NEW YORK (AP) — In a string of visits, dinners, calls, monetary pledges and social media overtures, big tech chiefs — including Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — have joined a parade of business and world leaders in trying to improve their standing with President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office in January. “The first term, everybody was fighting me,” Trump said in remarks at Mar-a-Lago . “In this term, everybody wants to be my friend.” Tech companies and leaders have now poured millions into his inauguration fund, a sharp increase — in most cases — from past pledges to incoming presidents. But what does the tech industry expect to gain out of their renewed relationships with Trump? A clue to what the industry is looking for came just days before the election when Microsoft executives — who’ve largely tried to show a neutral or bipartisan stance — joined with a close Trump ally, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, to publish a blog post outlining their approach to artificial intelligence policy. “Regulation should be implemented only if its benefits outweigh its costs,” said the document signed by Andreessen, his business partner Ben Horowitz, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the company’s president, Brad Smith. They also urged the government to back off on any attempt to strengthen copyright laws that would make it harder for companies to use publicly available data to train their AI systems. And they said, “the government should examine its procurement practices to enable more startups to sell technology to the government.” Trump has pledged to rescind President Joe Biden’s sweeping AI executive order, which sought to protect people’s rights and safety without stifling innovation. He hasn’t specified what he would do in its place, but his campaign said AI development should be “rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.” Trump’s choice to head the Interior Department, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, has spoken openly about the need to boost electricity production to meet increased demand from data centers and artificial intelligence. “The AI battle affects everything from defense to healthcare to education to productivity as a country,′′ Burgum said on Nov. 15, referring to artificial intelligence. “And the AI that’s coming in the next 18 months is going to be revolutionary. So there’s just a sense of urgency and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration′′ to address it. Demand for data centers ballooned in recent years due to the rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and local governments are competing for lucrative deals with big tech companies. But as data centers begin to consume more resources, some residents are pushing back against the world’s most powerful corporations over concerns about the economic, social and environmental health of their communities. “Maybe Big Tech should buy a copy of ‘The Art of The Deal’ to figure out how to best negotiate with this administration,” suggested Paul Swanson, an antitrust attorney for the law firm Holland & Hart. “I won’t be surprised if they find ways to reach some accommodations and we end up seeing more negotiated resolutions and consent decrees.” Although federal regulators began cracking down on Google and Facebook during Trump’s first term as president — and flourished under Biden — most experts expect his second administration to ease up on antitrust enforcement and be more receptive to business mergers. Google may benefit from Trump’s return after he made comments on the campaign trail suggesting a breakup of the company isn’t in the U.S. national interest, after a judge declared its search engine an illegal monopoly . But recent nominations put forward by his transition team have favored those who have been critical of Big Tech companies, suggesting Google won’t be entirely off the hook. Cook’s notoriously rocky relationship with the EU can be traced back to a 2016 ruling from Brussels in a tax case targeting Apple. Cook slammed the bloc’s order for Apple to pay back up to $13.7 billion in Irish back taxes as “total political crap.” Trump, then in his first term as president, piled on, referring to the European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who was spearheading a campaign on special tax deals and a crackdown on Big Tech companies, as the “tax lady” who “really hates the U.S.” Brussels was eventually vindicated after the bloc’s top court rejected Apple’s appeal this year, though it didn’t stop Cook from calling Trump to complain, Trump recounted in a podcast in October. Trump hosted Cook for a Friday evening dinner at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly. Neither Apple nor the Trump transition team has commented on the nature of their discussions. Altman , Amazon and Meta all pledged to donate $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund. During his first term, Trump criticized Amazon and railed against the political coverage at The Washington Post, which billionaire Bezos owns. Meanwhile, Bezos had criticized some of Trump’s past rhetoric. In 2019, Amazon also argued in a court case that Trump’s bias against the company harmed its chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract. More recently, Bezos has struck a more conciliatory tone. He recently said at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York that he was “optimistic” about Trump’s second term, while also endorsing president-elect’s plans to cut regulations. The donation from Meta came just weeks after Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago. During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president, but voiced a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump’s response to his first assassination attempt. Still, Trump in recent months had continued to attack Zuckerberg publicly. And Altman, who is in a legal dispute with AI rival Elon Musk, has said he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence in the incoming administration. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging that the maker of ChatGPT betrayed its founding aims of benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits.

