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Beijing is summoning tech executives for meetings as it did in 2021, but now it has less room to wield a heavy hand due to deflation and rivalry with the U.S.  View More

A food delivery driver drives past the headquarter of China's travel agency Trip.com Group in Shanghai on January 15, 2026. Jade Gao | Afp | Getty Images Beijing has stepped up corporate regulatory enforcement this year, though analysts say it's unlikely to pursue a repeat of the 2021 crackdown that wiped out more than $1 trillion from Chinese tech stocks. Since January, officials have opened a formal antitrust probe into the country's largest online travel agency Trip.com and summoned a dozen tech giants — including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance's Douyin, Baidu, JD.com and Meituan — over aggressive price competition and promotional claims ahead of a shopping festival in June. They also sent a stern warning earlier this month to Walmart China over repeated food-safety failures at its wholesale retailer Sam's Club. "The concentration of actions and number of companies involved inevitably brings back memories of the regulatory crackdown on internet platform companies" from more than five years ago, said Neo Wang, chief China strategist at Evercore. Over a two-year span starting in late 2020, Beijing launched a sweeping crackdown on its most powerful corporations, blocking what would've been the world's biggest stock-market debut by Alibaba's fintech Ant Group, forcing ride-hailing giant Didi Global to delist from the U.S., and intensifying oversight across sectors from after-school tutoring to highly-leveraged property developers.  "The state was reasserting political control over data, capital expansion, tutoring ideology, overseas listings, and platform power, along with over-financialization," said Paul Triolo, partner and technology policy lead for China at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group, a global advisory firm. But the game has changed, Triolo said, now that policymakers are more wary about an economy weighed down by lackluster domestic demand, a sluggish job market, and eager for private tech companies to boost investment in computing infrastructure underpinning the country's AI ambitions. Beijing is attempting to act but without "triggering another broad investor panic," he said. Han Shen Lin, China country director at The Asia Group, put it more bluntly, saying that "Beijing needs private-sector confidence, jobs and technology investment far more than it did in 2021." watch nowVIDEO6:1206:12China's AI advantage, and why the US strikes a balance in tech tiesThe China Connection Beijing pivoted to support the private sector after years of regulatory clampdown, with a rare closed-door symposium in February 2025 where Chinese President Xi Jinping told the country's top entrepreneurs, including Alibaba's Jack Ma, to "showcase their talents" in a new era for the country's private economy. China has now made the so-called anti-involution campaign, which is meant to tackle ruinous deflation-fueling price wars and overcapacity across industries, a policy priority. In January, Beijing launched an antitrust probe into Trip.com for alleged "abuse of market dominance," forcing merchants into exclusive agreements before hiking commission fees. The move sent the company's Hong Kong shares nearly 20% lower in one day. Citibank analysts estimated the ongoing antitrust probe may incur a fine of up to 4.9 billion yuan ($723 million). In May, Chinese market regulators also issued their most forceful food-safety penalties, hitting several e-commerce and food-delivery platforms with a combined 3.6 billion yuan in fines for hosting unverified vendors competing on price. In the lead-up to the "618" shopping festival, Beijing's municipal regulator summoned online retailers including Xiaohongshu – which has reportedly prepared to confidentially file for an initial public offering in Hong Kong – over misleading subsidy advertisements and a hidden fee mechanism that shifts costs onto merchants. That same week, SAMR summoned Walmart China's senior management for a formal accountability meeting over repeated food-safety failures at its membership warehouse chain Sam's Club, urging an overhaul of its supply chain controls. Sam's Club has established a rectification task force to overhaul supply-chain inspections and replaced its chairman with Liu Peng, a former executive at Alibaba.Still, the moves amount to "calibrated signaling rather than a sustained crackdown," said Ciel Qi, research analyst at Rhodium Group. Regulators are considerably more constrained than in 2021: they need these companies to invest in AI infrastructure, cloud, logistics and consumer services.Paul TrioloPartner, DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group One more reason for Beijing's restraint: an intensifying artificial-intelligence development rivalry with the U.S.  With Washington continuing to pressure Chinese platforms' AI infrastructure buildouts and the looming threat of further restrictions, Beijing is eager to avoid undermining the competitiveness of its leading companies, Triolo said."Regulators are considerably more constrained than in 2021," he said. "They need these companies to invest in AI infrastructure, cloud, logistics and consumer services." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has been a critic of the Elon-Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency cuts. View More

