NYT : Trump taps Palantir to compile data on Americans

In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power.

Mr. Trump has not publicly talked about the effort since. But behind the scenes, officials have quietly put technological building blocks into place to enable his plan. In particular, they have turned to one company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm.

The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work across the federal government in recent months. The company has received more than $113 million in federal government spending since Mr. Trump took office, according to public records, including additional funds from existing contracts as well as new contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. (This does not include a $795 million contract that the Department of Defense awarded the company last week, which has not been spent.)

Representatives of Palantir are also speaking to at least two other agencies — the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service — about buying its technology, according to six government officials and Palantir employees with knowledge of the discussions.

The push has put a key Palantir product called Foundry into at least four federal agencies, including D.H.S. and the Health and Human Services Department. Widely adopting Foundry, which organizes and analyzes data, paves the way for Mr. Trump to easily merge information from different agencies, the government officials said.

Creating detailed portraits of Americans based on government data is not just a pipe dream. The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others through government databases, including their bank account numbers, the amount of their student debt, their medical claims and any disability status.

Mr. Trump could potentially use such information to advance his political agenda by policing immigrants and punishing critics, Democratic lawmakers and critics have said. Privacy advocates, student unions and labor rights organizations have filed lawsuits to block data access, questioning whether the government could weaponize people’s personal information.

Palantir’s selection as a chief vendor for the project was driven by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to the government officials. At least three DOGE members formerly worked at Palantir, while two others had worked at companies funded by Peter Thiel, an investor and a founder of Palantir.

Some current and former Palantir employees have been unnerved by the work. The company risks becoming the face of Mr. Trump’s political agenda, four employees said, and could be vulnerable if data on Americans is breached or hacked. Several tried to distance the company from the efforts, saying any decisions about a merged database of personal information rest with Mr. Trump and not the firm.

This month, 13 former employees signed a letter urging Palantir to stop its endeavors with Mr. Trump. Linda Xia, a signee who was a Palantir engineer until last year, said the problem was not with the company’s technology but with how the Trump administration intended to use it.

“Data that is collected for one reason should not be repurposed for other uses,” Ms. Xia said. “Combining all that data, even with the noblest of intentions, significantly increases the risk of misuse.”

Mario Trujillo, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, said the government typically collected data for good reasons, such as to accurately levy taxes. But “if people can’t trust that the data they are giving the government will be protected, that it will be used for things other than what they gave it for, it will lead to a crisis of trust,” he said.

Palantir declined to comment on its work with the Trump administration and pointed to its blog, which details how the company handles data.

“We act as a data processor, not a data controller,” it said. “Our software and services are used under direction from the organisations that license our products: these organisations define what can and cannot be done with their data; they control the Palantir accounts in which analysis is conducted.”

The White House did not comment on the use of Palantir’s technology and referred to Mr. Trump’s executive order, which said he wanted to “eliminate information silos and streamline data collection across all agencies to increase government efficiency and save hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”

Some details of Palantir’s government contracts and DOGE’s work to compile data were previously reported by Wired and CNN.

Palantir, which was founded in 2003 by Alex Karp and Mr. Thiel and went public in 2020, specializes in finding patterns in data and presenting the information in ways that are easy to process and navigate, such as charts and maps. Its main products include Foundry, a data analytics platform, and Gotham, which helps organize and draw conclusions from data and is tailored for security and defense purposes.

In an interview last year, Mr. Karp, Palantir’s chief executive, said the company’s role was “the finding of hidden things” by sifting through data.

Palantir has long worked with the federal government. Its government contracts span the Defense Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the pandemic, the Biden administration signed a contract with Palantir to manage the distribution of vaccines through the C.D.C.

Mr. Trump’s election in November boosted Palantir’s stock, which has risen more than 140 percent since then. Mr. Karp, who donated to the Democratic Party last year, has welcomed Mr. Trump’s win and called Mr. Musk the most “qualified person in the world” to remake the U.S. government.

At the I.R.S., Palantir engineers joined in April to use Foundry to organize data gathered on American taxpayers, two government officials said. Their work began as a way to create a single, searchable database for the I.R.S., but has since expanded, they said. Palantir is in talks for a permanent contract with the I.R.S., they said.

A Treasury Department representative said that the I.R.S. was updating its systems to serve American taxpayers, and that Palantir was contracted to complete the work with I.R.S. engineers.

Palantir also recently began helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enforcement and removal operations team, according to two Palantir employees and two current and former D.H.S. officials. The work is part of a $30 million contract that ICE signed with Palantir in April to build a platform to track migrant movements in real time.

Some D.H.S. officials exchanged emails with DOGE officials in February about merging some Social Security information with records kept by immigration officials, according to screenshots of the messages viewed by The New York Times.

In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a D.H.S. spokeswoman, did not address Palantir’s new work with the agency and said the company “has had contracts with the federal government for 14 years.”

Palantir representatives have also held talks with the Social Security Administration and the Department of Education to use the company’s technology to organize the agencies’ data, according to two Palantir employees and officials in those agencies.

The Social Security Administration and Education Department did not respond to requests for comment.

The goal of uniting data on Americans has been quietly discussed by Palantir engineers, employees said, adding that they were worried about collecting so much sensitive information in one place. The company’s security practices are only as good as the people using them, they said. They characterized some DOGE employees as sloppy on security, such as not following protocols in how personal devices were used.

Ms. Xia said Palantir employees were increasingly worried about reputational damage to the company because of its work with the Trump administration. There is growing debate within the company about its federal contracts, she said.

“Current employees are discussing the implications of their work and raising questions internally,” she said, adding that some employees have left after disagreements over the company’s work with the Trump administration.

Last week, a Palantir strategist, Brianna Katherine Martin, posted on LinkedIn that she was departing the company because of its expanded work with ICE.

“For most of my time here, I found the way that Palantir grappled with the weight of our capabilities to be refreshing, transparent and conscionable,” she wrote. “This has changed for me over the past few months. For me, this is a red line I won’t redraw.”

>>> Barrons Weekend Summary

Cover:
-Target, a renowned retailer, is facing challenges such as a lack of merchandise, a lack of staff, messy stores, and poor diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. These issues have left the company in a precarious position in the competitive US retail market, dominated by well-capitalized giants like Walmart, Costco, and Amazon. Target's stock has dropped 43% over the past three years. The company is taking steps to turn its business around, including spending billions on remodeling and opening stores, improving its supply chain and technology, partnering with brands like Kate Spade and Champion, and cutting prices on thousands of items. However, Target needs to refresh its stores, invest in e-commerce, and repair its tarnished brand to attract shoppers back. Without drastic action, Target could become the melting ice cube, paying a chunky dividend as it follows retailers like Kohl's and Kmart.

Interview:
-no update

Tech Trader:
-Nvidia, the world's second-most valuable company, briefly became the most valuable company in the world on Thursday, just behind Microsoft. The company reported solid fiscal first-quarter results and gave a better-than-feared revenue outlook for the current quarter. However, Nvidia managed to handle the loss of a massive business line and generated impressive growth. Revenue for the April quarter was up 69% year-over-year to $44.1B, ahead of expectations. Nvidia's data-center business, primarily driven by AI chip demand, grew even faster, up 73% from last year to $39.1B. However, Nvidia's guidance was mixed, with a revenue forecast range with a midpoint of $45B, below analysts' consensus of $45.9B. The cause of the miss is largely outside of Nvidia's control, stemming from President Donald Trump's decision to ban sales of the company's H20 chips to China. Nvidia's gains accelerated in after-hours trading, and the market is forward-looking, with China headwinds largely de-risked, with an outlook reset for potential upside going forward.

