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Oil prices will drop after Iran war ends ‘in the next few weeks,’ Energy Secretary Chris Wright says

admin — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 15:19:28 +0000

WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Chris Wright predicted that soaring oil prices will cool off within the “next few weeks” after the war in Iran ends, while sidestepping a question about whether he expects crude to top $200 a barrel.

Oil prices have been hovering around $100 a barrel in the futures markets since President Trump announced a massive attack on Kharg Island, a critical Iranian oil hub, where some 90% of its crude exports flow through.

Energy Secretary Wright told ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday he expects oil prices to come down once the Iran war ends “in the next few weeks.” ABC News

An Iranian man speaks on his mobile phone as he stands on the debris in front of destroyed buildings following a military strike on the Iranian capital Tehran. AFP via Getty Images

“This conflict will come to an end in the next few weeks, and we’ll see a rebound in supplies and a pushing down of prices after that,” Wright told ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday.

“We were very aware, very aware, that we would have [a] short-term disruption… [that] would cause a little bit of increased prices on Americans,” he added. “Prices today are still far below where they were in the Biden administration, where they were begging, bartering, and bribing Iran to behave better.”

Wright recalled how gasoline prices neared $5 a gallon at one point during the Biden administration, but was hopeful that there wouldn’t be a repeat of that this time. Gas prices are currently averaging $3.69 nationally, according to the latest data from the American Automobile Association.

Some Iranian officials have warned that oil prices could broach $200 a barrel as the theocratic regime leverages its ability to wreak havoc in the critical chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz, where about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil traverses annually.

“I would pay no attention to what Iran says,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday when asked about the risks of oil prices broaching $200 a barrel.

Follow The Post’s coverage of the United States’ airstrikes on Iran:

“There is a lot of energy that flows through the Strait of Hormuz. And depending upon the timing and the manner in which this conflict comes to an end, we’re going to see some elevated pricing until we get there,” Wright acknowledged. “We have done many, many actions to mitigate that price rise.”

Last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that its member countries were going to release some 400 million barrels of oil.

The Trump administration announced that it plans to unleash 172 million barrels from America’s oil reserves, which would bring the emergency supply down to its lowest level since 1982.

People gather outside a damaged building following an Iranian projectile strike in central Israel. REUTERS

Israeli security forces and first responders inspect a building hit by an Iranian projectile strike at a residential neighborhood in Bnei-Brak, on the eastern outskirts of Tel Aviv. AFP via Getty Images

Still, Wright acknowledged that the Strait is not safe to traverse at the moment.

“That’s one of the objectives at the end of this conflict is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,” he added. “Since the conflict began, Iran has impeded flow through the Strait of Hormuz. And that is still the case today. We have focused initially on their ability to project distant power. Impeding flows in the Strait of Hormuz, which is right next to Iran.”

“That’s going to be an increasing focus of our military going forward.”

Trump said Saturday that allied countries will be dispatching ships to the Strait to make the critical oil chokepoint “open and safe.” Top administration officials have long contended that they expected that Iran would try to thwart travel through Strait if the US took military action against the regime.

Before the war began, the price of gasoline nationally was below $3 a gallon. Wright was optimistic it could get back down to that level by the summer.

“There’s a very good chance that’ll be true,” he said, when asked. “There’s no guarantees in war. The timeframe’s still not entirely clear. But I think that’s certainly a goal of the administration and very possible.”

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Barry Sternlicht says he will drop employees in favor of AI

admin — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:48:01 +0000

A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Billionaire Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, is a legendary, legacy real estate investor. Brendan Wallace is an entrepreneur who co-founded Fifth Wall, a venture capital firm investing in property technology and decarbonizing real estate. The pair first met in the gym. Now, Wallace can say Sternlicht is a mentor – as well as a Fifth Wall investor – and Sternlicht jokes that Wallace is his trainer.

Together they gave CNBC Property Play a rare glimpse into how old-school commercial real estate investing is pivoting to a new tech-driven world order and how that new world order still relies on lessons learned in the past.

Here are some of the highlights from the conversation, edited for clarity and length:

On CRE investing

Sternlicht: We endured a 500 basis point, fairly rapid increase in rates, and most people who were invested had to pay some price for that, whether the yields on property went up or they weren’t properly hedged. Your costs went up, your expenses, and they drained a lot of cash flow from assets that might have gone into fixing the assets up. That’s behind us now, and there’s no doubt that interest rates are going down. … In May of next year, Jerome [Powell] will be out [as Federal Reserve Chairman], and nobody’s getting that job without agreeing to lower rates.