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) questions U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as he testifies before the House Armed Services Committee April 29, 2026 in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC. Win Mcnamee | Getty Images Potential 2028 presidential hopeful Rep. Ro Khanna challenged newly minted trillionaire Elon Musk to a televised debate on the impact of cuts made during Musk's time atop the Department of Government Efficiency initiative, following an ugly social media spat between the Silicon Valley congressman and tech titan. "I challenge him to a debate ... do it on CNN, do it on CNBC, do it at a university, he can pick the setting and let's debate what happened at DOGE, let's debate why I'm for a wealth tax," Khanna said Monday in an interview with CNBC. "We can have a conversation of ideas if he believes in free speech and free expression about these issues."The challenge came in response to an intense exchange earlier Monday on the social media platform X — which Musk owns — where the trillionaire said Khanna should be sued or even jailed. The California congressman had previously said Musk needs to answer for potential deaths caused by DOGE's shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which prompted Musk's ire. If it comes to fruition, it would pit the world's richest man against a rising contender for the White House in 2028 on a stage at a time when the Democratic Party is pushing new taxes on the wealthy and railing against billionaires. Read more CNBC politics coverageSenate poised to advance housing bill to limit private equity purchases of single-family homeTrump's legal attack on Fed Governor Cook cost her more than $1M, filing showsRoy Cooper's North Carolina Senate race could help decide control of the next Congress "It's not pleasant to have the world's richest person with the biggest platform on X go say you should be in prison and that he's going to sue you, and then I'm a liar," Khanna said in the interview. "I'm taking on the richest person in the world, but I mean, I would hope that he would have an actual debate about it." Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment placed via a spokesman.The online fight between Khanna and Musk began early Monday, when Musk took issue with Khanna's recent citing of a study published in the Lancet that claimed cuts to USAID could cause the deaths of more than 4.5 million children. DOGE, led by Musk, effectively shuttered USAID as it tore through Washington last year in an attempt to downsize the federal government and root out alleged inefficiencies. On a podcast on Saturday, Khanna said Musk "needs to answer" for the "4.5 million children around the world who he possibly sentenced to death by dismantling USAID." Musk, replying to a New York Post write-up of Khanna's comments, said it's "Time to sue this liar." "The standard applied by DOGE was very simple and easy: Provide contact information for the recipients of aid, so that we can confirm it is not fraudulent," Musk said in a later post. "The reality is that money was being sent to corrupt politicians under the guise of aid! Liars and stock insider traders like Ro the Robber should be in prison!!"Musk followed up with a series of posts attacking Khanna. The spat is not the first time Khanna has run into headwinds with his onetime allies in Silicon Valley. A number of his former supporters threatened to abandon him earlier this year after he embraced a wealth tax in California. In the interview with CNBC Monday, Khanna noted that Musk at times has been supportive of him, praising a book he wrote and his opposition to Twitter censoring a story about former President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. Khanna said Musk "lost it" over his citing of the Lancet study. But Khanna, who led a successful bid to release the Epstein files, said he doesn't plan to stop pushing against the wealthy despite representing one of the most affluent districts in the nation. "The most important moral test for the Democratic Party right now is, are you going to fight the Trump administration effectively, and are you going to fight the oligarchy," he said. "And with my work on the Epstein files, and now calling out Musk, I have taken on those fights." —Lora Kolodny contributed to this report. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent authorized the import of Iranian oil and refined products into the U.S. through at least August. View More

President Donald Trump speaks on the day he signs an executive order regarding quantum computing, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, June 22, 2026.Jonathan Ernst | Reuters President Donald Trump on Monday hedged when asked if he could guarantee that Iran would not use profits from oil sales to rebuild its military in the wake of the war with the U.S. and Israel.Trump said the money was expected to be used to buy American agricultural products.However, an Iranian central banker said the country is under no obligation to buy agricultural products from the U.S."Well, they're not supposed to be doing that, so we'll see," Trump told CNBC's Eamon Javers at the White House during an executive order signing event when asked if he could ensure Iran would not use oil money for that purpose."But they're supposed to use money to buy food for their people, because right now their people are very hungry, and they're buying it exclusively from us: corn, soybeans," Trump said."Should be a lot of money," he said. "I hope it's a lot of money."Trump also said Iranian funds that are being unfrozen as part of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries "is going to be used to buy food, and the food