The Trader:
-Palantir Technologies, a mid-cap stock, has seen a significant increase in price and value over the past year, adding nearly $250B to its market value. However, analysts suggest that this meteoric rise, linked to the broader artificial-intelligence investment theme, could work against the stock in the coming weeks. Palantir joined the S&P 500 in the fall of last year and has more than tripled since then, with a market value just shy of $300B. Trivariate Research, led by Adam Parker, warns that Palantir's current 8% weight in the mid-cap universe poses an "extreme challenge for active managers" who may want to sell the stock but cannot fight against the support from passive managers who track benchmark indexes. As Palantir moves into the large-cap universe, large-cap managers likely will look more closely at its valuation, potentially triggering downward pressure on the stock. Trivariate deems Palantir's level of 73X earnings to be one of the most expensive stocks it has studied over the past 25 years, with an implied growth rate of over 40% a year for a decade. Palantir's 2024 revenue increased by 29%, with a bottom-line tally of $2.87B.
-DICK's SPORTING GOODS (Dick’s) has experienced a significant decline in its stock, falling 20% in 2025 due to tariffs and investor skepticism over its decision to buy struggling sneaker chain Foot Locker. Despite this, Dick's has a remarkable record of sales growth and is improving its online sales. The company's earnings report showed a 5.5% same-store sales growth rate in the first quarter, driven by a boost in the average customer purchase size. This bodes well for Dick's ability to navigate tariffs and other cost pressures. Dick's has confirmed its earnings guidance for the current fiscal year, which ends in January, and expects to widen its gross margins. Some analysts believe the stock deserves a higher valuation due to its consistent growth. Dick's now trades at 12X 2026 earnings, in line with its historical average. Morgan Stanley's Simeon Gutman thinks the stock should trade at 15.5X its expected 2026 earnings, which would lift it to $232, about 30% above its current level of around $180.

Features:
-Viking Holdings, known for its river cruises, has experienced a selloff despite a better-than-expected first quarter. Investors worry that bookings may be slowing due to economic uncertainty. The company's secondary offering, just over a year after its initial public offering, has further sparked concerns. However, the selloff seems like a buying opportunity, as Viking has the best-in-class balance sheet, return on invested capital, and capacity expansion. The company caters to an affluent and loyal customer base that books directly with the company. Despite the unsettled macro backdrop, Viking's management has been cautious, suggesting that booking rates may have slowed. Despite this, 92% of 2025 and 35% of 2026 capacity was already sold after a record "wave season." Pricing remains strong for cruises, particularly for Viking's upscale sailings.
-Inflation in the US is slowing but growth remains a concern for investors. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported a 0.2% annual GDP shrink, which is still negative. The combination of slow growth and neutral inflation favors stocks of companies that pay and raise their dividends, according to a report by Ned Davis Research analysts Ed Clissold and Thanh Nguyen. During slow-growth, inflation-neutral periods, dividend growers posted average annual returns of 6.2%, while all dividend payers returned 4.4%. Companies that paid dividends, without raising them, posted annualized losses of 1.7%, and nonpayers posted average losses of more than 10%. The S&P 500's dividend stream has been healthy, with companies paying out $76.54 a share for the past 12 months ended in April. Financials stocks, followed by technology, healthcare, and consumer staples, make up the biggest share of the overall dividend stream.

Europe:
-Global investors are shifting their allocations between the US and Europe due to shifting tariff headlines and the administration's tax and spending policies. The EU official emphasized the uncertainty surrounding tariff statuses and the need for a stable, rules-based business environment in Europe. Europe's Stoxx 600, the region's broadest benchmark, has outperformed the S&P 500 by over 7.5% this year, despite having no megacap tech names and working against sclerotic economic growth. This is reversing a two-decade trend where European equities fell 60% relative to their U.S. peers. Bank of America's "Flow Show" report also notes that Europe-based funds drew in $1B over the past seven weeks, a larger portion of the Stoxx 600's $14T market cap than US funds.

Emerging Markets:
-no update

Commodities:
-The International Energy Agency predicts that the global shift to electric vehicles and renewable energy will increase copper demand by half, nickel more than twice, and lithium 11 times from 2020 to 2040. However, BHP Group and Rio Tinto, two industry giants, are experiencing a quarter drop in shares from their peak in early 2023. The sector's problems are cyclical and structural, with most of BHP and Rio Tinto's cash flow coming from iron ore. Iron ore prices have fallen by 20% in the past 18 months due to the ongoing real estate depression in China. Companies are scrambling to switch to copper, whose price has jumped 30% over the same period. Production costs for copper have tripled since 2010, as old orebodies mature and new prospects are more remote, harder to develop, or water-starved. The industry is too Balkanized to meet green transition demand, with BHP and Rio being the only companies big enough to pursue a $10B greenfield on their own.

Streetwise:
-CoreWeave, a tech company, began trading in March, marking the biggest initial public offering for a tech company in four years. The deal was supposed to be priced at $47 to $55 a share, but the tech-heavy NASDAQ had sold off 10% year to date. Nvidia stepped in to buy shares at $40, and they could still be had for $41 at the end of April. Now, CoreWeave's shares are $120, putting analysts in an awkward position. The company was founded in 2016 by energy traders who bought a graphics processing unit and used it for mining for cryptocurrency Ether. They changed the company name to CoreWeave while looking for new uses for their GPUs during downtime, including cloud AI computing. In late 2022, Microsoft-backed OpenAI published a blog note that trained a model called ChatGPT, leading Microsoft to turn to CoreWeave for AI computing. A frenzy of AI infrastructure investment has sent Nvidia stock more than 600% higher over the past three years.

>>> Weekend Papers Summary

FINANCIAL TIMES
-President Donald Trump has announced plans to double tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from 25% to 50% in a move to intensify his global trade war. The move comes as Trump outlined a $15B partnership between Nippon Steel and US Steel, promising to create a tariff "fence" around domestic metals production. The new levies will take effect from June 4. Trump has been targeting dumping by foreign importers, with a 25% levy on steel and aluminum imports in March. Pennsylvania was a key swing state for Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The Canadian steel industry, the largest source of US imports, criticized Trump's move, arguing that unwinding efficient, competitive, and reliable cross-border supply chains in steel and aluminum comes at a great cost to both countries.
-Europeans have long appreciated the collapse of Eurocentrism as a result of a global shift. They have always held reservations about American allies, but the sense of ideological disdain from the Trump administration is shocking. This is not just realpolitik, but a rightwing culture war with distinctively American roots. The Trump administration's rhetoric is more extreme, with France's rightwing leader, Jordan Bardella, cancelling his US Conservative Political Action Conference speech in protest at Steve Bannon's stage gesture. Structural shifts also contribute to the downturn in US-European relations. The EU has become a serious economic rival to Washington, with extensive powers in areas like health regulation, food safety, and data privacy. However, rivalry is not enough; enmity is also a factor. Trump's new administration has run with the message that the EU is a "foe," leading to fewer Europeans seeing the US as an ally.
-US defense secretary Pete Hegseth has warned that a Chinese military attack on Taiwan could be imminent, urging America's allies in the Indo-Pacific to increase defense spending as a deterrent. Hegseth emphasized China's desire to become a hegemonic power in Asia and warned that any attempt by Communist China to conquer Taiwan would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world. While US intelligence officials and military officers have said President Xi Jinping has instructed the Chinese military to develop the capability to invade Taiwan by 2027, an attack is not imminent.
-Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has warned that the US bond market will crack due to the country's rising debt. He urged the Trump administration to place America on a more sustainable trajectory and warned regulators that the market would experience a crack. This warning highlights the growing unease on Wall Street about rising government debt levels and the potential increase in the federal deficit if Trump's "big, beautiful" budget bill is passed. The Congressional Budget Office projected that US debt as a share of GDP would exceed the 1940s era peak in coming years. Long-term US bonds have also come under pressure due to fiscal worries, with the 30-year Treasury yield trading at about 5% from just over 4% at the start of 2024. Rating agency Moody's stripped the US of its triple-A credit rating this month. The Treasury bond market has grown from around $5T in 2008 to $29T today due to government cuts and increased spending, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.
-The UN has declared that Gaza's entire population is at risk of famine due to the implementation of a controversial US and Israeli-backed aid scheme using private companies. The warning comes as Hamas considers the latest Washington-backed ceasefire proposal, which includes expanded aid distribution through the UN but does not guarantee the militant group's key demand of permanently ending the war. The UN's humanitarian arm OCHA stated that it was nearly impossible to safely carry aid into the enclave due to security and bureaucratic obstacles. The resumption of some aid deliveries into Gaza after a two-month Israeli blockade has done little to ease starvation conditions, with new distribution hubs marked by chaos and almost no supplies reaching northern Gaza. At least 47 Palestinians were reportedly wounded by gunshots while seeking to collect food from a distribution hub on Tuesday. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US and Israeli-backed group aiming to take over food distribution in Gaza from the UN, denied that anyone had been injured and stated that it had distributed more than 2 million meals to Gazans over the last four days.
-Donald Trump has confirmed that Elon Musk is not leaving the US government, despite his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). Trump credited Musk with running the most sweeping government reform program in generations at the department. Musk's time as head of Doge came to an abrupt end this week after he criticized central parts of the Trump administration's policy agenda. He was also forced to focus on his companies after they suffered blowback over his ties to the Trump administration. Trump credited Musk with running the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations at the Department of Government Efficiency.
-Diplomats predict that without increased pressure from Israel's ally, the US, which has proposed a ceasefire in Gaza, Netanyahu's government is unlikely to change course. The veteran prime minister and his allies have been defiant, vowing to continue fighting until Hamas is destroyed and discussing the displacement of Gaza's population. This has raised suspicions that they have no intention of permanently ending the war but are focused on making the strip uninhabitable. The real question is whether Donald Trump finds Netanyahu's behavior interferes with his own priorities. The Trump administration has stressed the notion of 'no daylight' between the US and Israel, but whether this adds up to serious leverage and real-world consequences remains to be seen.
-US embassies have been ordered to suspend visa approval processes for foreign students pending further social media screening. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has pledged to revoke Chinese student visas, particularly those studying in critical fields or linked to the Communist party. This move is part of measures against foreign academia and students, which analysts believe is eroding America's reputation as a safe destination for overseas study. Many are considering backup plans in other countries, as the US is no longer an ideal place for scientific research. Analysts warn that allowing xenophobic sentiments to go unchecked could lead to large-scale anti-Chinese incidents.
-US stocks experienced their biggest monthly rally since late 2023 in May, with the S&P 500 rising 6.2% and the Nasdaq Composite climbing 9.6%. The rallies were driven by the Magnificent Seven tech stocks, including Meta, Tesla, and Nvidia, which reported a 70% surge in quarterly revenue. Financials and industrials also climbed close to record highs. Stocks initially started rising on April 9, when President Trump announced a 90-day pause to his tariffs on most of the country's major trading partners. The US and UK announced a trade deal in early May, and a move by the US and China to cut tariffs for at least 90 days further boosted Wall Street equities. The sentiment remains optimistic and unafraid, as stocks continue to rise despite the ongoing pressure on US Treasuries and the dollar.
-Gerry Adams, former leader of Ireland's Sinn Féin party, has won a defamation lawsuit against the BBC, claiming it damaged his reputation as a peacemaker. The jury awarded Adams €100,000 in damages over a 2016 documentary and online article that claimed he sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson, a British MI5 agent in 2006. Adams had sought €200,000 in damages and denied all involvement. The victory was a significant victory for Adams, who has always denied being a member of the IRA, which fought to end British rule of Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Adams, president of Sinn Féin from 1983 to 2018, is a respected figure in the republican movement but is also criticized for his closeness to the IRA, including carrying paramilitary coffins at their funerals. BBC Northern Ireland director Adam Smyth expressed disappointment with the verdict, stating it could hinder freedom of expression.

