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A senior member of the US Federal Reserve on Friday said he voted against cutting interest rates this week because inflation was “too high” for comfort. Kansas City Fed president Jeff Schmid was one of two people who dissented on Wednesday’s vote, at which the US central bank backed a quarter percentage-point rate cut. The other dissent was Fed governor Stephen Miran, who wanted a larger rate cut. “The labor market is largely in balance, the economy shows continued momentum, and inflation remains too high,” Schmid said in a statement. “I view the stance of policy as only modestly restrictive,” added Schmid, who has a vote on the Fed’s rate-setting committee this year. “In this context, I judged it appropriate to maintain the policy rate at this week’s meeting.”US consumer inflation data came in hot at 3.0 percent in the 12 months to September, though the Fed uses a different measure that is also stuck above the two-percent target.The Fed’s rate decision brought interest rates down to between 3.75 percent and 4.00 percent, easing the burden slightly on businesses and consumers looking to borrow money.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday after the decision was published, Fed chair Jerome Powell said that while there had been broad agreement on a cut this time, there was less clarity on what would happen next.”There were strongly differing views about how to proceed in December,” he said. “A further reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a foregone conclusion, far from it.”Speaking in Washington on Friday, President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor sounded a different note on the health of the world’s largest economy, flagging the recent consumer inflation data which came in slightly below expectations. “We’re glad that they reduced the interest rate,” Kevin Hassett, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, told reporters. “The Fed is flying blind a little bit, but we have a government shutdown, which is a negative for the economy,” he said. “And against that backdrop, the idea that the Fed would be backing away from their promised rate reductions in the future is puzzling to us.”Among the 10-2 majority voting for a quarter-point cut this week was Fed governor Christopher Waller, a Trump nominee who is on the five-person shortlist to take over from Powell when he steps down as Fed chair next May. “All of our forecasts have inflation coming back down the target,” he told Larry Kudlow on Fox Business on Friday.”Yes, it’s high, it’s been high, but it’s fully coming back. And the biggest concern we have right now is the labor market,” he said. “So this is why I’m still advocating we cut policy rates in December, because that’s what all the data is telling me to do.”Futures traders slashed their expectations of a December rate cut, and now see only a 65 percent probability of a quarter-point move in December, according to CME Group data. 

The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater is a smaller venue that typically features everything from A-list classical music recitals to dance performances to film screenings.The venue in the US capital’s venerable arts complex is also available for rent, and on Thursday, it hosted a different kind of event: a conference on “ending Christian persecution” organized by the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).The series of lectures bookended by prayers is emblematic of the overhaul at the center engineered by Donald Trump since his return to the White House in January.”The calculation has changed now — it has become more of a government arts organization,” Andrew Taylor, director of the arts management program at American University, told AFP.During his first term, the Republican billionaire never attended the annual fundraising gala for recipients of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors, as many of those artists vocally opposed his policies.This time, Trump moved quickly to make the center his own, purging the board of trustees of its Democratic appointees and ousting its president as part of a wider assault on federally funded cultural institutions he deems too “woke.”He installed himself as the chair of the board for the towering white monument to slain president John F. Kennedy facing the Potomac River, which opened in 1971.In less than a year, some observers say, the status of the center — a public-private partnership — as a nonpartisan celebration of artistic excellence has largely evaporated.Taylor said the center was now “fully aligned with the current administration, and not an independent arbiter of artistic excellence anymore.”The center’s new president, former diplomat Richard Grenell, has repeatedly spoken about what he calls “common sense and traditional programming.”Some artists have canceled their appearances, and the producers of smash Broadway hit “Hamilton” have scrapped a run scheduled to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.Meanwhile, in September, a prayer vigil was organized at the center for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, after his murder in Utah.- ‘Back to life’ -At the CPAC event, near a large American flag, the keynote speaker was Jennifer Korn, the faith director of the White House Faith Office. She praised Trump for creating the office, which he did in February to “protect religious liberty,” according to an executive order — a concept already established in the Constitution’s First Amendment.But she quickly shifted to echo some of the administration’s talking points about “anti-Christian bias” and the dangers of “transgender books” for children.In the Concert Hall, Grenell has ordered the National Symphony Orchestra to play the national anthem ahead of each performance, rather than just to open the season.The shift in tone at the Kennedy Center — down to the portrait of a brooding Trump in the entryway — may be bad for business.A Washington Post analysis published Friday reveals that ticket sales for orchestra, dance and theater performances are down sharply in 2025 as compared to last year.Since early September, 43 percent of tickets remained unsold for typical concerts or musical performances, the paper said — as opposed to just seven percent of seats available last year.The decline in sales has not stopped Trump from undertaking major renovations at the center — from the carpets to the chandeliers to the heating — and musing about putting his name on the complex.”I just inspected the construction on The Kennedy Center. It is really looking good!” Trump wrote Friday on his Truth Social platform.”My people are doing a really great job! We are bringing this building back to life. It was dead as a doornail, but it will soon be beautiful again!”

