A timeline of the US semiconductor market in 2025

Summary

It’s been a tumultuous year for the U.S. semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry plays a sizable role in the “AI race” that the U.S. seems determined to win, which is why this context is worth paying attention to: from Intel’s appointment of Lip-Bu Tan to CEO — who wasted no time getting to work trying to revitalize the legacy company — to Joe Biden proposing sweeping new AI chip export rules on his way out of office that never came to fruition. Here’s a look at what’s happened so far in 2025. July Intel continues to look for efficiency July 24: Intel announced that that it was pulling back on some of its manufacturing operations. The company will no longer pursue its previously announced projects in Germany and Poland, and is consolidating its test operations. Intel also announced it plans to end this year with around 75,000 employees. Trump’s AI Action Plan July 23: The Trump administration unveiled its much-anticipated AI Action Plan alongside multiple related executive orders. While the plan includes a lot regarding the need for U.S. chip export controls, and for the U.S. to coordinate with its allies on this effort, it doesn’t provide any concrete information on what these restrictions would look like. Groundbreaking UAE AI deal reportedly on hold July 17: The Trump administration helped foster a groundbreaking deal in May that resulted in a commitment from the United Arab Emirates to buy billions of dollars worth of AI chips from Nvidia. But now that deal is reportedly on hold as the U.S. works through national security concerns and fears that those chips could be smuggled from the Middle East to China. Nvidia is a bargaining chip July 16: A day after semiconductor firms like Nvidia and AMD got the green light to resume selling certain AI chips to China we found out why. U.S. Commerce Security Howard Lutnick said the plans to allow U.S. companies to start selling AI chips in China is tied to ongoing trade discussions between the U.S. and China regar...