Kurt Wagner Journalist Profile

Articles

Musk taps investors for billions, days after leaving Trump’s side

3 weeks ago | seattletimes.com | Kurt Wagner |Jeannine Amodeo

Elon Musk is selling $5 billion in debt for his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, the latest in a series of fundraising efforts across his business empire as the billionaire pivots away from politics and returns to running his various companies. Morgan Stanley is shopping the xAI debt, according to a person familiar with the matter, which could help Musk continue to spend aggressively on AI infrastructure as he builds out a massive data center in Memphis, Tenn.
Zuckerberg takes the stand in FTC’s Meta antitrust trial

2 months ago | financialpost.com | Joshua Sisco |Kurt Wagner

Advertisement 1The FTC opened an investigation into Meta in 2019 and sued the company in December 2020Article contentMark Zuckerberg took the stand in federal court Monday as the first witness in the United States Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust trial seeking to break up Meta Platforms Inc. Sign In or Create an AccountArticle contentWe apologize, but this video has failed to load. Try refreshing your browser, ortap here to see other videos from our team.
Musk Blames Lemon’s ‘Invasive’ Interview for Canceling Show (1)

Jan 29, 2025 | news.bloomberglaw.com | Kurt Wagner

Elon Musk cited Don Lemon’s “invasive and charged interview” with the X owner as grounds for walking away from a $1.5 million partnership deal in early 2024, after the former CNN star escalated a legal feud over a canceled new show. Lemon, who was fired from the network in 2023, sued Musk in August after the billionaire’s social network backed away from partnering with the high-profile journalist to create exclusive video shows for X.
Meta’s Threads will soon include ads in the U.S. and Japan

Jan 24, 2025 | financialpost.com | Kurt Wagner |Riley Griffin

The ads will come from a “handful of brands” and appear only in the United States and Japan to start, according to a post Friday from Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, who called the move a “test.”Meta will be “closely monitoring this test before scaling it more broadly, with the goal of getting ads on Threads to a place where they are as interesting as organic content,” Mosseri wrote on the platform.
Trump Halts TikTok Ban, Giving App More Time to Find a Buyer (1)

Jan 20, 2025 | news.bloombergtax.com | Kurt Wagner |Josh Wingrove

President Donald Trump temporarily halted a ban on TikTok in the US, granting the company and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. more time to reach a deal for the popular app that would resolve long-standing US national security concerns. TikTok’s lifeline came via an executive order signed by Trump on Monday in one of his first acts after taking office.
TikTok Return Draws Scrutiny of Trump’s, Beijing’s Stance (1)

Jan 20, 2025 | news.bloombergtax.com | Alexandra Levine |Kurt Wagner

TikTok restored US services after Donald Trump pledged to delay enforcement of aban. Yet it’s not clear whether the app’s Chinese parent is able — or willing — to secure a US backer in time to avoid a permanent shutdown. Most immediate is the question of whether such an extension would be legal after the ban kicked in Sunday.
TikTok Return Draws Scrutiny of Trump’s Reach, Beijing’s Stance

Jan 19, 2025 | news.bloombergtax.com | Alexandra Levine |Kurt Wagner

Donald Trump pledged to delay enforcement of a national security law that threatened to ban TikTok. Yet it’s not clear whether the app’s Chinese parent is able — or willing — to secure a US backer in time to avoid a permanent shutdown. Most immediate is the question of whether such an extension would be legal after the ban kicked in Sunday.
TikTok’s Fate Rests on Trump After Supreme Court Upholds Law (2)

Jan 17, 2025 | news.bloombergtax.com | Alexandra Levine |Kurt Wagner

The US Supreme Court has ended TikTok’s nine-month legal battle, forcing leaders both within the company and in Beijing to consider a dwindling set of alternatives for keeping the popular video-sharing app alive. TikTok’s China-based parent, ByteDance Ltd., can agree to sell the app’s US operations — a path the company has said it has no interest in pursuing — or wait to see if President-elect Donald Trump makes good on his promise to orchestrate a solution.
Zuckerberg pivots harder toward Trump as political winds shift

Jan 12, 2025 | post-gazette.com | Kurt Wagner |Riley Griffin

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Meta rolls back diversity and inclusion efforts in bid to appease Trump

Jan 10, 2025 | financialpost.com | Kurt Wagner |Jeff Green

Meta on Tuesday also updated its policies around what kind of content could be removed on its sitesMeta Platforms Inc. is disbanding many of its diversity and inclusion efforts, telling employees they will no longer be required to interview candidates from under-represented backgrounds for open roles, or look to do business with diverse suppliers.