Tariffs and trade barriers

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Further, we have faced complications related to the import of mining equipment in the past and may face such complications in the future. The global supply of miners is unpredictable and presently heavily dependent on manufacturers based in China. Geopolitical matters, including the relationship between the United States and other countries and trade restrictions and tariffs (or the threat of trade restrictions or tariffs), may impact our ability to import miners or other equipment necessary for our operations. Restrictions or bans on mining equipment from China, whether due to trade restrictions, national security concerns or geopolitical tensions, could disrupt our supply chain, increase equipment costs and delay our growth plans.

Read in the 10-K filed Mar 31, 2025 ↗

We also face risks from trade policy changes, including tariffs and restrictions on imports of mining equipment. The current administration has imposed, and may continue to impose, tariffs on imports from key manufacturing regions, increasing costs and disrupting supply chains.

Read in the 10-K filed Mar 31, 2025 ↗

We operate in or provides services to capital-intensive industries in which federal trade policies could significantly impact the availability and cost of materials. Imposed and proposed tariffs by the Trump administration could significantly increase the prices and delivery lead times on GPUs that are critical to WhiteFiber and its customers. WhiteFiber faces competition from source providers both in the U.S. and around the world. Prolonged lead times on the delivery of GPUs and further tariff increases could adversely affect WhiteFiber’s business, financial condition and results of operations.

Read in the 10-K filed Mar 14, 2025 ↗

For example, the U.S. government has announced increased tariffs on China, and increased scrutiny over imports into the United States. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency’s (“CBP”) also has broad discretion regarding products imported into the United States and has detained and/or seized imported miners, which has caused bitcoin miners to experience delays in receiving miners. We have also faced immaterial delays due to the CBP’s detention and/or seizure of imported miners in the past and may again in the future. As the majority of miners are manufactured outside of the United States, such tariffs, trade restrictions, the threat of tariffs and trade restrictions, and increased focus over imports into the country could increase our costs and delay shipments needed for us to obtain new miners. These tariffs and any retaliatory action that may be taken have introduced significant uncertainty into the market, leading to volatility in material prices and potential delays in project timelines, which could negatively affect our operations, strategic planning and financial forecasting.

Read in the 10-K filed Feb 25, 2025 ↗

Other global conditions, including natural disasters, pandemics, regional conflicts, tariffs, recessions, inflationary issues and associated changes in monetary policy or commodity prices, foreign currency fluctuations, social, political and economic risks, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Read in the 10-K filed Feb 25, 2025 ↗

Additionally, regulatory actions, as well as any other political developments in the regions with active cryptocurrency trading or mining, may increase our domestic competition as some of those cryptocurrency miners or new entrants in this market may move their cryptocurrency mining operations or establishing new operations in the United States. See “Risks Related to Regulatory Framework—Regulatory changes or actions may restrict the use of bitcoin in a manner that adversely affects our business, prospects or operations” and “—Any unfavorable global economic, business or political conditions, such as geopolitical tensions, military conflicts, acts of terrorism, natural disasters, pandemics, trade restrictions, tariffs, or similar events could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.” We may not be able to compete successfully against present or future competitors. We may not have the resources to compete with larger competitors and, consequently, may experience great difficulties in expanding and improving our operations to remain competitive. For details on our current competitive landscape, see “Business—Competition.”

Read in the 10-K filed Feb 25, 2025 ↗

We and our customers are affected by general business and economic conditions in the United States and globally, particularly those impacting the cloud computing, machine learning and AI industries. These conditions include short-term and long-term interest rates, inflation, money supply, political issues, legislative and regulatory changes, including the imposition of new tariffs affecting our or our customers’ products and services, fluctuations in both debt and equity capital markets and broad trends in industry and finance, all of which are beyond our control. Macroeconomic conditions that affect the economy and the economic outlook of the United States and the rest of the world could adversely affect our customers and vendors, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Read in the 10-K filed Feb 27, 2025 ↗

Unforeseen global events, such as the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict, could adversely affect our business and results of operations. These and similar conflicts, including any resulting sanctions, export controls or other restrictive actions that may be imposed by the United States and/or other countries, have created global security concerns that could result in a regional conflict and otherwise have a lasting impact on regional and global economies, any or all of which could adversely affect our business and results of operations. To the extent that these conflicts have increased the global cost of energy and disrupted the demand for and price of bitcoin, it has and could continue to have an impact on our business. Sanctions, bans or other economic actions in response to conflicts could result in an increase in costs and disruptions to the Company. The extent of such items is not presently known, and any of them could negatively impact the Company’s business, results of operations and financial condition.

