TheChek News Flow

President Donald Trump is preparing to announce that OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle are planning a joint venture to invest in building data centers for artificial intelligence in the U.S., according to a CBS News report.

The report said Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle founder Larry Ellison are expected to make the announcement alongside Trump at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. They plan to commit an initial $100 billion to the project, called Stargate, and add up to $500 billion over the next four years, according to the report.

The project could start in Texas but might also involve other states. It’s unclear whether Microsoft—OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider—would be involved in the deal, or whether it had to sign off on it, given its cloud partnership with the AI developer.

In March of 2024, The Information reported that OpenAI and Microsoft were plotting an ambitious $100 billion data center project called Stargate. The Information has also reported on how OpenAI has sought out computing resources from other cloud providers, mainly Oracle, because of frustration over Microsoft not moving fast enough to supply it with servers of Nvidia graphics processing units. Microsoft recently paused some construction on a $10 billion data center that was meant for OpenAI.

Perplexity on Tuesday launched an API service called Sonar, allowing enterprises and developers to build the startup’s generative AI search tools into their own applications.

“While most generative AI features today have answers informed only by training data, this limits their capabilities,” Perplexity wrote in a blog post. “To optimize for factuality and authority, APIs require a real-time connection to the Internet, with answers informed by trusted sources.”

To start, Perplexity is offering two tiers that developers can choose from: a base version that’s cheaper and faster, Sonar, and a pricier version that’s better for tough questions, Sonar Pro. Perplexity says the Sonar API also gives enterprises and developers the ability to customize the sources its AI search engine pulls from.

Introducing Sonar: Perplexity’s API.

Sonar is the most affordable search API product on the market. Use it to build generative search, powered by real-time information and citations, into your apps. We’re also offering a Pro version with deeper functionality. pic.twitter.com/CWpVUUKYtW

— Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) January 21, 2025

With the launch of its API, Perplexity is making its AI search engine available in more places than just its app and website. Perplexity says that Zoom, among other companies, is already using Sonar to power an AI assistant for its video conferencing platform. Sonar is allowing Zoom’s AI chatbot to give real-time answers, informed by web searches with citations, without requiring users to leave the video chat window.

Sonar could also give Perplexity another source of revenue, which could be particularly important to the startup’s investors. Perplexity only offers a subscription service for unlimited access to its AI search engine and some additional features. However, the tech industry has slashed prices to access AI tools via APIs in the last year, and Perplexity claims to be offering the cheapest AI search API on the market via Sonar.

The base version of Sonar offers a cheaper and quicker version of the company’s AI search tools. Sonar’s base version has flat pricing and uses a lightweight model. It costs $5 for every 1,000 searches, plus $1 for every 750,000 words you type into the AI model (roughly 1 million input tokens), and another $1 for every 750,000 words the model spits out (roughly 1 million output tokens).

The pricier Sonar Pro gives more-detailed answers and is capable of handling more-complex questions. This version will run multiple searches on top of a user prompt, meaning the pricing could be more unpredictable. Perplexity also says this version offers twice as many citations as the base version of Sonar. Sonar Pro costs $5 for every 1,000 searches, plus $3 for every 750,000 words you type into the AI model (roughly 1 million input tokens), and $15 for every 750,000 words the model spits out (roughly 1 million output tokens).

Perplexity claims Sonar Pro outperformed leading models from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic on a benchmark that measures factual correctness in AI chatbot answers, SimpleQA.

As we recently reported, Perplexity’s annual recurring revenue is somewhere between $5 million and $10 million. This seems fairly healthy for a startup of Perplexity’s size and age, but the startup is certainly looking for new ways to grow its revenue. The startup raised an additional $73.6 million in a funding round earlier this month, valuing the company around $520 million.

President Donald Trump is trying to halt the flow of funding for EV charging infrastructure from two programs that have benefitted Tesla — the latest example of how Elon Musk’s political interests seem to be at odds with his car company’s goal of advancing sustainable energy.

It’s not a given that Trump’s gambit will succeed. But if it does, Tesla could be cut off from two sources of funding that the automaker has tapped the past two years to build out its market-leading EV charging network.

