Trump Nears His Best Trade Deal Yet

U.S.-Taiwan trade deal

Google to power Apple’s Siri

UK probes Musk’s X

U.S. tariffs on Taiwanese imports would drop to 15% from 20%, matching rates secured by Japan and South Korea in earlier agreements.

In exchange, TSMC would commit to building five additional semiconductor fabs in Arizona, on top of six fabs and two advanced packaging facilities already planned.

The new plants would likely push TSMC’s total U.S. investment to $250 billion or more, with each fab costing upward of $20 billion.

The deal would deepen America’s domestic supply of advanced chips critical for AI and national security, reducing reliance on Taiwan amid rising threats from China.

Trump would gain a marquee investment pledge from the world’s most important chipmaker, reinforcing his push to tie trade access to onshore manufacturing.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Trump imposed a 25% tariff on imports from any country doing business with Iran, escalating pressure on Tehran amid deadly protest crackdown. (INV)

ICE deportations are driving down rents for Americans by curbing migrant housing demand, with home prices declining in 14 of 20 top metros amid enforcement push. (BN)

The Trump administration canceled Biden-era rules forcing banks to ignore immigration status for loan applications. (RTS)

Global central bankers, led by ECB's Christine Lagarde and Bank of England's Andrew Bailey, defended Jerome Powell's integrity amid a DOJ criminal probe. (CNBC)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: AbbVie inked a deal with Trump administration for lower Medicaid drug prices and TrumpRx access, securing tariff exemptions in return for $100 billion U.S. investment pledge. (SA)

Meta appointed Goldman Sachs and Trump White House alum Dina Powell McCormick as its president and vice chairman. (CNBC)

Mattel introduced its first autistic Barbie, crafted with autism advocates to depict sensory and communication traits. (AP)

Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) introduced the Stop Insider Trading Act to bar members of Congress from buying individual stocks and mandate pre-sale disclosures. (FBN)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: The White House is working with tech firms to shield households from higher utility bills tied to AI data-center power use, with Microsoft promising major changes this week. (BBG)

Bessent met with G7 allies and partners including Australia, India, South Korea, and Mexico to accelerate efforts to diversify critical minerals supply chains away from China. (RTS)

Trump said he could bar Exxon Mobil from Venezuela's oil sector after CEO Darren Woods called the country "uninvestable" without major reforms. (CNBC)

Citi lifted its near-term (0–3 months) price targets for gold to $5,000 per ounce and silver to $100 per ounce. (INV)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: The Senate Banking Committee released a bipartisan draft bill prohibiting passive interest or yields on idle stablecoin holdings while permitting activity-based rewards for transactions. (TB)

CFTC Chair Michael Selig launched the Innovation Advisory Committee to guide regulation of blockchain, AI, and other fintech advances. (CFTC)

Standard Chartered will launch a crypto prime brokerage to offer institutional trading and financing. (BBG)

Michael Saylor's Strategy acquired another 13,627 Bitcoin for $1.25 billion at an average price of $91,519, lifting total holdings to 687,410 BTC valued at roughly $62.3 billion. (BM)

Former Mayor Eric Adams unveiled the NYC Token memecoin to combat antisemitism, only for it to crash 80% shortly after launch amid rug-pull accusations. (TB)

Apple will rely on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology as the foundation for its future Apple Foundation Models, while still running them on Apple devices and its private cloud.

The multiyear deal follows months of talks, with earlier reports suggesting Apple could pay Google about $1 billion annually for AI capabilities.

The partnership deepens an already lucrative relationship, as Google pays Apple billions each year to remain the default search engine on iPhones.

Apple has lagged rivals like Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon in the AI race and has delayed its Siri overhaul, increasing pressure to deliver meaningful AI upgrades.

Apple said its existing integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT will remain unchanged for now, though the long-term balance between Google and OpenAI remains unclear.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Meta launched "Meta Compute" to aggressively scale its AI infrastructure, with plans to build tens of gigawatts of capacity this decade and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time. (AX)

Microsoft warned that China is surging ahead in the global AI contest beyond Western markets, as DeepSeek gains traction in developing regions. (FT)

OpenAI struck a $100 million equity deal to acquire Torch, a health-records unification startup, to power and expand its new ChatGPT Health service. (TI)

Anthropic rolled out Cowork for Claude, enabling autonomous file-based tasks in designated folders as a more accessible take on Claude Code (ZDNT)

The House passed the Remote Access Security Act to tighten export controls, limiting China's remote access to U.S. AI tech in overseas data centers. (USHR)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Hegseth announced a push to make the U.S. the leader in AI, drones, autonomous systems, and space tech, vowing to slash red tape, empower startups, and accelerate innovation. (FBN)

NASA selected seven firms to fast-track key tech for Habitable Worlds Observatory “Super Hubble,” to detect alien worlds. (NASA)

Startup GRU Space is now accepting $1 million deposits to reserve spots in its planned first lunar hotel. (SP)

Japan integrated Ghost Robotics robot dogs into landmark Airborne Brigade assault drills for frontline reconnaissance. (DP)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Former Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg closed an oversubscribed $100 million Fund III for Rosberg Ventures, pushing the firm's assets under management past $200 million. (MS)

Converge Bio, an AI-driven drug discovery startup, raised $25 million in an oversubscribed Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners. (TC)

Cloudforce, an AI infrastructure firm and Microsoft's 2025 Education Partner of the Year, closed a $10 million Series A round led by Owl Ventures. (WBJ)

State Department Under Secretary Sarah B. Rogers said “nothing is off the table” if Britain follows through on banning X, signaling possible diplomatic or economic retaliation.

Rogers accused the UK government of trying to “curate the public square” and suppress political views it dislikes.

Rogers pointed to past U.S. sanctions on European officials over censorship efforts as evidence Washington is willing to act.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said she is drafting legislation to sanction the UK if X is blocked.

UK regulator Ofcom is investigating whether X violated the Online Safety Act by allowing Grok AI to generate non-consensual sexualized images, including possible child abuse material.

UK officials claim the probe is about protecting women and children, not limiting speech, and say they will back Ofcom up to and including a nationwide ban.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Investigator David Hoch teased that a forthcoming video by activist Nick Shirley will expose Minnesota non-emergency medical transportation fraud "ten times worse" than the state's prior daycare scandals. (PJM)

Iran's regime deployed military-grade jamming systems to cripple Starlink access, enforcing a near-total digital blackout amid escalating protests. (IW)

Max Kaiser, executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, argued that confronting rising antisemitism requires open inquiry, rather than stifling free speech. (SMH)