Trump Extends TikTok Ban by Another 75 Days President Donald Trump extended the deadline for ByteDance's TikTok ban by 75 days on Friday, stating that it will allow for more time to finalize a deal. "My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress," Trump wrote in a post on his social media platfrom Truth Social. "The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days." This is the second time TikTok's ban deadline has been extended, with the original sell date set by former President Joe Biden for Jan. 19 and the second deadline made for April 5. Bloomberg reports that U.S. investors for the sale include Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), Blackstone (NYSE: BX), and Andreessen Horowitz as of Wednesday. Other names include Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Walmart (NYSE: WMT).
Meta Platforms to Officially End Fact-Checkers on MondayMeta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) will no longer have professional fact-checkers in the United States starting Monday, Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan announced Friday. "In place of fact checks, the first Community Notes will start appearing gradually across Facebook, Threads & Instagram, with no penalties attached," Kaplan wrote in a post on X, echoing similar moderation efforts of Elon Musk's social media platform. The policy change follows CEO Mark Zuckerberg's announcement back in January that its social media platforms were loosening their moderation. The change also coincided with President Donald Trump's inauguration, where Zuckerberg attended and donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund; Zuckerberg and Trump historically have had a contentious relationship after Facebook banned Trump's accounts following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capital.
Apple Wipes Out $250 Billion in Market Value Following Tariff Announcement Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) lost more than $250 billion in market value on Thursday, as shares fell over 9% in response to President Donald Trump's wide ranging tariff policy. The White House unveiled tariffs of at least 10% on most countries, with some having even higher rates -- China notably having its duties climb to 54% -- effective April 5. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives called the tariffs "worse than a worst case scenario for tech investors," will Apple taking a considerable hit. "Apple produces basically all their iPhones in China, and the question will be around exceptions and exemptions on this tariff policy if those companies are building more operations, factories, and plants in the U.S. like Apple announced in February," Ives wrote in a note following the tariff announcement.
Roblox, Google Partner on Immersive Ads Roblox (NASDAQ: RBLX) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) announced a new partnership on Tuesday to allow advertisers to use Google Ad Manager to market on the gaming platform. The ads, which include Roblox's Rewarded Video format, will give brands and agencies access to Roblox's "tens of millions" of Gen Z users that are active daily on the platform. Rewarded Video ads -- an up to 30 second fullscreen video advertisement displayed in both games and online experiences for user rewards --- have a completion rate of over 80% for users, according to Roblox. "This new format is a win-win-win for brands, creators, and users, and we've been excited by the early results of our tests which have proven this out," said Stephanie Latham, Vice President of Global Brand Partnerships and Advertising at Roblox, in a statement. "We are continuing to remove barriers for brands and agencies that are quickly realizing the massive potential of immersive gaming platforms like Roblox where Gen Z are increasingly spending their time."
Amazon Releases AI Agent Nova Act, First From AGI Lab Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) on Monday released a new AI agent that can take control of a web browser and perform multi-step actions independently. The agent, called Nova Act, is also released alongside a developer toolkit to build agents called Nova Act SDK. The tech giant's latest AI release will directly compete with OpenAI's Operator and Anthropic's Computer Use, with each of these companies efforts aimed at making AI chatbots more useful by expanding their web navigating capabilities. Amazon says developers building with Nova Act SDK would be able to automate basic web tasks, like allowing the agent to fill out onboarding forms or pick dates for dinner reservations from a calendar. Nova Act is the first public product released by Amazon's AGI Lab, lead by former OpenAI researchers David Luan and Pieter Abbeel.
Musk's xAI Purchases Social Media Platform X in All-Stock Deal Billionaire Elon Musk announced Friday that his artificial intelligence startup xAI has merged with his social media platform X in an all-stock deal that values the companies at $80 million and $33 billion, respectively. Musk noted that the purchase price was $45 billion less due to $12 billion in debt. "xAI and X's future are intertwined," Musk wrote in a post on X. "Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent." Musk added that the merger would, "unlock immense potential by blending xAI's advanced AI capability and expertise with X's massive reach." As the companies are both private, the deal essentially further combines the two in a stock swap, as xAI's products like AI chatbot Grok have already been closely tied to the social media platform. Musk also leads EV maker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), space exploration company SpaceX, and brain-computer interface maker Neurolink.
