President Donald Trump on Monday said the United States will allow tech giant Nvidia to ship its H200 artificial intelligence chips to "approved customers" in China and elsewhere, under a set of conditions. Chinese President Xi Jinping "responded positively" to the proposal, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. Trump's post appeared to state that 25% of the chips sales will be paid to the U.S. government as part of the deal, which the president said allows "for continued strong National Security." The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for clarification. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.

Alina Habba, who had previously served as President Donald Trump's defense lawyer, said Monday that she was stepping down as U.S. attorney for New Jersey after judges disqualified her from that position. Habba's resignation came a week after the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a district court judge's ruling that found her ineligible for the top prosecutor's job because of the circumstances of her appointment as the interim holder of that post. Habba and Attorney General Pam Bondi said Habba would remain at the Department of Justice as senior advisor to the attorney general for U.S. attorneys. "But do not mistake compliance for surrender. This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me," Habba said. Bondi said on X, "I am saddened to accept Alina's resignation." "The court's ruling has made it untenable for her to effectively run her office, with politicized judges pausing trials designed to bring violent criminals to justice," Bondi said. "These judges should not be able to countermand the President's choice of attorneys entrusted with carrying out the executive branch's core responsibility of prosecuting crime." Trump called the reasons for Habba's resignation "a shame." "It's a shame ... Republicans should be ashamed of themselves" for allowing it to go on, Trump said. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche appointed three people to supervise the criminal, civil and appellate, and administrative functions of the New Jersey U.S. Attorney's Office in light of Habba's departure. Lindsey Halligan, another former lawyer for Trump, was recently disqualified by a judge from serving as the top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia because of the circumstances of her appointment. Because of Halligan's disqualification, the grand jury indictments she obtained against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were dismissed last month. Bondi appointed Habba as interim U.S. attorney in March after her predecessor resigned. Trump later nominated her to hold the post permanently, but her nomination was never considered by the Senate, as is required. The DOJ engaged in a byzantine series of maneuvers that it argued enabled Habba to automatically become the acting U.S. attorney, but a federal judge and then the 3rd Circuit rejected that effort, saying they failed to comply with the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. — Additional reporting by Justin Papp and Garrett Downs Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Several big shots in Cupertino are getting a career change for the holidays. In the last seven days, there has been extraordinary turnover among Apple's top ranks, from its head of artificial intelligence to its top lawyer. CEO Tim Cook now has two fewer direct reports than he did before Thanksgiving. As if last week's departures weren't enough, there was another potential exit over the weekend. Senior vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji told Cook he wanted out soon, according to Bloomberg. But any drama seems to have passed, with Srouji telling his staff Monday morning in a memo seen by CNBC that he isn't planning to leave Apple any time soon. Srouji is the chip design guru who kicked Intel while it was down and made in-house chips for Mac that performed a lot better, leading to a healthy surge in sales. Srouji is essentially the Jony Ive of chip design, a singular talent, and it is tough to imagine him leaving Apple. An Apple spokesperson provided no comment on Srouji or any of the recently departed executives. There are multiple ways to read into all the changes at the top of a company known for keeping a steady leadership team while producing innovative and industry-leading products. Instead, Apple had to admit it couldn't launch the supercharged version of Siri it had been advertising for months. Perhaps the new strategy of partnering with an established AI leader such as Google or Anthropic will make up for all of it, but the pressure is enormous for Apple to get it right after the flop this year. Getting the AI launch right is important for other products as well. If Apple isn't going to charge for its AI system, then using it as a selling point for new hardware is its best bet to show it can make some cash. There are already hints that 2026 is going to be a monumental year. Some new, rumored AI product categories are expected, such as AI glasses similar to what Meta sells and a tablet for controlling all your smart home appliances. Apple will also turn 50 on April 1 next year, and it's expected to launch its first-ever foldable iPhone. Plus, there are more challenges ahead with a looming antitrust trial and whether Apple can maintain its truce with President Donald Trump. Taken together, perhaps the shake-ups were necessary, especially regarding AI. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