I think they should lower rates. I think inflation that we’re seeing is tariff related. It will continue. It’ll get worse, probably, in the fourth quarter, when the new inventories hit the shelves and the tariffs can no longer be ignored.

Wallace: The rate increases that Barry was mentioning, those impacted prop tech definitionally, because all tech companies, all loss-making businesses, rerated all at the same time. And at the same time, the demand from commercial real estate stopped.

I would say an overlay on top of it was also that a big part of where real estate companies were investing in the last four years was around decarbonization efforts, so trying to conform to new carbon neutrality laws … and anticipating this kind of wave of decarbonization. And I feel like with [President Donald] Trump’s election, it kind of felt like they got a hall pass, certainly for four years.

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On AI and data centers

Sternlicht: We’ve probably got $20 billion dedicated to [the data center] space. I think it’s a different issue than you think. Most of us don’t build until we get a hyperscaler lease. So we get the lease from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Oracle. What we’re watching now is the credit worthiness of the tenant, and particularly Oracle, because Oracle is doing all these deals back-ended to [ChatGPT], and Chat is a startup that doesn’t make money and requires hundreds of billions of dollars to grow to the scale they want to be.

There’s no question AI is going to change the entire world and do it much faster than anything we’ve ever seen before, much faster than the internet, certainly faster than the Industrial Revolution. That is terrifying to me. I mean, I’m not so complacent. I look at … how we spend money, and what I can do with AI agents that I do with humans today, and it’s terrifying for the people. I think we have to let people go, right? Jobs of 15 people can be done with a chatbot that costs me $36 a month.

Wallace: I was trying to trace all these pretty Byzantine and somewhat incestuous commitments that are happening between the large tech companies, between the digital infrastructure providers, and it’s actually very hard to trace who’s going to ultimately pay for it all, but ultimately it has to be paid for in the economy.

The way to just acid test whether it makes sense is if you looked at the amount of AI compute that will be required to fill all the data centers that are in production or have been announced to go into production, and then you assume that the tech companies have to make some profit on top of that to justify it, which they’re not today, but let’s assume they have to. Take any margin you want, assume that’s the revenue that’s then therefore flowing to large language models and AI. What percent of U.S. GDP would that be today if you ran that math? My fear is that it might be like 120% of U.S. GDP.

On their next bets

Sternlicht: We’re heavily investing in Europe, actually. Not here. They’ve done the stimulus package. They have low rates. They don’t have, really, inflation. They don’t have tariffs. It’s amazing, having returned from Europe and the Middle East, I can buy everything cheaper in Europe than I can here now.

Wallace: New York City. People overestimate the durability of these political vibe shifts. Within two years of electing Trump, we elected [Zohran] Mamdani to run New York, and I just think these things move dialectically. Over the long term, New York is going to be super valuable. So if I were a betting person, I didn’t have to make a return in the next four years, I would bet on New York.

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China’s Pony.ai shares drop 14%, WeRide down 12% in Hong Kong debut

admin — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 06:21:55 +0000

A Pony.ai autonomous car.

Pony.ai

China’s Pony.ai on Thursday saw its shares drop over 14%, while rival WeRide fell nearly 12% as the autonomous driving companies began trading in Hong Kong.

Pony.ai and WeRide, which are already listed in the U.S., raised 6.71 billion Hong Kong dollars (about $860 million) and HK$2.39 billion, respectively, in their initial public offerings.

The companies are striving to keep pace with larger competitors such as Baidu‘s Apollo Go in China and Alphabet‘s Waymo in the U.S. amid growing interest in autonomous technologies.

Pony.ai and WeRide, both headquartered in Guangzhou, China, stated that funds would go toward scaling efforts, and the development of Level 4 autonomous driving — a measure of driving automation that does not require human monitoring or intervention under specific environments.

WeRide CEO Tony Xu Han told CNBC that proceeds from the latest fundraising would also be used to boost the company’s artificial intelligence capabilities and data center capacity, while Pony.ai CEO James Peng emphasized on building autonomous-driving parking and charging infrastructure, besides AI development.

The CEOs stressed on driver safety as their companies seek global expansion, including in their home markets of China, where they have already begun operating fully autonomous robotaxis in some cities.

