becoming the first publicly traded company to eclipse a $5 trillion market capitalization—a staggering milestone that underscores the artificial intelligence revolution’s grip on global markets, even as whispers of an impending bubble grow louder. The Silicon Valley chipmaker’s shares surged as much as 5.5% during the session, closing at $207.04 with 24.3 billion shares outstanding, catapulting its valuation to $5.03 trillion. Just three months after breaching $4 trillion and a mere two years after cracking $1 trillion, Nvidia’s ascent—up 50% year-to-date and over 1,500% in the past five years—has outpaced the Nasdaq’s 23% gain this year and the S&P 500’s 17%, cementing its status as the world’s most valuable firm ahead of Microsoft MSFT +2.10% ▲ ($4 trillion) and Apple AAPL +1.80% ▲ ($3.9 trillion).
The rally, which added nearly $140 billion to Nvidia’s coffers in a single day, was supercharged by CEO Jensen Huang’s announcements at the company’s annual AI conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Huang revealed a pipeline of $500 billion in AI chip orders through next year, alongside a flurry of high-profile deals: a partnership with Uber Technologies Inc. to advance robotaxi development, a $1 billion investment in Nokia Oyj for next-generation 6G networks, and collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy to construct seven new AI supercomputers. Last month, Nvidia committed $100 billion to OpenAI, aiming to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centers to supercharge the ChatGPT maker’s computing prowess. “These aren’t hypotheticals—these companies are generating real revenues, and the products are profitable,” Huang told NBC News, brushing off bubble concerns. “Generative AI has evolved from interesting to indispensable.”
Nvidia’s dominance in graphics processing units (GPUs)—repurposed from gaming rigs to the lifeblood of AI training for models like ChatGPT and image generators—has made it indispensable to Big Tech’s AI arms race. Its largest customers, including OpenAI, Tesla Inc., xAI, Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Oracle Corp., have funneled billions into Nvidia’s H100 and upcoming Blackwell chips, driving demand that outstrips supply. The semiconductor giant’s market cap now dwarfs the combined valuations of rivals like Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp., Broadcom Inc., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Micron Technology Inc., ASML Holding NV, Lam Research Corp., Qualcomm Inc., and Arm Holdings Plc—collectively worth less than half of Nvidia’s heft.
To put $5 trillion in perspective: It’s equivalent to roughly 25 Walt Disney Cos., 50 Nikes, 96 Ford Motor Cos., 945 Macys, or over 3,311 JetBlue Airways Corps. Nvidia alone towers over the entire S&P 500 energy sector (three times its size) and eclipses major international benchmarks like Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC indices (more than double each). More strikingly, its valuation surpasses the gross domestic product of every nation on Earth except the United States ($29.1 trillion) and China ($18 trillion), per World Bank and IMF data—including India, Japan, the U.K., and Germany ($4.6 trillion last year). A $1,000 investment in Nvidia a decade ago, when shares bottomed at $0.47 in February 2015, would now be worth $441,000—a 44,000% return that has minted fortunes, including Huang’s estimated $174.4 billion net worth, ranking him eighth on Forbes’ billionaire list.
The AI boom, often likened to the iPhone’s 2007 debut for its transformative potential, has propelled Nvidia from a $10 billion niche player in 2015 to this colossus. Yet, the speed of its rise—stock up 3.4% to an intraday high of $207.85 Wednesday—has reignited debates over sustainability. Officials at the Bank of England flagged AI’s “growing risk” of a tech stock burst earlier this month, while IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva echoed warnings of parallels to the late-1990s dot-com bubble. Nvidia’s shares, trading at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 45, reflect sky-high expectations for sustained GPU demand amid an AI infrastructure spend projected to hit $1 trillion annually by 2030, per McKinsey & Co.
