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Investors react to Trump’s massive increase in China tariffs
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NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he was increasing tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S. to 100% and imposing export controls on “any and all critical software” in a reprisal to recently announced export limits by China on rare earth minerals critical to tech and other manufacturing.
Earlier, he said there was no reason to meet with President Xi JinPing in two weeks as planned, triggering a sell-off in the dollar, U.S. stocks, and a flight to safe-havens like Treasuries.
China this week has tightened restrictions on exports of key rare earth materials and, separately, on Friday said it would impose extra port fees on U.S. ships from October 14.
COMMENTS:
BRIAN JACOBSEN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, ANNEX WEALTH MANAGEMENT, MENOMONEE FALLS, WISCONSIN:
“Here we go again. Trade negotiation via social media can be very disruptive to markets, but a lot can change quickly. By setting a November 1st implementation date for tariffs, that leaves enough room to have people actually talk with each other about the issues instead of just lobbing press statements back and forth. Downside risks to growth and upside risks to inflation are now higher than they were just 12 hours ago, but those risks don’t have to become reality.”
CLAYTON TRIICK, HEAD OF PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT FOR PUBLIC STRATEGIES AT ANGEL OAK CAPITAL, ATLANTA:
“I think it’s a little early on the bubble side. Volatility has been really low with the government shut down and no data, and I feel like vol should be higher. It needed a catalyst, and so this was the catalyst to repricing here.”
“You still have labor concerns, inflation concerns, and the idea that we’ve had no vol and just automatic buying of equities last week, I’ve actually thought when we get clarity of the government maybe reopening in the U.S. today, it may actually cause a sell-off because now you have data coming to the market and everyone waking up again. But we got it early. We got the Trump news on China.
“So, I view that this vol needed to happen. I wouldn’t say it’s the start of the beginning of a much larger sell-off. Because I still feel that there’s so much cash on the sidelines to buy the dip that I don’t think it would sustain that much lower. But I wouldn’t be surprised if equities traded in a sideways range for a while here. I don’t see the market ripping higher right now.”
ANSHUL SHARMA, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, SAVVY WEALTH, NEW YORK:
“Today’s sharp sell-off reflects renewed fears that the U.S. is escalating trade tensions with China, particularly the threat of a large hike in tariffs and the cancellation of the meeting with President Xi. These moves inject real risk into global supply chains, corporate margins, and investor sentiment.”
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Trump announces 130% tariffs on China. The global trade war just came roaring back
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(CNN) — President Donald Trump announced he will impose an additional 100% tariff on goods from China, on top of the 30% tariffs already in effect, starting November 1 or sooner. The threat is a massive escalation after months of a trade truce between the two nations.
“The United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social Friday afternoon. “Also on November 1st, we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software.”
Trump’s announcement is tied to Beijing ramping up export controls on its critical rare earths, which are needed to produce many electronics. As a result, Trump appeared to call off a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping that was scheduled for later this month in South Korea.
Trump’s initial message Friday, delivered via a Truth Social post, in which he threatened “massive” new tariffs, was ill received by investors on Friday as fears of a spring déjà vu, when tariffs on Chinese goods soared to a stunning 145%, set in. Markets closed sharply lower on Friday after Trump’s initial comments, with the Dow falling by 878 points, or 1.9%. The S&P 500 was down 2.7%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 3.5%.
While Trump doesn’t always act on his threats, investors, consumers and businesses still have reason to worry.
President Donald Trump is threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese goods shipped to the United States. Credit: Jessica Koscielniak / Reuters via CNN Newsource The two largest economies depend on each other
The United States and China are the world’s two largest economies. Although Mexico has recently replaced China as the top source of foreign goods shipped to the United States, America depends on China for hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of goods. Meanwhile, China is one of the top export markets for America.
In particular, electronics, apparel and furniture are among the top goods the United States receives from China. Trump has pushed CEOs, especially in tech, to move production to the United States, but he’s softened his approach in recent months as business leaders have satisfied the president with announcements of hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in US manufacturing — even if they continue to make the bulk of their products overseas.