Read in the 10-K filed Feb 27, 2025 ↗

Much of the equipment necessary for HPC hosting and almost entirely all of the equipment necessary for digital asset mining is manufactured outside of the United States. There is currently significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States and various other countries, including China, the European Union, Canada, and Mexico, with respect to trade policies, treaties, tariffs and customs duties, and taxes. For example, since 2019, the U.S. government has implemented significant changes to U.S. trade policy with respect to China. These tariffs have subjected certain digital asset mining equipment manufactured overseas to additional import duties of up to 25%. The amount of the additional tariffs and the number of products subject to them has changed numerous times based on action by the U.S. government. These tariffs have increased costs of digital asset mining equipment, and new or additional tariffs or other restrictions on the import of equipment necessary for digital asset mining could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Read in the 10-K filed Feb 27, 2025 ↗

While we believe we have implemented appropriate measures that are designed to ensure that we are in compliance with foreign laws and regulations, failure to mitigate the risks associated with our international providers could impact our ability to conduct our business as planned which could materially and adversely impact our business. In addition, increased political and economic conditions and uncertainty, geo-political regional conflicts, terrorist activity, political unrest, civil strife, acts of war, government shutdowns, product boycotts, travel or immigration restrictions, tariffs and other trade restrictions, public health risks or pandemics, energy policy or restrictions, public corruption, expropriation and other economic or political uncertainties, including inaccuracies in our assumptions about these factors, could interrupt and negatively affect our business operations.

Read in the 10-K filed Mar 6, 2025 ↗

Rising threats of international tariffs, including tariffs applied to goods between the U.S. and China, may materially and adversely affect our business.

Read in the 10-K filed Dec 27, 2024 ↗

Rising threats of international tariffs, including tariffs applied to goods traded between the U.S. and China, could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations. Since the beginning of 2018, there has been increasing rhetoric, in some cases coupled with legislative or executive action, from several U.S. and foreign leaders regarding the possibility of instituting tariffs on the foreign imports of certain materials and products. More specifically, throughout 2019 and 2020, the U.S. and China imposed tariffs or announced proposed tariffs to be applied in the future to certain of each other’s exports. As of the date of this report, the Company has not been directly affected by any tariffs previously implemented by former President Trump on the medical technology industry which currently remain in place. In May 2022 the U.S. Trade Representative (the “USTR”) announced a statutory four-year review of the tariffs against China. The USTR also announced in May 2022 that it reinstated or extended various eligible tariff exclusions on certain products from China through December 2023. In September 2024, the USTR completed its statutory four-year review and announced tariff increases on imports from China on various products. Further, we do not know if the administration that takes office in 2025 will implement any new tariffs or alter current tariffs. If any tariffs or restrictions are imposed on products that we import for our customers, we would be required to raise our prices, which may result in the loss of customers and harm our business. Additionally, some of our non-diabetic distribution customers and customers in the design and development business have been affected by these tariffs, specifically those who manufacture non-medical electronic products. This may cause these customers to reduce the amount of discretionary spending they use on outsource product design and engineering services supplied by our design segment.

Read in the 10-K filed Dec 27, 2024 ↗

To the extent that there are disruptions or delays in loading container cargo in ports of origin or off-loading cargo at ports of destination as a result of labor disputes, work-rules related slowdowns, tariff or World Trade Organization-related disputes, piracy, physical damage to port terminal facilities or equipment caused by severe weather or terrorist incidents, congestion in port terminal facilities, inadequate equipment to load, dock and offload container vessels or energy-related tie-ups or otherwise, or for other reasons, product shipments to our customers will be delayed. For example, in Fiscal 2024, we experienced shipping delays resulting from cargo ship piracy in the Red Sea, and in March 2021, a container ship carrying some of our products ran aground in the Suez Canal and was immobilized for six days. Although these events did not have a material adverse effect on our business, there is no assurance that, if they happened again, that they would not. In any such case, our customers may cancel or change the terms of their purchase orders, resulting in a cancellation or delay of payments to us. A closure or partial closure of port facilities or other causes of delays in the loading, importation, offloading or movement of our products to the shipping destination agreed to with our customer could result in increased expenses, as we try to avoid such delays, delayed shipments or cancelled orders, or all of the above. Depending on the severity of such consequences, this may have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Read in the 10-K filed Dec 27, 2024 ↗

We are subject to price volatility and uncertainty due to geopolitical crises and economic downturns. Such geopolitical crises and global economic downturns may be a result of invasion, or possible invasion by one nation of another, global outbreaks of various epidemics or disease, the implementation of new tariffs and more restrictive trade regulations, leading to increased inflation and supply chain volatility. Such crises will likely continue to have an effect on our ability to do business in a cost-effective manner. Inflation has caused the price of materials to increase leading to increased expenses to our business. Global crises and economic downturns may also have the effect of discouraging investment in bitcoin as investors shift their investments to less volatile assets. Such shifts could have a materially adverse effect on our business, operations and the value of the bitcoin we mine.

Read in the 10-K filed Mar 3, 2025 ↗