NEW YORK TIMES
-The Trump administration's actions, including denying visas, expelring foreign students, and reducing research spending, are raising concerns among US scientists. They warn that the US's global supremacy in fields such as health, biology, and physical sciences may be coming to an end. David W. Hogg, a professor of physics and data science at New York University, warns that if things continue as they are, American science may be ruined. The administration has made rapid research cuts and curtailed foreign student presence. For example, the administration has blocked international students from attending Harvard, terminated or paused over $3B in research grants, and laid off over 2,000 people at Johns Hopkins University after losing $800M in government grants. The National Science Foundation, the world's leading funding agency in the physical sciences, has been issuing financing for new grants at its slowest rate since at least 1990.
-President Trump is expressing independence from external constraints on judicial nominations, aiming for loyalists who align with his agenda and criticizing the conservative legal network that influenced his selection of judges. Trump criticized the Federalist Society for their negative advice on numerous judicial nominations. The Justice Department undercut the traditional role of the American Bar Association in vetting judicial nominees earlier this week. Trump recently picked a loyalist without deep ties to the conservative legal movement for a life-tenured appeals court seat.
-China is reportedly stealing scientific expertise from the US to benefit Chinese companies and markets. National security officials claim this activity occurs in both business and college settings. To counter this threat, federal agents have been providing classified briefings to college officials and warnings to colleges. However, these efforts have led to controversy and distrust between educators and investigators. In 2018, F.B.I. director Christopher A. Wray criticized some college administrators for their naivety towards the danger posed by Chinese students, teachers, and researchers. The Justice Department initiated the China Initiative in 2018 to combat trade secret theft.
-The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has requested a federal appeals court to prevent President Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans accused of being gang members to a prison in El Salvador. The request is an opening salvo in a legal battle over Trump's aggressive deportation agenda. The case, which emerged from a Texas lawsuit, is set to become the first of its kind to receive a full hearing by the Supreme Court. The ACLU has been filing lawsuits to stop Trump from deporting Venezuelans accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua street gang.
-A federal investigator requested information about a 32-year-old woman, Leqaa Kordia, who was arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University and detained for overstaying her visa. The police provided her birth date, address, and a sealed arrest report. However, federal prosecutors presented only a $1,000 MoneyGram transfer to her relatives in Gaza. The judge, Tara Naselow-Nahas, ordered Kordia to be released on a $20,000 bond, but she remains at the Prairieland Detention Facility in Texas.
-The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its policy on Covid shots for children, stating that they will remain on the schedule for healthy children aged 6 months to 17 years old, but with a new condition of "shared decision-making" between the child and their caregiver. The vaccines will also be available to 38M low-income children who rely on the Vaccines for Children program. This move has caused concern among pediatricians and public health experts, who fear the policy could lead to insurers and government programs reducing or dropping vaccine coverage.
-The Trump administration has terminated a $258M program aimed at developing HIV vaccines, affecting the research efforts of Duke University and Scripps Research Institute. The program, which was collaborating with other research partners, was instrumental in the search for a vaccine. The work was applicable to various treatments for other illnesses, including Covid drugs, snake antivenom, and autoimmune diseases. The elimination of the program is the latest in a series of cuts to HIV-related initiatives, particularly in prevention. The N.I.H. also paused funding for a clinical trial of an HIV vaccine made by Moderna.
-The Trump administration and Congress are attempting to hinder the growth of electric vehicles by imposing a new tax and favoring oil and gasoline. Electric vehicles, like their predecessors in the 1900s, faced challenges in market acceptance and were often seen as less convenient than internal combustion engines. In 2023, President Trump defended electric cars, stating they were good for towing companies and could not be used in New Hampshire.
-North Korea, facing economic challenges due to sanctions, natural disasters, and the coronavirus pandemic, has found a solution to its military issues by partnering with Russia. In exchange, Moscow has revived a Cold War-era treaty of mutual defense and cooperation, providing North Korea with resources and technologies to modernize its military. South Korean officials and analysts warn that the growing military cooperation between Russia and North Korea could threaten the delicate military balance around the Korean Peninsula. The disintegration of the old Soviet bloc created a gap between North and South Korea in conventional weapons abilities, leading North Korea to focus on developing nuclear warheads and missiles.

NEW YORK POST
-Sen. Josh Hawley has revealed that a former President Joe Biden was so disoriented at the White House that he would "get lost in his closet." Hawley argued that the Democratic cover-up of Biden's mental decline is one of the biggest scandals in presidential history. The Missouri Republican claimed that the whistleblower was assigned to Biden and that he spoke to numerous Secret Service agents while investigating the assassination attempts against President Trump. Hawley's disclosure of the whistleblower's claim comes amid multiple congressional investigations into Biden's cognitive abilities and the role his staff played in running the country. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is probing the possible use of an autopen by Biden's subordinates to sign off on White House directives and pardons without the president's knowledge. Comer has requested testimony from Dr. Kevin O'Connor, the White House physician during the Biden administration, as part of the probe.
-Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) could eliminate half of all entry-level, white-collar jobs within the next five years. Amodei argued that politicians and businesses are not prepared for the potential spike in unemployment rates AI could cause. AI is becoming better at almost all intellectual tasks, and society will collectively grapple with it. Companies like Anthropic are building technology that could boost unemployment in America as high as 20% by 2030. AI can work nearly seven hours a day and has the skills typically required of entry-level corporate workers. Amodei urged US politicians to consider implementing a tax on AI labs, stating that the broader public and politicians are not fully aware of the situation. He acknowledged that it would not be in his economic interest to do so.

