The AI Drama Riveting Silicon Valley

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AI startup drama

Trump’s debanking lawsuit

⭐ Editor’s Pick: The U.S. economy expanded at a revised 4.4% annualized pace in the third quarter of 2025, the fastest growth in two years. (MW)

The EU is likely to resume the ratification of its trade deal with the U.S. (RTS)

U.S. consumer spending rose solidly by 0.5% in both October and November 2025. (INV)

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate held at 6.09% this week, the lowest level in nearly three years. (UT)

Trump rejected a plan to open 401(k) plans for buying homes. (RTS)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Morningstar identified five key mistakes for investors to sidestep in 2026. (MS)

Raymond James highlights its top picks, including West Fraser Timber and Pembina Pipeline. (BNN)

BJ’s Wholesale Club is a bargain-priced alternative to Costco and Walmart, according to Barron's. (BAR)

The Motley Fool recommended Interactive Brokers as part of its top four stocks to buy in early 2026. (MF)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: TikTok finalized a deal to establish a U.S. entity, sidestepping a ban. (BBG)

Capital One agreed to acquire fintech company Brex for $5.15 billion. (WSJ)

Apple put John Ternus in charge of hardware and software design teams, solidifying him as the top internal candidate to succeed CEO Tim Cook. (AR)

Intel beat Q4 2025 expectations, but shares sank as much as 13% on weak Q1 guidance. (CNBC)

What Americans should stock up on to prepare for this weekend's massive winter storm. (FOX)

McDonald’s betting big on protein to bring in customers. (FBN)

Winner comes forward after $1.8 billion Powerball Christmas Eve draw. (SN)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: The Trump administration will restructure or eliminate nearly $84 billion in clean-energy loans approved under Biden. (YF)

The Trump administration will allow China to buy Venezuelan oil, but only at fair market prices, ending the discounted rates granted under Maduro. (EN)

China plans to launch domestic yuan-denominated LNG futures contracts as early as next month. (RTS)

Spot gold rose to a record high of $4,967.48/oz. (INV)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: The American Bankers Association elevated prohibiting yields on stablecoins to its top policy priority for 2026. (CT)

The Senate Agriculture Committee released its version of the crypto market structure legislation. (TB)

Hardware wallet maker Ledger is exploring a U.S. IPO that could value the company above $4 billion. (CN)

Coinbase launched an advisory board to safeguard against potential future quantum computing threats. (BM)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google are testing AI models by having them play Pokémon Blue. (WSJ)

Cursor deployed hundreds of autonomous agents to build a web browser from scratch in under a week, generating over 1 million lines of code across thousands of files. (DC)

Google is rolling out "Personal Intelligence" to its AI Mode in Search, allowing the feature to access users' Gmail and Google Photos for more tailored responses. (TC)

Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch called claims that Chinese AI startups lag behind the U.S. a "fairy tale." (BBG)

Researchers developed an AI model that predicts the risk of cancer metastasis. (TN)

Spotify rolled out Prompted Playlist, an AI-driven feature that lets users generate personalized playlists by describing desired moods. (CNET)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Robots paraded through the streets of Davos during the World Economic Forum. (EUN)

Tesla launched fully unsupervised Robotaxi rides in Austin, Texas. (TC)

Waymo launched its paid robotaxi service in Miami. (CNBC)

Elon Musk said Tesla will likely begin selling its Optimus humanoid robots to the public by the end of 2027. (X)

Microsoft unveiled Rho-alpha, its first robotics model built on the Phi series of vision-language models. (MS)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: China is developing quantum-based tools to accelerate battlefield intelligence. (NGD)

UAE-based Trident Subsea System unveiled ORB, a remotely operated underwater vehicle capable of operating at depths up to 1,000 feet in zero-visibility conditions. (DP)

U.S. Army expects to complete fielding of Dark Eagle hypersonic missile in early 2026. (DS)

Watch Blue Origin launch 6 people to suborbital space today. (SP)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Fei-Fei Li’s AI startup World Labs is in talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars at a valuation of about $5 billion. (BBG)

AI startup Inferact raised $150 million in seed funding at an $800 million valuation, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners (TC)

Railway, the cloud platform for deploying software, raised $100 million in Series B funding led by TQ Ventures. (AX)

LiveKit, the startup powering real-time voice infrastructure, raised $100 million in a Series C round, led by Index Ventures, at a $1 billion valuation. (PYM)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: The Trump administration will block foreign aid from those promoting abortion, DEI and gender identity. (FOX)

The FTC extended its investigation into ad boycotts against conservative websites. (BBG)

A University of Utah student was arrested after allegedly making rifle gestures and shouting “I’m going to Kirk you,” at conservative activists. (CF)