American companies are bundling years' worth of planned U.S. investments into one package and delivering it to the White House, hoping to strengthen government relations and make a PR splash.

Why it matters: This tactic is the latest addendum to the corporate Trump playbook.

How it works: Traditionally, companies have shared backward-looking data and economic impact stories — for example, the number of jobs created over the past five years.

• Now, companies are packaging fairly standard capital expenditures with future investment commitments to help tell a story of big economic impact, and then using Trump's megaphone to share the news.
• The administration gets to tout the investments, while companies can leverage the news as a negotiation tactic and PR generator.

State of play: Apple was among the first to see real traction with this strategy early in Trump's second term.

• Apple CEO Tim Cook joined Trump at the White House to announce a $600 billion investment over the next four years, and Cook presented Trump with a golden plaque to commemorate it.
• This came shortly after Trump threatened tariffs of at least 25% on the iPhone if production wasn't moved to the U.S.
• Trump also announced OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle were investing in AI infrastructure.
• Other companies soon followed. For example, Johnson & Johnson pledged to spend $55 billion in the U.S. over the next four years on manufacturing, research and technology investments.

What they're saying: "Since the new administration, there has been a pretty dramatic shift to future-focus plans," says one government relations executive who asked to speak on background.

• The reasons for bundling can vary depending on the company and its objectives, but negotiation is at the heart of the strategy, says the executive.
• "The transactional nature of this White House is no secret to anyone," they added.
• Companies want the government relations win, while the administration wants the public relations win.

Zoom in: A company might want to bundle investments into a forward-looking story to avoid being called out by the White House, to help lobby a policy change, or to gain the attention and good favor of the president.

• "Every company approaches it differently," said another government relations professional who has crafted these announcements.
• "However, almost every company is looking to get in the door to discuss tariff relief. And these bundles are an incentive for getting that conversation underway."
• The desired end results include goodwill with the administration, inclusion on the White House's list of U.S. investments and exemption from particular policies — like tariffs.

Reality check: These commitments are seen by many as negotiation tactics first, and public relations moves second. Plus, they come with risks.

• For these to work, companies and their CEOs must be comfortable with being subject to political scrutiny.
• For example, the Washington Post pointed out several companies are touting investments that were previously committed under the Biden administration or are part of regular business costs.

The other side: The White House did not respond to request for comment by time of publish.

What to watch: These corporate investments and commitments are likely to become talking points throughout the 2026 midterms.

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Most communication teams have long avoided Reddit's corner of the internet, but AI scraping methods are changing that.

Why it matters: Reddit is not just a place to find communities that are already talking about your company, brand and products. It's also a key information source for large language models.

What they're saying: The fragmented media landscape has made it more difficult to find and reach the audiences that matter most, but Reddit can be a sounding board and a ripe place for engagement, Reddit chief communications officer Adam Collins says.

• "There's over 100 million people on Reddit every day, and much of the conversation that happens in our communities is about companies or it's about commerce in one way or another," Collins tells Axios.
• "They are natural, organic conversations that are happening between real people about, you know, what's the right pair of running shoes to get, or what restaurant are you going to, or whatever. It's a really unique place, because the most engaged audiences are already on Reddit talking about your business and your brands. So for comms people, that's a tailor-made opportunity."

Yes, but: As with any online community, a brand or spokesperson can't just parachute in and expect to see positive results. Each subreddit — or niche community — has its own rules and personalities.

• "The companies who do it really well are focused on engagement and always adding value for the users," says Collins.
• Reddit has also launched a free suite of tools, called Reddit Pro, which companies, brands and public figures can use to better understand what's being talked about on the platform, how to comment and engage with users, and tips for driving organic conversations.

State of play: Sonos, GM, Spotify, Fidelity and Wayfair have all shown up to correct the record, respond to customer inquiries, or appeal to key decision-makers and influencers within their market.

Between the lines: In the age of AI, what happens on Reddit doesn't stay on Reddit.