Geopolitical crosswinds add intrigue. Huang jetted to South Korea this week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, where free-trade ideals clash with escalating U.S. tariffs on tech and beyond. A pivotal sideline Thursday: a face-to-face between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, where Trump pledged to discuss Nvidia’s chips. In August, the administration struck a deal with Nvidia and AMD to ease export curbs on advanced chips to China in exchange for a 15% revenue cut to Washington—despite national security qualms over potential military diversions. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick quipped on CNBC in July that selling America’s “fourth best” AI tech to Beijing was “cool,” but not the top tiers. Nvidia’s August overtures for a China-specific chip, plus a $5 billion infusion into Intel (where the U.S. government now holds a 10% stake worth $11 billion), highlight efforts to balance export growth with domestic bolstering under the CHIPS Act.
For investors, Nvidia’s milestone is a double-edged sword. The Magnificent Seven tech stocks, led by Nvidia, have shouldered 60% of the S&P 500’s gains this year, but rotation risks loom if AI hype cools. “Nvidia isn’t just a company—it’s the AI proxy,” said Dan Ives, Wedbush Securities analyst. “But at $5 trillion, any earnings miss could trigger a reality check.” With Blackwell production ramping and partnerships like the Nokia tie-up eyeing 6G’s trillion-dollar frontier, Nvidia’s trajectory suggests more records ahead. Yet, as Huang attends APEC amid Trump-Xi tensions, the chip king’s fate remains intertwined with the very global supply chains it seeks to redefine.
Donald Trump flies into Britain on Tuesday evening for a three-day state visit, with the US and UK promising to boost financial ties, including by exploring closer alignment of their capital markets.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wants to use Trump’s visit to showcase Britain as an inward investment hotspot, with US private equity company Blackstone pledging to invest £100bn in British assets over the next decade. US officials said there would be at least $10bn of investment deals in the technology sector, an agreement on nuclear co-operation and an exploration of “how the deep connections between our leading financial hubs can be maintained into the future”. But Trump’s arrival could throw up problems for Starmer.
The US president is unpopular in Britain and his schedule has been designed to shield him from any public or political protest. Trump will not address the UK parliament and is expected to travel by helicopter from the US ambassador’s residence in London to Windsor Castle and later to Starmer’s country retreat at Chequers. Trump has not yet finalised a deal, agreed with Starmer in May, to exempt British steel exports from US tariffs, although they do benefit from lower 25 per cent levies compared with the 50 per cent applied to other countries.
British officials were in Washington on Monday holding urgent talks with US trade officials to try to conclude a deal that would exempt Scotch whisky from a 10 per cent tariff imposed on other UK exports.
A senior US official said the White House was not “tracking” any announcement to reduce US tariffs on whisky, in a sign that an agreement was unlikely. But the official suggested it may well be discussed. Meanwhile, US officials would not be drawn on whether Trump would endorse Tommy Robinson, a far-right activist who is admired by figures on the American right and who organised a “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London on Saturday, attended by between 110,000 and 150,000 people.
Asked whether he would speak out in support of Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, or even meet him, a US official said: “I don’t have anything on that right now.” For Trump, the highlight of the visit is expected to be a stay with King Charles and Queen Camilla at Windsor Castle, where he will be feted with a fly-past by military jets, a carriage procession and a state banquet.
But Starmer will try to use the visit to focus on financial, tech and nuclear co-operation, in an attempt to bolster his claims to have a “growth agenda” and to move on from a series of scandals that have rocked his government. Starmer is facing a wave of anger among Labour MPs and questions over his judgment after sacking his US ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson last week over his links to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump is likely to be grilled over his own connections to Epstein at a press conference on Thursday, his last official business before returning to the US.
The state visit will be preceded on Tuesday by talks in Downing Street between UK chancellor Rachel Reeves and US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent over closer financial co-operation.
By aligning UK standards more closely with the US, Reeves would be hoping to increase access to the world’s deepest and most liquid financial markets, as well as attract greater American investment into Britain.
