Author: Uponsil

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was in talks with multiple people over buying TikTok and would likely have a decision on the popular app’s future in the next 30 days.

“I have spoken to many people about TikTok and there is great interest in TikTok,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One during a flight to Florida.

Earlier in the day, Reuters reported two people with knowledge of the discussions said Trump’s administration is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app’s operations.

Under the deal being negotiated by the White House, TikTok’s China-based owner, ByteDance, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of TikTok’s Web infrastructure, one of the sources told Reuters.

However, in his comments to reporters on the flight, Trump said he had not spoken to Oracle’s Larry Ellison about buying the app.

Asked if he was putting together a deal with Oracle and other investors to save TikTok, Trump said: “No, not with Oracle. Numerous people are talking to me, very substantial people, about buying it and I will make that decision probably over the next 30 days. Congress has given 90 days. If we can save TikTok, I think it would be a good thing.”

The sources did say the terms of any potential deal with Oracle were fluid and likely to change. One source said the full scope of the discussions was not yet set and could include the U.S. operations as well as other regions.

National Public Radio on Saturday reported the deal talks for TikTok’s global operations, citing two people with knowledge of the negotiations. Oracle had no immediate comment.

The deal being negotiated anticipates participation from ByteDance’s current U.S. investors, according to the sources. Jeff Yass’s Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Sequoia Capital are among ByteDance’s U.S. backers.

Representatives for TikTok, ByteDance investors General Atlantic, KKR, Sequoia and Susquehanna could not immediately be reached for comment.

Others vying to acquire TikTok, including the investor group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and another involving Jimmy Donaldson, better known as the YouTube star Mr. Beast, are not part of the Oracle negotiation, one of the sources said.

Oracle responsible

Under the terms of the deal, Oracle would be responsible for addressing national security issues. TikTok initially struck a deal with Oracle in 2022 to store U.S. users’ information to alleviate Washington’s worries about Chinese government interference.

TikTok’s management would remain in place, to operate the short video app, according to one of the sources.

The app, which is used by 170 million Americans, was taken offline temporarily for users shortly before a law that said it must be sold by ByteDance on national security grounds, or be banned, took effect on Jan. 19.

Trump, after taking office a day later, signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law that was put in place after U.S. officials warned that under ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans’ data being misused.

Officials from Oracle and the White House held a meeting on Friday about a potential deal, and another meeting has been scheduled for next week, NPR reported.

Oracle was interested in a TikTok stake “in the tens of billions,” but the rest of the deal is in flux, the NPR report cited the source as saying.

Trump has said he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” in TikTok.

NPR cited another source as saying that appeasing Congress is seen as a key hurdle by the White House.

Free speech advocates have opposed TikTok’s ban under a law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden.

The company has said U.S. officials have misstated its ties to China, arguing its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle while content moderation decisions that affect American users are also made in the U.S. 
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HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA — Looking for a quick fix for their fast-growing electricity diets, tech giants are increasingly looking to strike deals with power plant owners to plug in directly, avoiding a potentially longer and more expensive process of hooking into a fraying electric grid that serves everyone else. 

It’s raising questions over whether diverting power to higher-paying customers will leave enough for others and whether it’s fair to excuse big power users from paying for the grid. Federal regulators are trying to figure out what to do about it, and quickly. 

Front and center is the data center that Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services, is building next to the Susquehanna nuclear plant in eastern Pennsylvania. 

The arrangement between the plant’s owners and AWS — called a “behind the meter” connection — is the first to come before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. For now, FERC has rejected a deal that could eventually send 960 megawatts — about 40% of the plant’s capacity — to the data center. That’s enough to power more than 500,000 homes. 

That leaves the deal and others that likely would follow in limbo. It’s not clear when FERC, which blocked the deal on procedural grounds, will take up the matter again or how the change in presidential administrations might affect things. 

“The companies, they’re very frustrated because they have a business opportunity now that’s really big,” said Bill Green, the director of the MIT Energy Initiative. “And if they’re delayed five years in the queue, for example — I don’t know if it would be five years, but years anyway — they might completely miss the business opportunity.” 

Driving demand for energy-hungry data centers 

The rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence has fueled demand for data centers that need power to run servers, storage systems, networking equipment and cooling systems. 

That’s spurred proposals to bring nuclear power plants out of retirement, develop small modular nuclear reactors, and build utility-scale renewable installations or new natural gas plants. In December, California-based Oklo announced an agreement to provide 12 gigawatts to data center developer Switch from small nuclear reactors powered by nuclear waste. 

Federal officials say fast development of data centers is vital to the economy and national security, including to keep pace with China in the artificial intelligence race. 

For AWS, the deal with Susquehanna satisfies its need for reliable power that meets its internal requirements for sources that don’t emit planet-warming greenhouse gases, such as coal, oil or gas-fueled plants. 

Big Tech also wants to stand up their centers fast. But tech’s voracious appetite for energy comes at a time when the power supply is already strained by efforts to shift away from planet-warming fossil fuels. 

They can build data centers in a couple years, said Aaron Tinjum of the Data Center Coalition. But in some areas, getting connected to the congested electricity grid can take four years, and sometimes much more, he said. 

Plugging directly into a power plant would take years off their development timelines. 

What’s in it for power providers 

In theory, the AWS deal would let Susquehanna sell power for more than they get by selling into the grid. Talen Energy, Susquehanna’s majority owner, projected the deal would bring as much as $140 million in electricity sales in 2028, though it didn’t disclose exactly how much AWS will pay for the power. 

The profit potential is one that other nuclear plant operators are embracing after years of financial distress and frustration with how they are paid in the broader electricity markets. Many say they’ve been forced to compete in some markets flooded with cheap natural gas and state-subsidized solar and wind energy. 

Power plant owners also say the arrangement benefits the wider public, by bypassing the costly buildout of long power lines and leaving more transmission capacity on the grid for everyone else. 

FERC’s big decision 

A favorable ruling from FERC could open the door to many more huge data centers and other massive power users like hydrogen plants and bitcoin miners, analysts say. 

FERC’s 2-1 rejection in November was procedural. Recent comments by commissioners suggest they weren’t ready to decide how to regulate such a novel matter without more study. 

In the meantime, the agency is hearing arguments for and against the Susquehanna-AWS deal. 

Monitoring Analytics, the market watchdog in the mid-Atlantic grid, wrote in a filing to FERC that the impact would be “extreme” if the Susquehanna-AWS model were extended to all nuclear power plants in the territory. 

Energy prices would increase significantly and there’s no explanation for how rising demand for power will be met even before big power plants drop out of the supply mix, it said. 

Separately, two electric utility owners — which make money in deregulated states from building out the grid and delivering power — have protested that the Susquehanna-AWS arrangement amounts to freeloading off a grid that ordinary customers pay to build and maintain. Chicago-based Exelon and Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power say the Susquehanna-AWS arrangement would allow AWS to avoid $140 million a year that it would otherwise owe. 