President Donald Trump announced Monday that his administration is doling out a $12 billion aid package to farmers who have been squeezed by a trade war between the U.S. and its top economic partners. The funds will come from U.S. tariff revenues, Trump said during a roundtable event at the White House. Most of that money — up to $11 billion — will go to the U.S. Agriculture Department's new Farmer Bridge Assistance program, which will provide one-time payments to row crop farmers, a White House official told CNBC earlier Monday. The president was joined at the event by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, as well as members of Congress and farmers who raise cattle and grow corn, cotton, sorghum, soybean, rice, wheat and potatoes. "Trump wants credit for trying to fix a mess of his making," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in an X post. "Trump's tariffs are hammering our farmers, making it more expensive to grow food and pushing farmers into bankruptcy," he wrote. "Farmers need markets to sell to—not a consolation prize for the ones he wrecked." "Trump's plan to bail out farmers won't even get agriculture communities back to even," Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Senate Finance Committee's top-ranking Democrat, said in a statement. "They're still paying more for fertilizer, equipment and seeds, while grown-in-the-USA farm goods are facing more obstacles than ever in foreign markets." But some in America's agriculture industry say they are suffering as a result of the wide-ranging trade war — especially due to conflicts with China, a major U.S. customer. China stopped buying U.S. soybeans for several months, most notably during the key harvest season beginning in the fall. Beijing resumed purchasing some soybeans in late October as Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping neared a tentative trade truce. But China's imports of the crop do not appear to be rebounding to their current levels, and Beijing's stockpiles have swelled to recent highs. Bessent has maintained that China is on track to meet its projected purchase of 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans by the end of February. China bought nearly 27 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans in 2024. "Farmers suffered for years under Joe Biden, who increased the United States' trade deficit to over $1.2 trillion, raised input costs, pushed woke DEI agricultural policies, and more," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told CNBC in a statement ahead of Monday's aid announcement. "In contrast, President Trump is helping our agriculture industry by negotiating new trade deals to open new export markets for our farmers and boosting the farm safety net for the first time in a decade," Kelly said. We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.

NextEra Energy is partnering with Exxon Mobil, the country's largest oil company, to build a large data center site powered by natural gas for a potential tech customer, CEO John Ketchum told investors Monday Hyperscalers are the big tech companies that are building data centers to train and run artificial intelligence applications. There is no signed agreement with a hyperscaler yet. NextEra and Exxon have secured 2,500 acres of land for the facility. The site will be located in the Southeast in close proximity to Exxon's carbon dioxide pipeline infrastructure, according to NextEra. NextEra is the largest renewable energy developer in the U.S., but it is leaning into natural gas to meet the growing demand from data centers. The power company plans to bring as much as 8 gigawatts of gas generation online by 2032, and is developing a pipeline of 20 gigawatts of gas generation. NextEra plans to build 15 gigawatts of power for data center hubs by 2035, Ketchum said. That includes at least three data center campuses that NextEra is developing with Alphabet's Google. "A lot of those will get started with what I call bridge power — renewables, storage," the CEO said. "We're also at that same time planning for the gas to come behind it." The tech sector has primarily secured renewables and increasingly nuclear power to supply data centers in an effort to meet its climate targets. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Apple chip leader Johny Srouji addressed rumors of his impending exit in a memo to staff on Monday, saying he doesn't plan on leaving the company anytime soon. Bloomberg reported on Saturday that Srouji had told CEO Tim Cook that he was considering leaving, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Srouji is seen as one of the most important executives at the company and he's been in charge of the company's hardware technologies team that includes chip development. At Apple since 2008, he has led teams that created the M-series chips used in Macs and the A-series chips at the heart of iPhones. In addition to developing the chips that enabled Apple to drop Intel from its laptops and desktops, in recent years Srouji's teams have developed a cellular modem that will replace Qualcomm's modems in most iPhones. Srouji frequently presents at Apple product launches. "I know you've been reading all kind of rumors and speculations about my future at Apple, and I feel that you need to hear from me directly," Srouji wrote in the memo. "I am proud of the amazing Technologies we all build across