Finance
Fed’s Powell has had no contact with Trump after president said he’ll demand rates drop
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday he has not spoken to President Donald Trump since last week’s remarks by the president when he said he would demand the central bank lower interest rates.
Speaking after the central bank’s decision to hold interest rates steady, Powell said he has had “no contact” with Trump since the remarks, which came during a virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“I’m not going to have any response or comment whatsoever on what the president said. It’s not appropriate for me to do so. The public should be confident that we will continue to do our work as we always have, focusing on using our tools to achiever our goals and really keeping our heads down and doing our work,” Powell said Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve is designed to make interest rate decisions independent of pressure from elected officials. However, Trump in his first term was unusually vocal with his opinions on what the central bank should do.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks next to SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son after U.S. President Donald Trump delivered remarks on AI infrastructure at the Roosevelt Room in the White House in Washington on Jan. 21, 2025.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
OpenAI is in talks to raise up to $40 billion in a funding round that would lift the artificial intelligence company’s valuation to as high as $340 billion, CNBC has confirmed.
Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank would lead the round, contributing between $15 billion and 25 billion, according to two people familiar with the negotiations who asked not to be named because the talks are ongoing. SoftBank would surpass Microsoft as OpenAI’s top backer.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the talks.
Part of the funding may be used for OpenAI’s commitment to Stargate, a joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle that was introduced by President Donald Trump last week, the sources said. The plan calls for billions of dollars to be invested in U.S. AI infrastructure.
OpenAI was last valued at $157 billion by private investors. In late 2022, the company launched its ChatGPT chatbot and kicked off the boom in generative AI. OpenAI closed its latest $6.6 billion round in October, gearing up to aggressively compete with Elon Musk’s xAI, as well as Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Anthropic.
Meanwhile, Chinese startup lab DeepSeek is blowing up in the U.S, presenting fresh competition to OpenAI. DeepSeek saw its app soar to the top of Apple’s App Store rankings this week and roiled U.S. markets on reports that its powerful model was trained at a fraction of the cost of U.S. competitors.
At an event in Washington, D.C., on Thursday hosted by OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman said DeepSeek is “clearly a great model.”
“This is a reminder of the level of competition and the need for democratic Al to win,” he said. He said it also points to the “level of interest in reasoning, the level of interest in open source.”
OpenAI in talks to raise up to $40 billion at $340 billion valuation
New Stampli procure-to-pay touts “conversation-first” approach
Acumatica announces AI Studio, new AI Lab customer feedback features
New 2023 K-1 instructions stir the CAMT pot for partnerships and corporations
The Essential Practice of Bank and Credit Card Statement Reconciliation
Are American progressives making themselves sad?
-
Personal Finance1 week agoMortgage rates aren’t likely to fall any time soon — here’s why
-
Economics1 week agoThe new American imperialism
-
Personal Finance1 week agoRecruiters weigh in if LinkedIn’s ‘open to work’ feature helps or hurts
-
Finance6 days agoDEI dominates conversation among CEOs
-
Finance1 week agoBitcoin will hit a new all-time high in 2025, Binance CEO says
-
Accounting6 days agoCash Flow Management and Strategies for Financial Stability and Growth
-
Economics5 days agoE-Waste Management Solutions and the Circular Economy
-
Economics6 days agoTom Homan, unleashed