Amazon is looking to expand its competitor to Temu and Shein beyond the U.S.

The company intends to launch its discount storefront, called Haul, in Europe later this year, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the plans are confidential.

Recent job postings indicate Amazon is eyeing a wider global rollout. One listing stated the company is looking to hire a software development engineer in the Haul team to help with a worldwide launch. The job was posted to Amazon’s website but has since been removed. Another role is for a senior product manager to assist with a launch in Mexico. Both openings were posted earlier this month.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company didn’t have anything to share on its plans for Haul, which were earlier reported on by The Information.

“We are always exploring new ways to work with our selling partners to delight our customers around the world with more selection, lower prices, and greater convenience,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The expansion comes months after Haul’s debut. Amazon unveiled the online store in November, describing it as an “engaging shopping experience that brings lower-priced products into one convenient destination.” Haul is only accessible through Amazon’s mobile app, and most items are priced at $20 or less.

With Amazon Haul, the company is responding to the rise of Temu, Shein and TikTok Shop, which all have ties to China, the world’s second-largest economy. The platforms have rapidly gained popularity in the U.S. over the past few years by hooking deal-hungry shoppers with their low prices on clothing, makeup, home goods and other items. Like Temu, Haul offers ultra-low-priced products, like $1 eyelash curlers and cosmetic bags, or a $2.99 cubic zirconia ring.

Haul remains in beta for U.S. users, but Amazon has continued to build out the service, suggesting the company sees it becoming a more permanent fixture of its online store.

The since-removed job listing indicates Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s S-team, consisting of top leaders, has set goals this year to make Haul “Go Big” in the U.S. and worldwide.

The launch of Haul in Europe could come with some challenges. Amazon would likely use plastic packaging for Haul shipments, which would conflict with its sustainability goals in the region, according to one of the sources. The company in 2023 transitioned to using only recyclable paper bags, cardboard envelopes and boxes or, in some cases, no added packaging, for deliveries in Europe.

Amazon is taking a page from its legacy online store to monetize Haul in more ways. The company this month began showing sponsored products in some Haul search results, allowing sellers to pay to have certain items appear at the top of the page. The company has stuffed more sponsored items into search results on its desktop site and mobile app over the years. They account for the bulk of Amazon’s ad revenue, which totaled $56.2 billion in 2024.

Amazon has added curated storefronts from lifestyle influencers within the Haul homepage. One features “fashion picks” from Michaela Delvillar, an influencer with more than 150,000 followers on TikTok, whose Amazon storefront says she’s a “Top Creator.”

Amazon is growing Haul, which relies on goods from China-based sellers, even as the practice comes under scrutiny from President Donald Trump. Earlier this month, Trump suspended, then reinstated, the de minimis rule, which allows exporters to ship packages worth less than $800 into the U.S. duty-free.

The loophole is expected to be shut again once the Commerce Department and customs officials put systems in place to process and collect tariffs on the millions of de minimis packages that flow into the U.S. daily. A significant portion of those packages originate from China.

Jassy was asked about the de minimis scrutiny on Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. He said Amazon has a “certain number of items that are shipped in that way” for Haul, but likely fewer than Chinese e-commerce companies like Shein and Temu.

WATCH: Amazon Haul takes on Temu with ultra-low-price items

Intel is pushing off the opening of its Ohio chip manufacturing facility, the embattled chipmaker said Friday.

The company said it won’t complete construction on the first plant until 2030, starting operations that year or the next. The second factory in the up to $100-billion complex will likely be finished in 2031 and start running the following year. The company had initially planned to begin production on the first plant in 2025.

“As we continue to invest across our U.S. sites, it’s important that we align the start of production of our fabs with the needs of our business and broader market demand,” said Naga Chandrasekaran, vice president and head of global operations officer for Intel Foundry Manufacturing, in a release. “This has always been our approach, as it allows us to manage our capital responsibly and adapt to the needs of our customers.”

Intel, long the world’s leading semiconductor maker before losing that distinction in recent years, has been on a downward slide due largely to its position on the sidelines of the artificial intelligence boom. The stock lost more than half its value last year and the company has been reckoning with slowing sales while also trying to move deeper into the capital-intensive business of chip fabrication.

