Enrique Abeyta:

A TikTok Deal Has Finally Been Reached With China, the Trump Administration Says

A deal has been reached between the Trump administration and China to keep TikTok operational in the United States, administration officials announced Monday, concluding a yearslong effort that began during President Donald Trump’s first term.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that a framework agreement has been reached, and Trump will speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping Friday to finalize the deal.

The Trump administration did not name the U.S.-backed buyer, but the group is widely expected to be led by Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison, who last week briefly became the world’s richest person. Trump in January had said he would champion Ellison, a Trump supporter, buying the app’s U.S. assets.

Chinese and U.S. diplomats have been meeting this week in Spain, in the country's foreign ministry's baroque Palacio de Santa Cruz, to discuss trade and other matters.

TikTok boasts around 170 million U.S. users, many of them young people – a contingent that offered significantly more support to the Republican presidential candidate in the 2024 election than that segment of the population has in recent years. Trump has repeatedly said a deal is close, but no breakthrough emerged until Monday.

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Davis Wilson:

China Targets Nvidia Over 2020 Deal, Straining Trade Talks

China ruled that Nvidia violated anti-monopoly laws with a high-profile 2020 deal, ratcheting up the pressure on Washington during sensitive trade negotiations taking place between the U.S. and China in Madrid, Spain.

The U.S. chipmaker was found in violation regarding the acquisition of networking gear maker Mellanox Technologies Ltd., the State Administration for Market Regulation said after concluding a preliminary investigation. Nvidia’s shares slipped about 1% in U.S. trading.

The surprise announcement emerged with U.S. and Chinese officials heading into a second day of wide-ranging negotiations in Madrid over tariffs, which could shape the relationship between the world’s two largest economies. Over the weekend, China also said it was launching an anti-dumping investigation targeting a type of semiconductor made by U.S. companies, including Texas Instruments Inc. Its shares fell as much as 4.7%.

The regulator didn’t specify on Monday what sort of remedies it would seek from Nvidia, adding it will investigate the company further.

Nvidia has this year found itself thrust into the center of delicate negotiations between Beijing and Washington because of its central role in driving future technologies, including artificial intelligence.

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Ari Goldschmidt:

Elon Musk Responds to Tesla Pay Proposal by Buying $1 Billion Worth of Stock

Elon Musk is responding to the unprecedented pay package proposal from Tesla’s board of directors by slightly increasing his stake in the company. 

Musk bought $1 billion in Tesla stock through an irrevocable trust on September 12th, according to a regulatory filing released Monday. Tesla shares were trading up over 5% on the news, pushing the company’s value into positive territory for the year.

It was Musk’s first open-market purchase of Tesla stock in over five years, according to Bloomberg. He offloaded more than $20 billion of the company’s shares in 2022, which was the year he acquired Twitter. Other Tesla executives have similarly sold off some of their shares this year, including several board members.

The purchase comes more than a week after Tesla’s board proposed a pay package that, if enacted, would make Musk the world’s first trillionaire. Musk would need to meet a series of ambitious milestones to receive the compensation, including producing over a million robots, a million robotaxis, and creating $7.5 trillion in value for Tesla’s shareholders.

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