Displays, Cameras, Sensors, Silicon, Batteries, and a very wide set of technologies, across all of Apple Products." Last week, Apple announced that its head of artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, was stepping down. Dye, who was behind the "Liquid Glass" redesign, is joining Meta. A day after Dye's departure, Apple announced the retirement of general counsel Kate Adams and vice president for environment, policy, and social initiatives Lisa Jackson. Both Adams and Jackson reported directly to Cook. Apple's chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, retired this fall. We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Tiger Global Management announced Monday the launch of its latest venture capital fund, Private Investment Partners 17, according to a letter to investors viewed by CNBC. Tiger is targeting a raise of $2.2 billion for the fund, according to a person familiar with the firm's strategy who declined to be named in order to discuss internal matters. The hedge fund wrote that it's expecting PIP 17 to be similar in "strategy, size and construction" to its earliest vintages and its most recent, PIP 16, which targeted $6 billion but ultimately closed at $2.2 billion. The largest positions in PIP 16 are OpenAI and Waymo, stakes that have helped performance rebound. In a call with investors, Tiger said that PIP 16 is up 33% year-to-date, while PIP 15 is up 16%. In 2021, the heyday of its "spray and pray" approach, it led 212 rounds, according to Crunchbase data. This year, it made just nine new private investments. The Tiger Global letter and audio of the investor call obtained by CNBC also signal some concerns about the potential for a bubble in artificial intelligence. "[V]aluations are elevated, and, in our view, at times unsupported by company fundamentals," the firm wrote in the letter. "We also recognize the importance of approaching a technological shift of this magnitude with some humility." The strategy that founder Chase Coleman laid out is to prune aggressively and reinforce its biggest winners. Tiger says it has sold more than 85 companies from PIP 15, generating over $1 billion in proceeds. That money can now be recycled into follow-in investments for companies it considers winners. Some of the names Tiger said it would concentrate on include Revolut, a digital banking startup, and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. Other companies Tiger is focusing on include police tech company Flock Safety, EV company Harbinger, e-commerce startup Rokt, freight company Cargomatic, and stablecoin startup BVNK, the investor presentation showed. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

McDonald's will soon assess its franchisees on how their prices deliver value as the company updates its franchising standards as part of a larger bid to win over cash-strapped diners. "Effective January 1, 2026, we are enhancing our global franchising standards across all Segments to reinforce accountability for value leadership," Andrew Gregory, McDonald's senior vice president of global franchising, development and delivery, wrote in a memo issued Monday and obtained by CNBC. Franchising standards are the policies that define how McDonald's operators should run their restaurants. Continued noncompliance with those standards could result in penalties, like not being permitted to open another restaurant, or even the termination of the franchise. Franchisees run about 95% of McDonald's restaurants worldwide and set their restaurants' prices, with input from third-party pricing advisors. "This approach enables franchisees to bring local insight to how value is delivered in their restaurants," he said. Across the restaurant industry, eateries have been leaning into value, betting that deals will attract cash-strapped customers. But discounts that are too steep can cut into profits, and operators have to strike a delicate balance to preserve both traffic and long-term profitability. For more than a year, McDonald's has reported that low-income consumers have been spending less money and visiting less frequently. To bring diners back to its restaurants, it has rolled out value menus in the U.S. and other key markets like France and Germany. The efforts have so far paid off, as the company has reversed same-store sales declines and attracted more high-income diners who are trading down to fast food. Still, McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski said he expects that the pressure on the consumer isn't going away anytime soon. The company's change in standards is likely to rile some McDonald's U.S. franchisees who already have a contentious relationship with their franchisor. An independent advocacy group of McDonald's operators has pushed for the company to contribute financially to make discounts more sustainable for franchisees in the long run. Several years ago, a new grading system for franchisees drew the ire of some operators, who said at the time that it would alienate workers in a tight labor environment. In addition to updating the franchising standards, McDonald's has also invested in tools to help franchisees determine how to address value in their local markets. "While Owner/Operators continue to set their own prices and make decisions that reflect local market nuances, we've now strengthened individual accountability for value leadership – equipping you with approved pricing consultants, tools, and other levels that support informed choices and elevate the overall guest experience across all order points," McDonald's USA Chief Restaurant Officer Mason Smoot wrote in a separate memo sent to U.S. franchisees Monday and obtained by CNBC. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Bryan publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. President Donald Trump is done waiting for Congress when it comes to blocking state AI regulations. Trump said on Monday that he would sign an executive order aimed at ensuring that there's only "One Rulebook" for AI in the US, saying that the technology will be "destroyed in its infancy" if companies have to comply with different regulations across all 50 states. "We are beating ALL COUNTRIES at this point in the race, but that won't last long if we are going to have 50 States, many of them bad actors, involved in RULES and the APPROVAL PROCESS," Trump wrote on Truth Social. It is not yet clear what shape the executive order will take, but a draft executive order seen by Business Insider last month would have directed the Department of Justice to sue states for having "onerous" AI laws. One thing is clear: Trump is likely to provoke backlash from members of his own party if he follows through with this, as many Republicans have been eager to protect states' rights when it comes to AI. Trump recently called for Republicans to include a version of that provision in a must-pass annual defense bill, but that didn't come to pass. An "AI Action Plan" released by the White House in July calls for withholding federal funding from states with "burdensome" AI laws.

Discovery, saying the massive deal "could be a problem" because of how much market share Netflix would end up with. Trump also said that he will be involved in the process of approving the deal, which was announced on Friday. The streaming giant Netflix needs regulatory sign-off for its planned purchase of WBD's film studio and streaming properties, including HBO Max. The deal has an enterprise value of nearly $83 billion. Paramount Skydance on Monday said it was launching a hostile bid to buy all of WBD after losing out to Netflix. David Ellison told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Monday, "We've had great conversations with the president about this, but I don't want to speak for him." Paramount revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its bid is being backed by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is a former White House advisor. The filing also said other outside financing partners included the investment funds of three Gulf states: Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Kushner's firm, Affinity Partners, and the Gulf funds "have agreed to forgo any governance rights – including board representation – associated with their non-voting equity investments," the filing said, Asked Sunday if WBD's deal with Netflix should be allowed, Trump said, "Well, that's the question." "They have a very big market share," the president said, referring to Netflix. "And when they have Warner Brothers, you know, that share goes up a lot," Trump told reporters on the red carpet before an event at the Kennedy Center in Washington. "I'll be involved in that decision, too." Trump said that Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos made no guarantees about the merger when he visited the Oval Office last week. "He's a great person," Trump said of Sarandos. "He's done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies and other things, and he's got a lot of interesting things happening, aside from what you're talking about." "But it is a big market share. A senior Trump administration official told CNBC on Friday that the administration views the deal with "heavy skepticism." The proposed acquisition has raised antitrust concerns from lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who said it "looks like an anti-monopoly nightmare." Paramount warned WBD's lawyers in a recent letter that a sale to Netflix likely would "never close" because of regulatory challenges in the U.S. and abroad, The Wall Street Journal reported. Comcast also had sought to buy WBD's film and streaming assets. Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Robert publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Palantir is launching a fellowship for neurodivergent individuals after a video of its CEO struggling to sit still went viral. In an X post on Sunday night, the software company said it's encouraging applications from those who relate to CEO Alex Karp in being "unable to sit still, or thinking faster than you can speak." "The neurally divergent (like myself) will disproportionately shape America's future," Karp said in a statement posted on X by Palantir. "Every pre-school teacher in America should be required to watch this video of Alex Karp being completely unable to sit still in his chair," wrote Katherine Boyle, a general partner at A16z, in a Wednesday X post. In his statement, Karp did not mention any specific form of neurodiversity, but he has previously said he has dyslexia. Neurodiversity is a broad umbrella, including ADHD, autism, Tourette's syndrome, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and others. "Doing what everybody else wants me to do is much harder for a dyslexic like me than a non dyslexic," he said in an interview with Wired published last month. He added: "Maybe I'm not everyone's cup of tea, but I kind of like being me on most days."

