Silicon Valley's conference season kicks off amid AI, tariff trepidation

It’s springtime, which means the birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, and Silicon Valley is kicking off its big conference season. Things get started in earnest next week when Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) host their annual I/O and Build developer events.

Chip giants AMD (AMD), Intel (INTC), Nvidia (NVDA), and Qualcomm (QCOM), meanwhile, will head to Taipei, Taiwan, to participate in the Computex Taipei tech expo. In June, Apple will hold its WWDC 2025 conference, providing the world with a deeper look into the company’s AI plans.

The events, however, come as the tech industry continues to wrestle with issues ranging from the impact of President Trump’s tariffs to AI growth fears to concerns about chip export restrictions.

It will make for an interesting couple of shows as each company works to quell investor anxiety and provide a positive outlook for their future products and services.

Microsoft begins its Build conference May 19 with a keynote by CEO Satya Nadella and CTO Kevin Scott. Expect the company to provide plenty of updates on its Copilot AI software for both the enterprise and consumer markets.

Investors will look for AI improvements for Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, as well as how it plans to further integrate Copilot into its Microsoft 365 productivity suite.

During its most recent quarter, Microsoft said AI accounted for 16 percentage points of growth for Azure, better than the 15.6 points analysts were anticipating.

Investors have raised concerns, however, about the Windows maker’s decision to pull back on some of its data center lease plans, driving fears that Microsoft believes it’s overinvesting in AI.

Nadella shot down those worries during Microsoft’s third quarter earnings call, saying the company regularly makes changes to its data center plans and that investors are only noticing those moves because they began paying more attention to them recently as they track AI growth.

CFO Amy Hood also pointed out that Microsoft expects to remain resource-constrained into the June quarter as it works to build out enough AI capacity for its customers.

On the consumer side, Microsoft will likely provide updates for its Copilot+ PCs — Windows 11-based PCs with AI capabilities. The company is coming up on the end of support for Windows 10 PCs, which it will almost certainly hit on during its show.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai will deliver his own keynote address at his company’s I/O developer conference on May 20.

Like Microsoft, Google is expected to provide developers with updates to its Gemini AI models and how the company is integrating them into its Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and enterprise services.

The GCP segment brought in $12.2 billion in the company’s latest quarter, up from $9.5 billion in the same quarter last year. Google’s cloud segment growth is especially important given that both its search and advertising empires are under threat from antitrust lawsuits that could force the company to dismantle the businesses.

Google will show off new Android features, some of which it debuted during a special online presentation on Tuesday, and will likely dive into some of its Android XR mixed reality software. The company is currently working on an AR/VR headset with Samsung that is expected to launch later this year.

Google could also reveal more about the augmented reality glasses technology it showed off at I/O last year. The company is in a three-way race to catch what the industry believes will be the next major computing platform after the smartphone.

Rival Meta (META) already offers its own AI-powered smartglasses, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, complete with an AI voice assistant, and is working on future augmented reality eyewear under its Reality Labs segment. Apple is reportedly working on its own AI-powered glasses, according to Bloomberg, adding ever more pressure to Google to prove it’s on track to release its own competing device.

AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm will all be in attendance at Computex Taipei. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon will give separate keynotes during the event, which runs from May 19 through May 23.

Look for AMD and Nvidia to provide more details about their AI offerings while Intel focuses on providing further proof of its turnaround under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Qualcomm demonstrates its deeper push into the PC market.

Nvidia and AMD received a much-hoped-for reprieve on Tuesday as the Trump administration moved to curtail the Biden administration’s so-called AI diffusion rules that would have limited the number of chips companies could ship to certain foreign countries.

The chip firms announced deals with Saudi Arabia’s Humain AI startup on Tuesday, further expanding their reach.

Investors, however, are also wary of future tariffs on AI chips as the Trump administration continues its Section 232 investigation into whether it should place additional duties on the technology, which could impact the prices of electronics ranging from smartphones to refrigerators. We’ll find out more about that in the coming weeks.