Stock Widget
The push follows a period of intense political anxiety over an exodus of London-listed companies to the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, as businesses seek higher valuations on the other side of the Atlantic. Trump will bring leading figures from Big Tech including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and chipmaker Nvidia’s NVDA +2.45% ▲ Jensen Huang on his delegation, while companies such as Rolls-Royce RYCEY +1.80% ▲, GSK GSK +1.35% ▲ and Microsoft MSFT +1.95% ▲ will attend a business roundtable at Chequers.
US officials did not indicate to what extent Trump would press Starmer on Britain’s Online Safety Act, which has been a source of tension between Washington and London as some US tech companies have decried it as censorship.
“How that may or may not play into the bilateral discussion that will take place with the prime minister is yet unknown. It may well arise, but it may not,” a senior US official said. “Free speech in the UK, but free speech elsewhere, is something that we in this administration are very much focused on,” they added.
Stock Widget
Blackstone BX +2.65% ▲ is making its commitment to Britain as part of a broader $500bn investment push across Europe, which co-founder Stephen Schwarzman told The Financial Times aimed to profit from economic reforms and a revival of growth. Blackstone’s top leaders like Schwarzman and president Jonathan Gray have long considered the UK a key market for the $1.2tn in assets investment group, and they have strong ties with Downing Street.
Blackstone is already one of the largest foreign investors in the UK, with billions put into digital infrastructure and ecommerce warehouses, among other things. It also has large corporate investments including Merlin Entertainments, the owner of Legoland, and was a major shareholder in the London Stock Exchange’s parent company until fully divesting its shares last year.
Chinese authorities have intensified scrutiny of domestic tech giants, including Tencent TCEHY -2.30% ▼, ByteDance, and Baidu BIDU -1.85% ▼, over their purchases of Nvidia’s NVDA -3.45% ▼ H20 AI chips, raising concerns about data security and urging companies to prioritize domestic alternatives. The regulatory pressure also extends to AMD AMD -2.10% ▼, while domestic chipmakers like SMIC 981.HK +5.20% ▲ benefit from the push toward technological self-sufficiency. Major Chinese firms like Alibaba BABA -1.95% ▼ face difficult decisions as they navigate between proven U.S. technology and regulatory pressure to adopt domestic alternatives.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and other regulatory bodies have held meetings with these firms and smaller tech companies in recent weeks, questioning the necessity of relying on U.S.-made chips when local options are available. This development threatens Nvidia’s recently restored access to the Chinese market and could generate billions in revenue for the U.S. government through a novel export deal, while highlighting China’s push for technological self-sufficiency in the global AI race.
The CAC’s recent actions mark a significant escalation in China’s oversight of foreign AI technology. According to Reuters, Chinese officials have summoned major internet firms, including Tencent, ByteDance, and Baidu, to explain their reasons for purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips, designed specifically for the Chinese market to comply with U.S. export restrictions. One source indicated that authorities expressed concerns about potential information risks, particularly the possibility that materials submitted by Nvidia for U.S. government review could contain sensitive client data. “The regulators are worried about what Nvidia might be sharing with U.S. authorities,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the private nature of the meetings.
While no outright ban on H20 purchases has been issued, Bloomberg News reported on August 12, 2025, that Chinese authorities have sent official notices discouraging the use of H20 chips for government or national security-related projects, affecting both state-owned enterprises and private companies. A separate report by The Information claimed that the CAC directed over a dozen tech firms, including Alibaba, to suspend Nvidia chip purchases entirely, citing data security concerns. These directives followed the Trump administration’s decision in July 2025 to reverse export curbs on the H20, allowing Nvidia to resume sales in China after a ban earlier this year.
The CAC’s concerns were amplified by state-controlled media, with outlets like Yuyuan Tantian, affiliated with CCTV, publishing articles on platforms like WeChat that criticized the H20 chips for alleged security risks, lack of technological advancement, and environmental inefficiencies. Nvidia, in a statement on August 12, 2025, refuted these claims, asserting that the H20 is “not a military product or for government infrastructure” and emphasizing that China has ample domestic chip alternatives for its needs. Tencent, ByteDance, Baidu, and Alibaba did not respond to requests for comment, and the CAC remained silent on the matter.