Shortly after imposing minimum 145% tariffs on Chinese goods — an effective embargo on trade, Trump issued an exemption for electronics, making them subject to 20% tariffs instead. The move was, in many ways, an acknowledgment that the Trump administration understood the pain he was inflicting on the US economy through his sky-high tariffs.
Then, in May, US and Chinese officials further established the interdependence of trade by agreeing to lower tariffs on one another. China brought levies on American exports down to 10% from 125%, and the United States brought rates down to 30% from 145%.
Both countries’ stock markets rallied as a result.
It was only a matter of time
Trump on Friday claimed trade hostility from China “came out of nowhere.” But in reality, it’s been bubbling up for months.
For the United States, a critical part of trade agreements has been to ensure China will increase its supply of rare earth magnets. Yet despite several apparent breakthroughs, Trump has in recent months repeatedly accused China of violating the terms.
Trump first responded by putting restrictions on sales of American technologies to China, including a key Nvidia AI chip. Many of these restrictions were later lifted.
Then came the Trump administration’s announcement that it would soon impose fees on goods transported on Chinese-owned or -operated ships. China countered with a similar plan on American ships that took effect Friday.
In short: Trump has already demonstrated there’s no limit to how high he’ll go with tariffs on China, and Xi has shown no mercy in how he chooses to retaliate.
But Trump’s ability to continue to impose tariffs on a whim could soon end, pending the verdict in a landmark case kicking off in the Supreme Court next month. Xi, however, faces no such constraints.
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Elisabeth Buchwald and CNN
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Stocks see biggest drop in months after Trump threatens more tariffs on China
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Investors are shuddering on concerns of renewed trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.
Stocks fell sharply on Friday, with the S&P 500 shedding 183 points, or 2.7%, to close at 6,553 in what was the index’s worst day since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 879 points, or 1.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.6%.
The selloff affected a wide range of stocks, from Big Tech companies like Nvidia and Apple to stocks of smaller companies looking to get past uncertainty about tariffs and trade.
“Investors still think the tit-for-tat between the U.S. and China these last few days is mostly posturing (the consensus view is that tariffs won’t go up, and that Trump and Xi will still meet in South Korea), but trade-related risks have certainly risen after being dormant for the last several weeks,” Wall Street analyst Adam Crisafulli, head of Vital Knowledge, said in a report.
Stocks had been heading for a slight gain in the morning, until Mr. Trump said on his social media platform said he’s considering “a massive increase of tariffs” on Chinese imports. He’s upset at restrictions China has placed on exports of its rare earths, which are materials that are critical for the manufacturing of everything from consumer electronics to jet engines.
“We have been contacted by other Countries who are extremely angry at this great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Our relationship with China over the past six months has been a very good one, thereby making this move on Trade an even more surprising one. I have always felt that they’ve been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right!”
Mr. Trump also threatened to call off a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea later this month.
Primed for a slide?
The market may have been primed for a slide. U.S. stocks were already facing criticism that their prices had shot too high following a nearly relentless 35% run for the S&P 500 from a low in April to record heights.
Critics say the market looks overpriced after prices rose much faster than corporate profits. Worries are particularly high about companies in the artificial-intelligence industry, where pessimists are making comparisons to to the 2000 dot-com bubble that ultimately imploded. For stocks to look less expensive, either their prices need to fall, or profits need to rise.
Other factors also weighed on investor sentiment Friday, including the ongoing U.S. government shutdown and fresh data showing that consumers are anxious about the economy.
The University of Michigan’s preliminary October sentiment index, released Friday, shows consumer sentiment fell 0.1% on a monthly basis, from 55.1 points in September to 55. While the drop was nominal, it represents the third consecutive month the confidence measure, which is closely watched by investors, has declined.
“Pocketbook issues like high prices and weakening job prospects remain at the forefront of consumers’ minds,” Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers at the University of Michigan, said in a statement.