London, Dec. 20, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pixalate , the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and mobile advertising, today released the November 2024 United Kingdom Publisher Trust Index (PTI) for apps across the web, Apple App Store and the Google Play Store , and CTV apps across the Roku , Amazon Fire TV , Samsung Smart TV , and Apple TV app stores, bringing unprecedented transparency to the open programmatic advertising ecosystem. Pixalate uses its proprietary algorithms to measure quality metrics, including invalid traffic (IVT or ad fraud), Made For Advertising (MFA) risk, brand safety, ad density, viewability, reach, and more. The Publisher Trust Indexes spans rankings for 235+ countries across all four global regions: North America, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM, and provides breakdowns by 20+ different IAB taxonomy website categories. Pixalate’s methodology can be found at Publisher Trust Index: Methodology UK Website PTI Rankings (November 2024) spotify.com telegraph.co.uk sky.com Download the full rankings here . UK Mobile PTI Rankings (November 2024) Apple App Store OneFootball Words With Friends Wordscapes Download the full rankings here . Google Play Store Daily Mail: Breaking News Pixel Art - Color By Numbers Met Office Weather Forecast Download the full rankings here . UK Connected TV PTI Rankings (November 2024) Amazon Fire TV Pluto TV GB News TalkTV Download the full rankings here . Apple TV NBC Sports Pluto TV NFL Download the full rankings here . Samsung Smart TV SAMSUNG TV tvplus Sling TV Download the full rankings here . Pixalate’s data science team analyzed over 30 billion global open programmatic ad impressions across 12.5 million websites, Google Play Store and Apple App Store mobile apps, and connected TV (CTV) apps across Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, and Apple TV app stores in November 2024 to compile the global Publisher Trust Indexes. Download the Report UK Publisher Trust Index About Pixalate Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012, Pixalate is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is accredited by the MRC for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT). pixalate.com Disclaimer The Publisher Trust Index (PTI) reflects Pixalate’s opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes November be useful to the digital media industry. Our reports and indexes examine programmatic advertising activity on mobile apps and Connected TV (CTV) apps. Any insights shared are grounded in Pixalate’s proprietary technology and analytics, which Pixalate is continuously evaluating and updating. Any references to outside sources in the Indexes and herein should not be construed as endorsements. Pixalate’s opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees. This report is not intended to impugn the standing or reputation of any person, entity or app. Per the MRC , “'Fraud' is not intended to represent fraud as defined in various laws, statutes and ordinances or as conventionally used in UK Court or other legal proceedings, but rather a custom definition strictly for advertising measurement purposes. Also per the MRC , “‘Invalid Traffic’ is defined generally as traffic that does not meet certain ad serving quality or completeness criteria, or otherwise does not represent legitimate ad traffic that should be included in measurement counts. Among the reasons why ad traffic November be deemed invalid is it is a result of non-human traffic (spiders, bots, etc.), or activity designed to produce fraudulent traffic.” .

Q1: How do you see AI evolving over the next five years? In the next five years, while large language models (LLMs) will continue to evolve, I anticipate a growing focus on computer vision (CV), particularly spatial intelligence. Technologies enabling AI to understand and interact with physical spaces are gaining traction. For instance, Fei-Fei Li’s new startup, World Labs , focuses on integrating spatial AI into the real world, reflecting this trend. This concept is known as “large world models”. Additionally, developing countries like Brazil are seeing AI startups grow, such as Nama , a Brazilian company leveraging AI to improve customer service systems. These regions are accelerating AI adoption due to increased access to affordable cloud computing and government initiatives like Brazil's AI Strategy launched in 2021. Q2: Which industries stand most to benefit from AI? While healthcare, finance, and manufacturing will gain significantly from AI, I also foresee industries like autonomous transportation seeing breakthroughs. Notably, startups outside the US are stepping up. Wayve , a UK-based autonomous vehicle company, recently raised $1 billion to advance its technology, focusing on AI-driven camera-based systems which was first pioneered by Tesla. These innovations show that the field of self-driving cars is no longer dominated solely by US giants like Waymo or Tesla, but includes global players contributing significantly to the ecosystem. Q3: What are some of the challenges that organizations face in the way of AI implementation? One major challenge is the slow adoption of AI in large, bureaucratic organizations. Based on my industry experience, companies with legacy systems often face significantly longer AI implementation