In August, shares suffered their worst one-day drop on the stock market in 50 years after the company announced disappointing quarterly results. Intel also said it would axe 15% of its employees. That’s made the company a potential takeover target as of late, while also leading to the firing of CEO Pat Gelsinger in December.

Intel was a central beneficiary of former President Joe Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act office. The government most recently awarded the company a roughly $8 billion grant in November in an effort to boost semiconductor production on U.S. soil.

WATCH: Intel needs to get rid of the foundry business

With the release of its new iPhone 16e, which started shipping on Friday, Apple is taking a break from fingerprint technology as a biometric security feature in its smartphone line-up. But the separation may only be temporary. 

In a move that underscores the tech giant’s ongoing commitment to facial authentication technology, Apple’s new phone for more budget-conscious consumers will offer Face ID instead of fingerprint scanning technology, dubbed Touch ID. 

“It’s the most effortless way of authenticating,” said Joe Palmer, chief innovation officer at iProov, a global technology company focused on biometric verification and authentication. If you think about how many times you unlock a phone in a day, even if it takes you a second and you’re unlocking the phone 100 times a day, it adds up, he said. “I don’t think we’re going to see an evolution beyond face anytime soon,” he added.

Still, technology and cybersecurity professionals say fingerprint scanning technology has plenty of life left — and Apple itself is likely to offer the option in future device releases, including smartphones.

Here’s what consumers need to understand about the latest biometric trends in smartphones, and what’s likely to come next:

Why fingerprints could still make a comeback

Apple’s Touch ID continues to be available in certain iPad models, and the company is likely to reintroduce the technology in subsequent versions of its smartphones, according to experts consulted by CNBC. One sign they point to that makes this likely: The company was granted a patent several years ago for under-display fingerprint reading technology and continues to work on improvements, according to several published reports. As a result, the company is likely to bring back Touch ID to smartphones once it perfects its version of under-the-screen technology. 

Apple declined to comment.

Consumers like choices, Palmer said, offering the example of a colleague who uses facial authentication to unlock an Android phone and fingerprint technology to authorize payments. Once Apple introduces fingerprint technology under the screen, it will likely be available in flagship phones again and work its way down through the models, he said.

Why Apple is focusing on facial authentication for now

Apple’s near-term move away from fingerprint technology in its smartphones makes sense for several reasons. For one, the company has always had a larger facial recognition culture, in part because its technology is solid and easy to use, said Roger Grimes, an analyst at KnowBe4, a security platform provider. 

It’s designed to automatically adapt to changes in user appearance, such as wearing cosmetic makeup or growing facial hair. It’s also designed to work with hats, scarves, glasses, contact lenses and many sunglasses. The company designed the technology to work indoors, outdoors, and even in total darkness. With iPhone 12 or later, Face ID also works with face masks.

The move away from Touch ID on smartphones is also an attempt to appeal to customers who want more screen space on their devices, technology professionals said. In past phone versions, Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor was integrated into a phone’s home or power button. Whereas the iPhone 16e — similar to the iPhone 10 — has a notch, a physical area on its display for sensors. This design element has been used in smartphones for several years to accommodate front-facing cameras and microphones while meeting consumer demand for larger edge-to-edge screens. “Apple has been slowly trying to remove the home button from phones for many years to get the edge-to-edge experience where the entire phone is a screen and there’s no wasted space,” Palmer said. 

Thumb tech is cost-effective

Fingerprint technology continues to be available on Android devices, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon, even as newer phones offer facial authentication as an option, said Jean Fang, senior consultant for biometrics and authentication at Fime, which offers consulting and testing services to the payments industry. 

Face Unlock is available on Pixel 4 and Pixel 7 or later Pixel phones, including Pixel Fold, according to Google’s website. On Pixel 8 and later, consumers can use Face Unlock to verify their identity when they sign into apps or approve a purchase. The face recognition feature can be used on Galaxy phones or tablets to unlock the device and verify the user’s identity in certain apps, according to Samsung’s website. 

