Cheddar RSS

Cheddar RSS

By Cheddar
Download on the App Store

Cheddar RSS episodes

  • Nvidia’s CEO says it’s in talks with U.S. on a new chip for China

    BANGKOK (AP) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Friday that the company is discussing a potential new computer chip designed for China with the Trump administration.

    Huang was asked about a possible “B30A” semiconductor for artificial intelligence data centers for China while on a visit to Taiwan, where he was meeting Nvidia’s key manufacturing partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., the world’s largest chip maker.

    “I’m offering a new product to China for ... AI data centers, the follow-on to H20,” Huang said. But he added that “That’s not our decision to make. It’s up to, of course, the United States government. And we’re in dialogue with them, but it’s too soon to know.”

    Such chips are graphics processing units, or GPUs, a type of device used to build and update a range of AI systems. But they are less powerful than Nvidia’s top semiconductors today, which cannot be sold to China due to U.S. national security restrictions.

    The B30A, based on California-based Nvidia’s specialized Blackwell technology, is reported to operate at about half the speed of Nvidia’s main B300 chips.

    Huang praised the the Trump administration for recently approving sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China after such business was suspended in April, with the proviso that the company must pay a 15% tax to the U.S. government on those sales. Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, was told to pay the same tax on its sales of its MI380 chips to China.

    As part of broader trade talks, Beijing and Washington recently agreed to pull back some non-tariff restrictions. China approved more permits for rare earth magnets to be exported to the U.S., while Washington lifted curbs on chip design software and jet engines. After lobbying by Huang, it also allowed sales of the H20 chips to go through.

    Huang did not comment directly on the tax when asked but said Nvidia appreciated being able to sell H20s to China.

    He said such sales pose no security risk for the United States. Nvidia is also speaking with Beijing to reassure Chinese authorities that those chips do not pose a “backdoor” security risk, Huang said.

    “We have made very clear and put to rest that H20 has no security backdoors. There are no such things. There never has. And so hopefully the response that we’ve given to the Chinese government will be sufficient,” he said.

    The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet watchdog, recently posted a notice on its website referring to alleged “serious security issues” with Nvidia’s computer chips.

    It said U.S. experts on AI had said such chips have “mature tracking and location and remote shutdown technologies” and Nvidia had been asked to explain any such risks and provide documentation about the issue.

    Huang said Nvidia was surprised by the accusation and was discussing the issue with Beijing.

    “As you know, they requested and urged us to secure licenses for the H20s for some time. And I’ve worked quite hard to help them secure the licenses. And so hopefully this will be resolved,” Huang said.

    Unconfirmed reports said Chinese authorities were also unhappy over comments by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggesting the U.S. was only selling outdated chips to China.

    Speaking on CNBC, Lutnick said the U.S. strategy was to keep China reliant on American chip technology.

    “We don’t sell them our best stuff,” he said. “Not our second best stuff. Not even our third best, but I think fourth best is where we’ve come out that we’re cool,” he said.

    China’s ruling Communist Party has made self-reliance in advanced technology a strategic priority, though it still relies on foreign semiconductor knowhow for much of what it produces.

    ___

    AP Videojournalist Taijing Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.

    0 min
  • More frozen shrimp recalled for possible radioactive contamination

    More packages of frozen shrimp potentially affected by radioactive contamination have been recalled, federal officials said Thursday.

    California-based Southwind Foods recalled frozen shrimp sold under the brands Sand Bar, Arctic Shores, Best Yet, Great American and First Street. The bagged products were distributed between July 17 and Aug. 8 to stores and wholesalers in nine states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, and Washington state.

    The products have the potential to be contaminated with Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope that is a byproduct of nuclear reactions.

    Walmart stores this week recalled packages of Great Value frozen raw shrimp sold in 13 states because of potential radioactive contamination.

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a safety alert after federal officials detected Cesium-137 in shipping containers sent to four U.S. ports and in a sample of frozen breaded shrimp imported by BMS Foods of Indonesia.

    The FDA advises consumers not to eat the recalled products. Traces of Cesium-137 are widespread in the environment including food, soil and air. The primary health risk is through long-term, repeated low-dose exposure, which can increase the risk of cancer.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    0 min
  • Musk’s X reaches tentative settlement with former workers in lawsuit

    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk’s X has reached a tentative settlement with former employees of the company then known as Twitter who’d sued for $500 million in severance pay.

    The parties disclosed the deal in a Wednesday court filing asking for a scheduled Sept. 17 hearing in the case to be postponed. The San Francisco federal appeals court on Thursday agreed to postpone the hearing so that both sides could finalize the settlement agreement.

    The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The proposed class action lawsuit by former Twitter employees Courtney McMillan and Ronald Cooper, who said the company failed to pay them and other fired workers severance they were owed.

    Musk took over the social media platform in 2022 and let thousands of employees go, eliminating entire teams dedicated to trust and safety, human rights and making the site accessible to people with disabilities. Other lawsuits, including one filed by Twitter executives including former CEO Parag Agrawal, are still pending.

    The billionaire’s approach to gutting Twitter’s workforce served as a template for his months-long leadership of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as it cut tens of thousands of federal workers earlier this year.

