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Employer concern about their workers' financial life has grown as many households struggle to manage the rising cost of living. View More

Da-kuk | E+ | Getty Images As many Americans struggle to keep up with the rising cost of living — housing, groceries, electricity and other necessities — their financial stress is getting more attention in the workplace.In 2025, employer discomfort at their workers' financial well-being reached a new high: 48% rated their concern at 9 or 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, compared with 43% in 2024 and only 39% in 2023, according to recent research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. As recently as 2019, the year before Covid, that share stood at 22%. Since 2022, "we've seen employers shift away from retirement as the top area of concern toward more of the day-to-day cost of living issues, and budgeting and savings issues," said Jake Spiegel, a senior research associate at the Employee Benefit Research Institute. "Employees are feeling the squeeze from above-trend inflation," Spiegel said.Paycheck to paycheckAlthough inflation has eased to a yearly rate of 2.7% since peaking at 9.1% in June 2022, prices overall have climbed more than 25% since 2020, based on the consumer price index.The result has been a large share of households whose budgets are pinched by higher costs. More than half (57%) of employees live paycheck to paycheck, according to a 2025 survey of close to 90,000 participants in 401(k) retirement plans by Bank of America. While wage growth has generally outpaced inflation over the past two years, that came after a period when income lagged behind inflation in 2021 and 2022.Employers, who are interested in helping employees manage stress in order to reduce absenteeism or worker dissatisfaction, have been doing more to focus on the financial well-being of their employees. Read more CNBC personal finance coverageMore employers worry about workers' financial wellbeing, research showsRepublicans want to end the 'marriage penalty' for this childcare tax creditEducation Department to delay collections on defaulted student loansTrump pitches direct payments for health care. What policy experts say about itStudents forgo four-year degrees in favor of community college, certificate programsOver 800,000 student loan borrowers in backlog for forgiveness, repayment plansUnderwater car trade-ins are on the rise — and drivers owe a record amountThis IRS deadline is a 'chance to catch up' on your 2025 taxes, expert saysWorkers have $2.75 billion saved in state-run retirement accounts — what to knowMore Americans expect to miss a debt payment: What that does to your credit scoreStudent loan borrowers in default may miss Trump's 'largest tax refund season'IRS could see modest budget cut as Congress proposes funding plansAs enhanced ACA subsidies lapse, millions poised to drop health insuranceBigger tax refunds are coming for 2026 — what it could mean for the economyHere's the inflation breakdown for December 2025 — in one chartCNBC's Financial Advisor 100: Best financial advisors, top firms ranked More than two-thirds (70%) of employers engaged in some sort of financial wellness initiative in 2025, up from 59% the year before, according to the EBRI research. The study included responses from 406 benefits decisionmakers at companies with at least 500 employees and that are either offering financial wellness programs or interested in doing so.At the same time, a smaller share of employers say their efforts are making a "large impact": 43%, compared with 60% in 2024 and 73% in 2023. Employers may be taking cues from their employees when assessing the impact of their programs, he said."We see evidence in one of our other surveys … that employees tend to be less rosy than employers when it comes to rating the effectiveness of benefits," he said.Financial wellness designThe specifics of any financial wellness program differ from company to company. They could include, for example, benefits like payroll advance loans, short-term loans through a third-party and access to emergency funds through dedicated savings accounts or their 401(k) — either through a loan or hardship withdrawal.Other times, it could include offering seminars or webinars that focus on specific issues like creating a budget, investing or saving for retirement.Also, 68% indicated that their workers have access to financial advisors and 46% offer access to financial coaches. Sometimes, the company subsidizes the cost either fully or partly for workers to meet with experts one-on-one. "Financial wellness [programs] with one-on-one sessions are a strategic way to provide more access" to professionals who specialize in providing financial guidance, said certified financial planner Uchechi Kalu, founder of Greenlight Financial Planning in Los Angeles.Kalu is working with a nonprofit in Chicago whose employees are able to meet with her twice annually, via video calls, about whatever financial issues they are facing. With the employer subsidizing half of the cost, workers pay $118 per session, Kalu said. She said that when employers help pay for these kinds of sessions, it can make a difference in whether workers make use of the benefit or not.She has provided guidance related to a variety of financial issues, including budgeting, investing, home buying and affording overseas travel.  "The one-on-ones are when you get to reach people in critical moments and help them along their journey," Kalu said.

