Thursday, October 22, 2026
14 stories
A New Mexico state jury found Meta liable for misleading the state's consumers about its data practices and ordered the social-media giant to pay $25 billion. The verdict is one of the largest privacy-related awards against a tech company. Meta is expected to appeal.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly threatened to leave California after a proposed state billionaire tax made him fear he would be forced to sell a large block of shares, risking his voting control of the company. Meta's board responded by cutting him a deal to protect his control. The episode shows how far executives will go to keep a grip on their companies.
Elon Musk said Tesla aims to start selling its humanoid robots next year, pushing his companies' ambitions beyond cars and rockets. The robot target was the headline from Tesla's third-quarter earnings call, where talk of a Tesla merger with SpaceX was said to be off-limits. Whether Tesla can hit that timeline remains an open question.
For decades Elon Musk has mixed resources and ambitions across Tesla and SpaceX, and a potential merger of the two companies would make that formal. Discussions are under way about how Musk's two largest companies could combine. Analysts note the resulting conglomerate would be a maze for investors to evaluate.
Carrier plans to build a $600 million plant in Texas to make cooling equipment for AI data centers, its biggest-ever investment. The project comes amid a surge in sales to data-center customers as the AI buildout drives demand for cooling. It is another sign of how much industrial spending the AI boom is pulling in.
Barclays plans to cut about 5,000 jobs as part of an AI-driven cost-saving drive. The bank said it was structurally reducing costs to help make room for new investments. It is one of the clearest examples yet of AI being used to shrink a major bank's workforce.
The London Stock Exchange Group agreed to buy Octus, a credit intelligence and data provider, from Permira for $3.5 billion. The deal follows talks confirmed last week and expands LSEG's financial-information business. It is one of the larger European financial-data deals this year.
The Justice Department has told its overworked fraud prosecutors to look for tax charges wherever they can, as the Trump administration pushes for more tax prosecutions. But law enforcement is already straining, and insiders say the goal will be tough to achieve. The effort signals a shift in federal enforcement priorities.
The administration is handing out $8 billion in aid to farmers, even as Kroger targets earnings growth in a shifting retail landscape. The farm payout is among the largest recent support packages for rural America. Amazon is also hiring 300,000 workers for the holidays.
Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, an unapologetic progressive and Muslim, is testing whether a candidate who puts faith at the center of a campaign can win a major Senate race. His candidacy has become one of the most closely watched contests in the country. The result could reshape assumptions about what wins in statewide elections.
New Mexico is suing Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer and accountant, accusing the pair of helping to finance and conceal sex trafficking at Epstein's Zorro Ranch. The suit is the latest legal action tied to the late financier's network. It targets the professional enablers rather than Epstein himself.
The decline of the Rio Grande is posing an existential threat to Elephant Butte, New Mexico, and the surrounding farms that depend on the river. As the waterway shrinks, communities along it are being forced to reshape how they live and farm. It is one of the starkest illustrations of water stress in the American West.
Japan's top labor union federation, Rengo, will demand wage hikes of at least 5% at the annual spring shunto negotiations between unions and employers. The target is in line with the Bank of Japan's aims for sustained wage growth. The outcome will be a key signal for Japan's economy and monetary policy.
Oil prices rose more than 2%, with Brent climbing above $111 a barrel, as traders weighed renewed attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure and the risk of further U.S.-Iran hostilities against recovering Middle East oil supplies. An attack on a Saudi Arabian airport killed one person. Asian stocks fell as geopolitical tensions returned to the spotlight.