Meta and the Federal Trade Commission make their opening arguments in a trial that could end with a divestment of Instagram and WhatsApp. Plus: A tariff reprieve sends tech stocks higher, and Nvidia says it will make AI supercomputers entirely in the U.S. Victoria Craig hosts.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
[00:00:01] Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Monday, April 14. I'm Victoria Craig for The Wall Street Journal. A rollback of tariffs on the tech sector sent the Nasdaq higher today. Shares of hardware makers like Apple and Micron were boosted by an exemption from sweeping U.S. tariffs on smartphones, computers and memory chips that the Trump administration quietly announced over the weekend. The relief might be short-lived, though. President Trump declared on his TruthSocial platform that, quote, nobody is getting off the hook.
[00:00:30] And the Commerce Secretary said separate levies will begin in a couple of months as part of an investigation into the semiconductor trade as it pertains to national security. Meanwhile, NVIDIA raised the Made in America flag today as it seeks to shield itself from the impact of those looming chip tariffs. The company says it'll make its artificial intelligence supercomputers entirely in the U.S.
[00:00:53] To do it, the company has commissioned more than a million square feet of manufacturing space dedicated to producing and testing its Blackwell chips in Arizona and supercomputers in Texas. NVIDIA has set a goal of producing up to $500 billion worth of AI infrastructure in America within the next four years. And finally, Meta and the Federal Trade Commission made their opening statements in a long-simmering antitrust dispute today.
[00:01:18] The trial could result in a forced breakup that would see Meta sell off WhatsApp and Instagram. That's because the FTC alleges Meta has an illegal monopoly on social media. Meta, though, says that's a fundamental misunderstanding about how people use social media. The company says its platforms face sizable competition from places like YouTube and TikTok. The trial in Washington is scheduled to last for the next eight weeks. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Tuesday's Tech News Briefing podcast.