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Trade Wars
Trump Says He’ll Allow China-Nvidia Deals Except For ‘Most Advanced’ Blackwell Chips
President Donald Trump on Sunday said he will allow Nvidia and Beijing to make deals on AI chips, but said he will not allow Nvidia’s most advanced semiconductors to be sold to China, in a comment that comes days after he signaled willingness to discuss export controls on Nvidia’s flagship Blackwell chips. In a “60 Minutes” interview that aired on CBS on Sunday night, Trump was asked about China's interest in buying “the world's most advanced semiconductors,” especially Nvidia's flagship Blackwell AI chips.
Trump said he will let Beijing “deal with Nvidia,” noting that the American AI chipmaker is the “prime company in the world for that” and added: “We will let them deal with Nvidia, but not in terms of the most advanced.” “The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States,” the president said.
Read more at Forbes
Kimberly-Clark To Acquire Tylenol Owner Kenvue For $48.7 Billion, Creating Consumer Health Giant
Kimberly-Clark announced Monday it’s struck an agreement to buy Kenvue in a deal valued at $48.7 billion that would create a consumer staples giant. The deal is a combination of cash and stock and totals about $40 billion on an equity basis, excluding the impact of debt. The combined company would bring together brands like Huggies and Kleenex with the likes of Band-Aid and Tylenol. It would include 10 billion-dollar brands, the companies said in a news release. The acquisition would be one of the largest on Wall Street this year.
Kimberly-Clark and Kenvue expect about $1.9 billion in cost synergies from the transaction to be realized in the first three years following the deal’s close. The acquisition comes as Kimberly-Clark and the broader consumer packaged goods industry try to address shifting demand and shopping behavior, often through deal-making and divestitures. Even with Kimberly-Clark’s blockbuster acquisition, P&G still dwarfs its rival in both enterprise value and annual revenue. P&G has a market cap of about $350 billion.
Read more at CNBC
Ford To Transfer Workers, Spend $60 Million, Hire 100 To Blunt Novelis Fire Impact
Ford Motor Company announced late last monthy it would shift production to meet demand for its gas-powered and hybrid F-series trucks by transferring workers and hiring about 100 as it seeks to stabilize after a fire at its main aluminum supplier. According to a statement, assembly of the F-150 Lightning is and will remain paused as a result of the reassignments. The electric truck is less profitable for Ford, the company said and uses more aluminum.
To facilitate the production increase, Ford says it will transfer all hourly employees at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center next door to form a third shift of 1,200 workers at Dearborn Truck Plant, add 90 workers at its Dearborn Stamping Plant and 80 employees at its Dearborn Diversified Manufacturing Plan, and hire 100 new workers at its Kentucky Truck plant. The Kentucky Truck Plant will also receive $60 million in extra investment for training as the company looks to scale production there by one extra job per hour, or 5,000 extra trucks annually.
Read more at Plant Services
Boeing F-47 Fighter To Set New Stealth Standard
The term "stealth supremacy" describes the Boeing F-47's next-generation, all-aspect, broadband stealth capabilities, which will be far more sophisticated than those of existing fighters like the F-35. The goal is for the US Air Force's F-47 to achieve superior stealth performance, or "stealth++," enabling it to penetrate deep into enemy territory without being detected. It will have all new, advanced radar-absorbent materials (RAM) in the form of composites, and special coatings to reduce its radar cross-section (RCS) and defeat even the most advanced adversary radar systems. In addition to ultra-low RCS, the aircraft will have a significantly reduced infrared signature, making it nearly invisible to heat-seeking weapons sensors.
The F-47's design is speculated to have features like “variable cycle” engines and adaptive intakes to hide the engine face, a critical next-level upgrade for radar evasion. It is being designed primarily for long-range penetration, a capability that current stealth fighters struggle to achieve. Its “exquisite” performance and capabilities will make it the “quarterback” of the USAF’s future mixed fleet of stealth and non-stealth combat aircraft. To reduce the aircraft's infrared signal, its cutting-edge adaptive engines will be concealed inside the airframe and its exhaust emissions will be cooled. In order to make the aircraft almost undetectable to infrared sensors and heat-seeking missiles, it is intended to fly at a temperature roughly equal to the surrounding atmosphere.