NYT : On the Campaign Trail, Elon Musk Juggled Drugs and Family Drama

On the Campaign Trail, Elon Musk Juggled Drugs and Family Drama
As Mr. Musk entered President Trump’s orbit, his private life grew increasingly tumultuous and his drug use was more intense than previously known.

As Elon Musk became one of Donald J. Trump’s closest allies last year, leading raucous rallies and donating about $275 million to help him win the presidency, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known, according to people familiar with his activities.

Mr. Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it.

It is unclear whether Mr. Musk, 53, was taking drugs when he became a fixture at the White House this year and was handed the power to slash the federal bureaucracy. But he has exhibited erratic behavior, insulting cabinet members, gesturing like a Nazi and garbling his answers in a staged interview.

At the same time, Mr. Musk’s family life has grown increasingly tumultuous as he has negotiated overlapping romantic relationships and private legal battles involving his growing brood of children, according to documents and interviews.

On Wednesday evening, Mr. Musk announced that he was ending his stint with the government, after lamenting how much time he had spent on politics instead of his businesses.

Mr. Musk and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment this week about his drug use and personal life. He has previously said he was prescribed ketamine for depression, taking it about every two weeks. And he told his biographer, “I really don’t like doing illegal drugs.”

The White House declined to comment on Mr. Musk’s drug use. At a news conference with Mr. Trump on Friday afternoon, Mr. Musk was asked about The New York Times’s coverage. He questioned the newspaper’s credibility and told the reporter to “move on.”

As a large government contractor, Mr. Musk’s aerospace firm, SpaceX, must maintain a drug-free work force and administers random drug tests to its employees. But Mr. Musk has received advance warning of the tests, according to people close to the process. SpaceX did not respond to questions about those warnings.

Mr. Musk, who joined the president’s inner circle after making a vast fortune on cars, satellites and rocket ships, has long been known for grandiose statements and a mercurial personality. Supporters see him as an eccentric genius whose slash-and-burn management style is key to his success.

But last year, as he jumped into the political arena, some people who knew him worried about his frequent drug use, mood swings and fixation on having more children. This account of his behavior is based on private messages obtained by The Times as well as interviews with more than a dozen people who have known or worked with him.

This year, some of his longtime friends have renounced him, pointing to some of his public conduct.

“Elon has pushed the boundaries of his bad behavior more and more,” said Philip Low, a neuroscientist and onetime friend of Mr. Musk’s who criticized him for his Nazi-like gesture at a rally.

And some women are challenging Mr. Musk for control of their children.

One of his former partners, Claire Boucher, the musician known as Grimes, has been fighting with Mr. Musk over their 5-year-old son, known as X. Mr. Musk is extremely attached to the boy, taking him to the Oval Office and high-profile gatherings that are broadcast around the world.

Ms. Boucher has privately complained that the appearances violate a custody settlement in which she and Mr. Musk agreed to try to keep their children out of the public eye, according to people familiar with her concerns and the provision, which has not been previously reported. She has told people that she worries about the boy’s safety, and that frequent travel and sleep deprivation are harming his health.

Another mother, the right-leaning writer Ashley St. Clair, revealed in February that she had a secret relationship with Mr. Musk and had given birth to his 14th known child. Mr. Musk offered her a large settlement to keep his paternity concealed, but she refused. He sought a gag order in New York to force Ms. St. Clair to stop speaking publicly, she said in an interview.

A Ketamine Habit
Mr. Musk has described some of his mental health issues in interviews and on social media, saying in one post that he has felt “great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress.” He has denounced traditional therapy and antidepressants.

He plays video games for hours on end. He struggles with binge eating, according to people familiar with his habits, and takes weight-loss medication. And he posts day and night on his social media platform, X.

Mr. Musk has a history of recreational drug use, The Wall Street Journal reported last year. Some board members at Tesla, his electric vehicle company, have worried about his use of drugs, including Ambien, a sleep medication.

In an interview in March 2024, the journalist Don Lemon pressed him on his drug use. Mr. Musk said he took only “a small amount” of ketamine, about once every two weeks, as a prescribed treatment for negative moods.

“If you’ve used too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done, and I have a lot of work,” he said.

He had actually developed a far more serious habit, The Times found.

Mr. Musk had been using ketamine often, sometimes daily, and mixing it with other drugs, according to people familiar with his consumption. The line between medical use and recreation was blurry, troubling some people close to him.

He also took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms at private gatherings across the United States and in at least one other country, according to those who attended the events.

The Food and Drug Administration has formally approved the use of ketamine only as an anesthetic in medical procedures. Doctors with a special license may prescribe it for psychiatric disorders like depression. But the agency has warned about its risks, which came into sharp relief after the death of the actor Matthew Perry. The drug has psychedelic properties and can cause dissociation from reality. Chronic use can lead to addiction and problems with bladder pain and control.

By the spring of last year, Mr. Musk was ramping up criticism of President Joseph R. Biden Jr., particularly his policies on illegal immigration and diversity initiatives.

Mr. Musk was also facing federal investigations into his businesses. Regulators were looking into crashes of Tesla’s self-driving cars and allegations of racism at its factories, among other complaints.

“There are at least half a dozen initiatives of significance to take me down,” he wrote in a text message to someone close to him last May. “The Biden administration views me as the #2 threat after Trump.”

“I can’t be president, but I can help Trump defeat Biden and I will,” he added.

He publicly endorsed Mr. Trump in July.

Around that time, Mr. Musk told people that his ketamine use was causing bladder issues, according to people familiar with the conversations.

On Oct. 5, he appeared with Mr. Trump at a rally for the first time, bouncing up and down around the candidate. That evening, Mr. Musk shared his excitement with a person close to him. “I’m feeling more optimistic after tonight,” he wrote in a text message. “Tomorrow we unleash the anomaly in the matrix.”

“This is not something on the chessboard, so they will be quite surprised,” Mr. Musk added about an hour later. “‘Lasers’ from space.”

After Mr. Trump won, Mr. Musk rented a cottage at Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect’s Florida resort, to assist with the transition. Mr. Musk attended personnel meetings and sat in on phone calls with foreign leaders. And he crafted plans to overhaul the federal government under the new Department of Government Efficiency.

Family Secrets
Mr. Musk has also been juggling the messy consequences of his efforts to produce more babies.

By 2022, Mr. Musk, who has married and divorced three times, had fathered six children in his first marriage (including one who died in infancy), as well as two with Ms. Boucher. She told people she believed they were in a monogamous relationship and building a family together.

But while a surrogate was pregnant with their third child, Ms. Boucher was furious to discover that Mr. Musk had recently fathered twins with Shivon Zilis, an executive at his brain implant company, Neuralink, according to people familiar with the situation.

Mr. Musk was by then sounding an alarm that the world’s declining birthrates would lead to the end of civilization, publicly encouraging people to have children and donating $10 million to a research initiative on population growth.

Privately, he was spending time with Simone and Malcolm Collins, prominent figures in the emerging pronatalist movement, and urging his wealthy friends to have as many children as possible. He believed the world needed more intelligent people, according to people aware of the conversations.

Mr. Collins declined to comment on his relationship with Mr. Musk, but said, “Elon is one of the people taking this cause seriously.”

Even as Mr. Musk fathered more children, he favored his son X. By the fall of 2022, during a period when he and Ms. Boucher were broken up, he began traveling with the boy for days at a time, often without providing advance notice, according to people familiar with his actions.

Ms. Boucher reconciled with Mr. Musk, only to get another unpleasant surprise. In August 2023, she learned that Ms. Zilis was expecting a third child with Mr. Musk via surrogacy and was pregnant with their fourth.

Ms. Boucher and Mr. Musk began a contentious custody battle, during which Mr. Musk kept X for months. They eventually signed the joint custody agreement that specified keeping their children out of the spotlight.

By mid-2023, unknown to either Ms. Boucher or Ms. Zilis, Mr. Musk had started a romantic relationship with Ms. St. Clair, the writer, who lives in New York City.

Ms. St. Clair said in an interview that at first, Mr. Musk told her he wasn’t dating anyone else. But when she was about six months pregnant, he acknowledged that he was romantically involved with Ms. Zilis, who went on to become a more visible fixture in Mr. Musk’s life.

Ms. St. Clair said that Mr. Musk told her he had fathered children around the world, including one with a Japanese pop star. He said he would be willing to give his sperm to anyone who wanted to have a child.