Susquehanna’s owners say the data center won’t be on the grid and question why it should have to pay to maintain it. But critics contend that the power plant itself is benefiting from taxpayer subsidies and ratepayer-subsidized services — and shouldn’t be able to strike deals with private customers that could increase costs for others. 

FERC’s decision will have “massive repercussions for the entire country” because it will set a precedent for how FERC and grid operators will handle the waiting avalanche of similar requests from data center companies and nuclear plants, said Jackson Morris of the Natural Resources Defense Council. 

Stacey Burbure, a vice president for American Electric Power, told FERC at a hearing in November that it needs to move quickly. 

“The timing of this issue is before us,” she said, “and if we take our typical five years to get this perfect, it will be too late.” 
…

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — From his home in northern California, Nick Russell, a former farm manager, is monitoring the Los Angeles-area fires.

He knows that about 600 kilometers south, people in Los Angeles are relying on his team’s live neighborhood-by-neighborhood updates on fire outbreaks, smoke direction, surface wind predictions and evacuation routes.

Russell is vice president of operations at Watch Duty, a free app that tracks fires and other natural disasters. It relies on a variety of data sources such as cameras and sensors throughout the state, government agencies, first responders, a core of volunteers, and its own team of reporters.

An emergency at his house, for example, would be “much different” from one at his neighbor’s house .4 kilometers away, Russell said. “That is true for communities everywhere, and that’s where technology really comes in.”

Watch Duty’s delivery of detailed localized information is one reason for its success with its 7 million users, many of whom downloaded the app in recent weeks.

It acts as a virtual emergency operations center, culling and verifying data points.

Watch Duty’s success points to the promise that technologies such as artificial intelligence and sensors will give residents and first responders the real-time information they need to survive and fight natural disasters.

Google and other firms have invested in technology to track fires. Several startup firms are also looking for ways to use AI, sensors and other technologies in natural disasters.

Utility firms work with Gridware, a company that places AI-enhanced sensors on power lines to detect a tree branch touching the line or any other vibrations that could indicate a problem.

Among Watch Duty’s technology partners is ALERTCalifornia, run by the University of San Diego, which has a network of more than 1,000 AI-enhanced cameras throughout the state looking for smoke. The cameras often detect fires before people call emergency lines, Russell said.

Together with ALERTCalifornia’s information, Russell said, “we have become the eyes and ears” of fires.

Another Watch Duty partner is N-5 Sensors, a Maryland-based firm. Its sensors, which are placed in the ground, detect smoke, heat and other signs of fire.

“They’re like a nose, if you will, so they detect smoke anomalies and different chemical patterns in the air,” Russell said.

Watch Duty is available in 22 states, mostly in the western U.S., and plans to expand to all states.

While fire has been its focus, Watch Duty also plans to track other natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis, Russell said.

“Fire is not in the name,” he said. “We want to be that one-stop shop where people can go in those times of duress, to have a source that makes it clear and concise what’s happening.” 
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order related to AI to “make America the world capital in artificial intelligence,” his aide told reporters in the White House’s Oval Office.

The order sets a 180-day deadline for an Artificial Intelligence Action Plan to create a policy “to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.”

Trump also told his AI adviser and national security assistant to work to remove policies and regulations put in place by former President Joe Biden.

Trump on Monday revoked a 2023 executive order signed by Biden that sought to reduce the risks that artificial intelligence poses to consumers, workers and national security.

Biden’s order required developers of AI systems that pose risks to U.S. national security, the economy, public health or safety to share the results of safety tests with the U.S. government, in line with the Defense Production Act, before they were released to the public.

Trump also signed an executive order creating a cryptocurrency working group tasked with proposing a new regulatory framework for digital assets and exploring the creation of a cryptocurrency stockpile.

The much-anticipated action also ordered that banking services for crypto companies be protected, and banned the creation of central bank digital currencies that could compete with existing cryptocurrencies.

The order sees Trump fulfill a campaign trail pledge to be a “crypto president and promote the adoption of digital assets.”

That is in stark contrast to Biden’s regulators that, in a bid to protect Americans from fraud and money laundering, cracked down on crypto companies, suing exchanges Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and dozens more in federal court, alleging they were flouting U.S. laws.

The working group will be made up of the Treasury secretary, attorney general and chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, along with other agency heads. The group is tasked with developing a regulatory framework for digital assets, including stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency typically pegged to the U.S. dollar.

The group is also set to “evaluate the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile … potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government through its law enforcement efforts.”

In December, Trump named venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks as the crypto and artificial intelligence czar. He will chair the group, the order said.

Finally, Trump signed pardons for 23 anti-abortion protesters on Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House.

The pardons came a day before anti-abortion protesters were due to descend on Washington for the annual March for Life.
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London — Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS are facing fresh scrutiny from Britain’s competition watchdog, which announced investigations Thursday targeting the two tech giants’ mobile phone ecosystems under new powers to crack down on digital market abuses. 

The Competition and Markets Authority said it launched separate investigations to determine whether the mobile ecosystems controlled by Apple and Google should be given “strategic market status” that would mandate changes in the companies’ practices. 

The watchdog is flexing its newly acquired regulatory muscles again after the new digital market rules took effect at the start of the year. The CMA has already used the new rules, designed to protect consumers and businesses from unfair practices by Big Tech companies, to open an investigation into Google’s search ads business. 

The new investigations will examine whether Apple or Google’s mobile operating systems, app stores and browsers give either company a strategic position in the market. The watchdog said it’s interested in the level of competition and any barriers preventing rivals from offering competing products and services. 

The CMA will also look into whether Apple or Google are favoring their own apps and services, which it said “often come pre-installed and prominently placed on iOS and Android devices.” Google’s YouTube and Apple’s Safari browser are two examples of apps that come bundled with Android and iOS, respectively. 

And it will investigate “exploitative conduct,” such as whether Apple or Google forces app makers to agree to “unfair terms and conditions” as condition for distributing apps on their app stores. 

The regulator has until October to wrap up the investigation. It said it could force either company to, for example, open up access to key functions other apps need to operate on mobile devices. Or it could force them to allow users to download apps outside of their own app stores. 

Both Google and Apple said the work “constructively” with the U.K. regulator on the investigation. 

Google said “Android’s openness has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps. It’s the only example of a successful and viable open source mobile operating system.” 

The company said it favors “a way forward that avoids stifling choice and opportunities for U.K. consumers and businesses alike, and without risk to U.K. growth prospects.” 

Apple said it “believes in thriving and dynamic markets where innovation can flourish. We face competition in every segment and jurisdiction where we operate, and our focus is always the trust of our users.”
…

Before he had been in office for 48 hours, President Donald Trump sent a clear signal that to outpace China, his administration will be pursuing an aggressive agenda when it comes to pushing the United States forward on the development of artificial intelligence and the infrastructure that powers it.