Paramount Skydance isn't ready to give up the fight for Warner Bros. The David Ellison-run company just launched a hostile, $30-per-share offer for all of WBD, even though Netflix agreed to buy WBD's streaming and studio assets last week in an $82.7 billion deal that includes $72 billion in equity. Discovery owns the Warner Bros. film studio, HBO, HBO Max, and TV networks like CNN, TNT, and TruTV. "Paramount's strategically and financially compelling offer to WBD shareholders provides a superior alternative to the Netflix transaction," Paramount said in a statement on Monday morning. Read more about the battle for Warner Bros. Ellison publicly made his case to shareholders and to WBD's board on CNBC on Monday morning. "We have faster regulatory certainty to close," Ellison said. He called the deal "pro-consumer, pro-creative talent," and "pro-competition." Ellison said that only Paramount is willing to absorb WBD's TV networks, which he estimated are worth just $1 per share. Even before Paramount's hostile bid, the Netflix-Warner Bros. tie-up wasn't a lock, as it needs approval from regulators in the US and abroad. Discovery acquisition is far from over," said Ross Benes, a senior analyst at EMARKETER, Business Insider's sister company. "Netflix is in the driver's seat but there will be twists and turns before the finish line. Paramount has already made major moves since its merger with Skydance, the production company founded by Ellison, finalized in August. The combined unit has since made a splash by buying UFC rights in the US, and by hiring former Netflix executives and the Duffer brothers, who created "Stranger Things." It also bought Bari Weiss' news startup, The Free Press, for $150 million and made her the editor in chief of CBS News. A Paramount-WBD merger would combine two legacy Hollywood movie studios and pair Paramount+ with HBO Max, creating a streaming powerhouse capable of challenging Netflix, Disney, and Google's YouTube in the battle for engagement. However, Ellison said on CNBC that a Netflix-HBO Max tie-up is what the entertainment industry should be concerned about. "This transaction is about building more, not cutting back," Ellison said on the call. "Our focus is on expanding creative output, not dominating the sector as Netflix envisions," he continued. "Our goal is to make Hollywood stronger in a way that benefits the entire ecosystem." Although this deal requires regulatory approval from the US and foreign governments, some media insiders say Ellison's apparent rapport with Trump could make the process less painful. A major question is whether regulators will view subscription-based streaming services as their own market — where a Netflix-WBD combination creates a colossus — or as part of a much larger entertainment ecosystem that includes traditional TV, as well as user-generated platforms like YouTube. "When you look at category ambiguity, saying that streaming is not a market is a little bit like looking at the beverage market and saying that Coke and Pepsi can merge because Budweiser is a replacement," Ellison said. Looking at it through the talent POV, Ellison said, "Great showrunners are not saying, 'I'm going to take the next "Game of Thrones" to TikTok or Instagram.' Entertainment lawyer Corey Martin of Granderson Des Rochers in Los Angeles previously told Business Insider that the normal state of play was "out the window," given how the Trump administration values personal relationships. Trump has publicly praised the Paramount CEO, whose father, Larry Ellison, is a longtime ally of the president. Trump commented on the Netflix offer on Sunday, saying the streamer had done a "phenomenal job" but had a "very big market share." "And also, I'll be involved in that decision, too."