Meta Launches Friends Tab to Bring Back 'OG Facebook,' Says Zuckerberg Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) rolled out a new Facebook Friends tab on Thursday, the first new feature that is part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's effort to bring back the original focus of the social networking platform. "The new Friends tab is a throwback to OG Facebook when you only saw friends' status updates," Zuckerberg said in a post. "More OG Facebook coming soon." The new tab will show users the latest content from their friends instead of "recommended content," the company said in a blog post, with the content including stories, reels, posts, birthday announcements and friend requests. Back in January, Zuckerberg said during an earnings call with analysts that the company wants to refocus Facebook back to its roots, and make the app "more culturally influential than it is today."
Share of Americans in Favor of TikTok Ban Declines, Says Pew Research Study Support for a TikTok ban in the United States is declining, according to a Pew Research Center study, with about a third of U.S. adults polled in favor of a national ban compared to 50% in March 2023. Most in support cite concerns about data security and China as the major reasons behind their opinion on the short-video sharing app, according to the study, while most who oppose believe a ban would violate their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech. Moreover, the share of Americans that see TikTok as a threat to national security has also declined -- from 59% in 2023 to 49% in the latest survey. Pew found that Americans who do not use TikTok are nearly four times more likely to support a ban. President Donald Trump postponed ByteDance's sale of the app from its original deadline of Jan. 19 to April 19, with U.S. companies like Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are speculated to buy TikTok. ByteDance has not announced plans for a sale.
Chinese Automaker BYD Tops Tesla's Annual Revenue in 2024Chinese automaker BYD (OTC: BYDDY) reported annual revenue of 777 billion yuan ($107 billion) for 2024, outpacing key rival Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), which posted an annual revenue of $97.7 billion for the same period. The automaker's revenue rose 29% from the previous year, BYD said in a filing publish on Monday, with President Wang Chunfu highlighting the company's "rapid development" throughout the year pushed it to become the first globally to deploy 10 million new energy vehicles in November. "BYD has become an industry leader in every sector from batteries, electronics to new energy vehicles, breaking the dominance of foreign brands and reshaping the new landscape of the global market," Wang said in a statement.
23andMe Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, CEO Anne Wojcicki Steps Down Genetic testing company 23andMe (NASDAQ: ME) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Missouri federal court on Sunday, and Chief Executive Officer Anne Wojcicki has resigned from her role, effective immediately. Current Chief Financial and Accounting Officer Joseph Selsavage will serve as interim CEO, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "We have had many successes but I equally take accountability for the challenges we have today," Wojcicki wrote in a post on X on Monday. "There is no doubt that the challenges faced by 23andMe through an evolving business model have been real, but my belief in the company and its future is unwavering." 23andMe, once valued at $6 billion, has struggled to maintain recurring revenue in recent years. Its market capitalization is about $25 million as of Monday.
Ticket Seller StubHub Holdings Files to Go Public on NYSETicket selling platform StubHub Holdings Inc. on Friday filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "STUB," offering another sign that the initial public offering (IPO) may be heating up again after stalling after the pandemic-induced boom since early 2022. A leader in the ticket industry, StubHub was previously purchased by eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) for $310 million in 2007, before being purchased by co-founder Eric Baker in 2020 for $4 billion though his company Viagogo. The company said in its prospectus that it sold more than 40 million tickets through its marketplace of about 1 million sellers. StubHub said it had a net loss of $2.8 million on revenue of $1.77 billion in 2024, compared with a profit of $405 million on revenue of $1.37 billion the previous year.
BNPL Lender Klarna Signs DoorDash Partnership Ahead of IPOBuy now, pay later platform Klarna announced Thursday that it signed a partnership with DoorDash (NASDAQ: DASH), marking another milestone for the lender as it plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KLAR. This is also DoorDash's first BNPL partnership in the United States, allowing customers to split payments for orders into four equal interest-free installments, or defer due dates to longer term schedules subject to interest. Sweden-based Klarna filed its prospectus last week to go public, reporting its revenue increased 24% to $2.8 billion last year, and its adjusted operating profit was $181 million, recovering from a $49 million loss a year earlier. The company said in its filing that it has 675,000 merchant partners in 26 counties.
