A timeline of the US semiconductor market in 2025

It’s been a tumultuous 12 months for the U.S. semiconductor business.

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

Right here’s a have a look at what’s occurred thus far in 2025.

July

Intel continues to search for effectivity

July 24: Intel introduced that that it was pulling again on a few of its manufacturing operations. The corporate will not pursue its beforehand introduced initiatives in Germany and Poland, and is consolidating its check operations. Intel additionally introduced it plans to finish this 12 months with round 75,000 workers.

Trump’s AI Motion Plan

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

Groundbreaking UAE AI deal reportedly on maintain

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

Nvidia is a bargaining chip

July 16: A day after semiconductor corporations like Nvidia and AMD obtained the inexperienced gentle to renew promoting sure AI chips to China we came upon why. U.S. Commerce Safety Howard Lutnick mentioned the plans to permit U.S. firms to start out promoting AI chips in China is tied to ongoing commerce discussions between the U.S. and China concerning uncommon earth parts.

U.S. Chips head again to China

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

Malaysia fights chip smuggling

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

June

Intel appoints new management

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

Intel to start layoffs

June 17: Intel will start to put off a big chunk of its Intel Foundry workers in July. The corporate plans to get rid of at the very least 15%, and as much as 20%, of employees in that enterprise unit. These layoffs aren’t a shock: It was rumored again in April, and Intel’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan has mentioned he needs to flatten the group.

Nvidia received’t report on China

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

AMD acquires the workforce behind Untether AI

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

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

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

Might

Nvidia lays out the impression of chip export restrictions

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

AMD acquires Enosemi

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

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

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

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

Might 20: Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan seemingly obtained proper to work on his plan to spin out Intel’s non-core enterprise models. The semiconductor large is reportedly seeking to offload its networking and edge models, which makes chips for telecom gear, and was answerable for $5.4 billion of the corporate’s 2024 income.

The Biden administration’s AI Diffusion rule is formally lifeless

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

A final-minute reversal

Might 7: Only a week earlier than the “Framework for Synthetic Intelligence Diffusion” was set to enter place, the Trump administration plans on taking a distinct path. In response to a number of media retailers, together with Axios and Bloomberg, the administration received’t implement the restrictions after they had been supposed to start out on Might 15 and is as an alternative working by itself framework. 

April

Anthropic doubles down on its help of chip export restrictions

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

Deliberate layoffs at Intel

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

The Trump administration additional restricts chip exports

April 15: Nvidia’s H20 AI chip obtained hit with an export licensing requirement, the corporate disclosed in an SEC submitting. The corporate added it expects $5.5 billion in costs associated to this new requirement within the first quarter of its 2026 fiscal 12 months. The H20 is probably the most superior AI chip Nvidia can nonetheless export to China in some type or style. TSMC and Intel reported comparable bills the identical week. 

Nvidia seems to speak its means out of additional chip exports

April 9: Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang was noticed attending dinner at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, in response to stories. On the time, NPR reported Huang could have been in a position to spare Nvidia’s H20 AI chips from export restrictions upon agreeing to put money into AI information facilities within the U.S. 

An alleged settlement between Intel and TSMC

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

Intel spins off noncore belongings, publicizes new initiative

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

March

Intel names a brand new CEO 

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

February

Intel’s Ohio chip plant will get delayed once more

February 28: Intel was supposed to start out working its first chip fabrication plant in Ohio this 12 months. As an alternative, the corporate slowed down building on the plant for the second time in February. Now the $28 billion semiconductor mission received’t wrap up building till 2030 and should not even open till 2031.

Senators name for extra chip export restrictions

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

January 

DeepSeek releases its open “reasoning” mannequin

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

Joe Biden’s government order on chip exports

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

Anthropic’s Dario Amodei weighs in on chip export restrictions

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

This story initially revealed Might 9, 2025, and is commonly up to date with new info.