The United States has widened its restrictions on Chinese telecommunications and surveillance equipment, expanding an existing import ban to cover older generations of products from some of China’s biggest technology companies.

The move comes just weeks after the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping produced a series of agreements aimed at stabilizing bilateral ties, raising fresh concerns that the latest action could reignite tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Friday that it will extend its 2022 ban on Chinese telecommunications and video surveillance equipment to include older models manufactured by Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hikvision, and Dahua Technology. The expanded restrictions will take effect in early July.

Unlike the original order, which applied only to products designed after late 2022, the new rules close what regulators viewed as a significant loophole by prohibiting imports of legacy equipment intended for use in public safety systems, government facilities, physical security at critical infrastructure, and other applications involving U.S. national security.

The FCC said the action “is necessary to protect national security by mitigating risks to the U.S. communications sector.” The agency stressed that Americans will still be permitted to use equipment they already own. The order targets future imports rather than requiring existing systems to be removed.

The latest restrictions represent another step in Washington’s steadily expanding campaign to reduce the presence of Chinese technology in critical sectors. Over the past year, the FCC has also prohibited imports of all new Chinese-made drone models and banned new Chinese consumer routers from entering the U.S. market, citing similar security concerns.

Beyond hardware, the commission is considering additional measures that would prohibit U.S. telecommunications carriers from interconnecting with Chinese telecom operators, a move that could effectively prevent Chinese telecommunications firms from operating data centers and communications services in the United States.

The decision comes at a delicate diplomatic moment.

Only weeks ago, Trump and Xi met in a summit that both governments portrayed as an effort to reset relations after years of escalating technology restrictions, tariffs, and export controls. The meeting resulted in several understandings aimed at easing bilateral tensions, including commitments to improve economic dialogue, reduce trade frictions, and maintain communication on sensitive technology and supply-chain issues.

The summit also reinforced recent efforts by both countries to prevent further deterioration in relations after months of reciprocal restrictions involving semiconductors, artificial intelligence technologies, rare earth minerals, and advanced manufacturing.

The FCC’s latest action now risks undermining some of that progress.

Although the measure is framed as a national security decision rather than a trade policy initiative, analysts say Beijing is unlikely to view the distinction as meaningful. Chinese officials have consistently argued that Washington increasingly invokes national security as a justification for broader economic and technological containment.

Several analysts expect China to respond with additional countermeasures rather than allowing the latest restrictions to pass unanswered.

Those responses could include tighter export controls on strategically important materials, expanded restrictions on American technology firms operating in China, or additional limitations on U.S. access to Chinese supply chains for critical minerals and advanced manufacturing inputs.

Such retaliation would be consistent with Beijing’s recent strategy. Earlier this month, China imposed export controls and procurement restrictions on dozens of U.S. companies after Washington added more Chinese firms to the Pentagon’s list of companies allegedly linked to China’s military. Rather than escalating aggressively, Beijing opted for targeted measures designed to signal its willingness to respond while keeping broader economic relations relatively stable.

The latest FCC decision may now test whether that calibrated approach continues. Industry observers note that while Huawei, ZTE, and the other affected companies already face significant restrictions in the United States, expanding the ban to older equipment removes remaining avenues for supplying certain public-sector and infrastructure projects.

The move also reflects a broader evolution in U.S. technology policy. Washington is no longer focusing solely on preventing the adoption of next-generation Chinese technologies. Instead, regulators are systematically tightening oversight of legacy equipment already embedded in global supply chains, seeking to eliminate alternative procurement channels that could weaken earlier restrictions.

For the Trump administration, the policy aligns with a wider strategy of strengthening domestic communications security and reducing reliance on Chinese technology across critical infrastructure. Similar initiatives have targeted semiconductors, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, drones, routers, and telecommunications equipment.

China has repeatedly rejected U.S. allegations that its companies pose security threats, accusing Washington of politicizing trade and using national security as a pretext to suppress Chinese technological development. Neither the Chinese Embassy in Washington nor the affected companies immediately commented on the FCC’s latest decision.

