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The decision ends a nearly year-long takeover battle between the two shipping companies

Diana Shipping DSX 0.40%increase; up pointing triangle is dropping its bid to acquire Genco Shipping & Trading GNK 1.35%increase; up pointing triangle, ending a nearly year-long takeover battle between the two shipping companies.

Diana said Friday that it withdrew its bid due to demands by Genco that “no credible acquiror could realistically meet and that raises serious and legitimate questions about whether the Genco Board’s interests remain aligned with those of Genco’s shareholders.”

Those demands, Diana said, included a consideration of $27.50 a share in cash, an additional $2.00 per share to reflect Genco’s expected third- and fourth-quarter dividends, and three shares of Diana.

Based on Diana’s Thursday closing price, that request implied a total consideration of around $36.91 for each share of Genco, Diana said. That price represents a 42% premium to Genco’s Thursday closing price and a 57% premium to its closing price the day before Diana submitted its most recent acquisition offer, Diana said.

By adding three shares of Diana for each Genco share, Diana added, Genco shareholders would own around 47% of the combined company after the deal would have closed.

Genco’s request for $27.50 a share in cash is based on “convoluted valuations” of its net asset value, Diana added.

A Genco representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shares of Diana rose 3.2% to $2.56 in after-hours trading on Friday. Genco shares were off 0.7% at $26.16.

Diana first made its approach to acquire Genco in November, proposing a price of $20.60 a share in cash. Since then, it has upped its offer multiple times, and launched both a tender offer for Genco shares and proxy fight to replace its board.

Diana later withdrew all but two of its board nominees, and Genco shareholders voted against those candidates at a shareholder meeting in June, Genco has said. Diana also ended its tender offer last month.

Genco said last month that its advisers were engaging with Diana over its latest acquisition offer, a marked change of tone that suggested a deal could be within reach. Diana’s move to withdraw its acquisition offer ends the possibility of a tie-up between the two companies for now.

Diana said Friday that it remains Genco’s largest shareholder.

“We gave this process every opportunity to succeed, and Genco’s response has left us no choice but to withdraw our proposal at this time,” Diana Chief Executive Semiramis Paliou said Friday. “We will continue to monitor its performance closely, raise these issues publicly, and hold the Genco Board and management team accountable for every commitment made to shareholders throughout this process.”

Under new proposed terms, the chip maker would initially backstop only half of the 10-gigawatt project

Nvidia NVDA -0.06%decrease; down pointing triangle and OpenAI are nearing a deal to finance a large-scale data-center campus in Ohio, but have reworked the deal structure so that Nvidia would initially guarantee only half of the planned multi-hundred-billion-dollar build-out rather than all of it, according to people familiar with the deal.

The revised plan would lower the size of Nvidia’s financial guarantee from $250 billion to less than $120 billion, a change made to address investors’ concerns about the chipmaker’s risk exposure as it wields its balance sheet to bolster demand for its artificial-intelligence chips, some of the people said. A deal could be signed as soon as this weekend. Nvidia shares fell 5% after the Journal first reported the discussions of the $250 billion backstop.

Under the outline now being discussed, Nvidia would provide a financial backstop for the first phase, totaling roughly five gigawatts of power, and then decide later whether or how to finance the remainder. OpenAI is still in discussions to sign a binding lease for 10 gigawatts of the project in the coming days, according to two people familiar with the project.

SB Energy, a subsidiary of Japan’s SoftBank, is developing the 10-gigawatt site, which would be the largest data center project announced to date.

The initial guarantee would cover the data-center lease and debt needed to fund the build-out and lower the project’s borrowing costs by making lenders feel more confident that the funding behind the project is secure, the Journal has reported. Nvidia is discussing a separate deal to finance OpenAI’s purchase of chips, which could total $350 billion across the full project. The power for the project is controlled by the U.S. government and funded separately by Japan under a recent trade deal.

Goldman Sachs is advising SBE on the deal and Morgan Stanley is advising Nvidia, according to people familiar.

This week, Nvidia announced plans to partner with Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs and KKR to establish “compute financing platforms.” The firms aim to deploy over $500 billion of outside capital in the coming years with the goal of being able to finance chip purchases at “attractive rates.”