“He made it seem like it was just his altruism and he generally believed these people should just have children,” Ms. St. Clair said.

Ms. St. Clair said that when she was in a delivery room giving birth in September, Mr. Musk told her over disappearing Signal messages that he wanted to keep his paternity and their relationship quiet.

On election night, Ms. St. Clair and Mr. Musk both went to Mar-a-Lago to celebrate Mr. Trump’s victory. But she had to pretend that she hardly knew him, she said.

He offered her $15 million and $100,000 a month until their son turned 21, in exchange for her silence, according to documents reviewed by The Times and first reported by The Journal. But she did not want her son’s paternity to be hidden.

After she went public in February, ahead of a tabloid story, she sued Mr. Musk to acknowledge paternity and, later, to get emergency child support.

Mr. Musk sought a gag order, claiming that any publicity involving the child, or comments by Ms. St. Clair on her experience, would be a security risk for the boy.

‘No Sympathy for This Behavior’
Some of Mr. Musk’s onetime friends have aired concerns about what they considered toxic public behavior.

In a January newsletter explaining why their friendship had ended, Sam Harris, a public intellectual, wrote that Mr. Musk had used his social media platform to defame people and promote lies.

“There is something seriously wrong with his moral compass, if not his perception of reality,” Dr. Harris wrote.

Later that month, at a Trump inauguration event, Mr. Musk thumped his chest and thrust his hand diagonally upward, resembling a fascist salute. “My heart goes out to you,” he told the crowd. “It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured.”

Mr. Musk dismissed the resulting public outcry, saying he had made a “positive gesture.”

Dr. Low, who is chief executive of NeuroVigil, a neurotechnology company, was outraged by the performance. He wrote Mr. Musk a sharp email, shared with The Times, cursing him “for giving the Nazi salute.”

When Mr. Musk didn’t respond to the message, Dr. Low posted his concerns on social media. “I have no sympathy for this behavior,” he wrote on Facebook, referring to the gesture as well as other behaviors. “At some point, after having repeatedly confronted it in private, I believe the ethical thing to do is to speak out, forcefully and unapologetically.”

The next month, Mr. Musk once again found himself under scrutiny, this time for an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington.

As he walked onto the stage, he was handed a chain saw from one of his political allies, Javier Milei, the president of Argentina. “This is the chain saw for bureaucracy!” Mr. Musk shouted to the cheering crowd.

Some conference organizers told The Times that they did not notice anything out of the ordinary about his behavior behind the scenes. But during an onstage interview, he spoke in disjointed bouts of stuttering and laughing, with sunglasses on. Clips of it went viral as many viewers speculated about possible drug use.

WWD : Saks Global Hits ‘Turning Point,’ According to CEO Marc Metrick

Saks Global Hits ‘Turning Point,’ According to CEO Marc Metrick
With a new credit agreement in hand and 2024 results in the books, Metrick told WWD, "We cleared the air and we've cleared the path for growth."

Marc Metrick sees bright skies ahead for Saks Global.

Of course, he would. As chief executive officer of the still-new combination of Saks and Neiman Marcus with plans to “reset” luxury retailing, he has a big stake in that future.

But since Saks bought Neiman’s in a $2.7 billion deal two days before Christmas, the narrative around the company has been less about reinvention than it has been about finances — from when it will pay vendors and how quickly it can cut costs to the rapid decline in its bond price and the race to shore up its liquidity.

Now, with financial results for 2024 in the books and some new financing coming into place, Metrick is hoping to put some of the balance sheet minutia aside and be more of the visionary CEO.

“Today is the turning point,” Metrick told WWD in an exclusive interview on Friday following a conference call with bondholders covering year-end results. “We cleared the air and we’ve cleared the path for growth. Saks is on very good footing, well underway on repairing and strengthening our brand partnerships, rebuilding trust with our brands. The balance sheet is now something that people should not worry about. There’s $700 million of liquidity.”

Just how much brands and bondholders and other investors will worry about the balance sheet now remains to be seen. The story at Saks has changed before, with dreams of a transformed luxury landscape chased by financial strain.

But investors seemed to take heart. According to FINRA, Saks’ bonds were going for more than 47 cents on the dollar on Friday. That’s still low, but up significantly from under 39 cents earlier in the week.

And certainly some of the burden has been relieved.

Saks has a $120 million bond interest payment due next month, another $120 million payment due in December and promises to make $275 million in back payments to vendors to stack up against that $700 million.

Half of the liquidity comes from $350 million in financing Saks secured late Thursday. The package included a $300 million FILO facility that was carved out of Saks’ asset backed lending facility as well as a $50 million secured term loan, both from SLR Credit Solutions.

“Saks is in it and we’re going to do something great,” Metrick said. “The most important thing to me is reestablishing the credibility that we have with our partners and [realizing] synergies well ahead of plan.”

The company plans to cut $600 million out of its annual cost base over the next five years by trimming down as Neiman’s is integrated into Saks. That’s $100 million more than initially envisioned. By the end of the year, Saks plans to have cut costs by a run-rate of $285 million.

Metrick is out on the highwire, looking to perform one more trick.

Already Saks pulled off what many thought was impossible, fulfilling a long-held dream of executive chairman Richard Baker’s, the force behind the company. Without enough cash to pay vendors and with sales in decline, Saks managed to raise enough debt to buy the much stronger Neiman’s.

The company now has total borrowings of $4.3 billion, including $1 billion drawn from an asset-backed lending facility, $2.2 billion in bonds due in 2029 and a $1.3 billion non-recourse mortgage on the Saks Fifth Avenue Manhattan flagship.

Now, it’s cutting costs and updating its business model so it an afford that debt and fulfill the dream of a new luxury retail landscape.

Fortune is said to favor the bold and Metrick and Baker are certainly that.

But to work, their plans will have to be backed up by a growing business.

Some of Saks’ allies are already feeling better.

Gary Wassner, CEO of Hilldun Corp., has continued to support Saks as one of the few factors willing to finance shipments of goods to the company.

“I am approving orders with much more sureness,” Wassner said. “With the cost-cutting measures they’re putting into effect, and the synergies between the now-merged entities that are already impacting them positively, they now have more of a runway to achieve the full savings and efficiencies that they initially predicted would greatly improve their cash flow and profitability.

“We should all want Saks Global to succeed,” he said. “No one benefits if it fails. It dominates the U.S. luxury and designer market. The merged companies got off to a rough start, for sure. And everyone felt the stress, and many suffered from the situation. Now it’s up to management to take advantage of their positioning, rebuild confidence in the market, and start making money.”

For the year ended Feb. 1, Saks said revenues totaled $3.8 billion. That included about $432 million in sales from Neiman Marcus Group, which was acquired on Dec. 23.

The “credit group” — the company’s main business, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and the Saks Off 5th brick-and-mortar stores, which are all financed collectively — produced sales of $3.5 billion for the year.

Incorporating Neiman’s business for the whole year, sales fell 10 percent to $7.3 billion. Gross profit margins for the main business stood at 41 percent on a combined basis in 2024, an improvement of 80 basis points that was driven by lower markdowns and more concession sales.

While cutting price markdowns is a continual goal for retailers, Saks got there in the wrong way.

The company’s slow — or non-existent — payments cut off the flow of goods to its stores and website, which according to one source, did not receive $650 million worth of inventory that it otherwise would have last year.

Going forward, Saks does not intend to keep leaning into concessions, but plans keep migrating toward a new approach.

“We’re looking to reinvent the model,” Metrick said. “It’s not concession. It’s not wholesale. What’s the new model look like? The brands are excited to do that. Obviously for us, we have to figure out what’s the best model for us to have all the data control, the customer experience, all that.”

Saks made one key change right away and extended payment terms to vendors to 90 days from 30 days.

While that change, coming after years of slow payment from Saks, caused an uproar when it was rolled out in February, it also helped the company play catch-up with its suppliers.

The longer terms essentially gave Saks a $600 million boost — $400 million of which went to pay off past-due bills while the other $200 million was included with working capital, a source said.

Now the company is said to owe $275 million to vendors from past shipments and plans to start paying that down over a year of monthly installments, starting in July. (There have been reports that Saks owed $1.3 billion in back bills last summer, but a source said that was the company’s total payables at the time).

Saks said that its inventory flow was now “steadily improving” and that that led to a pick-up in sales later in the first quarter. The trend is expected to “normalize through summer and into its fall inventory build.”

