Nvidia Stock Plunges, Spotify Outage Resolved, Microsoft Update Issues, AI Infrastructure Shifts: Hashtag Trending for April 17, 2025

In this episode of hashtag Trending, host Jim Love covers significant developments in tech: Nvidia's stock plunged nearly 7% due to new US export restrictions on its H20 chips for China, resulting in a $5.5 billion charge. Spotify restored its services after a widespread outage affected millions. Microsoft's April Windows updates left users frustrated amid mysterious issues and various errors. Lastly, Microsoft scales back AI data center expansion, indicating a strategic shift in AI infrastructure focus while competitors like Google and Meta ramp up their AI capabilities. The show concludes with an announcement of a special interview episode and a brief holiday break.

00:00 Nvidia Stock Plunges from White House Announcement
02:49 Spotify Restores Services After Global Outage
04:25 Microsoft's Troublesome Updates
06:26 Microsoft's Strategic Shift in AI Infrastructure
08:18 Conclusion and Upcoming Shows

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Nvidia Stock Plunges from White House.
Surprise announcement.
Spotify restores services after aglobal outage disrupts millions.
Microsoft tells users, don't fix it.
Don't delete it.
Just wait.
And rumors are true.
Microsoft scaling back, AIdata center expansion amid what
looks like a strategic shift.

(00:21):
Welcome to hashtag Trending.
I'm your host, Jim Love.
Let's get into it.
Nvidia shares slid nearly 7% Wednesdayafter the company revealed it would
take a $5.5 billion charge in thefirst quarter due to unexpected new US
export restrictions on its H 20 A onechips built for the Chinese market.

(00:44):
The news came via a late Tuesdayregulatory filing in which Nvidia
said the US government informedthe company it now needs a license
to ship the H 20 chips to China.
The chips were designed to complywith earlier trade regulations.
This would've come as a total shockto Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia.

(01:05):
Only Last week, national Public RadioNPR in the US reported that after Huang
attended a $1 million a plate meetingat Mar-a-Lago and promised to build a
multi-billion dollar investment in USchip manufacturing plans to ban exports
of the H20 chip were put on hold.
NPR said that it had its informationbased on two reliable anonymous sources.

(01:31):
Now.
Analysts estimate that NVIDIA may now loseas much as $10 billion in future sales.
Most of its current 5.5 billion chargerelates to already produced chips.
These aren't just canceled orders,they're finished or partially completed.
Products that NVIDIA can no longer sell.
The remainder of the $10 billionwould come from further sales

(01:54):
that were expected but not made.
This has caused some consternationwith industry analysts.
Bernstein Analyst Stacey Rasganquestioned the decision writing, banning
the H 20, makes little sense to us.
Rasgan pointed out the chip'sperformance lags behind the existing
Chinese alternatives, and argued thatthe new rule simply, effectively hands

(02:17):
over China's AI market to Huawei.
The impact rippled throughthe semiconductor sector.
Not only did NVIDIA's sharesdrop, but AMD dropped by over 7%.
After disclosing it, two faces upto 800 million in export losses.
Broadcom and Qualcomm each fell morethan 2%, and Intel slipped over 3%.

(02:40):
In combination.
These contributed to a broaderNASDAQ composite index, which
closed down 3% on the day.
Spotify says its servicesbackup and functioning normally
after a widespread outage.
Left tens of thousands of usersunable to stream music globally.
On Wednesday, the outage peakedat around 1330, Greenwich.

(03:02):
Meantime with over 20,000problem reports logged on down
detector while download songs.
Still worked offline.
Key features like search and artist.
Pages failed to load.
Many users received a, somethingwent wrong message when trying
to browse or stream music.
Spotify hasn't confirmed the causeof the disruption, but dismissed

(03:24):
rumors of a cyber attack callingreports of a security hack.
Completely inaccurate, but the silence,however brief didn't go unnoticed.
Users took to socialmedia to vent frustration.
Some complaining theirworkouts were disrupted.
Others worried about losingfocus while studying.
A few threatened to jump shipto Apple Music or YouTube.

