Axios

Nvidia on Wednesday afternoon projected strong demand for its products in Q4, the first period to include sales of its new Blackwell AI chip.

Why it matters: It's the latest sign that businesses continue to crave more computing power for emerging AI projects.

The Justice Department has charged five men who allegedly participated in the Scattered Spider hacker group that targeted several U.S. corporations.

Why it matters: The group has stolen millions of dollars in cryptocurrency and duped employees across the nation with phishing texts.

The incoming administration will face stark fiscal arithmetic: Most federal dollars go to direct transfers to Americans, disproportionately located in the very places that propelled President-elect Trump back to the White House.

Why it matters: If the Elon Musk/Vivek Ramaswany-led Department of Government Efficiency is to achieve anything approaching the $2 trillion in annual cost savings they've floated, slashing bureaucrats from the federal payroll or payments to well-heeled contractors wouldn't be enough.

Not enough people are paying attention to economics and its consequences for U.S. national security, according to Gecko Robotics CEO Jake Loosararian.

• "It's our debt, it's our energy production and reliance on very old infrastructure, as well as the same statement for manufacturing," he said in an interview with Axios.

Pentagon watchers are getting more detail about the high-stakes, hush-hush Replicator project and its growing emphasis on assembly line prowess — not just fancy blueprints.

Why it matters: Amid interrogations about production levels and stockpile health, Replicator promises to set the pace for cheap, fast, proliferated weapons.

President-elect Trump's Cabinet increasingly resembles a European-style coalition government, staffed with a dizzying array of ideological rivals united — for now — by a grand MAGA vision.

Why it matters: The incoming administration has a little something for everyone: isolationists and hawks, populists and bankers — even a couple of lifelong Democrats who ran for president against Trump.

The Department of Justice is expected to present proposals today to limit Google's power in the wake of an August court ruling that the giant abused its search monopoly.

Why it matters: Google's leaders will continue to be at least distracted, and potentially immobilized, by the government's antitrust assault just as the firm faces the greatest challenge in its history from the OpenAI/Microsoft alliance.

It's becoming Wall Street's quarterly pulse check on the AI economy: Nvidia's earnings report is on deck tomorrow afternoon.

Why it matters: The chipmaker has become a proxy for the status of the budding AI economy, providing direct insights into how much tech giants are spending and whether a bubble is brewing.

Meta Platforms is planning to build a multibillion-dollar data center in northern Louisiana, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Louisiana has emerged as an attractive area for data center campuses as Big Tech searches for new regions outside of energy-constrained hubs.

Meta is creating a new product unit to develop AI tools for the 200 million businesses that use its apps, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Meta is an advertising company. To fuel ad growth, it needs to invest in the businesses that use its platform to interact with customers.

Microsoft detailed new cybersecurity features that will both help bricked Windows devices recover faster and alter how companies access the root of the Windows system.

Why it matters: The changes will likely help prevent another global outage similar to the CrowdStrike incident in July.

Just 1 in 5 companies say they're very well prepared to defend against high-volume AI-powered bot attacks, according to an Arkose Labs survey released today.

Why it matters: Companies have only seen the beginning of how AI-enabled tools will change the threat landscape — both for attackers and defenders.

The Justice Department will ask a judge to require that Google divest its Chrome browser, according to Bloomberg.

Why it matters: This could be the first big test of tech antitrust policy under Trump 2.0.

Just 1 in 5 companies say they're very well prepared to defend against high-volume AI-powered bot attacks, according to an Arkose Labs survey released today.

Why it matters: Companies have only seen the beginning of how AI-enabled tools will change the threat landscape — both for attackers and defenders.

• If companies fall behind, it will be harder for them to defend against the promised influx of sophisticated AI-enabled threats.

By the numbers: 56% of respondents said generative AI has increased the frequency of cyber threats against their company — and the same percentage said generative AI has made these threats more sophisticated.

CrowdStrike has identified a brand-new China-linked cyber-espionage operation that's infiltrating telecommunications networks, according to a report first shared with Axios.

Why it matters: China has shown a new willingness to spy on its adversaries using whatever means possible — putting any remaining diplomatic relations between Beijing and the rest of the world in jeopardy.

Zoom in: CrowdStrike has discovered a new China-linked hacking group that's been targeting telecommunications networks since at least 2020 to spy on customers' text messages and phone call metadata.

• The group, which CrowdStrike is calling Liminal Panda, has also built custom hacking tools to exploit the industry's interoperable capabilities, allowing calls to other networks to breach additional telecommunications entities.

Microsoft is sharing details today about new cybersecurity features that will both help bricked Windows devices recover faster and alter how companies access the root of the Windows system.

Why it matters: The changes will likely help prevent another global outage similar to the CrowdStrike incident in July.

Driving the news: Microsoft is hosting its annual Ignite event today in Chicago, where it is unveiling a suite of features and tools for its products.

• That includes changes to how tech and cyber vendors can operate their tools on Windows without having to access the kernel, the deepest level of Windows access.

@ D.C.

🏛️ Trump has tapped Brendan Carr to lead the Federal Communications Commission. (Axios Pro)

🇷🇺 A look at how former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's pick to run the intelligence community, became a darling of Russian propaganda outlets. (New York Times)

🤖 The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has banned internal use of generative AI tools unless they're used in a controlled testing environment, citing security concerns. (Wired)

@ Industry

👨🏻‍⚖️ X, formerly Twitter, is suing the state of California to block a new law that requires social media companies to remove or label deceptive election deepfakes. (L.A. Times)

John Oliver broke down the national security and data security concerns surrounding TikTok in the latest episode of "Last Week Tonight."

• The episode also introduced me to this new single from Mark Zuckerberg (yep, there's only one) and T-Pain that I was blissfully ignorant of until Sunday.

CrowdStrike has identified a brand-new China-linked cyber-espionage operation that's infiltrating telecommunications networks, according to a report first shared with Axios.

Why it matters: China has shown a new willingness to spy on its adversaries using whatever means possible — putting any remaining diplomatic relations between Beijing and the rest of the world in jeopardy.

Apple has started selling its own advertising inventory for Apple News, two sources familiar with the effort told Axios. It's pitching new ad units that it hopes will maximize revenue for itself and its publishing partners.

Why it matters: The shift toward direct sales represents a significant milestone in Apple's advertising ambitions.

Microsoft on Tuesday debuted Windows 365 Link, a tiny $350 computer that will go on sale in April and runs the OS and all applications from the cloud.

Why it matters: The new computer is designed for businesses who want devices that are more secure and easier to manage.

Henry Kissinger joined forces with technologists Craig Mundie and Eric Schmidt to write a book on the subject that dominated his thinking in his final years: humanity's risk from AI.

Driving the news: That book, "Genesis," is out Tuesday, nearly a year after the former secretary of state died at 100.

Elon Musk is a wild card in the tech industry's frantic effort to game out where a Trump-dominated Washington will come down on AI regulation.

State of play: It's a reasonably safe bet that President-elect Trump will trash President Biden's modest moves to set limits on AI development and give companies a free hand to do what they want — and beat China.