Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has cautioned against restricting access to Chinese artificial intelligence models, noting that the United States will preserve its leadership in AI by accelerating domestic innovation rather than relying on bans.

The warning comes as the Trump administration considers sanctions and trade restrictions against Chinese developers over alleged intellectual property theft.

In an interview with the Financial Times published Tuesday, Zuckerberg said prohibiting cutting-edge Chinese AI models would not be “an effective solution,” contending that U.S. policymakers should instead focus on removing structural obstacles that limit American competitiveness.

Rather than attempting to slow China’s progress through restrictions, Zuckerberg said U.S. companies should “systematically” identify bottlenecks and roadblocks that hinder their ability to build better and more capable AI systems.

His remarks stand in contrast to an increasingly hawkish stance in Washington, where policymakers are shifting from restricting China’s access to advanced AI chips toward potentially targeting the AI models themselves. If pursued, such measures would represent another significant escalation in the technology rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.

The debate has intensified following the emergence of Beijing-based Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 model, whose coding and reasoning capabilities have surprised many in Silicon Valley and fueled questions over how quickly Chinese AI companies are closing the gap with American frontier labs.

Senior U.S. officials have alleged that Moonshot may have relied on large-scale “model distillation” to reproduce the capabilities of advanced American AI systems. Model distillation is a common machine-learning technique in which a smaller model learns from the outputs of a larger one. While it is widely used across the industry, U.S. officials argue there is a clear distinction between legitimate optimization and industrial-scale extraction of proprietary model capabilities that amounts to intellectual property theft.

Moonshot has denied the allegations, maintaining that Kimi K3’s performance improvements resulted from original architectural innovations and independent research.

The accusations come as the Trump administration broadens its AI strategy beyond export controls on semiconductors. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently warned that Chinese companies found to have stolen U.S. AI technology could face financial sanctions or placement on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, a powerful trade blacklist that cuts off access to American chips, software, cloud services and other critical technologies.

The administration has also expanded restrictions on Chinese technology more broadly. On Tuesday, it announced new bans targeting imports of Chinese-made robots and power inverters, citing national security concerns and the need to strengthen America’s domestic AI infrastructure and advanced manufacturing base.

Together, the measures illustrate how Washington’s AI policy is evolving. Earlier efforts focused primarily on limiting China’s access to advanced computing hardware, including Nvidia’s high-end AI processors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Policymakers are now signaling that software and frontier AI models themselves could become targets of national security enforcement.

Zuckerberg’s position upholds Meta’s long-standing belief that openness, rather than restriction, is essential to maintaining U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence. The company has invested heavily in open-weight AI through its Llama family of models, arguing that broader access accelerates innovation, strengthens the developer ecosystem and prevents AI capabilities from becoming concentrated among a small number of companies.

His comments also expose a growing divide within the American AI industry over how best to respond to China’s rapid advances. Companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI have repeatedly warned about foreign actors allegedly attempting to extract or copy their models, calling for stronger protections against intellectual property theft and tighter controls on access to frontier systems.

Others, including Meta and several open-source advocates, note that excessive restrictions could ultimately weaken the U.S. AI ecosystem by slowing research collaboration, limiting developer access and reducing competitive pressure that drives innovation.

The discussion comes as Chinese AI firms continue to gain momentum. Alongside Moonshot AI, companies such as DeepSeek and Z.ai have introduced increasingly capable and lower-cost models that are challenging the pricing strategies and business models of leading U.S. developers. Their rapid progress has intensified debate over whether China’s advances stem primarily from original research, the benefits of open-source collaboration, or unauthorized use of proprietary American technology.

For investors and policymakers, the stakes extend well beyond the AI industry. Analysts have noted that the outcome of the dispute could influence global technology supply chains, cross-border investment, export policy and the competitive landscape for companies building the next generation of AI systems.

Okomu Oil Palm Plc reported a 12.03% decline in pre-tax profit for the first half of 2026 as weaker domestic and export sales, higher production costs, and increased operating expenses weighed on profitability, even as the company strengthened its balance sheet with higher cash reserves and a return to a positive working capital position.