is going to be bought exclusively through the United States, from our farmers, and corn, soybeans, all of the things they need are going to be bought from our farmers.""So our farmers are very happy," Trump said.Trump's answer came hours after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent authorized the import of Iranian oil and refined products into the U.S. through at least August, in light of productive peace talks between the Islamic Republic and the U.S. in Switzerland.Last Thursday, the U.S. Navy lifted a blockade of Iran's ports and coastal areas, which since April had drastically slashed the amount of Iranian oil that was loaded for export. Read more CNBC politics coverageSenate poised to advance housing bill to limit private equity purchases of single-family homeTrump's legal attack on Fed Governor Cook cost her more than $1M, filing showsRoy Cooper's North Carolina Senate race could help decide control of the next Congress Abdolnaser Hemmati, the governor of Iran's central bank, told the Iranian news agency Tasnim on Monday, "There is no obligation to buy agricultural inputs from the U.S.," the outlet reported."Based on the signed notes, there is no obligation to purchase agricultural inputs from the U.S.," Hemmati said, according to Tasnim.Hemmati also reportedly said that if the price and quality of U.S. products is better compared to those of other countries, there is no block on buying the American products."We need to buy billions of dollars worth of essential goods and medicine annually, and it does not matter to us from which source we pay for these essential goods," he said, according to Tasnim. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Beijing's latest push into electric trucks has echoes of measures announced more than a decade ago to develop new energy passenger cars. View More

In this article31-SZFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Chinese-made trucks are waiting to be loaded onto ships for export at Yantai Port in Shandong Province, China on April 20, 2026.Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images Hi, this is Evelyn, writing to you from Beijing. Welcome to the latest edition of The China Connection — a snapshot of what I'm seeing and hearing from local businesses.China isn't resting on its laurels after its success in electric cars. From new policy goals to exports, what's about to speed things up? The big story China plans to repeat its electric car success story — this time with trucks.As shipping and oil costs surged this year, an overseas buyer of around 880 electric trucks pressed Chinese manufacturer Sany to ship all of them by the end of June, according to Michael Yue, general manager of overseas markets for Sany Heavy Industry's electric truck division.Before the Iran war, overseas adoption of electric trucks was expected to take three to five years, Yue told me last week. "But now, they need it immediately."Our conversation came just days after China's Ministry of Transport called for new energy heavy trucks to account for 40% of new truck sales by 2030. More than 80% of trucks used on shorter routes around Beijing should be electric, the policy added.The targets echo China's push more than a decade ago to develop new energy passenger cars, a category that includes battery-powered and hybrid models. The goal was for NEVs to account for 20% of new passenger car sales by 2025.China blew past that benchmark.By 2024, more than half of new passenger cars sold in China were NEVs. That figure has since climbed above 60%, and BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li recently predicted it could reach 80% soon.Electric trucks are following a similar trajectory. About a quarter of trucks sold in China last year were electric, helping global sales in the segment double to more than 400,000 vehicles, according to the International Energy Agency. The IEA attributed much of that growth in China to "operational cost advantages as well as declining battery costs." In certain cases, the total cost of owning a battery-powered heavy freight truck in China over five years of ownership has reached parity with diesel alternatives, the IEA said in a report published in May.Outside China, however, electric trucks typically still cost at least double that of diesel-powered models, the IEA said. Global competition That gap helps explain why adoption remains relatively limited worldwide, even as automotive giants and start-ups race into the market. Tesla is expected to ramp up deliveries of its "Semi" truck this year. Mercedes-Benz unveiled its eActros 600 electric long-haul truck in 2023, but is still focused on promoting the vehicle this year.Sany, which focused on excavators and construction machines for decades, only expanded into electric vehicles five years ago, Yue said. He said the company has since stopped selling diesel trucks in China.The company claims its 880-vehicle order represents the largest export shipment of electric trucks from China to date. Yue declined to identify the customer or destination country due to non-disclosure agreements, but said Sany has previously shipped electric trucks to countries such as Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. Like Xiaomi and other Chinese electric companies that increasingly rely on factory automation to cut costs and increase production, Sany has built much of its manufacturing capability in-house.In fact, the first phase of its highly automated factory in Changsha can already produce up to 300,000 trucks a year using parts made in China, Yue said. He claimed it's the second-largest commercial truck