China plans to let some of its major AI companies, including Alibaba, ByteDance, and DeepSeek, buy a "small number" of Nvidia's H200 chips to alleviate a domestic computing shortage, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The outlet claims that domestic processors would be given priority for inference and that the Nvidia chips would only be able to train on public data. The government is still deciding how many Nvidia chips to authorize for purchase, possibly fewer than 200,000 in total, and the corporations must specify how many chips they require and why.
Earlier, the US authorized Nvidia to sell its second-most powerful AI chip, the H200, to approved Chinese buyers with strict conditions. However, China has heavily restricted its tech giants from purchasing Nvidia AI chips.
United States President Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that the US may reintroduce its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, but only applied to Iran.
"And we may put down the blockade. We may put it back, and it will only be a blockade for Iran. Anybody else can have whatever they want," Trump elaborated.
The Republican president went on to add that the US attacked Kharg Island, Iran's oil launch point, last night, and added that he might seize the territory. "We may take over Kharg Island. There's not a thing they can do about it ... They might hit it again tonight," he added.
About 90,000 people crossed Iran’s Khuzestan border crossings over the past three days to attend the funeral ceremonies for Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Iraq, a provincial official said on Wednesday.
Valiollah Hayati, the deputy governor for security and law enforcement affairs in Khuzestan, said the crossings were recorded at the Shalamcheh and Chazzabeh borders.
He said the travelers were heading to Najaf and Karbala to take part in the ceremonies.
Bahrain’s defense ministry said on Wednesday its air defenses had intercepted and destroyed a number of Iranian missile and drone attacks targeting civilians in the kingdom.
The Bahrain Defense Force said Iran was continuing what it called a systematic hostile approach through attacks on civilian areas.
It said the deliberate use of missiles and drones to target civilians and private property was a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.
The ministry urged residents not to approach or touch any strange or suspicious objects left by the attacks and to report them immediately.
It said all Bahraini military branches and units were at the highest level of readiness to protect the country.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States may take over Iran's Kharg Island and warned Washington was prepared to carry out more strikes if needed.
"We may take over Kharg Island," Trump said while speaking in Ankara.
Trump said US forces had targeted drones, missiles, coastal defense sites, radar and surveillance systems that he said Iran had used to threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
"Anything they thought they had rebuilt or capability they were using was a target last night," he said. "Tonight, if we need to... we will hit even more and even deeper."
Trump also said the United States had struck Iran's electricity infrastructure and other military-related facilities.
"We hit their electricity. We hit the things they need to operate," he said, adding that more infrastructure could be targeted if Iran continued its actions.
Most Americans do not believe that European members of the North Atlantic Alliance would come to the United States' aid if attacked.
Politico reported that a NATO poll found that just 43% of Americans believe the bloc would assist the US if needed. While Politico was unable to view survey results from previous years, a NATO official said that American confidence in the bloc was down about eight percent.
The foundation of NATO is Article 5 of the bloc’s charter. Article 5 is viewed as a mutual defense pact that calls on each member to come to the aid of any state that is attacked.
In recent years, Americans have begun to question the United States' membership in the bloc. Americans have long pointed to the US footing the majority of the alliance's military spending.
The drift away from supporting NATO intensified when the bloc backed Ukraine in the war against Russia. Many Americans argued that NATO providing billions of dollars of assistance to non-member Ukraine unnecessarily created tensions with Russia.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently criticized the alliance over Europe's lack of assistance in the war against Iran:
President Donald Trump declined Tuesday to say whether he plans to announce additional US troop reductions in Europe, telling reporters, "we’re going to see," during a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara.
“Well, we’re going to see,” Trump said when asked whether he is likely to announce further drawdowns of US forces in Europe.
The US president also renewed his criticism of NATO, suggesting he had considered skipping the summit altogether.
Trump is meeting other NATO leaders in Turkey this week, where he is expected to push member states to increase military spending.
Ahead of the summit, NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker downplayed the tensions between Washington and the bloc as growing pains. "The target is that Europe takes over the conventional defense of the European continent. We’re not going away, we’re just doing less." He added, "I see these as just the challenges that we’ve worked through before."
