Google slammed with incomprehensible $2.5 decillion fine from Russia

$2.5D

10/30/24

$2.5 decillion (yep, that’s a five and then 32 zeroes). That’s how much Russia has fined Google for allegedly blocking pro-Kremlin propaganda on YouTube, according to The Independent, itself citing a report from Russian state-run news site RBC.

The fine is the result of four years of accumulating fines, with the figure doubling each week, beginning with an original penalty of 100,000 rubles in 2020 when Russian media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN won (Russian) lawsuits against Google related to YouTube restrictions.

For what it’s worth, Google doesn’t seem too concerned about its Russia disputes, noting in its Q2 earnings report that “We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect.”

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Rani Molla

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Snap and Meta fall as Trump hints at TikTok deal, Bessent says framework for an agreement has been reached

Snap fell more than 1% premarket while Meta dropped around 0.5% after President Donald Trump hinted on his platform Truth Social that a TikTok deal was reached during the European trade meetings. “A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save,” he wrote. “They will be very happy!”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was more explicit, telling reporters in Madrid that a framework for a TikTok deal has been reached, according to Bloomberg.

Trump said he would speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday.

Back in 2024, a bipartisan group of lawmakers agreed last year that TikTok was such an unspeakable threat to American security that it had to be outlawed or sold to an American buyer. Since then Trump has thrice pushed back the deadline for the deal, saving the social media app from going dark.

As Sherwood’s Nate Becker has noted, Oracle is a likely contender to buy or run TikTok.

Rani Molla

Tunnel Vision

9/12/25

Tesla gets permit to test autonomous cars in Nevada as autonomous driving heats up there

Amazon’s self-driving Zoox launched service this week, and Google’s Waymo is testing there.

Las Vegas Exteriors And Landmarks - 2024

Jon Keegan

9/11/25

OpenAI and Microsoft reach agreement that moves OpenAI closer to for-profit status

In a joint statement, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a “non-binding memorandum of understanding” for their renegotiated $13 billion partnership, which was a source of recent tension between the two companies.

Settling the agreement is a requirement to clear the way for OpenAI to convert to a for-profit public benefit corporation, which it must do before a year-end deadline to secure a $20 billion investment from SoftBank.

OpenAI also announced that the controlling nonprofit arm would hold an equity stake in the PBC valued at $100 billion, which would make it “one of the most well-resourced philanthropic organizations in the world.”

The statement read:

“This recapitalization would also enable us to raise the capital required to accomplish our mission — and ensure that as OpenAI’s PBC grows, so will the nonprofit’s resources, allowing us to bring it to historic levels of community impact.”

A joint statement from OpenAI and Microsoft

The statement read:

“This recapitalization would also enable us to raise the capital required to accomplish our mission — and ensure that as OpenAI’s PBC grows, so will the nonprofit’s resources, allowing us to bring it to historic levels of community impact.”

Rani Molla

9/11/25

BofA doesn’t expect Tesla’s ride-share service to have an impact on Uber or Lyft this year

Analysts at Bank of America Global Research compared Tesla’s new Bay Area ride-sharing service with its rivals and found that, for now, it’s not much competition for Uber and Lyft. “Tesla scale in SF is still small, and we don’t expect impact on Uber/Lyft financial performance in ’25,” they wrote.

Tesla is operating an unknown number of cars with drivers using supervised full self-driving in the Bay Area, and roughly 30 autonomous robotaxis in Austin. The company has allowed the public to download its Robotaxi app and join a waitlist, but it hasn’t said how many people have been let in off that waitlist.

While the analysts found that Tesla ride-shares are cheaper than traditional ride-share services like Uber and Lyft, the wait times are a lot longer (nine-minute wait times on average, when cars were available at all) and the process has more friction. They also said the “nature of [a] Tesla FSD ‘driver’ is slightly more aggressive than a Waymo,” the Google-owned company that’s currently operating 800 vehicles in the Bay Area.

Apple AI was MIA at iPhone event

A year and a half into a bungled rollout of AI into Apple’s products, Apple Intelligence was barely mentioned at the “Awe Dropping” event.

Jon Keegan9/10/25

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