TNB Tech Minute: Trump Signs Agreement Calling for Meta to Pay $25 MIllion to Settle Suit
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by American Express. Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Wednesday, January 29th. I'm Belle Lynn for The Wall Street Journal. We are exclusively reporting that Meta has agreed to pay roughly $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit that President Trump brought against the company and its CEO after Meta suspended his accounts following the attacks on the U.S. Capitol that year.

That's according to people familiar with the agreement. A Meta spokesman confirmed the settlement. Of that $25 million, $22 million will go toward a fund for Trump's presidential library, with the rest going to legal fees and the other plaintiffs who signed onto the case. People familiar with the agreement said Meta won't admit wrongdoing.

OpenAI is investigating whether the Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek trained its new chatbot by repeatedly querying the U.S. company's AI models. A spokesperson said OpenAI is reviewing indications that DeepSeek extricated large volumes of data from its tools to help develop its technology using a process called distillation.

DeepSeek did not immediately respond to requests for comment. News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI.

In earnings news, Microsoft's flagship cloud computing business experienced a slowdown in growth this quarter. Constraints on data center supply prevented the company from meeting booming demand from AI companies. Revenue for Microsoft's Azure cloud computing division grew 31%, which was at the low end of the company's projections. Analysts had been expecting growth to be around 32%, according to FactSet.

The company said revenue from its AI businesses is now more than $13 billion when extrapolated on an annual basis.

And Meta posted record revenue in the fourth quarter, aided by AI improvements to its ads business. The company reported a 21% increase in sales, ahead of analyst expectations, and estimated first quarter revenue growth of 8 to 15%. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Thursday's Tech News Briefing Podcast.