• The platform has struck licensing deals with OpenAI and Google, so its content regularly appears in LLM outputs and AI-generated search summaries.
• A recent report from search analytics company Ahrefs showed Reddit appearing in 5.5% of Google's AI Overviews responses, the most of any source, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Brands and news publications are responding by creating accounts on the platform as a means of feeding the AI-powered chatbots.

What to watch: Reddit recently launched ad tools that pull insights from its more than 22 billion posts and comments to help marketing teams identify where best to place paid content.

• "It's become a bigger space for digital advertising," Collins says. "And one fact that I think is particularly compelling is that the ads that perform the best on Reddit are from companies who are also active on Reddit from an organic standpoint."

💭Thought bubble from Axios media reporter Kerry Flynn: Reddit is one of the internet's rare spaces where authenticity still drives both community and influence. Plus, the company understands the power of its platform for LLMs.

• At last month's Tatari conference, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman summed it up with two slides: "Today's Reddit conversations are tomorrow's search results" and "No matter how good AI gets, people will always want to hear from other people."

Reddit remains a top source for LLMs, according to data from AI analytics platform Profound AI, which was shared exclusively with Axios.

By the numbers: Profound AI analyzed over 1 billion citations across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, DeepSeek, Grok and Meta AI between Sept. 14 and Oct. 14, and found that Reddit is the second most-cited platform behind YouTube.

• Reddit is the most cited website by Perplexity (6.3%) and the second most cited by Google AI Overviews (2.3%) and ChatGPT (1.2%), per the data.

Yes, but: Reddit stock plunged this month after a different report showed ChatGPT was citing the platform less.

• According to Profound's analysis, ChatGPT is citing Reddit only slightly less (1.2%) than it was in June of this year (1.8%).

Plus, an extensive report from Muck Rack found that Claude is more likely to pull from academic, federal and technical sources, while ChatGPT is more likely to cite mainstream publications like Reuters, AP, Financial Times, Time and Axios.

• Gemini pulls from news sources but also regularly cites Wikipedia, Coursera, Quora and Google's own platforms like YouTube, per the report.

The bottom line: It remains unclear exactly how LLMs are sourcing and citing information.

• What is clear, however, is that a company's digital footprint — including Reddit — will become even more important in the age of AI.

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Never has communicating internally and externally been more important to U.S. companies. Never has it been harder. And never have most people been worse at it, writes Axios CEO Jim VandeHei.

Why it matters: Our minds and attention are so scattered, so hypnotized by our phones — and so atomized across social media, podcasts and web-based platforms — that grabbing them is virtually impossible.

I realized this during a series of recent speeches to CEOs and top executives who are desperate to understand how to communicate in this era. The gap between how they see the world (familiarity with only a few, mostly old-line platforms) and communicate (like it's 1999) is gigantic.

• It's like they woke up in a new world and can't understand how to communicate in languages they can't speak.

To win in this environment, companies need two new superpowers:

1. Super-savvy communicators who understand the demographics and native languages of each shard of glass. This requires fast-twitch instincts and deep understanding of the tactics for moving opinion on each shard.
2. Short, smart, memorable and repeatable ways to communicate what matters most internally or externally. If people are distracted, you can't expect them to engage or remember long or confusing ideas or messages.

Here are five easy steps any person can take to make their writing shorter and smarter.

1. Stop being selfish! Think about the person you're communicating to, not your own ego or ambitions, when writing. This instantly makes you more respectful of their time and attention.
2. Grab me! Before you write anything for social media, or text, or your boss or your friend group, think about the most important thing you want them to know. Then distill it into one sentence.
3. Write like a human. Most of us are pretty normal in conversation. But there's a defect in our species: For whatever reason, when we sit down to write, we try to sound like Walt Whitman or a Harvard nerd.
4. Keep it simple. Short, tight words and sentences are always winners. Subject, verb, object! Break multiple points into bullet points to juice recall.
5. Just stop. The greatest gift you can give to yourself and others is time. So use as few words and sentences and paragraphs as humanly possible. Then stop!

Go deeper.

"At the end of the interview, [Benioff] turned to a public relations executive. He could be heard asking why her mouth was wide open and if he had said anything he shouldn't have. 'What about the political questions?' he asked. 'Too spicy?' Then he hung up."