In one of the myriad executive orders Trump signed on the first day of his second term, he declared that “[a]ll agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of funds” from programs created by the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He specifically calls out stopping funding for EV charging stations that’s been made available through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) grant program.

Those agencies are supposed to submit a review of “processes, policies, and programs for issuing grants, loans, contracts, or any other financial disbursements” within 90 days of the date of this order, all agency heads shall submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the National Economic Council (NEC). The order also states that agencies cannot disburse more funds unless the “Director of OMB and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy have determined that such disbursements are consistent with any review recommendations they have chosen to adopt.”

Musk has long claimed that Tesla’s mission is “accelerating the transition to sustainable energy.” But he is now officially working with the second Trump administration, which took big swings at sustainable energy on its first day. Trump has already signed orders halting federal leases for offshore wind development, pulling the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, and is trying to reverse other Biden administration EV policies.

Tesla was recently part of a group that won a $100 million award from the CFI program to build out charging infrastructure for heavy duty electric trucks across Illinois, as TechCrunch first reported last week. The company was hoping to secure around $40 million from the group’s original funding request of $126 million. Tesla has also repeatedly sought around $100 million in CFI funding to build a truck-charging corridor between northern California and southern Texas, but that application has been passed over multiple times.

Tesla’s CFI award in Illinois is a small portion of the nearly $2 billion the Department of Transportation has allocated over the last two years. Tesla has won a much greater share of grants from the NEVI program — which doles out smaller amounts of money to states, which, in turn, use those funds to offer grants to build charging infrastructure. Tesla had won around 13% of all NEVI awards by the middle of 2024, and was using those millions to further build out its Supercharger network, which is now open to almost all competing EVs.

Trump could slow or stop the flow of future spending from these programs, according to Martin Lockman, a fellow at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. He might especially be able to do so if his administration is successful in its promised legal fight over the Impoundment Control Act, which limits the president’s ability to stop Congress from spending money that’s been appropriated.

“There’s a lot of wiggle room here, and the Trump administration will certainly do everything that it can to delay spending under these bills,” Lockman said.

It is not clear that Trump can legally stop the funding of awards that are already under contract, though.

“People who have contracts today have rights under those contracts, and the President can’t take them away,” he said.

But, Lockman cautioned, if agencies feel enough pressure from Trump, they could violate the terms of those contracts — and potentially the laws that established the funding programs in the first place — and refuse to give out the money. In that situation, the companies, state and local agencies, or other entities who won awards from NEVI or CFI would have to fight to get them fulfilled.

“If the new administration wants to make people fight for their contracts in court, that would certainly be a huge barrier to building EV infrastructure,” he said.

Cerutti, who is currently CEO, will remain chairman of the Christie's board, and take on a wider role overseeing the artistic and cultural activities of the Pinault family’s holding company, Artémis.

LONDON — Bonnie Brennan has been named chief executive officer of Christie’s, succeeding Guillaume Cerutti, who will remain chairman of the board, become president of the Pinault Collection, and take on a wider arts and culture role at the Pinault family’s holding company, Artémis.

Brennan, who joined Christie’s in 2012 after spending 15 years at Sotheby’s, will take up her role on Feb. 1. She is currently president of Christie’s Americas, a role she has held since 2021.

Brennan has overseen record-breaking sales, including the collections of Ann and Gordon Getty, Anne H. Bass and Barney Ebsworth, and has grown the Americas region “materially,” according to Christie’s. The region now accounts for 48 percent of all auction sales.

“The global Christie’s team reflects unmatched passion, talent and dedication to our clients and one another,” Brennan said. “To lead this extraordinary group of people is a privilege that I take very seriously. I look forward to building on our 259-year legacy of connecting exceptional art and objects to passionate audiences.”

Brennan described Cerutti as “an inspirational and effective leader. I have been lucky to work closely with him, and I am grateful that we will continue this relationship as he remains chairman of the board.”

Cerutti, who has served as CEO for eight years, said he was grateful to Christie’s owners François Pinault and François-Henri Pinault “for their ongoing trust and support, and I am excited by the new role they have entrusted to me.”

