One word in particular has stuck out to me this past week. It’s been in financial accounts, trading updates and casual conversation: uncertainty.
Alphawave, a London-listed electronics group that develops core technology for the semiconductor industry, recently released its annual results for 2024, in which it noted that due to “global uncertainty” and the “rapidly developing nature of the recently imposed tariff regimes”, it would not be posting guidance for its performance for this year or beyond.
It’s hardly a surprising admission. Few sectors within tech are as geopolitically charged as semiconductors – see Chris Miller’s Chip War for a detailed breakdown of why.
Alphawave has strong commercial ties across Asia – a requirement for any firm in the chip sector – including in China, the top target for Trump’s trade wars.
But it’s not just politically sensitive hardware that’s under pressure. The Wall Street Journal reported that buy now, pay later giant Klarna was putting its IPO plans on hold and once again, uncertainty over tariffs was to blame.
Nintendo, meanwhile, has had to totally rethink the North American launch of its highly anticipated console the Switch 2, pausing the opening of pre-orders to assess the potential impact of global tariffs.
And US tariff policy isn’t the only source of uncertainty hitting tech. Speak to any AI executives in Britain and they’ll say what they need most of all is clear guidance on what regulations will likely be coming into force.
It’s the same story for digital assets, payments and a host of other sectors. Business leaders are struggling to plan ahead, and who could blame them?
Like Nintendo, Klarna and Alphawave, I don’t know what’s going to happen with international trade policy or regulation, and any speculation will most likely be rendered irrelevant by the following days’ headlines.
What I do know is that here in the UK, the tech industry is in desperate need of some clarity.
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