On his first day in office, Trump rescinded an executive order signed in 2023 by former President Joe Biden that sought to place some guardrails around the development of more and more powerful generative AI tools and to create other protections for privacy, civil rights and national security.

The following day, Trump met with the leaders of several leading technology firms, including Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI; Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle; and Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, to announce a $500 billion private sector investment in AI infrastructure known as Stargate.

“Beginning immediately, Stargate will be building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of advancements in AI, and this will include the construction of colossal data centers,” Trump said in a media event at the White House on Tuesday.

Specifically, Stargate will invest in the creation of as many as 10 huge data centers in the United States that will provide the computing for artificial intelligence systems. The first data center is already under construction in Texas. The massive private sector investment will create up to 100,000 U.S. jobs, the executives said.

Keeping AI in the US

“What we want to do is, we want to keep it in this country,” Trump said. “China is a competitor, and others are competitors. We want it to be in this country, and we’re making it available. I’m going to help a lot through emergency declarations, because we have an emergency. We have to get this stuff built.”

The assembled tech leaders took the opportunity to praise the new president.

“I think this will be the most important project of this era,” Altman said. “We wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President.”

Janet Egan, a senior fellow in the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security, said that all the signals Trump is sending indicate he is serious about maintaining the United States’ current advantages in the development of advanced AI.

“I think this shows that he’s going to have a really clear mind as to how to partner closely with the private sector to enable them to speed up and run fast,” Egan said. “We’ve also seen him take direct action on some of the bottlenecks that are impeding the development of AI infrastructure in the U.S., and a particular focus is energy.”

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has relied on Microsoft data centers for its computing. The firm reportedly discussed with the Biden administration the regulatory hurdles of planning and permitting when building data centers.

In a policy paper released earlier this month, OpenAI cited the competition with China, laying out its policy proposals to “extending America’s global leadership in AI innovation.”

“Chips, data, energy and talent are the keys to winning on AI — and this is a race America can and must win,” the paper said. “There’s an estimated $175 billion sitting in global funds awaiting investment in AI projects, and if the U.S. doesn’t attract those funds, they will flow to China-backed projects — strengthening the Chinese Communist Party’s global influence.”

Patrick Hedger, director of policy at NetChoice, a technology trade association, told VOA that the Stargate announcement “immediately signaled to me that private capital is more than willing to come off the sidelines these days with the new Trump administration.”

As part of his flurry of executive actions on Monday, Trump eliminated several preexisting executive orders placing limits on fossil fuel extraction and power generation. In the White House event on Monday, Trump also noted that AI data centers consume vast amounts of electricity and said he would be clearing the way for Stargate and other private companies to invest in new energy generation projects.

China competition

While Trump eliminated many of Biden’s executive orders immediately on Monday, he does not appear to have taken action against some of the former president’s other AI-related initiatives. Last year, Biden took several steps to restrict China’s access to cutting-edge technology related to AI, specifically, restricting the ability of companies that sell advanced semiconductors and the machinery used to produce them to Chinese firms.

On that issue, Egan said, Trump and Biden appear to be on the same page.

“I think it’s important to also note the continuity in how Trump’s approaching AI,” she said. “He, too, sees it as a national security risk and national security imperative. … So, I think we should expect to see this run-fast approach to AI complemented by continued efforts to understand and manage emerging risks. Particularly cyber, nuclear, biological risks, as well as a more muscular approach to export controls and enforcement.”

Speed and safety

Louis Rosenberg, CEO and chief scientist at Unanimous AI and a prominent figure in the field for decades, told VOA he thinks there is a bipartisan consensus that AI needs to be developed speedily but also responsibly.

“At the highest level, the accelerating risks around frontier AI is not a partisan issue,” he wrote in an email exchange. “Both parties realize that significant safeguards will be needed as AI gets increasingly intelligent and flexible, especially as autonomous AI agents get released at large scale.”

Rosenberg said the most significant question is how the U.S. can remain the global leader in AI development while making sure the systems that are deployed are safe and reliable.

“I suspect the Trump administration will address AI risks by deploying its own targeted policies that are not as broad as the Biden executive order was but can address real threats much faster,” he wrote. “The Biden executive order was very useful in raising the alarm about AI, but from a practical perspective it did not provide meaningful protections from the important emerging risks.

“Ultimately we need to find a way to move fast on AI development and move fast on AI protection. We need speed on both fronts,” Rosenberg said.

VOA Silicon Valley bureau chief Michelle Quinn contributed to this report.
…

Singapore — TikTok’s short-lived shutdown in the United States has opened a wider debate in other countries regarding access to popular social media platforms by children.

TikTok went dark temporarily Sunday in the U.S. after a new law banning it went into effect. The law required TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance to sell the app’s U.S. operation due to national security concerns over its ties to Beijing.

After his inauguration on Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting the ban for 75 days, giving ByteDance additional time to find a buyer.

The order provides relief to the app’s 170 million American users, many of them young adults. More than 60% of teenagers in the U.S. ages 13 to 17 use TikTok, with most of them accessing the platform daily, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

The U.S. is not the only country looking to regulate social media and other platforms such as online gaming. While the reasons behind the restrictions vary, a growing number of countries already regulate technology or are proposing legislation to restrict its use.

In Australia, a high-profile social media ban for young adults under the age of 16 will take effect at the end of the year, prohibiting them from creating accounts on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X and Snapchat. The government said the ban was a necessary measure to protect children.

“Social media is doing harm to our kids, and I’m calling time on it,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters last November.

Websites like YouTube that do not require an account to view content will likely be excluded from the ban.

The Australian government said the onus will be on the social media companies to “take reasonable steps” to prevent children under 16 from creating accounts on their platforms. Companies that do not comply could face fines of more than $30 million. Details of how the law will be enforced remain scarce, with age verification technologies currently being trialed.

Some young Australian users of the platforms remain skeptical about how effective a ban will be.

“I think people will manage to find ways around it, maybe by lying about their age,” 15-year-old Theodore Cagé told VOA.

While Cagé concedes that social media can be a “big distraction from school,” he is against a blanket ban, favoring more measured approaches such as limiting screen time or blocking specific content.

“I reckon it definitely should be more targeted, not just a total ban on everything, because there’s a lot of good stuff out there. It’s not all bad,” he said.

The impending ban has also raised concerns that some children will be left isolated.  

“Social media serves as a lifeline for those youth who do not have supportive homes or local environments. They can find supportive communities on social media”, Lisa Given, a professor of information sciences at RMIT University in Melbourne, told VOA.

Australia’s ban will be closely watched, especially by countries in Asia that are considering their own restrictions for young users.

Indonesia’s communications minister said the Southeast Asian nation is planning a minimum age for social media use and discussed plans last week with President Prabowo Subianto. 

In neighboring Singapore, teenagers under 18 will be moved to a more restrictive Teen Accounts on Instagram starting January 21.

The city-state also issued guidelines in schools to limit screen time for children. Starting March 31, app stores in Singapore will block children under 12 from downloading apps, including TikTok and Instagram.

