President Trump ragged on several mainstream news outlets, including the Washington Post, New York Times and MS NOW, at a dinner he hosted Tuesday for News Corp. executives, including Rupert Murdoch, a source familiar with the event told Axios.
Why it matters: The dinner, which the source described as cordial, comes amid a prolonged legal battle between the president and the Wall Street Journal.
The U.S. healthcare workforce shortage is already straining access to care, and the Covista Healthcare Workforce Index, the latest in an ongoing series of research by Covista on the healthcare workforce, projects that the shortfall is on track to nearly double by 2040 without action.
Exclusive new data from Indeed Hiring Lab shows that communications and PR job postings in the U.S. are down about 31% since July 2023, compared with a 26% decline in all U.S. job postings.
Why it matters: Comms leaders are building teams while the work itself is changing, forcing new decisions about which roles, skills and levels of experience they actually need.
Tesla and Rivian topped expectations on electric vehicle deliveries over the past three months, an early sign that elevated gas prices may be giving EV demand a lift.
Why it matters: EVs had been down in the dumps for an extended period, but with gas now far above $4 per gallon, some consumers appear to be giving them a second look.
Change.org was founded as a venture-backed organization, before a 2021 restructuring that saw investors like Reid Hoffman and Sam Altman donate their shares to a nonprofit structure.
Now the group tells Axios that it's investing around $100 million of its own money to rebuild its core petitions platform via AI.
Novartis on Friday signed a drug licensing deal with China's Abogen Biosciences that could be worth up to $7.8 billion.
Why it matters: This is the latest example of a Western pharma giant partnering with a Chinese biotech — a trend that could presage China rivaling America as the world's top drugmaker.
A small cadre of elite AI researchers is wielding extraordinary influence inside OpenAI and other leading companies, challenging executives, shaping policy and complicating negotiations with Washington.
Why it matters: As a safety crisis has unfolded across the industry, it's an open question who is doing more to shape the national AI debate — top researchers or the executives they report to.
Wikipedia is starting to feel the effects of the AI-driven shift in how people find information, with page views falling 8% in the latest year, new Wikimedia Foundation CEO Bernadette Meehan told Axios.
Why it matters: Wikipedia is a crucial source of information for AI models, but those same models increasingly allow people to get Wikipedia-derived information without ever visiting the site — potentially threatening the ecosystem that keeps the online encyclopedia running.
Mortgage rates spiked to their highest level in nearly three years, continuing their climb above the 7% threshold.
Why it matters: Housing sales were already slow due to a lack of inventory and elevated rates, creating a risk that the market could further its freeze.
Just 33 days before the midterm elections, corporate communicators should be asking a simple question: Where could our business become the political story?
Companies and leaders don't have to make overtly political statements to get caught in the crossfire.
Why it matters: Business decisions about prices, AI, jobs or investment can become lightning rods for voter anger over soaring costs and the political establishment.
Anti Fund, the venture firm co-founded by YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul, is seeking to raise $400 million for its second fund, according to a regulatory filing.
Why it matters: The target for Anti Fund II is more than 13 times the size of the firm's first venture fund, which closed less than a year ago.
Axios spoke on the phone with Vinod Khosla, the legendary venture capitalist, entrepreneur and newly minted NFL owner.
What follows is a transcript of the conversation, which preceded the Factory/Cognition dustup, lightly edited for clarity and brevity:
🏈 Seattle Seahawks
Khosla last month paid a record $9.6 billion to buy the NFL club from Paul Allen's estate, after having spent several years as a minority owner of the San Francisco 49ers.
Private equity firm Sycamore Partners reportedly is in talks to sell British pharmacy chain Boots to part of the billionaire Weston family for around $9 billion (including debt).
Why it matters: Sycamore isn't wasting any time breaking up the Walgreens Boots Alliance, believing that it's worth less than the sum of its parts.
Data: FactSet; Chart: Axios/Matt Phillips; Note: Bond market figures reflect total returns for the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate bond index and subindexes for U.S. Treasuries and U.S. investment grade and high yield corporate bonds. Momentum stocks reflects the iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF .
Energy stocks were some of the best-performing U.S. assets to own in the just-ended third quarter, as inflationary pressures related to the Iran war and irrepressible U.S. growth established themselves as key price-drivers.
Why it matters: The performance of oil-and-gas drillers, refiners and retailers was crucial to keeping broader indexes such as the S&P 500 in the black (+2%) during the three months that ended Wednesday.
Most of the benefits of the AI boom, for humans at least, have filtered into the stock market — but that leaves a lot of folks out.
Why it matters: Record wealth from stock market gains is helping drive strong consumer spending and economic growth overall, but it's a fragile situation: What goes up can come down, after all.
Plus, there are plenty of Americans who have little or no exposure to the market — especially lower-income households — and they're currently struggling to deal with falling real wages, rising gas prices and stubbornly high inflation.
BlackRock, promoting skilled trades as a promising path to a well-paying career, on Thursday announced $13 million in grants to 15 inaugural winners of the BlackRock Future Builders program.
Why it matters: The grants from the BlackRock Foundation span trades that include electrical, construction, HVAC, welding, plumbing, pipefitting, heavy equipment operation and other infrastructure-related occupations.
Larry Fink, BlackRock's chairman and CEO, is promoting the skilled trades message with appearances Wednesday at Ford's Accelerate summit in Detroit and on Thursday at Heartland Forward's Heartland Summit in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Senate Majority Leader John Thunewelcomed the new "constitution" that President Trump and tech and AI leaders signed Tuesday but said he would work to "codify" some safety protections with legislation.
Why it matters: Thune and other GOP senators aren't directly challenging Trump's preference for industry-led safeguards. But they suggest yesterday's accord — which Trump called "morally binding" — might not be enough.
