Good morning.
Two tech billionaires began this week with egg on their face, and for as soon as, it had nothing to do with a reside product demo.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and NantHealth founder Patrick Quickly-Shiong blocked, every on the eleventh hour, the U.S. presidential endorsements of Kamala Harris by the editorial boards of their newspapers, the Washington Put up and Los Angeles Occasions, respectively. Each papers endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 and have a protracted historical past of endorsing political candidates.
Why are we shocked that two tech founders interfered at century-old newspapers they personal? As a result of they vowed they wouldn’t after they purchased them. “The best newspapers are the voice of the people,” Quickly-Shiong wrote in 2018. Bezos was extra forthright in 2013: “The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners.”
You may take the founder out of the mode, however you’ll be able to’t take the mode out of the founder, I suppose. —Andrew Nusca
P.S. I’ll be interviewing the good Wynton Marsalis about jazz, management, and the way forward for democracy at our Fortune World Discussion board, Nov. 11-12 in New York Metropolis. ? Request an invite right here.
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Officers are involved about Elon Musk, Vladimir Putin speak
Elon Musk has been in “regular contact” with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022, elevating issues within the federal authorities about nationwide safety, in accordance with the Wall Avenue Journal.
Musk, in fact, owns SpaceX, the first supplier of rocket launches for the Pentagon and NASA. He additionally mentioned he has a safety clearance giving him entry to delicate details about U.S. navy and intelligence packages.
Of their discussions, the 2 males broached no less than one geopolitically vital subject. Putin requested Musk to “avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping,” the Journal mentioned.
Musk didn’t reply to the Journal’s request for remark about his contact with one of many largest U.S. adversaries. However he replied with two laughing emojis to a publish on his social media service X that mentioned: “Welp, the Swamp’s ‘Trump is Hitler’ didn’t work. Might as well give ‘Elon is a Russian agent’ a whirl.”
A Kremlin spokesperson additionally dismissed the Journal as overblown, saying the one name between Musk and Putin centered on “space as well as current and future technologies.”—Jessica Mathews
UnitedHealth information breach units an terrible new document
A ransomware assault on UnitedHealth Group in February compromised information of greater than 100 million individuals, making it the most important health-related breach in U.S. historical past.
The U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers disclosed the up to date variety of individuals affected final week, months after the assault prompted a wave of healthcare system outages throughout the nation.
Hackers concentrating on UHG’s expertise unit, Change, accessed figuring out private info, like names, addresses, and Social Safety numbers. In addition they stole well being information, together with diagnoses, remedy plans, and insurance coverage, in addition to fee info.
The subsequent largest hack of U.S. well being information concerned software program providers Welltok in 2023 and affected the information of 14 million individuals.
In a press release, a UHG spokesperson mentioned the corporate continues to be working to establish and notify all of the people affected. If you observed or know your information was compromised, it is best to change the passwords in your vital accounts and think about freezing your credit score. —Jenn Brice
Satya Nadella will get an enormous payday
Need a large fats elevate even whenever you suppose you don’t deserve it?
Effectively, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s acquired one—his general compensation climbed greater than 60% this 12 months—regardless of requesting decrease pay after his firm was hit with cybersecurity assaults.
Final 12 months, Nadella earned $48.5 million, with a base wage of $2.5 million plus inventory awards, a money bonus, and different compensation. However this 12 months, whereas his base wage stayed flat, his complete pay soared to greater than $79 million, largely coming from inventory awards.
Particularly, Nadella requested for a decrease bonus as an indication of contrition after suspected Chinese language hackers gained entry to U.S. officers’ accounts in 2023. In early 2024, Russian hackers adopted up by infiltrating accounts of high Microsoft executives.
Primarily based on Microsoft’s calculation, Nadella was due a bonus of greater than $10 million this 12 months. However due to his request for much less, the board gave him $5.2 million as a substitute. (Its compensation committee consists of two former CEOs and two present ones.) Not unhealthy, huh? —Sharon Goldman
Boeing needs to promote its house enterprise
Aerospace big Boeing is below such monetary pressure that it’s exploring the sale of the enterprise unit that helps key NASA missions, in accordance with a Wall Avenue Journal report revealed Friday.
That would embody the corporate’s Starliner house taxi program and operations associated to the Worldwide House Station, however wouldn’t embody NASA’s huge House Launch System rocket.
All of this was into account earlier than Kelly Ortberg took over as Boeing CEO in August, in accordance with the report. Earlier than Ortberg got here onboard, Boeing even held discussions with Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin house firm about taking on some NASA packages.
The information comes shortly after Boeing reported third-quarter outcomes that confirmed a $6 billion loss as its industrial plane unit has been hobbled by a strike that continues to pull on, with staff rejecting the newest provide.
As Ortberg put it throughout his first earnings name as CEO final week: “We’re better off doing less and doing it better than doing more and not doing it well.” —Jason Ma
AI is coming for the again catalog
Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is likely one of the all-time seasonal greats, however did you ever end up questioning what it would sound like in one other language?
In that case, rejoice, for producer Auero Baqueiro has wrangled a brand new model that replaces Lee’s precise vocals with AI-processed Lee vocals, singing in Spanish.
The revamped traditional is entitled “Noche Buena y Navidad” and it comes with a seal of approval from Lee herself. She recorded the unique method again in 1958, on the age of 13; at present, she’s a sprightly 79.
It sounds fairly good—pay attention right here on YouTube—however this isn’t only a novelty. It’s additionally the primary instance of Common Music Group, the world’s largest music firm, utilizing AI to translate a observe from its huge, ripe-for-the-squeezing again catalog.
Count on to listen to extra reworked hits within the close to future. —David Meyer
Extra information
—Waymo is self-driving its method to extra funding. Coming quickly: Extra service in current markets.
—The U.S. Copyright Workplace received’t let preservationists examine video video games remotely.
—Did Tether violate anti-money laundering guidelines? Federal authorities are investigating.
—Google Gemini 2.0 could arrive earlier than the top of the 12 months, if the workforce can work out efficiency kinks.
—Perplexity had acquisition gives from Notion, OpenAI, and X. Reportedly upwards of $200 million.
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