Read more at Simple Flying
AMETEK Announces Record Third Quarter Results and Raises Full Year Guidance
AMETEK’s third quarter 2025 sales were a record $1.89 billion, an 11% increase over the third quarter of 2024. quarter of 2024. On a GAAP basis, third quarter earnings per diluted share were $1.60. Adjusted earnings in the quarter were a record $1.89 per diluted share, up 14% from the third quarter of 2024. Adjusted earnings adds back non-cash, after-tax, acquisition-related intangible amortization of $0.22 per diluted share and excludes acquisition-related pre-tax costs of $19.7 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, for the FARO Technologies acquisition. GAAP operating income was a record $488.4 million, or 25.8% of sales. Adjusted operating income was a record $496.1 million, up 11% versus last year’s third quarter.
“Our businesses performed exceptionally well in the third quarter, delivering strong growth and impressive operating results,” noted Mr. Zapico. “For 2025, we continue to expect overall sales to be up mid-single digits compared to 2024. Adjusted earnings per diluted share are now expected to be in the range of $7.32 to $7.37, up 7% to 8% over the comparable basis for 2024. This is an increase from our previous guidance range of $7.06 to $7.20,” he added. “For the fourth quarter of 2025, overall sales are expected to be up approximately 10% compared to the same period last year. Adjusted earnings in the quarter are anticipated to be in the range of $1.90 to $1.95 per share, up 2% to 4% compared to the fourth quarter of 2024,” concluded Mr. Zapico.
Read more at Ametek
Ford, Hyundai Report Large Declines In October EV Sales After End Of Federal Credits
Sales of all-electric vehicles collapsed last month following the end of up to $7,500 in federal incentives for purchasing an EV, several automakers said Monday. Ford Motor, Kia, Hyundai Motor and Toyota Motor reported massive declines in EV sales as many buyers pulled ahead purchases before the credits ended under changes by the Trump administration. Ford, which ranked third in U.S. EV sales through the third quarter, reported a 25% drop in its year-over-year all-electric October sales. That included a 12% decline for its Mustang Mach-E crossover and a 17% fall for the F-150 Lightning.
Kia and Hyundai reported their top EV models dropped between 52% and 71% from a year earlier. The declines are notably greater when looking month to month, as September marked the end of a record quarter for EV sales in the U.S. ahead of the credits ending. Some models, such as Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 EVs, fell by 80% and 71% from September to October, respectively, according to its reported sales. It was a similar story for comparable vehicles at Kia, which is owned by Hyundai Motor but largely operates separately in the U.S.
Read more at CNBC
Prepare For Humanoid Construction Robots Starting Now: Report
Humanoid robots might not be a fixture on the jobsites of today, but the time is now for builders to start gameplanning for their future usage, according to an Oct. 17 report from consulting firm McKinsey and Co. The report paints a scenario that contractors across the country are all too familiar with: Fewer young people entering the field, skilled workers retiring and a physically demanding environment have created a skilled labor crisis in the industry. The consulting firm also pointed to dismal gains in productivity over the last two decades, far below manufacturing and the overall economy.
In response, McKinsey claims, humanoid robots might be the answer. With the advent of embodied artificial intelligence, better physical component technology and increasingly sophisticated AI models, these robots represent what McKinsey calls a “potentially transformative solution” for the industry’s productivity crisis.
Read more at Construction Dive
Robot Swarms - Researchers Believe That Machines, Acting Collectively, Can More Effectively Accomplish Tasks
Forget teaching robots to think like humans. A field called swarm robotics is taking inspiration from ants, bees and even slime molds—simple creatures that achieve remarkable feats through collective intelligence. Unlike traditional robots that take orders from a central computer, swarm robots work like ant colonies. No single robot is in charge, but the swarm accomplishes complex tasks through simple interactions between neighbors. Each robot interacts only with those nearby, sometimes communicating with sounds or chemical signals in particles they release.
Researchers say this approach could excel where traditional robots fail, like situations where central control is impractical or impossible due to distance, scale or communication barriers. For instance, a swarm of drones might one day monitor vast areas to detect early-stage wildfires that current monitoring systems sometimes miss. Hundreds of drones could be continuously patrolling, able to detect fires within minutes of ignition. If some drones fail, others would continue monitoring. At the microscopic scale, researchers are developing tiny robots that could work together to navigate the human body to deliver medication or clear blockages without surgery.
Read more at The WSJ
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