New regions the companies are expanding to include the Middle East, Europe and Asian countries such as Singapore. They have yet to receive full approvals to operate their robotaxis in most of those regions.

The permits that both companies have received to test and operate their self-driving vehicles became a contentious issue in the lead up to the listings.

According to local Chinese media reports, WeRide CFO Li Xuan claimed last week that Pony.ai had misinformed investors by understating the number of cities where WeRide had operations, among other issues.

Pony.ai did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

In the U.S., both companies are aiming for a partnership with California-based Uber to allow them to deploy their robotaxis on the firm’s ride-hailing platform after receiving regulatory approval.

However, their U.S. plans face headwinds as earlier this year the government finalized a rule effectively banning Chinese technology in connected vehicles, including self-driving systems.

“With the uncertainty in the markets around the world and the fact that there would be intense scrutiny on a Pony or WeRide trying to enter the U.S. market, a dual listing is a lot about risk mitigation,” said Tu Le, founder and managing director at Sino Auto Insights.

He added that the listings were also an acknowledgement that it’s gonna take a lot of capital and an endorsement of a market outside the U.S. for Pony.ai and WeRide to succeed.

In U.S. trading on Wednesday, Pony.ai closed down about 2%, while WeRide fell 5.3%.

Hong Kong IPO shift

Pony.ai and WeRide’s competing listings highlight a recent trend of Chinese companies seeking dual listings in Hong Kong in what has been a bounce-back year for the city’s IPO market.

The companies received approval from Hong Kong regulators to dual list in mid-October.

“For the HK stock exchange, clustering the listing at the same time helps to reinforce investor perception of HK as a tech-hub for Asia-focused technology companies,” Rolf Bulk, equity research analyst at New Street Research told CNBC.

In May, Chinese battery manufacturer and technology company CATL completed a secondary listing in Hong Kong, raising $5.2 billion in the world’s largest IPO so far this year.

The growing trend emerges amid geopolitical tensions and regulatory uncertainty in the U.S.

According to New Street Research’s Bulk, the Hong Kong listings for Pony.ai and WeRide will help the companies gain access to Asia-based capital and expand their presence in China and the region.

“However, it will do nothing to advance the progress of their technology stack and regulatory approvals in Western markets. If anything, gaining approval in Western markets may be more challenging with a HK secondary listing,” he added.

The listings could also help the firms keep up with competitors such as Baidu’s Apollo Go in China and Alphabet’s Waymo in the U.S., which currently have larger fleets.

“Pony and WeRide are right up there among the global leaders,” said Sino Auto Insights’ Le. “WeRide has diversified their service portfolio a bit more but they both see Uber and the Middle East as two viable partners in their ability to get more pilots launched outside of China.”

“Investors should pay special attention to how their technology evolves with AI and other new tools becoming more mainstream,” Le said.

— CNBC’s Elaine Yu and Anniek Bao contributed to this report.

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Crocs, Hollister drop singer D4vd after rotting corpse found inside his Tesla

admin — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 23:40:42 +0000

Crocs and Hollister yanked pop star D4vd from their latest marketing campaigns after a decomposing body was discovered in a Tesla registered to his name at a Los Angeles tow yard.

The brands pulled promotional images of D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, from their websites and social media pages, just days after unveiling him as the face of their “Dream Drop” collaboration.

“We are aware of this developing story,” the companies said in a joint statement to Footwear News.

D4vd performing live in 2025, before Crocs and Hollister cut ties amid an LAPD investigation. Getty Images for Coachella

“With respect to the current situation, we have removed campaign content featuring D4vd while the investigation continues.”

The campaign debuted Sept. 3 and showcased D4vd modeling Crocs clogs and Hollister apparel in coordinated pastel looks. Product images remain online, but Burke’s likeness has been scrubbed.

“I can’t say I’m surprised by the decision to remove D4vd from the campaign,” Scott Krady, founder and CEO of Magnitude, an integrated marketing/comms consulting firm, told The Post.

“Given the potential impact on Crocs and Hollister’s reputations, it’s probably a safe course of action from a brand image perspective.”

The brands confirmed they pulled D4vd from the campaign “while the investigation continues.”

Krady told The Post that by keeping D4vd on board, “the new campaign could be at risk due to the investigation and, perhaps more importantly, association with it could harm their brand and consequently relationships with customers.”

