TechCheck

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is pushing what some call 'GPU panda diplomacy' by lobbing Washington to let American AI chips flow to China while proving his company doesn't need Beijing to dominate. But the chipmaker also just revealed that its three customers now account for 56% of accounts receivable, sparking debate around concentration risk. 

Commerce Secretary Lutnick told CNBC yesterday that top pentagon officials are discussing taking stakes in defense contractors like Lockheed Martin as the possibility of nationalization expands beyond Intel. But the resounding sentiment from startups and investors is that this could have disastrous consequences on innovation in the sector. 

Nvidia earnings on deck tomorrow as uncertainty grows over the chipmaker’s future in China. We dig into the latest on Nvidia and to expect in Wednesday’s earnings report. 

Two of Elon Musk’s companies are suing Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of hurting competition in artificial intelligence. Plus, a look at new immersive experiences coming from Netflix on the heels of the success of KPop Demon Hunters. 

Remedies in the Google search antitrust trial are expected to drop any day now. We dig into why ending Google’s exclusive search deals could actually help the tech giant. 

Google unveiling a new line of its Pixel phones at their annual “Made by Google” event in Brooklyn. We dig into what the new devices tell us about the state of the AI-integration race. 

Shares of Intel are soaring after the announcement of a $2B investment from Softbank. We dig into what the deal means as the Trump administration considers a 10% stake in the chipmaker. 

The Annual “AI film festival” hosted by startup Runway kicking off this weekend in partnership with IMAX. We dig into how the even exemplifies Hollywood’s increasingly complicated relationship with the artificial intelligence. 

Intel stocks soaring to end the week after news that the Trump administration is considering a stake in the chipmaker. We dig into what the deal would mean and how it came to be just days after Trump called on Intel’s CEO to resign. 

OpenAI’s rollout of GPT-5 came with some bumps for users, but we dig into how the new model could be boosting the company’s enterprise business. 

President Trump said in a press conference today that Nvidia's H20 chips meant for China were obsolete, but that there was still a market for them. We look at why H20s are still considered the industry standard in China, and how competitors are slow to catch up. 

Sam Altman joined CNBC and discussed his path to IPO and OpenAI's new enterprise push. We look at why Silicon Valley startups have been staying private for longer and why OpenAI needs to catch up in enterprise. Plus, this weekend is the tenth anniversary of Google's reorganization under parent company Alphabet. Analysts say a break-up could unlock new value. 

OpenAI announcing its highly-anticipated ChatGPT-5 model today – hailing it as its fastest and most useful yet. Plus, Apple getting a tariff exemption after CEO Tim Cook pledged another $100B in U.S. investment. 

OpenAI is eyeing a blockbuster $500B valuation in new talks for an employee share sale. We dig into the details and who stands to gain the most in any potential deal. 

OpenAI is launching two new open-weight models in years as the company looks to attract more developers. Plus, Palantir shares surging after a strong report, we look at the defense-tech’s efficiency strategy.  

Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly holding a rare all-hands Friday amid concerns over the company’s AI strategy. We dig into what an Apple AI turn around could look like, and how acquisitions could be key. 

Major tech earnings out this giving us a clearer picture of how the Megacaps are spending to meet AI demand. We dig into how Apple is upping its own spending as it looks for an AI turnaround. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg laying out his new vision for ‘personal superintelligence’ on social media. We dig into what investors will be looking for as Meta reports earnings after the bell. 

Spotify is pointing to AI as a potential driver of user engagement. We dig into why the technology may be a new threat to its business.

New data shows iPhone sales are on the rise in China again just as Apple prepares to report earnings this Thursday. Plus, a look into the impact of the new $16.5B chip deal between Tesla and Samsung. 

A blockbuster week ahead for big tech earnings, with Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Apple all set to report. We dig into what investors will be looking for in the iPhone maker’s Q3 earnings, and whether it can change the narrative around its AI strategy. 

OpenAI and Oracle announced a major expansion, set to develop 4.5GW of additional data center capacity in a push to power surging AI demand. It positions Oracle as the reliable data center fallback as OpenAI and Softbank's relationship reportedly faces new hurdles.  

OpenAI and Oracle announced a major expansion, set to develop 4.5GW of additional data center capacity in a push to power surging AI demand. It positions Oracle as the reliable data center fallback as OpenAI and Softbank's relationship reportedly faces new hurdles. 