The scrutiny of Nvidia’s H20 chips comes amid heightened U.S.-China tensions over AI technology. The H20, a less-advanced version of Nvidia’s flagship AI chips, was developed to navigate U.S. export controls imposed in late 2023, which restricted sales of more powerful chips like the A100 and H100 to China. The Trump administration’s reversal of the H20 ban in July 2025 was part of a broader deal with Nvidia and AMD, announced last week, requiring the companies to remit 15% of their China sales revenue for certain advanced chips to the U.S. government. According to posts on X, this arrangement could generate billions of dollars for Washington, with Nvidia’s China sales alone accounting for $17 billion—or 13% of its total revenue—in its fiscal year ending January 26, 2025.
However, China’s renewed guidance could jeopardize this revenue stream. By discouraging H20 purchases, Beijing is signaling its intent to reduce reliance on U.S. technology, a move that aligns with its broader “Made in China 2025” initiative to achieve technological self-sufficiency. Domestic chipmakers like Huawei and SMIC are ramping up production of AI accelerators, with Huawei’s Ascend series emerging as a viable rival to the H20. SMIC’s stock rose 5% on August 12, 2025, reflecting investor optimism about growing demand for locally produced chips.
The regulatory pressure also extends to AMD, with Bloomberg reporting that China’s guidance affects its MI308 chip, though no specific notices targeting AMD were confirmed. AMD did not respond to inquiries outside regular business hours. The uncertainty surrounding foreign chip purchases has sparked speculation on X that Nvidia and AMD may raise prices for their chips in China to offset the 15% revenue share to the U.S. government, potentially further incentivizing Chinese firms to pivot to domestic alternatives.
The global AI chip market, projected to reach $400 billion by 2027, is a critical battleground for U.S. and Chinese tech giants. Nvidia has long dominated the market, with its GPUs powering AI applications worldwide. In China, the company’s H20 chip was a lifeline after U.S. sanctions curtailed sales of its more advanced models. However, Beijing’s push for domestic alternatives threatens Nvidia’s market share, which accounted for 13% of its revenue in the last fiscal year.
China’s domestic chip industry, while growing, faces challenges due to U.S. sanctions on advanced chipmaking equipment, such as lithography machines critical for producing cutting-edge processors. Despite these constraints, companies like Huawei have made significant strides, with posts on X highlighting the performance of Huawei’s Ascend chips in AI workloads. “Huawei’s chips are closing the gap with Nvidia’s H20,” tweeted one tech analyst, reflecting growing confidence in China’s capabilities.
For Chinese tech giants, the CAC’s directives create a delicate balancing act. Companies like Tencent, ByteDance, and Baidu rely on AI chips to power their cloud computing, search, and social media platforms. While Nvidia’s H20 offers proven performance, the regulatory pressure to adopt domestic chips could force a shift, even if local alternatives lag in certain applications. Smaller tech firms, less equipped to navigate regulatory scrutiny, may face greater challenges in securing reliable chip supplies.
At the heart of China’s caution is a deep-seated concern about data security and U.S. influence. The CAC’s meetings with Nvidia representatives last month focused on whether the H20 chip posed backdoor risks that could compromise Chinese user data and privacy. These concerns echo broader fears in Beijing that U.S. technology could be used to monitor or manipulate Chinese systems, a sentiment amplified by state media.
Conversely, Washington has its own worries about China’s access to advanced AI chips. U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion on August 11, 2025, that Nvidia might be allowed to sell a scaled-down version of its Blackwell chip in China reflects a pragmatic approach to balancing economic interests with national security. However, this proposal has sparked debate, with critics arguing that even less-advanced U.S. chips could enhance China’s military capabilities. China’s foreign ministry responded on August 12, 2025, urging the U.S. to maintain a stable global chip supply chain, signaling its desire to avoid further escalation.
