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1.	Microsofts AI Push Is Jeopardizing its Pledge to Go Carbon Neutral by 2030 By Aaron Holmes Source: The Information

Microsofts heavy spending on new data centers and artificial intelligence tools has derailed the companys progress toward being carbon neutral by 2030, Microsoft said in its annual sustainability report published on Wednesday. Microsoft has said it will spend more than $50 billion this year to expand its data centers in order to support its growing use of generative AI, which requires far more compute power and consumes more electricity than most software. The company has in recent months announced a slew of new multibillion-dollar data center investments in countries including the U.S., Japan, Indonesia, Germany and the U.K.

The disclosure shows how energy-hungry the AI boom is proving to be. While Microsoft previously announced plans to reduce its carbon emissions annually between 2020 and 2030, the companys emissions rose to their highest-ever level in the past year, according to the report. Microsoft said it will explore new ways to reduce emissions in the years ahead, including using more renewable energy and investing in more energy-efficient silicon chips and building materials.

2.	Instagram Co-Founder Mike Krieger Joins Anthropic as New Product Chief By Abubakar Idris Source: The Information

Anthropic, the Amazon-backed artificial intelligence startup, said it has hired Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger as its new chief product officer to run its consumer efforts. He will oversee Anthropics product engineering, product management, and product design efforts, the company wrote on its blog Wednesday.

Krieger left Instagram in 2018, six years after he and co-founder Kevin Systrom sold the app to Facebook for $1 billion. In January 2023, the two co-founders started the AI-powered news app Artifact. They wound the app down earlier this year but sold the recommendation technology to Yahoo.

Anthropic CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei said Kriegers experience will be invaluable as we create new ways for people to interact with [its chatbot] Claude, particularly in the workplace.

3.	Netflix to Stream Christmas Day NFL Games for Three Years By Sahil Patel Source: The Information

Netflix will exclusively stream two Christmas Day NFL games later this year, marking a notable expansion of the streaming giants live sports offering while introducing a new entrant in an increasingly fragmented sports-rights media landscape. Netflixs deal with the NFL is for three years and will include at least one Christmas Day game through 2026, the companies said. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

While Netflix has increased the amount of sports-centric programming, including documentary series such as Quarterback and Drive to Survive, on its service, its executives have previously said that they wouldnt be aggressive bidders for expensive live sports rights. We really think that we can have a strong offering for sports fans on Netflix without having to be part of the difficulty of the economic model of live sports licensing, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told analysts last year.

However, as Netflix has sought to introduce more live programming, in part to boost its fledgling advertising business, the streaming giant has increasingly embraced live sports and sports-adjacent content. It recently signed a 10-year, $5 billion deal with WWE to air its weekly Monday Night Raw program starting in 2025.

The NFL, meanwhile, has been interested in bringing Netflix on board as it spreads out its rights across all of the major tech and traditional TV players, according to a person familiar with the matter. The leagues sports rights partners now include three of the top streaming services (YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix) as well as the top broadcast TV giants (Disneys ABC and ESPN, Comcasts NBCUniversal, Fox and Paramount Globals CBS).

4.	Chime Adds Early Paycheck Cashouts to Boost Growth By Michael Roddan Source: The Information

Fintech banking startup Chime is launching a new cash advance product that allows customers to access up to $500 of their wages before they are paid in a move to recruit and keep more customers as it prepares to IPO next year.

Chime customers who have had two pay cycles deposited with the fintech will be able to withdraw forecast earnings without fees, interest or a credit check. A $2 fee will be applied to customers who want to access their wages immediately, and the service is free for those who wait between one and two days. Customers who do not repay the money will not be reported to credit agencies.

Chime has 7 million active users, according to CEO Chris Britt, who said the startup was profitable in the first quarter of this year. The company, which pays bonuses to new customers and their referrers, is also preparing to launch an advertising spree for the new product later this year. In a trial, Chime found customers who used the early wage access became more loyal and used Chimes services more, Britt said.

5.	Billionaire Frank McCourt Plans U.S. TikTok Bid By Kaya Yurieff Source: The Information

Frank McCourt, the billionaire former Los Angeles Dodgers owner, said hes organizing a peoples bid to acquire the short-form video app.

His organization Project Liberty is working with Guggenheim Securities and law firm Kirkland & Ellis to build a consortium to purchase TikTok. It would like to rearchitect the app to give users more control of their data and digital identities. He said hes not interested in acquiring TikToks algorithm.

The effort has the support of World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and David Clark, MIT senior research scientist. Others have also expressed an interest in trying to buy TikTok, including former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Shark Tank investor Kevin OLeary.

TikTok parent company ByteDance has indicated it doesnt want to sell TikTok, however. In a lawsuit challenging that theban-or-sell law isunconstitutional, TikTok and ByteDance argued that divestment was not possible in the nine months given. There is no question: the Act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025.

6.	Bolts Co-Founder Breslow Nears $30 Million Settlement With Investor By Abubakar Idris Source: The Information

Ryan Breslow, co-founder and former CEO of Bolt, has proposed a settlement with Bolt investor Activant Capital. The deal could put an end to a year-long lawsuit that accused Breslow of costing the company $30 million after he defaulted on a personal loan and forced out board members who pressed him to repay, Forbes reported.

While he was CEO in 2021, Breslow borrowed $30 million from JP Morgan Private Bank. Bolts board guaranteed the loan in the event Breslow defaulted; in return, Breslow had pledged a portion of his Bolt stock. When Breslow defaulted on the loan, the bank claimed the companys cash as collateral, triggering a standoff with board members and two rounds of board reshuffles.

Breslow later pushed the company to buy back shares from investors at a sharply reduced valuation so he could retain his control of the company if he returnedhis shares, an amended lawsuit from Activant claimed.

In the settlement with Activant this week, Bolts board will cancel 13 million common shares worth $37.4 million previously owned by Breslow, Forbes said. Activant will also sell all of its stake, worth $36.5 million, back to the company. Once completed, the settlement could further deplete Bolts dwindling cash, which was already expected to drop to $84 million by the end of the year, The Information previously reported.

7.	Netflix Plans to Build Its Own Advertising Technology Platform By Sahil Patel Source: The Information

Netflix said it plans to launch its own advertising technology platform to allow advertisers to buy ads on the streaming service. In addition, Netflix announced that its ad inventory will be available to buy across a number of ad tech platforms including Googles Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk and Magnite. These companies join Microsofts Xandr, which helped launch Netflixs ad-supported tier in late 2022 as its exclusive ad tech partner for buying and serving ads.

The ad tech announcement follows news from Wednesday morning that Netflix had secured the rights to exclusively stream two Christmas Day NFL games globally later this year. Both pieces of news were timed to Netflixs presentation during the TV industrys upfronts week in New York, when big media companies such as Disney and Comcasts NBCUniversal hold glitzy events to pitch upcoming programming to advertisers. This was the first time Netflix held an in-person upfronts event.

Netflix also said that its ad-supported subscription tier now reaches 40 million monthly active users globally, up from 5 million a year ago. Netflix has not disclosed how many subscriptions it has for the ad-supported tier (one subscription could include multiple active users in the same household).

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