What I Read This Week…

The media landscape is shifting after President Trump's victory, the U.S. dollar is strengthening against many major currencies, and xAI is in talks to raise $6 billion at a $50 billion valuation.

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Caught My Eye…

• The media landscape is experiencing a shift following President Trump's election victory. What's happening? Cable news networks are seeing significant viewership changes. Fox News viewership increased by 60%, averaging 2.6 million viewers, while MSNBC's primetime audience fell 54% and CNN declined 40% overall, with shows like MSNBC's Alex Wagner reaching their lowest ratings to date. Traditional media outlets are responding to these changes. The Los Angeles Times, for example, is restructuring its editorial approach, as its owner Patrick Soon-Shiong recently appeared on Fox News to outline the newspaper's plans to increase diversity of viewpoints in coverage and separate more clearly between news and opinion. The shift also extends to social media, where influencers are increasingly open about conservative views, suggesting that association with conservative positions and politically affiliated merchandise like the red MAGA hat is seen less as a liability for a business's brand value.

• The U.S. Dollar has strengthened against many major currencies (Euro -1.75%, Yen -1.5%, Pound -1.3%, Peso -2.5%) since President Trump's election victory. What is driving this? Investors expect U.S. interest rates to stay higher for longer as economic growth reduces the need for rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, and higher interest rates generally increase demand for the dollars needed to buy U.S./dollar-denominated assets. Moreover, market uncertainty about global trade and geopolitics drives investors to move capital into U.S. assets, including the dollar, as the U.S. markets are viewed as more stable and liquid than alternatives. Major currencies falling against the dollar means that every U.S. dollar can purchase more units of these foreign currencies, which means that U.S. imports become cheaper while U.S. exports become more expensive. This affects trade flows, as well as corporate profits for U.S.-based multinational companies, as these companies earn less on international sales when converting foreign earnings back to a stronger dollar.

• xAI is in talks to raise up to $6 billion in a new funding round that would value the company at $50 billion, doubling xAI's previous valuation of $24 billion from just a few months ago. What is motivating this funding round? xAI plans to use the cash to purchase 100,000 Nvidia chips for its new Memphis supercomputer facility to provide the computational power to train and run xAI's chatbot Grok. This higher valuation positions xAI to compete more closely with industry leader OpenAI (currently valued at $157 billion). Despite being a newer entrant than the other AI chatbot companies, xAI's real-time access to X's data could enable Grok to be the most current and context-aware AI chatbot.
  
  

Other Reading…

• Trump Cabinet Picks: Everyone He’s Announced So Far (New York Magazine)

• Biden Approves Ukraine’s Use of Long-Range Missiles Inside Russia (Wall Street Journal)

• Xi Says He Will Work With Trump In Last Meeting with Biden (BBC)

• Trading Assets at U.S. Banks Cross $1 Trillion for First Time Since Financial Crisis (Financial Times)

• ‘ChatGPT’s Success Could Have Come Sooner’, Says Former Google AI Researcher (Ars Technica)

• Two Nobel Prize Winners Want to Cancel Their Own CRISPR Patents in Europe (MIT Technology Review)

• The Race to Commercialize Nuclear-Powered Batteries (Chemistry World)

• Oasis is the First Fully AI-Generated Video Game (The Pinnacle Gazette)

On X…