Even as more devices adopt facial authentication, fingerprint technology will remain a solid option for many phone users, technology professionals said. For one thing, fingerprint scanning is more cost-effective than other options such as iris or palm scans. “It’s a very good technology and it’s very mature and we have fingerprint sensors that are affordable everywhere,” said D. J. Lee, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Brigham Young University.

“It works the way we need it to work most of the time,” said Grimes.

Biometric security limitations

To be sure, there are downsides to popular biometric options. Fingerprint authentication doesn’t always work properly, if, for example, a person’s finger is wet or chapped, or the sensor can’t detect an exact match for another reason. But facial authentication technology also has drawbacks, especially as deepfake technology advances, said Fang, who is also a member of the Secure Technology Alliance, a not-for-profit, multi-industry association focused on identity, access and payments. There can also be limitations on how well facial authentication works depending on factors such as lighting and whether the person had facial surgery such as a nose job or eyebrow lift, she said. 

“It can be a good feature for some lower-risk cases, but not all cases,” Fang said.

Despite the limitations of existing biometric modules, fingerprint and face authentication technology are expected to be the go-to biometric methods for the foreseeable future. That’s not for lack of testing of other methods, but for more practical reasons. About 15 years ago, Grimes participated in a product test that tried to identify users by smell, which seemed to work well until the test subjects ate a lot of garlic or drank alcohol. “It turned out a lot of people really liked garlic and that would overwhelm their scent and you have a lot of people that drink a lot,” he said.

While it’s possible to authenticate users through other biometric methods, like iris or palm scans — Amazon Whole Foods’ stores palm payments tech being a recent example — in many cases these may cost more and add more friction for users, making widespread adoption less likely. “It’s the balance between security, the convenience and the cost,” Lee said.

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent subpoenas to eight technology companies asking for more information about their communications with foreign governments over concerns that they seek to “censor speech” in the U.S.

The subpoenas were sent Wednesday to the CEOs of Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and TikTok, as well as X and video platform Rumble.

“The Committee must understand how and to what extent foreign governments have limited Americans’ access to lawful speech in the United States, as well as the extent to which the Biden-Harris Administration aided or abetted these efforts,” Jordan said in a statement.

CNBC reached out to each of the subpoenaed companies for comment. A spokesperson for Microsoft said the company is engaged with the panel and “committed to working in good faith.”

A Rumble spokesperson said it “has received the subpoena and we look forward to sharing information related to the ongoing efforts of numerous governments around the globe who seek to suppress the innate human right to self expression.”

Jordan pointed to the European Union’s Digital Services Act, a similar set of laws in the U.K., called the Online Services Act, and regulations around illegal content and hate speech in Brazil and Australia.

The committee is seeking communications around the companies’ compliance with “foreign censorship laws, regulations, judicial orders or other government-initiated efforts” and any internal correspondence discussing those matters.

The subpoenas come after the Federal Trade Commission last week launched an inquiry into “tech censorship.” FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said in a statement that the probe will help the agency “better understand how these firms may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds.”

The FTC’s request for public comment defines tech platforms as companies that provide a range of services, from social media and video sharing to event planning and ride sharing.

The Republican-led committee has previously accused major tech companies of censorship. The panel subpoenaed Alphabet, Meta and other firms in 2023, demanding they turn over communications between the companies and the U.S. government over censorship concerns.

WATCH: Big Tech breadth is a buying opportunity

Standard Chartered’s bullish crypto analyst still sees bitcoin’s price hitting $500,000 during Donald Trump’s presidency — even after a selloff that sank the world’s largest digital currency to a three-month low.

Geoffrey Kendrick, who heads up digital assets research at Standard Chartered, told CNBC he believes bitcoin will hit the $200,000 mark this year before climbing even further in the coming years.

“Within the crypto ecosystem, what we need are traditional financial players, like Standard Chartered, like BlackRock and others that have the ETFs now to really step in,” Kendrick said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” Thursday.

“As the industry becomes more institutionalized, it should be safer,” Kendrick said, adding that this should result in fewer negative headlines — such as the recent $1.5 billion hack on cryptocurrency exchange Bybit last week.