Every time Lara publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Uber wants advertisers to level up their marketing by tapping into data on the millions of rides and deliveries its users order every day. Launched in partnership with the data-connectivity platform LiveRamp, Uber Intelligence will let advertisers securely combine their customer data with Uber's to help surface insights about their audiences, based on what they eat and where they travel. It uses LiveRamp's clean room technology, which lets companies aggregate their data in a privacy-safe environment, without sharing or seeing each other's raw or personally identifiable customer information. A hotel brand could use Uber Intelligence to help identify which restaurants or entertainment venues it might want to partner with for its loyalty program, for example. Uber also hopes the platform can act as a flywheel for its broader ad business. Marketers can use the data clean room for segmentation, such as identifying customers who are heavy business travelers, then targeting them with ads on their next trip to the airport in the Uber app or on screens inside Uber cars. "That seamlessness is why we're so excited," Edwin Wong, global head of measurement at Uber Advertising, told Business Insider in an interview. He added that the aim is for marketers to begin saying, "'Oh, I'm not just understanding Uber, I'm understanding Uber in my marketing context.'" It offers an array of ad formats in the Uber and Uber Eats apps, on in-car tablets, in emails to its users, and on car tops. The company doesn't break out a more specific ad-revenue figure and hasn't provided an update on the run-rate number since May. Earlier this year, it launched a creative studio where brands can partner with Uber to deliver more bespoke campaigns, such as offering rides to Miami F1 Grand Prix attendees in a luxury vehicle sponsored by La Mer, packed with freebie skincare products. Andrew Frank, analyst at the research firm Gartner, said the launch of Uber Intelligence is another signal that Uber's ad business is maturing. "Early-stage ad businesses tend to focus exclusively on selling inventory while more mature ones focus more on delivering differentiated value through targeting and measurement solutions that help brands understand and optimize the impact of their spend," Frank told Business Insider.

Every time Reed publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The race on Wall Street to deploy AI agents capable of handling end-to-end tasks is intensifying. On Monday, BNY said it will embed Google Cloud's agentic AI technology — including Google's latest model, Gemini 3 — into the bank's internal AI platform Eliza, named after the wife of bank founder Alexander Hamilton. By integrating Google Cloud's tech into Eliza — which already draws on multiple large language models — the firm is betting employees will be able to move faster through daily tasks, Sarthak Pattanaik, the bank's chief data and AI officer, told Business Insider. Take the tedious manual work of client onboarding: staff juggle document collection, verify ID and tax forms, locate key details, look up risk information, and log everything into internal systems. He said agentic AI could help orchestrate those steps, break tasks into smaller components, and deliver the required information in a more streamlined flow. In the bank's third-quarter earnings call, BNY CEO Robin Vince told analysts that the bank was leveraging agentic AI to deploy over 100 "digital employees" that are working "side-by-side" with staff on tasks such as payment validations and code repairs. While exciting, its expansion into agentic systems raises questions about how highly regulated institutions like BNY will ensure data privacy. Both BNY and Google emphasized that deploying agentic AI inside a regulated institution requires boundaries around what the technology can see, decide, or escalate. Pattanaik said deploying agentic AI inside a bank demands strict oversight. He said each agent must pass an internal model-risk review before it goes live and emphasized that the systems are governed by tight access controls that determine what information they are allowed to use. Rohit Bhat, Google Cloud's head of financial services, told Business Insider that Google provides the safety mechanisms that restrict how agents communicate and what data each one can access. Agents have "development kits" and "protocols" to govern their communication with one another, Bhat said. Major banks are embracing a mix of homegrown and external AI tools. Goldman Sachs has expanded its internal platforms while experimenting with technology from startups like Cognition Labs. Morgan Stanley has deployed OpenAI technology to assist its financial advisors, while executives at JPMorgan have spoken publicly about the potential for junior employees to manage teams of AI agents. Bhat said financial firms are becoming an important testing ground for agentic AI because their workflows involve heavy documentation, strict rules, and significant risk management. Google's pitch is that Gemini can reason through lengthy materials while staying anchored to a firm's internal policies — a prerequisite for deploying agents across custody, markets, or onboarding. "You need to make sure that whatever these agents are doing is grounded in the business context and in the business specificity," he said.