factory in the world, just behind BMW in Europe. Sany already operates across Asia, the Americas, Europe and Africa. More than 60% of its total revenue of 89.7 billion yuan last year came from outside China. "The Company's factory in Indonesia has produced products reaching high-end markets in Europe and the United States," Sany said in its 2025 annual report. The company declined to comment on a report that it plans to list its electric truck business in Hong Kong.Electric trucks are a small but quickly growing share of China's truck exports, said Jing Yang, director, Asia-Pacific corporate ratings, Fitch Ratings. "This segment grew rapidly in 2025 and in the first four months of 2026. Fitch expects the strong momentum to continue."If that forecast holds true, electric trucks could join cars and semiconductors in supporting China's global exports, despite rising tariffs — as Beijing builds another industry where it sets the pace. Need to know China's retail sales drop for the first time in three yearsOfficial data for May showed retail sales unexpectedly fell by 0.6% from a year ago, while investment figures also dropped by more than anticipated. Industrial output beat expectations with growth of 4.5%.China pushes for AI safety as G7 summit wraps up without BeijingWang Yi, China's top diplomat, said the country is speeding up plans to establish a global AI cooperation organization. He was speaking at the release of China's global governance whitepaper, which criticized trade wars and emphasized support for the Global South.China securities regulator warns against speculating on 'tech hype' and using AI for stock pickingRegulators will "strictly investigate and punish" illicit activities, Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at the annual Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai on Wednesday. Coming up June 22 - 26: China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) is held in BeijingJune 23 - 25: World Economic Forum "Summer Davos" is held in DalianJune 27: Industrial profits for MayJune 30: China official PMI for June Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

The House is also expected to advance a sprawling housing package this week that's aimed at creating more supply and making homes more affordable. View More

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, speaks to members of the media in the Senate Subway at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Senate on Monday by a vote of 85-5 passed a bipartisan affordable housing bill that would limit the number of single-family homes major investors can purchase, after months of debate spanning both chambers of Congress.The vote came after lawmakers reached a deal last week on the bill, which is aimed at increasing the supply of homes while limiting private equity's influence on the housing market. The House is expected to vote on the bill later this week.Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who helped shepherd the bill to passage, characterized the U.S. housing situation as a crisis, with young people delaying longer and longer their first purchase of a home. "Housing prices are too darn high and housing supply too low. Rent is too high. Starter homes — too hard to find. And that American dream slips further and further away for far too many," Scott said from the Senate floor ahead of the vote. Read more CNBC politics coverageSenate poised to advance housing bill to limit private equity purchases of single-family homeTrump's legal attack on Fed Governor Cook cost her more than $1M, filing showsRoy Cooper's North Carolina Senate race could help decide control of the next Congress The legislation is meant to increase housing affordability at a time when both parties are touting their work to bring down the cost of living ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, in which Republicans hope to defend narrow majorities in both chambers. President Donald Trump has signaled its support for the bill.But the bill almost failed to get off the ground, as Republicans debated over provisions limiting institutional investors and the House and Senate haggled over different versions of the proposal. Lawmakers found middle ground last week between the House version, which was viewed as more friendly to Wall Street, and the Senate version, which included more restrictions on institutional investors.One sticking point in an earlier iteration would have required investors who own 350 units or more to sell any new units they build beyond that cap within seven years. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle worried that putting such limits in place would stifle the creation of new housing. The final version of the bill, which the Senate is expected to vote on Monday afternoon, maintains the 350-unit cap but removes the seven-year sell-by provision."With America facing a shortage of over 4.7 million homes, expanding supply remains the most effective and sustainable way to improve affordability, support workforce mobility, and strengthen local economies," Neil Bradley, executive vice president, chief policy officer and head of strategic advocacy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement last week. "This supply-focused package would incentivize housing development by modernizing federal housing programs, reducing regulatory barriers, preserving residential and multifamily rental housing options, increasing pathways to homeownership, and encouraging much needed investment and new construction," Bradley said.The package was led by Scott and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate banking panel, and Reps. French Hill, R-Ark., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who sit atop the House Financial Services Committee. It would also ease some regulations to allow for the building of new homes, tie Community Development Block Grant funding to increasing housing supply in communities and create a pilot program to award grants to fund the redevelopment of vacant units into housing."We are closer than ever to passing the biggest housing bill since 1990, when the average price of a home in America sold for $150,000," Warren said from the Senate floor ahead of the vote. "Today, 36 years later, the average home is selling for over $500,000, and the American dream of home ownership is now out of reach for millions of families."