He added: “I am also proud to pass the baton to Bonnie, with whom I have worked closely for many years. She possesses all the qualities needed to uphold and expand Christie’s market leadership.”

Christie’s said it witnessed “breakthrough pricing for exceptional artworks, the highest grossing collection sales in auction history, geographic and category expansion and business acquisition,” during Cerutti’s tenure.

In those years, the auction house also implemented a new, tech-focused strategy and diversified its offer, “attracting a younger and more diverse audience.”

As with many luxury businesses, the past few years have been challenging for Christie’s. After reaching more than $8.4 billion in 2022, the company’s combined auction and private sales fell to $5.7 billion in 2024, roughly the level of sales in 2019.

Cerutti’s appointment as president of the Pinault Collection is part of a wider role. Going forward, he will implement and oversee a new organization for the artistic and cultural activities of the Pinault family’s holding company, Artémis.

François Pinault and François-Henri Pinault said: “Christie’s is a key asset for us, and we are deeply grateful for the positive changes and many successes the company has achieved under Guillaume’s leadership. We have decided to entrust him with a broader role, overseeing all art-related projects within our entities under our direct authority.”

They added: “With Guillaume as chairman of the board and Bonnie as CEO, we are confident that Christie’s will continue to thrive, benefiting its clients, specialist community, employees and art connoisseurs worldwide.”

Industry players worry the success of the president’s meme coin will undermine the credibility they have worked hard to cultivate

The crypto industry eagerly awaited Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Now, it’s reeling after the president and first lady launched a pair of meme coins.

Dubbed $TRUMP and $MELANIA, the tokens have no economic purpose—their value is largely based on the popularity of internet memes. The market cap of the president’s coin has soared to $8.4 billion since Friday night’s launch, while the first lady’s token is worth about $800 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

By selling coins known for their speculative nature and extreme volatility, the president has undermined the credibility that the industry has worked hard to build in recent years, some crypto executives and investors say.

They also point to the brazen conflict of interest: Trump benefits directly from the sale of the tokens while setting the policy that affects how markets are valued and regulated.

Even the most ardent Trump supporters reached a breaking point when the $MELANIA token launched less than 48 hours after the rollout of her husband’s coin.

Ryan Selkis, the former chief executive of crypto research firm Messari and a vocal supporter of Trump, urged the president to fire the adviser who recommended going forward with the launch of the second coin.

“1. They don’t know what they’re doing. 2. They cost you a lot of $ and goodwill. 3. They don’t have your interests in mind,” said Selkis in a social-media post shortly after the $MELANIA token launch.

The $TRUMP token lost almost half its value after first lady Melania Trump’s coin was unveiled. Traders say demand for the tokens overlapped—$TRUMP token holders had to unload some of their holdings to buy her meme coin. Prices have since regained some ground, but the market value of the $TRUMP coin peaked Sunday at almost $15 billion.

Some crypto enthusiasts questioned if the coins were a scam and if Trump’s social-media accounts where they were promoted had been hacked. The mechanisms of the tokens reminded some of a rug pull, crypto parlance for a project that is launched and quickly abandoned, leaving investors with steep losses.

One point of criticism: 80% of the $TRUMP token’s supply is owned by Fight Fight Fight and CIC Digital, an affiliate of the Trump Organization, according to the website associated with the token. The terms and conditions of both $TRUMP and $MELANIA bar buyers from joining class-action lawsuits against the project and indemnify the project against any claims.

Trump or any other coin issuer benefits twice when meme coins are sold to the public. They get the proceeds of coin sales and they have an ownership stake whose value rises when the price of the coin increases. They can then sell more coins to gain further profits.

Spokespeople for the Trump Organization and the websites associated with the tokens didn’t respond to requests for comment.

After the stunning collapse of the FTX exchange in 2022, the crypto industry made big inroads in rebuilding its brand and reputation. It emerged as one of the biggest spenders of the election cycle by donating $170 million to a trio of super PACs to elect friendly lawmakers.