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A sign is displayed at the Department of Labor Frances Perkins Building on June, 2025, in Washington.Kevin Carter | Getty Images A controversial social media post from the Department of Labor has poured gasoline on already smoldering accusations that the Trump administration is amplifying rhetoric and imagery linked to extreme right-wing ideologies.The video in the post, shared Saturday, features a quick-cut slideshow of artworks depicting glorified scenes of American history, foregrounded by a statue of George Washington.The caption above that video reads, "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American."Social media users quickly noted similarities — in word, form and sentiment — between the Labor Department's post and a slogan used by the Nazi Party."US Government posting a version of 'Ein volk, ein reich, ein führer,'" said Terry Virts, a former NASA astronaut and current Democratic congressional candidate, in an X post. "I don't see how this ends well."The slogan "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" translates to "One People, One Country, One Leader." It was "one of the central slogans used by Hitler and the Nazi Party," according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.The two messages are not a word-for-word match, to be sure. But while experts caution against jumping to conclusions, many see numerous other examples of the Trump administration — including the Labor Department — echoing white supremacist language, ideas or aesthetics online.Bill Braniff, executive director of American University's Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab, said he believes that, "When you look at this one post in the context of all the others, it's not an accident."Even at face value, the post raises red flags, Braniff said in an interview. The assertion of Americans having "one heritage," for instance, clashes with the nation's history of taking in people from all over the world and establishes the idea of an "in group" and an "out group," he said.Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, agreed."You don't want to try and ever read into the tea leaves on something that might not be there," he told CNBC. But "at a certain point, you have to ask how many times until it's not a coincidence anymore.""At a certain point, you can't even really call it a dog whistle, it's just a whistle," Lewis added in an email. "How many times will official [U.S. government] accounts post openly white supremacist content without any repercussions?"The Labor Department, led by Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, did not respond to CNBC's request for comment. A spokesperson for the department previously said, "The social media campaign was created to celebrate American workers and the American Dream."That comment was given in response to The Guardian's report on union leaders denouncing the Labor Department over the post."It is no surprise that a fascist regime would post fascist propaganda on a fascist social media network like X, but it remains concerning to see the DOL making posts that serve a fascist, white supremacist agenda," Puneet Maharaj, executive director of National Nurses United, the country's largest nurses' union, told the outlet. A trail of accusations President Donald Trump arrives for a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Jan. 15, 2026.Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images Labor's post is hardly the first time the Trump administration has been accused of spreading far-right or white nationalist propaganda through social media. But in recent weeks, the government has appeared to double down on some of the same controversial messaging.On Wednesday, ahead of diplomatic talks on President Donald Trump's increasingly aggressive efforts to acquire Greenland, the White House shared a possibly AI-generated cartoon showing two dog sleds at a crossroads, with one path leading to the U.S. and the other leading to Russia and China."Which way, Greenland man?" read the text above that image, which was posted on the White House's official X account.Critics have accused the account of echoing "Which Way Western Man?," the title of a 1978 book defending Hitler and advocating for a white nationalist and antisemitic worldview. The book was written by William Gayley Simpson, said to be a member of neo-Nazi group the National Alliance.The phrase in recent years has gained popularity on the far right. It has been used in memes in which an image purporting to represent modern society is contrasted unfavorably with an image representing tradition.The White House's post wasn't the first time a version of the phrase had appeared on government social media accounts. Five months earlier, the Department of Homeland Security had posted an ICE recruitment image captioned, "Which way, American man?" Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin at the time called reporters' questions about that post "embarrassing."In response to questions about the posts from the White House and Labor Department accounts, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told CNBC, "It seems that the mainstream media has become a meme of their own: the deranged leftist who claims everything they dislike must be Nazi propaganda. This line of attack is boring and tired. Get a grip."On Jan. 8, the Labor Department posted a photo of a saluting Trump under the words "trust the plan" — a recurring phrase among followers of the far-right conspiracy known as QAnon.Last Friday, DHS' official accounts posted an ICE recruitment image declaring, "We'll have our home again."That phrase echoes the title of the song "By God We'll Have Our Home Again," the lyrics of which have been "credited to a U.S. fraternal neo-Nazi group," according to the Toronto Holocaust Museum's Hatepedia.McLaughlin, asked on CNN about DHS' use of the phrase, accused critics of "manufacturing fake outrage.""There are plenty of poems, there are plenty of songs, there are plenty of books with the same title. And the fact that people would like to cherry-pick something of white nationalism ... it's no wonder we're seeing such vast, rampant assaults against our law enforcement," she said.The DHS post, which also featured a stealth bomber and a cowboy riding horseback at the foot of a snowy mountain, came two days after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good during an altercation in Minneapolis.The Southern Poverty Law Center said that the administration's turn toward allegedly white nationalist content on government social media channels may have begun last June, when DHS shared a cartoon of Uncle Sam calling on Americans to "report all foreign invaders" to ICE.  Read more CNBC politics coverageRussia watches as ally Iran edges closer to collapse. Here's why it matters for MoscowTrump's latest geopolitical gambits all lead back to ChinaTrump says anything less than U.S. control of Greenland is 'unacceptable' ahead of talksTrump attacks Powell again amid Fed independence fears: 'That jerk will be gone soon'Sen. Kelly sues DOD Sec. Hegseth, says he was punished for 'disfavored political speech'GOP Sen. Thom Tillis vows to block Trump's Fed nominees following Powell probe Some of the most scrutinized posts have generated the heaviest engagement online. The Labor Department post from last weekend, for example, has tallied nearly 23 million views on X alone, possibly making it the account's most-seen post.But they fit into a broader messaging strategy that frequently promotes images and slogans evoking classic wartime propaganda posters and idealized depictions of Americana and U.S. history.The Labor Department has recently taken to sharing historical paintings captioned with, at times, overtly Christian messages. It also recently launched a social media campaign featuring AI-seeming illustrations of almost exclusively white men.In November, the family of famed 20th century painter Norman Rockwell accused DHS of misusing their ancestor's work "for the cause of persecution toward immigrant communities and people of color."Some extremism experts say the messaging has become overt.One way to know that, said Braniff, is that "the neo-Nazis themselves have noticed" and are talking about the administration's rhetoric.Other extremism experts and scholars of fascism have also noticed, as have the union leaders who have called out the Labor Department, he added. "It has to do with both the frequency of content coming out, but also the backdrop," Braniff said. "It seems quite overt at this point."

CNBC's Jim Cramer walked investors through next week on Wall Street. View More

watch nowVIDEO2:0902:09We are starting to see green shoots in the housing market, says Jim CramerMad Money with Jim Cramer As earnings season continues, CNBC's Jim Cramer on Friday walked investors through next week on Wall Street, highlighting quarterly reports from companies including Netflix, Intel, Capital One Financial and McCormick. "It's an awfully odd week, this second week of earnings season, as light as the next week is heavy," Cramer said. "Except for a couple of cases, I think it's best to keep your bat on your shoulder and hope for a better set of pitches."Tuesday brings earnings from homebuilder D.R. Horton, 3M, Netflix and United Airlines. So far during earnings season, homebuilders have disappointed, Cramer said. But he added that he's starting to see "green shoots" in the housing sector. Conglomerate 3M has been "quietly surprising people this year," Cramer said, and he likes the stock ahead of the quarter. He said he's waiting to hear what Netflix has to say about why it needs to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as why it's willing to pay billions for the company. Cramer also recommended buying United ahead of the quarter, indicating that the post-Covid travel theme is still relevant. On Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson and Charles Schwab will report, and Cramer said these two stocks are "hard to keep down." Cramer praised Johnson & Johnson's moves to become primarily a pharmaceutical company. He conceded that the outfit is still dealing with lawsuits related to its talc products, but suggested that they don't have a huge impact on the stock. Cramer said Schwab has become a "repository of a big chunk of the gigantic pool of money" from older generations as they transfer wealth to younger generations.Thursday brings the PCE price index, a key inflation matric, and Cramer said he thinks it will show "a restrained set of numbers." Procter & Gamble, GE Aerospace and Freeport-McMoRan will also report that day. Cramer said he doesn't expect an amazing quarter from Procter & Gamble, but said he likes the company's brands and new CEO. He also praised GE Aerospace, saying he expects the outfit to report a great quarter due to the huge plane backlog. Copper and gold have been "red hot," Cramer said, so he thinks it's likely Freeport-McMoRan will "will get its fair share of money coming in."Intel, Capital One, Intuitive Surgical and McCormick are also set to post earnings on Thursday. Intel stock has been performing well since CEO Lip Bu Tan took the reigns last year, Cramer suggested. But Intel's earnings might not be big enough given the competitive nature of the semiconductor space, he continued, adding that the stock needs a rest after its huge run. Cramer said he hopes Capital One will detail its acquisition of credit card name Discovery as well as its large buyback. Cramer suggested Intuitive Surgical's report could be the "lone surprise blowout" of the week. Food stocks have struggled recently, he continued. While Cramer likes McCormick, he expressed uncertainty about the quarter.On Friday, SLB will release its quarterly report. Cramer said he thinks it will be difficult for SLB to deliver great numbers given the low price of crude. watch nowVIDEO11:5911:59Jim Cramer looks ahead to next week's market game planMad Money with Jim Cramer Jim Cramer's Guide to InvestingClick here to download Jim Cramer's Guide to Investing at no cost to help you build long-term wealth and invest smarter. Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer's every move in the market.Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club holds shares of Capital One and Procter & Gamble.Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - InstagramQuestions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com

