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AI and Tariffs
ALSO: EU receives huge overseas investment for data centers
Algot Persson
April 04, 2025
In Today’s Issue:
AI and Tariffs
Portugal to receive $9.35 bn AI investment
Read time: 2 minutes
AI and Tariffs
One of Wall Street’s biggest AI bulls just sounded the alarm—and it’s about tariffs, not tech.
Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities is warning that newly announced tariffs could throw the U.S. tech sector into chaos and “kill the AI trade” driving market growth. With Chinese tariffs now hiked to 54%, supply chains are bracing for disruption, and prices on U.S. electronics could skyrocket by as much as 50%.
According to Ives, the fallout could be catastrophic: a 15% drop in tech earnings, stalled innovation, and a rollback of a decade’s progress in AI. “This could cause a recession or even stagflation,” he warned, calling the White House’s strategy “the wrong approach at the wrong time.”
The AI boom may be strong, but it’s not invincible.
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Portugal to receive a $9.35 bn investment
Portugal is set to become a major player in AI infrastructure with a €8.5 billion (~$9.35B) investment from U.S. firm Davidson Kempner and the UK’s Pioneer Point Partners. Through their joint venture, Start Campus, the companies are building a six-building hyperscale data center hub in Sines, a coastal city already connected to transatlantic fiber-optic cables. One building is operational, with full completion targeted by 2030.
The project responds to the surging demand for computing power driven by AI adoption following the release of ChatGPT in 2022. These facilities will provide the energy-intensive infrastructure needed for AI model training, inference, and cloud workloads.
Economy Minister Pedro Reis called the initiative a “structuring investment” for Portugal, citing its strategic location and alignment with EU goals for digital sovereignty. The hub is expected to generate thousands of jobs and establish Portugal as a key link in the global AI and cloud ecosystem.
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