timelines compared to agile startups. For example, many European banks still rely on outdated mainframes, making AI implementation a long and costly process. Meanwhile, in developing countries like India and Brazil, a lack of skilled AI professionals remains a hurdle. According to the State of AI Talent Report by Zeki Research (2024), despite its universities training top AI talent and national AI ambitions, India faces significant loss of skilled AI professionals to other countries. This gap underscores the need for international collaboration and localized training programs to speed up adoption. Q4: Generative AI is picking up speed. What is your take on the potential and risks thereof? Generative AI continues to captivate attention, but we must not overlook advancements in mixed and augmented reality and spatial intelligence. Mixed reality has immense potential for reshaping industries. For example, Microsoft HoloLens and Meta’s Quest Pro are blending physical and digital environments for training simulations, remote collaboration, and immersive gaming. Facebook's recent presentation of Orion , its first true augmented reality glasses, underlines the rising focus on AR. Orion merges the latest AI with wearable technology to create immersive experiences, such as frictionless digital overlays in the real world, enabling new ways to interact with our surroundings. As Orion and similar devices continue to evolve, AI will be at the heart of these platforms, making user experiences more personalized and improving accessibility. According to IDC , the mixed reality market shows strong growth projections, with VR headset shipments expected to reach 24.7 million units growing at 29.2% CAGR and AR headsets expanding from under 1 million to 10.9 million units at 87.1% CAGR by 2028.. However, alongside these opportunities, generative AI faces risks, such as the rising prevalence of deepfakes. For instance, in 2024, a finance employee in Hong Kong was deceived into transferring $25 million after participating in a video call with what appeared to be their company's CFO but was actually a deepfake, highlighting the urgent need for safeguards. Q5: How is AI transforming businesses of today? AI is transforming businesses by automating repetitive tasks and optimizing operations. Beyond these applications, technologies like mixed reality and spatial intelligence are revolutionizing customer experiences. For example, IKEA’s AR-powered Place app allows customers to visualize furniture in their homes before purchasing, blending AI and real-world contexts seamlessly. Additionally, in developing nations, companies like d.light , which provides AI-enabled solar energy solutions in Africa, show how AI can drive growth even in resource-constrained environments. AI’s ability to analyze large datasets quickly empowers businesses in fast-moving markets with actionable insights. However, these AI-based updates and augmentations are not meant to undermine and replace humans, but to rather help mankind by optimizing repetitive tasks. Q6: What is the role of regulations in shaping AI's future? Regulations are crucial not only for addressing ethical concerns but also for ensuring global AI adoption. For example, the EU’s AI Act , finalized in 2024, categorizes AI applications by risk level and mandates stricter requirements for high-risk systems, such as facial recognition. This approach is particularly significant for developing countries, where regulatory clarity can attract foreign investment. Brazil’s AI Strategy 2021 (EBIA) also exemplifies how emerging economies are crafting policies to integrate AI responsibly while fostering innovation. However, these regulations might be so strict that these companies would choose not to roll out AI-based systems in restricted markets. Q7: As an expert, what advice would you give to businesses looking to adopt AI? For businesses, my advice is to look beyond the hype of generative AI and explore much more developed areas that help automating processes. Systems for spatial intelligence and mixed reality are also gaining traction and proving to be very helpful. Amazon uses Object detection and tracking in their Amazon fresh stores to drive efficiency and reduce costs and delays in the process. Developing countries have also demonstrated how focusing on accessible AI tools can drive adoption. Additionally, retailers leveraging mixed reality—such as Walmart , which uses VR for employee training—have reported a reduction in training time from 8 hours to 15 minutes, proving the value of these technologies. India’s Aarogya Setu app , which uses AI for COVID-19 contact tracing, highlights how simple yet impactful AI solutions can thrive with minimal infrastructure. Q8: What excites you most about the future of AI? I’m most excited about how AI can bridge gaps between developed and developing countries. For example, FarmBeats, the AI for Agriculture project by Microsoft in India, helps farmers predict weather patterns and optimize crop yields, directly addressing food security challenges. Similarly, combining AI with emerging technologies like quantum computing , as seen in Google’s Sycamore project , could unlock breakthroughs in energy optimization and disease research. These advancements demonstrate AI’s potential to solve global challenges and create a more sustainable and equitable future.

