oritizing as cloud and AI expand. Regulators are also leaning harder on sensitive hardware and networks, with new probes and rule changes adding compliance friction for firms that move advanced chips around the globe.
Why should I care?
For markets: Policy risk is creeping into tech valuations.
Chipmakers won’t all feel the same hit: exposure depends on where they manufacture, sell, and source components. Even with a long lead time, tariff talk can shift capex plans, supplier contracts, and margins expectations. Add headlines about possible export-control evasion, and investors have to price in monitoring, legal costs, and the odds that shipments get delayed or rerouted.
The bigger picture: Security is becoming the new default layer.
Big software companies are treating cybersecurity less like a separate product and more like core infrastructure. That pushes more M&A as platforms try to own identity, endpoints, and monitoring in one place. At the same time, governments are tightening oversight of the hardware that powers AI, which could accelerate a split tech world where trusted supply chains matter as much as innovation.
