Allen & Company Annual Conference Draws Media And Tech Leaders To Sun Valley

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The richest men in the world have gotten poorer since Trump took office. Not Warren Buffett.

Buffett’s $334 billion cash pile looks pretty good right now, huh?

4/4/25 10:19AM

In his second term, President Trump has courted tech CEOs with promises of lax regulations and tax cuts. So far, it hasn’t worked out too great for them.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are all poorer since they were spotted at Trump’s inauguration. Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, hasn’t publicly cozied up to Trump, and his wealth has grown about $20 billion since Inauguration Day.

Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump’s biggest cheerleader, has taken the biggest hit as Tesla underperforms as a business, leading investors to lose confidence. Another Trump-friendly CEO, Amazon’s Bezos, has lost at least $50 billion of his net worth since Trump was elected, as the president’s policies weigh on consumer sentiment. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now at least $30 billion poorer since Trump took office.

These men have lost billions amid a market sell-off that has hit their tech stocks particularly hard. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, meanwhile, has been more insulated from the downturn because of its large cash pile and shrinking exposure to the stock market, including selling off a chunk of its stake in Apple.

Warren Buffett watching the stock market collapse while holding $300 Billion in T-Billspic.twitter.com/dkf6z23d0c
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) April 3, 2025

The Netflix-Warner Bros. deal now faces a wall of opposition

Netflix will owe Warner Bros. $5.8 billion in cash if the deal is terminated on antitrust grounds.

Max Knoblauch12/5/25

Jon Keegan12/5/25

The New York Times, Chicago Tribune sue Perplexity

The New York Times is suing the AI search engine startup Perplexity, alleging repeated copyright violations.

In the complaint, the Times accuses Perplexity of scraping the company’s content and generating outputs that are “identical or substantially similar” to Times content:

“Upon information and belief, Perplexity has unlawfully copied, distributed, and displayed millions of copyrighted Times stories, videos, podcasts, images and other works to power its products and tools.”

The Times also alleges that Perplexity’s AI tool generates “hallucinations” and falsely attribute them to the Times, creating confusion that harms the company’s brand.

In a separate suit filed Thursday, the Chicago Tribune accused Perplexity of similar copyright violations.

Perplexity’s “answer engine” made early inroads in an attempt to replace traditional web searches with AI-powered responses, but its larger competitors such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic have been adding similar features. OpenAI recently released its own AI-powered web browser, ChatGPT Atlas, which challenges Perplexity’s Comet browser.

Jesse Dwyer, Head of Communication for Perplexity told Sherwood News in a statement:

“Publishers have been suing new tech companies for a hundred years, starting with radio, TV, the internet, social media and now AI. Fortunately it’s never worked, or we’d all be talking about this by telegraph.”

New York Times Sues A.I. Start-Up Perplexity Over Use of Copyrighted Work

“Upon information and belief, Perplexity has unlawfully copied, distributed, and displayed millions of copyrighted Times stories, videos, podcasts, images and other works to power its products and tools.”

The Times also alleges that Perplexity’s AI tool generates “hallucinations” and falsely attribute them to the Times, creating confusion that harms the company’s brand.

In a separate suit filed Thursday, the Chicago Tribune accused Perplexity of similar copyright violations.

Jesse Dwyer, Head of Communication for Perplexity told Sherwood News in a statement:

“Publishers have been suing new tech companies for a hundred years, starting with radio, TV, the internet, social media and now AI. Fortunately it’s never worked, or we’d all be talking about this by telegraph.”

Jon Keegan11/28/25

European regulators will examine if Apple’s maps and ads businesses require stricter oversight

Apple has notified European regulators that its Apple Maps and Apple Ads platforms meet the threshold to be called “gatekeepers” under the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act, the European Commission said.

European antitrust regulators will now examine if the tech giant’s Maps and Ads units should be subject to stricter regulation. According to the DMA, when a platform reaches 45 million monthly active users and a market cap of €75 billion ($79 billion), it triggers the “gatekeeper” designation and additional rules apply.

While Apple notified regulators that the threshold has been met, it is pushing back on the designation, saying in a rebuttal to rule makers that the platforms are actually relatively small compared to the competition in Europe and should be excluded. The EC has 45 working days to make a final determination about the designation, and Apple would have six months to comply, Reuters reported.

EU to examine if Apple Ads and Maps subject to tough rules, Apple says no

Jon Keegan11/26/25

Delhi High Court says Apple could face $38 billion penalty in Indian antitrust case

India’s Delhi High Court says that Apple could face a penalty as high as $38 billion for what its investigators describe as “abusive conduct” related to the tech giant’s app store, Reuters reports.

Apple is challenging the constitutionality of the country’s new antitrust law, taking specific issue with the fact that penalties are calculated based on companies’ total annual global revenue, rather than just revenue derived from India.

That global figure could mean fines as high as $38 billion, according to a court filing seen by Reuters.

The Competition Commission of India has not issued a final ruling in the case.

Apple contests India's antitrust penalty law with risk of $38 billion fine, filing shows

That global figure could mean fines as high as $38 billion, according to a court filing seen by Reuters.

The Competition Commission of India has not issued a final ruling in the case.

Jon Keegan11/26/25

Anthropic CEO Amodei asked to testify before Congress about Claude-powered Chinese cyberattack, Axios reports

Earlier this month, Anthropic revealed that Chinese state actors had used its Claude chatbot to orchestrate and execute a cyber espionage campaign for the first time. The company said that after it detected its product was being used in that manner, it was able to respond and disrupt malicious behavior.

Now, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has been called to testify before the House Committee on Homeland Security, along with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kuria and Quantum Xchange CEO Eddy Zervigon, Axios reports.

The House committee is seeking information about how nation-state actors are using AI agents to devise and execute novel cyberattacks, like the one that Anthropic disrupted.

Exclusive: Anthropic CEO called to testify before Congress about Chinese AI cyberattack