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 Plan

Chevron (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 Rebrand

MicroStrategy (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 Offer

Frontier 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.

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