The Republican framework for "Reconciliation 2.0" includes an expansion for the child and dependent care tax credit. Here's what families need to know. View More

Halfpoint Images | Moment | Getty Images As President Donald Trump embraces more policy focused on affordability, some lawmakers have pushed to expand tax credits for families.  The Republican Study Committee this week released a framework for a second budget bill, known as "Reconciliation 2.0," which outlines priorities like homeownership, health care, energy prices and financial support for families. Another reconciliation bill has support from House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas., among others. One proposal from the framework would expand access to the child and dependent care tax credit, or CDCTC, which partially offsets up to $6,000 of care expenses for two or more "qualifying individuals" — typically children under age 13 — when parents who file taxes jointly both work. The CDCTC is often confused with the child tax credit, or CTC, of up to $2,200 per child under age 17 for the 2025 tax year. One key difference is the CTC doesn't require both parents who file taxes jointly to earn income. Read more CNBC personal finance coverageMore employers worry about workers' financial wellbeing, research showsRepublicans want to end the 'marriage penalty' for this childcare tax creditEducation Department to delay collections on defaulted student loansTrump pitches direct payments for health care. What policy experts say about itStudents forgo four-year degrees in favor of community college, certificate programsOver 800,000 student loan borrowers in backlog for forgiveness, repayment plansUnderwater car trade-ins are on the rise — and drivers owe a record amountThis IRS deadline is a 'chance to catch up' on your 2025 taxes, expert saysWorkers have $2.75 billion saved in state-run retirement accounts — what to knowMore Americans expect to miss a debt payment: What that does to your credit scoreStudent loan borrowers in default may miss Trump's 'largest tax refund season'IRS could see modest budget cut as Congress proposes funding plansAs enhanced ACA subsidies lapse, millions poised to drop health insuranceBigger tax refunds are coming for 2026 — what it could mean for the economyHere's the inflation breakdown for December 2025 — in one chartCNBC's Financial Advisor 100: Best financial advisors, top firms ranked The proposal comes during a mid-term election year as Republicans fight to defend a razor-thin majority in the House. Both parties are pushing messaging about affordability as many Americans struggle with the cost of housing, food, electricity and health care. Here are some key things to know about the child and dependent care tax credit, and how it could change under the Republican Study Committee's framework. Who benefits from the CDCTC Only a small percentage of families claim the child and dependent care tax credit each year. Roughly 6.5 million returns filed the form to claim the child and dependent care tax credit for tax year 2022, according to the latest IRS estimates. By comparison, nearly 37 million returns claimed the child tax credit or credit for other dependents. Currently, about 13% of families with children receive the child and dependent care tax credit, according to a 2025 Tax Policy Center analysis. That's compared to almost 90% of families with children who receive the child tax credit. While Trump's "big beautiful bill" expanded both tax credits, "there's still a lot of interest in further reforms," according to Garrett Watson, director of policy analysis at the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit think tank. How the CDCTC could change The Republican framework aims to expand child and dependent care tax credit eligibility by removing the work requirement for both parents who file taxes jointly.If enacted, this would end the "marriage penalty" to support stay-at-home parents and young families, according to the outline. However, it's unclear whether Reconciliation 2.0 will happen in 2026 amid competing legislative priorities, experts say. Typically, marriage penalties create a higher tax burden for married couples filing jointly compared to their taxes owed when filing as single individuals. watch nowVIDEO6:1406:14Rep. Pfluger on GOP’s reconciliation 2.0: It’s time for Congress to codify what Pres. Trump has doneSquawk Box "This isn't a marriage penalty like that," said Margot Crandall-Hollick, a principal research associate at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. "It is an elimination of a work requirement for moderate and higher-income married couples." Currently, the child and dependent care tax credit is non-refundable, which means the benefit is limited by a return's total taxes owed. Non-refundable credits are generally less beneficial to lower-income families because they typically owe little to no income taxes, said Crandall-Hollick. While there's been bipartisan interest to make the credit refundable, that change wasn't included in the final version of Trump's "big beautiful bill," she said.

OpenAI has inked multibillion-dollar deals with AI chipmakers including Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom and Cerebras. View More