The US government shutdown barreled towards its second month Friday and the pain is spreading fast — with federal workers broke, food aid under threat and millions of Americans caught in the crossfire.What started on October 1 as a Washington sideshow has morphed into a slow-motion implosion of public services and a growing economic convulsion, with federal offices dark and President Donald Trump’s government stuck in neutral.Republicans have warned that millions will begin feeling the full force of the shutdown for the first time this weekend, as unresolved fights over funding for health care and food stamps make them hungrier and poorer.”Most people haven’t noticed up until this week. Thanks to Donald Trump finding a way to pay our troops last month, that pain was delayed,” Republican House Whip Tom Emmer told Fox News. “But, starting this week… this is starting to become very real.”At the heart of the fight is the expiry of insurance subsidies that make health care affordable for more than 20 million people. Premiums are expected to skyrocket when the new sign-up period opens Saturday.Democrats refuse to reopen the government without a deal to extend the subsidies but Trump’s Republicans say they won’t talk until the lights are back on.As Washington bickers, the shutdown is starting to pinch where it really hurts — the dinner table. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps 42 million low-income Americans buy groceries, is set to run out of funds this weekend. A federal judge in Rhode Island gave the program a temporary reprieve, ordering the White House on Friday to use emergency funds to pay for food stamps during the shutdown, in a case brought by charities and other groups. But the administration has been arguing that it cannot legally tap that fund, and it was not immediately clear, despite the ruling, that Americans would get their weekend SNAP payments.CNN reported that it asked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins if she would comply with a judge’s order to release the money and she responded: “We’re looking at all the options.”- Air travel hit -WIC — the food aid program for pregnant women, new mothers and infants — is also on the brink, while “Head Start” programs that provide nutrition and family support to 65,000 infants could begin shuttering from Saturday. With uncertainty over food stamps giving Americans heartburn, communities have begun banding together to help vulnerable neighbors.Kerry Chausmer, 55, from Bethesda in Maryland, said she was buying groceries for two local families in need — at a personal cost likely to total at least $200.”I think that you can judge a culture by how they help the people that need it most… We’re failing, and I am honestly despondent and embarrassed to be an American,” she told AFP.The administration says it has scraped together enough money to cover Friday’s payday for active-duty troops, but acknowledges that they could go unpaid by mid-November. And US air travel was beginning to suffer badly, with New York area airports John F Kennedy, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia all under restrictions due in part to reduced staffing at control towers. A ground stop was in effect at JFK until mid-afternoon, with delays clocking in at 60 to 100 minutes. Delays above three hours were expected at Newark while some passengers were bracing to be held up by as much as five hours at LaGuardia. Trump, whose shadow hangs over every Republican move, has largely stayed out of the shutdown fight, although lawmakers on both sides hope he’ll swoop in to broker a deal on the health care subsidies. He repeated his pledge to sit down with Democrats over their demands — but only after the shutdown is over.”We’ll meet very quickly, but they have to open up the country,” he told reporters. “It’s their fault. Everything is their fault. It’s so easily solved.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said Friday that the agency had thwarted a “potential terrorist attack” planned in the northern US state of Michigan over Halloween weekend.Patel did not provide any details about the alleged plot but CBS News, citing law enforcement sources, said it was “inspired” by the Islamic State (IS).”This morning the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend,” Patel said in a post on X.”Through swift action and close coordination with our local partners, a potential act of terror was stopped before it could unfold.”CBS said five people between the ages of 16 and 20 were arrested Friday and one or more of them may have known a former member of the Michigan National Guard who was arrested in May for planning an IS-inspired attack on a US Army site in suburban Detroit.The Federal Bureau of Investigation had been monitoring an online discussion about the plot for some time, the broadcaster said.According to CNN, members of the group had chatted online about carrying out an attack, practiced with automatic weapons at a shooting range and made references to “pumpkin day.”In a post on Facebook, the police department in Dearborn, a city west of Detroit, said the FBI had conducted operations there early Friday.”We want to assure our residents that there is no threat to the community at this time,” the police department said.FBI agents were spotted searching homes in the Dearborn area Friday morning.