But in the Southeast Asian financial hub, which prides itself on technological advancements and connectivity, social media still plays a significant role in the daily lives of young people.

Platforms like Snapchat and Instagram “are pretty important for engaging in new relationships or finding new friendships,” 17-year-old Pablo Lane of Singapore told VOA. “It [social media] has had big benefits for me, just broadening the scope of people I can contact.”

China has gone further than other countries in Asia to control children’s access to online networks. In 2021, Beijing introduced new measures restricting children under 18 to just three hours a week.  

And in late 2024, new guidelines from China’s cybersecurity regulator called for mobile devices to be equipped with a “minors mode” that would limit screen time for children under 18, including an overnight curfew.

The setting, which parents can turn off, restricts 16 to 18-year-olds to two hours of phone use a day, with eight to 16-year-olds allowed just one hour.

Jeremy Daum, a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, said China is also focused on protecting children from harmful content online rather than implementing blanket bans.

“They’re really trying, from a number of different angles, to make a safe web for kids,” he Daum.

Questions remain over whether China’s model could apply elsewhere. 
…

Millions of U.S. TikTok users are looking to newly sworn-in President Donald Trump, who has given the app’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, 75 days to strike a deal with a U.S. buyer.
…

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. 

The new entity, Stargate, will start building data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum. 

“It’s big money and high quality people,” said Trump, adding that it’s “a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential” under his new administration. 

Joining Trump fresh off his inauguration at the White House were Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle. All three credited Trump for helping to make the project possible, even though building has started and the project goes back to 2024. 

“This will be the most important project of this era,” said Altman, CEO of OpenAI. 

Ellison noted that the data centers are already under construction with 10 being built so far. The chairman of Oracle suggested that the project was also tied to digital health records and would make it easier to treat diseases such as cancer by possibly developing a customized vaccine. 

“This is the beginning of golden age,” said Son, referencing Trump’s statement that the U.S. would be in a “golden age” with him back in the White House. 

Son, a billionaire based in Japan, committed in December to invest $100 billion in U.S. projects over the next four years. He previously committed to $50 billion in new investments ahead of Trump’s first term, which included a large stake in the troubled office-sharing company WeWork. 

While Trump has seized on similar announcements to show that his presidency is boosting the economy, there were already expectations of a massive buildout in data centers and electricity plants needed for the development of AI, which holds the promise of increasing productivity by automating work but also the risk of displacing jobs if poorly implemented. 

The initial plans for Stargate go back to the Biden administration. Tech news outlet The Information first reported on the project in March 2024. OpenAI has long relied on Microsoft data centers to build its AI systems, but it has increasingly signaled an interest in building its own data centers. 

OpenAI wrote in a letter to the Biden administration’s Commerce Department last fall that planning and permitting for such projects “can be lengthy and complex, particularly for energy infrastructure.” 

The push to build data centers also predates Trump’s presidency. Last October, the financial company Blackstone estimated that the U.S. would see $1 trillion invested in data centers over five years, with another $1 trillion being committed internationally. 

Those estimates for investments suggest that much of the new capital will go through Stargate as OpenAI has established itself as a sector leader with the 2022 launch of its ChaptGPT, a chatbot that captivated the public imagination with its ability to answer complex questions and perform basic business tasks. 

The White House has put an emphasis on making it easier to build out new electricity generation in anticipation of AI’s expansion, knowing that the United States is in a competitive race against China to develop a technology increasingly being adopted by businesses. 

Still, the regulatory outlook for AI remains somewhat uncertain as Trump on Monday overturned the 2023 order signed by then-President Joe Biden to create safety standards and watermarking of AI-generated content, among other goals, in hopes of putting guardrails on the technology’s possible risks to national security and economic well-being. 

Trump supporter Elon Musk, worth more than $400 billion, was an early investor in OpenAI but has since challenged its move to for-profit status and has started his own AI company, xAI. Musk is also in charge of the “Department of Government Efficiency” created formally on Monday by Trump with the goal of reducing government spending. 

Trump previously in January announced a $20 billion investment by DAMAC Properties in the United Arab Emirates to build data centers tied to AI. 
…

Washington — TikTok restored services to users in the United States on Sunday after briefly blocking access due to a U.S. law banning the social media platform based on national security concerns. 

The situation played out amid the change in U.S. administrations as President-elect Donald Trump said he would seek to “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect.” 

He also proposed, in a post on his Truth Social platform, for the United States to take a 50% ownership stake in TikTok. 

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld legislation passed by Congress that called for banning TikTok unless its China-based parent company sold it by Sunday. 

The Biden administration had said it would not seek to enforce the ban in its final days in office, leaving the issue to Trump after he took office on Monday. 

TikTok credited Trump as it announced the restoration of its services, saying Sunday on X that he provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.” 

Trump’s actions marked a reversal from his first term in office when he sought to ban TikTok in connection with concerns that the service was sharing the personal information of U.S. users with the Chinese government. 

At a briefing Monday in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China believes companies should “decide independently” about their operations and agreements. 

“TikTok has operated in the U.S. for many years and is deeply loved by American users,” she said. “We hope that the U.S. can earnestly listen to the voice of reason and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for firms operating there.” 

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Bengaluru, India — Within five hours, while sitting at home in India, retired professor Kamta Prasad Singh handed over his hard-earned savings to online fraudsters impersonating police.

The cybercrime known as “digital arrest” — where fraudsters pose online as law enforcement officials and order people to transfer huge amounts of money — has become so rampant that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has issued warnings.

Singh told AFP that money was his life savings.

“Over the years, I have skipped having tea outside, walked to avoid spending on public transport,” the 62-year-old said, his voice breaking.

“Only I know, how I saved my money.”

Police say scammers have exploited the vast gap between the breakneck speed of India’s data digitalization, from personal details to online banking, and the lagging awareness of many of basic internet safety.

Fraudsters are using technology for data breaches, targeting information their victims believe is only available to government authorities, and making otherwise unlikely demands appear credible.

Indians have emptied their bank accounts “out of sheer fear,” Modi said in an October radio broadcast, adding fraudsters “create so much psychological pressure on the victim.”

‘Ruined’

Mobile phones, and especially video calling, have allowed fraudsters to reach straight into people’s homes.

India runs the world’s largest biometric digital identity program — called “Aadhaar,” or foundation in Hindi — a unique card issued to India’s more than one billion people, and increasingly required for financial transactions.

Scammers often claim they are police investigating questionable payments, quoting their target’s Aadhaar number to appear genuine.

They then request their victim make a “temporary” bank transfer to validate their accounts, before stealing the cash.

Singh, from India’s eastern state of Bihar, said the web of lies began when he received a call in December, seemingly from the telecom regulatory authority.

“They said… police were on their way to arrest me,” Singh said.

The fraudsters told Singh that his Aadhaar ID was being misused for illegal payments.