Open AI CEO Sam Altman speaks during a talk session with SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son at an event titled "Transforming Business through AI" in Tokyo, on Feb. 3, 2025.Tomohiro Ohsumi | Getty Images In November, following Nvidia's latest earnings beat, CEO Jensen Huang boasted to investors about his company's position in artificial intelligence and said about the hottest startup in the space, "Everything that OpenAI does runs on Nvidia today."While it's true that Nvidia maintains a dominant position in AI chips and is now the most valuable company in the world, competition is emerging, and OpenAI is doing everything it can to diversify as it pursues a historically aggressive expansion plan. On Wednesday, OpenAI announced a $10 billion deal with chipmaker Cerebras, a relatively nascent player in the space but one that's angling for the public market. It was the latest in a string of deals between OpenAI and the companies making the processors needed to build large language models and run increasingly sophisticated workloads. Last year, OpenAI committed more than $1.4 trillion to infrastructure deals with companies including Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom, en route to commanding a $500 billion private market valuation. As OpenAI races to meet anticipated demand for its AI technology, it has signaled to the market that it wants as much processing power as it can find. Here are the major chip deals that OpenAI has signed as of January, and potential partners to keep an eye on in the future. Nvidia  Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang speaks during Nvidia Live at CES 2026 ahead of the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Jan. 5, 2026.Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images Since its early days building out large language models, long before the launch of ChatGPT and the start of the generative AI boom, OpenAI has relied on Nvidia's graphics processing units. In 2025, that relationship went to another level. Following an investment in OpenAI in late 2024, Nvidia announced in September that it would commit $100 billion to support OpenAI as it builds and deploys at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems. A gigawatt is a measure of power, and 10 gigawatts is roughly equivalent to the annual power consumption of 8 million U.S. households, according to a CNBC analysis of data from the Energy Information Administration. Huang said in September that 10 gigawatts will equate to between 4 million and 5 million GPUs. "This is a giant project," Huang told CNBC at the time. OpenAI and Nvidia said the first phase of the project is expected to come online in the second half of this year on Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform. However, during Nvidia's quarterly earnings call in November, the company said there is "no assurance" that its agreement with OpenAI will progress beyond an announcement and to an official contract stage. Nvidia's first investment of $10 billion will be deployed when the first gigawatt is completed, and investments will be made at then-current valuations, as CNBC previously reported.AMD Lisa Su, chair and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., displays an AMD Instinct MI455X GPU during the 2026 CES event in Las Vegas, Jan. 5, 2026.Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images In October, OpenAI announced plans to deploy six gigawatts of AMD's GPUs across multiple years and multiple generations of hardware. As part of the deal, AMD has issued OpenAI a warrant for up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock, which could amount to a roughly 10% stake in the company. The warrant includes vesting milestones tied to both deployment volume and AMD's share price.The companies said they plan to roll out the first gigawatt of chips in the second half of 2026, and added that the deal is worth billions of dollars, without disclosing a specific amount. "You need partnerships like this that really bring the ecosystem together to ensure that, you know, we can really get the best technologies, you know, out there," AMD CEO Lisa Su told CNBC at the time of the announcement.Altman planted the seeds for the deal in June, when he appeared on stage alongside Su at an AMD launch event in San Jose, California. He said OpenAI planned to use AMD's latest chips. Broadcom  Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.Lucas Jackson | Reuters Later that month, OpenAI and Broadcom publicly unveiled a collaboration that had been in the works for well over a year.Broadcom calls its custom AI chips XPUs, and has thus far relied on a few customers. But its pipeline of potential deals has sparked so much enthusiasm on Wall Street that Broadcom is now valued at over $1.6 trillion.OpenAI said it's designing its own AI chips and systems that will be developed and distributed by Broadcom. The companies have agreed to deploy 10 gigawatts of these custom AI accelerators.In the October release, the companies said Broadcom will aim to begin deploying racks of the AI accelerator and network systems by the second half of this year, with a goal to complete the project by the end of 2029.But Broadcom CEO Hock Tan told investors during the company's quarterly earnings call in December that he doesn't expect much revenue from the OpenAI partnership in 2026."We appreciate the fact that it is a multiyear journey that will run through 2029," Tan said. "I call it an agreement, an alignment of where we're headed."  OpenAI and Broadcom did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.   Cerebras  Andrew Feldman, co-founder and CEO of Cerebras Systems, speaks at the Collision conference in Toronto, June 20, 2024.Ramsey Cardy | Sportsfile | Collision | Getty Images OpenAI on Wednesday announced an agreement to deploy 750 megawatts of Cerebras' AI chips that will come online across multiple tranches through 2028. Cerebras builds large wafer-scale chips that can deliver responses up to 15 times faster than GPU-based systems, according to a release. The company is much smaller than Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom.OpenAI's deal with Cerebras is worth more than $10 billion, and it could be a boon for the chipmaker as it weighs a potential debut on the public markets. "We are delighted to partner with OpenAI, bringing the world's leading AI models to the world's fastest AI processor," Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman said in a statement. Cerebras sorely needs marquee customers. In October, the company withdrew plans for an IPO, days after announcing that it raised over $1 billion in a fundraising round. It had filed for a public offering a year earlier, but its prospectus revealed a heavy reliance on a single customer in the United Arab Emirates, Microsoft-backed G42, which is also a Cerebras investor.Potential partners  Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, speaks during a media tour of the Stargate data center in Abilene, Texas, on Sept. 23, 2025. Stargate is a collaboration of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, with promotional support from President Donald Trump, to build data centers and other infrastructure for artificial intelligence throughout the U.S.Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images Where does that leave Amazon, Google and Intel, which all have their own AI chip plays?In November, OpenAI signed a $38 billion cloud deal with Amazon Web Services. OpenAI will run workloads through existing AWS data centers, but the cloud provider also plans to build out additional infrastructure for the startup as part of the agreement. Amazon is also in talks to potentially invest more than $10 billion in OpenAI, as CNBC previously reported. OpenAI could decide to use Amazon's AI chips as part of these investment discussions, but nothing official has been determined, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named because the discussions are confidential. AWS announced its Inferentia chips in 2018, and the latest generation of its Trainium chips in late 2025. Google Cloud also supplies OpenAI with computing capacity thanks to a deal that was quietly finalized last year. But OpenAI said in June that it has no plans to use Google's in-house chips called tensor processing units, which Broadcom also helps produce.  Intel has been the biggest AI laggard among traditional chipmakers, which explains why the company recently took massive investments from the U.S. government and Nvidia. Reuters reported in 2024, citing people with knowledge of the discussions, that Intel had a chance to invest in OpenAI years earlier and potentially make hardware for the then-fledgling startup, offering it a way to avoid reliance on Nvidia.Intel decided against the deal, according to Reuters.In October, Intel announced a new data center GPU that it's codenamed Crescent Island and says is "designed to meet the growing demands of AI inference workloads and will offer high memory capacity and energy-efficient performance." The company said "customer sampling" is expected in the second half of 2026.   Wall Street will hear updates on Intel's latest AI efforts when the company kicks off tech earnings season next week. — CNBC's Kif Leswing, MacKenzie Sigalos and Jordan Novet contributed to this report.WATCH: Breaking down AI chips, from Nvidia GPUs to ASICs by Google and Amazon watch nowVIDEO15:5815:58Breaking down AI chips, from Nvidia GPUs to ASICs by Google and AmazonTech

