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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Which tech mogul will replace Elon Musk as Trump's new tech industry BFF?
Approximately 10 months and several hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions after it started, the alliance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk is officially over. As the two most powerful men on Earth ripped off their shirts and savagely tore into each other Thursday, the citizens of the world looked on, transfixed by the spectacle. But even as the two antagonists flung fireballs at each other on their respective social networks, and as oddsmakers gamed out the potential outcomes, an important question was overlooked: Who will replace Musk as President Trump's new tech BFF? The question might seem premature, perhaps even tangential, with all the drama still unfolding. But given the president's approach to industrial and trade policy, and the stakes that hinge on being in his good graces, or in his dog house, it seems logical that another savvy tech industry billionaire will seek to fill the seat that Musk just vacated. Here's a quick overview of the top contenders and their respective strengths and weaknesses. The 40-year old cofounder and CEO of OpenAI has a lot to gain by claiming the 'First Buddy' title. His company's large language models are pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence, challenging longstanding assumptions and policies around security, ethics, privacy, and labor—all areas where government regulation could come into play. Altman is also seeking to build a massive network of AI data centers, and he stood alongside Trump earlier this year to announce the so-called Stargate project. In fact, according to some media reports, Trump's support of the Stargate project irked Musk, who has a rival AI service. It wasn't long ago that Trump mused in an interview about jailing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck, whose various social networking apps banned Trump after the January 6, 2020 storming of the Capitol, got the message and has been diligently at work since then attempting to befriend Trump. Meta donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration in January and Zuckerberg was front-and-center during the inauguration festivities. On a Meta earnings call in January, Zuck even praised Trump for leading an administration that 'prioritizes American technology winning and that will defend our values and interests abroad.' While Trump hasn't repeated his threats of jailing the Meta CEO, the social networking company is currently awaiting a verdict in the government's antitrust lawsuit seeking to break the company up. Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, is keen to mend fences with Trump, who he once offered to blast into space on one of his rockets. There's no love lost between the two. In his first term, Trump regularly railed about the Bezos-owned Washington Post. This term Bezos wants a reset, having visited Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and contributing to the inauguration. At stake for Bezos is Amazon's sprawling business, which encompasses everything from retail to cloud computing and grocery stores. Another potential motivation for Bezos to take Musk's place: the space race. Bezos' Blue Origin competes directly with Musk's SpaceX, and Amazon's Project Kuiper internet satellite effort is a rival to Musk's Starlink. Once known as the Trump Whisperer for his skill at shielding Apple from Trump's trade policies, Tim Cook's star has not seemed to shine as brightly in the White House during Trump's second term. The president's tariffs have not exempted Apple as they did in the first term, and in May Trump even took a direct shot at Apple, threatening to impose 25% tariffs on its products if the company did not move its iPhone manufacturing out of China and India, and into the U.S. 'I had a little problem with Tim Cook,' Trump said in May, referring to overseas iPhone manufacturing. If Cook (or 'Tim Apple' as Trump once referred to him) can successfully step into the breach left by Musk, it would be a master move. This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
No ‘Gray' Area in New York Times' AI Deal with Amazon
Spoiler alert: The answer to today's Wordle is B-E-Z-O-S. In a first-of-its-kind deal for the historic paper of record, The New York Times last week inked a deal to license its vast editorial library for use in Amazon's various AI platforms. The agreement comes as the Gray Lady sues OpenAI and Microsoft for alleged copyright infringement, one of the major legal battles in the AI-spawned era of copyright war. READ ALSO: Luxury Brands Sweat Consumer Discounting After Price Hikes and Can US Tourism Bounce Back Amid Trade War? Under the licensing deal (financial terms still undisclosed), Jeff Bezos' e-commerce/cloud computing/digital media giant can showcase NYT news articles, recipes, and other material across its consumer-facing AI programs — Alexa will now tell you all about Alison Roman's chickpea coconut stew. It's a first for the NYT but hardly for the rest of the industry. Condé Nast, The Atlantic, Axel Springer, the Associated Press, and the Bezos-owned Washington Post have all struck similar licensing agreements with OpenAI. In a situation similar to the NYT's, with one of the same players, News Corp is concurrently suing Perplexity AI over copyright-infringement claims and licensing its content to OpenAI. Translation: If you want your chatbots to train on and feature these companies' content, pay up. But just how much is news content worth to the AI industry? Depends on whom you ask: According to The Information, OpenAI offers publishers as little as $1 million to $5 million annually to license their content. In late 2023, the NYT reported that Apple was offering $50 million multiyear deals to license news content for AI model training. That's small potatoes compared with the 'billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages' the NYT is claiming in its suit against OpenAI. In that case, the NYT is essentially claiming that OpenAI and Microsoft unlawfully used copyrighted material to train its chatbots, which sometimes appeared to respond with content copy-pasted right from the NYT, siphoning away valuable clicks and subscriptions from the NYT itself while helping OpenAI grow into one of the most valuable private companies in the world. Fair Use It or Lose It: AI firms tend to argue that their models are trained on publicly available data — 'fair use' under copyright law. Whether the law agrees or not is still being sorted out, though it seems clear the AI industry sees its existence hinging on courts agreeing with its interpretation. In the UK, a coterie of high-profile performing artists, including Elton John, Dua Lipa, and Ian McKellan, are pushing for a law that would require artists to opt-in to their works being used to train AI models. Last week, former Deputy Prime Minister and ex-Meta executive Nick Clegg told British outlet The Times that passing such a law in the UK, while other countries do not, 'would basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight.' This post first appeared on The Daily Upside. To receive delivering razor sharp analysis and perspective on all things finance, economics, and markets, subscribe to our free The Daily Upside newsletter.