Terrified, Singh agreed to prove he had control of his bank account, and after spiraling threats, transferred over $16,100.

“I have lost sleep; don’t feel like eating,” he said. “I have been ruined.”

‘Rot in proverbial hell’

The surge of online scams is worrying because of “how valid they make it look and sound,” said police officer Sushil Kumar, who handled cybercrimes for half a decade.

The perpetrators range from school dropouts to highly educated individuals.

“They know what to search for on the internet to find out basic details of how government agencies work,” Kumar added.

India registered 17,470 cybercrimes in 2022, including 6,491 cases of online bank fraud, according to the latest government data.

Tricks vary. Kaveri, 71, told AFP her story, on condition her name was changed.

She said fraudsters posed as officials from the U.S. courier FedEx, claiming she had sent a package containing drugs, passports and credit cards.

They offered her full name and Aadhaar ID details as “proof,” followed by well-forged letters from the Central Bank of India and Central Bureau of Investigation, the country’s top investigative agency.

“They wanted me to send money, which would be returned in 30 minutes,” she said, adding she was convinced when they sent a “properly signed letter.”

She transferred savings from a house sale, totaling around $120,000, in four instalments over six days, before the fraudsters vanished.

Kaveri says those days felt “like a tunnel.”

Meeta, 35, a private health professional from Bengaluru, who also did not want to be identified, was conned by fake police via a video call.

“It seemed like a proper police station, with walkie-talkie noises,” she said.

The scammers told her to prove she controlled her bank account by taking out a loan of 200,000 rupees, or $2,300, via her bank’s phone app, before demanding she make a “temporary” transfer.

Despite making it clear to the bank that she had been scammed, Meeta continues to be asked to pay back the loan.

“My trust in banks has mostly gone,” she said, before cursing the thieves.

“I hope they rot in proverbial hell.”
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SAN FRANCISCO — If it feels like TikTok has been around forever, that’s probably because it has, at least if you’re measuring via internet time. What’s now in question is whether it will be around much longer and, if so, in what form?

Starting in 2017, when the Chinese social video app merged with its competitor Musical.ly, TikTok has grown from a niche teen app into a global trendsetter. While, of course, also emerging as a potential national security threat, according to U.S. officials.

On April 24, President Joe Biden signed legislation requiring TikTok parent ByteDance to sell to a U.S. owner within a year or to shut down. TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, filed a lawsuit against the U.S., claiming the security concerns were overblown and the law should be struck down because it violates the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok, and the popular short form video service went dark in the U.S. — just hours before the ban was set to begin.

Here’s how TikTok came to this juncture:

March 2012

ByteDance is founded in China by entrepreneur Zhang Yimin. Its first hit product is Toutiao, a personalized news aggregator for Chinese users.

July 2014

Startup Musical.ly, later known for an eponymous app used to post short lipsyncing music videos, is founded in China by entrepreneur Alex Zhu.

July 2015

Musical.ly hits #1 in the Apple App Store, following a design change that made the company’s logo visible when users shared their videos.

2016

ByteDance launches Douyin, a video sharing app for Chinese users. Its popularity inspires the company to spin off a version for foreign audiences called TikTok.

November 2017

ByteDance acquires Musical.ly for $1 billion. Nine months later, ByteDance merges it with TikTok.

Powered by an algorithm that encourages binge-watching, users begin to share a wide variety of video on the app, including dance moves, kitchen food preparation and various “challenges” to perform, record and post acts that range from serious to satirical.

February 2019

Rapper Lil Nas X releases the country-trap song “Old Town Road” on TikTok, where it goes viral and pushes the song to a record 17 weeks in the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The phenomenon kicks off a wave of TikTok videos from musical artists who suddenly see TikTok as a critical way to reach fans.

TikTok settles federal charges of violating U.S. child-privacy laws and agrees to pay a $5.7 million fine.

September 2019

The Washington Post reports that while images of Hong Kong democracy protests and police crackdowns are common on most social media sites, they are strangely absent on TikTok. The same story notes that TikTok posts with the #trump2020 tag received more than 70 million views.

The company insists that TikTok content moderation, conducted in the U.S., is not responsible and says the app is a place for entertainment, not politics.

The Guardian reports on internal documents that reportedly detail how TikTok instructs its moderators to delete or limit the reach of videos touching on topics sensitive to China such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and subsequent massacre, Tibetan independence or the sanctioned religious group Falun Gong.

October 2019

U.S. politicians begin to raise alarms about TikTok’s influence, calling for a federal investigations of its Musical.ly acquisition and a national security probe into TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps. That investigation begins in November, according to news reports.

December 2019

The Pentagon recommends that all U.S. military personnel delete TikTok from all phones, personal and government-issued. Some services ban the app on military-owned phones. In January, the Pentagon bans the app from all military phones.

TikTok becomes the second-most downloaded app in the world, according to data from analytics firm SensorTower.

May 2020

Privacy groups file a complaint alleging TikTok is still violating U.S. child-protection laws and flouting a 2019 settlement agreement. The company “takes the issue of safely seriously” and continues to improve safeguards, it says.

TikTok hires former Disney executive Kevin Mayer as its chief executive officer in an apparent attempt to improve its U.S. relations. Mayer resigns three months later.

July 2020

India bans TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps in response to a border clash with China.

President Donald Trump says he is considering banning TikTok as retaliation for China’s alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

August 2020

Trump issues a sweeping but vague executive order banning American companies from any “transaction” with ByteDance and its subsidiaries, including TikTok. Several days later, he issues a second order demanding that ByteDance divest itself of TikTok’s U.S. operations within 90 days.

Microsoft confirms it is exploring acquisition of TikTok. The deal never materializes; neither does a similar overture from Oracle and Walmart. TikTok, meanwhile, sues the Trump administration for alleged violation of due process in its executive orders.

November 2020

Joe Biden is elected president. He doesn’t offer new policy on TikTok and won’t take office until January, but Trump’s plans to force a sale of TikTok start to unravel anyway. The Trump administration extends the deadlines it had imposed on ByteDance and TikTok and eventually lets them slide altogether.

February 2021

Newly sworn-in President Joe Biden postpones the legal cases involving Trump’s plan to ban TikTok, effectively bringing them to a halt.

September 2021

TikTok announces it has more than a billion monthly active users.

December 2021

A Wall Street Journal report finds TikTok algorithms can flood teens with a torrent of harmful material such as videos recommending extreme dieting, a form of eating disorder.

February 2022

TikTok announces new rules to deter the spread of harmful material such as viral hoaxes and promotion of eating disorders.

April 2022

“The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical,” a project created by two fans of the Netflix show as a TikTok project, wins the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album.

TikTok becomes the most downloaded app in the world, beating out Instagram, according to SensorTower data.

June 2022

BuzzFeed reports that China-based ByteDance employees have repeatedly accessed the nonpublic information of TikTok users, based on leaked recordings from more than 80 internal TikTok meetings. TikTok responds with a vague comment touting its commitment to security that doesn’t directly address the BuzzFeed report.

