Overseas Headlines: Trump Tells Tech Giants to “Solve Their Own” Power Needs, Samsung Galaxy S26 Series Released, World's Largest Derivatives Exchange Suffers Major Outage

　　Last Night and This Morning’s Headlines of Global Financial Mediamainly focused on the following:

　　1. EU reportedly assessing new US tariffs possibly exceeding 15% cap under agreement, involving €4.2 billion in goods  

　　2. Trump plans to require tech giants to pledge to bear the electricity costs of their own data centers  

　　3. Sources: Thrive Capital invests about $1 billion in OpenAI at a $285 billion valuation  

　　4. Samsung Galaxy S26 series launched: AI triple engine integration + debut of privacy screen, two models up $100  

　　5. World’s largest derivatives exchange suffers outage! CME metals market halts for 1.5 hours, natural gas trading interrupted for 35 minutes 

　　6. Far-fetched or science fiction? Citrini’s 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis report sparks criticism 

　　EU reportedly assessing new US tariffs possibly exceeding 15% cap under agreement, involving €4.2 billion in goods  

　　US President Trump’s new tariff plan would subject about €4.2 billion ($5 billion) worth of EU exports to tariffs above the 15% ceiling set by the US-EU trade agreement.

　　According to sources familiar with the EU tariff assessment, Trump’s new policy would raise tariffs on European exports including cheese, butter, some agricultural products, as well as certain plastics, textiles, and chemicals, to levels higher than the maximum allowed by the agreement.

　　Sources said that for other products, such as some spirits, the tariff rate would be below 15%.

　　After the US Supreme Court ruled that Trump had no authority to impose so-called “reciprocal tariffs” globally under emergency powers, Trump immediately announced a new 10% global tariff and subsequently threatened to raise it to 15%, though this has not been formally implemented yet.

　　Trump plans to require tech giants to pledge to bear the electricity costs of their own data centers  

　　US President Donald Trump will gather tech industry executives next week at the White House to sign a pledge ensuring their companies will bear the power costs of energy-intensive data centers.

　　A White House official said representatives from Amazon, Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft, and Google’s parent company Alphabet are expected to attend the event with Trump on March 4. The invitation list also includes xAI, owned by Elon Musk, Oracle, and OpenAI.

　　“Under this bold initiative, these major companies will independently build, introduce, or purchase power supplies for new AI data centers, ensuring that as electricity demand rises, American consumers’ utility bills won’t increase,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said Wednesday. “President Trump is committed to maintaining US leadership in the AI field while reducing cost of living for working families.”

　　Sources: Thrive Capital invests about $1 billion in OpenAI at a $285 billion valuation  

　　On Wednesday, sources confirmed that Thrive Capital, led by Joshua Kushner, invested about $1 billion in OpenAI at a $285 billion valuation in December last year.

　　For this venture capital firm, long a major backer of the AI startup, this was a favorable deal.

　　OpenAI is currently finalizing a large financing round, which could exceed $100 billion in total and push the company’s valuation to $800 billion. According to a person familiar with the negotiations, who requested anonymity due to confidentiality requirements, Thrive’s investment at the end of last year was an independent deal, but the company is very likely to participate in this round.

　　Samsung Galaxy S26 series launched: AI triple engine integration + debut of privacy screen, two models up $100  

　　On Wednesday, Samsung Electronics launched its latest flagship smartphone series, with two models priced $100 higher than previous versions, as the industry struggles to overcome a global shortage of memory chips. Amid the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure that has triggered a sector-wide memory chip shortage, Samsung is highlighting upgraded AI features and privacy displays in its new models.

　　Market research firm Counterpoint Research noted in a December report that due to the memory chip shortage, the average smartphone price is expected to rise 6.9% in 2026.

　　The top-tier S26 Ultra starts at the same price as last year’s S25 series, while the S26 and S26+ are each $100 more expensive than their S25 counterparts.

　　CSS Insight’s chief analyst Ben Wood stated that the chip shortage “is not a short-term issue.” He added: “We expect the global memory chip shortage to persist until 2027, mainly because rapid expansion of AI infrastructure is diverting memory chip supply away from phones, PCs, and other consumer electronics.”

　　World’s largest derivatives exchange suffers outage! CME metals market halts for 1.5 hours, natural gas trading interrupted for 35 minutes 

　　The world’s largest derivatives exchange, CME Group, experienced a system outage on Wednesday, with trading in its flagship metals market suspended for an hour and a half.

　　The Globex metals market, operated by the Chicago-based exchange group, is the trading venue for major US gold futures contracts. The market halted trading at 12:15 p.m. local time and resumed at 1:45 p.m. In addition, its natural gas futures and options market also experienced a trading interruption of about 35 minutes.

　　CME also announced that all day orders and GTD orders marked with the day’s date would be canceled, with only confirmed GTC orders remaining active.

　　CME stated that this Wednesday’s outage was caused by a “technical issue.”

　　Far-fetched or science fiction? Citrini’s 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis report sparks criticism 

　　The view put forward by Citrini Research that artificial intelligence will cause widespread unemployment is drawing skepticism from investors and economists around the world.

　　In recent days, experts from Citadel Securities, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity International, Liontrust Asset Management Plc, and other institutions have successively stated that this argument is, at best, far-fetched. A senior White House economist even called it “science fiction.”

　　Citrini itself also cautioned the public not to interpret the report too literally. In the second sentence of its 7,000-word article published on Substack, the institution wrote: “The following is a scenario assumption, not a prediction.”

Editor: Ding Wenwu