Every time Samuel publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Amazon kicked off December with AWS re:Invent, its technology conference that Bank of America analysts think marks a fresh bull signal in the AI trade, and one that's set to lift a handful of chip stocks higher. The investment bank laid out its bullish thesis on several tech stocks in the semiconductor space this week, explaining why it thinks a handful of companies will benefit as Amazon doubles down on its AI push. Nvidia in BofA's least surprising pick to win from more AI spending. Yet, a few other stocks the bank likes are not as well known. It centers on the incorporation of Nvidia's NVLink Fusion interconnect technology, which enables strong communication between different AI chips at extremely high bandwidths. "Our $275 PO is based on 28x CY27E PE ex cash, within NVDA's historical 25x-56x forward year PE range, which we believe is justified by NVDA's leading share in fast-growing AI compute/networking markets," BofA analyst Vivek Arya noted. In his view, demand for various AI chips may increase as Amazon and Nvidia move forward together, indicating that Astera Labs may not end up losing any business. Arya noted that while the event didn't include any specific mentions of AMD's AI accelerators, his team expects to see this relationship continue. BofA didn't dive deeply into fellow chipmaker Marvel Technology, though it also listed it as a likely beneficiary, citing its vast portfolio of data center networking tools, including connectivity components that play a pivotal role in new AI infrastructure upon which companies like AWS depend. Credo Technology Group is the final company mentioned by BofA's team list of chip stocks likely to benefit from AWS' AI push.

Every time Alice publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Engineers are in "continuous learning mode" as they race to keep up with the rate of change, Trevor Brosnan, Morgan Stanley's global head of technology strategy, architecture, and modernization, told Business Insider. Technologists on Wall Street today are often grinding through capstone-style courses, working on basic communication skills, or watching a bunch of YouTube-style videos as many banks help them upskill to keep pace with AI advancements. "Something you thought you knew about AI three months ago might be out of date by now," Jonathan Lofthouse, the chief information officer at Citi, said. Banks from JPMorgan to Citi are pouring billions into AI to make their workforces more efficient, deliver better client experiences, and ultimately cut costs. The engineers who do best at these banks will be those who learn how to use AI effectively — and the banks are going to great lengths to help them learn fast, according to Alexandra Mousavizadeh, the cofounder and co-CEO of Evident, which tracks AI use in the financial industry. "We are hiring for potential upskilling," Nish Rana, the senior director of Enterprise Data at Capital One, said of his hiring for the bank's AI and machine learning capabilities. "It's a lot of time spent now on helping accelerate developers' adoption, so that they can become more aware of these and give back some of their capacity," Dov Katz, a distinguished engineer at Morgan Stanley, said. As Citi's Lofthouse put it, most developers' second language is Java. "And actually, Java is sometimes a bit easier to express problems in than a first language," he said, especially when it comes to describing the complexities of the financial markets. It's important to give an AI agent as much guidance as possible on the task to perform and the desired output, said Brosnan. "That is a shift from, 'Okay, I'm the person writing all the code, but have a little assistance,' to now, I'm giving much bigger tasks and delegating them to an agent," Brosnan said. Everyone he works with is learning that skill in real time to use the tools most effectively. That's not to say that coding is irrelevant — all of the technology leads said it's still important to know foundational coding languages, especially since humans have to check all of the code that AI agents write. Capital One has developed its own AI Academies, Rana said, which are "considered a one-stop solution to grasping fundamentals, all the way up to advanced learning." "New engineers who are coming into our company don't necessarily need to have an extensive background," Rana said. "We have formal training that can bring them up to speed in a very consolidated and accelerated way." He added that many employees learn a lot from YouTube, whether for work or personal interests, and that videos have proven to be a powerful tool. Opt-in programs are hugely popular, Brosnan and Lofthouse said, and have proven to be crucial educational architecture as the pace of learning continues to accelerate. Learning opportunities aside, the rate of change is a source of anxiety for many engineers, as some worry the shine of a computer science degree is fading in a world where bots can spit out code at record speed. Yet the tech leaders said that AI will ultimately let their engineers, equipped with the right skills, focus on higher-order thinking and higher-impact work. Rana said that some veteran engineers are anxious about keeping pace with the rapid shifts in AI. Everything his team is doing — from AI academies to online videos to tech talks — is aimed at giving engineers not only the tools to succeed, but the "psychological safety net" of learning in a comfortable corporate sandbox.

