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Chip Talk on the Horizon: China Seeks AI Independence, Weakening Trump’s Leverage (New York Times)
When the Chinese startup DeepSeek released its latest artificial intelligence model last month, it edged Beijing closer to a future that it has spent years trying to build.
In a small but meaningful break from American technology, DeepSeek said for the first time that its new model had been optimized to run on chips made by the Chinese tech giant Huawei. This was a milestone in China’s long-running effort to develop advanced technologies at home and reduce its reliance on Western innovation.
While most of the world’s leading AI systems still rely on semiconductors from the US chip-making giant Nvidia, Chinese AI firms are increasingly turning to homegrown alternatives.
The timing of DeepSeek’s announcement — before this week’s scheduled summit between President Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s leader — gives Beijing fresh confidence entering trade talks that US export controls on Nvidia chips have not derailed China’s AI development.
Tech Stakes Rise: Nvidia’s CEO Joins Trump in China With AI in the Spotlight (Bloomberg)
Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang joined Trump
on his visit to China as a last-minute addition, thrusting AI and technology into the spotlight before a high-stakes Beijing summit.
The list of attendees until Tuesday had not included Huang, whose company makes the chips at the heart of the AI boom and has been pushing for greater leeway in a market he’s identified as a $50 billion opportunity.
Beijing's Center Stage: Trump Says Trade, Not Iran, Will Be Priority in Summit With Xi (Bloomberg)
President Trump said he would prioritize trade discussions during his summit with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, and downplayed the amount of attention they would devote to the Iran war.
“We’re going to be talking to President Xi about a lot of things. I would say, more than anything, trade,” Trump told reporters Tuesday at the White House as he departed for the highly anticipated meeting in Beijing.
“We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control,” he added. “We’re either going to make a deal or they’re going to be decimated one way or the other.”
Trump is eager to secure business deals and hammer out details of a new board of trade to manage ties between the world’s two largest economies when he meets Xi, even as the Iran war has cast a shadow over the summit. The two sides are expected to discuss an extension of the trade truce they reached last fall.
Economy Pulse: Inflation Resurgence Squeezes US Voters as Gas, Food Prices Rise (Bloomberg)
The worst US inflation in years is once again eating away at Americans’ paychecks, as rising gasoline and grocery prices threaten to undermine household spending.
Fresh government data out Tuesday underscored how the Iran war is reigniting inflation, straining consumers who were already frustrated by the high cost of living. After accounting for rising prices, wages declined in April from a year earlier — the first such drop since 2023.
President Trump this week unveiled new proposals to lower prices as Republicans and Democrats scramble ahead of the US midterm elections to convince voters they can make their daily lives more affordable. But the renewed squeeze on household budgets suggests Americans’ sour mood on the economy is unlikely to ebb anytime soon.
Above the Cloud: SpaceX and Google Are in Talks to Launch Data Centers in Orbit (Wall Street Journal)
Google is in talks with SpaceX for a rocket-launch deal as the search giant expands its own efforts to put orbital data centers in space.
A launch deal would put the two companies in partnership as they gear up to compete on orbital data centers, an unproven technology that SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk has said is the next frontier for his rocket company.
The speculative technology has been at the center of SpaceX’s pitch to investors ahead of its planned public listing this summer, which is anticipated to be the largest IPO of all time.
Tech in Focus: Apple Plans Customizable Camera for Pros, Siri Design Changes in iOS 27
(Bloomberg)
Java Coded: The Barista is Human, But an AI Agent Runs This Experimental Swedish Cafe (Associated Press)
The coffee might be poured by a human hand, but behind the counter, something far less traditional is calling the shots at an experimental cafe in Stockholm.
San Francisco-based startup Andon Labs has put an artificial intelligence agent nicknamed “Mona” in charge at the eponymous Andon Café in the Swedish capital.
While human baristas still brew the coffee and serve the orders, the AI agent — powered by Google’s Gemini — oversees almost every other aspect of the business, from hiring staff to managing inventory.
It is not clear how long the experiment will last, but the AI agent appears to be struggling to turn a profit in Stockholm’s competitive coffee trade. The cafe has made more than $5,700 in sales since it opened in mid-April, but less than $5,000 remains from its original budget of $21,000-plus. Much of the cash was spent on one-time setup costs, and the hope is that it eventually levels out and makes money.
Many cafe patrons have found it amusing to visit a business that’s run by AI. Customers can pick up a telephone inside the cafe and ask the agent questions.
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