Rachel Mosley, a Florida pre-school teacher, recently learned her family’s health insurance premiums are set to nearly triple to a staggering $4,000 a month next year when US government subsidies expire.Like more than 20 million middle-class Americans, Mosley and her husband until now have benefited from subsidies connected to the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.But under US President Donald Trump, these subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year — and Republicans for now are refusing to negotiate their extension.The explosive issue is core to the budget standoff between Republicans and Democrats, which has triggered a shutdown that has paralyzed the American federal government for a month.And on November 1, insurance renewals and enrollments open — leaving households across the country to learn their new rates with terror.”I had some tears on my front porch,” Mosley — a mother of five kids, who makes around $24,000 a year as a teacher — told AFP. Combined with her salary and her husband’s work as a physician’s assistant, she said “it’s a third of our income.””I can’t possibly imagine how we could pay it.”Mosley, 46, works part-time because she had a heart attack last year — she thought she was in perfect health but nearly died.So canceling insurance altogether isn’t an option: if “I have to go to the hospital for a heart attack or stroke…how would I pay the bill?””I really wouldn’t be able to pay.”It’s an impossible choice with rippling effects nationwide.Audrey Horn, a 60-year-old retiree from Nebraska, is in similar panic.Her premium is currently fully covered by the federal government, but it is set to go from more than $1,740 to more than $2,430 — and that substantial subsidy is in limbo.Horn’s husband works for a small construction company and is paid by the hour. She said they’re already feeling the impact of inflation and simply do not have the budget to absorb such a health care increase.”I balance my checkbook to the penny,” she told AFP, saying they share a very small house and drive old cars. “We don’t have a lot.”- Societal ‘burden’ -In the US, about half of American workers receive health insurance through their employers. The rest — employees of small businesses, self-employed individuals, people working part-time, and those working multiple jobs or doing contract work — are largely covered through “Obamacare.”The program’s subsidies were created with the goal to “bridge the gap” between the enormous price of US health insurance and what people can actually pay, explained Mark Shepard, a Harvard economist and public policy expert.The subsidies got a boost during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, but are now set to decrease or even disappear — even as the cost of living continues to soar.KFF, a health policy think tank, said the expiration would mean the average premium cost of $888 in 2025 would spike to $1,906 next year.The Congressional Budget Office estimates that dramatic increase will mean 4 million Americans will lose their health insurance.”There’s going to be a burden on the overall society,” said Shepard, because people will still show up uninsured, frequently to emergency rooms.When that happens people accumulate debts that can easily amount to tens of thousands of dollars — and when they’re unable to pay, “the hospitals or local governments or state governments end up bearing the burden of that cost,” he said.Mosley has called and written to her Republican senators in recent days, urging them to reconsider their positions.She hasn’t received a response.On the other side of the country, Claire Hartley, who owns a California yoga studio, is making similar calls — and asking her Democratic representatives to “stand firm.”Hartley received notice that premiums for her, her husband and their 18-year-old daughter would go from $1,100 a month to $2,022 next year.”The longer the Republicans wait, the more people are going to get these notices,” she told AFP, voicing hope that people will become more aware of the political battle and what’s at stake.She’s urging people to contact their reps and say “‘wait, I can’t afford this. You can’t cave to these demands.'”

