Amazon’s Price Tag Drama, Samsung’s Tesla Chips, and Cadence’s $140M Guilty Plea

29th July, 2025

It’s a wild mix of tech, trade, and tariffs today — Amazon is clapping back at inflation accusations, Samsung is caught in a post-Tesla rally dip, and Cadence just admitted to selling chips to China’s military-linked university. And while the Fed is expected to hold rates steady, internal debates are heating up fast. All this and more in today’s Read It And Eat!

Major Headlines

• Amazon pushes back on report that prices surged under Trump tariffs

  
  

• Amazon is disputing a Wall Street Journal report that claims prices for low-cost essentials have climbed since former President Trump introduced sweeping tariffs. The report, published last week, analyzed over 2,500 Amazon listings — including items like cough drops and chicken broth — and found an average price increase of 5% between Trump’s inauguration on Jan 20 and July 1 this year. Amazon responded with a lengthy blog post, calling the WSJ’s data “fundamentally flawed” and questioning its methodology. The company emphasized that it offers customers a wide selection of competitive prices and that inflation-related pricing is a broader economic issue, not isolated to its platform. Wall Street Journal 

  
  

• Samsung shares dip after $16.5B Tesla chip rally, spotlighting contract chipmaking concerns

  
  

• Samsung Electronics shares slipped 1% on Tuesday, cooling off after a sharp rally triggered by news of a $16.5 billion chip supply deal with Tesla. The deal, announced by Elon Musk on Sunday, will see Samsung’s Texas-based chip factory manufacture Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chips — though Musk provided no timeline for production. While the agreement is a potential shot in the arm for Samsung’s unprofitable foundry business, analysts say the real challenge lies ahead: securing more large-scale customers. Investors are watching closely as the company attempts to scale its contract chipmaking amid fierce global competition.  Reuters 

  
  

• Fed likely to pause rate hikes, but internal dissents loom

  
  

• The Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady this week, despite mixed signals across the U.S. economy and fresh pressure from Donald Trump. Inflation is still sticky — consumer prices rose at a 3.5% annual pace in June, with goods like furnishings and apparel ticking up — but some Fed governors are pushing for a cut. Analysts predict a rare double dissent from Trump-appointed Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, both favoring a 25-basis-point reduction. While Fed Chair Jerome Powell has resisted political pressure, last week’s tense meeting with Trump at the Fed’s Washington HQ has stirred speculation about the central bank’s path ahead. Reuters

  
  

• Cadence to pay $140M and plead guilty over illegal China chip sales

  
  

• Cadence Design Systems has agreed to plead guilty and pay over $140 million to resolve U.S. charges that it sold chip design tools to a Chinese military-linked university allegedly involved in nuclear weapons simulation. The U.S. Justice Department accused Cadence of violating export controls by selling to front companies for China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), which has been on the Commerce Department’s restricted list since 2015. Cadence acknowledged a charge tied to the case in its latest earnings, stating it was “pleased” to reach a settlement. The company’s stock jumped 6.5% on the news. The case lands as the U.S. re-engages with China in trade talks — showing Washington still plans to enforce key tech sanctions, even as it negotiates some trade relaxations. Reuters

Minor Headlines

• Tesla-Samsung’s $16.5B deal could revive U.S. chipmaking — Reuters

  
  

• Warner Bros gets studio biz post-split, Discovery takes news and sports — Reuters

  
  

• Robinhood CEO’s AI math startup Harmonic drops new chatbot app — TechCrunch 

  
  

• Google Chrome rolls out AI-powered shopping summaries — TechCrunch 

  
  

• Shaolin ‘C.E.O. Monk’ Is Accused of Embezzlement and Affairs With Women New York Times 

  
  

• US may charge Dragonfly execs over Tornado Cash links — The Block

  
  

• Korean degens drive new altcoin pumps — The Defiant

  
  

• Investors watch market impact of Powell’s rumored early exit — Reuters 

Gen Z Word of the Day: NPC (Non-Playable Character)

Meaning: Originally from video games, now used to describe someone who seems to lack independent thought or just follows the crowd.

Example: “That CEO's response to the crisis was pure NPC energy — zero originality, just PR script.”