Bitcoin went mainstream and soared past $100,000 thanks to the roaring launch of the first U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds offered by big Wall Street asset managers such as BlackRock and Fidelity Investments. Trump became the industry’s biggest cheerleader and promised to deliver legislation that would treat digital assets differently than stocks and bonds.

The tokens aren’t the Trump family’s first foray into crypto. Last year the president helped launch a decentralized finance project with his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump known as World Liberty Financial.

Yet the decision to launch the cryptocurrencies caught the crypto community off guard. A crowd of crypto executives and Silicon Valley tycoons who gathered Friday night at an event dubbed the Crypto Ball didn’t learn of the launch until they checked their phones late in the evening. Trump unveiled the coin on social media at 9 p.m. ET.

In launching the tokens, Trump has waded into a longstanding divide in the world of crypto: staid technology enthusiasts who see crypto as a means of financial inclusion and innovation versus speculative investors who see it as a means to monetize brands, memes and ideas.

“I think people will think meme coins are the foundation of the crypto industry,” said billionaire entrepreneur and crypto investor Mark Cuban. “It’s not. There are real applications that add value.”

Cuban, who was vocal in his support of Kamala Harris during the presidential election, said Trump’s token launch looks like “a highly manipulated offering.”

The backlash over the Trump meme coins reached beyond the crypto industry. Michael Gayed, a portfolio manager and market analyst who publishes the Lead-Lag Report, posted criticism of the coin on X that drew support within the crypto community.

“I think people will think meme coins are the foundation of the crypto industry,” said billionaire entrepreneur and crypto investor Mark Cuban. “It’s not. There are real applications that add value.”

Cuban, who was vocal in his support of Kamala Harris during the presidential election, said Trump’s token launch looks like “a highly manipulated offering.”

The backlash over the Trump meme coins reached beyond the crypto industry. Michael Gayed, a portfolio manager and market analyst who publishes the Lead-Lag Report, posted criticism of the coin on X that drew support within the crypto community.

Automaker moves to revive Dodge and Chrysler labels after sales plummeted in 2024, leading to the departure of Carlos Tavares

Jeep is reviving its Cherokee-sized SUV. Dodge is bringing back the gas-engine version of its Charger muscle car. And Ram is hitting pause on its all-electric pickup truck.

In the weeks since the departure of former CEO Carlos Tavares, executives at global automaker Stellantis STLA 2.55%increase; green up pointing triangle have been moving swiftly to turn around the U.S. operations, employing a series of changes to jump-start sales again.

At the top of their list is reinvigorating well-known American brands, such as Chrysler and Dodge, whose sales and lineups have withered in recent years.

Stellantis’s brand leaders say they need to get back to basics by offering models at more affordable price points and promotions that can help increase sales. Such moves, they say, could reverse a dismal 2024 that concluded with Tavares’s exit in December.

Since the departure, the automaker has essentially shelved the former CEO’s playbook. Stellantis has delayed the release of two high-profile, electric-vehicle models and rehired some executives who had departed under Tavares, including bringing back a retired company veteran to lead the Ram brand.

Additionally, the company plans to launch new models in popular categories that it had pulled back under the previous leadership. Among them are a replacement for the Jeep Cherokee, a nameplate that accounted for about 17% of Jeep’s annual sales at one point before it was discontinued earlier this decade.

Overall, Stellantis sells seven auto brands in the U.S., including Maserati and Alfa Romeo.

“We need to be sure that in the next 12 months, we see a clear path to go to double-digit [market share],” said Antonio Filosa, who was named Stellantis’s chief operating officer of North America in October. Stellantis’s U.S. market share plummeted in the four years that Tavares led the combined company, dropping from 12.5% to roughly 8% last year.

Formed through a 2021 merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France’s PSA Group, Stellantis started out strong by recording profits that vastly outpaced rivals, due in part to Tavares’s relentless focus on efficiency.

He also pledged to recharge the company’s weaker brands—Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat—using the global automaker’s engineering heft to quickly redesign models and freshen stale lineups.

While Tavares added some new models, he cut others and was adamant about keeping sticker prices high, despite complaints from dealers that it was hurting sales and leading to a pileup of unsold inventory.

