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Greetings! Well, this is inconvenient. Despite President Donald Trump's order in April immediately blocking Nvidia from selling AI chips to China, the AI chipmaker reported another stellar quarter through the end of April. Revenue rose 69%, while free cash flow soared 75% to $26 billion, more than either Apple or Google throws off. Nvidia said the Trump order cost Nvidia $2.5 billion in lost sales in the April quarter and will cost it another $8 billion in the second quarter. And yet, demand for its newest AI chips from U.S. companies is so intense that Nvidia projected revenue would still rise 50% in the second quarter, despite the lost China business. Investors appear to have moved on: Before the earnings announcement, Nvidia stock had risen 20% since the April news of the latest export restrictions, and it rose a further 4.4% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. That put Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in an unusual position: Instead of downplaying the bad news, as most CEOs would do, he was intent on reminding people of it. More than once, he and his chief financial officer, Colette Kress, told analysts Nvidia was now shut out of a Chinese market it expected to be worth $50 billion annually. And just in case anyone missed the point, Huang departed from his usual practice on earnings calls of waxing lyrical about the AI revolution and instead spent some time warning of the shortsighted thinking behind the government's export limits on sales to China, repeating a point he made a few days ago. "China's AI moves on with or without U.S. chips," he said on Wednesday. "Export controls should strengthen U.S. platforms, not drive half of the world's AI talent to rivals." Despite saying that, minutes later he lavished praise on those of Trump's policies that aim to bring back U.S. manufacturing. Huang asserted at one point, "President Trump wants America to win, and he also realizes that we are not the only country in the race," comments that appeared to contradict what he had been saying a few minutes earlier about the impact of the export controls. All CEOs are in a delicate position when it comes to dealing with Trump, of course, given his famous sensitivity to criticism even as he pursues policies that are antithetical to U.S. business interests. Huang is walking a fine line, one that seemed to fray on Wednesday's call. Canadians will be thrilled! Instacart's appointment of its chief business officer, Chris Rogers, as CEO, succeeding OpenAI-bound Fidji Simo, means it will be run by a Canadian resident. That's right—Rogers lives in Toronto. Instacart didn't mention that detail in its announcement about Rogers, but the clue was buried in a securities filing that reprinted his offer letter. Not only is Rogers employed by Maplebear Canada—Maplebear being the technical name for Instacart—he will be paid a salary of $1.37 million Canadian dollars. He's been with Instacart since 2019, and before that he was at Apple for 11 years, rising to be managing director of Apple Canada. U.S. tech companies have a very international cast of CEOs, of course (Simo herself is originally from France). It's not common, though, for a U.S. firm to have a CEO who lives in a different country. Instacart didn't explain why Rogers wasn't moving to San Francisco, where the company is based. If nothing else, Instacart will be hard to beat in terms of geographic diversity for top management. • Elon Musk sought to block an OpenAI deal to build a huge AI data center in Abu Dhabi, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. According to the report, on a call Musk told officials from AI firm G42, which is developing the data center site, that the plan would not get the green light from President Donald Trump unless it involved Musk's firm, xAI. • Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Wednesday that his messaging app will offer access to Grok, the AI chatbot from Elon Musk's xAI. The deal expands Grok's distribution to Telegram's more than a billion users. • Tesla is targeting June 12 to launch its driverless taxi service in Austin, Texas, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. • Shein is considering switching its planned IPO from London to Hong Kong, according to news reports Wednesday. The fast-fashion giant is weighing the switch because its Chinese securities regulators haven't yet approved a London IPO, the reports said. Shein, which was founded in China and is now headquartered in Singapore, had earlier scrapped plans to go public in the U.S. • Dbt Labs, a nine-year-old startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, launched a new version of its main product, which lets data analysts extract business insights from corporate data, such as customer purchasing patterns and supply chain operations. The company is also changing its software licensing with the launch of Fusion (more here). • Salesforce shares rose nearly 2% after its first-quarter earnings report, as the software provider exceeded its revenue forecast by more than $60 million and bumped up its full-year forecast by $400 million. Introducing: Applied AI. This new newsletter explores how businesses and leaders are using AI to innovate, improve efficiency, and foster collaboration. Stay ahead with insights and stories on the transformative power of AI. Sign up here. | 
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