The job market has slowed so much that the Federal Reserve cut its main interest rate last month for the first time this year. Fed officials have penciled in more cuts through next year to give the economy more breathing room. But Chair Jerome Powell has also said they may have to change course if inflation stays high. That’s because lower interest rates can push inflation even higher.
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China imposes retaliatory port fees on American-owned ships docking in country
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China has hit U.S.-owned vessels docking in the country with tit-for-tat port fees, in response to the American government’s planned port fees on Chinese ships, expanding a string of retaliatory measures before trade talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Vessels owned or operated by American companies or individuals, and ships built in the U.S. or flying the American flag, would be subjected to a 400 yuan ($56) per net ton fee per voyage if they dock in China, China’s Ministry of Transport said on Friday.
The fees would be applied on the same ship for a maximum of five voyages each year, and would rise every year until 2028, when it would hike to 1,120 yuan ($157) per net ton, the ministry said. They would take effect on Oct. 14, the same day when the United States is due to start imposing port fees on Chinese vessels.
China’s Ministry of Transport said on Friday in a statement that its special fees on American vessels are “countermeasures” in response to “wrongful” U.S. practices, referring to the planned U.S. port fees on Chinese vessels.
The ministry also slammed the United States’ port fees as “discriminatory” that would “severely damage the legitimate interests of China’s shipping industry” and “seriously undermine” international economic and trade order.
China has announced a string of trade measures and restrictions before an expected meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in South Korea that begins at the end of October. On Thursday, Beijing unveiled new curbs on exports of rare earths and related technologies, as well as new restrictions on the export of some lithium battery and related production equipment.
The port fees announced by Beijing on Friday mirrors many aspects of the U.S. port fees on Chinese ships docking in American ports. Under Washington’s plans, Chinese-owned or -operated ships will be charged $50 per net ton for each voyage to the U.S., which would then rise by $30 per net ton each year until 2028. Each vessel would be charged no more than five times per year.
China’s new port fee is “not just a symbolic move,” said Kun Cao, deputy chief executive at consulting firm Reddal. “It explicitly targets any ship with meaningful U.S. links — ownership, operation, flag, or build — and scales steeply with ship size.”
The “real bite is on U.S.-owned and operated vessels,” he said, adding that North America accounts for roughly 5% of the world fleet by beneficial ownership, which is still a meaningful figure although not as huge as compared to Greek, Chinese and Japanese ship owners.
However, the United States has only about 0.1% of global commercial shipbuilding market share in recent years and built fewer than 10 commercial ships last year, Reddal added.
While shipping analysts have said that the U.S. port fees on Chinese vessels would likely have limited impact on trade and freight rates as some shipping companies have been redeploying their fleets to avoid the extra charge, shipping data provider Alphaliner warned last month in a report that the U.S. port fees could still cost up to $3.2 billion next year for the world’s top 10 carriers.
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This story has been corrected to show that the Alphaliner report was from last month, not this month.
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Trump threatens to jack up tariffs on China over its new rare-earth controls
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President Trump on Friday threatened to raise U.S. tariffs on China over its new restrictions on rare-earth elements.
“They are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the World, that they want to impose Export Controls on each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post on Truth Social.
Mr. Trump’s threat follows a move by China this week to implement tighter restrictions on the country’s exports of rare earths, critical minerals used to manufacture products including semiconductors, electric car batteries, jet engines and defense weapons.
China produces as much as 95% of the world’s rare earth magnets, according to energy research company Wood Mackenzie. Access to such materials has been a key sticking point in trade talks between Washington and Beijing.
The new export controls outlined by the country’s Ministry of Commerce, which took effect on Thursday, requires companies to get special approval to export products containing even trace amounts of rare earths sourced from China, including if those products were manufactured abroad by non-Chinese companies. The new rules do not specify potential penalties if exporters fail to comply the controls.
Mr. Trump expressed surprise at the the new trade measures, describing the move by China’s government as “very hostile” and vowing to retaliate if Beijing follows through in applying the rare-earth controls.
“One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America,” Mr. Trump said in his post. “There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration.”
Mr. Trump also threatened to call off a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea later this month.