According to the company’s unaudited financial statements filed with the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) on Tuesday, pre-tax profit fell to N58.99 billion for the six months ended June 30, 2026, from N67.05 billion in the corresponding period of 2025.

Profit after tax declined even more sharply, dropping 16.42% year-on-year to N39.73 billion, while earnings per share fell to N41.65 from N49.83 a year earlier.

The weaker half-year performance reflects slower revenue growth alongside mounting production and operating costs, squeezing margins despite the company’s continued strong profitability.

Quarterly Performance Weakens

The slowdown became more evident during the second quarter. Pre-tax profit fell to N24.89 billion, representing a 27.00% decline from the derived first-quarter profit of N34.10 billion and a 28.58% drop from N34.85 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2025.

Second-quarter revenue also weakened, falling 7.52% year-on-year to N66.33 billion from N71.72 billion, suggesting softer demand and pricing pressures during the period.

Half-year revenue declined 3.50% to N125.29 billion from N129.83 billion in the same period last year.

Domestic sales remained the company’s largest revenue source, accounting for 90.37% of total turnover. However, local sales declined 3.19% to N113.22 billion, highlighting weaker demand in the domestic market.

Export revenue also fell 6.38% to N12.06 billion, contributing 9.63% of total revenue.

The quarterly breakdown showed a mixed picture.

While local sales declined 11.73% to N58.43 billion during the second quarter, export sales surged 42.98% to N7.90 billion, partially offsetting the weakness in the domestic market.

The improvement in exports suggests stronger international demand or higher shipment volumes toward the end of the reporting period, though it was insufficient to compensate for softer local sales.

Rising Costs Compress Margins

Profitability came under additional pressure from higher production costs. Despite lower revenue, cost of sales increased 3.84% year-on-year to N44.56 billion.

Oil palm production costs rose 1.66% to N37.61 billion, while rubber production costs climbed 17.51% to N6.95 billion, reflecting persistent inflationary pressures and higher operating expenses across the agricultural sector.

As a result, gross profit declined 7.13% to N80.73 billion from N86.93 billion.

Gross profit margin also narrowed to 64.44%, compared with 66.95% in the corresponding period of 2025, indicating that the company generated less profit from each naira of revenue.

Operating expenses added to the earnings pressure.

Net operating expenses increased 12.23% to N20.79 billion, leading operating profit to decline 12.37% to N59.94 billion from N68.40 billion.

Exchange Loss Lifts Finance Costs

Finance costs rose 8.85% to N1.57 billion, largely due to an exchange loss of N1.18 billion.

However, the impact was partly offset by stronger finance income. Interest income from fixed deposits and other cash balances increased significantly, with finance income rising to N622.47 million from N97.87 million in the first half of 2025, reflecting improved returns on the company’s growing cash holdings.

After accounting for finance costs and taxation of N19.26 billion, profit after tax settled at N39.73 billion.

Balance Sheet Strengthens

Despite weaker earnings, Okomu Oil’s financial position improved during the period.

Total assets increased 20.06% to N166.71 billion as of June 30, 2026, from N138.85 billion at the end of December 2025.

Cash and cash equivalents rose 65.34% to N21.40 billion, strengthening the company’s liquidity position.

Inventories nearly doubled to N36.61 billion from N18.32 billion, while trade receivables increased to N7.19 billion.

One of the most notable improvements was in working capital.

The company moved from a net current liability position of N2.49 billion at the end of 2025 to a net current asset position of N19.09 billion by the end of June, reflecting stronger short-term liquidity.

Meanwhile, long-term borrowings declined to N3.91 billion, although lease liabilities remained relatively high at N18.28 billion.

Market Performance

Despite the softer earnings, investors have continued to reward the stock this year.

Shares of Okomu Oil closed at N1,418.00 on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, compared with N1,095.00 at the beginning of the year, representing a 29.5% year-to-date gain.

The share price performance suggests investors remain optimistic about the company’s long-term fundamentals, supported by its strong cash generation, improving liquidity and dominant position in Nigeria’s palm oil industry. The optimism appears to overwhelm near-term profitability, which faces pressure from weaker sales, rising production costs and foreign exchange-related expenses.