From MrBeast opening a theme park in Saudi Arabia to iShowSpeed touring China, U.S. creators are seeking financial opportunities, new audiences and creative inspiration overseas.
Why it matters: These influencers are becoming key marketers for nations looking to diversify their economies and shape global perception.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) hasn't historically viewed foreign investments in domestic media and entertainment companies with as much national security concern as other countries. But TikTok has proven to be an important exception.
Why it matters: Regulators overseas tend to impose much stronger restrictions on who can access their culturally relevant businesses. In the U.S., a capitalistic mindset has proven easy for foreign investors to exploit.
As media companies, sports leagues and Hollywood studios eye new opportunities to expand, they are increasingly turning to foreign cash to help foot the bill.
Why it matters: Access to U.S. culture has become an irresistible soft power play for Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and Chinese investors. For media companies, the cultural stigma against accepting foreign cash is fading.
President Trump's Cabinet applauded him this week after he described Somali immigrants as "garbage" who "contribute nothing."
The president unapologetically condemned an entire community on the basis of ethnicity — with no fear of political backlash.
Why it matters: Guardrails against racist, xenophobic or dehumanizing rhetoric have all but vanished on the American right. What was once disqualifying — or the exclusive domain of online trolls — is now a fixture of national political discourse.
Paramount was bested by Netflix on Friday in its efforts to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, but it may still appeal directly to WBD shareholders through a hostile takeover offer.
Why it matters: Paramount could argue that its all-cash bid of $30 a share is better in terms of both price and the likelihood of regulatory approvals, although it also would need to disclose more information about its debt financing.
The $83 billion mega-merger between Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming assets will have major implications for the future of entertainment, should regulators bless the deal.
Why it matters: Executives at both companies argue the deal would benefit consumers and distributors, giving them more streaming options and a wider audience platform. But Hollywood purists worry the deal would give Netflix too much power over the creative community.
Criminals are usingAI-generated photos and videos of people's loved ones to create virtual kidnapping scams for ransom, the FBI warned Friday.
The big picture: AI-related scams, from widespread voice-cloning tools to increasingly realistic AI-generated pictures and videos, are leaving people more vulnerable to fabricated crimes as the line between real and fake blurs.
As AI, neuroscience and new models of teaching converge, schools are rethinking what it means to help every student thrive.
Digital Promise CEO Jean-Claude Brizard shares how redefining student success and personalizing learning can help close long-standing gaps and empower every learner.
Top Trump administration officials on Friday decried the European Commission's nearly $140 million (€120 million) fine on Elon Musk's X for violating its moderation law.
Why it matters: The penaltysets up a potential showdown with the Trump administration, which has criticized Europe's content digital market laws as "overseas extortion."
The New York Times on Friday sued Perplexity, accusing the generative AI search company of copyright infringement by copying its journalism without permission or compensation.
Why it matters: The lawsuit expands the Times' legal battles against AI companies, as it looks to set clearer boundaries and a new precedent for how it and other content companies are compensated for their work in the AI era.
The new head of the U.S. government's market-moving energy stats and analysis arm has revealed plans to formally track data centers as the AI boom deepens.
Why it matters: Policymakers, investors, activists and everyone in between are struggling to understand what, exactly, is happening with this growing source of energy demand.
Meta on Friday said it has struck several commercial AI data agreements with news publishers ranging from USA Today, People Inc., CNN, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner and Le Monde.
Why it matters: Meta backed away from compensating news companies several years ago, but has resumed paying for editorial content as it invests more in its AI chat tools that require real-time access to verified news.
Netflix said Friday it will acquire Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming assets for an enterprise value of nearly $83 billion, besting Paramount Skydance and Comcast.
Why it matters: It's a stunning conclusion to what became one of the most expensive bidding wars in media history.
The holy grail of technology — artificial general intelligence (AGI) that can match or outdo humans — is on the horizon, Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis says.
But the risks of something going seriously wrong are also in sight, and some are even happening now, he warns.
The big picture: Google set the entire AI world spinning in recent months with the giant leaps in its frontier model Gemini, prompting a "code red" at OpenAI and forcing others to rethink the competitive landscape.
President Trump's push to ban state AI laws failed on Capitol Hill this week, raising the stakes for what the White House and AI czar David Sacks could try next.
Why it matters: Despite the administration's pressure campaign, lawmakers rejected including preemption language in the annual defense policy bill — but the White House isn't looking to take no for an answer.
Your human resources officers are probably using AI for a lot of jobs — and they're also finding that human resources is one of the riskiest ways to use it.
Why it matters: Managing employees at work is becoming another space where machines may be making sensitive determinations previously left up to professionals.
Anthropic has no immediate plans to file for an initial public offering, the artificial intelligence company's chief communications officer, Sasha de Marigny, said at Axios Communicators Live.
Why it matters: An IPO could be among the largest ever for a U.S. company and come at a time when optimism around AI is already driving stock markets.
Gary Marcus said large language models (LLMs) are useful, but their real talent is building the foundation for a future powered by artificial general intelligence during an appearance Thursday at Axios' AI+ Summit.
Why it matters:Three years after the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT, Marcus argues that LLMs aren't delivering the revolution developers promised, and they probably never will — but artificial general intelligence (AGI) could.
Some of the biggest dangers of AI, like attacks on infrastructure, are already real and need to be guarded against, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said at Axios' AI+ Summit in San Francisco Thursday.
Why it matters: The race to develop AI is changing society in real time, generally for good — but bad actors are taking advantage, too.
AI is hurtling toward a "transformative" moment in human history, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said at Axios' AI+ SF summit Thursday.
The big picture: Hassabis predicted earlier this year that AI meeting or exceeding human capabilities — in other words, artificial general intelligence, or AGI — could come by 2030.
The race to create the best AI model over the next five years is "anybody's game," Box cofounder and CEO Aaron Levie said Tuesday at Axios' AI+ Summit in San Fransisco.
The big picture: Levie said it's impossible to rank AI models as they currently exist because breakthroughs are happening every single day.
Sierra co-founderBret Taylor said the artificial intelligence boom "probably is a bubble" at Axios' AI+ Summit in San Francisco Thursday, but like the 1990s dot-com bubble, that depends on how you're invested.
The big picture: As the industry barrels forward, concerns about circular financing and valuation continue to fuel fears of about how the market would be rocked if the AI bubble pops.
AI customers are already making it clear that they want the booming industry to develop responsibly as it rolls out across their lives, Sarah Bird, Microsoft's chief product officer of responsible AI, said Thursday at Axios' AI+ Summit in San Francisco.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) had his security increased this week after pardoned Jan. 6 defendant Taylor Taranto allegedly showed up near the Maryland congressman's house, Axios has learned.
Taranto was previously convicted for an incident involving threats against Raskin and former President Obama.
Why it matters: It's the latest in a string of frightening security incidents rattling Democratic lawmakers as members of Congress already face a surge of threats.