Time of India
07-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Elon Musk's Starlink on track for India entry after clearing DoT licence hurdle
Play Video Play Skip Backward Skip Forward Mute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Live Events Starlink has become the latest to get a letter of intent (LoI) from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for a satcom license, marking a significant step in the Elon Musk-owned company's bid to offer satellite broadband services in the world's second largest telecom letter of Intent (LoI) for grant of Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) permit came after the US major agreed to comply with the latest security conditions issued on Monday, an official familiar with the matter didn't respond to ET's queries as of press US major now needs to get the approval from space regulator Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe). The company had already provided all the details needed to get this clearance, ET had reported in its February 21 both the regulatory approvals are in, the company would likely be allocated test spectrum, for demonstrating services, officials familiar with the matter launching commercial services, the company has to wait along with Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio-SES - who have already got all clearances - for allocation of satellite spectrum from DoT. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is likely to give recommendations on pricing for administrative allocation of satellite spectrum shortly, a second official said, asking not to be Bezos-owned Amazon Kuiper and Apple's satcom partner Globalstar are also among the global players keen to offer broadband from space services in India, a nascent market with huge growth potential, say acceptance of all required security conditions unveiled Monday came after the government, while adding a few new conditions, decided not to include a couple of proposed rules, which were discussed during consultations and which Starlink refused to accept, people aware of the details told consultations on the proposed new rules, Starlink was reluctant to commit to two requirements-one relating to special monitoring zones and the second concerning the shareholding pattern of a satcom firm. These were eventually kept out from the final set of additional security rules issued on Monday, easing the process of obtaining a GMPCS licence, the people said. ET had reported in its February 21 edition that Starlink was non-committal on the clause requiring special monitoring zones, which included 10 km across the international border and 50 km within the international company had told the government that it could not provide monitoring for terminals or users located outside the sovereign territory of India, said one of the persons cited DoT removed the 10 km requirement for monitoring across the international border, in the final set of conditions, while retaining the 50 km within the international border. "While the condition was proposed by law enforcement agencies, the DoT felt it can't be included as it goes against the Telegraph Act," a second person said. Starlink had also refused to agree to a proposal of a GMPCS holder having majority Indian shareholding. The clause related to shareholding pattern has been kept out of the security guidelines as DoT felt that it should be regulated as per the current foreign direct investment (FDI) policy, the person said. Rules permit 100% FDI in telecom, subject to land, border, country conditions, which Starlink had already agreed to comply Starlink is likely to become the first satcom firm in India to offer both fixed and mobility services, as a new element has been added to the rules, specifying conditions for mobility of user satcom permit holders Bharti Group-backed OneWeb Eutelsat and Jio-SES have government nod to offer services via fixed terminals only. Approval for offering mobility services was given under the 2022 satellite reforms, with the security conditions subsequently announced for offering such will likely offer mobility services along with the GMPCS licence while Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio-SES will have to seek the permission separately, a second person per the new security conditions, user terminals having mobility facilities would need to report their location every 2.6 km moved or 1-minute duration, whichever is less. These conditions have been incorporated for the first time. Earlier, only fixed service was allowed, and fixed user terminals were locked with the the norms, DoT has put out additional 29 security conditions which include blocking of websites, collection of metadata, having a local data centre, ensuring provisioning for NavIC-based positioning system, and committing to localising manufacturing in a phased manner.