Selling, general and administrative expenses came in at 42 percent of revenues last year, an increase of about 30 basis points, primarily due to the legacy Saks operations.

All that boiled down to adjusted losses before interest, taxes and depreciation of $102 million, which included $42 million in earnings from Neiman’s during the last six weeks of the year.

On a combined basis, adjusted EBITDA totaled $161 million for the year, with Neiman’s profits covering up for Saks’ business’ deficit.

Saks snagged Neiman’s. Now, Metrick has to make the whole thing work.

TechCrunch : How a decade-old patent dispute could upend Uber’s business

How a decade-old patent dispute could upend Uber’s business

A little-known patent infringement lawsuit could have big implications for Uber — and potentially dozens of other companies.

Carma Technology, a company formed in 2007 by serial entrepreneur and SOSV founder Sean O’Sullivan, filed a lawsuit earlier this year against Uber alleging the company infringed on five of its patents that are related to the system of matching riders (or packages) with capacity in vehicles. In other words, ridesharing — a business Carma operated in some form for a decade until it changed its business model and applied its tech to road-pricing services like GPS tolling and HOV verification.

Carma has requested a jury trial and is seeking a permanent injunction against the company, mandatory future royalties on any Uber products that infringe on those patents as well as damages, and other costs related to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, which has been quietly winding its way through the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, is relatively new. The allegations have been swirling for nearly a decade.

Carma lawyers first contacted Uber about its ridesharing and ground transportation patents in 2016, according to the complaint. That was an auspicious time for Uber. The startup, which was founded just seven years before, had shot into the stratosphere — in terms of valuation, growth, and gravitas.

Uber was valued at $66 billion at the time, and had a reputation for taking big, legally sticky swings into new markets that helped it grow to hundreds of cities in the U.S., Europe, Canada, and the Middle East. It had raised more than $12.5 billion in venture capital, and was using it to launch new products and even push into autonomous vehicles.

Uber might have had the business model and the market share, but it didn’t have the specific ridesharing patents, O’Sullivan told TechCrunch in a recent interview. Carma does — plus a couple dozen others. Uber was allegedly aware of that fact as early as 2015 when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected one of its applications because it ran up against existing patents held by O’Sullivan and Carma, according to the lawsuit.

At least four of Uber’s patent applications — and in some cases numerous revisions to those patents — were rejected between 2016 and 2019 for the same reason. The rideshare giant would eventually abandon some of those applications.

Uber still holds hundreds of other patents covering a broad swath of technology and ideas that have been applied to its business.

O’Sullivan argues the core service of what Carma’s patents describe is exactly how the modern day ridesharing experience operates. And he contends that Uber is infringing on those patents even if the company’s business model operates more like a taxi business.

The case is a complicated one, intellectual property attorney Larry Ashery told TechCrunch. (Ashery is not involved in the case.)

“What’s important to understand here is Carma isn’t just asserting five patents,” said Ashery, whose practice is based in the Greater Philadelphia area. “They have had a very sophisticated strategy of patent procurement that they’ve been working on for the past 18 years.”

He noted the five patents are part of a 30-patent family that are all related and connected to the original filing date. That matters because each of the five asserted patents contains multiple patent claims, which define the legal boundaries of the invention. These individual claims — not just the patents as a whole — are what Carma is asserting against Uber.

That means Uber will have to address and defend against each asserted claim, making the litigation more complex and difficult to defeat, he noted. Ashery said Uber’s strategy will likely be to try to invalidate these patents, which will be a challenge.

A nine-year gap

Image Credits:Carma

While Carma might have been armed with these specific patents, it took nine years for the company to actually sue Uber. Bunsow De Mory, a Redwood City-based law firm, is representing Carma in the case.

“When any business starts, it’s all about just actually capturing the market and winning in the marketplace,” O’Sullivan said. “Patents are meant to protect against aggressors from stealing the idea, but it’s not the main focus of your business to get patent revenue. It’s more as a protective mechanism.”

Carma, he said, has been “very busy building a multimillion-dollar business and getting to profitability.” But there are other reasons for that nine-year time gap, O’Sullivan explained. For one, the cost.

“It’s incredibly expensive to sue a large company over IP and Carma is a relatively small organization,” he said in a recent interview. “To come up with the $10 million-plus to take on a big patent suit, which is what it takes these days, is not a small task.”

O’Sullivan said the company did reach out to Uber as far back as 2016 “in the hopes that they would do the right thing and license our patents.”

“It really took us a while to come to terms with the idea that we actually had to sue Uber in order for them to respond,” he added.

Uber declined to comment on the lawsuit. Uber’s attorneys did make two procedural motions this week, including a sealed motion to dismiss for improper venue or alternatively to transfer venue for convenience. This procedural motion signals Uber’s desire for the case to be litigated in the Northern District of California, where it is based, rather than in Texas.

Notably, the lawsuit is aimed at Uber, not Lyft or other companies using ridesharing. O’Sullivan explained Carma is “going after the biggest player first” and noted that about 60 other companies are likely infringing on its patents.

The five-patent argument
The primary argument in the lawsuit ties back to five patents that have been granted to O’Sullivan and Carma, which was originally named Avego.

It all started with O’Sullivan’s frustration with traffic congestion, which ultimately led to thoughts about carpooling and how an automated system using smartphones could help people coordinate rides. That idea would turn into the startup Avego and become the basis of the first patent — No. 7,840,427.

The first patent, which O’Sullivan applied for in 2007 and was granted in 2010, created a shared transport system that matches empty space in a vehicle with riders or goods. The system established a set of pick-up and drop-off points and then matched users and drivers traveling along a similar route.

Before the patent was granted Avego’s ridesharing app debuted on Apple’s App Store in 2008, the same year the iPhone launched. Avego showed off its so-called Shared Transport app at the DEMO conference in 2008, which showed how a driver with an iPhone 3G could use the app to accept or reject a ride request. Once accepted, the rider was notified as the driver approached and then was prompted to enter a pin code to prove their identity and authorize an electronic payment.

Avego, which would later change its name to Carma, was focused on the promotion of ridesharing (as in carpooling) and not taxis, according to O’Sullivan. The company operated the carpooling business until October 2016, when the app was withdrawn from the App store. However, it still had other forms of ridesharing, like its partnership with Toyota, until phasing it out altogether in April 2018.

“If you look at the definition of ridesharing in federal legislation, it is carpooling,” O’Sullivan said, noting that Carma built up a multimillion-dollar ridesharing business in its early days.

When Uber and Lyft came in and tried to co-opt the term ridesharing to mean taxi-hailing it caused confusion in the market, prompting Carma to change its business model and apply its tech in new ways. “Uber and Lyft really took ridesharing in the direction of taxi services, but our company Carma didn’t want to,” O’Sullivan said.

Carma is still focused on reducing traffic congestion, but its tech is applied to a different business model.

Today, Carma uses its app to help transit authorities manage tolls and express lanes — a product line the company first rolled out in 2013. For instance, the app can be used by a driver on a toll road or even track vehicle occupancy for HOV lanes. The app is designed to get more riders into cars and reward those people by reducing tolls or giving drivers access to the HOV lane.

The idea, O’Sullivan said, is to offer toll authorities a way to reduce capital expenditure by up to 20 times by not using large gantry-based infrastructure systems. And it has paid off.

O’Sullivan says Carma is profitable, although pursuing this lawsuit will cut into its bottom line. Still, he said it’s worth the cost.

“I think there’s a danger in society where we can’t rely on our patents to protect the rights of the inventors, and the patent system exists specifically to protect the rights of investors, not to reward copycats that just happen to have deeper pockets,” he said, pointing to Uber’s attempts at its own patents and the rejection of them by the USPTO.

“We think it’s something that’s important to recognize that the rights of a relatively small inventor are being trampled upon. But it’s not just for Carma, really. We think of this as a problem for the entire system. It’s a test of whether the rule of law still applies when a powerful tech giant is involved.”

CrunchBase : The Week’s Biggest Funding Rounds: Another Billion-Dollar AI Raise

The Week’s Biggest Funding Rounds: Another Billion-Dollar AI Raise Leads List That Includes Lots Of Biotech And More AI

This week ended up as a pretty active one for large startup financings. AI and biotech were the biggest areas for funding, led by Grammarly’s $1 billion raise, and a reported $600 million financing for brain implant developer Neuralink.

