Your morning briefing. All the news you need to start your day.

On today's podcast:

(1) A Chinese company founded by Alice Huang, the woman at the center of a controversy dogging Nvidia, procured smuggled AI chips that were installed at a Shanghai data center with links to Megaspeed, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg News.

(2) The Justice Department is probing Alice Huang, the woman US officials suspect as a possible spy targeting the ousted head of Nvidia Corp., over whether entities linked to her were involved in efforts to smuggle products made by Super Micro Computer Inc. to China, according to a person familiar with the matter.

(3) The fall of Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has removed the industry’s most prominent opponent of US chip controls, setting up a showdown over potential new curbs that could accelerate China’s drive for semiconductor self-sufficiency.

(4) While Nvidia’s board hunts for someone to permanently replace founder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang, it’s counting on Colette Kress — the company’s chief financial officer of 13 years and a longtime technology executive — to steady the ship.

(5) At the end, Jensen Huang looked broken and shattered, his legendary energy depleted. After weeks spent denying the allegations of infidelity and fighting to remain in his job as Nvidia Corp.’s chief executive officer, his surrender late Wednesday night was unconditional.

(6) Microsoft is struggling to restore access to its flagship software and end an outage that has paralyzed government offices, traders and businesses globally.

(7) A Chinese artificial intelligence model was used in recent hacks that disabled refrigerators in French supermarkets, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday.

(8) Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said progress had been made during a meeting with US envoys in Ireland, hailing a prisoner swap deal and a decision to include Europeans in the next round of peace talks with Russia.

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