China’s cautious stance on Nvidia’s H20 chips underscores the broader geopolitical tug-of-war over AI technology. For Nvidia, the regulatory hurdles threaten a critical market, forcing the company to navigate a complex landscape of compliance and competition. The 15% revenue-sharing deal with the U.S. government adds further pressure, potentially increasing costs for Chinese buyers and accelerating the shift to domestic alternatives.
For Chinese tech firms, the CAC’s guidance reflects a broader push for technological independence, but it also risks disrupting their AI development timelines. While Huawei and SMIC are making strides, scaling production to meet domestic demand remains a challenge, particularly given U.S. restrictions on advanced manufacturing equipment. The global chip supply chain, already strained by sanctions and trade disputes, faces further uncertainty as both nations vie for dominance.
As the AI race intensifies, the outcome of this standoff will have far-reaching implications. For now, China’s scrutiny of Nvidia’s H20 chips signals a bold step toward self-reliance, while the U.S. grapples with balancing economic gains against strategic concerns. The global tech industry, caught in the crossfire, awaits clarity on how this high-stakes rivalry will reshape the future of AI.
American companies are promising to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States as President Donald Trump deploys tariffs to promote domestic manufacturing, a gush of investment plans that the White House compiled on a new webpage titled The Trump Effect.
Trump’s policies “have sparked trillions of dollars in new investment in U.S. manufacturing, technology, and infrastructure,” the site declares. And if they come to fruition, some corporate plans would represent a powerful increase in investment and potential jobs.
But a review of the promised spending reveals that some companies committed to their investments previously, including under the Biden administration.Some are part of regular, ongoing business costs. Others lackspecific commitments.
The list includes multibillion-dollar manufacturing pledges from multiple drug companies, which are engaged in a furious lobbying effort toblunt the effect of Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals. Other outlays range from $500 billion investmentsfrom tech giants Apple and Nvidia at the high end to relatively tiny investments, such as plans by LGM Pharma, a private-equity-owned contract manufacturer, for a $6 million plant expansion outside Houston.
Apple’s Tim Cook attends the Jan. 20 inaugural ceremonies in Washington, D.C. (Tom Brenner/The Washington Post)
“It’s been in the planning phases for about two years,” Hamilton Lenox, LGM Pharma’s chief commercial officer, said in an interview, driven by customer demand rather than tariffs. He acknowledged feeling “a little bit” surprised to see the company’s investment included on the White House list, which has “given us a bit of a boost.”
“We do fully support the goal of bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.,” Lenox said. “We’re happy to see interest in U.S.-based manufacturing again.”
The White House said unprecedented investment is flooding back to the United States.
“The difference between empty hypotheticals and real investments is having President Trump, the dealmaker-in-chief, back in office,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai. “By slashing regulations, lowering energy costs, enacting tariffs, and closely coordinating with the private sector, the Trump administration is securing trillions in historic investment commitments for the long-term restoration of American Greatness.”
The blizzard of press releases from pharmaceutical companies announcing new production within U.S. borders has followed years of criticism by Trump and other political leaders about moving operations overseas. Companies source raw ingredients as well as finished drugs overseas, saving money on labor and materials as well as taxes.
“I have not seen anything in the recent historical record going back at least 25 years” approaching the flurry of planned pharmaceutical investments, said Clifford Rossi, a business professor at the University of Maryland. He saidhe doubts it is motivated by tariffs because companies typically use a long time horizon when spending billions of dollars.
“The timing of this feels a little odd, almost like a bandwagon effect,” he said.
In responding to questions about pharmaceutical tariffs, Trump has floated rates from 50 to 200 percent, though analysts widely expect something closer to the 25 percent duty imposed on the automotive companies. Some executives and analysts say the administration’s focus is primarily on national security and ensuring access to critical medicines.