One fund manager described stocks' continued moves higher, despite escalating tensions, as "equity market 'meh.'" View More

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 12, 2026.Angela Weiss | Afp | Getty Images The first two weeks of 2026 have seen President Donald Trump's administration capture Venezuela's president, threaten to respond to Iran's violent crackdown on protests and talk up the possibility of using force to seize Greenland. So why are stocks rising?The headlines have caused price swings in asset classes like gold, silver and oil as traders sought safe havens and weighed the impact a U.S. intervention in the Middle East could have on oil supply. Read moreOil falls more than 4% as traders see Trump backing away from Iran strike threatsNATO nations deploy to Greenland after tense White House talksTrump says he’s canceled a second wave of attacks on VenezuelaSeizing Greenland risks 'monumental' fallout, ex-Iceland president warns, as Trump sharpens rhetoric Equity markets, however, appear to be shrugging off the news. The S&P 500 has had just three losing sessions since markets began the new trading year, and it was up around 1.5% year to date at Thursday's close. Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, where the tensions hit much closer to home, have also risen, as have Asia-Pacific stocks. The U.S. view Wall Street's three major averages have made gains despite the news, appearing to shrug off the president's apparent willingness to order military operations overseas and threaten to take territory from a close ally by force.Alongside the S&P 500's gain, Wall Street's two other major averages are up this year: the Dow Jones Industrial Average has added close to 3%, while tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is up 1.2%. Stock Chart IconStock chart iconS&P 500 Eric Freedman, chief investment officer for Chicago-based Northern Trust Wealth Management, which manages assets worth $492.6 billion, said markets hadn't been moved by Trump's actions and rhetoric on Iran, Venezuela and Greenland partly because no other large economic or military powers had responded."Markets are looking at these events in isolation, and it would likely take a unique response to each flare-up to drive more market agita," he told CNBC in an email. "We don't want to speculate what subsequent actions may follow, but what we would be concerned with beyond the human conditions in a given region would be if lines are drawn that impact trade in an increasingly sequestered world." watch nowVIDEO9:5109:51Dan Senor: U.S. military action in Iran would weaken the regime and strengthen Iranian moraleSquawk Box A U.S. Supreme Court ruling is due soon on the legality of Trump's tariffs, but, in the meantime, global investors appear to have adapted to the White House's 2025 pivots, Freedman said."Increased flare ups beyond what has occurred already could push countries to revisit trade ties or threaten sanctions, but until they arrive, markets will remain in more reactive mode if an event happens and not necessarily adjust portfolio positioning now in anticipation of an event," he added. "If markets were leaning into prescriptive positioning or the thought that taking defensive measures was appropriate because flare-up probabilities were increasing, we would likely see a weaker U.S. dollar."The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major rivals, has risen by around 1% since the beginning of the year. Equity market 'meh' Alex Morris, CEO of Washington-headquartered F/m Investments, called stock market investors' reactions "equity market 'meh'.""Geopolitics are simmering, but not boiling over," he said. "The president's use of highly targeted shows of force but low-time and personnel in-theater operations leaves markets little to react to. "Short-lived and final events (no ongoing commitment) give little for markets to react to. News happens and that's it. It also helps there has been no meaningful response from Iran or Venezuela."Morris argued that the market's muted reaction was underpinned by a "growing inurement" to what Trump says, and increasingly, to what he does. watch nowVIDEO4:4204:42President Trump hits back at 'TACO trade'Squawk Box "Despite substantial action, there is little the president is unwilling to immediately backtrack on, and much of the flood the zone action has been undone or overturned," he said. "The market has learned to temper enthusiasm and wait for receipts."Anthony Esposito, founder and CEO of AscalonVI Capital, said markets have not cared to discount geopolitical risk for some time now."Israel bombs Iran — the S&P 500 was down 1% overnight and closed down just 50bps. U.S. bombs Iran — almost no reaction," he told CNBC."Venezuela, Greenland could be seen as positives for the markets and even GDP in the U.S., [but] with no regard for the what-ifs," he said, noting that energy production, rare-earth procurement, national security and infrastructure expansion were all at play. Security forces are seen during a pro-government rally on Jan. 12, 2026, in Tehran, Iran.Getty Images | Getty Images News | Getty Images "Iran is the wild card," he added, saying the market slid earlier this week "until Trump settled fears" by seeming to back away from military action. "If there was an event in Iran the market would react (oil up, stocks down, gold up) but aside from that the markets are focused on rates, growth, earnings and the Trump agenda." European rally Stocks in Europe have also strengthened even amid questions about the future of Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory in the Arctic, and what Trump's determination to take the island could mean for NATO and continental defense. The pan-European Stoxx 600 has added almost 4%."Bottom line, there is a lot of issues but as yet, they haven't created an impact via investor sentiment or activity," said Toni Meadows, head of investment at U.K.-based BRI Wealth Management."This might not always be the case," he added. "Greenland is [the] bigger deal in terms of impact as this is an argument within NATO, so if at some point the market believes Trump's threat to make it a military conflict then markets will react," he said. "But for now, it is a case of stay close to the news flow."Benjamin Jones, global head of research at Invesco, told CNBC in an email that historically, geopolitics, military conflicts and unconventional policy haven't weighed on portfolios as much as investors fear. Markets are callous and only react meaningfully when these events impact economic fundamentals or lead to a change in policy.Benjamin JonesGlobal Head of Research at Invesco "Many geopolitical events are troubling, but markets are callous and only react meaningfully and sustainably when these events impact economic fundamentals or lead to a change in policy," he said. "History is clear, equity markets have historically performed well in the 12 months following a spike in geopolitical risk." Asian stocks on the rise In fact, the MSCI AC Asia Pacific Index, which tracks large and mid-cap stocks across 15 Asia-Pacific countries, has risen over 5% this year to a record high. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 and South Korea's Kospi similarly reached all-time highs in recent days.Market watchers said the increases are not investors being complacent, but fundamentals like the absence of major oil shocks and the expectation that easier monetary policy and AI spending will continue to underpin earnings growth."The impact of geopolitical events would usually transmit to global markets via the oil price, but the oil market is not seeing significant shocks so far," said Yap Fook Hien, senior investment strategist at Standard Chartered. A T-shirt saying "Greenland is not for sale" is on display in a shop in Nuuk, Greenland, Jan. 15, 2026.Alessandro Rampazzo | Afp | Getty Images Yap added that Asian investors and global equity markets are driven more by policy stimulus, including U.S. rate cuts and AI investments, all of which support a strong outlook for earnings growth this year."Geopolitics remain a key risk but the shock since Liberation Day in April 2025 has conditioned markets to respond more calmly to Trump's actions," he said, referring to Trump's April 2 unveiling of a series of tariffs.Morningstar's Southeast Asia managing director, Shihan Abeyguna, told CNBC that markets may now view geopolitics as "a chronic risk rather than an acute shock."He added that Asia valuations are not stretched enough to make markets vulnerable to prolonged drawdowns without a genuine shock.Geopolitical concerns in the region "tend to be more calibrated, so it would need to be a true unexpected shock that would alter earnings expectations," said Abeyguna.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML became just the third European company to his a valuation of over $500 billion on Thursday. View More

