https://www.scmp.com/rss/522018/feed David Sacks, a venture capitalist and Silicon Valley insider, is a former PayPal chief operating officer who is also known for hosting a hit podcast. In March 2026, he concluded his tenure as the White House’s “AI and crypto tsar”, a role limited by federal rules to 130 days of service per year. Transitioning from this position, Sacks planned to co-chair the US president’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Reuters Reuters US President Donald Trump appointed Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to a council that will weigh ‌in on AI policy and other issues, the White House said on Wednesday. Google co-founder Sergey Brin and AMD CEO Lisa Su are also part of the initial batch of 13 members from the industry named to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Trump ⁠has made securing US leadership in artificial... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3347903/trump-names-ceos-meta-nvidia-13-member-science-and-tech-council?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3347903/trump-names-ceos-meta-nvidia-13-member-science-and-tech-council?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Mar 2026 14:22:02 +0000 Xinmei Shen Xinmei Shen The administration of US President Donald Trump on Friday unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI) policy framework aimed at curbing state-level restrictions on innovation, as it urged Congress to address AI risks and reinforce the US edge in an intensifying technology race with China. Congress should pre-empt state AI laws that “impose undue burdens”, to ensure a national standard instead of “fifty discordant ones”, Trump said in a new legislative recommendation named the National AI... https://www.scmp.com/news/us/diplomacy/article/3347396/trump-administration-moves-unify-ai-rules-bolster-edge-over-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/us/diplomacy/article/3347396/trump-administration-moves-unify-ai-rules-bolster-edge-over-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Mar 2026 19:43:27 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo If you think the Israeli-American war of aggression against Iran is bad, it could get a lot worse. For the first time, a senior American official has openly acknowledged that Israel possesses nuclear warheads and could deploy them in the war. “Israel is getting hit harder than they’ve ever been hit before in their history,” said David Sacks, the White House’s artificial intelligence and crypto tsar, on the All-In Podcast. “If this war continues for weeks or months, then Israel could just be... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3347172/why-world-may-now-need-iranian-nuclear-bomb?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3347172/why-world-may-now-need-iranian-nuclear-bomb?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Mar 2026 12:30:08 +0000 Lawrence Chung Lawrence Chung Taiwan’s parliament is set to prioritise review of a disputed NT$1.25 trillion (US$40 billion) special defence budget bill when its new session begins on Tuesday, as pressure mounts from Washington. But US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks about consulting Chinese President Xi Jinping on arms sales could complicate the debate, potentially giving Taipei’s opposition parties greater room to manoeuvre and reshape the final version of the bill, according to analysts. The renewed push follows... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3344220/how-trumps-beijing-bargaining-could-derail-taiwans-multibillion-dollar-defence-budget?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3344220/how-trumps-beijing-bargaining-could-derail-taiwans-multibillion-dollar-defence-budget?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Feb 2026 10:00:26 +0000 Khushboo Razdan,Bochen Han Khushboo Razdan,Bochen Han A move to curb US President Donald Trump’s power to sell advanced AI chips to China moved a step closer on Wednesday when a Republican-led congressional panel joined hands with their Democratic counterparts, brushing aside objections from the White House and chip giant Nvidia. The action has put Representative Brian Mast, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on a collision course with Trump’s top AI adviser David Sacks and drawn sharp criticism from Maga-aligned... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3340751/trumps-decision-sell-ai-chips-china-under-pressure-house-bill-against-deal-advances?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3340751/trumps-decision-sell-ai-chips-china-under-pressure-house-bill-against-deal-advances?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Jan 2026 23:14:09 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo If you ever question why Beijing is wise to have kept China’s richest in line, just take a look at those unbound American billionaires who run the current government under Donald Trump. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and his small circle of multibillionaires have an outsize influence on the public policies and agendas of the United States. They are practically a law unto themselves. Last week, Bloomberg dropped a bombshell on Tesla, of which Musk is CEO. “This reporting turned up at least... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3337955/how-elon-musk-and-his-merry-band-billionaires-run-united-states?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3337955/how-elon-musk-and-his-merry-band-billionaires-run-united-states?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Dec 2025 15:53:29 +0000 Reuters Reuters US President Donald Trump’s ‌administration has launched a review that could result in the first shipments to China of Nvidia’s H200 chips, five sources said, making good on his pledge to allow the controversial sales. Trump this month said he would allow sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, with the US government collecting a 25 per cent fee, and that the sales would help keep US firms ahead by cutting demand for Chinese-developed chips. The move drew fire from China hawks across the US... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3337039/us-launches-review-nvidias-h200-chip-sales-china-sources?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3337039/us-launches-review-nvidias-h200-chip-sales-china-sources?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Dec 2025 07:30:05 +0000 Bloomberg Bloomberg OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pushed back at the idea that the company would seek federal guarantees to reduce the risk of its artificial intelligence infrastructure spending spree, one day after a top executive at the ChatGPT maker suggested there may be a role for the government to help finance the technology. “We do not have or want government guarantees for OpenAI data centres,” Altman wrote in a lengthy social media post on Thursday. “Taxpayers should not bail out companies that make bad business... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3331851/sam-altman-says-openai-does-not-want-government-bailout-ai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3331851/sam-altman-says-openai-does-not-want-government-bailout-ai?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Nov 2025 02:00:38 +0000 Meredith Chen,Zhao Ziwen,Fan Chen Meredith Chen,Zhao Ziwen,Fan Chen US President Donald Trump hailed his high-stakes meeting on Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a “great success”, marked by progress on thorny trade issues. Trump agreed to reduce America’s fentanyl-related tariffs on China by 10 percentage points and cut the overall tariff rate on Chinese imports from 57 per cent to 47 per cent. For its part, Beijing will resume buying US farm products, including soybeans, and delay by one year the implementation of its most sweeping export controls on... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3331093/how-are-leading-western-think-tanks-unboxing-xi-trump-summit-breakthroughs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3331093/how-are-leading-western-think-tanks-unboxing-xi-trump-summit-breakthroughs?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 31 Oct 2025 10:40:56 +0000 Lawrence Chung,Zhao Ziwen Lawrence Chung,Zhao Ziwen The spectacular collapse of Taiwan’s mass recall campaign against opposition lawmakers over the weekend has averted an immediate cross-strait crisis, according to analysts. Yet the ripple effects are reverberating across the Pacific – casting fresh uncertainty over Taiwan’s defence ambitions, complicating its ties with the US, and recalibrating the island’s delicate political balance amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington. Saturday’s unprecedented recall vote, which targeted 24... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3320282/taiwan-recall-cross-strait-crisis-averted-now-new-uncertainty-ahead?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3320282/taiwan-recall-cross-strait-crisis-averted-now-new-uncertainty-ahead?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Jul 2025 12:00:09 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo China policy – or for that matter any policy – coming out of the Donald Trump White House is not usually known for being the product of considered thought and deliberation. But allowing China to resume buying more legacy chips other than the most advanced ones may be its most rational and defensible yet. Negotiations after Geneva and London led to China loosening export controls on rare earths and the US allowing chipmakers such as Nvidia to resume selling its H20 artificial intelligence (AI)... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3319757/trump-right-reverse-bidens-failed-curbs-chips-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3319757/trump-right-reverse-bidens-failed-curbs-chips-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Jul 2025 13:00:12 +0000 Bochen Han Bochen Han The White House on Wednesday released proposals to restrict exports of American AI equipment and limit the spread of Chinese AI models as part of a sweeping plan to shape the rules governing the fast-moving technology. The 28-page AI Action Plan marks US President Donald Trump’s administration’s first comprehensive strategy on the topic and comes as national security hawks have raised concerns that superior American chips may reach China – including through third countries – and advance its AI... https://www.scmp.com/news/us/economy-trade-business/article/3319347/trump-administration-issues-plan-limit-ai-exports-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/us/economy-trade-business/article/3319347/trump-administration-issues-plan-limit-ai-exports-china?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Jul 2025 21:31:39 +0000 Khushboo Razdan Khushboo Razdan Washington China hawks are slamming the approval by US President Donald Trump’s administration of resumption of the sale of Nvidia’s downgraded H20 AI chip to China, questioning the move’s rationale and whether it was part of the June London trade deal between the two countries, as the administration claims. Trump banned the sale of the Nvidia chip, designed to avoid export control restrictions imposed by President Joe Biden’s administration, in April as the trade war between the two global... https://www.scmp.com/news/us/economy-trade-business/article/3319205/washington-china-hawks-slam-us-approval-h20-chip-sales?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/us/economy-trade-business/article/3319205/washington-china-hawks-slam-us-approval-h20-chip-sales?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Jul 2025 19:47:35 +0000 Brian Rhoads,Raymond Ma Brian Rhoads,Raymond Ma Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lauded China’s booming artificial intelligence (AI) sector, a day after the chipmaker said that it will soon be able to resume shipments of H20 chips to the country. China’s open-source AI is a “catalyst for global progress,” Huang said on Wednesday in Beijing during the opening ceremony for the 3rd China International Supply Chain Expo. It is “giving every country and industry a chance to join the AI revolution”, he said. Huang’s third trip to China this year comes after... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3318411/nvidia-chips-china-mark-tactical-shift-us-tech-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3318411/nvidia-chips-china-mark-tactical-shift-us-tech-war?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Jul 2025 09:00:10 +0000 Meredith Chen Meredith Chen The “uneasy alliance” between America’s tech elite and Donald Trump’s populist right base could undermine the country’s competitiveness against China in the long run by cutting off talent and global markets, according to analysts. They also pointed to growing ties between the tech sector and the defence industry – including a new initiative enlisting senior tech executives to the Army Reserve – saying the “tech hawks” could step up threats against China. The political influence of tech leaders... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3317851/why-uneasy-alliance-between-us-tech-titans-and-maga-may-backfire-china-rivalry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3317851/why-uneasy-alliance-between-us-tech-titans-and-maga-may-backfire-china-rivalry?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Jul 2025 04:00:07 +0000