U.S. stocks tiptoed to more records amid a mixed Tuesday of trading, tacking a touch more onto what’s already been a stellar year so far. The S&P 500 edged up by 2 points, or less than 0.1%, to set an all-time high for the 55th time this year. It’s climbed in 10 of the last 11 days and is on track for one of its best years since the turn of the millennium. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 76 points, or 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to its own record set a day earlier. AT&T rose 4.6% after it boosted its profit forecast for the year. It also announced a $10 billion plan to send cash to its investors by buying back its own stock, while saying it expects to authorize another $10 billion of repurchases in 2027. On the losing end of Wall Street was U.S. Steel, which fell 8%. President-elect reiterated on social media that he would not let Japan’s Nippon Steel take over the iconic Pennsylvania steelmaker. announced plans last December to buy the Pittsburgh-based steel producer for $14.1 billion in cash, raising concerns about what the transaction could mean for unionized workers, supply chains and U.S. national security. Earlier this year, President Joe Biden also the acquisition. Tesla sank 1.6% after a judge in Delaware reaffirmed a previous ruling that the electric car maker must The judge denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla’s corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package. All told, the S&P 500 rose 2.73 points to 6,049.88. The Dow fell 76.47 to 44,705.53, and the Nasdaq composite gained 76.96 to 19,480.91. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report showed U.S. at the end of October than a month earlier. Continued strength there would raise optimism that the economy could remain out of a recession that many investors had earlier worried was inevitable. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.23% from 4.20% from late Monday. Yields have seesawed since Election Day amid worries that Trump’s preferences for and could spur along with economic growth. But traders are still confident the will at its next meeting in two weeks. They’re betting on a nearly three-in-four chance of that, according to data from CME Group. Lower rates can give the economy more juice, but they can also give inflation more fuel. The key report this week that could guide the Fed’s next move will arrive on Friday. It’s the , which will show how many workers U.S. employers hired and fired during November. It could be difficult to parse given how much storms and strikes distorted figures in October. Based on trading in the options market, Friday’s jobs report appears to be the biggest potential market mover until the Fed announces its next decision on interest rates Dec. 18, according to strategists at Barclays Capital. In financial markets abroad, the value of South Korea’s currency fell 1.1% against the U.S. dollar following a frenetic night where and then later said he’d lift it after lawmakers voted to reject military rule. Stocks of Korean companies that trade in the United States also fell, including a 1.6% drop for SK Telecom. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9% to help lead global markets. Some analysts think Japanese stocks could end up benefiting from Trump’s threats , including for goods . Trade relations between the U.S. and China took another step backward after China said it is banning exports to the U.S. of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications. The counterpunch came swiftly after the U.S. Commerce Department expanded the list of Chinese technology companies to include many that make equipment used to make computer chips, chipmaking tools and software. The newly included in the so-called “entity list” are nearly all based in China. In China, stock indexes rose 1% in Hong Kong and 0.4% in Shanghai amid unconfirmed reports that Chinese leaders would meet next week to discuss planning for the coming year. Investors are hoping it may bring fresh stimulus to help spur growth in the world’s second-largest economy. In France, the CAC 40 rose 0.3% amid continued worries about , where the government is battling over the budget. ___ AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed. U.S. stocks tiptoed to more records amid a mixed Tuesday The Madera County Economic Development Commission (MCEDC) announced the appointment Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer held a ceremony on Wednesday to Clovis-based Provost & Pritchard Consulting Group has purchased the formerThe U.N. Human Rights Council announced the opening of the probe in a letter to several Latin American jurists who in October petitioned the U.N. agency to take action in the face of what is said was widespread evidence of electoral fraud that violates the political rights of millions of Venezuelans. Maduro claimed he won the July contest by a large margin and is preparing to start a third, six-year term in January. But electoral authorities have so far refused to publish voting records to back such claims, as they have in the past, amid calls by the U.S., European Union and even leftist allies from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to do so. Meanwhile, the opposition has published online what appear to be authentic tallies from 80% of polling machines showing that its candidate, Edmundo González , won by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The October petition, made on behalf of a regular Venezuelan citizen, alleges that Maduro officials committed multiple human rights violations by restricting the ability of millions of Venezuelans abroad, publishing false results and blocking any challenges in court. Paulo Abrao, a Brazilian attorney who was among those behind the complaint, said the decision comes as a crucial time, as the Maduro government is seeking to "normalize its nebulous electoral process” in the hopes the rest of the world will move on amid so many other pressing international crises. “We cannot allow that to happen,” said Abrao, the former head of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. “Now there is a formal case being processed in an international body with binding force. Venezuela has the obligation to comply with the decision.” Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-americaThe reliability of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids has dramatically improved, narrowing a wide gap with gas-powered automobiles, according to the latest survey by Consumer Reports. But vehicles with internal combustion engines and gas-electric hybrids are still far more dependable, the survey found. Consumer Reports subscribers, who filled out surveys during much of 2024, reported that electric vehicles had 42% more problems than gas autos on average. But that was down from 79% more in the 2023 survey. The survey released Thursday measured reliability of vehicles mainly from the 2022, 2023 and 2024 model years. Plug-ins, which travel a short distance on battery power before a hybrid powertrain kicks in, had 70% more problems than gas vehicles, but that was less than half the difference found in last year's survey. The reason for the improvement? EV and plug-in technology are maturing, said Jake Fisher, head of Consumer Reports' automobile test center. “As the automakers get more experience with the new technologies and new platforms, they will improve,” Fisher said. He said he expects plug-in and electric vehicles to keep getting better, further closing the gap with gas vehicles. But one thing may stand in the way: Automakers often test new automation and other features on EVs, and the new stuff is prone to glitches. “Until we get to where an EV is just a car that does practical things with their own powertrain, I'm not sure they'll ever catch up totally” to gas vehicles, Fisher said. The new technology may offer more than the next wave of EV buyers would like, as EVs move from early adopters to more practical mainstream buyers, Fisher said. “There are people who just want a car that’s easy to maintain,” he said. “I don’t use gas. I don’t need this automation feature and electric door handles or whatever the heck they are putting out.” Consumer Reports has noted that concerns about EV and plug-in quality add to issues that may have buyers hesitating before switching from gasoline engines, including concerns about higher up-front costs, too few charging stations and long charging times. Gas-electric hybrids, which switch from internal combustion to electric power to get better mileage, were about as reliable as cars with combustion engines. While the technology is pretty technical, it has been refined for a quarter century, mainly by pioneer Toyota, Fisher said. “CR's tests have shown that they are often quieter, quicker and more pleasant to drive than their gasoline-only counterparts,” he said. Through September of this year, the last month for which all automakers have reported results, electric vehicle sales are up 7.2%, plug-in sales rose 11.6%, but hybrids led with a 32.6% increase, according to Motorintelligence.com. Consumer Reports said its 2024 survey of subscribers representing about 300,000 vehicle owners found that Subaru was the most reliable brand for the first time, followed by perennial top finishers Lexus and Toyota. Rounding out the top five were Honda and its Acura luxury brand. It was the first time since 2020 that neither Toyota nor its Lexus luxury brand were in the top spot, Fisher said. The highest-ranked brand from a U.S.-based automaker was General Motors' Buick at No. 11. The five lowest of 22 brands that were ranked were electric upstart Rivian, followed by GM's Cadillac luxury brand, GMC, Jeep and Volkswagen, Consumer Reports said. The magazine and website didn't get enough data this year to rank Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Lucid, Maserati, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Porsche and Ram. Electric vehicle sales leader Tesla finished 17th, down three spots from last year's survey. Subaru took first place in the survey by following the same formula that Toyota uses to get high reliability scores: It doesn't make huge changes when updating or unveiling new vehicles, Fisher said. Instead of going with new engines or transmissions, Subaru carries parts over from the prior generation. “They don't fix what's not broken,” he said. “They continue to refine their products, and because the products perform quite well, they don't have to have big changes.” Rivian, Fisher said, is a new company with new electric models that have more glitches. Since the company is a startup, it can't use proven powertrains from prior generations yet. “It's expected that you're going to have issues when you have nothing to carry over” from previous model years, he said. The survey found that the gas-powered Toyota RAV4 small SUV was the most reliable vehicle, followed by the Toyota Corolla compact car. The RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid was third, followed by the RAV4 gas-electric hybrid, Fisher said. Consumer Reports' survey of its subscriber base does not represent all vehicle purchasers in the U.S. or the population that bought specific vehicle types. The survey results were released at a meeting of the Automotive Press Association of Detroit.