In June, the U.S. and China announced they had agreed on a framework deal aimed at defusing tensions over tariffs, rare earths and other issues.
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$250M Liquidated Hourly: Bitcoin Crashes Below $120K as Trump Threatens China
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The liquidations are up to $250 million in just an hour.Bitcoin’s price took a turn for the worse over the past hour or so after US President Donald Trump threatened China with a new set of tariffs.
The POTUS said that Beijing is being “very hostile,” and said he always felt that they were lying.
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S STATEMENT ON CHINA JUST NOW:
1. China is “becoming very hostile” and controlling rare earths
2. “Always felt that China is lying, and now, as usual, I have been proven right”
3. China is “holding the world captive” in a “monopoly position”
4. There is “no…
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) October 10, 2025
Given his other negative remarks toward China and its regime, Trump went back to his playbook and threatened to impose a “massive increase in tariffs” on products produced in the Asian country.
Although the financial markets have seen such statements before as well, the impact was rather instantaneous in terms of price actions, especially in crypto.
Bitcoin, which charted a new all-time high just days ago, had calmed at around $121,300 before the tables turned and it slumped by over two grand to just over $119,000.
Many altcoins followed suit, with ZEC, MNT, TAO, M, PUMP, LTC, BONK, and PENGU dropping by over 4% in an hour.
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As such, it’s no surprise that the total value of wrecked positions has skyrocketed to $250 million in just that past hour alone. On a daily scale, the liquidations are up to nearly $600 million, with more than 155,000 traders wrecked.
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Jordan Lyanchev
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Chinese regulators are investigating Qualcomm’s acquisition of Autotalks
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China’s antitrust regulator has opened an investigation into of Israeli connected-vehicle chip company Autotalks. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) alleges that Qualcomm is suspected of violating China’s anti-monopoly laws by not disclosing certain details of the deal.
Qualcomm had initially agreed to acquire the fabless chip company in 2023 to expand its Snapdragon portfolio into more automotive applications. Autotalks creates chips, sensors and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication tech centered in part on safety for vehicles. It has been a few months since the acquisition was finalized, with the new probe coming amid trade negotiations between the United States and China.
The deal was previously investigated by both the and the , with Qualcomm the acquisition in early 2024. The exact process of how the deal was reopened is not clear, as the acquisition was only announced once it had been finalized and received regulatory approval
Last month, that NVIDIA’s $6.9 billion acquisition of Mellanox also ran afoul of national regulations. The regulators also said the deal violated conditional terms outlined by regulators on initial approval. reported that China’s regulators held on to that decision for months, purportedly to gain leverage in trade discussions with the US.
The bulk of these investigations have come while the US and China are engaged in negotiations around , tariffs, trade and more. Today China drastically expanded its , targeting defense and semiconductor companies outside the country.
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Andre Revilla
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US diplomat fired over relationship with woman accused of ties to Chinese Communist Party
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The State Department said Wednesday that it has fired a U.S. diplomat over a romantic relationship he admitted having with a Chinese woman alleged to have ties to the Chinese Communist Party.The dismissal is believed to be the first of its kind for violating a ban on such relationships that was introduced late last year under the Biden administration.The Associated Press reported earlier this year that in the waning days of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, the State Department imposed a ban on all American government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens.Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that the diplomat in question was dismissed from the foreign service after President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reviewed the case and determined that he had “admitted concealing a romantic relationship with a Chinese national with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party.””Under Secretary Rubio’s leadership, we will maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any employee who is caught undermining our country’s national security,” Pigott said.The statement did not identify the diplomat, but he and his girlfriend had been featured in a surreptitiously filmed video posted online by conservative firebrand James O’Keefe.
WASHINGTON —The State Department said Wednesday that it has fired a U.S. diplomat over a romantic relationship he admitted having with a Chinese woman alleged to have ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The dismissal is believed to be the first of its kind for violating a ban on such relationships that was introduced late last year under the Biden administration.
The Associated Press reported earlier this year that in the waning days of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, the State Department imposed a ban on all American government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens.