    An email announcing a “deferred resignation offer” to federal workers, promising pay through September without having to work, was titled “Fork in the Road,” echoing a similar email Musk sent to the Twitter workforce in 2022.

    Musk’s drawn-out legal battles with more than 2,000 former Twitter workers were also a precursor to the court battles the Trump administration is now fighting over federal downsizing, though the circumstances are different.

    0 min
  • Wall Street rallies on hopes for lower interest rates

    NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is rallying on Friday toward its best day in months after the head of the Federal Reserve hinted the cuts to interest rates that investors and President Donald Trump crave so much may be on the way.

    The S&P 500 leaped 1.6%, and its first gain in six days has it on track to top its all-time high set last week.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 916 points, or 2.1%, and was above its last all-time high, which was set in December. The Nasdaq composite was up 2%, as of 1:25 p.m. Eastern time.

    “Ka-Powell” is how Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, described the reaction to Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “The Fed isn’t going to be the party-pooper.”

    The hope among investors had been that Powell would hint that the Fed’s first cut to interest rates of the year may be imminent. Wall Street loves lower rates because they can give a boost to the economy and to investment prices, even if they risk worsening inflation at the same time.

    Trump has angrily been calling for lower rates, often insulting Powell while doing so. And a surprisingly weak report on job growth this month pushed many on Wall Street to assume cuts may come as soon as the Fed’s next meeting in September.

    Powell encouraged them on Friday after saying he’s seen risks rise for the job market. The Fed’s two jobs are to keep the job market healthy and to keep a lid on inflation, and it often has to prioritize one because it has just one tool to fix either.

    But Powell also would not commit to any kind of timing. He said the job market looks OK at the moment, even if “it is a curious kind of balance” where fewer new workers are chasing after fewer new jobs. Inflation, meanwhile, still has the potential to push higher because of Trump’s tariffs.

    In sum, Powell said that “the stability of the unemployment rate and other labor market measures allows us to proceed carefully as we consider changes to our policy stance.”

    Treasury yields tumbled in the bond market as bets nevertheless built that the Fed would cut its main interest rate in September. Traders see an 87% chance of that, up from 75% a day earlier, according to data from CME Group.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.26% from 4.33% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, sank to 3.68% from 3.79% in a notable move for the bond market.

    On Wall Street, stocks of smaller companies led the way. They can benefit more from lower interest rates because of their need to borrow money to grow. The smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index surged 3.9% toward its best day since April.

    Homebuilders jumped on hopes that easier interest rates could encourage more people to buy homes. Lennar, PulteGroup and D.R. Horton all rose at least 5%.

    Travel companies, meanwhile, climbed amid hopes that easier interest rates could help U.S. households spend more. Norwegian Cruise Line rallied 6.3%, Delta Air Lines flew 6.6% higher and Caesars Entertainment rose 6.3%.

    Shares of Nio, a Chinese electric-vehicle maker, that trade in the United States leaped 16.8% after it began pre-sales of its flagship premium SUV model, the ES8.

    Nvidia rose 1.8% to trim its loss for the week. The company, whose chips are powering much of the world’s move in to artificial-intelligence technology, has seen its stock struggle recently amid criticism that it and other AI superstars shot too high, too fast and became too expensive.

    Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, said Friday that the company is discussing a potential new computer chip designed for China with the Trump administration. The chips are graphics processing units, or GPUs, a type of device used to build and update a range of AI systems. But they are less powerful than Nvidia’s top semiconductors today, which cannot be sold to China due to U.S. national security restrictions.

    In stock markets abroad, Germany’s DAX returned 0.3% after government data showed that its economy shrank by 0.3% in the second quarter compared with the previous three-month period.

    Indexes rose across much of Asia, with stocks climbing 1.4% in Shanghai and 0.9% in South Korea.

    ___

    AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.

    0 min

About Cheddar RSS

From the publisher's feed

Cheddar is the leading post-cable news, media, and entertainment company.

More shows like Cheddar RSS

NPR News Now by NPR

NPR News Now

14,512 Listeners

The Excerpt by USA TODAY

The Excerpt

1,213 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,866 Listeners

Up First from NPR by NPR

Up First from NPR

56,429 Listeners

The NewsWorthy by Erica Mandy

The NewsWorthy

1,361 Listeners

9 to 5ish with theSkimm by theSkimm

9 to 5ish with theSkimm

1,868 Listeners

Start Here by ABC News

Start Here

6,438 Listeners

American Fever Dream by Betches Media

American Fever Dream

2,118 Listeners

Skimm This by theSkimm

Skimm This

3,619 Listeners

Fiction - Comedy Fiction by The Sunset Explorers

Fiction - Comedy Fiction

6,447 Listeners

Short Wave by NPR

Short Wave

6,581 Listeners

BuzzFeed Daily by BuzzFeed & iHeartPodcasts

BuzzFeed Daily

574 Listeners

Consider This from NPR by NPR

Consider This from NPR

6,374 Listeners

Morning Announcements by Betches Media

Morning Announcements

1,527 Listeners

We Can Do Hard Things by Treat Media and Glennon Doyle

We Can Do Hard Things

41,382 Listeners