TikTok also announces it has migrated its user data to U.S. servers managed by the U.S. tech firm Oracle. But that doesn’t prevent fresh alarm among U.S. officials about the risk of Chinese authorities accessing U.S. user data.

December 2022

FBI Director Christopher Wray raises national security concerns about TikTok, warning that Chinese officials could manipulate the app’s recommendation algorithm for influence operations.

ByteDance also said it fired four employees who accessed data on journalists from Buzzfeed News and The Financial Times while attempting to track down leaks of confidential materials about the company.

February 2023

The White House gives federal agencies 30 days to ensure TikTok is deleted from all government-issued mobile devices. Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission warn that ByteDance could share TikTok user data with China’s authoritarian government.

March 2023

Legislators grill TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at a six-hour congressional hearing where Chew, a native of Singapore, attempts to push back on assertions that TikTok and ByteDance are tools of the Chinese government.

January 2024

TikTok said it was restricting a tool some researchers use to analyze popular videos on the platform.

March 2024

A bill to ban TikTok or force its sale to a U.S. company gathers steam in Congress. TikTok brings dozens of its creators to Washington to tell lawmakers to back off, while emphasizing changes the company has made to protect user data. TikTok also annoys legislators by sending notifications to users urging them to “speak up now” or risk seeing TikTok banned; users then flood congressional offices with calls.

The House of Representatives passes the TikTok ban-or-sell bill.

April 2024

The Senate follows suit, sending the bill to President Biden, who signs it.

May 2024

TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance sue the U.S. federal government to challenge a law that would force the sale of ByteDance’s stake or face a ban, saying that the law is unconstitutional.

June 2024

Former President Donald Trump joins TikTok and begins posting campaign-related content.

July 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris joins TikTok and also begins posting campaign-related material.

Dec. 6, 2024

A federal appeals court panel unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S. The panel of judges rebuffed the company’s challenge of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Amendment.

Dec. 27, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue.

Jan. 17, 2025

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok beginning unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company, holding that the risk to national security posed by its ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app. A ban is set to into effect on Jan. 19, 2025.

Jan. 18, 2025

TikTok users in the United States were prevented from watching videos on the popular social media platform just hours before a federal ban was set to take effect.

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,” a message in the app said. “Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”

The company’s app was also removed from prominent app stores, including the ones operated by Apple and Google, while its website told users that the short-form video platform was no longer available.

Jan. 19, 2025

Shortly after the app went dark for U.S. users, Trump said he would issue an executive order upon taking office to grant TikTok an extension so that it could remain online.

A few hours later, TikTok restored service to users in the United States, saying that Trump had provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans.”
…

Washington — TikTok said Sunday it was restoring service to users in the United States after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a federal ban that President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office. 

Trump said he planned to issue the order to give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the popular video-sharing platform is subject to a permanent U.S. ban. He announced the move on his Truth Social account as millions of U.S. TikTok users awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform. 

Google and Apple removed the app from their digital stores to comply with the law, which required them to do so if TikTok parent company ByteDance didn’t sell its U.S. operation by Sunday. The law, which passed with wide bipartisan support in April, allowed for steep fines for non-compliance. 

The company that runs TikTok said in a post on X that Trump’s post had provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans.” 

Some users reported soon after TikTok’s statement that the app was working again, and TikTok’s website appeared to be functioning for at least some users. Even as TikTok was flickering back on, it remained unavailable for download in Apple and Google’s app stores. 

The law that took effect Sunday required ByteDance to cut ties with the platform’s U.S. operations due to national security concerns posed by the app’s Chinese roots. However, the statute gave the sitting president authority to grant a 90-day extension if a viable sale is under way. 

Although investors made a few offers, ByteDance previously said it would not sell. In his post on Sunday, Trump said he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture,” but it was not immediately clear if he was referring to the government or an American company. 

Trump said his order would “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect” and “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order. 

“Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations,” Trump wrote. 

The on-and-off availability of TikTok came after the U.S. Supreme Court held in a unanimous ruling Friday that the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China outweighed concerns about limiting speech by the app or its millions of users in the United States. 

When TikTok users in the U.S. tried to watch or post videos on the platform as of Saturday night, they saw a pop-up message under the headline, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.” 

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,” a pop-up message informed users who opened the TikTok app and tried to scroll through videos on Saturday night. “Unfortunately that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” 

The service interruption TikTok instituted hours earlier caught most users by surprise. Experts had said the law as written did not require TikTok to take down its platform, only for app stores to remove it. Current users had been expected to continue to have access to videos until the app stopped working due to a lack of updates. 

“The community on TikTok is like nothing else, so it’s weird to not have that anymore,” content creator Tiffany Watson, 20, said Sunday. 

Watson said she had been in denial about the looming shutdown and with the time on her hands plans to focus on bolstering her presence on Instagram and YouTube. 

“There are still people out there who want beauty content,” Watson said. 

The company’s app also was removed late Saturday from prominent app stores, including the ones operated by Apple and Google. Apple told customers with its devices that it also took down other apps developed by TikTok’s China-based parent company, including one that some social media influencers had promoted as an alternative. 

“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,” the company said. 

Trump’s plan to issue an executive order to spare TikTok on his first day in office reflected the ban’s coincidental timing and the unusual mix of political considerations surrounding a social media platform that first gained popularity with often silly videos featuring dances and music clips. 

During his first term in the White House, Trump issued executive orders in 2020 banning TikTok and the Chinese messaging app WeChat, moves that courts subsequently blocked. When momentum for a ban emerged in Congress last year, however, he opposed the legislation. Trump has since credited TikTok with helping him win support from young voters in last year’s presidential election. 

Despite its own part in getting the nationwide ban enacted, the Biden administration stressed in recent days that it did not intend to implement or enforce the ban before Trump takes office on Monday. 

In the nine months since Congress passed the sale-or-ban law, no clear buyers emerged, and ByteDance publicly insisted it would not sell TikTok. But Trump said he hoped his administration could facilitate a deal to “save” the app. 

TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration with a prime seating location. 

Chew posted a video late Saturday thanking Trump for his commitment to work with the company to keep the app available in the U.S. and taking a “strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.” 

Trump’s choice for national security adviser, Michael Waltz, told CBS News on Sunday that the president-elect discussed TikTok going dark in the U.S. during a weekend call with Chinese President Xi Jinping “and they agreed to work together on this.” 

On Saturday, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to create a new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok’s U.S. business, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

Perplexity is not asking to purchase the ByteDance algorithm that feeds TikTok user’s videos based on their interests and has made the platform such a phenomenon. 

Other investors also eyed TikTok. “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary recently said a consortium of investors that he and billionaire Frank McCourt are part of offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash. Trump’s former treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, also said last year that he was putting together an investor group to buy TikTok. 