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that the diplomat in question was dismissed from the foreign service after President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reviewed the case and determined that he had “admitted concealing a romantic relationship with a Chinese national with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party.”
“Under Secretary Rubio’s leadership, we will maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any employee who is caught undermining our country’s national security,” Pigott said.
The statement did not identify the diplomat, but he and his girlfriend had been featured in a surreptitiously filmed video posted online by conservative firebrand James O’Keefe.
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How China Is Hoping to Attract Tech Talent
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Lauren Goode: What’s an example of that?
Louise Matsakis: So, for example, there were some Chinese influencers who were spreading these conspiracy theories that Indians were plotting to use the visa to immigrate to China en masse.
Lauren Goode: Interesting. You’ve both covered China’s businesses and workforce for years. Was this backlash surprising to you?
Zeyi Yang: I would say yes, but also no. The no is because I know China has never been an immigrant country, so the idea to introduce a lot of foreign talents to the country, giving them some kind of preferential treatment over others, it’s definitely going to cause some kind of outrage from the population. That part I am sure. The thing is that I feel that after China has been trying to open up to the world for quite a few decades at this point, I was expecting there to be a little bit more patience from the Chinese people because China also wants to be an AI leader at this age. And right now, the only model they can look after is the United States, which has been building on a ton of immigrant talent to build the AI industry. So, I was thinking maybe that kind of policy orientation will push them over the xenophobic obstacles that we are seeing, but unfortunately, the situation that seems to have happened is that it cannot.
Lauren Goode: So there are some cultural challenges to this. I mean, what do you think are some of the other challenges that China will face as it tries to roll out this K visa and attract foreign talent?
Louise Matsakis: I mean, I think the main thing is just that China, like Zeyi said, is absolutely not a country of immigrants. In 2020, only about 0.1% of the mainland population was made up of foreigners, according to one estimate. And it’s also worth noting that that estimate includes people from Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong. These are places that are very culturally similar to China. So, the number of people who come from Africa, or North America, or Europe is just astonishingly small compared to the population size of China. In the US, about 15% of the people who live in this country are immigrants. That’s a huge difference. So, I think that it can be hard for new arrivals to adjust. It’s a difficult language. There’s an entirely different ecosystem of apps and programs that you have to use. I remember the first time I went on a business trip to China, I needed to get the receipt for my expenses, and I was like, “Can you email me a PDF of my receipt?” And the people at the hotel looked at me like I was crazy. And they were like, “We’re just going to send it over WeChat.” And I was like, “Oh.” There are a lot of small things like that that are really different, whereas, because for the last few decades, American culture and American tech companies have been so ubiquitous in the rest of the world, someone who comes to the US from India or from Europe, they’re probably going to be using the same email platforms, the same social media networks. And a lot of the business norms are similar, right? Of course, there’s still cultural differences. And if those people get homesick, they can find an immigrant community wherever they are. They can find food that reminds them of home. That’s not necessarily the case in China. And so, I think the idea of a city like Shanghai or Beijing becoming a truly cosmopolitan hub that is a mix of different cultures is something that I think is really far off from now. I think it could happen, and I think it’s likely that it will happen as the shifts of global power tilt away from the US. I think in this era where we’re not making a lot of good choices, and we’re not really making a lot of friends around the world, it’s certainly possible, but China is just starting from a really different place than a city like San Francisco.
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Lauren Goode, Louise Matsakis, Zeyi Yang
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Europe Pledges $600 Billion for Clean Energy Projects in Africa
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“From the outset, the Global Gateway has been described as the European Union’s attempt to rival the Belt and Road Initiative’s overseas infrastructure investment funds. At €300 billion through 2027, however, it is a David-versus-Goliath-style undertaking,” says Gabriele Rosana, an associate fellow at the Institute of International Affairs in Rome. China has already been investing heavily in clean energy in Africa, and with far fewer constraints. “The Union is operating in a system of precise rules, stakes, and constraints unknown to Chinese centralism,” Rosana says.