Elon Musk is pursuing the acquisition of Mesh Optical Technologies, a young optical networking startup founded by three former SpaceX engineers, in a move that would deepen SpaceX’s push into artificial intelligence infrastructure and high-performance data center technology.

The potential deal, disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and first reported by Bloomberg, comes as SpaceX rapidly expands beyond rockets and satellite internet into AI computing infrastructure, an area that has become one of the fastest-growing segments of the technology industry.

The FTC filing also revealed that regulators granted an expedited antitrust review, suggesting authorities do not currently view the transaction as raising significant competition concerns.

Mesh Optical emerged from stealth mode in February when it announced a $50 million Series A funding round led by Thrive Capital.

The company was founded in 2025 by former SpaceX engineers Travis Brashears, Cameron Ramos, and Serena Grown-Haeberli, who previously helped develop the laser-based optical communication system that allows thousands of Starlink satellites to exchange data directly in orbit.

Those optical inter-satellite links have become one of Starlink’s defining technological advantages, enabling satellites to transmit information across the constellation without relying entirely on ground stations, improving speed, resilience, and global coverage.

The founders have since adapted that expertise to terrestrial data centers, developing optical transceivers designed to replace conventional electrical networking hardware.

The technology addresses a growing challenge confronting AI infrastructure. As artificial intelligence models become larger and more computationally demanding, moving data efficiently between thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) has become nearly as important as the chips themselves.

Traditional electrical connections increasingly struggle with bandwidth limitations, power consumption and heat generation at the scale required by modern AI clusters.

Mesh Optical’s light-based networking hardware is designed to overcome those constraints by enabling faster, lower-latency, and more energy-efficient communication between servers.

Industry analysts see optical networking as one of the next major growth areas in AI infrastructure, alongside advanced semiconductors, memory chips, and high-bandwidth networking equipment.

The proposed acquisition highlights SpaceX’s transformation into a diversified technology company. Although best known for its Falcon rockets, Starship program, and Starlink satellite internet business, SpaceX has been investing aggressively in AI infrastructure as demand for computing capacity surges.

The company has recently entered into agreements to provide data center compute capacity to leading artificial intelligence developers, including Anthropic, Google, and open-source AI company Reflection AI.

Those partnerships have created a significant new revenue stream following SpaceX’s recent public listing, helping diversify income beyond launch services and satellite communications.

Integrating Mesh Optical’s technology could allow SpaceX to improve the performance and efficiency of those AI data centers by reducing power consumption while increasing data transfer speeds between AI processors.

The acquisition would also fit Elon Musk’s broader strategy of controlling critical components across his companies’ technology stack. Rather than relying entirely on third-party suppliers, SpaceX has historically preferred to develop or acquire strategic technologies internally, ranging from rocket engines and satellite hardware to software systems.

Optical networking could become another vertically integrated capability supporting both terrestrial AI facilities and future space-based computing infrastructure.

While SpaceX’s current AI data centers are Earth-based, the company’s long-term ambitions extend far beyond conventional facilities. As Starlink continues to grow and Starship advances toward commercial operations, efficient optical communications could eventually play an important role in supporting distributed computing infrastructure in orbit or on future lunar and Martian missions.

The proposed deal also underpins the intense competition among technology companies to secure every layer of the AI infrastructure ecosystem. Global spending on AI infrastructure has accelerated dramatically as companies race to build larger data centers capable of supporting increasingly sophisticated AI models. Beyond processors supplied by companies such as Nvidia, demand has surged for networking equipment, advanced memory, power systems, and optical communications technologies that enable AI clusters to operate efficiently.

By acquiring Mesh Optical, SpaceX is expected to gain access to specialized engineering talent and proprietary optical networking technology developed by engineers already familiar with the company’s engineering culture and long-term objectives.

The acquisition, at completion, is expected to further strengthen SpaceX’s position in the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure market while bolstering its strategy of building integrated technology platforms spanning aerospace, satellite communications, and artificial intelligence.