Edible Brands Launches Edibles.com for Hemp Products Edible Brands, the parent company of Edible Arrangements, is launching Edibles.com, an ecommerce marketplace for hemp products. Benefitting from the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp (legally defined as a plant that contains 0.3% of less THC, the intoxicant chemical of cannabis), the website plans to roll out nationwide after its initial launch in Texas on Friday. "This is a defining moment for the hemp industry," Cann CEO Jake Bullock said in a statement. "A trusted, high-quality marketplace like Edibles.com has the power to reshape the future of THC products and drive the long-term industry growth we've all been working toward." Edibles.com will also have a brick-and-mortar location in Atlanta, Georgia, and plans to add more locations in other states as its business expands.
Shopify to Transfer US Listing to Nasdaq Starting March 31, Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) will transfer its U.S. listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday. The company's existing listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange will remain as is, according to the filing, and its stock ticker will also stay as SHOP on both exchanges. In this move, Shopify joins other tech companies like Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) and DoorDash (NASDAQ: DASH) in switching to the Nasdaq in recent years. The company did not give a reason for the change in the filing, but a spokesperson told TechCrunch: "We're excited to join the Nasdaq community to be listed among the most innovative tech companies in the world."
Nvidia Unveils New 'AI Personal Supercomputers' at GTC 2025Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) announced a new line of "personal AI supercomputers" at its GTC 2025 conference on Tuesday. The machines, DGX Spark and DGX Stations, are powered by the company's Grace Blackwell chip platfrom and will allow users to prototype, test, and run AI models in a range of scales. "This is the computer of the age of AI," CEO Jensen Huang said during the presentation. "AI agents will be everywhere. How they run, what enterprises run, and how we run it will be fundamentally different. And so we need a new line of computers. And this is it." DGX Spark, which is available now, can run up to 1,000 trillion operations per second of AI computing, according to Nvidia. The DGX Stations is expected to be released later this year through manufacturing partners including Dell (NYSE: DELL), HP (NYSE: HP) and Lenovo (OTC: LNVGY).
American Airlines Slashes Outlook on Waning Travel DemandAmerican Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL) said ahead of an industry conference hosted by JPMorgan that it expects to lose between $0.60 to $0.80 per share in the first three months of the year, wider than its previous forecast for a $0.20 to $0.40 loss range. The airline also said its full year revenue would likely be flat compared to its prior estimate for it to increase as much as 5%, "due to the impact of Flight 5342 and softness in the domestic leisure segment, primarily in March," American disclosed in a securities filing, referring to the deadly collision of one of its regional jets and an Army helicopter in Washington, D.C. in January. The updated outlook echoes similar estimates from peers, with Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) cutting its first-quarter estimates on Monday due to impacts from "the recent reduction in consumer and corporate confidence caused by increased marco uncertainty."
Trump to Purchase Tesla in Support of Musk President Donald Trump announced plans to purchase a Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) on Tuesday as a sign of support as CEO Elon Musk's electric vehicle company's shares come under pressure since Musk began working with the Trump Administration. "I'm going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American," Trump wrote in a Tuesday post on Truth Social. Trump added that Americans are "illegally and collusively," boycotting Tesla, which he described as one of the best automakers in the world. The Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that the First Amendment protects Americans' right to protest private businesses. Tesla stock experienced its worst day since 2020 on Monday and is down nearly 40% year-to-date.
Tesla Post Longest Losing Streak in its History Since Musk Joined Trump Administration Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares have fallen for seven straight weeks since CEO Elon Musk joined the Trump administration -- the electric automaker's shares closed at $270.48 on Friday, finishing more than 10% for the week and at their lowest level since Nov. 5, when they closed at $251.11. The losing streak is the company's largest since it went public 15 years ago, and Wall Street analysts are taking notice. Firms including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Baird have each slashed their price targets on Tesla, with the latter adding the company to its "bearish fresh picks," this week. "Musk's involvement with the Trump administration adds uncertainty to the demand-side," Baird analysts wrote in a recent note. Musk heads multiple private ventures alongside the EV company, including his artificial intelligence startup xAI, satellite internet constellation Starlink and aerospace contractor SpaceX.
Trump Says Tariff Pause Had 'Nothing to do the Market' President Donald Trump said Thursday that his decision to pause tariffs on goods under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) until April 2 had "nothing to do with the market," stating that the United States will be "very strong" under his trade policies. "This is very much about companies and countries that have ripped off this country, our country, our beloved United States," the president told reporters in remarks in the Oval Office. "They're not going to be ripping us off any more. So, you know, I think that has an impact on the market." The Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) and S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) have each fallen about 2% for the week in response to tariff uncertainty, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: QQQ) has lost 1.6%.
