It’s been a tumultuous yr for the U.S. semiconductor business.

The semiconductor business performs a large position within the “AI race” that the U.S. appears decided to win, which is why this context is price listening to: from Intel’s appointment of Lip-Bu Tan to CEO — who wasted no time attending to work attempting to revitalize the legacy firm — to Joe Biden proposing sweeping new AI chip export guidelines on his means out of workplace that by no means got here to fruition.

Right here’s a have a look at what’s occurred up to now in 2025.

August

Nvidia stories file quarter

August 27: The turmoil within the semiconductor market this yr has clearly not harm Nvidia. On August 27, the corporate reported that it had file gross sales within the second quarter. The highlights had been the expansion of its knowledge middle enterprise, which noticed its income develop 56% yr over yr.

U.S. Authorities takes fairness stake in Intel

August 22: The U.S. authorities introduced it was changing current authorities grants into a ten% stake in Intel. The deal was structured to penalize Intel if the corporate’s possession in its foundry program dropped beneath 50%.

SoftBank takes a stake in Intel

August 18: Japanese conglomerate SoftBank introduced it was taking a $2 billion stake in Intel. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son referred to as the deal “strategic.” The transaction was introduced as rumors had been swirling that the U.S. was going to take a stake within the firm.

Chip firms strike a deal to promote in China

August 12: Nvidia and AMD introduced that they struck a take care of the U.S. authorities to realize the mandatory license to promote their AI chips in China. Each firms agreed to pay the U.S. authorities 15% of income from their chip gross sales in China.

Trump and Lip-Bu Tan meet

August 11: Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan went to the White Home to fulfill with President Donald Trump. The pair talked about Tan’s previous and the way Intel will help the U.S. with its objective of bringing semiconductor manufacturing again to the U.S. Each referred to as the dialog productive.

Trump comes for Lip-Bu Tan

August 7: President Donald Trump demanded that Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan “resign instantly” as a result of “conflicts of curiosity” in a Fact Social submit. Whereas Trump didn’t make clear what the conflicts of curiosity had been, this got here the day after Republican Senator Tom Cotton despatched a letter to Intel’s board of administrators inquiring about Tan’s ties to China.

Trump says tariffs are coming for the business

August 5: President Donald Trump informed CNBC’s Squawk Field that he was planning to announce tariffs on the semiconductor business as quickly as the next week. On the time, he didn’t point out specifics on what these tariffs might appear like. As of September 5, no tariffs have been introduced for this business.

July

Intel spins out enterprise unit

July 25: Simply in the future after its second-quarter earnings name, Intel confirmed that it was spinning out its Community and Edge group, which is accountable for making chips for the telecom business. The enterprise unit produced $5.8 billion in income for the semiconductor firm in 2024.

Intel continues to search for effectivity

July 24: Intel introduced that it was pulling again on a few of its manufacturing operations. The corporate will now not pursue its beforehand introduced initiatives in Germany and Poland and is consolidating its check operations. Intel additionally introduced it plans to finish this yr with round 75,000 workers.

Trump’s AI Motion Plan

July 23: The Trump administration unveiled its much-anticipated AI Motion Plan alongside a number of associated govt orders. Whereas the plan features a lot relating to the necessity for U.S. chip export controls and for the U.S. to coordinate with its allies on this effort, it doesn’t present any concrete data on what these restrictions would appear like.

Groundbreaking UAE AI deal reportedly on maintain

July 17: The Trump administration helped foster a groundbreaking deal in Could that resulted in a dedication from the United Arab Emirates to purchase billions of {dollars}’ price of AI chips from Nvidia. However now that deal is reportedly on maintain because the U.S. works by way of nationwide safety issues and fears that these chips could possibly be smuggled from the Center East to China.

Nvidia is a bargaining chip

July 16: A day after semiconductor corporations like Nvidia and AMD received the inexperienced mild to renew promoting sure AI chips to China, we discovered why. U.S. Commerce Safety Howard Lutnick stated the plans to permit U.S. firms to start out promoting AI chips in China are tied to ongoing commerce discussions between the U.S. and China relating to uncommon earth parts.