“All of that adds the potential to really hurt their bottom lines.”

The Los Angeles Police Department said officers were called to the 1000 block of North Mansfield Avenue around 12:30 p.m. on Monday after workers at the Hollywood impound lot reported a foul odor coming from the electric car.

Inside the trunk of the vehicle, cops found human remains sealed inside a bag. Authorities said the Tesla had been at the tow yard for several days before the grisly discovery.

The victim is a woman, approximately 5’2″, with wavy black hair, found wearing a tube top, black leggings, a yellow bracelet, stud earrings, and bearing a ‘Shhhh’ tattoo.

Crocs and Hollister featured D4vd in their “Dream Drop” campaign launched Sept. 3. Hollister

The car is registered in Texas to David Anthony Burke — the 19-year-old singer known professionally as D4vd.

The LAPD said the investigation is active and ongoing. The identity of the deceased has not been released, and detectives have not publicly linked the musician to foul play.

The singer shot to prominence with viral hits “Here With Me” and “Romantic Homicide,” which racked up billions of streams on Spotify. His sophomore album “Withered” was released in April, with a deluxe edition slated to drop Sept. 19.

Burke has been a fixture on the touring circuit, opening for SZA on her “S.O.S.” arena trek and performing at Valentino’s men’s fashion show in Milan. His current “Withered 2025 World Tour” has played major venues across North America, with upcoming dates in Europe and Asia.

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In July, Fortnite tapped D4vd’s single “Locked & Loaded” as the first official anthem for its Global Championship, cementing his crossover appeal with gaming audiences.

This summer he also teamed up with K-pop star Hyunjin of Stray Kids on the duet “Always Love” and collaborated with Australian indie singer Hannah Bahng on “L.O.V.E.U.”

Concert reviews from outlets including Soundcheck SF praised elaborate visuals, immersive set design and the emotional arc of his recent performances. Tickets for the world tour have ranged from $50 to $350, with sellouts reported in Los Angeles, Denver and New York.

Police confirmed human remains were discovered Monday inside the trunk of the vehicle. KABC

Burke’s rise has been fueled by TikTok virality and word-of-mouth among Gen Z listeners. Since breaking out in 2022, he has signed with Interscope Records and amassed a devoted following that propelled him into mainstream pop stardom.

LAPD officials said the Tesla was impounded prior to the body’s discovery, though they did not specify why the vehicle was towed. Investigators are working to identify the victim and determine the cause of death.

Police confirmed the body was badly decomposed when found. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office is expected to conduct an autopsy.

Crocs and Hollister had touted their “Dream Drop” collection as a milestone — the first collaboration between the brands. Marketing materials described D4vd as the perfect fit, citing his influence across music, fashion and youth culture.

The singer, born David Anthony Burke, rose to fame with viral hits streamed billions of times. Getty Images for Coachella

Neither Burke nor his representatives have commented publicly on the police probe or his removal from the campaign. His official website still lists upcoming tour dates, including shows in Berlin, Paris and London later this month.

D4vd’s label has not issued a statement.

The LAPD said no arrests have been made and further details will be released pending the coroner’s report.

The investigation remains open.

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Mortgage rates see biggest one-day drop in over a year

admin — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 13:54:52 +0000

The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage dropped 16 basis points to 6.29% on Friday, according to Mortgage News Daily, following the release of a weaker-than-expected August employment report.

It marks the lowest rate since Oct. 3 and the biggest one-day drop since August 2024. Rates are finally breaking out of the high 6% range, where they’ve been stuck for months.

“This was a pretty straightforward reaction to a hotly anticipated jobs report,” said Mortgage News Daily Chief Operating Officer Matt Graham. “It’s a good reminder that the market gets to decide what matters in terms of economic data, and the bond market has a clear voting record that suggests the jobs report is always the biggest potential source of volatility for rates.”

Graham said in a post on X that many lenders are “priced better” than Oct. 3 and would be quoting in the high 5% range.

The drop is a major change from May, when the rate on the 30-year fixed peaked at 7.08%. It’s big for buyers out shopping for a home today, especially given high home prices.

Take, for example, someone purchasing a $450,000 home, which is just above August’s national median price, using a 30-year fixed mortgage with a 20% down payment. Not including taxes or insurance, the monthly payment at 7% would be $2,395. At 6.29%, that payment would be $2,226, a difference of $169 per month.