1. Grammarly, $1B, artificial intelligence: AI writing and productivity assistant Grammarly secured $1 billion in funding from longtime investor General Catalyst. The San Francisco-based company said it plans to use its new capital, which came from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, “to scale sales and marketing and for strategic acquisitions.”

2. Neuralink, $600M, neuroscience: Neuralink, the Elon Musk-founded brain implant startup, reportedly raised $600 million in a funding round that sets a $9 billion pre-money valuation. The Fremont, California-based company is currently working on a clinical trial of its brain-computer interface for people with quadriplegia.

3. ClickHouse, $350M, analytics: ClickHouse, a provider of analytics, data warehousing and machine learning technology, raised $350 million in a Series C financing led by Khosla Ventures. The Palo Alto-California-based company also secured a $100 million credit facility led by Stifel Bank and Goldman Sachs.

4. Grin Therapeutics, $140M, biotech: New York-based Grin Therapeutics, a developer of therapies to treat serious neurodevelopmental disorders, closed on $140 million in Series D funding. The financing included a $65 million strategic equity investment from Angelini Pharma and $75 million from existing investor Blackstone Life Sciences.

5. Snorkel AI, $100M, artificial intelligence: Snorkel AI, announced it has raised $100 million in Series D funding at a $1.3 billion valuation. Addition led the financing for the 6-year-old Redwood City, California-based company, which makes tools for evaluation and tuning of specialized AI systems.

6. Syndeio Biosciences, $90M, biotech: Indianapolis-based Syndeio Biosciences, a developer of precision neurotherapeutics for central nervous system diseases, announced its launch this week in conjunction with securing over $90 million from a syndicate of life science investors. Backers include Catalio Capital Management and Innoviva.

7. David, $75M, food and beverage: David, a maker of energy bars in which 75% of calories come from protein, closed a $75 million Series A funding round led by Greenoaks and joined by Valor Equity Partners. The New York company also acquired Epogee, a food technology firm offering a plant-based fat alternative.

8. Empathy, $72M, bereavement: New York-based Empathy, a provider of support services for managing bereavement and loss, picked up $72 million in a Series C financing led by Adams Street Partners. The company’s partners include major life insurers, and it says 45 million policyholders across North America are currently able to use its offerings.

9. Hex Technologies, $70M, analytics: San Francisco-based Hex Technologies, provider of an AI-enabled analytics platform for data science teams, raised $70 million in Series C funding. Some backers in the round include Avra, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Snowflake Ventures.

10. Vima Therapeutics, $60M, biotech: Vima Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup focused on oral therapies for movement disorders announced its launch this week, along with $60 million in Series A financing led by Atlas Venture, with participation from Access Industries and Canaan Partners.

FT : Inter Milan’s European run masks off-field challenges for owner Oaktree

Inter Milan’s European run masks off-field challenges for owner Oaktree
Champions League final comes just a year after US firm seized control but club has not made an annual profit for a decade

A year after being seized by its main creditor Oaktree Capital, Inter Milan stands on the brink of an unlikely triumph. On Saturday night the famed Italian football club faces Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the Champions League, European football’s highest prize. 

The US distressed debt investor took control of Inter a year ago after its previous owner, Chinese retailer Suning, failed to repay a €400mn loan secured against its controlling stake in the club, which people close to the firm say was valued at about €1bn at the time of the ownership change.

“Oaktree did a smart thing — they seized it on the cheap,” said the owner of a rival European football club.

Professional investors including sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and private equity firms have been pouring money into European football in recent years.

But Inter marked Oaktree’s first foray into sport and some observers question whether a $203bn investing powerhouse that specialises in chasing companies for unpaid debts has the skills to navigate the unforgiving world of Italian football.

“These guys have zero understanding of football, media rights and stadiums,” said a senior executive at another European club. “They think they know everything but they don’t. Most people expected them to sell immediately but surprisingly they haven’t.”

Inter’s recent fortunes have striking parallels with those of its crosstown rivals AC Milan, which was seized by US hedge fund Elliott Management in 2018 after the club’s Chinese owner defaulted on a €300mn loan. Elliott revamped the club on and off the pitch before selling it three years ago for €1.2bn to Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital Partners.

Unlike Elliott, Oaktree inherited a team that was thriving on the pitch — Inter were crowned Italian champions shortly before the firm took control and had appeared in the Champions League final a year earlier, where they lost to Manchester City.

However, the club has been struggling financially for years with persistent losses and high debt. How and when Oaktree might ultimately exit is also a big unknown — Inter had been for sale for more than two years before Suning’s debt default but had struggled to find a buyer.

Although turnover rose €48mn in the 2023-24 season to a record €473mn as strong results on the field boosted commercial revenues, Inter lost €36mn — an improvement from an €85mn loss a year earlier but still its 10th straight year without profit. During that period, Oaktree injected a total of €47mn of capital, according to the club.

Following the investment industry’s typical playbook after acquiring a business, Oaktree started with a 100-day plan.

Twelve months later it is behind schedule, according to one person familiar with the situation, who said that while it had found that things in Italy take longer than it had anticipated, its vision of how to strengthen Inter’s financial and operational stability remained unchanged.

Oaktree has sought to change “people and attitudes”, the person said. The club last June unveiled a new board that includes several representatives of the firm and promoted former director Giuseppe Marotta to president and chief executive.

The executive team has tried to focus on maximising revenues by renegotiating contracts with existing sponsors, finding new commercial partners and identifying growth opportunities. At €112mn, Inter’s commercial income last season was less than a third of PSG’s.

“It means thinking about running this club in a sustainable way, which is not what it had been,” said the person familiar with the situation.

As well as fixing the club’s finances and commercial operations, Oaktree will have to oversee the rebuilding of an ageing squad. Inter have fielded the oldest team in both the Italian league and the Champions League this year, with an average age of just under 30. 

Oaktree plans to use the “Champions League dividend” — the increased TV revenue and prize money from reaching the final — to invest in its youth teams and women’s squad, and upgrade its pitches, according to the person familiar with the situation.

Inter must also move past previous disappointments this season, having lost the final of the Italian Supercoppa to AC Milan in January and finished second in Serie A behind Napoli despite being top of the table for much of the season.

Looking further ahead, Oaktree’s most challenging task — and one crucial to the club’s finances — is to build a new stadium to replace the increasingly dilapidated San Siro, home to both Inter and AC Milan.

Demolishing the iconic venue is fraught with difficulties, from planning and financing to local politics. “Sometimes it felt like talking about knocking down San Siro was like talking about knocking down the Colosseum,” said the person familiar with the situation.

Inter and AC Milan have explored building separate venues outside the city limits. However, RedBird’s Cardinale told the Financial Times that the arrival of new owners at Inter had given him hope that a joint project to rebuild the San Siro would finally get off the ground.

“With the two of us joining forces, we should be able to bring a world class stadium to Milan which would set the standard for the rest of Italy and continental Europe,” he said.

For now the focus is on Saturday evening. Among those in attendance at Munich’s Allianz Arena will be Howard Marks, co-founder of Oaktree, and Alejandro Cano, its co-head of Europe who is overseeing the Inter investment.

Victory over Qatar-owned PSG would bring not only the laurels of being crowned European champions but €25mn in prize money.

Pundits and bookmakers see PSG as the favourites. Aside from boasting a youthful and exciting line-up of players, the French champions had double the revenues of Inter last season. 

But having defeated both Bayern Munich and Barcelona in dramatic fashion on the way to the final, Inter executives reject the underdog label.

“We’ve overcome world-class opponents . . . We’ve reached the final on merit,” Marotta said at a press conference this week. “We mustn’t be arrogant, but ambitious.”

WSJ : The Billionaire Odd Couple Whose Hedge Fund Is Killing It

The Billionaire Odd Couple Whose Hedge Fund Is Killing It
Paul Marshall and Ian Wace have almost nothing in common—except a $70 billion fund with a top-secret algorithm. Says Wace: ‘I don’t think I have really ever agreed with anything that Paul has ever said.’

LONDON—Investment duo Paul Marshall and Ian Wace outran competitors during the recent market turmoil with an unconventional trading strategy: a top-secret algorithm that analyzes tips from rival hedge funds and investment banks.

It’s Wall Street meets fantasy football. Stock salespeople and others across Wall Street submit trading recommendations to the duo’s hedge-fund firm, Marshall Wace. The firm analyzes the ideas and rewards firms of top contributors with millions of dollars of commissions each year.