A logo on the exterior of the ASML Holding NV headquarters in Veldhoven, Netherlands, on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024.Peter Boer | Bloomberg | Getty Images Dutch semiconductor equipment company ASML has held gains to hit record highs, following Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC's strong earnings report on Thursday. ASML — Europe's most valuable company and the world's only supplier of the complex photolithography machines needed to manufacture the most advanced artificial intelligence chips — has seen shares rise around 7% since TSMC's earnings were released. The company became just the third European company to see its valuation tick above the half-trillion dollar mark on Thursday, seeing its market cap hit around 450 billion euros ($522 billion). ASML's stock has rallied 25% so far in 2026. Morgan Stanley on Thursday said in its bull case the Dutch company's stock could have a surge of 70% ahead as chipmaker spending continues to rise to meet AI demand. That scenario sees shares rise up to 2,000 euros if tech valuations continue to spike and profits beat expectations, the bank added, while its price target is 1,400 euros."Higher 2027 foundry and memory capex as well as better than feared China demand drives our conviction for higher FY27 earnings," the Morgan Stanley note said. "We expect order intake over the next 2-3 quarters to confirm this strength."TSMC's capex guidance "significantly" exceeded prior expectations, Bank of America said in an analyst note on Friday, underpinning near-term upside for ASML "as EUV [extreme ultraviolet] and advanced deposition tools become critical for efficiency gains." watch nowVIDEO6:2606:26TSMC CFO on staying profitable in a cost-heavy AI-driven marketThe China Connection Companies embedded in the global AI race have seen strong performances as demand for the technology has soared. The start of 2026 has seen a stock rally among companies providing memory chips, which are crucial components to advanced semiconductors designed by Nvidia and AMD. Memory prices are expected to rise another 40-50% in Q1 of 2026, according to Counterpoint Research. "ASML stock has been on a tear due to the potential for strong capex at semi manufacturers starting late '26," JPMorgan said in a note on Wednesday. "Samsung, the only DRAM major with available clean room capacity, is likely to increase orders most significantly in the quarter, while TSMC orders are also likely to be strong."DRAM, referring to Dynamic Random Access Memory, is a type of memory chip needed to store data required for AI processing. Earlier this month, major Nvidia partner Foxconn — the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer and maker of servers that hold chips in data centers — reported a 22% surge in revenues in the final quarter of 2025.TSMC, which is ASML's largest customer, got another boost on Thursday as the U.S. announced it would limit tariffs on Taiwan to 15%, with chip and technology companies from the country investing at least $250 billion in production capacity in the U.S.ASML is due to report its fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 28.

India's capital markets regulator Sebi has approved seven Initial Public Offerings. Companies in manufacturing, chemicals, logistics, healthcare, real estate, engineering, and precious metals can now raise funds. These approvals pave the way for significant investments and expansion plans across diverse industries. Investors can anticipate new opportunities as these firms prepare to go public. View More

Capital markets regulator Sebi cleared seven IPOs, paving the way for fundraising plans across manufacturing, chemicals, logistics, healthcare, real estate, engineering and precious metals. One of the companies to receive approval is Sillverton Industries , an eco-friendly paper maker. The company's IPO includes a fresh issue of Rs 300 crore with an offer for sale of 3.22 crore shares by promoters. The company plans to deploy Rs 129 crore from the fresh issue towards sustainability-focused capital expenditure at its existing manufacturing facility, including installation of a 14 MW waste-to-energy captive power plant and a compressed biogas unit. The balance will be used for general corporate purposes. Specialty chemicals manufacturer Supreet Chemicals has secured approval for a Rs 499 crore IPO, structured entirely as a fresh issue with no offer-for-sale component. Of the proceeds, Rs 310 crore will be used to fund a greenfield manufacturing project, while Rs 65 crore is earmarked for debt repayment. The remaining funds will support general corporate needs. The Gujarat-based company operates across more than 15 complex chemistries, supplying intermediates to sectors such as textiles, pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals and personal care. In the logistics space, CJ Darcl Logistics has received the regulator’s nod for an IPO comprising a fresh issue of up to 2.64 crore shares and an offer for ale of 99.05 lakh shares by promoters. Proceeds from the fresh issue will be utilised for the purchase of equipment and repayment of debt. The company operates an asset-right, technology-led logistics model, offering multimodal transportation, warehousing and distribution services across India and select overseas markets. Healthcare services provider Gaudium IVF is also set to tap the capital markets. The approved offer includes a fresh issue of up to 1.14 crore shares and an offer for sale of up to 94.9 lakh shares by the promoter. From the fresh issue proceeds, Rs 50 crore will be used to set up 19 new IVF centres across India, while Rs 20 crore is allocated towards debt repayment. The company currently operates a network of over 30 centres, including 7 hub centres and 28 spokes, across major cities. Live Events Mumbai-based real estate developer Runwal Developers has received approval for a Rs 2,000 crore IPO. The issue consists of a Rs 1,700 crore fresh issue and a Rs 300 crore offer for sale by promoter Sandeep Runwal, who held a 72.76% stake at the time of filing. The company plans to use the fresh issue proceeds primarily for repayment or prepayment of borrowings. As of FY25, Runwal Developers reported net debt of Rs 3,160.52 crore, with a net debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98x. Engineering solutions company Lalbaba Engineering has also secured Sebi’s approval for its IPO. The proposed issue includes a Rs 630 crore fresh issue and a Rs 370 crore offer for sale by promoters. Of the fresh issue proceeds, Rs 271 crore will be used for capacity expansion at the company’s Haldia manufacturing facility, while Rs 209 crore is earmarked for debt repayment. Lalbaba Engineering focuses on high-performance seamless tubes, precision forgings and integrated rail systems. Completing the list is Augmont Enterprises, an integrated gold and silver platform, which plans to raise up to Rs 800 crore through its IPO. The offer comprises a Rs 620 crore fresh issue and an offer for sale of Rs 180 crore by promoters. Augmont operates across the precious metals value chain, including bullion trading, refining, digital gold, jewellery manufacturing and gold-backed financial services, with operations spread across 24 states. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel) (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)