U.S. chips head again to China

July 14: Nvidia stated it was submitting an software to restart gross sales of H20 AI chips in China, confirming rumors from a number of weeks prior. The corporate additionally introduced that it might be promoting a brand new chip, the RTX Professional, which was designed particularly for the Chinese language market.

Malaysia fights chip smuggling

July 14: Malaysia introduced that it was launching commerce permits for U.S.-made AI chips. Underneath this new restriction, any particular person or enterprise would wish to provide the Malaysian authorities 30 days’ discover earlier than exporting any U.S. AI chips.

June

Intel appoints new management

June 18: Intel introduced 4 new management appointments that Intel says will assist it transfer towards its objective of changing into an engineering-first firm once more. Intel introduced a brand new chief income officer along with a number of high-profile engineering hires.

Intel to start layoffs

June 17: Intel will start to lay off a major chunk of its Intel Foundry workers in July. The corporate plans to eradicate no less than 15%, and as much as 20%, of staff in that enterprise unit. These layoffs aren’t a shock: It was rumored again in April, and Intel’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan has stated he desires to flatten the group.

Nvidia gained’t report on China

June 13: Nvidia isn’t relying on the U.S. backing off from its AI chip export restrictions anytime quickly. After the corporate took a monetary hit from the newly imposed licensing necessities on its H20 AI chips, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated the corporate will now not embrace the Chinese language market in future income and revenue forecasts.

AMD acquires the group behind Untether AI

June 6: AMD makes one other acquisition — this time centered on expertise. The corporate acqui-hired the group behind Untether AI, which develops AI inference chips, because the semiconductor large continues to spherical out its AI choices.

AMD is coming for Nvidia’s AI {hardware} dominance

June 4: AMD continued its purchasing spree. The corporate acquired AI software program optimization startup Brium, which helps firms retrofit AI software program to work with completely different AI {hardware}. With quite a lot of AI software program being designed with Nvidia {hardware} in thoughts, this acquisition isn’t stunning.

Could

Nvidia lays out the influence of chip export restrictions

Could 28: Nvidia reported that U.S. licensing necessities on its H20 AI chips value the corporate $4.5 billion in expenses throughout Q1. The corporate expects these necessities to lead to an $8 billion hit to Nvidia’s income in Q2.

AMD acquires Enosemi

Could 28: AMD kicks off its acquisition spree. The semiconductor firm introduced that it acquired Enosemi, a silicon photonics startup. Enosemi’s tech, which makes use of mild photons to transmit knowledge, is changing into an growing space of curiosity for semiconductor firms.

Tensions begin to flare between China and the U.S.

Could 21: China’s Commerce Secretary didn’t just like the U.S. steering, issued on Could 13, that warned U.S. firms that utilizing Huawei’s AI chips “wherever on this planet” was a U.S. chip export violation. The commerce secretary issued a press release that threatened authorized motion in opposition to anybody caught implementing that export restriction.

Intel could also be beginning to offload its non-core models

Could 20: Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan seemingly received proper to work on his plan to spin out Intel’s non-core enterprise models. The semiconductor large is reportedly trying to offload its Networking and Edge models, which make chips for telecom gear, and had been accountable for $5.4 billion of the corporate’s 2024 income.

The Biden administration’s AI Diffusion rule is formally useless

Could 13: Simply days earlier than the Biden administration’s Synthetic Intelligence Diffusion Rule was set to enter place, the U.S. Division of Commerce formally rescinded it. The DOC stated that it plans to challenge new steering sooner or later, and within the meantime, firms ought to keep in mind that utilizing Huawei’s Ascend AI chips wherever on this planet is a violation of U.S. export guidelines.

A final-minute reversal

Could 7: Only a week earlier than the “Framework for Synthetic Intelligence Diffusion” was set to enter place, the Trump administration plans on taking a unique path. In line with a number of media shops, together with Axios and Bloomberg, the administration gained’t implement the restrictions once they had been supposed to start out on Could 15 and is as a substitute working by itself framework. 

