Zuck and Trump break bread:Mark Zuckerberg joined President-elect Trump for dinner at Mar-a-Lago despite their rocky history. After banning Trump from Facebook and Instagram post-January 6, the Meta CEO now seems ready to work with the new administration. A Meta spokesperson described the dinner as an important discussion about the “future of American innovation.”
Chip shots: China has launched an antitrust investigation into Nvidia, accusing it of violating the terms of its $6.9B acquisition of Israel-based Mellanox Technologies, a maker of high-performance networking hardware. Seen as retaliation for recent US chip restrictions, the probe adds pressure to Nvidia. Nvidia used to control over 90% of China’s AI chip market (prior to restrictions) but now faces growing competition from local players like Huawei.
Speaking of Nvidia...: CEO Jensen Huang has been accused of exploiting tax loopholes to reduce his family’s future estate tax bill by roughly $8B. Those legal strategies, detailed in a New York Times report, include trusts and charitable foundations that minimize taxable wealth. One such trust — created in 2012 with $7M worth of Nvidia shares — is now worth $3B, with only a fraction subject to taxes.
TikTok’s last stand: ByteDance and TikTok are fighting a US law that could force the app’s shutdown in the US by January 19 if not divested. In an emergency motion to a US appeals court, they warned of service disruptions for 170M US users and requested a temporary block, emphasizing the likelihood of Supreme Court review. The app’s future could depend on whether the incoming Trump administration follows through on its promise to prevent the ban.
Czar Wars: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took to X to congratulate former PayPal COO David Sacks on his appointment by Trump as “White House AI and Crypto Czar.” In October, Sacks called OpenAI a “piranha for-profit company.” Meanwhile, Elon Musk, who heads up competitor xAI, responded with a laughing emoji.
