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The Morning Risk Report: China Wants a Chip Machine From the Dutch. The U.S. Said No.
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ASML employees working on the company’s semiconductor lithography system in the Netherlands in 2019.
PHOTO: BART VAN OVERBEEKE/AS/REUTERS
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Some of the tech industry’s most important machines are made next to corn fields in the Netherlands. The U.S. government is trying to make sure they don’t end up in China.
Beijing has been pressuring the Dutch government to allow its companies to buy ASML Holding NV’s marquee product: a machine called an extreme ultraviolet lithography system that is essential to making advanced microprocessors.
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The one-of-a-kind, 180-ton machines are used by companies including Intel Corp., South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. and leading Apple Inc. supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to make the chips in everything from cutting-edge smartphones and 5G cellular equipment to computers used for artificial intelligence.
China wants the $150-million machines for domestic chip makers, so smartphone giant Huawei Technologies Co. and other Chinese tech companies can be less reliant on foreign suppliers. But ASML hasn’t sent a single one because the Netherlands—under pressure from the U.S.—is withholding an export license to China.
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Lordstown Motors said in a regulatory filing Thursday it had been informed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan of a Justice Department investigation.
PHOTO: NATE SMALLWOOD FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Electric-truck startup Lordstown Motors Corp. confirmed the Justice Department is probing its business, investigating matters related to its reverse merger deal last year and preorders for its forthcoming pickup truck, the Endurance.
In a regulatory filing Thursday, the company said it had been informed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan of its investigation, which follows one initiated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The federal probe adds to the challenges facing the Ohio-based startup as it works to launch its first model, an all-electric pickup called the Endurance that executives have said will begin limited production in September.
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Lawmakers dropped plans to pay for a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure package in part by boosting tax-collecting enforcement at the Internal Revenue Service, a setback for the bipartisan measure ahead of a looming deadline for agreement.
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Hedge-fund billionaire William Ackman is dropping plans to use his SPAC to invest in Universal Music Group, saying the Securities and Exchange Commission wasn’t convinced the deal met the rules for such vehicles.
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A Tokyo court on Monday sentenced Americans Michael Taylor and Peter Taylor to prison for their roles in the escape of former Nissan Motor Co. chief Carlos Ghosn from Japan.
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For eight years, asset managers have tried to launch bitcoin exchange-traded funds, but success seems no closer now than it did in 2013. So far the industry hasn’t been able to persuade the SEC that bitcoin ETFs wouldn’t be susceptible to manipulation, fraud and illicit activities such as money laundering.
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Binance Holdings Ltd., the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange operator, said it would stop offering digital tokens tied to stocks like Apple Inc. and Tesla Inc. after regulators in multiple countries raised concerns about the products.
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The Federal Aviation Administration said it suspended operations of an airline whose cargo plane crashed into the ocean earlier this month, following an investigation into the airline’s parent company.
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The Biden administration is telling businesses that they are subject to a national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong a year ago.
PHOTO: JAYNE RUSSELL/ZUMA PRESS
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The Biden administration is warning American businesses about the increasing risks of operating in Hong Kong as China’s tightening grip on the city causes business conditions to deteriorate.
In an advisory issued Friday, the Biden administration cautions businesses and individuals working for them that they are subject to a restrictive national-security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong a year ago. The advisory cites the risks of electronic surveillance without warrants and of being compelled to surrender corporate and customer data to the government.
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Stablecoins, digital currencies pegged to national currencies like the U.S. dollar, are increasingly seen as a potential risk not just to crypto markets, but to the capital markets as well. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is scheduled Monday to hold a meeting to discuss stablecoins. The group includes the heads of the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
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Over the past year, Iran has made significant advances in its ability to amass enriched uranium, complicating the Biden administration’s effort to revive a 2015 deal aimed at curbing Tehran’s atomic ambitions. American and European officials estimate that Iran could now gather enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon within two to three months.
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Ericsson AB said revenue in China dropped sharply in the most recent quarter and warned it would likely lose market share there as a consequence of Sweden’s decision to ban rival Huawei Technologies Co. from the Scandinavian country’s 5G wireless networks. Chinese officials have threatened to retaliate for the ban by punishing Swedish companies doing business in China.
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Credito Real SAB de CV raised money from bond funds and the U.S. government in recent years, using its status as a lender to Mexico’s poor to tap into the booming trend of socially conscious investing. Now, hedge funds including Millennium Management LLC and Bybrook Capital LLP are questioning the company’s accounting and wagering that prices of its roughly $2 billion of bonds will tumble.
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Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Global has 377 million annual active users.
PHOTO: CHINATOPIX/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Bolstered by its wide swath of data on users, mapping and traffic, Didi Global Inc. became the dominant ride-hailing company in China. Now, that data is turning into a liability.
On Friday, China sent state-security and police officials and other regulators into the company’s offices, as the government zeroes in on its cybersecurity practices and collection of personal information. The visit was a part of a review ordered just days after shares sold in Didi’s $4.4 billion initial public offering started trading publicly in New York.
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President Biden and Facebook have long had chilly relations, though the tensions have elevated as the president looks to control the spread of Covid-19.
PHOTO: SUSAN WALSH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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President Biden’s attack on Facebook Inc. on Friday followed months of mounting private frustration inside his administration over the social-media giant’s handling of vaccine misinformation, according to U.S. officials, bringing into public view tensions that could complicate efforts to stop the spread of Covid-19.
The tough words between the White House and Silicon Valley escalated over the weekend, as Facebook issued a blunt statement accusing the Biden administration of distorting the facts. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows in Washington, countered that social-media companies weren’t doing enough to clamp down on false statements about Covid-19 vaccines.
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General Motors’ PAC gave at least $22,000 to eight of the Republican objectors.
PHOTO: REBECCA COOK/REUTERS
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Big names in corporate America have resumed donating to Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying President Biden’s victory after the companies earlier announced pauses or reviews of their political donations in response to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
New campaign finance filings show political-action committees for Aflac Inc., American Airlines, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Tyson Foods Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc. were among those that made recent donations to the campaigns of some of the 147 GOP lawmakers.
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Intel Corp. CEO Pat Gelsinger, in his first six months on the job, has recommitted the company to chip production during a global shortage; he spoke at a tech conference in 2017.
PHOTO: TONY AVELAR/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Less than six months into the job, Intel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger’s approach to reviving the chipmaker’s fortunes is emerging: move quickly and carry a big checkbook.
When Mr. Gelsinger took over from Bob Swan in February, after years of Intel missteps, the big question among analysts and investors was whether the company would abandon chip production and focus on design. Such an approach has paid dividends for rivals Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., allowing them to eat into Intel’s market share.
Mr. Gelsinger’s answer, effectively, has been an emphatic ”no.” He has committed Intel to not only make its own semiconductors but also become a so-called foundry, a maker of chips for others.
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