(03:47):
Spotify, which boasts over 675 millionusers, regularly handles high traffic
across its mobile and desktop apps.
But outages like this one highlighthow deeply integrated the service
has become in daily routines, fromgyms, to classrooms, to commutes.
And it points out in a worldwhere software and services
are delivered online, you needa bulletproof delivery system.

(04:11):
Or you could rapidly lose customers,which means that common phrase
that is crept into softwaredevelopment, move fast and break
things may not be the best way to go.
And speaking of Microsoft,okay, I'm being a little.
Crabby here, but I actually can't keepup with all the stories about failed

(04:32):
Microsoft updates and implementations.
I. April's Windows updates have leftusers frustrated and confused with
Microsoft repeatedly urging them todo often absolutely nothing between
mysterious folders, misleading errormessages, and even blue screens of death.
The company is once again under firefor updates that seem to create as many

(04:56):
problems as they solve the first wave ofconfusion came with a sudden appearance of
an empty inetpub folder on user machines.
After the April update, while it seemedharmless or even removable, Microsoft
eventually warned not to delete it.
The folder it turns out, althoughthere's no warning of it in the name,
is tied to a crucial security fixfor a vulnerability that could let

(05:20):
attackers tamper with system files.
Then came the WinRE, a failedlooking update on many machines, but
Microsoft now says the update usuallyworks just fine after a reboot.
The error harmless the solution I.
Ignore it for some usersrunning Windows 1124 H2.

(05:40):
The update saga escalatedto system crashes.
Microsoft has confirmed that someof its latest patches cause a secure
kernel error, AKA blue screen of death.
The company did say it was rollingout a fixed via its known issue
rollback, but that could take up to24 hours to reach non-managed devices.

(06:02):
In the meantime, users are lefthoping another restart might help.
I. Microsoft's handling ofthese issues highlights a
growing frustration among users.
Updates that should improve securityand stability are too often disruptive.
And while Microsoft continues topatch and explain, a lot of users are
asking, do they really test this stuff?

(06:26):
And finally, another Microsoft story.
The company has reportedly withdrawnfrom two significant data center
leasing agreements in the US andEurope reportedly to avoid supporting
additional open AI training workloads.
This move aligns with a broader strategyto recalibrate its AI infrastructure
investments, the decision will affectapproximately two gigawatts of planned ai.

(06:51):
Cloud capacity and gigawatts are howdata center capacity is expressed.
Analysts suggest that Microsoft's choicereflects a shift in focus from providing
large scale AI model training to moreefficient AI inference operations,
which are less resource intensive andoffer quicker returns on investment.

(07:12):
. Microsoft maintains its committed toAI development with plans to invest
$80 billion in AI infrastructureduring the 2025 fiscal year.
But the company is emphasizing a strategicpacing of these infrastructure projects
to align with the evolving marketdemands, which might be its way of not
leaving its association with open ai,but at least keeping its options open.

(07:37):
And Microsoft, while they say they'restill supporting open ai, are also
hosting more efficient models likeDeep Seek and reportedly developing
their own AI models and services.
Which leaves OpenAI to have to expandits own infrastructure independently,
and they are reportedly hiring forover 20 data center related positions

(07:58):
while pursuing a $500 billion Stargateinitiative in collaboration with Oracle
and funded by Soft Bank to providemore capacity independent of Microsoft.
And while Microsoft appears to be backingoff a little, Google and Meta are seizing
opportunities to increase their capacity.
Picking up on some of the spacethat Microsoft isn't taking or

(08:21):
independently intensifying theirown growth in infrastructure, I.
And that's our show for today.
Join us this weekend for a specialinterview show starting Friday morning.
We'll be taking the full weekendoff, including possibly Easter
Monday, unless there's some reallydynamic stories we have to cover.
But we'll be back onTuesday morning for sure.

(08:42):
I'm your host, Jim Love.
Have a thrilling Thursdayand a happy Easter.