Musk's Political Donations, AT&T Data Breach, and More

Musk Funds Trump, Major Data Breaches, and Market Movements

Musk Donates to Trump, Tapping Fortune to Swing 2024 Race - Bloomberg

• Billionaire Elon Musk has donated to America PAC, a super political action committee working to elect Donald Trump to the White House.

• The donation highlights Musk’s growing influence in the US political landscape and his shift from a self-described political independent to a figure who regularly espouses right-leaning views and opposes Democrats.

• Ken Griffin and Paul Singer, Republican billionaires who have criticized Trump, met with the former president to discuss donating to his campaign, according to people familiar with the discussions.

• Trump has overtaken his rival, President Joe Biden, in fundraising with the help of deep-pocketed Wall Street and corporate donors, but Biden’s own money raising has dropped off following a calamitous debate that led prominent Democratic donors to put away their checkbooks. (

• America PAC is the biggest spender on direct voter contacts among outside organizations backing Trump, spending $15.8 million so far, with $13.1 million going for field operations, digital media, texting and phone calls, and door-to-door persuasion and voter outreach efforts.

Elon Musk’s X Looks to Give Up Space at San Francisco Headquarters - Bloomberg

• Elon Musk’s X is giving up about 460,000 square feet of office space at its San Francisco headquarters.

• The move is expected to further decrease the company’s presence in the city and impact the downtown real estate market.

Toll of Snowflake Hack Widens With Theft of AT&T Text, Calling Data - Bloomberg

• Thieves stole a half-year’s worth of calling and text data from AT&T’s wireless users, the latest breach in a hacking campaign targeting Snowflake Inc.

• Snowflake is suffering reputational damage from the hack and has blamed its customers for failing to protect their data

• The breach is connected to other recent hacks on Live Nation, Ticketmaster, and LendingTree, with suspected members in North America and Turkey

• Experts say the compromised data presents national security risks and may reveal key details about sensitive communications

• Hackers have tried to extort Snowflake customers for up to $5 million each, but Snowflake has only made less than $1 million in total payments from no more than five companies

• Neiman Marcus also had personal information stolen from their Snowflake platform.

Meta Removes Threat of ‘Heightened Penalties’ for Trump’s Pages - Bloomberg

• Meta Platforms has removed restrictions from former US President Donald Trump’s accounts.

• The move aims to ensure equal access to political expression for all candidates.

AT&T Data Hack Prompts FCC Probe, Raises Broad Security Concerns - Bloomberg

• AT&T suffered a massive cybersecurity breach that includes calls and text information for nearly all of its cellular customers.

• The breach represents a potential privacy and national security issue for intelligence agents, police officers, stalking victims, journalists, therapists, etc.

• Federal law enforcement authorities investigated the breach and delayed announcing it due to potential risks to national security or public safety. The breach did not compromise communications or personal data, but the data was illegally downloaded from a workspace account at the cloud-service provider Snowflake Inc.

The End of the Affair? Not for Eric Schmidt. - New York Times

• Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, had an extramarital relationship with public relations executive Marcy Simon while he was in the mid-2000s.

• They split in 2014, a decade after they were seen together on the French Riviera and Fire Island

• The relationship has been messy and involves contracts, amended contracts, arbitrations, lawsuits, and advisers

• Mr. Schmidt approved a confidential settlement in 2014 with Ms. Simon that paid her an undisclosed amount of money, but the deal imploded due to years of wrangling and accusations of fraud against her

• During his years leading Google, he was known as a brainy, button-down sage who mentored the founders and propelled the company to great heights

• In 2019, he left the board of Google and took on an influential role advising the U.S. government on defense and artificial intelligence policy and making his mark with philanthropy initiatives

• He has remained married to Wendy Schmidt, his wife of 44 years.

JPMorgan and Wells Fargo Earnings Show Toll of Inflation - New York Times

• JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo reported that overall deposits dropped and they had to hike the average interest rates on checking and savings accounts.

• Wells Fargo’s net interest income fell 9% to $11.9 billion due to tepid loan demand from businesses and a decline in loan demand, according to CEO Charles W. Scharf.

• JPMorgan reported a profit of $13.1 billion, up slightly from a year earlier, but disclosed losses from sinking mortgage investments and a one-time windfall from the sale of shares in Visa. - The economy continues to be a drag despite recent signs of cooling inflation, as major lenders have warned for several quarters about mounting credit-card unpaid credit balances and risks.