Apple Launches New M4 Macbook Air Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) unveiled new MacBook Air models on Wednesday, updating its bestselling laptop with its latest M4 processor. The 13-inch model starts at $999, while its larger, 15-inch model starts at $1,099 -- users can pay more for storage and memory upgrades. The computer is notably offered at a $100 price cut in the United States, despite expectations for higher costs on electronics under President Donald Trump's tariffs on key trading partners. Beyond laptops, Apple also announced a new high-end Mac Studio desktop designed to run computer graphics, audio or video production or artificial intelligence programs more efficiently. The new computer starts at $1,099, with its more powerful upgrades boosting the cost over $14,000.
Ontario Scraps Starlink $68 Million ContractOntario Premier Doug Ford announced the province has canceled its $68.12 million (CA$100 million) contract with Elon Musk's Starlink on Tuesday. "We're ripping up Ontario's contract with Starlink," Ford said during a press conference. "It's done, it's gone. We won't award contracts to people who enable and encourage economic attacks on our province and our country." Ford added that the province is banning all U.S.-based company from government contracts, saying the United States and Canada could have become "the two richest, most successful, safest, most secure two countries on the planet," but President Donald Trump "has chosen chaos instead."
TSMC Commits $100 Billion to Expand U.S. Chip Manufacturing President Donald Trump announced Monday that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) will invest $100 billion to boost chip manufacturing in the United States, calling it a "tremendous move by the most powerful company in the world." The funds will go towards the construction of several new manufacturing plants in Arizona, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei told reporters during a press conference. The company initially pledged $12 billion in 2020 to build its first U.S. chip factory in Arizona, and later expanded its investments to include $65 billion towards more facilities in the Southwestern state and has received up to $6.6 billion in grants under the Biden administration's CHIPS Act. TSMC is the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world and supplies chips for tech giants including Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).
Stripe Says AI Startups Growing Faster Than SaaS Payments startup Stripe said in its annual letter released Thursday that artificial intelligence startups are growing at a faster rate than traditional Software-as-a-Service companies have in the past, calling it "an AI boom." According to Stripe, the top AI companies by revenue were able to achieve $5 million in annualized revenue in 24 months in 2024, compared to the top 100 SaaS companies needing 37 months to reach the same milestone in 2018. "Much as SaaS started horizontal and then went vertical (first Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) and then Toast), we're seeing a similar dynamic playing out in AI: We started with ChatGPT but are not seeing a proliferation of industry specific tools," Stripe wrote, adding that these tools are helping companies "properly realize the economic impact of LLMs and that the contextual, data, and workflow integration will prove enduringly valuable."
Anthropic Launches New Reasoning AI Model Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) backed AI start-up Anthropic released its latest large language model Claude 3.7 Sonnet on Monday, calling it the industry's first "hybrid AI reasoning model," due to its ability to give both real-time answers and "thought-out" answers to user queries. Users are able to activate Claude's "reasoning" abilities, prompting the AI model to "think" for an extended period of time to answer more complex challenges like math or coding questions. "Similar to how humans don't have two separate brains for questions that can be answered immediately versus those that require thought, we regard reasoning as simploy one of the capabilities a frontier model should have, to be smoothly integrated with other capabilities, rather than something to be provided in a separate model," Anthropic wrote in a blogpost. Claude 3.7 Sonnet is rolling out to all users and developers on Monday, but only premium users can access the new reasoning features.
Apple to Invest $500 Billion in the United States to Boost AI Infrastructure Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced plans Monday to invest $500 billion over the next four years in the United States to build out its artificial intelligence infrastructure. The first projects include a new factory in Houston, Texas to produce servers to support the tech giant's in-house AI, Apple Intelligence; doubling the value of Apple's U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Fund to $10 billion; and the creation of a new academy in Michigan to train employees for its next-generation factories. "From doubling our Advanced Manufacturing Fund, to building advanced technology in Texas, we're thrilled to expand our support for American manufacturing," CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. "We'll keep working with people and companies across this country to help write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation."
Yum Brands' KFC to Move U.S. Headquarters to Plano, Texas Yum Brands' (NYSE: YUM) Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) chain's U.S. headquarters will move from Louisville, Kentucky, to Plano, Texas, the fast-food corporation announced Tuesday. The relocation is part of Yum Brands' long-term goal to have two corporate U.S. headquarters: on is Plano, and the other in Irvine, California. KFC and Pizza Hut's global teams are already based in Plano, while Taco Bell and the Habit Burger & Grill's corporate teams are in Irvine. Roughly 100 KFC U.S. employees will be required to relocate over the next six month as part of the move. "These changes position us for sustainable growth and will help us better serve our customers, employees, franchisees and shareholders," said CEO David Gibbs in a statement. "I'm confident this is another important step in growing our iconic restaurant brands globally."
OpenAI Officially Rejects Musk's $97.4 Billion Nonprofit Bid OpenAI officially rejected Elon Musk's proposal to buy the artificial intelligence start-up's nonprofit for $97.4 billion on Friday, with Chair Bret Taylor adding that the company "is not for sale," in a statement. In a short letter to Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff, OpenAI's lawyer William Savitt said the company's board reviewed the proposal and concluded that Musk's "much-publicized 'bid' is in fact not a bid at all," the New York Times reports. Savitt went on to write that the "proposal, even as first presented, is not in the best interest of OAI's mission and is rejected. The decision of the OAI board on this matter is unanimous." On Monday, Musk, his AI company xAI, and a group of investors offered to buy OpenAI's nonprofit unit, adding to the billionaire's longstanding public feud with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Arm to Create In-House Chip, Meta Platforms Among First Customers Major semiconductor designer Arm Holdings (NASDAQ: ARM) will reportedly begin making its own chips this year, according to the Financial Times, and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) has signed on to be one of its first customers. The chip is expected to be a CPU for servers in large data centers, according to the report, and the could be unveiled as early as this summer. This is a notable shift from Arm's current strategy of licensing its technology to its customers so they in turn can build their own chips; Arm's customers include Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC). Meta announced recently is plans to spend as much as $65 billion this year on capital expenditures for AI development.
Chevron Plans to Cut Workforce up to 20% in $3 Billion Cost Cutting PlanChevron (NYSE: CVX) announced plans Wednesday to cut its workforce by 15% to 20% in effort to lower costs, with most of the layoffs taking place before the end of 2026. The oil giant is seeking to reduce costs by between $2 billion and $3 billion in that timeline. "We do not take these actions lightly and will support our employees through the transition," Chevron Vice Chair Mark Nelson said in a statement. "But responsible leadership requires taking these steps to improve the long-term competitiveness of our company for our people, our shareholders and our communities." Chevron delivered disappointing results in its recent quarter, with its fuel business reporting a loss of $248 million compared with a profit of $1.15 billion in the previous year.
NFL Super Bowl Attracts Record 127.7 Million Viewers The National Football League's Super Bowl on Sunday attracted a record 127.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, airing on Fox Corporation's (NASDAQ: FOXA) broadcast network. The championship game also aired on Fox's Spanish-language cable network Fox Deportes and NBCUniversal's (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Telemundo, as well as Fox's free, ad-supported streamer Tubi -- this was the first year the Super Bowl was available on the app. The game on streaming platforms also broke records, garnering 14.5 million viewers across platforms and 13.6 million on Tubi alone, according to Adobe Analytics. The Super Bowl's viewership peaked at an audience of 137.7 million from 8 p.m to 8:15 p.m, according to Nielsen, while the halftime show, headlined by Kendrick Lamar, had an average 133.5 million viewers across TV and digital platforms.
Musk Leads $97.4 Billion Bid to Control OpenAI Investors led by Elon Musk are offering $97.4 billion in an unsolicited bid to buy control of OpenAI, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. "It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," Musk said in a statement provided by his attorney Marc Toberoff, WSJ reports. "We will make sure that happens." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman co-founded the artificial intelligence company with Musk in 2015 as a charity effort to create AI to benefit humanity. After Musk left the company in 2019, OpenAI created a for-profit subsidiary to raise capital from investors, including Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT); Musk has previously filed legal complaints claiming OpenAI of betraying its original non-profit mission. The bid is backed by Musk's AI company xAI, which could merge with OpenAI is a deal is reached. Other backers include Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital and 8VC, WSJ reports.
Shopify Calls for 'Open Trade' as Trump Delays Import Exemption Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) on Friday published a blog post endorsing "open trade," in response to President Donald Trump's pause to end the "de minimis" exception on certain imports from China, calling for regulators to give online merchants the "freedom to expand without constraints imposed by geopolitical brinkmanship." The ruling, signed into law in 1930, lets imports under $800 enter the country tax free. "Without small-business protections, legitimate entrepreneurs suffer under policies intended to curb exploitation," the post read. "This hikes costs, disrupts supply chains, and hinders cross-border trade." The Trump administration argues that the exception makes it difficult for U.S. customs to identify illegal shipments, and only reversed its decision in response to push back from merchants and consumers. However, the de minimis rule is set to be removed once "adequate systems are in place to fully and expediently process and collect tariff revenue," according to an executive order signed by Trump on Friday.
MicroStrategy Becomes Strategy in Bitcoin-Focused RebrandMicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, announced it will be changing its name to Strategy, and unveiled a new bitcoin-focused logo and orange brand color alongside an online merchandise store as the company plans to shift its focus to "bitcoin development." The company currently holds over 471,000 bitcoins on its balance sheet, acquiring 218,887 bitcoins by the end of its recent quarter, as part of its aggressive effort over the past year of selling billions of dollars of convertible bonds to purchase the cryptocurrency. “Strategy is innovating in the two most transformative technologies of the twenty-first century – bitcoin and artificial intelligence. Our new name powerfully and simply conveys the universal and global appeal of our company, and the value we bring to the strategies of our shareholders, customers, partners, and employees," CEO Phong Le said in a statement.
Snap CEO Says TikTok 'Uncertainty' Boosted Q4 Business Snap (NYSE: SNAP) said that "uncertainty" surrounding TikTok's future operations in the United States has positively affected its business in its fourth quarter. "We're not trying to draw too many conclusions from some of the engagement lift we saw when [TikTok] went dark for that brief period of time," CEO Evan Spiegel told analysts during the company's earnings call on Tuesday. "I would say that the overall environment of uncertainty is benefiting our business." The company reported an increase of 39 million daily active users in its fourth quarter year-over-year, with Spiegel added that the app "reached a billion public posts a month on Snapchat," during the quarter. "The public content ecosystem is growing in a really nice and healthy way, and so we're just going to continue our focus there when it comes to our strategy and participation," Spiegel said.
EU Launches AI Law Against Applications that Pose 'Unacceptable Risk' to Citizens The European Union formally began enforcement of its artificial intelligence law, called the AI Act, on Sunday, launching restrictions and potential fines for violations for AI applications that it deems pose an "unacceptable risk" to citizens. These unacceptable AI activities include those used: for social scoring; to manipulate a person's decisions either subliminally or deceptively; to exploit social vulnerabilities like age, disability, or socioeconomic status; to attempt to predict crimes based on a person's appearance; to collect biometric data in public places for the purposes of law enforcement; to infer people's emotions or characteristics; to create or expand facial recognition databases by scraping images for security cameras or online. Companies can face fines of as much as 35 million euros or 7% of their global annual revenues (whichever amount is higher) for breaches of the AI Act, with the penalties depending on the infringement.
Apple Posts Record Services Growth in Q1 Once known only for its hardware, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has posted major growth in its Services division, home to its App Store, iCloud, Music, TV+, and other subscriptions, which recorded an all-time revenue record of $26.3 billion in its fiscal first quarter, rising 14% annually. CEO Tim Cook highlighted in the company's earnings call on Thursday that Services generated roughly $100 billion in revenue over the past year, driven in-part by Apple garnering more than 1 billion subscriptions across its software offerings, including through third-party apps in the App Store. Cook added that Apple also recorded a new record install base of over 2.35 billion active devices, spurred by enthusiasm surrounding the rollout of Apple Intelligence. The company's generative AI service, "opens up an exciting new frontier and is already elevating experiences across iPhone, iPad, and Mac," Cook said.
Mark Zuckerberg Hints 'OG Facebook' to Come Back in 2025 Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased a "return of OG Facebook" as part of the company's goals for 2025 during its fourth-quarter earnings call with investors late Wednesday. "I think there are a lot of opportunities to make [Facebook] way more culturally influential than it is today," Zuckerberg told analysts, saying the social media platform is something the company plans to invest more in this year. A 2024 survey by Pew Research found that U.S. teens has declined sharply from 71% in 2014-2015 to just 33% last year, as platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat (NYSE: SNAP) and Instagram appear to be more attractive to younger Americans.