The tips are run through algorithms that evaluate them alongside a host of other factors that the firm sources and scrapes each day. That includes information like social-media signals, fund flows and satellite imagery of everything from parking lots to oil tankers. The best ideas that arise from that data crunching are then put into action into many of the firm’s portfolios.

Others have tried and failed for years to fully match the strategy, which has propelled Marshall Wace into the ranks of the world’s largest hedge funds. It manages more than $70 billion and bested the performance of leviathans including Ken Griffin’s Citadel and Steve Cohen’s Point72 last year, delivering a 22.7% return in the firm’s hallmark fund that uses the algorithms, all with a staff a fraction of the size.

Marshall Wace has carried its winning streak through President Trump’s tariff-induced volatility, with that same fund up 7.1% for the year through April, even as broader markets swung violently. In comparison, a broad hedge-fund index tracked by research firm PivotalPath was up 0.1% over the same period, while the S&P 500 was down 5.3%.

The strategy is born of an unlikely partnership between Marshall and Wace—two billionaire co-founders who have little in common.

“I don’t think I have really ever agreed with anything that Paul has ever said,” Wace said in a rare interview at the firm’s headquarters in London’s posh Chelsea neighborhood. He contends he has never been to dinner with his business partner of nearly 30 years and has been to his house just once—to drop him off.

Even on that point the duo can’t seem to agree. Marshall insisted Wace must have been joking. “Of course we’ve been to each other’s houses.” But, he added, “we’re very, very different.… That’s the kernel of truth in what Ian says.”

Oxford-educated Marshall serves as chief investment officer, overseeing the fundamental stockpicking portfolios that gave the firm its roots. He is described by colleagues as calm and intellectual—a counterbalance to Wace’s intensity.

Outside of work, however, Marshall is a burgeoning power broker, bankrolling a clutch of conservative media properties in the U.K. He snapped up the Spectator magazine—often called the “Tory bible”—in September and founded UnHerd, a publication for people who “dare to think for themselves” in 2017. He also co-owns the rowdy GB News channel, which features presenters like Nigel Farage, the populist politician whose anti-immigration Reform UK party is on the rise.

Marshall disputes he himself is conservative, maintaining he is a classical liberal and a supporter of limited government, free markets and free speech. He’s increasingly taken those views public, calling last week for Britain’s BBC to be broken up or sold. (It “squats like a giant toad in the middle of the U.K. media landscape,” he said in a speech at Oxford). He also co-founded the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship and starred on stage this year at its London conference, often called the anti-woke version of Davos.

Last year, a U.K. advocacy group revealed he had engaged with inflammatory posts on X, including liking posts that called for “mass expulsions” of immigrants and predicted “civil war” with “fake refugee invaders” in Europe. Outcry followed, with demands that Marshall step down as chair of Ark Schools, a trust that operates schools across England. Marshall founded Ark, the children’s charity that funds Ark Schools, with other hedge-fund managers, including Wace. Marshall has since apologized and deleted the posts.

“To see your partner hurt is sad,” Wace said, of the social-media incident. “But we saw through it.”

Wace, the firm’s chief executive, is less outwardly political. When Marshall handed over £100,000 to a campaign in 2016 supporting Britain’s exit from the European Union, Wace donated £100,000 supporting the campaign to stay.

“I realized that it would be absolutely ridiculous to be considered a Brexit-loving company, so to neutralize it, I just did the opposite,” Wace said.

Colleagues describe Wace as an intense, energetic perfectionist—someone who, after serving in the army, climbed the ranks of British finance without a college degree. One former colleague recalls Wace coming to the office with his body blistered and one hand bandaged to the elbow—injuries sustained trying to light a pizza oven while on vacation. Roughly a week later, Wace was back at his desk, working as if nothing was amiss.

“They are totally different personalities, which is usually a recipe for disaster,” said Caron Bastianpillai, a portfolio manager at NS Partners, which invested early with Marshall Wace. “This is one of the rare instances where it’s been a huge success.”

Hedge funds tend to be run by a singular head who makes the final decisions. Think George Soros or John Paulson. Pairings are often associated with fallings out, including most recently at quant powerhouse Two Sigma, where clashes between the co-founders over the firm’s direction forced both men to step down as co-chief executives last year.

Marshall and Wace, now in their 60s, first met in 1985, while building their careers at British investment bank S.G. Warburg. Wace was the first broker inside the firm to call and introduce himself to Marshall, who was settling in as a fund manager.

The duo got to know each other while traveling frequently to France on business. Wace later faced a personal tragedy when his wife and two young children died in a car crash in 1994. Wace was driving in a vehicle ahead of them as they returned home from a vacation in the countryside.

A couple of years later, Wace approached Marshall with an idea: a hedge fund that blended Marshall’s investing expertise with Wace’s trading know-how. After scraping together $50 million, including from Soros, in 1997 they launched their first fund, called Eureka, a long-short equity fund that bet on and against stocks.

They didn’t initially agree on the idea that eventually became their winning formula. The firm, like most hedge funds, regularly received phone calls from Wall Street brokers, pitching Marshall Wace on stock ideas in hopes of gaining its trading business. Wace thought it was worth formally tracking and analyzing the ideas to see if they were fruitful. Marshall was skeptical.

Most people “on the buy-side like me were very arrogant about the sell-side,” Marshall said, referring to the financial world’s divide between investors and brokers. “Ian didn’t have that view at all.”

Wace tasked a summer intern, Anthony Clake, in the early 2000s to find a way to measure the ideas. The resulting spreadsheet evolved into what is known as TOPS, for Trade Optimized Portfolio System.

Today, more than 1,000 outside contributors, including the likes of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, submit trading ideas—alongside detailed explanations for them—into model portfolios, the performances of which are continuously tracked and individually displayed to participants. Some rival hedge funds, mostly smaller firms, also submit ideas, some of them too impractical to trade on their own. Top performing firms are rewarded quarterly with commissions, whether Marshall Wace trades on the ideas or not.

The firm can pay out hundreds of millions of dollars in a good year in total, according to a person familiar with the matter. TOPS has received over four million ideas since launch.

TOPS isn’t just analyzing the ideas that come in, however. It also tracks behavioral biases of participants themselves. It can examine, for instance, what time of day participants submit their best ideas, or whether they dump their winners too soon. Regular feedback detailing performance keeps participants hooked. Low performers can be cut from the program.

“It would be quite wrong to think of it as a simple translation of Joe Schmo’s idea into a portfolio,” said Marshall. “Joe Schmo may have an idea, and that might be a small part of a signal of whether or not that stock is interesting.” Wace says the firm processes over 30 petabytes of data each day, equivalent to 400 billion emails, to come up with the best trading ideas.

In its earliest days, the strategy faced skepticism. Some in the industry wondered whether the system would work in practice, or whether it was even legal.

Regulators also had questions, including if systems like TOPS utilized early or privileged access to inside information. British regulators probed the matter, finding in 2006 that the “clear audit trails” that came from participants’ electronic submissions suggested the risk of passing on inside information “might be lower than through traditional communication methods.” Still, they emphasized that firms need to have strong compliance practices in place.

TOPS now guides over $40 billion of assets, more than half the firm’s money. Investors and TOPS contributors say the system’s scale and long history has helped Marshall Wace remain the front-runner, even as the strategy has become more popular among hedge funds. Other firms—such as Two Sigma, Citadel and Man Group—have similar systems.

Marshall Wace has some 750 employees, compared with more than 3,000 employees at Citadel and nearly 1,800 at Man Group. Clake, the intern who developed TOPS, is now a partner.

Wace oversaw the design of the firm’s London office, filling it with modern chandeliers, reclaimed-wood ceilings and giant display cabinets filled with employee family photos. It’s about “making our people feel very cozy,” Wace said. “Then we [can] drive them incredibly hard.”

He once challenged a group of prospective hires to visit the most countries in Europe, using as many forms of transportation and as cheaply as possible—within 24 hours.

“I wanted to see to what extent someone could think pretty creatively. I wanted to see, if you exhausted them, what would happen,” Wace said. Among the notable results? One made it to the far side of Poland “on something like 30 different forms of transport,” Wace recalled. Another stayed local, traversing London’s many embassies.

That candidate is at the firm now. “He’s actually very clever,” Wace said. But, as he saw it, “it was a bit too cute.”