Nvidia said it expected to be able to resume sales of its H20 AI chip in China, but the chip giant is still facing significant roadblocks to its restart there, including cancelled orders and supply chain obstacles. Plus, Elon Musk's AI model Grok has launched two new AI companions, just the latest in the rise of more social AI.

Impact of Nvidia’s return to China 

Description: Shares of chip giant Nvidia up this week after the company announced it expects the U.S. government to greenlight the export of its H20 chips to China. We dig into what that could mean for China’s AI ambitions. 

Shares of ASML took a dive today after warning it may not see growth next year due to tariff uncertainty. The Dutch chip equipment-maker is a chokepoint in advanced chip manufacturing, the only company in the world that makes the tools needed to produce cutting-edge semiconductors. We dive into how it could have a boomerang effect on U.S. chip strategy. 

Nvidia scored a potential win today, after announcing that it expected to be able to sell its AI chips in China again after the Trump administration seemed ready to reverse course on its ban in April. Though Nvidia's less-performant chips give fast-growing rivals in China a chance to catch up, Nvidia also has an edge they don't: its software ecosystem. Plus, CEO Jensen Huang is in China today, marking his third visit to the country this year. It could signal a new era for the chipmaker chief, one that involves a more diplomatic role. 

Tech giants like Microsoft and Google are outsourcing more and more coding to AI in a productivity push. We dig into how new research suggests the tools might not be as helpful as expected. 

After being the first company ever to top the $4 trillion market cap milestone, Nvidia still has a long runway ahead for growth, according to analysts. CEO Jensen Huang has been emphasizing how the company is evolving past chips. its full-stack solution includes autonomous vehicles and networking. 

Meta is notching another name in its expensive hunt for top AI talent, poaching a top Apple executive for reportedly tens of millions of dollars. We dig into how the cost of staffing Meta’s superintelligence lab is adding up.  

President Trump's newly-signed spending bill slashes tax credits for renewable energy, which could have a massive and unexpected impact on big tech's development of AI, especially as China ramps up its electricity generation compared to the U.S. 

The talent wars between OpenAI and Meta are drawing headlines but Google is quietly making an AI move that could put the tech giant ahead. We dig into Google’s AI mode and how distribution will be crucial to the next stage of the AI race. 

Tesla is the worst performer in the Magnificent 7 this year as the feud between President Trump and Elon Musk heats up. We dig into which parts of Musk’s empire could be the most at risk from the fallout. 

Shares of Meta hitting a fresh all-time high today as it pushes full steam ahead on its AI talent spending spree. We dig into why Zuckerberg is poaching top AI names and how Meta is planning on reaching superintelligence. 

OpenAI is warning an emerging Chinese startup that it says is catching up quickly. We dig into how China’s rapid spread of AI infrastructure could be the biggest threat to U.S. AI dominance. 

Tech stocks continuing to rally this week, the NASDAQ 100 hitting another record high today as AI optimism buoys big tech names. We dig into why the market could be overlooking a major risk propping up the next leg of the AI trade. Check out the full deep dive on CNBC.com/tctakes. 

AI reasoning models were supposed to be the industry’s next leap, promising smarter systems able to tackle more complex problems. Now, a string of research is calling that into question. In June, a team of Apple researchers released a white paper titled “The Illusion of Thinking,” which found that once problems get complex enough, reasoning models stop working. Even more concerning, the models aren’t “generalizable,” meaning they might be just memorizing patterns instead of coming up with genuinely new solutions. Researchers at Salesforce, Anthropic, and other AI labs have also raised red flags. The constraints on reasoning could have major i...

Shares of Uber surging after opening its robotaxi partnership with Waymo to the public in Atlanta. It comes just two days after Tesla launched its small-scale robotaxi fleet in Austin, we dig into the rapidly expanding race for autonomous taxis. 

Tesla rolled out their first limited batch of robotaxis in Austin Texas over the weekend, sending shares soaring.  We dig into how the robotaxi race is rapidly expanding, and how that value may be being overlooked in Google and Amazon shares

 A source confirming to CNBC that  Meta tried to buy Perplexity before the $14.3B deal for Scale AI and its founder Alexandr Wang. Plus, we look at Softbank’s Masayoshi Son is continuing his trend of moonshot bets with a reported proposal to build a $1T AI hub in Arizona.