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Silicon Valley chipmaker Nvidia plans to supply hundreds of thousands of its graphics processing units for projects with South Korean businesses and the government to advance the country’s artificial intelligence infrastructure and technologies.The plan was announced Friday by the government, Nvidia, and some of South Korea’s biggest companies, including chipmakers Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and auto giant Hyundai Motor, after President Lee Jae Myung met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.At a news conference, Huang said he hopes to export Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips to China, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on loosening U.S. chip restrictions as the two leaders pledged to reduce trade tensions.However, he acknowledged that it was up to Trump to decide, and said there were no current plans to sell the next generation Blackwell chips to China.Huang has gotten rockstar treatment reminiscent of Apple’s Steve Jobs since arriving in South Korea on Thursday to attend meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Gyeongju. As APEC host, South Korea is using the gathering of world leaders to showcase its ambitions in AI.According to Lee’s office and the companies, Nvidia will supply around 260,000 GPUs to support South Korea’s AI computing and manufacturing capabilities.About 50,000 of the GPUs will be used to support a government project to build a national cloud computing center for AI and Nvidia will provide the same number of GPUs each to Samsung and SK to help them enhance their manufacturing processes through AI and accelerate the development of advanced semiconductors.Hyundai and Nvidia said they plan to collaborate on developing technologies related to self-driving cars, smart factories and robotics, a process that will be powered by 50,000 of Nvidia’s advanced Blackwell GPUs.Speaking to business leaders, Huang highlighted how AI and advanced computing are driving a profound transformation across industries, adding to the need for more infrastructure and capacity. South Korea’s strengths in software, technical expertise and manufacturing give it an edge, he said.“When you combine software, AI technology, and manufacturing, you have the opportunity to really take advantage of robotics,” which is the future of AI, Huang said. Nvidia featured in Trump-Xi talks Santa Clara-based Nvidia, whose GPU chips power much of the global AI industry, featured in talks Thursday between Trump and Xi in the South Korean city of Busan, where the leaders agreed to take steps to ease their escalating trade war.Following the meeting, Trump said he discussed sales of computer chips to China. Trump and former President Joe Biden have imposed restrictions on China’s access to the most advanced chips, including those used for AI. Trump said China will speak with Nvidia about purchasing their chips, but not the company’s latest Blackwell AI chips.Nvidia has argued that U.S. export controls hinder American competitiveness in one of the world’s largest technology markets and warned that such limits could push other countries toward China’s AI technology. Talking to reporters in South Korea, Huang said he hopes to eventually sell Blackwell chips to China, “but that’s a decision for the president to make.”“We’re always hoping to return to China,” Huang said. “It’s in the best interest of the United States, it’s in the best interests of China. And so I’m hopeful that both governments will arrive at a conclusion someday where Nvidia’s technology could be exported to China.”Huang acknowledged U.S. security concerns about Nvidia technology being used by China’s military but argued that China already has ample AI capabilities, making the use of Nvidia chips for military purposes largely unnecessary.In August, Trump announced a deal with Nvidia and AMD, another chipmaker, to lift export controls on sales of advanced chips to China in exchange for a 15% cut of the revenue, despite concerns among national security experts that such chips will end up in the hands of Chinese military and intelligence services.Nvidia earlier this week confirmed that it has become the first $5 trillion company, just three months after the company broke through the $4 trillion mark. The milestone underscores the upheaval driven by the AI craze, widely seen as the biggest technological shift since Apple co-founder Jobs unveiled the first iPhone 18 years ago.But there are also concerns over a potential AI bubble. Officials at the Bank of England warned earlier this month that tech stock prices fueled by the AI boom could collapse, and the head of the International Monetary Fund has issued a similar warning. Huang joins Samsung, Hyundai chiefs for fried chicken and beer Hundreds of people, including reporters, gathered at a restaurant in southern Seoul on Thursday as Huang, dressed casually in a black T-shirt just hours after arriving in South Korea, shared fried chicken and beer with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Executive Chair Euisun Chung. The tech executives clinked glasses, took bomb shots, and at one point, Huang stepped outside to hand baskets of chicken and fried cheese to the crowd waiting outside.The three later took the stage before hundreds of cheering fans at a nearby gaming festival, where Huang said Korea’s gaming scene aided Nvidia’s early success back when it mainly made graphics cards for gamers. Kim Tong-Hyung, Associated Press