Every time Matthew publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This shield is known as the New Safe Confinement, or NSC, which was installed in 2016 as a second protective layer to stop the spread of radioactive material from Reactor Four of the Chernobyl power plant. Damage to the shield increases the risk of leaks, which are difficult to contain because radioactive materials, such as gas and dust, can easily disperse widely and remain hazardous for extended periods. The NSC fully encases an original, smaller concrete structure for containment called the Sarcophagus, built by the Soviet Union after Reactor Four exploded in 1986 and sparked a nuclear crisis across continental Europe. The NSC, which cost $1.75 billion to install, was urgently needed because the Sarcophagus had an estimated lifespan of 30 years and wasn't airtight, allowing radioactive dirt and gas to escape. Now, the IAEA said its team confirmed that the NSC can't do its job after being "severely damaged" by a drone strike in February. The strike, which Ukraine has said was caused by a drone belonging to Russia, set fire to the steel structure's outer cladding. "Limited temporary repairs have been carried out on the roof, but timely and comprehensive restoration remains essential to prevent further degradation and ensure long-term nuclear safety," said the IAEA's director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi. The February drone strike left a roughly 160-square-foot hole in the shield, which is shaped like a massive aircraft hangar. Authorities were initially concerned that radioactive dust around the shield could be scattered if the shelter was hit by an explosive. No radiation leaks were reported, authorities had said at the time. Still, the agency added that it hadn't found any risk to the shelter's load-bearing structures or monitoring systems. The nuclear watchdog urged major repairs and upgrades to the shield, including humidity control measures and an improved program to monitor corrosion.

Every time Shubhangi publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. "I'm worried that instead of building AI that will actually advance us as a species, curing cancer, solving poverty, understanding universal, all these big grand questions, we are optimizing for AI slop instead," Edwin Chen said in an episode of "Lenny's" podcast published on Sunday. "We're basically teaching our models to chase dopamine instead of truth," he added. Chen founded AI training startup Surge in 2020 after working at Twitter, Google, and Meta. Surge runs the gig platform Data Annotation, which says it pays one million freelancers to train AI models. On Sunday's podcast, Chen said that companies are prioritizing AI slop because of industry leaderboards. "Right now, the industry is played by these terrible leaderboards like LMArena," he said, referring to a popular online leaderboard where people can vote on which AI response is better. "They're skimming these responses for two seconds and picking whatever looks flashiest." Still, the Surge CEO said that AI labs have to pay attention to these leaderboards because they can be asked about their rankings during sales meetings. Like Chen, research scientists have criticized benchmarks for overvaluing superficial traits. In a March blog post, Dean Valentine, the cofounder and CEO of AI security startup ZeroPath, said that "Recent AI model progress feels mostly like bullshit." None of the new models his team tried had made a "significant difference" in his company's internal benchmarks or in developers' abilities to find new bugs, he said. researchers at the European Commission's Joint Research Center concluded that major issues exist in today's evaluation approach. In April, Meta released two new models in its Llama family that it said delivered "better results" than comparably sized models from Google and French AI lab Mistral. "Meta's interpretation of our policy did not match what we expect from model providers," LMArena said in an X post.