A sign is posted in front of a home for sale on Aug.27, 2025 in San Francisco, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

That might not sound like a lot to some, but it can mean the difference in not just affording a home, but qualifying for a mortgage.

Homebuilder stocks reacted favorably Friday, with names like Lennar, DR Horton and Pulte all up roughly 3% midday. Homebuilding ETF ITB has been running hot for the last month as rates slowly moved lower. It’s up close to 13% in the past month.

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The big question is whether the drop in rates will be enough to get homebuyers back in the market.

Mortgage demand from homebuyers, an early indicator, has yet to respond to gradually improving rates. Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home last week were 6.6% lower from four weeks before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

“Homebuyers grapple with a lack of affordability, sellers contend with more competition, and builders deal with lower buyer demand,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, in a statement Friday after the release of the August employment report. “These conditions haven’t spelled catastrophe, but have created a cruel summer for the housing market.”

Some analysts have argued that buyers need to see mortgage rates in the 5% range before it really makes a difference. Home prices remain stubbornly high, and while the gains have definitely cooled, they are not yet coming down on a national level. In addition, uncertainty about the state of the economy and the job market has left many would-be buyers on the sidelines.

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Apple’s Tim Cook convinced Trump to drop made-in-USA iPhone — for now

admin — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 14:08:53 +0000

WASHINGTON, DC August 6: US President Donald Trump shakes hands with CEO of Apple Tim Cook during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday August 6, 2025.

Demetrius Freeman | The Washington Post | Getty Images

President Donald Trump has made clear that he wants Apple to make iPhones in the U.S.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is doing what he can to appease the commander in chief, without making that ultimate concession.

Cook on Wednesday appeared at the White House with Trump to announce plans to spend about $600 billion over four years in the U.S. Apple didn’t announce the made-in-USA iPhone that Trump wants, but Cook got to tout Apple’s position on U.S. production.

Some of Apple’s most valuable parts, such as its glass and facial recognition sensor, are made by U.S. companies that Apple has worked with for years. Final assembly is only a small, though very critical, part of iPhone production.

“The final assembly that you focus on, that will be elsewhere for a while,” Cook said Wednesday in the Oval Office.

Trump appeared happy enough, for now.

“He makes many of the components here, and we’ve been talking about it,” Trump said. “The whole thing is set up in other places, and it’s been there for a long time in terms of cost and all, but I think we may incentivize him enough that one day he’ll be bringing that back.”

Experts said Cook’s announcement seemed designed to get Apple out of Trump’s crosshairs with respect to tariffs. Trump announced during the public meeting that the administration planned to place a tariff on chips that would double their price, but Apple — which relies on hundreds of different chips for its devices — would be exempt.

“CEOs are realizing that they do have to do something, and what they’ve discovered is that if they give the president something to brag about without destroying their company, that the problem might go away for a certain amount of time,” said Peter Cohan, professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Babson College who has written case studies on Apple.

The gambit worked. Apple stock rose 5% on Wednesday and another 3% on Thursday.

“What Tim Cook demonstrated in the first administration was a real savvy navigation of the treacherous waters,” said Nancy Tengler, CEO of Laffer Tengler Investments, which holds a position in Apple. “I thought this announcement was super-important symbolically, because the president is looking for headlines.”

What Apple announced

A gift given by Apple CEO Tim Cook to U.S. President Donald Trump stands on President Trump’s table, as they present Apple’s announcement of a $100 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 6, 2025.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

The centerpiece of Apple’s announcement was the so-called American Manufacturing Program, which Apple said was designed to incentivize other companies to make parts for computers in the U.S.

By Apple committing to purchase parts and expand its relationship with U.S. suppliers, it could give those companies the skills and capacity to expand their business. And it lets Apple take some credit for supporting the 450,000 total jobs at its suppliers.

A closer look at the members of the program shows that Apple is leaning on some of its longest-tenured partners. All together, Apple said that its U.S. suppliers are on track to make 19 billion chips for its products this year. That level of business doesn’t appear overnight.

For example, Apple said that all of its cover glass for iPhones and Apple Watches would be made by Corning, in Kentucky, and that it would spend $2.5 billion on that effort. It’s a powerful symbol — while the phone might be screwed together in China or India, the surface that users touch around the world will be made in the U.S.

But Apple has pointed to Corning as a critical American supplier in the past. The company’s glass has been used on the iPhone since its first version in 2007. While Apple typically doesn’t let its suppliers talk about their relationships, former COO Jeff Williams hailed Corning’s glass in 2017, when it got an “investment” from the Apple Advanced Manufacturing Fund. Apple followed that up with a $250 million commitment in 2019, and $45 million in 2021.

Analysts are skeptical that the partnership could substantially improve Corning’s revenue. Morgan Stanley analysts wrote on Thursday that Corning “already produces 100% of the cover glass for Apple’s phones and tablets,” adding that Corning’s glass business called Specialty Materials is worth about $2 billion per year.

Apple also highlighted its partnership with Coherent, a longtime supplier of lasers for Apple’s facial recognition hardware, which is made in Texas. Morgan Stanley pegged the business at about $100 million per year, and said Apple has options including Lumentum and Sony.

The iPhone maker said it expanded a partnership with Texas Instruments to make chips in Texas and Utah. Texas Instruments has long supplied chips for the iPhone, such as circuits to control USB interfaces or power displays. Apple said it would partner with Samsung, another key supplier of parts like iPhone displays, to launch an “innovative new technology for making chips,” without offering additional details.

Apple declared that it will partner directly with companies in the semiconductor chain, even if they typically sell services or goods to Apple suppliers. Other partnerships are with Applied Materials, a tooling company, GlobalFoundries, a chip foundry, and GlobalWafers America, which is supplying Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Texas Instruments with made-in-USA wafers, the starting point for a batch of chips.

GlobalFoundries manufactures chips for Broadcom, which supplies wireless chips for iPhones. Both will work with Apple to develop and manufacture 5G components in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Apple will buy millions of advanced chips made by TSMC in Arizona, where it will be the factory’s largest customer. Cook joined former President Joe Biden at the plant in 2022 and committed to buying chips from the factory.

Apple said it would invest in and become a customer at an Arizona Amkor facility, which packages and tests chips, the final stage before installation in a computer.

Apple also said it would expand existing data centers for artificial intelligence in North Carolina, Iowa, Nevada and Oregon. It’s highlighted these data centers in the past in spending commitments.

While Apple’s announcement sent partner stocks up, JPMorgan Chase analysts warned in a note on Thursday that “the new and expanded engagements might not be completely incremental to global revenues and outlook.”

Trump had a different take.

“Oh, I love that you’re doing this,” the president said, after reading a list of Apple’s commitments.

‘Cost of doing business’

Apple has little to worry about when it comes to who will hold the company accountable for its promises. The company doesn’t break out U.S. spending, and most of Apple’s suppliers are contractually required to keep the information secret. Apple doesn’t report how much its new campuses in Austin, Texas, or North Carolina end up costing.

Additionally, the $600 billion headline number likely includes lots of regular expenses.

Apple said in February that its $500 billion commitment included payments to U.S. suppliers, direct employment, data centers for Apple Intelligence and corporate facilities, as well as spending on Apple TV+ productions in 20 states.

Apple started publicly announcing U.S. spending during Trump’s first administration in 2018, at a rate of about $70 billion per year. In February, the company committed to $125 billion per year. Wednesday’s announcement brings that figure to $150 billion annually.

That’s still a fraction of Apple’s total spending.

In Apple’s fiscal 2024, the company spent $210 billion globally on cost of goods sold, $57.5 billion on operating expenses and $9.45 billion in capital expenditures for nearly $275 billion in global spending during the period.

Teffler said she didn’t think the newly announced spending would be material to Apple’s profitability, especially since it already has relationships with the various companies such as Corning.

“They’re going to spend money somewhere,” Tegler said.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who previously predicted a made-in-USA iPhone would cost billions to produce and would leave consumers paying $3,500, said the Wednesday announcements indicate a much different approach. He said it’s “the cost of doing business.”

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Intel shares drop after Trump calls for CEO to resign immediately

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 12:04:54 +0000

Intel’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan speaks at the company’s Annual Manufacturing Technology Conference in San Jose, California, U.S. April 29, 2025.

Laure Andrillon | Reuters

Intel shares were under pressure Thursday after President Donald Trump called for the chipmaker’s CEO to resign immediately.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said Intel Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan “is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem.” Intel dropped in the premarket on the back of that post, last trading 5% lower.

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

INTC drops

Tan was named as Intel CEO in March. This week, U.S. Republican Senator Tom Cotton questioned his ties to Chinese companies and referenced a past criminal case involving Cadence Design, where Tan was CEO until 2021, Reuters reported.

Cotton wrote to Intel’s chair to “express concern about the security and integrity of Intel’s operations and its potential impact on U.S. national security,” Reuters said.

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Tesla shares drop after Elon Musk plans a new political party

admin — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 12:18:29 +0000

White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk walks to the White House after landing in Marine One on the South Lawn with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) on March 9, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Samuel Corum | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Tesla shares fell in premarket trade on Monday after CEO Elon Musk announced plans to form a new political party.

The stock was down 7.13% by 4:27 a.m. E.T.

Musk said over the weekend that the party would be called the “America Party” and could focus “on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts.” He suggested this would be “enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.”

The billionaire’s involvement in politics has been a point of contention for investors. Musk earlier this year was part of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and worked closely with President Donald Trump — a move seen as potentially hurting Tesla’s brand.

Musk left DOGE in May, which helped Tesla’s stock.

Now tech billionaire’s reinvolvement in the political arena is making investors nervous.

“Very simply Musk diving deeper into politics and now trying to take on the Beltway establishment is exactly the opposite direction that Tesla investors/shareholders want him to take during this crucial period for the Tesla story,” Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, said in a note on Sunday.

“While the core Musk supporters will back Musk at every turn no matter what, there is broader sense of exhaustion from many Tesla investors that Musk keeps heading down the political track.”

Musk’s previous political foray earned him Trump’s praise in the early days, but he has since drawn the ire of the U.S. president.

The two have clashed over various areas of policy, including Trump’s spending bill which Musk has said would increase America’s debt burden. Musk has taken issue to particular cuts to tax credits and support for solar and wind energy and electric vehicles.

Trump on Sunday called Musk’s move to form a political party “ridiculous,” adding that the Tesla boss had gone “completely off the rails.”

Musk is contending with more than just political turmoil. Tesla reported a 14% year-on-year decline in car deliveries in the second quarter, missing expectations. The company is facing rising competition, especially in its key market, China.

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Tesla shares drop on Musk, Trump feud ahead of Q2 deliveries

admin — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 01:50:09 +0000

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.

Jim Lo Scalzo | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Tesla shares have dropped 7% from Friday’s closing price of $323.63 to the $300.71 close on Tuesday ahead of the company’s second-quarter deliveries report.

Wall Street analysts are expecting Tesla to report deliveries of around 387,000 — a 13% decline compared to deliveries of nearly 444,000 a year ago, according to a consensus compiled by FactSet. Prediction market Kalshi told CNBC on Tuesday that its traders forecast deliveries of around 364,000.

Shares in the electric vehicle maker had been rising after Tesla started a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in late June and CEO Elon Musk boasted of its first “driverless delivery” of a car to a customer there.

The stock price took a turn after Musk on Saturday reignited a feud with President Donald Trump over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the massive spending bill that the commander-in-chief endorsed. The bill is now heading for a final vote in the House.

That legislation would benefit higher-income households in the U.S. while slashing spending on programs such as Medicaid and food assistance.

Musk did not object to cuts to those specific programs. However, Musk on X said the bill would worsen the U.S. deficit and raise the debt ceiling. The bill includes tax cuts that would add around $3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

The Tesla CEO has also criticized aspects of the bill that would cut hundreds of billions of dollars in support for renewable energy development in the U.S. and phase out tax credits for electric vehicles.

Such changes could hurt Tesla as they are expected to lower EV sales by roughly 100,000 vehicles per year by 2035, according to think tank Energy Innovation.

The bill is also expected to reduce renewable energy development by more than 350 cumulative gigawatts in that same time period, according to Energy Innovation. That could pressure Tesla’s Energy division, which sells solar and battery energy storage systems to utilities and other clean energy project developers.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that Musk was, “upset that he’s losing his EV mandate,” but that the tech CEO could “lose a lot more than that.” Trump was alluding to the subsidies, incentives and contracts that Musk’s many businesses have relied on.

SpaceX has received over $22 billion from work with the federal government since 2008, according to FedScout, which does federal spending and government contract research. That includes contracts from NASA, the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, among others.

Tesla has reported $11.8 billion in sales of “automotive regulatory credits,” or environmental credits, since 2015, according to an evaluation of the EV maker’s financial filings by Geoff Orazem, CEO of FedScout.

These incentives are largely derived from federal and state regulations in the U.S. that require automakers to sell some number of low-emission vehicles or buy credits from companies like Tesla, which often have an excess.

Regulatory credit sales go straight to Tesla’s bottom line. Credit revenue amounted to approximately 60% of Tesla’s net income in the second quarter of 2024.

WATCH: Threats to SpaceX & Tesla as Musk, Trump feud heats up

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Shares in Chinese chipmaker SMIC drop nearly 7% after earnings miss

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 07:17:26 +0000

A logo hangs on the building of the Beijing branch of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) on December 4, 2020 in Beijing, China.

Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

Shares of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China’s largest contract chip maker, fell nearly 7% Friday after its first-quarter earnings missed estimates.

After trading on Thursday, the company reported a first-quarter revenue of $2.24 billion, up about 28% from a year earlier. Meanwhile, profit attributable to shareholders surged 162% year on year to $188 million.

However, both figures missed LSEG mean estimates of $2.34 billion in revenue and $225.1 million in net income, as well as the company’s own forecasts.

During an earnings call Friday, an SMIC representative said the earnings missed original guidance due to “production fluctuations” which sent blended average selling prices falling. This impact is expected to extend into the second quarter, they added.

For the current quarter, the chipmaker forecasted revenue to fall 4% to 6% sequentially. Gross margin is also expected to fall within the range of 18% to 20%, compared to 22.5% in the first quarter.

Still, the first quarter saw SMIC’s wafer shipments increase by 15% from the previous quarter and by about 28% year-on-year.

In the earnings call, SMIC attributed that growth to customer shipment pull in, brought by changes in geopolitics and increased demand driven by government policies such as domestic trade-in programs and consumption subsidies.

In another positive sign for the company, its first-quarter capacity utilization— the percentage of total available manufacturing capacity that is being used at any given time— reached 89.6%, up 4.1% quarter on quarter.

“SMIC’s nearly 90% utilization rate reflects strong domestic demand for semiconductors, likely driven by smartphone and consumer electronics production,” said Ray Wang, a Washington-based semiconductor and technology analyst, adding that the demand was also reflected in the company’s strong quarterly revenue growth.

Meanwhile, the company said in the earnings call that it is “currently in an important period of capacity construction, roll out, and continuously increasing market share.”

However, SMIC’s first-quarter research and development spending decreased to $148.9 million, down from $217 million in the previous quarter.

Amid increased demand, it will be crucial for SMIC to continue ramping up their capacity, Simon Chen, principal analyst of semiconductor manufacturing at Informa Tech told CNBC.

SMIC generates most of its revenue from older-generation semiconductors, often referred to as “mature-node” or “legacy” chips, which are commonly found in consumer electronics and industrial equipment.

The state-backed chipmaker is critical to Beijing’s ambitions to build a self-sufficient semiconductor supply chain, with the government pumping billions into such efforts. Over 84% of its first-quarter revenue was derived from customers in China.

“The localization transformation of the supply chain has been strengthened, and more manufacturing demand has shifted back domestically,” a representative said Friday.

However, chip analysts say the chipmaker’s ability to increase capacity in advance chips — used in applications that demand higher levels of computing performance and efficiency at higher yields — is limited.

This is due to U.S.-led export controls, which prevent it from accessing some of the world’s most advanced chip-making equipment from the Netherlands-based ASML.

Nevertheless, the chipmaker appears to be making some breakthroughs. Advanced chips manufactured by SMIC have reportedly appeared in various Huawei products, notably in the Mate 60 Pro smartphone and some AI processors.

In the earnings call, the company also said it would closely monitor the potential impacts of the U.S.-China trade war on its demand, noting a lack of visibility for the second half of the year.

Phelix Lee, an equity analyst for Morningstar focused on semiconductors, told CNBC that the impacts of U.S. tariffs on SMIC are limited due to most of its revenue coming from Chinese customers.

While U.S. customers make up about 8-15% of revenue on a quarterly basis, the chips usually remain and are consumed in Chinese products and end users, he said.

“There could be some disruption to chemical, gas, and equipment supply; but the firm is working on alternatives in China and other non-U.S. regions,” he added.

SMIC’s Hong Kong-listed shares have gained over 32.23% year-to-date.

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