This increase in crypto adoption by institutions, coupled with some “regulatory clarity” in the U.S., should lead to less volatility over time, he added.

“That should add to that medium term, top-side potential, which for me is bitcoin up to $200,000 this year, and $500,000 before Trump leaves office,” Kendrick told CNBC.

Kendrick said the catalyst necessary for large financial institutions to gain confidence to invest in bitcoin and other crypto assets is a stabilization in prices and increased regulatory clarity.

Bitcoin earlier this week sank to a three-month low below $90,000 amid declines in global equity markets. As of Thursday, the token was trading at $86,418. That means it’s down about 20% from an all-time high of $108,786, which the coin peaked at in January, according to CoinGecko data.

Standard Chartered’s Kendrick said digital currencies have dropped more broadly due to uncertainty around tariffs and resolutions to major wars such as Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza.

“Risk assets don’t like uncertainty, and so that’s what we’ve seen. We’ve seen tech stocks in the U.S. coming lower,” Kendrick said, adding that the breach of Bybit has also contributed to negative sentiment surrounding crypto more broadly.

He expects the outlook for crypto will improve later in the year as traders await key regulatory developments in the industry, such as new rules around stablecoins and anti-money laundering.

“That should further legitimize, so you’ll see more U.S. banks involved. You’ll see larger institutions in the U.S. continue to push through,” Kendrick said.

Kendrick was one of the numerous market analysts who predicted a doubling in bitcoin’s price this year to $200,000. Bitcoin broke the highly anticipated $100,000 mark in December following Trump’s election to the U.S. presidency.

Crypto bulls view Trump positively given his support for digital currencies. In January, Trump signed an executive order promoting the advancement of cryptocurrencies in the U.S. and developing a national digital asset stockpile.

Crypto investors, companies and executives accounted for almost half of corporate donations in the 2024 election cycle, with some contributing tens of millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign.

Teladoc Health shares fell in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported a wider loss than analysts expected and issued disappointing quarterly guidance.

Here’s how the company did, compared to analysts’ consensus estimates from LSEG:

• Loss per share: 28 cents vs. 24 cents expected
• Revenue: $640.5 million vs. $639.6 million expected

Revenue at the telehealth company decreased 3% in the fourth quarter from $660.5 million during the same period last year, according to a release. Teladoc’s net loss widened to $48.4 million, or 28 cents per share, from a loss of $28.9 million, or 17 cents per share, a year ago.

Teladoc is in the middle of a deep slump, with its stock price dropping in each of the past four years due to hefty competition in remote health, challenges at mental health division BetterHelp and high operating costs.

When Teladoc acquired digital health company Livongo in 2020, the companies had a combined enterprise value of $37 billion. Teladoc’s market cap was around $1.9 billion as of market close on Wednesday.

“As we look forward in 2025, execution will continue to be a top priority as we advance efforts to unlock growth opportunities and position the company for long term success,” Teladoc CEO Chuck Divita said in the statement. “We will also remain focused on our cost structure, building on the significant improvements achieved in 2024 over the prior year.”  

Teladoc reported adjusted earnings of $74.8 million in its fourth quarter, a 35% decrease from a year ago. Adjusted earnings for the company’s Integrated Care segment declined 5% to $53.2 million, and BetterHelp saw adjusted earnings drop 63% to $21.7 million.

For the first quarter, Teladoc said it expects revenue of between $608 million and $629 million, while analysts were expecting $632.9 million. The company said adjusted earnings will be between $47 million and $59 million for the period.

Earlier this month, Teladoc announced it will acquire preventative care company Catapult Health in an all-cash deal for $65 million. Teladoc said its outlook includes the anticipated contribution from the deal but not the effect of potential impairments or purchase accounting. Teladoc said the acquisition should close at the end of the month.

Teladoc will host its quarterly call with investors at 4:30 p.m. ET.

— CNBC’s Bertha Coombs contributed to this report.

WATCH: Cramer weighs in on Teladoc

Super Micro Computer shares rallied 16% after the AI server company filed its delayed financial results by the Nasdaq’s deadline.

