Axios

WASHINGTON – Trade wars, AI disruption and rising tariffs are redrawing the global power map with ripple effects across defense, health care and beyond, top leaders said at an Axios event on May 21.

• The event was sponsored by Exiger.

Why it matters: As uncertainty looms over the economy and international trade relations, companies and policy leaders are looking to see how the new rules of power will play out.

Here's what was said:

• Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing President Trump "like a fiddle" days after a two-hour call ended with no ceasefire. Also, Shaheen, who worked with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on foreign assistance programs during his time in the Senate, said she "would like to see that Marco Rubio back."
• CIA deputy director Michael Ellis said the CIA needs to fix its tools and techniques, which date to the 1960s and '70s. "A lot of them need to be updated and refreshed to confront the technological challenges of today."
• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump's "gold card" website, which allows people to buy U.S. permanent residency for $5 million, will launch within a week.
• Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said the tariffs haven't affected the company so far, but it's "really important to us that this gets worked out."
• U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said artificial intelligence can unlock "a ton of value" and help "transform the business side of the Army."
• Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) chair of the House select panel on China, said that country is "not a friendly nation," and America doesn't "want to completely decouple, but at the same time we need to be strategic and have our supply chains."

Content from the sponsored segments:

In View From the Top conversations, Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels said deep innovation and "scaling disruption" are the ways for the West to win the trade war.

• "It's actually turning innovation into a continuous part of the supply chain, because there has been a mediocrity in institutional scale," Daniels said. "Like China, [it has] these completely verticalized supply chains where literally there's a mill next to a forging facility, next to a components facility, next to an auto manufacturer – completely streamlined, completely effective. The only way to make it so that that becomes obsolesced is for us to actually just continually innovate at every level."

Nvidia topped earnings expectations in its most recent quarter as AI chip demand continues to fuel growth for the company despite concerns about mounting U.S.-to-China export restrictions.

Why it matters: Nvidia has become a bellwether stock for the AI economy as tech companies invest heavily in product development and data center capability, powering Nvidia's rise.

Dario Amodei — CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful creators of artificial intelligence — has a blunt, scary warning for the U.S. government and all of us:

• AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years, Amodei told us in an interview from his San Francisco office.
• Amodei said AI companies and government need to stop "sugar-coating" what's coming: the possible mass elimination of jobs across technology, finance, law, consulting and other white-collar professions, especially entry-level gigs.

More than a decade after its Google Glass flopped, Google is developing a new generation of augmented reality glasses designed to merge the physical and digital worlds.

Why it matters: Augmented reality glasses are shaping up to be a key interface for AI-powered computing.

Investors will be seeking signs Wednesday of how President Trump's trade war is affecting Nvidia when the AI chip giant reports earnings in the afternoon.

Why it matters: With U.S. export restrictions for AI chips tightening, Nvidia finds itself in a revenue pickle — trying to maintain as much business as possible in China while appeasing the American government.

AI chatbots have made scam emails harder to spot and the tells we've all been trained to look for — clunky grammar, weird phrasing — utterly useless.

Why it matters: Scammers are raking in more than ever from basic email and impersonation schemes. Last year, the FBI estimates, they made off with a whopping $16.6 billion.

International law enforcement and federal prosecutors unveiled at least four major takedowns of malware strains or key cybercrime arrests that happened just last week.

Why it matters: Arrest and criminal takedowns are rare — four major ones in a week is practically unheard of.

The big picture: Law enforcement takedowns make it harder for cybercriminals to use a particular malware strain in their attacks.

• Arrests are hard to accomplish since many cybercriminals live in countries that don't have extradition treaties with the United States.

Zoom in: One week ago, a 19-year-old hacker pleaded guilty to hacking PowerSchool, the education technology company whose data breach last year is considered the largest involving American children's sensitive data.

@ D.C.

🤖 DOGE is expanding its use of Grok AI, the generative AI chatbot that Elon Musk has deployed onto X, across the U.S. federal government to analyze data. (Reuters)

👀 The White House canceled a meeting with Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group last week after it learned that the vendor was trying to get off of a trade blacklist. (Washington Post)

🚫 The FBI has closed an internal watchdog office that was designed to help reduce the risk of misuses of various surveillance programs. (New York Times)

@ Industry

💰 U.K. department store chain Marks & Spencer said it will lose $400 million in operating profits due to last month's cyberattack. (Cybersecurity Dive)

🪙 Brb, I've gotta collect and memorialize all of my spare pennies before they're gone.

Meta is restructuring its AI teams to speed up the rollout of new products and features, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Meta faces stiff competition in the AI race, including from OpenAI and Google as well as Chinese rivals such as TikTok parent ByteDance.

Empowering corrections facilities with technology solutions is essential to enhancing safety, optimizing operations, and strengthening rehabilitation for better reentry outcomes.

• The combination of staff shortages and a 1.8 million prison population strains safety and security in U.S. correctional facilities

Advanced robots don't necessarily need to look like C3PO from "Star Wars" or George Jetson's maid Rosie, despite all the hype over humanoids from Wall Street and Big Tech.

• In fact, some of the biggest skeptics about human-shaped robots come from within the robotics industry itself.

Why it matters: Robots are meant to take over dirty, dangerous and dull tasks — not to replace humans, who are still the most sophisticated machines of all.

While the tech industry floors the pedal on AI, the U.S. public would be happy to hit the brakes.

Stunning stat: More than three-quarters of Americans (77%) want companies to create AI slowly and get it right the first time, even if that delays breakthroughs, the 2025 Axios Harris 100 poll found.