NEW YORK (AP) — In a string of visits, dinners, calls, monetary pledges and social media overtures, big tech chiefs — including Apple's Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — have joined a parade of business and world leaders in trying to improve their standing with President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office in January. “The first term, everybody was fighting me,” Trump said in remarks at Mar-a-Lago . “In this term, everybody wants to be my friend.” Tech companies and leaders have now poured millions into his inauguration fund, a sharp increase — in most cases — from past pledges to incoming presidents. But what does the tech industry expect to gain out of their renewed relationships with Trump? A clue to what the industry is looking for came just days before the election when Microsoft executives — who’ve largely tried to show a neutral or bipartisan stance — joined with a close Trump ally, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, to publish a blog post outlining their approach to artificial intelligence policy. “Regulation should be implemented only if its benefits outweigh its costs,” said the document signed by Andreessen, his business partner Ben Horowitz, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the company's president, Brad Smith. They also urged the government to back off on any attempt to strengthen copyright laws that would make it harder for companies to use publicly available data to train their AI systems. And they said, “the government should examine its procurement practices to enable more startups to sell technology to the government.” Trump has pledged to rescind President Joe Biden’s sweeping AI executive order, which sought to protect people’s rights and safety without stifling innovation. He hasn’t specified what he would do in its place, but his campaign said AI development should be “rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.” Trump's choice to head the Interior Department, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, has spoken openly about the need to boost electricity production to meet increased demand from data centers and artificial intelligence. “The AI battle affects everything from defense to healthcare to education to productivity as a country,′′ Burgum said on Nov. 15, referring to artificial intelligence. “And the AI that’s coming in the next 18 months is going to be revolutionary. So there’s just a sense of urgency and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration′′ to address it. Demand for data centers ballooned in recent years due to the rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and local governments are competing for lucrative deals with big tech companies. But as data centers begin to consume more resources, some residents are pushing back against the world’s most powerful corporations over concerns about the economic, social and environmental health of their communities. “Maybe Big Tech should buy a copy of ‘The Art of The Deal’ to figure out how to best negotiate with this administration,” suggested Paul Swanson, an antitrust attorney for the law firm Holland & Hart. “I won’t be surprised if they find ways to reach some accommodations and we end up seeing more negotiated resolutions and consent decrees.” Although federal regulators began cracking down on Google and Facebook during Trump’s first term as president — and flourished under Biden — most experts expect his second administration to ease up on antitrust enforcement and be more receptive to business mergers. Google may benefit from Trump’s return after he made comments on the campaign trail suggesting a breakup of the company isn’t in the U.S. national interest, after a judge declared its search engine an illegal monopoly . But recent nominations put forward by his transition team have favored those who have been critical of Big Tech companies, suggesting Google won’t be entirely off the hook. Cook’s notoriously rocky relationship with the EU can be traced back to a 2016 ruling from Brussels in a tax case targeting Apple. Cook slammed the bloc’s order for Apple to pay back up to 13 billion euros ($13.7 billion) in Irish back taxes as “total political crap.” Trump, then in his first term as president, piled on, referring to the European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who was spearheading a campaign on special tax deals and a crackdown on Big Tech companies, as the “tax lady” who “really hates the U.S.” Brussels was eventually vindicated after the bloc’s top court rejected Apple’s appeal this year, though it didn’t stop Cook from calling Trump to complain, Trump recounted in a podcast in October. Trump hosted Cook for a Friday evening dinner at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly. Neither Apple nor the Trump transition team has commented on the nature of their discussions. Altman , Amazon and Meta all pledged to donate $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund. During his first term, Trump criticized Amazon and railed against the political coverage at The Washington Post, which billionaire Bezos owns. Meanwhile, Bezos had criticized some of Trump’s past rhetoric. In 2019, Amazon also argued in a court case that Trump’s bias against the company harmed its chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract. More recently, Bezos has struck a more conciliatory tone. He recently said at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York that he was “optimistic” about Trump’s second term, while also endorsing president-elect’s plans to cut regulations. The donation from Meta came just weeks after Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago. During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president, but voiced a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump’s response to his first assassination attempt. Still, Trump in recent months had continued to attack Zuckerberg publicly. And Altman, who is in a legal dispute with AI rival Elon Musk, has said he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence in the incoming administration. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging that the maker of ChatGPT betrayed its founding aims of benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits.