Elon Musk Casts Doubt on Trump-Backed AI Infrastructure Project
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Here's your Midday Brief for Wednesday, January 22nd. I'm Alex Sosola for The Wall Street Journal. Hours after tech leaders announced the $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure project yesterday, Elon Musk questioned whether it would ever get off the ground. Last night and this morning, Musk posted on X that two of the companies involved in the effort, OpenAI and SoftBank, didn't have the funds to make it happen. The White House and the companies didn't respond to requests for comment about Musk's social media posts.

We exclusively report that right-leaning activist groups are privately pushing Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to abandon their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. That's according to people familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, Bank of America and Citigroup are under pressure from activists accusing them of discriminating against customers because of their religious or political beliefs. A Goldman spokeswoman said the bank strongly believes that organizations benefit from diverse perspectives and that it is committed to operating its programs and policies in compliance with the law.

Several measures gauging the health of the U.S. economy fell back a little at the end of last year. The leading economic index, published today by research group the Conference Board, dropped 0.1 percent in December. A board official said that anemic demand in manufacturing, weakening in the jobs market, a decline in construction permits, and low consumer confidence all contributed to the deterioration.

And in another exclusive, we report that South Carolina energy provider Santee Cooper is planning to restart construction on two nuclear reactors. The state-owned utility is looking for buyers to help reboot the project, and its betting interest will be strong, since tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft need clean energy to fuel their artificial intelligence ambitions.

We'll have more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News podcast. You can add it to your playlist on your smart speaker or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.