Saudi Money Makes a Big Splash in Video Games - New York Times

• The Esports World Cup is a coming-out party for Saudi Arabia’s growing video game industry

• Saudi Arabia plans to invest $38 billion in video games by 2030 through its Public Investment Fund

• The country has poured wealth into sports and entertainment at a staggering rate

• Many of the world’s largest video game companies and influencers have quietly partnered with the oil-rich Saudis

• Critics have labeled Saudi investments in the industry as “games washing”

• Some gamers have denounced the country’s involvement and vowed to boycott its events

• Savvy Games Group, a company funded by the P.I.F., now owns 40% of the total e-sports market share

• Sony has partnered with a Saudi-funded organization to create a new gaming district in the city of Qatar.

Antitrust Regulator Tells Chains: Back Off Your Franchisees - New York Times

• The Federal Trade Commission warns franchisers not to restrict franchisees’ ability to speak to government officials or charge them extra fees

• The agency has been scrutinizing the franchise industry for a year-long inquiry

• Franchisers license the right to operate their concept to individual entrepreneurs who provide start-up capital and may own one location or many

• Franchisees lack control over crucial business decisions and often do not understand all the risks they faced before purchasing a license

• A majority of franchisees wanted changes to the rules that governed the industry, while a majority of franchisers did not

• Commission identified 12 top complaints from franchisees, including dissatisfaction with unilateral changes to manuals, noncompete clauses, and misrepresentations in franchise sales documents

• Nondisparagement clauses could prevent franchisees from filing complaints with regulators or taking part in government investigations, the agency said.

The Election Muddle Aside, Investing Has Been a Snap Lately - New York Times

• Stocks prospered in the first half of 2024, but national politics cloud the outlook for the second half

• Midyear is a good time to assess investing strategy and look back at market performance and prospects

• Academic research suggests sticking to a long-term plan using broad, low-cost index funds that track the world’s stock and bond markets makes sense for most people

• The S&P 500 returned nearly 25% including dividends in the 12 months through June, with almost 30% of the overall return coming from just one company: Nvidia

• Diversifying investments cut both ways, benefiting large chunks of Nvidia and other giant stocks like Microsoft, Apple, and Meta

• Actively managed stock funds tend to underperform the market, as shown by Morningstar’s midyear data report

• Domestic and international stock funds lagged the stock indexes on average over the last few months

• Smaller stocks in the broader index pulled down its returns, but could potentially propel it even higher if market conditions shift.

Meta lifts restrictions on Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts - Financial Times

• Meta has lifted restrictions on Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.

• Trump had his Meta accounts frozen for two years in 2021 due to his claims of election fraud and praise of supporters who stormed the US Capitol

• Meta had previously given Trump back his accounts with extra guardrails to deter repeat offenses

• The update was made after Trump warned on Truth Social that if elected president, he would pursue election fraudsters to prison for long periods of time

• All US presidential candidates will remain subject to Meta’s policies to prevent hate speech and incitement to violence.

China’s Transsion sued by Qualcomm and Philips as IP woes mount - Financial Times

• Shenzhen-listed Transsion, the world’s fourth-largest smartphone maker, is being sued by Qualcomm and Philips for alleged intellectual property violations.

• Qualcomm has filed lawsuits in India, Europe, and China for patent infringement, while Philips has filed a lawsuit in India and Nokia is pressuring the Chinese company to start making payments for patented technologies.

• Smartphone makers are obliged to pay royalties to the owners of each piece of intellectual property, and failure to do so can result in legal action. The value of royalties agreements by large smartphone makers to intellectual property owners is typically in the region of hundreds of millions of US dollars. The Chinese company has a low-cost business model to win market share by undercutting rivals and is now pushing into more affluent consumer segments with stronger patent enforcement regimes.

EU accuses Musk’s X of deceptive practices over blue ‘checkmark’ - Financial Times

• Elon Musk’s X faces hefty fines from the EU over transparency issues at the social media company

• Allowing anyone to acquire a blue checkmark can deceive users and negatively affect their ability to make informed decisions

• X was found to be in breach of the bloc’s Digital Services Act, which imposes new responsibilities on online platforms

• The company’s practices had not complied with the DSA in areas such as prohibiting the use of dark patterns and transparency on advertising

• If the findings are confirmed, X could face fines of up to 6% of its total worldwide turnover

AT&T data on ‘nearly all’ wireless customers accessed in hack - Financial Times

• AT&T suffered a cyber security breach in April, with hackers accessing call and text message information of millions of wireless subscribers.

• The breached data included files related to cellular customers, MVNO customers, and landline customers who interacted with those numbers between May and October 2022.

• Threat actors accessed and copied records of customer calls and texts from a period of several months in 2022 as well as on January 2, 2023. The data did not contain the content of calls or texts, or personal information, such as social security numbers, dates of birth or other personally identifiable information.

