The U.S. economy is growing, but not evenly. What began as an uneven rebound from the Covid pandemic has hardened into what many economists describe as a "K-shaped" economy, in which higher-income households pull ahead while lower-income households fall further behind. High interest rates, rising costs and the rapid growth of artificial intelligence could deepen those divides, economists warn. "We are returning to a typical pattern of extremely high income inequality, and it now stands at a 60-year peak," Beth Ann Bovino, chief economist at U.S. Bank, wrote in a recent report. "The worry is not just where we stand now, but also whether ongoing developments will worsen the situation."

President Trump signed a proclamation on Wednesday to impose a 25 percent tariff on a narrow list of foreign semiconductors, providing a way for the government to earn revenue off the sale of lucrative chips used in artificial intelligence. The tariff, which would take effect Thursday, is far more limited than what the president initially threatened. Last year, the administration began an investigation aimed at encouraging tech companies and chip makers to buy semiconductors made in America. But instead of approving sweeping tariffs that would affect the industry, Wednesday's announcement showed the administration has settled for narrower levies that allow it to take a cut of artificial intelligence chips sold to China. A document released by the White House said a 25 percent tariff would be put on A.I. chips made by companies like Nvidia and AMD that are imported into the United States and then re-exported to other countries. The tariff would not apply to semiconductors that are brought into the country to be used domestically in data centers or in products for American consumers, industry or the government.

"We're going to get into a period of potentially unprecedented I.P.O. "But we are confident they're executable given the scale of these companies and the investor interest." These listings could create an enormous bonanza for Wall Street and Silicon Valley after years of lackluster offerings. They could set off a feeding frenzy among public market investors who have been waiting to get a piece of the A.I. boom, and Wall Street banks stand to make hundreds of millions facilitating the listings. That is stoking more excitement for the A.I. boom as it enters its fourth year, even as the question of a bubble intensifies.

"A.I. is happening rapidly, and we didn't help people cope with globalization and technological change very well over a 30- and 40-year period," Mr. Hubbard explained. "We're probably not going to do it again." Policymakers across Washington generally agree that A.I. portends generational change, with vast implications for everything from medical research to warfare. That has helped spark an investment boom in computing, and a burst of new growth for the broader economy, which Mr. Trump has tried to maximize. Through a series of executive orders, signed over the last 11 months, Mr. Trump has moved to eliminate regulatory guardrails and make it easier for tech companies to build data centers, power their operations, sell computer chips and source critical materials.

When Britain became the first country to reach a trade agreement with President Trump in May, critics warned that the terms were loose and the commitments vague. Now, the risks of that ambiguity are becoming apparent. The United States informed the British government this month that it would pause fulfilling a technology-related agreement between the two countries, which included more collaboration on artificial intelligence and nuclear energy, according to two people familiar with the decision who were not authorized to speak publicly. The move came because American officials felt that Britain wasn't making sufficient progress in lowering trade barriers, as promised in the May trade agreement, the people said. Earlier this year, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain was courting Mr. Trump to avoid punitive trade tariffs, he delivered an invitation from King Charles for a state visit.

As President Trump flew to South Korea on Wednesday to prepare for a summit with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, he made some remarks that set off alarm bells among Washington officials concerned about America's rivalry with China. "We'll be speaking about Blackwell," Mr. Trump said of his meeting with Mr. Xi, referring to the most advanced artificial intelligence chip from the U.S. chipmaker Nvidia. Mr. Trump called the technology a "super duper chip"; complimented Nvidia's chief executive, Jensen Huang; and declared, "We're about 10 years ahead of anybody else in chips." Mr. Trump's comments signaled a major potential change for U.S. policy that many Washington officials warn poses a national security risk. Selling such advanced A.I. chips to China is currently banned, and U.S. officials have worked for years to restrain Beijing's access to the cutting-edge technology.

Newly developed products include a device for grading school exam papers and an A.I. chatbot that can answer questions spoken into a microphone in one of half a dozen different languages, including Chinese, English and Russian. The answers appear on a screen. Cheng Chen, the general manager of iFlyTek's consumer business group in charge of A.I. translation, said the aim of the exam machine, which allows teachers to grade papers without reading them, was not to eliminate teachers but to "help them use their time better on more creative, essential things." On-again, off-again restrictions on the export of advanced American-made A.I. chips to China which she said were "the best for training large language models," had not hurt the company, she insisted, adding that the Chinese company Huawei was providing adequate substitutes. Recent U.S.-China trade frictions have had little impact on its market value.

It's no secret by now, as investors await an earnings report on Wednesday by the chip behemoth Nvidia, that optimism around the windfall that artificial intelligence may generate is pumping up the stock market. But in recent months, it has also become clear that A.I. spending is lifting the real economy, too. It's not because of how companies are using the technology, at least not yet. Rather, the sheer amount of investment -- in data centers, semiconductor factories and power supply -- needed to build the computing power that A.I. demands is creating enough business activity to brighten readings on the entire domestic economy. Companies will spend 375 billion globally in 2025 on A.I. infrastructure, the investment bank UBS estimates. That is projected to rise to 500 billion next year.

Over the course of a three-day trip to the Middle East, President Trump and his emissaries from Silicon Valley have transformed the Persian Gulf from an artificial-intelligence neophyte into an A.I. power broker. They have reached an enormous deal with the United Arab Emirates to deliver hundreds of thousands of today's most advanced chips from Nvidia annually to build one of the world's largest data center hubs in the region, three people familiar with the talks said. The shipments would begin this year, and include roughly 100,000 chips for G42, an Emirati A.I. firm, with the rest going to U.S. cloud service providers. The administration revealed the agreement on Thursday in an announcement unveiling a new A.I. campus in Abu Dhabi supported by 5 gigawatts of electrical power. It would the largest such project outside of the United States and help U.S. companies serve customers in Africa, Europe and Asia, the administration said.

The Trump administration is considering a deal that could send hundreds of thousands of U.S.-designed artificial intelligence chips to G42, an Emirati A.I. firm that the U.S. government has scrutinized in the past for its ties to China, three people familiar with the discussions said. The negotiations, which are ongoing, highlight a major shift in U.S. tech policy ahead of President Trump's visit to the Persian Gulf states this week. The talks have also created tension inside the Trump administration between tech- and business-minded leaders who want to close a deal before Mr. Trump's trip and national security officials who worry that the technology could be misused by the Emiratis. The Trump administration has embraced cutting direct deals for A.I. chips with officials from the Middle East, as it looks to strengthen U.S. ties in the region, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the negotiations are ongoing. The approach marks a break from the Biden administration, which had rejected similar A.I. chip sales over fears that they could give autocratic governments with strong ties to China an edge over the United States in developing the most cutting-edge A.I. models in coming years.