— CNBC's Emily Wilkins contributed to this story. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Harris County authorities said that the driver, Michael Butler, said that he had been using Tesla's partially automated driving systems. View More

In this articleTSLAFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT A Tesla Model 3 is shown driving on the highway with FSD 14.2.2.3 self-driving supervised software in Irvine, California, U.S., Jan. 28, 2026. Mike Blake | Reuters The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Monday that it has opened a special crash investigation into a Tesla incident where a Model 3 slammed into a home in Katy, Texas, killing 76-year-old Martha Avila.Harris County authorities said that the driver, Michael Butler, was cooperating with their investigation on the scene and said that he had been using Tesla's partially automated driving systems when his vehicle barreled out of its lane and into the home in the Houston suburb.Tesla CEO Elon Musk went on the defensive, saying in a post on his social network X Monday that the crash "makes no sense.""FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash!" he wrote, referring to his company's partially automated driving systems.Tesla Vice President of Autopilot Ashok Elluswamy also chimed in on the incident with a response to Musk on X."In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area," he wrote. "They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash." The driver's claim, and the Tesla executives' claims, are still under investigation and have not been independently verified. Read more CNBC tech newsGodfather of AI blasts Musk's xAI as 'failure,' says labs are risking a 'big bubble explosion'Google Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer leaves for OpenAISpaceX adds longtime Elon Musk ally Roelof Botha to boardAllbirds continues AI pivot with name change and CEO hire, sending stock soaring The Washington Post previously reported that Tesla has a history of losing, withholding or making it difficult for attorneys and other interested parties to obtain the comprehensive, electronic data that is generated and stored in its cars when they were involved in severe collisions.Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.The federal vehicle safety regulator has opened more than three ​dozen ​Tesla ⁠special crash investigations involving the company's "advanced driver ​assistance systems," or partially automated driving systems, since 2016, when these became a standard part of the EV maker's new vehicles. The standard option was previously marketed under the name "Autopilot" in the U.S. before February, when Elon Musk's automaker changed that name under legal pressure from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. A California court and the state's DMV found that Tesla had engaged in false advertising around its Autopilot systems, potentially confusing consumers about its limitations.A May incident in Clairemont, California, also saw a Tesla crash through a house. Six people were injured when a Tesla struck another vehicle and slammed into the home, according to NBC 7 San Diego. Witnesses told CBS News 8 that the driver said they were using Autopilot at the time of the crash. Authorities are investigating.TeslaDeaths.com, an independent site that tracks Tesla-involved collisions using news reports, police records and federal data, has found at least 65 fatalities resulting from crashes where Tesla Autopilot or FSD (Supervised) had been mentioned as a factor from 2013 to 2025.The latest NHTSA probe comes as Musk is trying to keep investors' faith that his automaker can become a global leader in autonomous vehicles. For years, the company has been working on automated driving systems and promised that its technology will be sophisticated and safe enough for the company to operate large fleets of robotaxis on public roads in the U.S. soon.Tesla shares closed up by a point on Monday at $405.05 despite news of the federal probe. watch nowVIDEO2:2802:28Could a SpaceX-Tesla merger be on the horizon?Closing Bell: Overtime Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Shares of Nvidia have been faltering recently — and Kalshi traders predict that what the company can charge for chips is also declining. View More

