Etosha Thurman, chief marketing officer for finance and spend management at SAP, explains how finance and procurement have evolved from back-office functions into strategic engines of resilience and business growth.
Meta again topped Big Tech in federal lobbying, boosting its spending in Q4 2025 to $6.5 million from $5.8 million in the prior quarter.
Why it matters: Meta continues to flood Washington with money to try to advance its wide portfolio of interests, especially as it races to compete on AI.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted to advance the AI Overwatch Act, which would give Congress the power to block the Trump administration from exporting AI chips to adversaries.
Why it matters: The legislation has riled up the MAGA base, which views it as undermining President Trump's authority.
AI has an overlooked — but vital — role to play in helping to protect at-risk species, Nature Conservancy CEO Jennifer Morris said at an Axios panel in Davos Wednesday.
Why it matters: Morris and other environmentalists say AI already is proving it can help protect fish and other species.
Zipline raised more than $600 million in new funding and will expand its autonomous drone delivery service to Houston and Phoenix in early 2026, and more cities later in the year.
Why it matters: It's more proof that on-demand drone delivery is maturing, opening up new conveniences for American consumers.
Anthropic on Wednesday released an updated "constitution" for Claude, formalizing how the company trains its chatbot to reason about values and behavior as it encounters new, unanticipated situations.
Why it matters: As AI models grow more capable, Anthropic is betting that training systems to reason about values and judgment — not just follow guardrails — will prove safer and more durable than racing to ship faster.
DAVOS, Switzerland — President Trump praised nuclear power in a speech in front of world leaders on Wednesday — while saying he previously hadn't supported the energy resource.
Why it matters: The comments reveal a less-known position from Trump on a technology whose growth is being fueled by the AI boom.
OpenAI is committing to "paying our own way on energy, so that our operations don't increase your electricity prices" as it develops the big Stargate data center campuses.
Why it matters: The data center boom is facing a backlash that tech giants are trying to head off.
New data captures the scope of today's U.S. solar boom — and AI could help developers swimming upstream in the Trump era's next stages.
Why it matters: "Data center demand is helping offset some political headwinds for utility‑scale solar," Wood Mackenzie analyst Kaitlin Fung tells me via email.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicted Wednesday that drug research will shift from traditional labs to AI platforms, with pharma giants already making the leap.
Why it matters: The industry is betting the pivot could accelerate how fast new drugs reach patients.
DAVOS, Switzerland — As Silicon Valley races to monetize AI chatbots, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis told Axios he was "a little bit surprised" OpenAI moved so fast on introducing ads in ChatGPT.
Why it matters: Hassabis, a Nobel laureate and one of the world's most influential AI leaders, said Google's Gemini assistant currently has "no plans" to incorporate ads — and cautioned that rushing advertising into AI assistants could undermine user trust.
AIM, a company automating heavy-duty machinery and earthworks, secured nearly $5 million in U.S. Air Force contracts for remote air base construction and runway repair.
Why it matters: American power projection — its ability to be anywhere at any time — relies on far-flung outposts and depots. Building and maintaining them is manual-labor intensive, putting people in the potential line of fire.
DAVOS, Switzerland — In a 24-hour span in the Swiss Alps, we're witnessing what future historians might mark as a hinge moment: The people building civilization-altering AI, a prime minister declaring America's global order dead, and an expansionist, defiant American president all sharing the same tense global stage.
Why it matters: It's hard to overstate the seismic shifts shaking this week's World Economic Forum in Davos.
The chief of U.S. naval operations,Adm. Daryl Caudle, is advocating for powerful lasers aboard the newfangled Trump-class battleship, which is also expected to wield nuclear and hypersonic weapons.
Why it matters: Caudle has for years lamented a dearth of directed energy across the Navy. A new armed-to-the-teeth warship — pitched as the apex predator of the futuristic Golden Fleet — could offer a reversal of fortunes.
Gene Sperling — a top economic adviser to Presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden — is starting an Economic Dignity Lab at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.
Why it matters: Sperling, who'll be founder and executive director, tells me his lab will develop concrete, viable policy proposals that "provide an economic dignity response to AI job and economic disruption."
Business leaders see AI as a path to growth, not just cost-cutting, Accenture chair and CEO Julie Sweet tells Axios.
Why it matters: Despite the what-ifs of a bubble, and real fears that the ever-evolving technology could dampen job prospects for lower-level workers, Sweet sees promise in agentic commerce (AI in retail) and other manifestations of the galloping technology.
President Trump's historic disputes with the press have intensified in his second term as he uses his political power to set new legal and regulatory standards that threaten the media's independence long term.
Why it matters: Policy changes and new legal standards are much harder to unwind than harassment campaigns, even with a new party in power.
The next major AI battleground is the classroom, as Google, Microsoft and Anthropic race to make their tools the chatbots of choice for teachers and students.
Why it matters: Whoever wins schools now could shape how Gen Alpha learns, studies and interacts with AI for years to come.
