TNB Tech Minute: Trump Wants New U.S. Sovereign-Wealth Fund to Work on TikTok Deal
WSJ Tech News Briefing
Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
This episode is brought to you by Nerds Gummy Clusters, the sweet treat that always elevates the vibe. With a sweet gummy surrounded with tangy, crunchy Nerds, every bite of Nerds Gummy Clusters brings you a whole new world of flavor. Whether it's game night, on the way to a concert, or kicking back with your crew, unleash your senses with Nerds Gummy Clusters. Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Monday, February 3rd. I'm Pierre Bien-Aimé for The Wall Street Journal.
President Trump signed an executive order to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund today and suggested it could be used in unlocking a deal to keep TikTok operating.
The White House said the order instructs the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department to begin examining the creation of such a fund. Trump allowed TikTok to stay live in the U.S. and has been pressing for a deal to put the Chinese company's U.S. operations into a joint venture with American owners. He didn't explain what role the fund would play in a potential purchase of TikTok. Sovereign wealth funds, a catch-all term for an investment fund owned by a national government, have become prominent players in global markets.
SoftBank Group and OpenAI plan to team up to offer artificial intelligence services to Japanese businesses and maybe at some point the wider world. SoftBank will assign 1,000 employees to the joint venture called SB OpenAI Japan to kickstart its sales and engineering work.
Last week, the Journal reported that OpenAI was in early talks to raise up to $40 billion in a SoftBank-led funding round that would value the chat GPT maker at as much as $300 billion. News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI.
And in other AI news, Chinese upstart DeepSeek roiled markets last week and sparked questions about the effectiveness of export controls after the company said it had produced a high-performing AI model using less advanced chips.
But the head of leading semiconductor equipment maker ASML told the Journal today that doesn't mean controls targeting China's chip sector have failed. For now, the Dutch company's CEO Christophe Fouquet said, China remains far behind the West when it comes to manufacturing cutting-edge chips. And that means its companies are still constrained on what they can create. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Tuesday's Tech News Briefing podcast.