China is becoming a leader in biotech innovation. That offers hope to rare disease patients and presents a problem to American companies trying to save them. View More

The growth of China's biotechnology sector has been staggering. Beijing is pumping money into the industry, backing research efforts and helping launch a new wave of labs and incubators in the country. That's a problem for the U.S. biotech industry and also affects rare disease patients who are waiting for a cure.Among the experts speaking out against China's growing influence in the biotech sector is John Crowley, CEO of the lobbying group Biotechnology Innovation Organization, or BIO.Crowley is something of a rock star in the rare disease community. His story is as incredible as it is inspiring. When Crowley and his wife were told his two young children had Pompe disease, a fatal genetic disorder, Crowley left his job in marketing to try to find a cure. He partnered with a researcher who was working on Pompe, and started a company that eventually developed a treatment to save the lives of his children and thousands of others.If it sounds like the plot of a movie, it is. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Geeta Anand wrote a book about Crowley's story, which later became the Hollywood film "Extraordinary Measures," starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser.  John Crowley, CEO of Biotechnology Innovation OrganizationBiotechnology Innovation Organization Crowley has certainly made his mark in the biotech space. He helped build two biotech companies focused on rare diseases that were later acquired by larger pharmaceuticals. Most recently, in December, BioMarin paid nearly $5 billion for Amicus Therapeutics, a company Crowley helped grow from a five-person startup in 2005 to a multibillion-dollar company when he left in 2024. Crowley left Amicus to become the CEO of BIO. Since stepping into that post, he has become increasingly outspoken about China's biotech sector, advocating for the U.S. to become more competitive."We need to reduce the reliance on Chinese biotechs," Crowley said. "Once they are the dominant player, then they will decide who gets what medicines and technologies."Crowley has seen the growth of China's biotech firsthand. "I go back to even just 10 years ago, maybe, working in China. There were maybe a couple hundred true R&D biotech companies in China. By our count, there's over 4,000 today," he said. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); At the same time, Beijing is reducing the regulatory hurdles for drugmakers doing research in China, meaning the treatments they're working on can get into clinical trials more quickly. That's attractive to both major drug manufacturers and smaller researchers from around the world, who see developing drugs in China as a faster and cheaper option than in the United States. A recent article in STAT profiled the rise of one Chinese incubator, ATLATL, highlighting how it's been able to develop relationships with clients spanning the entire drug development pipeline.  To Crowley, who is a former naval intelligence officer, China's rise in biotech is a threat not just to the industry he represents, but to the millions of patients who rely upon the rare disease research that comes out of American universities."Our research grounded in our great academic institutions [is] a remarkable strategic advantage for the United States," Crowley said. "It's threatened today." "The greatest threat comes from China and the rise of Chinese biotechnology," Crowley said."We can't let China win in biotech," he said.Crowley is not alone in his concerns. Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, a member of the CNBC Cures Advisory Board, devotes a chapter in his forthcoming book, "The Miracle Century," to China's rise in biotech. In the book, Gottlieb lays out the case that as Beijing has simplified the regulatory approval process so breakthrough medical treatments get to market sooner, investment in those technologies has flowed from the U.S. to China. He wrote:"If this drift continues and more drug discovery migrates from the U.S. to China, we could see our capacity for innovation begin to erode. As capital flows toward Chinese firms, U.S. biotechnology hubs like Boston and San Francisco, long the seedbeds of breakthrough science, may shrink. Restoring that American ecosystem would be anything but easy."The shift in capital is not theoretical. It's happening. A September article published in Nature found that from 2020-2025, 11 of the largest pharma players committed more than $150 billion in deals for access to assets developed in Asia, primarily in China. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); And data gathered for another forthcoming book, "Innovation is the Best Medicine," by Dr. Roderick Wong, a physician and the founder and managing partner of life sciences investment firm RTW Investments, shows that from 2013-2025, China tripled its share of global clinical trial initiations.  window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); Political think tanks and lawmakers in the U.S. have taken notice. In November, the nonpartisan Atlantic Council published an analysis that identified pharmaceuticals as China's next trade weapon, likening the shift in biotech innovation to China to the offshoring of semiconductor chip manufacturing. Spurred on by concerns about corporate espionage, access to sensitive genetic data, and memories of the supply chain bottlenecks the global medical supply industry faced after the Covid pandemic, Congress in late 2025 passed the Biosecure Act, which President Donald Trump later signed into law as part of the massive $901 billion defense spending bill.The Biosecure Act prohibits biotech companies that receive federal funds from doing business with companies that the U.S. designates as "biotech companies of concern." While it won't prohibit all business U.S. biotech companies do with China, and language in the law was softened from an earlier version of the bill, the law is forcing some firms based in the U.S. to reexamine their ties to China.But for people living with a rare disease, the issue isn't so clear-cut. Rare diseases don't respect borders. And parents looking for a lifesaving treatment for their child don't care if it comes from the U.S. or China. Innovation in the rare disease space is a good thing. And in a field where there might be only two or three experts in the world on any given disease, that innovation is often the result of international collaboration. More and more frequently that innovation is coming from China.It's a conundrum that isn't lost on Gottlieb, who acknowledged the innovation from Beijing is good for rare disease patients. At least in the short term. "If the end result, though, is that the fragile U.S. innovation sector gets hollowed out and we lose our own engine of innovation, that's bad," Gottlieb said in a text. "The priority targets of Chinese drug makers may not reflect our priority targets." "As China erodes other parts of our ecosystem, it could hollow out everything," he added.Both Gottlieb and Crowley said the real key to maintaining U.S. leadership in biotech is getting regulators to treat rare diseases, which might affect only a few hundred people, differently from those with larger patient populations. Rare disease researchers agree, arguing that a more streamlined approval process for rare disease treatments from the FDA would dramatically bring down the cost of bringing a new treatment to market in the U.S.David Liu, a pioneer in gene editing whose lab at Harvard University and the Broad Institute is at the cutting edge of genetic research, said he's asked the FDA to take a more lenient stance when evaluating new treatments for rare diseases. One example Liu pointed to: current guidelines for cell and gene therapies that require a company demonstrates three full-scale manufacturing runs before a treatment can get final approval. "One full-scale manufacturing run typically costs $7 million for rare genetic disease gene editing treatments," Liu said. "One production run can typically already treat more patients than exist in the whole world. So you're just asking companies to throw away an extra $14 million."Critics of current FDA policies argue that using a different set of standards for rare disease treatments would bring down development costs and help the drugs get to the people who need them more quickly, and that it could spur a new wave of investment in the space. "Let's think creatively," Crowley said. "Don't apply the same standards for a rare disease with 100 kids to a treatment designed for a disease with millions of people.""We need a system that works better," he said.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day. View More

This is CNBC's Morning Squawk newsletter. Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox.Happy Friday. This week isn't even over yet, but I'm already gearing up for next week's big events: the World Economic Forum in Davos, a major Supreme Court case and Netflix earnings.S&P 500 futures are higher this morning after yesterday's winning session.Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day: 1. Chipping in TSMC headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan.Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Chip stocks led the market higher yesterday after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company released better-than-expected results, including a 35% year-over-year increase in fourth-quarter profit. Here's what to know:On top of reporting record quarterly profit, TSMC also beat forecasts and said it plans to boost capital expenditures, a sign of its confidence in the AI buildout.Shares of Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom — all TSMC clients — gained following the chipmaker's report.Later in the day, the Department of Commerce announced that Taiwan will invest $250 billion to expand chip production capacity in the U.S. In return, the U.S. will lower blanket tariffs on Taiwan to 15% from 20% and pledge zero tariffs on several Taiwanese exports.TSMC has already built plants in Arizona, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC's Brian Sullivan yesterday that the company has purchased more land nearby and could expand further.While TSMC Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said Thursday the company's U.S. investments were not directly related to trade negotiations, he affirmed TSMC's U.S. expansion plans."We have strong conviction on the AI mega trend, and that is the reason we are stepping up the capital expenditures to expand in Taiwan and in the U.S.," Huang told CNBC's Emily Tan.Follow live market updates here. 2. Retail row A sign on the facade of the entrance to the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store, after the store filed for bankruptcy protection, in New York City, U.S., January 14, 2026. Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters If you're disappointed to hear that Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman's parent company filed for bankruptcy, you're not alone. Amazon would also like to have a word with Saks Global.The e-commerce site asked a federal judge yesterday to block Saks' bankruptcy financing plan, accusing the retailer of failing to hold up its agreement. Amazon invested $475 million into Saks' 2024 acquisition of Neiman Marcus, but "that equity investment is now presumptively worthless," Amazon lawyers wrote in the filing.The company told the judge that it and other creditors would be hurt by Saks' bankruptcy financing plan because it would have the department store operator take on more debt. As CNBC's Gabrielle Fonrouge and Annie Palmer report, Amazon threatened to "seek more drastic remedies" if Saks doesn't resolve its concerns. 3. 'The Great Healthcare Plan' U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he honors the NHL Stanley Cup champions Florida Panthers at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Jan. 15, 2026. RKylie Cooper | Reuters President Donald Trump yesterday unveiled an outline of his health-care plan, which his administration said would reduce drug prices and insurance premiums.The plan — dubbed the "The Great Healthcare Plan" by the White House — would codify Trump's "most-favored-nation" policy, which ties the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. to lower prices abroad. A fact sheet said the plan would also send money for health insurance "directly" to Americans, though some health policy experts say that's a bad idea.The announcement came as senators struggled to reach an agreement on the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. The new plan does not include extending the Obamacare tax credits, which Democrats demand be part of a health-care deal. Get Morning Squawk directly in your inboxCNBC's Morning Squawk recaps the biggest stories investors should know before the stock market opens, every weekday morning.Subscribe here to get access today. 4. Wanna bet? Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon speaks during the Goldman Sachs Investor Day at Goldman Sachs Headquarters in New York City, U.S., February 28, 2023. Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters Prediction markets could be getting a big bank backer.Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said yesterday that the bank is exploring opportunities in the growing corner of finance, telling investors on the company's earnings call that he "personally met with the two big prediction companies and their leadership in the last two weeks."While Solomon pumped the brakes on the idea that Wall Street would rapidly embrace prediction markets, he noted that trading platforms regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission "look like derivative contract activities.""So I can certainly see opportunities where these cross into our business," he said. 5. 'Legendary February' Mike Tirico at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Monday, May 12, 2025 -- Scott Gries | NBC | Getty Images From the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, to the Super Bowl, to the NBA All-Star game, sports fans have a lot to look forward to next month. And so does NBCUniversal, which will air all three events on NBC and its streaming service Peacock. NBC Chief Marketing Officer Jenny Storms is calling it "Legendary February," and it's set to be a big test for the broadcaster, which spent billions of dollars on live sports rights.As CNBC's Alex Sherman reports, next month is simply a reflection of what's become NBC's strategy, which — despite what co-CEO of parent company Comcast Mike Cavanagh says — is sports-first. The Daily Dividend Here are a few stories worth reading over the long weekend.Airlines to save big money on fuel as new weight loss pills gain popularity, Wall Street saysA major development in Trump's Fed feud is set to happen next week in the Supreme CourtTariffs and AI's downside pose top global risks for business, World Economic Forum saysNike signs phenom Anna Leigh Waters in its first pickleball dealDown in the polls, Trump yanks Republicans toward economic populism. It may not save themBillionaire Rams owner Stan Kroenke becomes America's biggest private landownerOpenAI tells investors to brace for 'deliberately outlandish' claims from Musk ahead of trialCNBC's Dylan Butts, Pia Singh, Ari Levy, Kif Leswing, Emily Tan, Sarah Min, Gabrielle Fonrouge, Annie Palmer, Kevin Breuninger, Garrett Downs, Annika Kim Constantino, Greg Iacurci, Yun Li and Alex Sherman contributed to this report. Melodie Warner edited this edition.