April

Anthropic doubles down on its help of chip export restrictions

April 30: Anthropic doubled down on its help for proscribing U.S.-made chip exports, together with some tweaks to the Framework for Synthetic Intelligence Diffusion, like imposing additional restrictions on Tier 2 nations and dedicating assets to enforcement. An Nvidia spokesperson shot again, saying, “American corporations ought to deal with innovation and rise to the problem, moderately than inform tall tales that giant, heavy, and delicate electronics are in some way smuggled in ‘child bumps’ or ‘alongside stay lobsters.’” 

Deliberate layoffs at Intel

April 22: Forward of its Q1 earnings name, Intel stated it was planning to put off greater than 21,000 workers. The layoffs had been meant to streamline administration, one thing CEO Lip-Bu Tan has lengthy stated Intel wanted to do, and assist rebuild the corporate’s engineering focus. 

The Trump administration additional restricts chip exports

April 15: Nvidia’s H20 AI chip received hit with an export licensing requirement, the corporate disclosed in an SEC submitting. The corporate added it expects $5.5 billion in expenses associated to this new requirement within the first quarter of its 2026 fiscal yr. The H20 is essentially the most superior AI chip Nvidia can nonetheless export to China in some kind or trend. TSMC and Intel reported comparable bills the identical week. 

Nvidia seems to speak its means out of additional chip exports

April 9: Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang was noticed attending dinner at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, based on stories. On the time, NPR reported Huang could have been capable of spare Nvidia’s H20 AI chips from export restrictions upon agreeing to spend money on AI knowledge facilities within the U.S. 

An alleged settlement between Intel and TSMC

April 3: Intel and TSMC allegedly reached a tentative settlement to launch a joint chipmaking enterprise. This three way partnership would function Intel’s chipmaking amenities, and TSMC would have a 20% stake within the new enterprise. Each firms declined to remark or affirm. If this deal doesn’t come to fruition, that is seemingly a good preview of potential offers on this business to return. 

Intel spins off non-core belongings, proclaims new initiative

April 1: CEO Lip-Bu Tan set to work instantly. Simply weeks after he joined Intel, the corporate introduced that it was going to spin off non-core belongings so it might focus. He additionally stated the corporate would launch new merchandise, together with customized semiconductors for patrons. 

March

Intel names a brand new CEO 

March 12:  Intel introduced that business veteran and former board member Lip-Bu Tan would return to the corporate as CEO on March 18. On the time of his appointment, Tan stated Intel can be an “engineering-focused firm” beneath his management. 

February

Intel’s Ohio chip plant will get delayed once more

February 28: Intel was supposed to start out working its first chip fabrication plant in Ohio this yr. As a substitute, the corporate slowed down development on the plant for the second time in February. Now the $28 billion semiconductor challenge gained’t wrap up development till 2030 and should not even open till 2031.

Senators name for extra chip export restrictions

February 3: U.S. senators, together with Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo), wrote a letter to Commerce Secretary Nominee-Designate Howard Lutnick, urging the Trump administration to additional limit AI chip exports. The letter particularly referred to Nvidia’s H20 AI chips, which had been used within the coaching of DeepSeek’s R1 “reasoning” mannequin. 

January 

DeepSeek releases its open “reasoning” mannequin

January 27: Chinese language AI startup DeepSeek triggered fairly the stir in Silicon Valley when it launched the open model of its R1 “reasoning” mannequin. Whereas this isn’t semiconductor information particularly, the sheer alarm within the AI and semiconductor industries DeepSeek’s launch triggered continues to have ripple results on the chip business. 

Joe Biden’s govt order on chip exports

January 13: With only a week left in workplace, former president Joe Biden proposed sweeping new export restrictions on U.S.-made AI chips. This order created a three-tier construction that decided what number of U.S. chips might be exported to every nation. Underneath this proposal, Tier 1 nations confronted no restrictions; Tier 2 nations had a chip buy restrict for the primary time; and Tier 3 nations received extra restrictions. 

Anthropic’s Dario Amodei weighs in on chip export restrictions

January 6: Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei co-wrote an op-ed in The Wall Road Journal endorsing current AI chip export controls and pointing to them as a motive why China’s AI market was behind the U.S. He additionally referred to as on incoming president Donald Trump to impose additional restrictions and to shut loopholes which have allowed AI firms in China to nonetheless get their arms on these chips.

This story was initially printed on Could 9, 2025, and is often up to date with new data.