More from Trump’s first 100 days: all the news affecting the tech industry
The President signed an executive order today to create the fund “within the next year,” and told reporters that the US could use it to purchase TikTok, according to Reuters.
Trump has previously suggested the US could own 50 percent of the app in a “joint venture.”
Despite no public announcement yet on the expected tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and maybe China, Canadian officials tell reporters they’ve been notified President Donald Trump is imposing a 25 percent tariff on most goods and a 10 percent tariff on energy products (i.e. oil). Tariffs were supposed to go into force today, but they’re now apparently supposed to hit Tuesday, at least in Canada. A response from Canada is expected later today.
Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, didn’t join other AI-heavy tech execs at the presidential inauguration and skipped the announcement of the Stargate Project, but Reuters reported he was scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House on Friday.
The Senate confirmed his nomination today. Zeldin has been tasked by Donald Trump to “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses.” That seems to include removing roadblocks to building energy-hungry AI data centers in the US.
[politico.com]
Sean Duffy, fresh off his confirmation as Donald Trump’s secretary of transportation, signed a memorandum to “start the process of resetting Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which will ultimately lower the price of a car for American consumers and eliminate the electric vehicle mandate,” his office said in a statement. There is no EV mandate, of course, and rolling back federal fuel economy rules will ultimately increase oil consumption and release more carbon dioxide into the environment during a global climate crisis. But at least we’ll get cheap cars! (We won’t.)
Trump Media is launching Truth.Fi as part of its “financial services and financial technology strategy,” but there still aren’t many details about what it will actually do. The company also plans to invest $250 million into customized exchange-traded funds, along with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
This comes just one day after Elon Musk’s X announced that it’s partnering with Visa to launch its X Money service this year.
Ars Technica explains why even as off-the-cuff maybe-trolling, Musk’s recent comments about the ISS crew put a strain on NASA. Here’s the crux:
The “stranded” astronauts on the space station probably could come home as early as next week. But if they were to do so, it would create a lot of headaches for NASA, its international partners, and probably even for Musk’s human spaceflight team at SpaceX.
Google announced yesterday that Maps in the US will show Gulf of America and Mount McKinley, and CNBC today reports that the company’s maps division has added the US to its list of “sensitive” countries. CNBC says that that classification is reserved for “states with strict governments and border disputes” and includes countries like “China, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, among others.”
The buyout offer that just went out to millions of US federal workers has the subject line, “Fork in the Road,” which is the same subject line Musk used when he gave his “extremely hardcore” ultimatum to Twitter employees in 2022. While it’s unclear if he was involved in the creation of this new email, Musk himself seems to at least be in on the reference.
[opm.gov]
The president has called the Chinese AI startup “a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win.” DeepSeek’s models are much cheaper to build than those of leading AI companies and, ever the businessman, Trump sees the appeal: “Instead of spending billions and billions you’ll spend less and you’ll come up with, hopefully, the same solution.”
Asked by reporters if Microsoft is in talks to take over TikTok’s US arm, the president was succinct: “I would say yes.” The company is reported to be among several investors, including Oracle, working on a joint bid. Microsoft previously tried to buy the social site back in 2020, which CEO Satya Nadella called the “strangest thing I’ve ever worked on.”
[Bloomberg.com]
Tim Cook complained about the EU’s data privacy and competition laws, Zuck followed suit, and they all feted the man with flattery and millions before bowing to kiss the ring.
Here is their reward:
Law professor Kate Klonick explains what Big Tech’s Trump appeasement is really about.
As The Verge’s policy editor, I know how exhausting the Trump administration news firehose can be. There’s truly need-to-know stuff like the future of the Paris climate agreement and the TikTok ban. But we’re now collecting some updates in a stream whose posts won’t all appear on the front page, so readers get a break from the full weight of Trump’s random off-the-cuff proposals and his regulators’ antics. That said, we’re entering a new era in tech policy, so I hope you’ll periodically check it out!
He’s reinstated three complaints against broadcasters that former chair Jessica Rosenworcel dismissed as attempts to influence news coverage:
Rosenworcel said the commission was rejecting complaints that “seek to weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment”. Then, on Wednesday, the FCC said in a series of orders the complaints had been dismissed “prematurely based on an insufficient investigatory record”.
A fourth complaint, against a Fox station, has not been reinstated.