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Luke Kawa

Nvidia reportedly halts H20 production after Chinese security decree clouds demand outlook

Shares of Nvidia are down in premarket trading after The Information reported that the chip designer has told two suppliers that put the finishing touches on its H20 processors — the chips it recently received licenses to sell to China once again — to suspend production work.

This news follows a report earlier this month that China’s internet regulator told major domestic tech giants like ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent not to purchase these chips because of data security concerns. Per The New York Times, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he already made it “very clear” to Chinese regulators that their worries about backdoor access to these chips are unfounded.

The H20 has been a giant, multibillion-dollar headache for Nvidia and a flashpoint for the confusing geopolitical, commercial, and technological crosscurrents in the US-China relationship this year.

This nerfed version of Nvidia’s H100 chip was developed specifically for sale to China in response to export controls introduced by the Biden administration. Near the height of trade tensions with China in April, the Trump administration enacted fresh export restrictions on the sale of these chips. Nvidia took a $4.5 billion impairment charge in its Q1 earnings tied to this export ban, and said that its Q2 sales guidance would have been $8 billion higher if not for this change to trade policy.

After an intense public and private lobbying campaign, Nvidia (and Advanced Micro Devices) managed to receive assurances that they would be able to sell their tailor-made AI chips to China once again in mid-July. But the chip designers formally received those export licenses only after striking a novel deal to send 15% of revenues from those sales to the US government.

Nvidia had planned to sell down only its existing H20 inventory to China after it got the initial all-clear, but then reportedly elected to order more H20 chips from TSMC because demand for these processors was so hot — only to then see it seemingly doused by Chinese regulators.

Who knows what the twists and turns for the H20 mean for its successor model that’s in development, as China’s data security concerns surrounding the US chip designer’s products may be also colored by a desire to help promote domestic champion Huawei’s offerings.

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With their recent surge, Intel shares just hit their highest level since the dot-com era

Intel’s surge of nearly 60% this month has the iconic American chipmaker’s stock price approaching levels last seen during the dot-com era. Bloomberg noted that shares just touched their highest intraday level since the turn of the century:

The stock rose as much as 1.5% to $69.55, topping a peak it hit on Jan. 24, 2020. The shares are up 90% this year, after soaring 84% in 2025. Intel is now roughly 8% from its all-time closing high of $74.88, established on Aug. 31, 2000.

That’s just the most recent late-’90s-era throwback we’ve been seeing in tech shares lately. Oracle is currently pacing for its best week since late 1999.

What’s even more remarkable, however, is that Intel’s forward price-to-earnings ratio today dwarfs the premiums the market was putting on the stock during the nuttiness of the dot-com mania.

That reflects the fact that the recent run-up in Intel shares is, essentially, giving the chip giant credit for a massive turnaround that hasn’t actually happened yet.

One also might wonder if the fact that Intel is partially owned by the US government means it’s more attractive — and therefore worth a higher premium — than other chipmakers without the state imprimatur.

Still, kind of startling.

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Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 pill hit nearly 1,400 prescriptions in first week

Eli Lilly rose after preliminary numbers cited by Wall Street analysts showed strong uptake of its new weight-loss pill.

The FDA approved Foundayo on April 1 and shipments began on April 9. In its first week, roughly 1,400 US prescriptions were written for the drug, according to IQVIA data cited by Deustche Bank analysts in a Friday note.

Novo Nordisk, Lilly’s rival in the GLP-1 market, released its GLP-1 pill earlier this year, and early signs show that it’s expanding the market, inviting patients who were turned off by weekly injections. Novo’s pill had a stronger first week than Lilly’s, with its Wegovy pill hitting 3,071 US prescriptions in the first four days after its launch on January 5.

Lilly’s pill has an advantage over Novo’s, which is that it can be taken at any time of day, with or without food. Lilly disclosed in a February regulatory filing that it had $1.5 billion worth of prelaunch inventory ready ahead of the FDA approval — which is about as much as analysts polled by FactSet expect it to sell this year.

Novo Nordisk, Lilly’s rival in the GLP-1 market, released its GLP-1 pill earlier this year, and early signs show that it’s expanding the market, inviting patients who were turned off by weekly injections. Novo’s pill had a stronger first week than Lilly’s, with its Wegovy pill hitting 3,071 US prescriptions in the first four days after its launch on January 5.

Lilly’s pill has an advantage over Novo’s, which is that it can be taken at any time of day, with or without food. Lilly disclosed in a February regulatory filing that it had $1.5 billion worth of prelaunch inventory ready ahead of the FDA approval — which is about as much as analysts polled by FactSet expect it to sell this year.

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Critical Metals jumps after Greenland’s government approves CRML to take majority control of the Tanbreez mining project

Critical Metals is up more than 25% in premarket trading on Friday after the critical mining company announced that it now owns 92.5% of the Tanbreez rare earth deposit following an approval from the government of Greenland.

With that latest government support, Critical Minerals added an additional 50.5% stake to its ownership, reportedly acquired from Rimbal Pty Ltd, per Bloomberg News. With access to eight heavy rare earth elements often used in consumer electronics and defense, the site is one of the world’s largest undeveloped rare earth deposits and a key source of rare earth supply outside of China, according to the company.

In Critical Metals’ press release, Chairman Tony Sage commented that the approval “removes the most significant structural overhang on the project and provides the clarity to advance Tanbreez to production with confidence,” especially as Tanbreez’s location offers a significant logistical advantage through its year-round direct shipping access, compared to rival projects.

With 92.5% of the project now vested in Critical Metals Corp., and the remainder owned by European Lithium Ltd., CRML now has full control of the project and is seeking to accelerate development there, with plans for a new international airport and a 150-tonne bulk sample program, which is slated for June 2026.

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