By ordering a resumption of nuclear testing, US President Donald Trump risks an expanded arms race that could benefit China, experts say — something especially concerning given the shaky status of international arms control efforts.Trump caught the world by surprise when he announced the order just hours before meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea, saying Washington would start testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Moscow and Beijing.”We are already in the midst of a three-way arms race among Russia, the United States, and China,” said William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.”A resumption in testing of nuclear warheads would make this unstable situation worse, possibly far worse,” he said.Trump said US testing would begin “immediately,” drawing pushback from both China and Russia.Beijing expressed its hope that Washington would respect its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and “take concrete actions to safeguard the global nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation system.”And Moscow, which recently tested nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable weapons — the Burevestnik cruise missile and the Poseidon underwater drone — insisted that those moves did not constitute a direct test of an atomic weapon.- China would benefit -But it seems that Pandora’s box has been opened.”By foolishly announcing his intention to resume nuclear testing, Trump will trigger strong international opposition that could unleash a chain reaction of nuclear testing by US adversaries, and blow apart the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,” Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl Kimball said in a statement.Doreen Horschig of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) meanwhile said that “the only one who would benefit from nuclear warhead testing would be China, because they haven’t done as many as Russia and the US.”According to experts, China is developing its nuclear arsenal at a rapid pace, but still remains far behind the United States and Russia, the world’s two leading nuclear powers.The Pentagon warned last year that China moving faster than anticipated on nuclear arms, particularly in regard to the development of operational warheads.As of early 2025, China had a total of 600 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.- ‘Big risk’ -International nuclear arms control efforts have meanwhile suffered setbacks.The latest arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow — known as New Start, which limited each party to 1,550 deployed strategic offensive warheads and includes a currently suspended verification mechanism — will expire in February 2026.Russia has proposed extending the agreement for a year, but has not mentioned any inspections of arsenals.Asked in October about the issue, Trump responded that extending the deal “sounds like a good idea to me,” but the US government has yet to give an indication of what it plans to do.In July, the Republican leader also said that “we are starting to work on that” issue, noting that it “is a big problem for the world when you take off nuclear restrictions.”The United States also withdrew in 2019 from a major 1987 disarmament treaty on intermediate-range nuclear forces.Aside from North Korea, no state has officially conducted an explosive nuclear test in three decades, but countries including the United States regularly test their delivery systems such as missiles and warplanes.Horschig said that as far as nuclear weapons themselves, “everything is done now through computational testing.””The US is far ahead of Russia and China on how much data it has from this, so it really doesn’t need it at the moment,” she said of explosive testing.”None of them actually want to return to testing, but because they’re thinking the other is preparing for testing, then that’s how we end up testing. So that’s the big risk involved at the moment,” Horschig added.

G7 countries will have to use “non-market” tactics to curb China’s dominance in rare earth production, the US energy secretary said Friday, calling the effort a “strategic necessity.”Energy ministers from the Group of Seven meeting in Toronto this week are working on a coordinated effort to diversify supply chains of the materials vital to high-tech products, where China has built outsized control.”China, frankly, just used non-market practices to squish the rest of the world out of manufacturing those products, so it got strategic leverage. Everybody sees that now,” US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told reporters.”We need to establish our own ability to mine, process, refine, and create the products that come out of rare earth elements,” Wright said.”We’re going to have to intervene and use some non-market forces.”Repeating a widely shared accusation made against Beijing, Wright said China had used its rare earth stockpiles to manipulate global prices.”As soon as you start to invest, someone floods the market and crushes the prices. (China has) chilled investments,” he said.Wright did not specify what type of non-market practices President Donald Trump’s administration would support.But experts have called on the G7 and its allies to back policies that favor suppliers which bypass Chinese-controlled firms and use public subsidies to support new initiatives that could broaden the market. Energy ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States are meeting in Toronto after Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping reached a deal that will see Beijing suspend certain rare earth export restrictions for at least one year.Rare earths are needed to make a range of sophisticated products, and the prospect of China limiting exports had rattled markets.Trump’s tariffs have strained relations within the G7, but Wright said there was “no disagreement within the group” on the need to diversify rare earth supply chains.Canada’s Energy Minister Tim Hodgson, who is hosting the meeting which ends on Friday, said the G7 is aiming to launch a new alliance to upend the global supply of critical minerals, including rare earths.The alliance would mobilize private investment and advance other policies to expand critical mineral production that bypasses China.