In Washington, lawmakers and administration officials have long raised concerns about TikTok, warning the algorithm that fuels what users see is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities. But to date, the U.S. has not publicly provided evidence of TikTok handing user data to Chinese authorities or tinkering with its algorithm to benefit Chinese interests.
…

WASHINGTON — TikTok stopped working in the United States late on Saturday and disappeared from Apple and Google app stores ahead of a law that takes effect Sunday requiring the shutdown of the app used by 170 million Americans.

President-elect Donald Trump said earlier in the day he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after he takes office on Monday, a promise TikTok cited in a notice posted to users on the app.

TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, told users attempting to use the app around 10:45 p.m. ET (0345 GMT): “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned.”

Other apps owned by ByteDance, including video editing app Capcut and lifestyle social app Lemon8, were also offline and unavailable in U.S. app stores as of late Saturday.

“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate,” Trump told NBC. “If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”

It was not clear if any U.S. users could still access the app, but it was no longer working for many users and people seeking to access it through a web application were met with the same message that TikTok was no longer working.

TikTok, which has captivated nearly half of all Americans, powered small businesses and shaped online culture, warned on Friday it would go dark in the U.S. on Sunday unless President Joe Biden’s administration provides assurances to companies such as Apple and Google that they will not face enforcement actions when a ban takes effect.

Under a law passed last year and upheld on Friday by a unanimous Supreme Court, the platform has until Sunday to cut ties with its China-based parent or shut down its U.S. operation to resolve concerns it poses a threat to national security.

The White House reiterated on Saturday that it was up to the incoming administration to take action.

“We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment on the new White House statement.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington on Friday accused the U.S. of using unfair state power to suppress TikTok. “China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” a spokesperson said.  

Users move to alternatives

Uncertainty over the app’s future had sent users — mostly younger people — scrambling to alternatives including China-based RedNote. Rivals Meta and Snap had also seen their share prices rise this month ahead of the ban, as investors bet on an influx of users and advertising dollars.

“This is my new home now,” wrote one user in a RedNote post, tagged with the words “tiktokrefugee” and “sad.”

Minutes after TikTok’s U.S. shutdown, other users took to X, formerly called Twitter.

“I didn’t really think that they would cut off TikTok. Now I’m sad and I miss the friends I made there. Hoping it all comes back in just a few days,” wrote @RavenclawJedi.

NordVPN, a popular virtual private network, or VPN, allowing users to access the internet from servers around the world, said it was “experiencing temporary technical difficulties.”

Web searches for “VPN” spiked in the minutes after U.S. users lost access to TikTok, according to Google Trends.

Users on Instagram fretted about whether they would still receive merchandise they had bought on TikTok Shop, the video platform’s e-commerce arm.

Marketing firms reliant on TikTok have rushed to prepare contingency plans this week in what one executive described as a “hair on fire” moment after months of conventional wisdom saying that a solution would materialize to keep the app running.

There have been signs TikTok could make a comeback under Trump, who has said he wants to pursue a “political resolution” of the issue and last month urged the Supreme Court to pause implementation of the ban.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to attend the U.S. presidential inauguration and attend a rally with Trump on Sunday, a source told Reuters.

Suitors including former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt have expressed interest in the fast-growing business that analysts estimate could be worth as much as $50 billion. Media reports say Beijing has also held talks about selling TikTok’s U.S. operations to billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk, though the company has denied that.

U.S. search engine startup Perplexity AI submitted a bid on Saturday to ByteDance for Perplexity to merge with TikTok U.S., a source familiar with the company’s plans told Reuters. Perplexity would merge with TikTok U.S. and create a new entity by combining the merged company with other partners, the person added.

Privately held ByteDance is about 60% owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock and General Atlantic, while its founders and employees own 20% each. It has more than 7,000 employees in the U.S.
…

SpaceX says a fire might have caused its Starship to break during liftoff and send trails of flaming debris near the Caribbean.

SpaceX’s Elon Musk said preliminary indications are that leaking fuel built up pressure in the cavity above the engine firewall. The resulting fire would have doomed the spacecraft.

On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered SpaceX to investigate what went wrong. The FAA said there were no reports of injuries from Starship debris.

The 400-foot Starship — the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket — launched from the southern tip of Texas on a test flight early Thursday evening. The booster made it back to the pad for a catch by giant mechanical arms, only the second time in Starship history. But the engines on the still-ascending spacecraft shut down one by one, and communication was lost 8-1/2 minutes into the flight.

Dramatic video taken near the Turks and Caicos Islands showed spacecraft debris raining down from the sky in a stream of fireballs. Flights near the falling debris had to be diverted, the FAA said.

SpaceX said Starship remained in its designated launch corridor over the Gulf of Mexico and then the Atlantic. Any surviving wreckage would have fallen along that path over water, the company said on its website.

Starship had been shooting for a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, halfway around the world. Ten dummy satellites, mimicking SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, were on board so the company could practice releasing them.

It was the seventh test flight of a Starship, but it featured a new and upgraded spacecraft. The FAA said it must approve SpaceX’s accident findings and any corrective actions.

SpaceX said the booster and spacecraft for the eighth demo are already built and undergoing testing. Musk said on X the loss was “barely a bump in the road” in his plans to build a fleet of Starships to carry people to Mars.

NASA already has booked two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade under its Artemis program, the successor to Apollo.

“Spaceflight is not easy. It’s anything but routine,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson posted on X after the accident. “That’s why these tests are so important.”

Earlier Thursday, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company also had mixed results with the debut of its massive New Glenn rocket. It achieved orbit on its first try, putting a test satellite thousands of miles above Earth. But the booster was destroyed after failing to land on a floating platform in the Atlantic.
…

With a pending law declaring the social media application TikTok illegal in the United States, set to take effect on Sunday, the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is signaling that it plans to try to find a way to prevent the service from going offline.

Under current law, the service’s parent company, China-based ByteDance, must either sell TikTok to a non-Chinese firm or see it banned in the U.S.

Representative Mike Waltz, who has been tapped to serve as Trump’s national security adviser, told Fox News on Thursday that the president-elect has options available to postpone enforcement of the law while a possible deal is worked out to sell the company. That includes a section of the law allowing the president to give ByteDance a 90-day extension to finalize a sale.

“We will put measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark,” Waltz said, “as long as a viable deal is on the table. Essentially that buys President Trump time to keep TikTok going.”

Executive action reportedly considered

Also on Wednesday, several media outlets reported that Trump is considering issuing an executive order that would protect TikTok.

The legality of such a move is unclear and is thrown further into doubt by the fact that the Supreme Court is poised to rule on a request by the company to overturn the law.

The high court heard arguments in the case last week and is expected to rule shortly. The outcome is not certain. However, in oral arguments, a majority of the justices appeared to favor upholding the law.