Pfizer employees work at the company’s manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 2021. (Evan Cobb/The Washington Post)
Eli Lilly credited the first Trump administration’s 2017 tax cuts in announcing in February it would spend $27 billion on new domestic plants, saying “it is essential that these policies are extended this year.” CEO Dave Ricks told financial analysts on Thursday that the company supports boosting domestic investment but “we don’t believe tariffs are the right mechanism.”
Although the White House lists Johnson & Johnson’s plans to spend $55 billion on new domestic manufacturing over the next four years, it works out to about an $11 billion increase over the previous four years. It also includes some projects that were already in the works, such as a $2 billion-plus investment in a North Carolina plant announced last October.
For Switzerland-based Novartis, the announcement last month that it would spend $23 billion over five years to expand its U.S. manufacturing prompted questions from some financial analysts. If the massive expansion “was an inevitable pivot regardless of the U.S. president, then why didn’t it start sooner?” Steve Scala, an analyst at T.D. Securities, asked when the company reported its quarterly profits on Tuesday.
Lab space at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Feb. 12, 2024. (Sophie Park/The Washington Post)
“You’re right, we should have recognized it sooner, but now we have recognized it,” replied CEO Vasant Narasimhan, according to a transcript compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence. “And I think independent of who’s president, it’s prudent for us to be able to have our supply chain stable inside the United States.” A company spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Tech companies top the White House’s list with the biggest commitments to investing in the U.S. But much of the spending was already planned before the election, and for some of the companies involved is mostly made up of their regular business expenses rather than major new investments.
Apple, for instance, said in February that it would spend $500 billion in the U.S. during Trump’s term, but the bulk of that money constitutes the regular cost of running its business. Some of the investment will go toward building a production line for AI computer servers in Houston, but the company has not made any commitments about moving the production of any of the products it sells to consumers to U.S. factories. The company made a similar announcement the first time Trump was president.
The Trump administration exempted smartphones and personal computers from the government’s punishing tariffs after lobbying from Apple CEO Tim Cook. Spokespeople for Apple did not return a request for comment.
Another pledge to spend $500 billion — for new data centers to power artificial intelligence programs — came from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and business software giant Oracle, whose executives joined Trump in the White House on his first day as president to make the announcement.
Trump speaks to reporters at the White House on Jan. 21 about infrastructure and artificial intelligence and is joined, from left, by Larry Ellison, chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle; Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group CEO; and Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
But it’s unclear when or how the money will be spent. The companies said in January they plan to spend $100 billion “immediately,” but they are still in negotiations with various states about where to place the new data centers. It’s also unclear where the $500 billion is going to come from. Oracle has about $17 billion in cash on its balance sheet as of the end of February, according to financial filings. OpenAI recently raised $40 billion. Liz Bourgeois, a spokesperson for OpenAI, declined to comment.
On Tuesday, IBM said it would spend $150 billion in the United States over the next five years. IBM also made commitments the first time Trump was president. In December 2016, a month before he was first inaugurated, IBM’s then-CEO, Ginni Rometty, said the company would spend $1 billion training 25,000 new workers inside the U.S.
IBM spokesman Adam Pratt said the company hired 30,000 workers in the U.S. during the first Trump administration.
The Trump Effect list includes what the administration says is a plan by Stellantis, the major automaker, to spend $5 billion on U.S. manufacturing, including reopening a shuttered plant in Belvidere, Illinois, to make pickup trucks. The company committed to that project during union negotiations in 2023, according to the United Auto Workers, then announced it might delay the opening in August and later affirmed its original plan to open in 2027. The union attributed the move to a change in corporate leadership at Stellantis, not to Trump.
Jeep vehicles arrive at the Stellantis plant in Belvidere, Illinois, on Nov. 30, 2023. (Kayla Wolf/The Washington Post)
Stellantis did not respond to questions about the investment or how much of it was planned before Trump took office. The company shared a letter sent to employees about a meeting Stellantis Chairman John Elkann had with Trump just before the inauguration.“John told the President that building on our proud, more than 100-year history in the U.S., we plan to continue that legacy by further strengthening our U.S. manufacturing footprint and providing stability for our great American workforce,” the letter reads.