The company’s auditor BDO wrote in the filing that the consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, “present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company” and are “in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted” in the U.S.

The company also filed audited financial results for the first two quarters of the fiscal 2025 year and said in a release that it has “regained compliance” with the Nasdaq’s filing requirements.

For the fiscal year, Super Micro said its sales more than doubled to $14.99 billion from $7.12 billion in 2023. Net income came in at roughly $1.15 billion, up from nearly $640 million in 2023.

In an attached note from management, Super Micro said it had identified material weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting. That includes information technology issues, a lack of documentation over manual journal entries and insufficient controls to address segregation of staff duties. Super Micro said it plans to hire additional accounting and audit employees, and to upgrade IT systems.

Super Micro said in the filing that it still faces risks, including potential litigation, lower credit ratings and reputational harm associated with its late financial reports.

Demand for Super Micro’s servers packed with Nvidia graphics processing chips has accelerated amid the AI boom that’s swept the technology community since the launch of ChatGPT. However, trouble began last year as Hindenburg Research revealed a short position, the company delayed releasing its annual report, and its auditor quit due to governance concerns.

Fears of a potential delisting from the Nasdaq added further pressure to Super Micro’s stock in recent months, with shares down 48% on a year-over-year basis. Volatility continued into Tuesday’s release, with shares closing down nearly 12%.

In December, the company removed its chief financial officer and said a review found “no evidence of misconduct.” Earlier this month, CEO Charles Liang said he was “confident” that the company would meet the Feb. 25 deadline to file its results with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

— CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed reporting.

For the third year in a row, CNBC is working with market research firm Statista to list the world’s top financial technology companies.

Including startups, scaleups and established tech players, the top global fintech list aims to assess companies using an objective, key performance indicator-based methodology.

You can find out more information on the research project and methodology by clicking here.

Applications are now open for companies to register their information for consideration by Statista’s researchers. To qualify, a company must focus primarily on developing innovative, technology-based financial products and services.

This year, we’re also digging deeper into the research to name the standout companies operating in the U.K. — the largest fintech market in Europe, as measured by the amount of funding raised.

Applications from companies headquartered in the U.K. will — in addition to being considered for the global fintech list — also be considered for a separate list of the U.K.’s top fintech companies. Firms do not need to fill in a separate application to be considered for the U.K. ranking.

Last year, fintech startups in the U.K. raised $3.6 billion in venture capital, ranking second worldwide and first in Europe for funding, according to industry trade body Innovate Finance. The country is also home to Revolut, Europe’s biggest fintech unicorn with a $45 billion valuation.

Companies can submit their information for consideration by clicking here. The form, hosted by Statista, includes questions about a company’s business model and certain key performance indicators, including revenue growth and employee headcount.

The deadline for submissions is April 25, 2025.

If you have any questions about the lists or need assistance filling out the form, please reach out to Statista: topfintechs@statista.com.

Successful companies will be listed in the category that most closely reflects their business model. This year, insurance technology will be included as a category in the global fintech list. The other categories are payments, neobanking, digital assets, alternative financing, wealth technology, and enterprise fintech.

You can check out last year’s list here, which included well-known brands such as Mastercard and China’s Ant Group, global unicorns such as Brazilian digital lender Nubank and buy now, pay later firm Klarna, as well as smaller disruptors including payments platform Primer and investing app Stash.

Health-care software vendor Athenahealth on Tuesday said it will offer Abridge’s artificial intelligence scribing tool to its network of more than 160,000 clinicians. 

Athenahealth has developed an electronic health record, revenue cycle management tools and patient engagement tools for ambulatory care providers, which include outpatient facilities like independent practices. The company introduced a solution called Ambient Notes in October that allows doctors to choose between various AI-powered documentation tools, and Abridge is the latest addition. 

Abridge uses AI to draft clinical notes in real time as doctors consensually record their visits with patients. The startup is part of a red-hot market that has exploded as health-care executives search for solutions to help reduce staff burnout and daunting administrative workloads. 