Trump’s attitude toward TikTok has evolved considerably over the years. During his first term in office, he attempted to shut the service down in the U.S. Since then, though, he has used the service, with considerable success, to connect with his supporters.

In a press conference in Florida last month, Trump said, “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” and credited the app with helping him get his message out to younger American voters.

Trump has denied that his change of heart about TikTok was influenced by a brief meeting in March with Republican megadonor and ByteDance investor Jeff Yass. Lobbying disclosure reports from 2024 show that ByteDance paid a former Trump campaign aide to lobby lawmakers in Washington in favor of TikTok, and that former senior Trump aide Kellyanne Conway has been paid to advocate for TikTok in Congress via the Yass-funded conservative group Club for Growth.

Trump also said TikTok was not mentioned during his meeting with Yass.

Economic concerns

In the years since TikTok took off, thousands of U.S.-based content creators have developed large audiences on the app, and in many cases have been able to monetize their TikTok feeds.

Many small businesses have found success advertising their products to TikTok users. Other TikTok personalities have parlayed fame on the app into broader celebrity that has led to lucrative product endorsements and other deals.

Some members of Congress have expressed concern that abruptly shutting the app down could have economic consequences.

On Monday, Democratic Senator Edward Markey introduced legislation that would delay the TikTok ban by 270 days.

“Let me be clear: TikTok has its problems,” Markey said in a statement released by his office. “Like every social media platform, TikTok poses a serious risk to the privacy and mental health of our young people. I will continue to hold TikTok accountable for such behavior. But a TikTok ban would impose serious consequences on millions of Americans who depend on the app for social connections and their economic livelihood. We cannot allow that to happen.”

Viability of sale unclear

As the Sunday deadline nears, there have been a number of rumors about a possible sale of the company. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Chinese officials were considering the possibility of selling the service to billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump adviser who already owns the social media service X, formerly Twitter.

Another U.S. billionaire, real estate developer Frank McCourt, told Reuters on Thursday that a consortium of investors he had formed has already made a formal offer to purchase TikTok, valuing the service at $20 billion.

However, it is far from clear that a sale is something the Chinese government is prepared to allow. Any sale worth the buyer’s investment would have to include the “recommendation engine,” TikTok’s name for the algorithm that makes the service so popular and, many would say, addictive.

Last year in a court filing, TikTok characterized such a deal as unavailable.

“Just as the United States restricts the export of U.S.-origin technologies (e.g., certain computer chips), the Chinese government regulates the transfer of technologies developed in China,” the company argued in a court filing. “The Chinese government has made clear in public statements that it would not permit a forced divestment of the recommendation engine.”

Privacy, national security worries

A wildly popular service for sharing short videos, TikTok has an estimated 170 million U.S. users. Federal officials have been concerned about TikTok for years because it collects vast amounts of information about its user base. They have argued that Chinese laws compelling domestic companies to cooperate with intelligence agencies could be used to force the company to share that data with the Chinese Communist Party.

U.S. officials have expressed concern that China could misuse the private information about U.S. users of the service. They have also warned that Beijing could use TikTok’s powerful recommendation algorithm to shape public discourse in the U.S. to the benefit of China.

In December, when a federal appeals court upheld the law mandating the company’s sale or shutdown, Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, one of the original sponsors of the law, released a statement expressing the thoughts of many of the law’s supporters.

“With today’s opinion, all three branches of government have reached the same conclusion: ByteDance is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, and TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance is a national security threat that cannot be mitigated through any other means than divestiture,” Krishnamoorthi said.

“Every day that TikTok remains under the Chinese Communist Party’s control is a day that our security is at risk,” Krishnamoorthi added.
…

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he wants the United States to be the world leader in artificial intelligence and crypto currency. To that end, he has tapped a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor to be the AI and crypto czar. Michelle Quinn has the story.
…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Blue Origin’s giant New Glenn rocket blasted off from Florida early Thursday morning on its first mission to space, an inaugural step into Earth’s orbit for Jeff Bezos’ space company as it aims to rival SpaceX in the satellite launch business.

Thirty stories tall with a reusable first stage, New Glenn launched around 2 a.m. ET (0700 GMT) from Blue Origin’s launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, its seven engines thundering for miles under cloudy skies on its second liftoff attempt this week.

Hundreds of employees at the company’s Kent, Washington headquarters and its Cape Canaveral, Florida rocket factory roared in applause as Blue Origin VP Ariane Cornell announced the rocket’s second stage made it to orbit, achieving a long-awaited milestone.

“We hit our key, critical, number-one objective, we got to orbit safely,” Cornell said on a company live stream. “And y’all we did it on our first go.”

The rocket’s reusable first stage booster was due to land on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean after separating from its second stage, but failed to make that landing, Cornell confirmed. Telemetry from the booster blacked out minutes after liftoff.

“We did in fact lose the booster,” Cornell said.

The culmination of a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar development journey, the mission marks Blue Origin’s first trek to Earth’s orbit in the 25 years since Bezos founded the company.

Bezos told Reuters on Sunday, before Blue Origin’s first launch attempt, that he was most nervous about landing the booster.

But he added that sticking the landing would be the “icing on the cake” if they could achieve the milestone of getting the payload to its intended orbit.

Secured inside New Glenn’s payload bay for the mission is the first prototype of Blue Origin’s Blue Ring vehicle, a maneuverable spacecraft the company plans to sell to the Pentagon and commercial customers for national security and satellite servicing missions.

The rocket’s first attempt to launch on Monday was scrubbed around 3 a.m. ET because ice had accumulated on a propellant line. On Thursday, the company cited no issues ahead of launch.

Bezos monitored the launch from a few miles away in Blue Origin’s mission control room, wearing a large headset and flanked by dozens of launch staff. The company’s CEO, Dave Limp, was next to him.

New Glenn is expected to press ahead with a backlog of dozens of missions worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including up to 27 launches for Amazon’s Kuiper satellite internet network that will rival SpaceX’s Starlink service.

New Glenn is the latest U.S. rocket to debut in recent years as governments and private companies beef up their space programs and race to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its workhorse Falcon 9.

NASA’s giant Space Launch System rocket had a successful debut in 2022, as did the Vulcan rocket last year from United Launch Alliance, Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s joint launch venture.

New Glenn is roughly twice as powerful as Falcon 9, the world’s most active rocket, with a payload bay diameter two times larger to fit bigger batches of satellites. Blue Origin has not disclosed the rocket’s launch pricing. Falcon 9 starts at around $62 million.

The development of New Glenn has spanned three Blue Origin CEOs and faced numerous delays as SpaceX grew into an industry juggernaut.

SpaceX’s giant, next-generation Starship rocket in development, which New Glenn will also compete with, is expected to further rattle the industry with cheap rides to space and full reusability.

Bezos in late 2023 moved to speed things up at Blue Origin, prioritizing the development of New Glenn and its BE-4 engines. He named Limp, an Amazon veteran, as CEO, who employees say introduced a sense of urgency to compete with SpaceX.
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