Bankrupt Spirit Airlines Turns Down New Frontier Airlines Merger OfferFrontier Airlines (NASDAQ: ULCC) said Wednesday bankrupt rival budget airline Spirit Airlines (OTC: SAVEQ) turned down a new merger offer, writing to Spirit executive that their acquisition deal would benefit Spirit more than its current bankruptcy plans. The new plan offered Spirit's debtors $400 million and a 19% stake in Frontier and proposed provision Spirit's creditors $350 million in new funding. "We continue to believe that under the current standalone plan, Spirit will emerge highly levered, losing monet at the operating level, and this would not be a transaction we would pursue," Frontier Chair Bill Franke and CEO Barry Biffle wrote in an email to Spirit Chair Mac Gardner and CEO Ted Christie, shared in a securities filing. In turn, Gardner and Christie told respond to Frontier with a new rejection, calling the terms of the deal "risky and costly, with no certainty as to either timing or outcome" according to the filing.
Waymo to Test Robotaxi Service on LA Freeways Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Waymo announce Tuesday it will begin testing its robotaxis on the Los Angeles freeway system, including the major highways 10, 110, 405, and 90. Waymo said this new test will follow its same testing-to-commercial service plan it conducted in previous service expansions, first allowing employees to use driverless vehicles and then opening it to the public. The company has mapped many neighborhoods in Los Angeles since 2019, including downtown, Koreatown, Santa Monica, Westwood, Miracle Mile and West Hollywood. Waymo received approval from the California Public Utilities Commission in March 2024 to operate a commercial robotaxi service in LA as well as expand its Bay Area operations to include the San Francisco Peninsula and freeways.
Stargate to Use Solar, Batteries From SoftBank's SB Energy to Power AI Infrastructure President Donald Trump's $100 billion artificial intelligence venture Stargate will be reportedly powered in-part by solar energy and batteries built by SB Energy, Bloomberg News reports. The project, in partnership with OpenAI, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and SoftBank (OTC: SFTBY) is designed to develop large-scale data centers across the United States, and that amount of computing power necessitates a lot of energy. The U.S. Department of Energy estimated last month data centers could use as much as 12% of all power produced by the U.S. by 2028, a jump from about 4% in 2023. "The United States has seen an incredible investment in artificial intelligence and other breakthrough technologies over the last decade and a half, and this industrial renaissance has created greater demand on our domestic energy supply," said U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a statement. "We can meet this growth with clean energy."
Meta Platforms Offers TikTok Creators 'up to' $5,000 in Bonuses to Post Reels Content Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is offering eligible TikTok creators "up to" $5,000 in bonuses over three months for posting Reels on Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant announced Tuesday, in a bid to attract more short-form video content creators to its platforms. Eligible creators will also get access to the Facebook Content Monetization program, which allows creators to generate revenue from their posts on Facebook, Meta said. The company will also offer some TikTok creators content deals and a one-year trial of Meta Verified, which increased a verified badge, alongside additional account support and impersonation protection. TikTok was banned in the United States for about 12 hours over the weekend, with President Donald Trump signing an executive order on Monday to delay the app's ban deadline by 75 days. The app is still no longer available on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) app stores.
FAA Grounds SpaceX Starship, Calls for 'Mishap Investigation' into Blue Origin, Starship FailuresThe U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded SpaceX's Starship rocket on Friday until the company and regulator complete a "mishap investigation" into the mid-flight failure of its test flight on Thursday. SpaceX's Starship rocket exploded and led to debris falling "outside of the identified closed aircraft hazard areas," the FAA said, causing the regulator to divert and delay multiple commercial airline flights from operators including American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL), JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU) and Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL). Separately, the FAA said Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin must also complete a similar investigation into what caused its New Glenn rocket to explode during its attempted landing after successfully making it into orbit on Thursday.
Electric Vehicle Sales 20% of Total U.S. Auto Sales First Time in 2024Sales of electric and hybrid vehicles represented 20% of new car and truck sales in the United States for the first time in 2024, data from industry research firm Motor Intelligence showed Thursday. The report showed that more than 3.2 million "electrified" vehicles sold last year, breaking down to 1.9 million hybrid vehicles and 1.3 million all-electric cars. Moreover, while traditional internal combustion engines still dominated sales, the total percentage sold ticked lower to 79.8% in 2024, falling below 80% for the first time in modern automotive history, according to the report. The top five EV sellers were as follows: Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), Hyundai Motor (OTC: HYMTF), General Motors (NYSE: GM), Ford (NYSE: F) and BMW (OTC: BMWKY).