According to a study from Griffith University in Australia, energy-related investments under the Belt and Road Initiative in the first half of 2025 were the highest they’ve been since 2013, when the initiative was launched—and it was Africa, with $39 billion, that had the highest-value contracts in this sector. A recent report from the energy think tank Ember revealed that China exported 15GW of solar panels to Africa in the year leading up to June 2025, a 60 percent year-on-year increase of such imports. It is not certain that all of these devices will be installed—some could be a trade triangulation to circumvent tariffs—but in any case, Beijing is positioning itself to take advantage of the continent’s green transition.
Europe, though, is committed to grasping this opportunity as well. “Over the past two years, competitiveness has gradually, but with increasing conviction, become the key word on the European policy agenda, along with defense,” says Rosana. “International cooperation has also been reinvented with a view to strategic autonomy, and put at the service of the Union’s global projection, at a time when, with the massive reorganization of trade balances due to the America-China challenge, Europe must rapidly diversify its supply chains and trade.”
The EU hasn’t been alone in feeling the need to respond to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Before President Donald Trump’s second term, the US had also felt compelled to act. In 2021, President Joe Biden’s administration announced an international infrastructure program, the Build Back Better World, which the following year was expanded to the G7 and renamed the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI). Among the PGI’s main areas of focus were energy and Africa: indeed, two solar power plants in Angola, a wind energy and storage system in Kenya, and a nickel processing plant for batteries in Tanzania appeared on the list of early US projects.
But perhaps the most important infrastructure project the West is pursuing in Africa is the Lobito Corridor, a railway line that will connect Zambia’s copper deposits and the DRC’s cobalt mines to the Atlantic port of Lobito in Angola. Copper is the metal of electrification; lithium, a key ingredient in batteries—both are essential raw materials for the green transition, and China currently dominates the supply of both.
The African continent, then, is now a battleground between superpowers interested, first and foremost, in its resources. But with a young and growing population—in the sub-Saharan region, the population will grow by an estimated 79 percent over the next three decades—and an energy system dominated by fossil fuels, Africa’s decarbonization will be essential to the success of net zero. “The choices Africa makes today,” said Von der Leyen during the September announcement, “are shaping the future of the entire world.”
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.
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Marco Dell’Aguzzo
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AI to Consume 12 Percent of Electricity, but There Are Caveats
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A new report paints a dire picture of the future in which electricity demand is surging and the transition to clean energy is still decades away.
The global risk management provider DNV forecasts that global emissions will reach net zero only after 2090, and anticipates a temperature increase of roughly 2.2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by 2100, although they caution it could be higher than that. Furthermore, AI data centers are expected to consume about 12 percent of all electricity in North America as soon as 2040.
“A casual observer might conclude that the energy transition is stalled or in reverse. That is most definitely not the case,” the report states. “Some aspects of the transition are supercharged and progressing rapidly, while other aspects of the transition have hit turbulence and are delayed.”
There are, however, some caveats and reasons for optimism. DNV’s report notes, for example, that as soon as about 2060, carbon dioxide emissions are expected to fall by about 63 percent, with fossil fuels all but exiting the global energy mix. It also states that upheaval in U.S. policy will likely slow the clean energy transition, but not entirely derail it, largely because of China’s leadership in technological development and renewables buildout.
As far as AI, the report anticipates data centers will account for an outsized chunk of electricity in North America—consuming some 16 percent overall, with that aforementioned 12 percent coming strictly from AI. Globally, however, data centers are expected to surge to consume some 5 percent of electricity by 2040 with 3 percent attributable to AI, specifically. The report, however, anticipates that initial exponential growth in power demand from AI will become linear in time, even as the “cognitive services” it provides grow exponentially. The energy efficiency of “leading [machine learning] hardware” has improved about 40 percent year-over-year, according to the report.
During NYC Climate Week in late September, Nvidia’s head of sustainability Josh Parker joined panels to discuss AI and sustainability. On one, he argued it’s worth it to bring new energy online to fuel AI, if artificial intelligence is applied to accelerate innovation in sustainability, emissions reduction, and clean energy.
