Consumer Tech News (Dec 1-5): Trump Says He's Back in Elon Musk's Social Circle, U.S. Suspends China MSS Sanctions & More

President Donald Trump has said that he gets along well with Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk when being asked if he is back again in his social circle following the pair’s falling out earlier this year.

A coalition of conservative advocacy groups — including former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon — has formally urged the Donald Trump administration to reject Big Tech's push to treat copyrighted materials as "free" fodder for training artificial intelligence systems.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) has slammed the Trump administration for letting China race ahead of the U.S. in the electric vehicles and clean energy sectors.

The United States has reportedly decided to suspend the imposition of sanctions on China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) to preserve the trade truce between the two nations.

Broadline Retail

In a joint effort to address the increasing need for reliable connectivity, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google have launched a new multicloud networking service.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) introduced its new Graviton5 processors to help customers run cloud applications faster, more efficiently, and at lower cost as their workloads grow more complex.

Automobiles & Robotics

Li Auto Inc (NASDAQ:LI) announced Monday that it delivered 33,181 vehicles in November 2025, pushing its cumulative total to 1,495,969 units as of November 30.

Ford Motor Co.‘s (NYSE:F) electric vehicles fell sharply in November amid multiple factors affecting the company’s EV endeavors, as President Donald Trump‘s EV Credit rollback hit sales.

Ford CEO Jim Farley has reaffirmed the automaker’s commitment to building more affordable cars as President Donald Trump scaled back Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) norms.

Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN) faces renewed scrutiny as regulators cite safety concerns tied to a potential seat belt failure affecting tens of thousands of its vehicles.

Shares of robotics-linked stocks — iRobot Corp (NASDAQ:IRBT), Serve Robotics Inc (NASDAQ:SERV), Richtech Robotics Inc (NASDAQ:RR) — gained on the heels of a report indicating the Trump administration's plans to issue an executive order on robotics.

Semiconductors & Softwares

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (NYSE:TSM) sits at the center of Taiwan’s push to secure lower U.S. tariffs, as the island works to reduce duties on its exports from 20% to 15% while advancing semiconductor cooperation with Washington.

Taiwan Semiconductor sits at the center of a widening legal battle over alleged theft of its trade secrets.

Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) just scored deeper traction inside Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) Azure, with the cloud giant rolling out Marvell’s LiquidSecurity hardware across Europe.

Marvell is pushing deeper into the artificial intelligence hardware arms race, with a potential multi-billion-dollar deal to acquire a photonics startup that could boost its position in high-performance datacenter silicon.

Marvell reported quarterly adjusted earnings of 76 cents per share, which beat the analyst estimate of 73 cents and, revenue came in at $2.08 billion, which beat the Street estimate of $2.07 billion.

Microsoft shares are slipping following reports that the tech giant has lowered its sales targets for artificial intelligence software, as clients are hesitant to buy the new tools.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Amazon.com Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon Web Services deepened their long-running partnership at AWS re:Invent with new integrations across interconnect technology, cloud infrastructure, and AI software.

Nvidia is expanding its open-source artificial intelligence portfolio with a sweeping set of new models, datasets, and development tools designed to accelerate progress in both digital and physical AI.

Nvidia is teaming up with major robotics players to power a new generation of artificial intelligence-driven industrial robots aimed at machines that can understand voice commands and safely adapt to humans on the factory floor.

D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE:QBTS) has launched a new U.S. government business unit to accelerate federal adoption of its quantum systems, software, and services.

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) reported third-quarter revenue slightly above $1.23 billion, beating analyst estimates of approximately $1.22 billion and adjusted earnings of 96 cents per share, beating estimates of 94 cents per share.

CrowdStrike’s CEO George Kurtz issued a stark warning during the company’s third-quarter earnings, citing a growing wave of AI-driven cyber threats from adversarial nation-states, including China.

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) announced that it will exit the Crucial consumer business, ending sales of Crucial-branded products through global retailers, e-tailers, and distributors.

Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) reported third-quarter revenue of $10.26 billion, narrowly missing the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion, and adjusted earnings came in at $3.25 per share, well above expectations of $2.86 per share.

Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW) delivered third-quarter revenue of $1.21 billion, beating analyst estimates of $1.18 billion and adjusted earnings of 35 cents per share for the period, beating analyst estimates of 31 cents per share.

Electrical Equipment & IT Services

Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ:PLUG) announced Monday that it has begun supplying NASA with up to 218,000 kilograms (480,000 pounds) of liquid hydrogen to support operations at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio.

MongoDB Inc (NASDAQ:MDB) reported third-quarter revenue of $628.31 million, beating analyst estimates of $591.52 million and adjusted earnings of $1.32 per share, beating analyst estimates of 80 cents per share.

Smartphones

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:APPL) announced a major leadership transition within its artificial intelligence group, marking the most significant reshuffle since launching its Apple Intelligence platform in 2024.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

L&T Technology Services announced that it has developed a next-generation artificial intelligence-powered digital twin platform designed to improve respiratory diagnostics and lung navigation.

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) disclosed a collaboration with the parent company of ChatGPT, OpenAI, to bring agentic AI systems to the core of enterprise operations.

In a stunning reversal of the technology industry’s hierarchy, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has declared a "Code Red," freezing the company’s monetization roadmap to desperately refocus on product quality.

French startup Mistral launched a sweeping new suite of artificial intelligence (AI) models, pitching the open-weight lineup designed to run everywhere from smartphones to drones as its most ambitious challenge yet to deep-pocketed rivals OpenAI, Google, and DeepSeek.

OpenAI’s chief research officer, Mark Chen, says the competition for elite AI researchers has become so intense that Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally delivered homemade soup to candidates he hoped to lure away.

The European Union (EU) is planning a new antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) over how the company introduced its "Meta AI" assistant within WhatsApp.

C3.ai Inc. (NASDAQ:AI) reported quarterly losses of 25 cents per share, which beat the consensus estimate for losses of 33 cents and revenue came in at $75.15 million, which beat the Street estimate of $74.86 million.