By December, Tavares was out. The company cited “different views” that had emerged between the executive and key stakeholders. The former CEO declined to comment for this article.

December is generally a busy sales period for the industry, and Stellantis had only two of the top 20 models sold in the U.S., according to data from industry research firm Motor Intelligence. Jeep and Ram didn’t even crack the top 10 among brands.

A new CEO is expected to be named in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, Stellantis Chairman John Elkann, the scion of Italy’s famous Agnelli clan, has stepped in to lead an executive committee that will help him run the business. Following the departure of Tavares, Elkann went on a globe-trotting peacekeeping mission with Stellantis’s key stakeholders.

At the Detroit Auto Show earlier this month, brand executives were promoting the recent changes and trying to instill confidence that it has a plan to regain lost momentum.

“It’s no secret, the relationships that we have with our dealers, our suppliers, the general people who have been associated with us for the last few years, that needs a lot of love and attention,” said Bob Broderdorf, head of Jeep in North America.

Dealers say the return of a midsize Jeep to replace the Cherokee and a forthcoming gas-powered Dodge Charger has them feeling optimistic about 2025. The lack of an immediate replacement for those two models proved to be a significant challenge to its sales growth, especially for Dodge, which was left with only three models.

Following Tavares’s departure, Filosa reshuffled the executive ranks in North America and said the return of Tim Kuniskis, the former Dodge and Ram chief who retired just months earlier under Tavares, will play a big role in reversing the sales decline.

As head of the company’s highly profitable Ram brand, Kuniskis said his first move was to temporarily shelve plans to sell an all-electric pickup next year and instead introduce a truck that runs on battery power but has a backup gas engine.

“Why aren’t we leading with our best foot?” Kuniskis said at the Detroit Auto Show.

Ram sales fell 19% in 2024, compared with a year prior. Kuniskis said he is also focusing on increasing Ram’s leasing figures in 2025 to customers in regional markets where it isn’t offering competitive deals.

“We’re missing the boat there,” he said.

Bigger questions have loomed over the fate of Chrysler, the iconic American brand that once served as a powerhouse for the company’s U.S. business.

Chrysler currently only sells two models—both minivans. The company stopped making the Chrysler 300 sedan after the 2023 model year, further whittling down its lineup.

Brand Chief Executive Chris Feuell offered little when asked about Chrysler’s future. It plans to sell a refreshed Pacifica in 2026, followed by a new crossover vehicle and then a third model inspired by a futuristic coupe-like concept car that it released in early 2024. A planned EV has been temporarily shelved.

Feuell expects to double sales to about 300,000 a year with the new Pacifica and future models.

“I have no interest in being a niche player,” she said.

Meanwhile, dealers are expecting sales to regain momentum this year because the car company has been providing them with more firepower to offer customers financial sweeteners.

Ralph Mahalak, a Stellantis dealer in Michigan, said he is expecting to sell up to 37% more cars in 2025 compared with last year, prompting him to hire more workers.

During sales calls with staff, Mahalak said he has found himself rattling off a list of new promotions that had been eliminated in recent years.

“Shoot, this almost feels like the old days again,” Mahalak said.

The Trump administration is considering selling two-thirds of the federal government’s office stock

Shortly before he was elected president in 2016, Donald Trump took a break from campaigning to attend a ceremony for his new flagship hotel, the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C.

The General Services Administration, the federal agency that owns, manages and leases much of the government’s real estate, had previously awarded Trump the rights to redevelop the government-owned Old Post Office as a luxury hotel. The GSA selected him over Hilton, Marriott International and other big-name operators.

Just before cutting the ribbon on the hotel’s opening day, Trump took a moment to praise the agency.

“The GSA people are amazing professionals,” he said.

Since then, Trump has soured on the GSA. That change of heart could soon accelerate a shake-up already under way in the federal government’s real-estate portfolio.

The GSA manages a massive portfolio of federal buildings, consisting of 370 million square feet nationwide. But many have been poorly maintained due to lack of funding, and are sitting empty or underused, the GSA testified before Congress in 2023.

