Good morning. Andrew here. Breaking: Fox has agreed to purchase Roku in a cash-and-stock deal that values the streaming company at about $22 billion, including debt. We’re also trying to make sense of the U.S. government’s decision to force Anthropic to bar foreign nationals from using its most powerful models on national security grounds. It feels like a Rubicon has been crossed — with profound implications for the future of artificial intelligence and an industry that is powering the economy. Separately, while SpaceX’s I.P.O. signals the arrival of the trillionaire era, Americans are debating what responsibilities the superwealthy now have. New polling by Just Capital, the nonprofit group founded by the investor Paul Tudor Jones focused on responsible corporate leadership, suggests that the public is focused on how those riches are used, not how they were created. Only 10 percent of respondents say a trillion-dollar company’s primary responsibility is to its shareholders, far behind worker pay, employee ownership and investment in local communities. Strikingly, 57 percent say it’s acceptable for a single person to be worth at least $1 trillion — but 34 percent support that only if the wealth was created responsibly and without exploitation, while 35 percent find that concentration of money concerning and acceptable. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.)
The Hormuz questionA global relief rally is underway this morning. Investors are cheering a potential breakthrough reached in the past few hours between the U.S. and Iran that could eventually end a war that has rocked the global economy. President Trump hailed the development, writing on social media: “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” But details of what’s in the framework agreement are scarce. And major challenges to a lasting regional peace remain. They include whether Washington and Tehran can resolve their differences over Iran’s nuclear program, and how Israel and members of Trump’s party might respond to the terms. Still, a signing ceremony is scheduled for Friday in Geneva for what Tehran is calling a “memorandum of understanding.” The latest:
What’s driving those gains? The most bullish see an extended cease-fire easing energy prices and the inflation burden they put on companies and households, which could in turn influence central banks’ stance on interest rates. Economists had warned that rising energy prices from a protracted war would force central banks to raise borrowing costs to ward off inflation, as the European Central Bank did last week. But futures traders this morning have pared their calls for rate increases in Europe and the U.S. They still expect the Fed to raise its benchmark rate in December. But it’s closer to a coin toss than a done deal, something to watch ahead of this week’s policy decision. What could go wrong? Trump told The Times that he wanted the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that has been effectively shut since the war began, to be reopened and “permanently toll-free.” Earlier in the war, an emboldened Tehran had explored charging some ships. “Hormuz is likely to reopen slowly, and ships (and their insurers) may not be rushing to sail through,” Paul Donovan, the chief economist for UBS Global Wealth Management, wrote to investors this morning.
Several states open an investigation into OpenAI. A coalition of state attorneys general, led by Letitia James of New York, served the artificial intelligence company a subpoena seeking documents related to the effect that OpenAI’s products have on users, including minors. The inquiry comes after Florida filed a lawsuit against OpenAI over the role ChatGPT may have played in a shooting, and highlights growing worries about how the technology affects users. An entrepreneur who defrauded JPMorgan Chase reportedly pushes for a presidential pardon. Charlie Javice, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for defrauding the bank in its purchase of her student loan start-up, Frank, has sought clemency help from people close to the administration, according to The Wall Street Journal. The White House is weighing a plan for President Trump to issue 250 pardons to commemorate the nation’s 250th birthday this summer, The Journal reported, though Javice’s name isn’t on a formal list of requests. SpaceX shares rally again. Shares in Elon Musk’s rocket-and-A.I. company jumped over 5 percent in premarket trading this morning. Its record-breaking debut has already bolstered the fortunes of insiders and early investors, and charities are now expecting a windfall from many of them. ‘The ball is in Anthropic’s court’The artificial intelligence world is still reeling from the Trump administration’s crackdown on Anthropic and its top-end models, a decision that the company — the A.I. lab that proclaims itself safety-first — disagrees with. The consequences of the standoff are being felt worldwide, and they raise questions about how Washington will govern A.I. technology. Catch up: Late on Friday, the Trump administration ordered Anthropic to bar foreign nationals from using its Fable and Mythos models, according to the A.I. lab. The company shut down access for everyone, arguing that there was no way for it to comply (since the order applied even to foreign-born Anthropic employees). Anthropic officials were in Washington yesterday to try to resolve the impasse, Axios reported. What we know so far:
The White House and Anthropic seem to be at odds again. Administration officials like Bessent had appeared to mend ties with the company after Mythos was released. How some administration officials and allies responded:
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