Schneider Electric, which helps build energy systems that power data centers, announced in late March that it would invest $700 million in the U.S. to support “energy & AI sectors and job growth.” But an analysis by the research firm Atlas Public Policy highlights a $280 million investment in clean tech that Schneider announced during the Biden administration. The company said the investments supplement “$440 million already announced since 2020 to strengthen its U.S. supply chain.”
Schneider did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump is also taking credit for spurring $19 million in new manufacturing capacity at the first large-scale bicycle frame manufacturing plant in the United States, in Seymour, Indiana. One of the most prominent backers of the company, Guardian Bikes, is venture capitalist Mark Cuban, who has been critical of the president’s tariff policies. Plans for the expansionwere in the works long before Trump returned to office.
But Cuban said in an email that steel tariffs Trump implemented during his first term did play a role in the decision to build in Seymour. Guardian’s expansion plans were jeopardized by tariffs in Trump’s first term, prompting Cuban and other investors to press the company on how it might re-shore its manufacturing domestically. “I actually had discussions with Navarro about it,” Cuban said, referring to Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, who has reprised his role from the first term.
“So this entire path, while inflationary for sure, was a direct result of the tariffs of Trump 1 and has continued through the last 5 years,” Cuban said. “And their business is booming.”
Guardian got its initial break on the TV program “Shark Tank,” after which Cuban became an investor. He cautioned that tariffs haven’t worked out that way for other companies featured on the show.
“If you go through the list of ‘Shark Tank’ companies that sell products, most are getting crushed right now by tariffs and aren’t in a position to manufacture here,” Cuban said.
Anil Kumar, the former McKinsey partner, testified in a New York court on Monday that he told Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of hedge fund Galleon Group, about strategic plans and earnings guidance for at least three McKinsey clients in exchange for payments.
Mr Kumar, a government witness at the insider trading trial of Mr Rajaratnam, told the jury how he leaked details of “super-confidential” negotiations by chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices to buy either Nvidia or ATI Technologies, the graphics companies.
The court heard the 2006 talks were so secret that the project was at first code-named “Supernova,” and then “Go Big”, said Mr Kumar, who advised AMD on the deal in his capacity as a McKinsey’s consultant.
When Mr Kumar updated Mr Rajaratnam that AMD was going forward with the ATI deal, he said he recalled the hedge fund founder questioning him, since Nvidia was the stronger of the two companies. “I said, come on,” Mr Kumar recalled. He told Mr Rajaratnam: “I’m in the inner circle” referring to AMD.
He also recalled later telling Mr Rajaratnam that AMD would pay at least $20 a share, a premium to where the company was trading at the time.
Mr Kumar said he knew that Mr Rajaratnam was buying AMD stock, but he did not want to know the specific details.
When Mr Rajaratnam sought to renegotiate his payment, saying he would pay him after the trades were placed, Mr Kumar objected saying it was too much of a “slap” in the face to acknowledge that he was involved in a “bigger” crime.
Mr Kumar received a “bonus” from Galleon of $1m that year for supplying information about the AMD deal. Not all the deals worked out.
Mr Kumar told Mr Rajaratnam that another one of his clients expected to lose money, so Mr Rajaratam took a short position on the stock.
But the company announced a takeover, causing the stock to rise instead. Mr Kumar said that Mr Rajaratnam said he was “very upset about losing money” this time.
Mr Kumar also offered an account of Mr Rajaratnam’s providing him with unsolicited records from Intel – a rival of AMD.
Prosecutors are expected to play recordings of the phone calls between Mr Kumar and Mr Rajaratnam. Mr Kumar’s account came on the second day of his testimony for prosecutors in Mr Rajaratnam’s trial.
Cookie Consent
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using our site, you consent to cookies.
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
90 days
__utma
ID used to identify users and sessions
2 years after last activity
__utmt
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager