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Nvidia conference with Jensen Huang
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote address during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference in March 2024 (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Nvidia slumps on report of wide-ranging ban on chip sales by Chinese regulators

It’s the latest in a series of signals that China is actively pursuing an Nvidia-less AI boom that puts its domestic capabilities to the test.

Luke Kawa

Here’s the latest sign that China is actively pursuing an Nvidia-less AI boom that puts its domestic capabilities to the test:

The Financial Times is reporting that China’s internet regulator has banned the country’s technology leaders, like Alibaba and ByteDance, from buying Nvidia’s AI chips. Shares of the $4 trillion chip designer moved lower in premarket trading on this news, as did Advanced Micro Devices.

Per the FT, this directive “comes after Chinese regulators concluded that domestic chips had attained performance comparable to those of Nvidia’s models used in China.”

The report indicates that in the wake of this decision, companies that had orders in progress for the RTX Pro 6000D — chips that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said are ideal for smart factories and logistics — have told their suppliers to stop testing and verification work.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, Huang responded to the report by saying he was “disappointed,” while adding, “They have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States, and I’m understanding of that.”

Separately, in news that seemingly underscores China’s burgeoning AI aptitude, Alibaba is up 2% in early trading after Chinese state media indicated that it had booked a deal with the country’s second-largest wireless carrier to supply AI chips for a new data center.

In mid-August, The Information initially reported that China’s internet regulator “ordered local tech companies including ByteDance, Alibaba Group, and Tencent Holdings to suspend their purchases of Nvidia chips, citing data security concerns.” The outlet followed that up with more coverage showing that the chip designer had told two suppliers that put the finishing touches on its H20 processors (nerfed chips tailor-made for the Chinese market that were previously subject to export controls) to suspend production work.

This continued campaign to squeeze Nvidia out of its domestic market comes just as China and the US have seemingly resolved one of their other major outstanding issues in the tech space, with the framework of an agreement for a US spin-off of (ByteDance-owned) TikTok in place ahead of a scheduled call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. Earlier this week, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation ruled that Nvidia violated antitrust laws relating to the terms of a 2020 acquisition.

Getting locked out of China’s AI data center market in light of US export controls was a major headache for Nvidia earlier this year, fueling a $4.5 billion impairment charge in its Q1 earnings report and eliciting a whopping 27 references to China during its analyst call, more than the previous four quarterly conference calls combined.

Jensen Huang may have successfully convinced President Trump that “the platform that wins AI developers wins AI” — and promising to send 15% of revenues from H20 sales if export curbs were lifted certainly didn’t hurt his case. But that argument seems to have struck a chord with China’s leadership, too.

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Nvidia and SK Hynix strike multiyear partnership on memory chips, AI data center build-out

Nvidia shares are modestly higher after it announced a multiyear partnership with SK Hynix on memory chips and building out AI data centers.

The agreement secures a long-term pipeline of memory chips for Nvidia. At the center of the partnership is the integration of SK Hynix’s high-bandwidth memory chips into Nvidia’s newly unveiled Vera central processing units. The Vera processor is Nvidia’s first stand-alone data center microprocessor designed to compete directly against traditional enterprise server lines.

The collaboration is also structured to reshape how semiconductors are manufactured. Under the terms of the agreement, SK Hynix will implement Nvidia’s CUDA-X library and PhysicsNeMo framework directly into its memory design and manufacturing workflows.

The announcement happened during a high-profile visit to Seoul by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who arrived on June 5 to align with core infrastructure partners. Over the weekend, Huang met with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung, and other top South Korean technology executives during a dinner meeting, according to Nvidia’s blog posts and Reuters.

Last week, SK Hynix told investors that its proposed US listing has received strong backing, which would potentially give US investors an alternative way to play the memory chip crunch.

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FuelCell Energy rises as AI data center pipeline overshadows Q2 miss

FuelCell Energy shares rebounded into positive territory during premarket trading, reversing an initial dip sparked by Q2 results that showed widening net losses and a year-over-year revenue decline.

Key numbers:

  • Revenue of $35.6 million (compared to analyst estimates of $40.56 million).

  • An adjusted loss per share of $1.45 (estimate: a $0.50 loss).

That revenue number marks a 5% decrease from the $37.4 million generated during the same quarter last year.

The company’s net loss expanded to $78.7 million, or $1.45 per share, compared to a loss of $38.8 million in the prior-year period. Management attributed the deeper loss primarily to a $42.6 million one-time impairment expense linked to essential equipment upgrades at its Groton Project facility.

While a 9.9% drop in total backlog initially added to the shares’ downward momentum, investors appeared to quickly pivot their attention to the company’s forward-looking metrics. FuelCell highlighted a 267% sequential jump in its sales pipeline, which has reached 4 gigawatts. The surge is driven by demand for its packaged 12.5-megawatt utility-grade power block solution tailored specifically for the booming AI data center market.

To support this high-growth data center strategy, FuelCell announced a major capacity expansion at its Torrington, Connecticut, manufacturing facility. The company plans to raise its annualized production ceiling from 350 MW to 500 MW, an infrastructure upgrade estimated to cost between $200 million and $275 million over the next 24 months.

Driven by the AI data center narrative, FuelCell Energy’s stock has risen over 130% year to date.

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Lilly says its next-gen GLP-1 shot drove 28.3% weight loss, reduced comorbidities

Eli Lilly has risen around 4% in premarket trading after reporting impressive trial results for its next-generation weight-loss drug over the weekend.

According to the results unveiled on Saturday, Lilly’s experimental weight-loss shot, retatrutide, helped patients lose 28.3% of their body weight at 80 weeks. That’s more than tirzepatide, Lilly’s weight-loss shot currently considered the most effective in the market, which helped people lose 26% of their weight over 88 weeks.

Retatrutide is a triple agonist, meaning it mimics three different hormones that promote weight loss, compared to one by Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide and two by tirzepatide. Lilly says it helps preserve more muscle mass than other weight-loss shots and also helped improve knee osteoarthritis pain and obstructive sleep apnea.

Lilly has said it would submit the drug for approval this year with the goal of getting it out to market in 2027. The jab could be the next big moneymaker for Lilly, which currently sells the most lucrative drug in the world but has had an underwhelming rollout of its oral weight-loss pill, which came to market earlier this year.

Retatrutide is already quite popular among those who experiment with peptides, or unapproved injectable drugs often sold online “for research purposes only.” For gym bros trying to attain a certain physique, a drug that has shown it can melt fat while preserving muscle is enticing.

But in a market full of knockoff drugs, will retatrutide enthusiasts pay full price for the drug when it officially goes to market?

markets

Marvell and Flex rise on S&P 500 inclusion announcement

Chipmaker Marvell Technology and electronics manufacturer Flex are jumping 7% and 3%, respectively, in premarket trading on Monday after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced late on Friday that the two companies are set to join the S&P 500 benchmark index.

Replacing Pool Corp. and Campbell’s in the S&P 500, Marvell and Flex’s addition will be effective from June 22, per a press release from the provider, which assesses and updates the index on a quarterly basis.

Marvell has been one of the leading candidates for inclusion across the last few quarterly index rebalances. The company has ballooned into a $230 billion chip giant of late, thanks to the wider AI boom, investors chasing momentum, and, yes, Jensen Huang. Flex, which has been part of the S&P MidCap 400 Index since 2024, has also grown recently, having played a part in the data center boom with a portfolio that spans across infrastructure and cooling systems.

With today’s premarket movement taken into account, MRVL has now risen almost 40% in the last week alone.

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