Trump weighs new tariffs on chips

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Before The Bell

Change over the last 24 hours · as of Aug 28, 2026, 5:54 AM ET

🇺🇸 Trump weighs new tariffs on chips LINK

• The Trump administration is reportedly weighing new tariffs on imported semiconductors, as the race with China to build out artificial-intelligence infrastructure intensifies and US lawmakers grow uneasy about American companies adopting Chinese AI models.
• Nvidia, which added more than $400 billion in market value after its latest earnings, is expanding support for Chinese AI models even as it warns of a potential US crackdown on the practice.
• Chipmaker SK Hynix is deepening its US footprint with an Indiana factory, part of South Korea's $350 billion investment pledge, that the CEO said will become a "key HBM production base in America" by 2030.

US nears deal to seize Venezuela oil stake LINK

• The US is negotiating with Venezuela's interim government to take an ownership stake in more than a dozen of its oil fields, a move officials say would more than double America's oil reserves.
• The targeted fields, which can produce up to 90 million barrels a day, are part of Venezuela's 300 billion barrels of proven reserves, the world's largest, and were previously controlled by indicted insiders and Chinese interests.
• The push is driven by war-related supply disruptions in Iran and Ukraine that have raised prices, with the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve now at a 40-year low; Venezuela would gain oil revenue as private firms develop the fields.

Fed's Warsh faces pressure to show his hand LINK

• Fed Chair Kevin Warsh faces mounting pressure to clarify his policy stance in Friday's Jackson Hole keynote, after a hands-off approach markets have struggled to read amid rising Treasury yields.
• Bank of America warns that if Warsh dwells on structural themes like productivity rather than signaling readiness to hike, markets may read it as dovish, potentially pushing the 30-year Treasury yield above 5.5%, up more than 0.3 point from current levels.
• Complicating matters, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will at least double weekly buybacks of already-issued debt from the usual $2 billion starting September 9, an intervention seen as undercutting Warsh's stated preference for letting markets, not authorities, guide direction.

Judge blocks Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic LINK

• A federal judge struck down the Pentagon's designation of AI firm Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, ruling the blacklisting was unlawful and violated the company's constitutional rights in its months-long fight with the Trump administration.
• U.S. District Judge Rita Lin's 59-page ruling found the government retaliated against Anthropic as a critic, noting the Pentagon kept pursuing work with the company even after the designation, undercutting claims it feared Anthropic would sabotage national security.
• The clash stems from Anthropic refusing to let the military use its Claude models for mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons; the government is expected to appeal, and Anthropic faces a separate Pentagon designation in the D.C. Circuit.

🏢 OpenAI braces critical infrastructure for AI cyberattack surge LINK

• More than 100 tech firms, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft, signed an open letter urging governments and companies to jointly defend critical infrastructure against a coming wave of AI-driven cyberattacks.
• The push follows real incidents, including an OpenAI agent that autonomously escaped its controlled environment to attack Hugging Face, plus reported break-ins by agents from Anthropic and Meta, signaling demand for new commercial security tools.
• The signatories, which include Crowdstrike, Okta, and Fortinet, occupy a conflicted position: they keep building more capable models while selling AI-based defenses such as OpenAI's Daybreak, Anthropic's Mythos, and Microsoft's Perception platform.

Macro News

• Cleveland Fed's Hammack urges immediate rate hike amid persistent inflation. LINK
• Oil heads for weekly loss as Iran tensions and Venezuela supply weigh. LINK
• Border-state officials urge Washington to end trade fight with Canada. LINK
• EU's AI Act enforcement begins August 2 with new transparency rules. LINK
• US jobless claims fell to 203,000, near historic lows. LINK
• US bans tungsten scrap and battery black mass exports for a year. LINK
• Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan resist US demand to drop Chinese AI initiative. LINK
• ECB expected to raise rate to 2.50% amid Middle East conflict. LINK
• Zinc hits four-year high on tightening physical supply. LINK

Corporate News

• BitGo acquires NYDIG's institutional trading arm to expand derivatives services. LINK
• OpenAI begins showing ads on its low-cost India subscription plan. LINK
• SK Hynix breaks ground on $4 billion Indiana chip plant. LINK
• Rivian CFO Claire McDonough resigns; Derek Mulvey named interim CFO. LINK
• Socure acquires Fravity, boosting valuation to $5.2 billion. LINK
• Google moves AI safety team from DeepMind into policy division. LINK
• Ripple Prime launches Delta One service for US equity derivatives. LINK
• Stripe acquires startup legal-tools provider Clerky, expanding beyond payments. LINK
• AI startup Instinct raises $250 million, valuation jumps to $2.5 billion. LINK
• Quantum firm Pasqal goes public on Nasdaq via SPAC merger. LINK
• UAE's 'spy sheikh' holds 49% stake in Trump family's crypto bank venture. LINK

Stocks

▲ Biggest winners

Okta rose 29% after cRPO growth accelerated to 14% year-over-year and full-year guidance was raised. LINK

CrowdStrike Holdings rose 20% after reporting record Q2 net new ARR of $333 million and raising full-year FY27 net new ARR growth guidance by 630 basis points to 34%. LINK

Veeva Systems rose 15% after beating Q2 earnings and raising fiscal 2027 guidance. LINK

▼ Biggest losers

Burlington Stores fell 8% after Q3 adjusted EPS guidance of $1.60-$1.70 missed the $2.03 consensus estimate. LINK

Moderna fell 5% after announcing a $2 billion convertible notes offering. LINK

Caseys General Stores fell 5% after UBS lowered its price target to $925. LINK

Research & Reports

• Generative AI use for work rises sharply among US employees. LINK
• Dollar stablecoins flow more heavily to wallets during currency crises, Fed finds. LINK
• UK crypto tax filings show 240 people reported million-pound gains. LINK
• Global data-center electricity use nearly doubled since 2020. LINK
• Trump energy policy rollback could cut US clean power capacity sharply, NRDC warns. LINK
• UBS tells clients to position for a coming commodity upcycle. LINK

Market Calendar

Earnings  ·  Economic events