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Apple delivered financial results during its summertime quarter that exceeded analyst projections, despite being caught in the crosshairs of a global trade war at the same time the trendsetting company is scrambling to catch up to its Big Tech peers in the artificial intelligence race.The performance announced Thursday was driven largely by strong initial demand for its iPhone 17 lineup that went on sale last month.Although the iPhone 17 lacks the AI wizardry featured in rival devices recently introduced by Samsung and Google, Apple spruced up its latest models with a redesign highlighted by a sleek “liquid glass” appearance on the display screens.Apple also largely maintained its pricing on its latest iPhones, despite being squeezed by the tariffs that President Donald Trump has imposed on the U.S. devices that the company mostly makes in India and China. The tariffs cost Apple $1.1 billion during the past quarter and are expected to cost another $1.4 billion during the final three months of the year.The formula apparently was enough to win over consumers, particularly in the United States and Europe, helping to produce iPhone sales totaling $49 billion during the July-September period, a 6% increase from the same time last year. That was slightly below the 8% jump in iPhone sales that had been anticipated by analysts, and less than the 13% bump in sales during the April-June period.IDC estimates that 58.6 million iPhones were sold worldwide in the July-September quarter, putting Apple second behind Samsung at 61.4 million of their Android-powered phones sold worldwide in the quarter.Buoyed by the iPhone results, Apple earned $27.5 billion, or $1.85 per share, nearly doubling its profit from a year ago. Revenue climbed 8% from a year ago to $102.5 billion. Both the earnings and revenue eclipsed the analyst forecasts that steer the stock market.Apple shares surged 3% in extended trading after the numbers came out.In a conference call with analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook indicated his belief that the iPhone 17 lineup will continue to do well, predicting even more of the devices will be sold during the final three months of the year. “As we head into the holiday season with our most powerful lineup ever, I couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come,” Cook said. He cited the iPhone 17’s popularity in most parts of the world except China, where sales of the device dipped by 4% from a year ago.The Cupertino, California, company expects its iPhone sales to increase at least 10% from last year’s holiday season, according to projections provided by Apple’s chief financial officer, Kevan Parekh. Total revenue is expected to rise at a similar rate.Apple’s stock has been on a tear since a report earlier this month from the research firm International Data Corp. telegraphed the quarterly results with a preliminary analysis that concluded the company had set a new July-September record for iPhone sales. The rally catapulted Apple’s market value above $4 trillion for the first time earlier this week and now the stage is set for the shares to hit another new high during Friday’s regular trading session.But Apple has been widely seen as a laggard in the AI craze, one of the reasons that Nvidia a chipmaker whose processors power the technology became the first company to be valued at $5 trillion earlier this week.Apple had promised a wide array of AI features would be rolling out on last year’s iPhone models, but was only able to deliver a few of them. The missing upgrades included a smarter and more versatile version of its frequently flummoxed Siri virtual assistant a makeover that Apple now doesn’t expect to complete until next year.But Apple has a long history of late starts when technology starts to head in another direction before it finally catches up and emerges as a front-runner.If Apple can pull it off again by eventually implanting more AI features on the iPhone, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives believes those breakthroughs could boost the company’s market share by another $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, translating into $75 to $100 per share. Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer
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Who saw this coming? Bettors, apparently. Coinbase Global, one of the largest crypto exchanges on the market, announced its third-quarter 2025 earnings on Thursdaya relatively benign event by most measures. But it wasnt the revenue or profit numbers that caught many peoples attention. It was some specific comments and words spoken by CEO and cofounder Brian Armstrong. Armstrong, near the end of Coinbases earnings call, squeezed in a last-second barrage of keywords. I was a little distracted because I was tracking the prediction market about what Coinbase will say on their next earnings call, and I just want to add here the words Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchain, staking, and Web3 to make sure we get those in before the end of the call. While that may not have meant a lot to most listeners, Armstrong was actually saying specific words that bettors on prediction markets had wagered he would say. Prediction market bettors on platforms such as Kalshi had made bets that Armstrong or other Coinbase executives would say certain keywords during the call, and up until that point, they had not. So by saying those words at the end of the call, Armstrong handed some bettors a win. That also meant that he handed others a loss. Unorthodox? You bet, but its all part of a burgeoning new world where sports betting is legal in many states, and American adults can make online bets on almost anything theyd likefrom the outcomes of presidential elections to, in this case, what executives of publicly traded companies will say during an earnings call. While it seems clear that there are going to be a lot of opportunities to rig or manipulate wagers such as these, this is likely the first time that the CEO of a large, public company has gone out of their way to decide the outcome of a wager in such a way. Fast Company has reached out to Coinbase for further comment, but has yet to receive a response. After the call, Armstrong replied via X to say, lol this was funhappened spontaneously when someone on our team dropped a link in the chat. One X user called out exactly what appeared to have happened: At the end of the Coinbase earnings call today, Brian Armstrong pulled up the mention market and rattled off all the words that weren’t said yet, summing it up as, What a wild time to be alive. Shares of Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) were up around 3.5% in early trading on Friday, with the stock up more than 27% year to date.
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