SpaceX is poised to become one of the fastest companies ever added to the Nasdaq-100 Index, a milestone that could unleash billions of dollars of fresh demand for its shares from index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) less than a month after its blockbuster stock market debut.

Nasdaq announced after Friday’s market close that SpaceX qualifies for inclusion in the technology-heavy benchmark under its recently introduced fast-track admission rules for newly listed companies. Assuming the company satisfies the remaining eligibility requirements, funds tracking the index will begin buying shares after markets close on July 6, with SpaceX officially joining the Nasdaq-100 before trading opens on July 7.

The move represents another significant milestone for Elon Musk’s aerospace and satellite company, whose June 12 initial public offering was the largest in Wall Street history and has rapidly transformed it into one of the market’s most closely watched AI infrastructure companies.

More than $800 billion in assets track the Nasdaq-100 through index funds, ETFs, and institutional portfolios, making inclusion a powerful catalyst for newly admitted companies.

Among the largest buyers is expected to be the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), one of the world’s biggest exchange-traded funds and among the most actively traded securities on U.S. markets. The ETF is widely viewed by investors as a benchmark for the technology sector and, more recently, as a proxy for the artificial intelligence investment boom.

Although SpaceX is expected to enter the benchmark with an index weighting of less than 1%, the sheer scale of assets benchmarked against the Nasdaq-100 means passive investment vehicles will still need to purchase substantial quantities of the company’s shares. Active portfolio managers who closely track the benchmark may also adjust their holdings to avoid excessive tracking error, adding another layer of demand.

The rapid addition follows Nasdaq’s recently adopted fast-track inclusion framework for newly public companies. Previously, even companies with enormous market capitalizations often had to wait several months before becoming eligible for inclusion in the Nasdaq-100, delaying access for passive investors.

Under the new rules, qualifying companies can become eligible after just 15 trading days, dramatically shortening the waiting period for some of the market’s largest IPOs.

SpaceX is among the first major beneficiaries of the revised framework, highlighting Nasdaq’s effort to ensure that rapidly growing technology companies are represented in its flagship index much sooner after listing.

However, analysts say the impact of the inclusion may be amplified because relatively few SpaceX shares are available for public trading. While the company commands one of the world’s largest market capitalizations following its IPO, only a fraction of its outstanding shares are included in the public float, with much of the stock remaining in the hands of insiders and long-term investors.

That limited supply means even a modest index weighting could require meaningful purchases from passive investment vehicles, potentially tightening available liquidity and supporting the share price.

The phenomenon has been observed with several high-profile technology companies whose inclusion in major indices generated temporary buying pressure as funds scrambled to rebalance portfolios.

The Nasdaq-100 inclusion adds to a series of major developments for SpaceX since its public debut.

The company recently completed a $25 billion senior unsecured bond offering, one of the largest corporate debt sales of the AI era, after attracting nearly $90 billion in investor orders. The fundraising came shortly after its IPO raised approximately $86 billion, leaving SpaceX with more than $100 billion in cash to fund expansion across its Starship rocket programme, Starlink satellite network, and growing artificial intelligence infrastructure business.

SpaceX has also been expanding its AI operations through agreements to provide computing capacity to companies, including Anthropic, Google, and Reflection AI, while pursuing acquisitions such as optical networking startup Mesh Optical Technologies to strengthen its data center capabilities.

While Nasdaq has moved quickly to accommodate newly listed technology giants, inclusion in the S&P 500 remains further away.

Earlier this month, S&P Dow Jones Indices declined to adopt a comparable fast-track process for large IPOs. As a result, SpaceX remains ineligible for the benchmark because of the S&P 500’s separate requirements covering profitability, public float, and seasoning, which generally require companies to establish a longer public trading history before being considered.

For investors, however, Nasdaq-100 inclusion represents an important milestone. Beyond providing greater visibility among institutional investors, membership is expected to broaden SpaceX’s shareholder base, increase passive ownership, and bolster its status as one of the world’s most influential technology and AI infrastructure companies, less than a month after entering public markets.