Five gadgets to turbo-charge your performance - Financial Times

• Lefeet’s S1 Pro diver propulsion vehicles (DPVs) were launched in 2021 and are more powerful and compact than traditional underwater scooters.

• The P1 Pro is a more compact DPV with a 100Wh battery and two controller handles that can be easily attached to the aluminium body of an underwater scooter. The XR model has a fifth “hurricane” level that can pull the scooter at around 6mph, making it faster than a fin. The motors on the X1 can be set to either “Assistance” or “Resistance” mode, depending on the user’s preference. The batteries are airline-approved and travel-friendly, making them suitable for assisted diving.

• Playseat has created a Formula Intelligence F1 Edition racing cockpit that is F1-like for drivers such as Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc to use. The cockpit has an official livery, improved headset, and a headset that is headset-adjustable and headset-mountable. The device can be mounted on an Avocoque mount for a 360-degree view of the cockpit. The camera can be viewed from a short distance, and the headset can be adjusted to fly by diopter.

Microsoft Quits OpenAI’s Board Amid Antitrust Scrutiny - Wall Street Journal

• Microsoft has resigned its observer position on the board of OpenAI, as regulators scrutinize the partnership between the tech giant and the AI startup.

• Microsoft had invested $13 billion in OpenAI in exchange for a 49% stake in its for-profit arm, which is now facing antitrust scrutiny in the US and Europe.

• The tech giant had gained a nonvoting observer position after the formation of the new board following the abrupt firing and reinstatement of Sam Altman as CEO in late last year. (

• Apple had been set to have a board observer seat after signing a partnership to put ChatGPT on its iPhones and other devices as part of a broader AI initiative called Apple Intelligence).

• OpenAI is establishing a new approach to informing and engaging key strategic partners, such as Microsoft and Apple, and will no longer have board observer seats for any partner.

For AI Giants, Smaller Is Sometimes Better - Wall Street Journal

• Tech giants and startups are using small or medium language models to make AI software cheaper, faster, and more specialized. These models are trained on less data and often designed for specific tasks. Smaller models cost less than $10 million to train and use fewer than 10 billion parameters. Microsoft, Google, and Apple have all released smaller models this year. OpenAI recently released a version of its flagship model that it says is cheaper to operate. Businesses and consumers are looking for ways to run generative AI-based technology more cheaply. Small models can answer questions for as little as one-sixth the cost of large language models in many cases. Fine-tuning small models on specific sets of data allows them to perform as effectively as large models at a fraction of the cost.

In an Era of Fakes, How to Know When Someone Online Is Real - Wall Street Journal

• Personalized schemes to dupe internet users are on the rise

• The single best step to determine someone’s identity online and protect yourself is to slow down

• Tech companies are beginning to help, with Google, LinkedIn and Bumble introducing features to detect suspicious messages and users

• Guidelines for operating online are changing, some old rules still apply

• Before transferring funds, ask for your prearranged secret word.

Sam Altman Startup Names Former X Executive as First Head of Privacy - Wall Street Journal

• Tools for Humanity has appointed Damien Kieran as its first head of privacy as the company faces regulatory scrutiny over its Worldcoin venture. Kieran left his job as chief privacy officer at Twitter after Elon Musk’s takeover of the social-media platform.- Worldcoin lets users download a wallet app that supports a digital identity known as World ID, which scans people’s eyes in exchange for cryptocurrency tokens.

• Kieran faces the task of liaising with regulators globally and addressing concerns over how Worldcoin handles biometric data, which has raised eyebrows in countries such as Spain and Germany.

• The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision launched a review of Worldcoin last year, citing the high sensitivity of the biometrically data it processes. Worldcoin tokens are distributed to users in countries where they are legally available, and nearly 6 million users across more than 160 countries have signed up for World ID.

How the Kindle Became a Must-Have Accessory (Again) - Wall Street Journal

• TikTok’s literary subculture, BookTok, is giving e-readers the Stanley cup treatment. Kindle has become the gadget of choice among the community of book lovers. Kindle sales have grown in double-digit percentages for each of the past two years and are on track for similar gains this year. People under 45 are Kindle’s fastest-growing customer segment. BookTokkers share reading habits, book clubs, book challenges, library cards, and people’s reading setups. Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s $12-a-month subscription service allows customers to borrow more than four million digital books. Kindle newbies are driving the sales growth, with about 60% of Kindle sales growth coming from people who’ve never owned one of the devices before. Print and ebook sales rose during the pandemic but have declined since, according to market-research firm Circana. Library checkouts have jumped 75% since 2019, reaching 370 million ebooks last year.