In this articleSMHMUFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, speaks during a press conference after arriving at Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, on June 5, 2026. Chris Jung | Nurphoto | Getty Images Shares of Nvidia have been faltering recently — and Kalshi traders predict that what the company can charge for chips is also declining.While the artificial intelligence chipmaker is up about 12% in 2026, shares have been skidding in the past month, losing roughly 3%. In comparison, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) is up 84% this year, and the fund has advanced 15% in the past month.Nvidia has sat on the sidelines as Wall Street has focused on memory chips and infrastructure in the next steps of the AI buildout. This has been driving gains for companies like Micron Technology and Sandisk, both up nearly 60% in the past month alone.As shares of Nvidia have been languishing, the price of computing power for the company's B200 chip has also dropped. Nvidia's B200 is the company's flagship graphics processing unit or GPU that helps run data centers at a massive scale. B200's compute per hour price climbed to $6.11 on May 30, the highest within the past three months, according to Ornn, which provides live GPU compute prices across major hardware types. Since that day, the dashboard shows B200 compute per hour price declining, sitting at $4.22 as of June 21. Kalshi traders are now pessimistic that Nvidia's AI chip's compute price will surpass May's high. The contract asks the price of Nvidia B200 compute for the second quarter and will be resolved if the value, appearing on Ornn, is above a certain threshold by June 30. Most companies rent access for GPUs through cloud providers or neoclouds, another growing ecosystem. However, the cost to rent GPUs can fluctuate as demand for AI infrastructure grows. "A lot of people don't know how much computing power they'll need in the next year, and a lot of suppliers of that computing power right now don't know how many GPUs and to what capacity they should order," Seoyoung Kim, a finance professor at Santa Clara University, previously told CNBC. "And the manufacturers, like Nvidia, they don't know how much they should produce."Earlier this month, Google agreed to pay SpaceX $920 million a month to rent AI computing capacity from October 2026 through June 2029. In doing so, Google will use roughly 110,000 Nvidia GPUs, CPUs, memory and other related components. After the deal, RBC Capital Markets was bullish on Nvidia's performance for the second half of 2026 and 2027, saying the chip giant "looks best positioned among peers." "Regardless of the precise rationale, these GPU rental agreements should put to rest lingering concerns about NVDA losing share to [application-specific integrated circuits], at least in the short term," the analysts wrote. — CNBC's Yun Li contributed to this story.Disclosure: CNBC and Kalshi have a commercial relationship that includes customer acquisition and a minority investment. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Microsoft's embrace of natural gas shows a willingness to invest in fossil fuels to meet the power demand needed in its data centers. View More

watch nowVIDEO4:3804:38Chevron president on Microsoft data center deal: West Texas can meet power demandPower Lunch Chevron will fuel a massive Microsoft data center in West Texas with natural gas under a 20-year agreement, the oil major announced Monday. The data center, called Project Kilby, is expected to consume nearly 2.7 gigawatts of electricity, equivalent to the power needed to run about 2 million homes. Most of the electricity will come from large gas turbines supplied by Chevron's partner, GE Vernova. Caterpillar will also provide turbines. The power is dedicated to the data center and will not be connected to the electric grid. "There's really no competition with local electricity consumers," Jeff Gustavson, president of Chevron new energies, told CNBC. "In fact, over time, as we have excess power, we plan to push that into the grid to help stabilize it."Project Kilby has not started construction in Reeves County yet. Chevron expects to make a final investment decision on the project later this year. The data center would start receiving power in 2028. Microsoft's partnership with Chevron comes as it undertakes a massive buildout of data centers to power artificial intelligence applications. It plans $190 billion in capital expenditures this year, 61% more than in 2025.Microsoft's embrace of natural gas through a partnership with the oil industry shows a willingness to invest in fossil fuels to meet its electricity needs. The rapid growth of AI "requires energy infrastructure that can scale quickly and reliably," Noelle Walsh, Microsoft's president of cloud operations and innovation, said in a statement Monday.For its part, Chevron is positioned to quickly and reliably deliver natural gas from the Permian Basin, located in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, to data centers at a competitive cost, Gustavson said in a statement.Microsoft has invested primarily in renewable energy to offset carbon-dioxide emissions from its data centers. But now it's also searching for alternative power sources than can more reliably meet the 24/7 demand of its data centers. It turned, for example, to nuclear power in 2024 by investing in the restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro touted a $20 billion economic development deal last June, the state's largest ever. It's caused Shapiro no shortage of grief. View More

In this articleAMZNLLYFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch nowVIDEO4:2304:23America's Top States for Business 2026: The war on red tapeSquawk Box Announcing a $20 billion economic development deal last June — the largest, by far, in Pennsylvania history — Gov. Josh Shapiro couldn't help but crow a bit. "This is the kind of deal that every state wants, every state is out competing for," he said. "But Pennsylvania won this deal. We got it done." Yet in the year since, it has also caused Shapiro no shortage of grief. That is because it involves two massive Amazon data centers in the state for cloud computing and artificial intelligence. And public opinion on data centers is souring considerably.  In an Emerson College poll of 2,000 Pennsylvania adults released in December, 42% of respondents said they would oppose a data center in their community, while only 34% said they would support one. So, last month, Shapiro, a Democrat, rolled out a new set of what he called "strict guardrails to hold data center developers accountable." The Governor's Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) standards require companies to certify that they will either provide their own energy or pay 100% of the costs to keep local utility rates affordable; that they will promote "transparency and community engagement"; and that they will support the workforce and protect the environment. They are all laudable goals. But they complicate one of the governor's most cherished economic development priorities: cutting red tape. "Pennsylvania had a bit of a reputation as a slower and more difficult state to do business in," said Pennsylvania Secretary of Community and Economic Development Rick Siger in an interview. "We needed to make really fast progress to address that issue."  An aerial view of Project Boson in Archbald, PA, is pictured in close proximity to The Highland's neighborhood as well as Valley View High School (top left), Wednesday, April 15, 2026. Project Boson will replace an auto parts junkyard with a nearly 620,000-square-foot data center. Local residents have raised significant concerns. The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images One measure they took was to catalog all 2,400 licenses and permits the state issues, set a reasonable time frame to process them, and offer a money-back guarantee if they are late. The state boasts a nearly 72% reduction in overall permit processing times in just the past year. A simple business license, which used to take about eight weeks to obtain, can now be processed the same day. Shapiro also signed an executive order in 2024 establishing a so-called "Fast Track" program for the biggest projects — which Siger called a "concierge customer service layer" for the most complex developments. "I called CEOs, right after I got elected governor, who hadn't chosen Pennsylvania to set up a new warehouse or headquarters and I asked, 'What are we doing wrong?' … The No. 1 thing I heard over and over and over again was speed. We were just too damn slow," Shapiro said in an interview with CNBC on Monday. Shapiro pushed back against the idea that moving faster to get businesses up and running in the state implies additional risk to the public. "You still need to adhere to strict environmental, public health, and safety standards, but it doesn't mean it needs to take forever," he said. "Just because something took a long time to go through the bureaucracy didn't mean the bureaucracy was working effectively," he added. watch nowVIDEO5:2305:23Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on new fast track business development and company investmentsThe Exchange Some communities are pushing back Economic development experts say cutting red tape has emerged in 2026 as the most important factor in where companies choose to build. "The biggest thing, I think, is speed to market," said Tom Stringer of Stringer Site Selection and Incentives in New York, which has advised clients in a variety of industries, including aerospace, defense, and automotive. "We're really only looking at those states that have ready sites to go, that are pre-permitted, infrastructure in place, incentives lined up." Dealing with community opposition to a project runs counter to that, said site selection consultant Larry Gigerich, managing executive director of Ginovus in Indianapolis, and chairman of the Site Selectors Guild. "An early screening mechanism for us is places that are starting to really push back on economic development, so we're factoring that in," he said.  The friction is growing, Gigerich said, and it is not limited to data centers. "A lot of places are starting to push back on economic development, really for the first time in a long time," he said. "Not just data centers, but manufacturing projects, distribution centers. It's definitely going to be a challenge going forward in how we address that."  Donny Carey is pictured on his porch in Archbald, PA, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. Archbald is experiencing a contentious boom in proposed AI data center projects, with over 4.7 million sq ft proposed across 29 buildings. Major projects like Wildcat Ridge (14+ buildings) and "Project Gravity" face intense local opposition over power, water usage, and noise.The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images Siger said the state's new emphasis on speed is not coming at the expense of oversight.  "The rules of the road are the same, and by the way, when we talk to companies, they're kind of fine with that," he said. "What they want to know up front is, what are the rules of the road? What do we need to achieve, what is the path to get there, and how long will it take?" Siger denied that the GRID standards, which Shapiro is seeking to codify in state law, will be an impediment to development. "We are not adding a regulatory layer. We are saying, 'Here's what we think good is'." "We've been incredibly transparent," Shapiro told CNBC. "You want to build a data center here, you've got to generate your own power, and pay for it, and be transparent with the local community, make sure you are engaging with the local community with community benefits agreements and hiring local labor, and protect the water supply."He also pushed back against the idea that the tech industry is against the grid standards. "When you talk to serious players in the industry, they appreciate we are being transparent," Shapiro said. "We have about three we have permitted and 100 out there, and 90%-plus are speculators who will never get the energy or work with the local community, and don't have the end user. The serious folks understand," he said.Josh Shapiro's complicated political calculus The approach has already paid some major dividends for Pennsylvania beyond the Amazon deal. In January, Eli Lilly announced it would invest $3.5 billion to build a manufacturing campus for injectable medicines in Lehigh Valley. CEO David Ricks said Pennsylvania was among some 300 locations vying for the project.  "The commitment to rapid permitting, availability of land, logistics, and an ecosystem around us that really supports what we do, were really defining points in making this decision," he said. The project is expected to create more than 800 permanent jobs, and another 2,000 construction jobs. But the relentless focus on development — and data centers and artificial intelligence in particular — are complicating things for Shapiro, who is seeking a second term as governor in 2026 and is frequently mentioned as a presidential candidate in 2028. His Republican opponent in this year's gubernatorial race, State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, is calling for what she calls a "pause" on major data center development. In a May 28 post on X, she slammed Shapiro's approach. "Josh Shapiro rolled out the red carpet for massive data center projects. Now that communities are raising concerns about water usage, energy demands, noise, zoning, infrastructure, and effects on farm land, he's scrambling to do damage control," she wrote. Stuart Lacey, founder and CEO of Labrynth, which uses AI to measure permitting times and works with governments and businesses, said reforms need not be a partisan issue. "Anything that removes the friction behind driving the country forward is obviously on the top of the agenda," he said. "It's not party politics. It's just good business, and it's good for people." Labrynth developed a "Red Tape Index" to publicly measure progress, and the company is providing data on permitting times for this year's CNBC America's Top States for Business study. In Pennsylvania, they say that streamlining the approval process is part of a much larger goal. "We want to be a destination of choice for business," Siger said. Among the goals identified in the state's official economic development strategy: "Become a Top 10 State for Business" in CNBC's rankings. CNBC will unveil the 2026 America's Top States for Business report — our 20th year — on July 15.  Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Iranian supertankers have switched on their transponders, after going dark during the war, as they depart the Persian Gulf loaded with oil. View More

watch nowVIDEO3:2403:24Energy Treasury Department authorizes Iranian oil sales under 60-day licenseSquawk on the Street The U.S. on Monday authorized Iranian oil sales through August after "productive talks" between Tehran and Washington in Switzerland over the weekend, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. "As part of the framework, Treasury has issued a temporary 60-day general license authorizing the production, delivery, and sale of Iranian oil," Bessent said in a post on X. The authorization allows the import of Iranian oil and refined products into the U.S. Payment can be made to Tehran in dollars. The license expires Aug. 21, unless it's renewed. Vice President JD Vance said earlier Monday that "great progress" was made during the talks in Switzerland, despite Iran's declaration over the weekend that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command said Hormuz had not been closed. Vance said Iran agreed to allow weapons inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency back into the Islamic Republic, while Bessent said Tehran had also committed to free and open transit through Hormuz. watch nowVIDEO5:2305:23U.S.–Iran deal unlikely within 60 days, says ArgusInside India The U.S. Navy last Thursday lifted its blockade of Iran's ports and coastal areas. Iranian supertankers have switched on their transponders, after going dark during the war, as they depart the Persian Gulf loaded with oil.Iran typically loaded more than 1.5 million barrels per day for export before the U.S. imposed its blockade in April, with most of that oil going to China. Loadings declined to just 260,000 bpd in May as the blockade took hold. Ship traffic through Hormuz plunged during the war as Iran attacked vessels, triggering the largest oil supply disruption in history. About 20% of global crude supplies were exported through the strait before the war. Traffic has since increased after the U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on June 17. Transits rose sharply to 35 on Saturday before declining to 17 crossings on Sunday amid confusion over whether the strait was open or closed due to Iran's threats, according to data from Kpler. Traffic remains far below prewar levels, when more than 100 vessels transited Hormuz daily. Iran must allow ships to transit Hormuz toll-free for 60 days under the agreement with the U.S. After that, Tehran is supposed to discuss with Oman and the Gulf states how the strait will be administered, leaving open the possibility that tolls could be imposed later. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.