“The market is going to evolve rather rapidly, there are going to be winners and losers over time,” Athenahealth CEO Bob Segert told CNBC. “Different physicians will prefer different ways that notes are taken and that the information is delivered, and we want to be able to provide that flexibility.”

Athenahealth and Abridge declined to share the financial details of the partnership. 

Clinicians spend nearly nine hours a week on documentation, according to an October study from Google Cloud. And more than 90% of physicians report feeling burned out on a “regular basis,” according to a survey commissioned by Athenahealth last February. 

Companies including Abridge, Microsoft’s Nuance Communications, Suki and others say their AI scribing tools can help. Suki and iScribeHealth already offer their tools through Athenahealth’s Ambient Notes solution. 

“It’ll be incumbent upon us to make sure that we’re able to demonstrate differentiation,” Abridge CEO Dr. Shiv Rao told CNBC. “So far, we’ve had good luck these last few years doing that.”

Abridge has deployed its technology across more than 100 health systems in the U.S., including organizations like the Mayo Clinic, Duke Health and Johns Hopkins Medicine.

The company announced a $250 million funding round earlier this month. It also unveiled a new Contextual Reasoning Engine that can pull information that’s relevant to a specific clinician and their clinic’s best practices. Abridge’s Rao said that technology will be available to Athenahealth clinicians. 

Athenahealth’s Ambient Notes solution is currently available in a limited capacity, but the company said it plans to widen availability for clinicians through 2025. 

“The more they try it, the more they like it, and I think we’re going to see a pretty steep adoption curve as this continues to move forward,” Segert said.

Chegg on Monday filed suit in federal district court against Google, claiming that artificial intelligence summaries of search results have hurt the online education company’s traffic and revenue.

The legal move come nearly two years after former CEO Dan Rosensweig said students engaging with OpenAI’s ChatGPT assistant were cutting into Chegg’s new customer growth.

Chegg is worth less than $200 million, and in after-hours trading Monday, the stock was trading just above $1 per share. Chegg has engaged Goldman Sachs and will look at strategic options, including getting acquired and going private, President and CEO Nathan Schultz told analysts on a Monday earnings call.

Chegg reported a $6.1 million net loss on $143.5 million in fourth-quarter revenue, a 24% decline year over year, according to a statement. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected $142.1 million in revenue. Management called for first-quarter revenue between $114 million and $116 million, but analysts had been targeting $138.1 million. The stock was down 24% in extended trading.

Google forces companies like Chegg to “supply our proprietary content in order to be included in Google’s search function,” said Schultz, adding that the search company uses its monopoly power, “reaping the financial benefits of Chegg’s content without having to spend a dime.”

Despite the suit, Chegg has its own AI strategy. It has drawn on Meta’s open-source Llama, as well as models from privately held Anthropic and Mistral, Schultz said. Chegg has also partnered with OpenAI, which the education company views as a competitor, alongside Google. The company reported that 3.6 million students had subscriptions in the fourth quarter, down 21%. Subscriptions include access to AI-powered learning assistance. Chegg also rents and sells textbooks.

AI Overviews, as Google’s artificial intelligence summaries are called, are available in the company’s search engine in over 100 countries, with more than 1 billion users, the company said in October. They show up above links to other pages in search results.

A Google spokesperson told CNBC that the company will defend itself against Chegg’s suit, which asserted that the search company violated sections one and two of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.

“Every day, Google sends billions of clicks to sites across the web, and AI Overviews send traffic to a greater diversity of sites,” the Google spokesperson said.

Chegg claimed that Google drew on Chegg’s collection of 135 million questions and answers on a variety of subjects in its model training data sets.

After training its models, Google can generate content that competes with information that publishers have on offer in search results, Chegg argued in its complaint. The online learning company included a screenshot of a Google AI Overview that borrows details from Chegg’s website but does not attribute the information. However, the relevant Chegg page does show up lower down in search results.

Chegg cited a federal judge’s ruling last August that Google holds a monopoly in the search market. The decision came after the Department of Justice in 2020 filed its landmark case, alleging that Google controlled the general search market by creating strong barriers to entry and a feedback loop that sustained its dominance.

WATCH: Google unrolls AI Overviews in six more countries