The Guardian
30-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
UPS cites Trump tariffs as it announces expected layoffs of 20,000 workers
The United Parcel Service (UPS) is expected to cut about 20,000 jobs in 2025 as a part of a larger plan to reduce costs and increase profit, citing 'changes in the global trade policy and new or increased tariffs'. UPS announced the layoffs on Tuesday in its first quarter earnings report. The parcel delivery service said it made consolidated revenues of $21.5bn, compared to $21.7bn about the same time a year ago. Additionally, the company said it would be shuttering 73 leased and owned buildings by the end of June of this year. 'The actions we are taking to reconfigure our network and reduce cost across our business could not be timelier,' Carol Tomé, UPS chief executive officer said in a statement. 'The macro environment may be uncertain, but with our actions, we will emerge as an even stronger, more nimble UPS.' The service currently has roughly 490,000 employees, about 330,000 of whom are members of the Teamsters union. Last year, UPS said it cut its workforce by 12,000 jobs. In Tuesday's report, the company said it planned to make these latest reductions to its 'operational workforce', or those who are directly involved in package sorting, transport and delivery. The job cuts come as Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs are discouraging some UPS customers from shipping as many goods, and Americans are anticipating continuous impact on US and global trade. The company cited 'current macro-economic uncertainty' as preventing it from providing any updates to its previously issued forecasts for revenue and full-year outlook. The report also said UPS planned to expand on its consolidations of facilities and workforce as well as implement an 'end-to-end process redesign' resulting from anticipated 'lower volumes' from the company's largest customer, Amazon. The Bezos-owned retail giant accounted for 11.8% of overall revenue for UPS in 2024, according to CNBC. The Teamsters union responded to the latest earnings report by reminding UPS that it was contractually obligated to create 30,000 Teamsters jobs under the current agreement. 'If UPS wants to continue to downsize corporate management, the Teamsters won't stand in its way,' the Teamsters general president, Sean O'Brien, said in a statement. 'But if the company intends to violate our contract or makes any attempt to go after hard-fought, good-paying Teamsters jobs, UPS will be in for a hell of a fight.'
Forbes
29-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Trump Applauds Bezos After Amazon Refutes Claim It Planned To Display Tariff Costs
The White House took aim at Amazon on Tuesday after the e-commerce giant reportedly prepared to directly display to consumers the price increases associated with President Donald Trump's tariffs—with Trump calling Amazon founder Jeff Bezos personally to complain—but the retailer denied it considered implementing such a wide-sweeping effort. Citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the plan, Punchbowl News reported Amazon, which relies on China for just more than 50% of its third-party sellers, intends to show how much of a good's cost on the site comes from tariffs. In a Tuesday briefing with reporters, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed this as a 'hostile and political act by Amazon,' saying she discussed the matter with Trump. Trump called Bezos on Tuesday morning to complain about the reports, two senior officials in the White House told CNN, adding the president was 'pissed.' Trump confirmed Tuesday afternoon he talked to 'good guy' Bezos, who 'did the right thing' and 'solved the problem very quickly,' according to the president. Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle told the Bezos-owned Washington Post there was 'never a consideration for the main Amazon site' to display the levy-related fees to consumers, but wrote in a statement to Forbes the company 'considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products' on its ultra-discount Haul platform. The Haul tariff price listing was 'never approved and not going to happen,' added Doyle. Amazon stock declined more than 2% on Tuesday morning following Leavitt's jab at the retailer, recovering to a flat daily move as tensions smoothed over. 'Why didn't Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?,' Leavitt questioned Tuesday. It's not exactly a one-for-one comparison considering tariffs directly equate to higher import costs, while inflation under President Joe Biden was a confluence of several factors with uneven effects on different classes of goods. Leavitt declined to comment on the 'president's relationship with Jeff Bezos,' the Amazon chairman who dined with Trump at the latter's Mar-a-Lago resort in December. Bezos was present at Trump's inauguration, to which Amazon donated $1 million. Forbes estimates Bezos is the second-richest person in the world with a roughly $200 billion net worth, trailing only Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the self-described 'first buddy' of Trump. Amazon will report earnings for 2025's first quarter Thursday afternoon. The company brought in $638 billion in revenue last year, trailing only Walmart as the highest company by sales in the world. One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space. In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's Terms of Service. We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil. Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain: User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in: So, how can you be a power user? Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's Terms of Service.
