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1.	Trump Demands Microsoft Fire Company Executive 'Immediately' By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan Source: The Information

President Donald Trump has called on Microsoft to fire its head of global affairs, Lisa Monaco, over her ties to the Democratic Party.

In a rambling post on Truth Social, Trump claimed Monaco was a "menace to U.S. National Security" and cited "the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States Government." He said Microsoft should "immediately terminate" Monaco's employment. It's unclear what triggered the outburst, but Laura Loomer—a right-wing conspiracy theorist who has aligned herself with Trump—had previously targeted Monaco on X.

The move is the latest example of Trump using his position to put pressure on companies and to attempt to oust people he views as opponents. In a Truth Social post in August, Trump called on Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign from his position "immediately" over the Intel leader's business ties to Chinese companies, including some reportedly linked to the country's military. (Trump later changed his tune about Tan and the U.S. now owns a stake in Intel.)

Monaco, a former deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden, has been at Microsoft since July, according to her LinkedIn page. The White House and Monaco did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Microsoft declined to comment.

2.	ByteDance to Maintain Control Of TikTok's U.S. Advertising, E-Commerce By Juro Osawa Source: Reuters

ByteDance will maintain operations of the commercial functions of TikTok's U.S. business such as advertising and e-commerce, while the new U.S. TikTok joint venture recently unveiled by President Donald Trump will manage the app's data and algorithm in the U.S., Reuters and Chinese media outlet Caixin reported.

TikTok's existing U.S. unit, which is wholly owned by ByteDance, will continue to run the app's revenue-generating operations in the U.S., such as advertising and e-commerce, according to the reports. Separately, the TikTok U.S. deal announced by Trump last week will create a new U.S. joint venture majority owned by American investors. And that joint venture will control TikTok's U.S. user data and retrain the app's algorithm licensed from ByteDance.

ByteDance's control over the commercial operations of TikTok's U.S. business could raise questions about whether Trump's TikTok deal is compliant with the U.S. federal law passed last year that requires ByteDance to divest from TikTok's U.S. business. On Friday, John Moolenaar, the chair of the House Select Committee on China, said there shouldn't be any "operational ties" between ByteDance and the new TikTok entity. He also said he has requested an urgent briefing on the TikTok deal and "will be conducting full oversight over this agreement."

3.	Anthropic Hires Head of International Business in Global Push By Stephanie Palazzolo Source: The Information

Anthropic said Friday it has hired Chris Ciauri, a former Google Cloud executive, to lead its international expansion as its new managing director of international.

Ciauri joins the company as its international activity has boomed, with nearly 80% of the consumer usage of its Claude chatbot coming from outside the United States from countries including South Korea, Australia and Singapore, the company said. Anthropic makes the majority of its revenue from businesses using its models through its application programming interface, but consumers can access the Claude chatbot for free with limited features.

The company also told CNBC that it would triple its international workforce and expand its applied AI team, which helps customers use its models, fivefold this year. Anthropic and rival OpenAI are racing to sell to consumers and businesses outside of the U.S. In recent months, OpenAI has released cheaper ChatGPT subscriptions available in geographies like India and Indonesia, for example.

4.	Data Startup Fivetran In Talks to Buy Dbt Labs By Ken Brown Source: The Information

Fivetran, a startup used by companies to manage and prepare data for analytics and artificial intelligence, is in talks to buy data management company dbt Labs, according to people with direct knowledge of the deal.

The deal would combine two data companies that are facing competition from artificial intelligence. Fivetran and dbt Labs have complementary offerings and the deal could give them the scale to compete in a fast-changing market and potentially carry out an initial public offering.

The deal is weeks away from completion, the people said, and the acquisition could still fall apart.

A merger of the two venture-backed companies, founded before the wave of AI advancements pioneered by OpenAI, could give the combined entity an enterprise value between $5 billion to $10 billion. Andreessen Horowitz has backed both companies and holds a board seat on both.

Representatives from both companies declined to comment.

5.	ByteDance Could Take 50% of TikTok U.S. Profit Under Proposed Deal By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan Source: Bloomberg

TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, could get as much as 50% of the profits from TikTok's U.S. business, even after the U.S. arm is split off from ByteDance and sold to a group of investors, Bloomberg News reported Friday.

ByteDance is due to take a stake of just under 20% in a new joint-venture company that will own TikTok U.S., along with a cohort of non-Chinese investors. As part of the arrangement, ByteDance is set to receive some of the new company's profits, in proportion to its equity stake, as well as a fee on the revenue made from licensing its algorithm to the U.S. entity, the publication reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The details are the latest chapter in the long-running saga over TikTok's fate in the U.S. Also this week, Vice President JD Vance said the new entity would be valued at $14 billion—far lower than expected.

6.	Videogame Firm Electronic Arts Nears Private Equity Megadeal By Anita Ramaswamy Source: The Wall Street Journal

Electronic Arts, the company behind popular video games such as FIFA, Madden football and The Sims, could announce a deal to sell itself to investors including Silver Lake, Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund as soon as next week, The Wall Street Journal first reported on Friday. EA's shares jumped 13% immediately following the report, bringing its market capitalization to just over $48 billion. That's close to the $50 billion valuation investors are reportedly considering ascribing it in the deal, which would make it one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history.

EA's sales growth has been anemic for the last few years, and the company's top line shrank in fiscal 2025. Still, Wall Street analysts expect to see a comeback from the company. They estimate its sales will grow by more than 7% in 2026, according to Koyfin, as a result of some hotly anticipated new releases this year. That has helped its stock slightly outperform the S&P 500 in 2025, even prior to the news report.

Despite its slowdown, the business still throws off a healthy amount of cash: Its free cash flow margin last year was around 25%. With $1.6 billion in cash on hand and just over $2 billion in existing debt, that suggests it has room to comfortably borrow. The deal will include a debt financing package worth upwards of $20 billion, the Financial Times separately reported.

7.	German AI Startup Seeking Funding at $4 Billion Valuation By Ken Brown Source: Financial Times

Black Forest Labs, a German startup that focuses on image generation, is seeking to raise between $200 million and $300 million in a fundraising round that would value the company at $4 billion, the Financial Times reported.

The one-year-old company previously raised funds at a $1 billion valuation. Among the investors was Andreessen Horowitz. The current fundraising round is still in its early stages, the FT reported.

Black Forest, along with Mistral, are among a small number of European startups developing their own AI models, the FT reported. Black Forest's Flux models can produce images from a few lines of text and are being used by major tech companies.

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