The US government shutdown barreled towards its second month Friday and the pain is spreading fast — with federal workers broke, food aid vanishing and millions of Americans caught in the crossfire.What started on October 1 as a Washington sideshow has morphed into a slow-motion implosion of public services and a growing economic convulsion, with federal offices dark and President Donald Trump’s government stuck in neutral.Republicans have warned that millions will begin feeling the full force of the shutdown for the first time this weekend, as unresolved fights over funding for health care and food stamps make them hungrier and poorer.”Most people haven’t noticed up until this week. Thanks to Donald Trump finding a way to pay our troops last month, that pain was delayed,” Republican House Whip Tom Emmer told Fox News. “But, starting this week… this is starting to become very real.”At the heart of the fight is money to help Americans cover health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Those subsidies — a lifeline for more than 20 million people — are set to expire at year’s end and, unless Congress acts, premiums will skyrocket when the new sign-up period opens Saturday.But Washington’s warring parties are locked in a familiar, bitter loop, as Democrats refuse to reopen the government without a deal to extend the subsidies and with Trump’s Republicans saying they won’t talk until the lights are back on.As Washington bickers, the shutdown’s fallout is rippling through everyday life and starting to pinch where it really hurts — the dinner table. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps 42 million low-income Americans buy groceries, is set to run out of funds this weekend. Democrats have been pushing the White House to use $5 billion in emergency cash to cover food stamps but the administration says it cannot legally tap that fund.- ‘Breaking point’ -“We are now reaching a breaking point thanks to Democrats voting no on government funding now 14 different times,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters.”You’re going to have real people, real families — you’re going to have children — who will go hungry beginning this weekend,” he added.With no end to the shutdown in sight, the deadlines are piling up fast.WIC — the food aid program for pregnant women, new mothers and infants — is also on the brink, while “Head Start” programs that provide nutrition and family support to 65,000 infants could begin shuttering from Saturday. The administration says it has scraped together enough money to cover Friday’s payday for active-duty troops, but acknowledges that they could go unpaid by mid-November. Some 670,000 federal workers have been sent home without pay, and another 730,000 — from park rangers to air traffic controllers — are working for nothing. Many missed their entire pay for the first time this week. The country’s largest federal workers’ union, AFGE, is begging Congress to pass a stopgap bill to get paychecks flowing again. But even that has become political quicksand, with Democrats holding the line.Still, there are faint signs of life on Capitol Hill. After weeks of political trench warfare, a handful of centrist Democrats and pragmatic Republicans have quietly started sketching possible compromises, most hinging on a commitment to tackle health care once the government reopens. And looming somewhere in the wings is Trump, whose shadow hangs over every Republican move. Lawmakers on both sides hope he’ll swoop in to broker a deal on the Obamacare subsidies. In a rare intervention in the crisis, Trump called Thursday for the Senate to scrap its 60-vote threshold for legislation to pass, which would strip Democrats of all their leverage. Americans blame the shutdown on Trump and the Republicans over Democrats by 45 percent to 33 percent, according to the latest ABC/Washington Post poll. Independents blame Republicans by a 2-to-1 margin. 

Meta raised $30 billion in debt on Thursday, as tech giants flush with cash turn to borrowing to finance the expensive race to lead in artificial intelligence.On a day when Facebook-parent Meta’s share price plunged on the heels of disappointing quarterly earnings, demand for its bonds was reportedly four times greater than supply in a market keen to hold the social networking titan’s debt.The $30 billion in bonds scheduled to be repaid over the course of decades is intended to provide money to continue a breakneck pace of AI development that has come to define the sector.”(Mark) Zuckerberg seems like he’s got no limit in terms of his spending,” said CFRA Research senior equity analyst Angelo Zino.Zino noted that Meta takes in more than $100 billion a year, and that while Wall Street may be concerned with Zuckerberg’s spending it sees little risk debt won’t get repaid.”(But) they just can’t use up all their excess free cash flow and completely leverage it into AI.”The analyst wouldn’t be surprised to see Meta AI rivals Google and Microsoft opt for similar debt moves.Shareholder worry over Meta spending, on the other hand, is believed to be what drove the tech firm’s share price down more than 11 percent during trading hours on Thursday.Meta’s debt, however, drew flocks of investors despite rates for corporate bonds being at decade lows, noted Byron Anderson, head of fixed income at Laffer Tengler Investments.”Is there some worry about the AI trade? Maybe,” Anderson said. “But the revenue and profit coming off that company are massive.”If not for a one-time charge related to US President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, Meta would have recorded $18.6 billion in its recently ended quarter.That amount of net income is more than General Motors, Netflix, Walmart and Visa profits for that quarter combined.