“AI really can be—and will be if we use it properly—a fantastic solution to some of the biggest challenges that we’ve had in sustainability,” he said on a separate panel on the same subject. “AI is not only providing more performance per watt of energy, but it’s also more performance per liter of water. It’s more performance per ton of steel, more performance per chip, and across every metric you can think of.”
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Chloe Aiello
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China tightens rare earth export controls, targets defence, semiconductor users
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BEIJING (Reuters) -China tightened its rare earth export controls on Thursday, expanding restrictions on processing technology, unauthorised overseas cooperation and spelling out its intention to limit exports to overseas defence and semiconductor users.
Exports of technology used to mine and process rare earths or make the associated magnets is barred without permission, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. Many of these technologies are already restricted and it was not immediately clear what the new rules will add.
China added several rare earths and related material to its export control list in April, however Thursday’s announcement explicitly said licenses are unlikely to be granted for defence companies as well as certain users in the semiconductor sector.
Chinese companies are also barred from working with companies overseas on rare earths without permission from the ministry.
(Reporting by Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
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How China Threatens to Force Taiwan Into a Total Blackout
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Chinese military exercises around Taiwan have sparked an urgent effort in Taipei and Washington to address a critical vulnerability on the island: It is almost entirely dependent on imported fuel.
Recent Chinese drills showed how China would encircle and strangle Taiwan by blocking its life-sustaining shipping lanes, a strategy with potentially less risk than staging a full-scale invasion, as Beijing pursues its stated goal of gaining control of the self-ruled island, by force if necessary.
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James T. Areddy
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Opinion | The Oct. 7 Warning for the U.S. on China
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Hamas’s shock troops poured across Israel’s border two years ago, kidnapping, raping and killing civilian men, women and children. Israel’s bitter experience offers lessons America should learn before our own moment of reckoning.
The most important is that the hypothetical war can actually happen. Even if we’re intellectually prepared, there’s a risk that years of relative peace has lulled us into a false sense of security. The Israeli defense establishment never truly believed Hamas would launch a full-scale invasion. They viewed Gaza as a chronic but manageable problem—one for diplomats and intelligence officers, distant from the daily concerns of citizens. Israeli politicians and generals also spoke of open conflict with the Iran-led Islamist axis much like their American counterparts speak of China and a Taiwan crisis—the pacing threat and the most likely test, yes, but ultimately a question for tomorrow. Then tomorrow came.
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Mike Gallagher
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Trump administration mulling $10 billion aid package for U.S. farmers, sources say
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Washington — The Trump administration is considering a significant financial aid package for farmers, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions. The package could include more than $10 billion in relief.
The White House is focusing on soybean farmers, since they’ve been hard hit by the Chinese boycott on American soybeans. Discussions about the package are still in early stages, one of the sources said.
The Treasury Department and Agriculture Department are involved in the talks. Top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on CNBC on Monday that “we’ve had numerous meetings over the last week or two” about “what we’re going to do” about the hit farmers have taken. He promised the administration would take “big measures” and “those big measures are going to be public really, really soon.”
Hassett acknowledged, “Right now, the silos are full, and there are soybeans sitting on the ground with tarps over them. That’s unacceptable to the president.” He also said the administration is “calling up all our soybean customers around the world as part of our trade negotiations.”
In 2024, China purchased $12.6 billion worth of soybeans from the U.S., federal data from the Agriculture Department shows.
As harvest season gets underway this year, China has made no U.S. soybean purchases.
Last month, President Trump suggested some financial aid for farmers could come from tariff revenue. The Treasury Department says the federal government has collected roughly $215 billion in tariffs in the 2025 fiscal year, which began in October 2024 and ended Sept. 30.
“We’re going to take some of that tariff money that we made, we’re going to give it to our farmers, who are, for a little while, going to be hurt until the tariffs kick into their benefit,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Sept. 25. “So, we’re going to make sure that our farmers are in great shape, because we’re taking in a lot of money.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
contributed to this report.
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