Duolingo Sees 200% New Mandarin Learning Growth as RedNote Downloads Surge Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL) has seen roughly 216% growth in new Mandarin learning in the United States compared to this time last year, as TikTok users increase adoption of a Chinese social app called RedNote (also known as Xiaohongshu) ahead of the U.S. TikTok ban set to go into effect on January 19. RedNote is designed for a Chinese audience, with its default language being Mandarin Chinese. "Oh so NOW you're learning mandarin," the language learning company joked in an X post on Tuesday. RedNote has risen to the top U.S. download rankings of free apps this week, rising 200% year-over-year and 194% from the week prior, according to estimates from app data research firm Sensor Tower. The second most-popular free app on Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) App Store list as of Tuesday was Lemon8, another social media app owned by ByteDance.
Intel to Spin Off Intel Capital into Standalone FundIntel (NASDAQ: INTC) announced plans Tuesday to spin off its corporate venture arm, Intel Capital, into its own standalone fund. Intel Capital, founded in 1991, has over $5 billion in assets under management and has invested in over 1,800 companies across the technology industry. "The separation of Intel Capital is a win-win scenario as it provides the fund with access to new sources of capital to expand its franchise while allowing both companies to continue benefitting from a productive long-term strategic partnership," said David Zisner, co-chief executive officer and chief financial officer, in a statement. "This step supports our broader strategy to maximize the value of our assets while driving greater focus and efficiency across the business."
SEC Charges Robinhood with Securities Violations, Reaches $45 Million Settlement The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday announced two Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) broker-dealers (Robinhood Securities LLC and Robinhood Financial LLC) agreed to pay $45 million in combined penalties to settle charges that they violated more than 10 separate securities laws related to their operations. The charges included failures to report suspicious trading in a timely manner, to implement adequate identity theft protections, and to
adequately address unauthorized access to Robinhood computer systems, the SEC said."Today's order finds that two Robinhood firms failed to observe a broad array of significant regulatory requirements, including failing to accurately report trading activity, comply with short sale rules, submit timely suspicious activity reports, maintain books and records, and safeguard customer information," said Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, in a statement.
Delta Air Lines, Uber Partner on SkyMiles Loyalty ProgramDelta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and Uber (NYSE: UBER) announced the airline's SkyMiles loyalty program will include the ride-hailing app this spring, as Delta ends its eight-year partnership with Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT). SkyMiles members can earn one mile per dollar spent on UberX airport rides, two miles for every dollar spent on "premium rides" like Uber Comfort and Uber Black, and three miles per dollar on Uber Reserve trips with linked accounts, Uber side in a release. "With a record number of travelers taking to the skies, we're focused on helping to make your airport travel journey as efficient, affordable, and effortless as possible," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a release. Moreover, members will earn one mile for every dollar spent on orders over $40 through the Uber Eats food-delivery app.
AWS to Invest $11 Billion to Expand Cloud Infrastructure in GeorgiaAmazon Web Services (AWS) (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced Tuesday plans to invest "at least" $11 billion in Georgia to expand its infrastructure to support advanced cloud computing and artificial intelligence technologies. The company estimates that the funding will create more than 500 jobs in the southeastern state.
"AWS is proud to expand our operations in Georgia to help drive the next generation of cutting-edge technologies such as AI," the company said. "We're grateful for the state and local leaders who have partnered with us, and we look forward to keeping Georgia at the leading edge of the digital age." The new investment follows a similar plan to create data centers in Indiana.
Microsoft Plans to Spend $80 Billion on AI Data Centers in Fiscal 2025Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) plans to spend $80 billion in fiscal 2025 on artificial intelligence-supporting data centers, the company wrote in a Friday blog post, with more than half of the projected spending through June 2025 focus on projects in the United States. “Today, the United States leads the global AI race thanks to the investment of private capital and innovations by American companies of all sizes, from dynamic start-ups to well-established enterprises,” Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, wrote in the blog post. “At Microsoft, we’ve seen this firsthand through our partnership with OpenAI, from rising firms such as Anthropic and xAI, and our own AI-enabled software platforms and applications.”
Meta Replaces President of Global Affairs with Former Republican Staffer Joel KaplanMeta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is replacing President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg with the company's current Policy Vice President Joel Kaplan, the social media giant announced Thursday a few weeks ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration. "As a new year begins, I have come to the view that this is the right time for me to move on from my role ...," Clegg said in a post on X. "My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between 'big tech' and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector." Kaplan was Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House under former President George W. Bush and attended Trump's recent appearance at the New York Stock Exchange in December.