- FOMO? -Anderson doubts that so-called fear of missing out on the AI revolution drove demand for Meta’s bond.  “I don’t think this was FOMO,” he said.”People want good quality names in their portfolios at attractive levels, and this is a high-quality name — just like Oracle.”Business cloud application and infrastructure stalwart Oracle is reported to have raised $18 billion in a bond offering last month.According to Bloomberg, the Texas-based tech firm is poised to issue an additional $38 billion in debt, this time through banks rather than bond sales.Debt taken on by major AI firms is typically secured by physical assets, such as data centers or the coveted graphics processing units (GPUs) vital to the technology.Given the cash flow and physical assets of tech titans, risk is low for lenders. And the markets have been shaking off the possibility of an AI bubble that might burst.Meta just days ago announced creation of a joint venture with asset manager Blue Owl Capital to raise some $27 billion for datacenter construction.Meta and Oracle are also benefiting from recent moves by the US Federal Reserve to reduce the cost of borrowing.The trend toward debt is new for internet giants long accustomed to having ample cash flow to pay for what they want.Crucially, debt markets would not be as welcoming to AI startups such as OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity which have yet to turn profits.”I learned in my profession that if a company is not making profits and they issue (debt), that is a risky proposition,” Anderson said.The analyst reasoned that young AI companies like those will have to raise money through equity stakes — where the financier gets a stake in the company — as they have done so far.”I don’t know why they would go into the debt market,” Anderson said of such startups.”It would be too expensive for them,” he added, meaning the lenders would charge them much higher rates than the likes of cash cows like Meta.

US tech giant Nvidia said on Friday it will supply 260,000 of its most cutting-edge chips to South Korea, as CEO Jensen Huang met President Lee Jae Myung and the heads of the country’s biggest companies on the sidelines of the APEC summit. South Korea is home to two of the world’s leading memory chip makers — Samsung Electronics and SK hynix — which manufacture chips essential for artificial intelligence products and the data centres that the fast-evolving industry relies on.President Lee has also expressed his hope that the country can become the world’s third AI power after the United States and China.Speaking to media after the announcement, Huang said that goal was “ambitious”.But, he said, “there’s no reason why Korea cannot achieve it — you have the technology, you have the software expertise and you also have a natural ability to build manufacturing plants”.Nvidia has been caught in the middle of that geopolitical tussle.Its chips are currently not sold in China due to a combination of Beijing government bans, US national security concerns and ongoing trade tensions.Huang has urged the United States to allow the sale of US-made AI chips in China in order to ensure Silicon Valley companies remain a global powerhouse in providing artificial intelligence.”The US government and the Chinese government have to decide what role they would like Nvidia to play,” Huang told reporters on Friday. “I’ve been very clear that having Nvidia technology in China is in the best interest of the United States and in the best interest of China as well,” he said.”I’m optimistic,” he added.And asked if he wanted Nvidia’s most high-tech chip, the Blackwell, to be sold in China, he said: “I hope so”.”But that’s a decision for President Trump to make.”Nvidia’s chips featured in talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Gyeongju this week.Beijing has ramped up its chip industry to beat Washington’s export restrictions on the critical component used to power AI systems.- Chicken and chips -Under Friday’s deal, 50,000 of the graphics processing units will go towards a new “AI factory” being built by Samsung Electronics. “By deploying more than 50,000 Nvidia GPUs, AI will be embedded throughout Samsung’s entire manufacturing flow,” the Korean tech giant said.SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group will also receive 50,000 chips for use in AI facilities.NAVER Cloud — which operates South Korea’s largest search engine — will receive 60,000 to expand its AI infrastructure. A further 50,000 will be deployed across Seoul’s National AI Computing Center and to cloud service and IT providers.Huang has sought to forge closer ties with South Korean tech giants in his visit to the country this week.He met Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Eui-sun on Thursday for “chimaek” — a beloved South Korean pairing of fried chicken and beer — in the capital Seoul.The restaurant, Kkanbu, was reportedly chosen by Nvidia because the term — popularised by Netflix’s megahit “Squid Game” and meaning “friend” — was intended to highlight the spirit of friendship underpinning their AI and chip collaborations.Nvidia in July became the first company to top $4 trillion in market capitalisation, and followed that up by becoming the first to hit $5 trillion following an event on Tuesday where it announced new ventures building on its AI technology.