The Trump administration is considering selling two-thirds of the federal government’s office stock to the private sector, according to people familiar with the transition operations.

About three-quarters of the 70 million square feet of office space the GSA leases from private landlords in D.C. is also likely to be canceled, according to Don Peebles, a longtime Washington, D.C.-based developer. A sharp rise in GSA canceled leases would pressure D.C. landlords, many of which count on the GSA as an anchor tenant.

A GSA spokeswoman said: “GSA continues to work to right-size the federal portfolio, and is committed to optimizing space in federal buildings.” GSA could further accelerate these efforts with funding from Congress, she added.

The GSA has also been working to reduce the real estate it owns as more of its buildings deteriorate from a lack of maintenance. But it is hardly an easy task. Before auctioning off any properties, the GSA must typically make them available free or at a reduced cost to government entities. Ultimately the agency doesn’t keep the profits of the sales.

Much of what it can sell, Peebles said, will likely be at fire-sale prices. That could drag down the worth of other D.C. office buildings, which have already plunged in value in recent years.

“Buildings will sell for 30 cents on the dollar,” Peebles said. “It’s a paradigm shift. There will be a dramatic reset on property values.”

Trump and the GSA have a long, intertwined history.

Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to Post Cereals, owned the Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. She turned over the Palm Beach property to the federal government upon her death in 1973. But the GSA found it too expensive to maintain, returning it to the Post Foundation in 1981. Trump acquired it about four years later and it has become a resort and his primary residence in recent years.

Trump crossed paths with the GSA again in 2012, after the agency picked his family company to manage the Old Post Office as a luxury hotel, the jewel in the Trumps’ lodging portfolio. And if the Trumps decide to make a play for it again after selling the lease in 2022, the GSA will have to approve that purchase.

But the relationship began to deteriorate a few years later, after Trump clashed with the GSA over emails it turned over as part of the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

And following his 2024 election victory, Trump has mostly kept his distance. He shunned the GSA’s offer to provide temporary office space in Washington, D.C., and other resources during the transition. That makes him the first president-elect who didn’t accept resources as part of the transition since they were offered starting in 1963.

The GSA was founded in 1949 by President Harry S. Truman. Long before Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency—where Elon Musk has vowed that DOGE will slash up to $2 trillion from federal spending—the GSA was the original vehicle for cutting government waste. It consolidated many different agencies after World War II, with a mandate to save taxpayers money.

Over the years, its role evolved into serving primarily as the government’s landlord. It also functions as federal agencies’ one-stop shop for goods and services, including computers, vehicles and catering services.

Lawmakers tried to help the GSA recently, when Congress loosened some selling restrictions for a select group of federal buildings, allowing the agency to market or auction many buildings at once.

But that still won’t make unloading many of these properties easy. Some massive government buildings are empty or uninhabitable, said one former GSA official. Many others were built in the 1970s and have lacked the proper maintenance for decades.

Take the former GSA regional headquarters in L’Enfant Plaza. The nearly 1 million-square-foot office building is the largest property the GSA is looking to shed. It is in a prime Washington, D.C., location. But it has stood empty since 2018, due to its need for extensive renovations that would cost about $184.8 million, per a report put together by the GSA in September of 2021.

“It’s a tough time to own an aging office building,” said Darrell Crate, chief executive of Easterly Government Properties, which owns and manages real estate that it leases back to the federal government. “There is a thicket of bureaucracy that needs to be thinned.”

Many federal office buildings are run with bare-bones services and have been nearly empty since the pandemic accelerated the trend of working from home.

A recent report from Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa who chairs the Senate DOGE caucus, found that not one of the headquarters for any major agency or department in Washington is more than half full. GSA-owned buildings in Washington, D.C., average about a 12% occupancy rate. The government owns more than 7,500 vacant buildings across the country, and more than 2,200 that are partially empty.

“The government is not very good at managing real estate,” Crate said.

Mar-a-Lago is a prime example of a property that the government couldn’t manage well, but that Trump was able to turn around for profit as a resort and private club.

“GSA couldn’t handle it,” said Crate. “But Trump picked it up and turned it around.”