Last September, Nvidia and OpenAI announced a memorandum of understanding for Nvidia to build at least 10 gigawatts of computing power for OpenAI, and the chip maker also agreed to invest up to $100 billion to help OpenAI pay for it. But that deal stalled after some inside the chips giant expressed doubts about it, the Journal reported.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urges iPhone maker to find other solutions to AI-driven chip supply crunch

The Trump administration doesn’t want Apple to buy memory chips from China, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview. Apple may do so anyway.

Insatiable demand for computer memory among companies building artificial-intelligence data centers has led to a shortage of the critical component and skyrocketing prices for what is available. The higher costs are causing Apple and other makers of consumer electronics to raise product prices significantly. To help alleviate the supply crunch, Apple is looking to Chinese manufacturers.

“The Trump administration is not in favor of that,” Lutnick said in an interview after touring an Apple manufacturing facility in Houston. There have to be “other solutions to the memory issue, but it’s not great American companies using Chinese memory.”

Asked if he has relayed that message to Apple, Lutnick said “plainly.”

Apple has been testing memory chips made by Chinese companies CXMT and Yangtze Memory Technologies, a prelude to potentially including them in Apple devices sold in China, according to people familiar with its efforts.

Laptop makers HP and Acer have started using memory chips from CXMT in devices sold outside the U.S., The Wall Street Journal has previously reported.

U.S. government rules require American companies to secure a license before sharing product information with CXMT and YMTC. The Chinese chip makers would need such information if they were to make customized chips for Apple. But Apple is free to buy off-the-shelf parts from the companies, and to negotiate prices with them.

Apple’s chief operating officer, Sabih Khan, declined to confirm that Apple was testing Chinese memory chips in an interview Thursday. But he said that given the magnitude of the supply shortage, “we have to look at all options,” including working with existing suppliers to increase U.S. production.

While Apple customizes many components inside iPhones, Khan said, “there isn’t a lot of customization” for memory, alluding to the possibility that commodity Chinese memory chips could be used.

The comments highlighted a new point of tension between the Trump administration and Apple even as the two sides sought to promote their cooperation at Thursday’s factory tour. As America’s largest maker of devices, Apple can play an outsize role in reshoring manufacturing. It has taken steps to do so to win tariff relief from President Trump. Even so, it continues to invest far more in its foreign supply chain.

“Reshoring semiconductor manufacturing is a top priority for President Trump, whose policies have already secured hundreds of billions of dollars of investments in this key sector,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said. “The Trump administration remains focused on delivering more investments and jobs for the American people while safeguarding our national security.”

Idaho-based Micron Technology has asked the Trump administration not to let Apple use Chinese chips, arguing that such a move would harm domestic production and hurt the White House’s goal of onshoring semiconductor manufacturing. Micron’s own mammoth U.S. investment plans have given it leverage in discussions with the administration and lawmakers, putting Trump in the middle of a lobbying battle between two of the largest American businesses.

Senators from states where the memory chip makers have promised to expand, including New York, Indiana and Idaho, wrote a letter to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook in late July urging Apple not to work with the Chinese companies.

Apple is not alone in asking for help with memory chips: Companies in industries from medical devices to automobiles have asked the administration for help to deal with the shortage. But there are few easy policy options to address the supply squeeze when it can take more than a year to build new capacity.

The Trump administration has used the threat of higher tariffs to push companies to reshore supply chains. Companies such as Apple have in turn promised to invest large sums domestically, though they have offered little clarity on how much they are dedicating to new manufacturing initiatives as opposed to already planned spending for existing U.S. operations.

The administration has won deals for Intel to make some of Apple’s chips and a commitment from Apple to make all the cover glass for iPhones and Apple Watches in the U.S.

Even so, Lutnick, who is spearheading the administration’s plan to increase domestic chipmaking, said the administration continued to press Apple to bring more production to the U.S.

“Relentlessly, more and more and more,” he said, describing the pressure. “They’ve built their supply chains on low-cost labor. And now they need to build a supply chain on advanced manufacturing. Can Apple do it? Of course they can.”

“You’re going to see step by step, and piece by piece, they’re going to bring significant portions of their business home,” Lutnick said.

Most of Apple’s supply chain is in Asia, and the company has been working with contract manufacturers to build new iPhone assembly plants in India.

Asked if Apple has any plans to bring iPhone production to the U.S., Khan pointed to efforts the company has already made, including commitments to spend tens of billions of dollars on made-in-USA chips for iPhones, as well as adding an assembly line for Apple’s popular Mac Mini desktop computer in Texas. He also said Apple was focused on helping chip manufacturers reshore their supply chain end to end.