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Here's your morning TNB Tech Minute for Friday, September 26th. I'm Julie Chang for the Wall Street Journal.

We exclusively report that the Trump administration is considering a plan to dramatically reduce America's reliance on foreign-made semiconductors and spur domestic manufacturing.

The goal is to have chip companies manufacture the same number of

semiconductors in the U.S. as their customers import from overseas producers. People familiar

with the concepts say companies that don't maintain a one-to-one ratio over time would have to

pay a tariff. The plan could challenge the biggest tech companies like Apple and Dell

that import products containing a host of different chips from all over the world.

Meta plans to launch an ad-free version of Facebook and Instagram in the United Kingdom.

The company says over the coming weeks, it'll give UK users the option to pay about

£4 or less per month

to use their accounts without seeing advertisements. Ads make up most of meta's revenue at more

than $150 billion annually. The company says accounts that opt out of ads will continue to be

personalized, but data won't be used to show ads. The move matches an

ad-free service that meta-launched in the European Union in 2023, but cut the cost of that last year

in response to regulators' demands. And Baidu plans to start operating fully driverless robotaxies

in Dubai by the first quarter of next year.

A managing director with the Chinese tech giant's robotaxy arm, Apollo Go, said it wants to have

over a thousand robotaxies on Dubai's roads by the end of 2007 or early 2028.

Baidu has started testing 50 robotaxis in designated areas, but testing so far requires a

human safety officer in the vehicle. The director called the Middle East a key region for

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