Results for “jeremy fears”

Nima Momeni was sentenced for the 2023 murder of Bob Lee, a killing that initially set off crime fears in San Francisco.

A political backlash against AI and data centers — now compounded by a crisis facing the technology's most influential champion — could help force a slowdown that industry leaders have struggled to achieve voluntarily. Why it matters: Tapping the brakes on AI development — which frontier AI developers claim to want but have so far failed to do given the risk of offering an advantage to a competitor — could give society more time to prepare for economic upheaval and the risks of superintelligent systems. A wave of Democratic victories and data center moratoriums are now joined by a potentially weakened Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who admitted to having a relationship with an alleged Chinese spy. Huang, who has led the industry in barreling through past resistance to AI acceleration, may be less able to do so while under a microscope. While both factors could stymie data center expansion in the U.S., it's far from clear that would slow AI's advance. Between the lines: Huang has been a powerful counterweight to calls for AI restraint, dismissing fears of an AI bubble or purported catastrophic risks to humanity from the technology. An investigation — by the board, an ascendant Democratic congress or federal authorities — could curb his ability to make the case for continued expansion, leaving an opening for those calling for more restrictions. Nvidia says Huang will remain CEO and the news won't slow the company, but the potential impact on his political influence is hard to measure. The potential impact extends beyond that as well. Nvidia is both the dominant supplier of AI chips and an investor in companies building AI infrastructure. A crisis that raises questions about its leadership, business practices or financial relationships could ripple through the industry's expansion plans. The intrigue: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk have all warned about the potentially catastrophic risks of advanced AI, with all expressing, at times, the need

The world's most powerful AI executive admitted Sunday to an affair with a suspected Chinese spy, sending shock waves through an industry built on his singular influence. Why it matters: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has fashioned himself as the indispensable leader of an indispensable company — a $4.5 trillion behemoth with unparalleled clout in Silicon Valley, on Wall Street and inside President Trump's White House. Trump stood by Huang on Sunday evening, telling reporters that the Nvidia CEO is "an honorable guy" and "probably has an excuse" for his infidelity. The big picture: Huang, who has led Nvidia since founding the chipmaker 33 years ago, has become the AI boom's chief evangelist and most authoritative voice. He has brushed aside fears of both a speculative bubble and technological catastrophe, joining forces with Trump to calm markets and the public as warnings of an AI apocalypse reached fever pitch. For almost any other CEO, an affair with a suspected foreign intelligence operative could be career-ending. Huang's grip on Nvidia — and the company's extraordinary importance to the AI economy — may insulate him from the same fate. Driving the news: Huang confessed to the affair in a letter to staff Sunday, apologizing to his family as Nvidia's board launched an independent probe into the suspected Chinese intelligence operation. U.S. officials believe Alice Huang, an executive at Nvidia customer Megaspeed, was recruited by Beijing's top spy agency to gather information and potentially influence Nvidia's campaign to expand advanced chip sales to China. Nvidia's board said it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised and expressed confidence in Jensen Huang, who intends to remain CEO during the investigation. Zoom in: The New York Times first exposed the suspected Chinese espionage operation on Oct. 29, reporting that a woman believed to be working for Beijing had developed a close relationship with Nvidia's CEO. The company po

The tech sell-off exposes fragile promises, while Democratic victories offer a chance to protect workers and hold firms accountable This week’s midterms showed that the political bill for the AI boom is falling due. The Democratic sweep intensified fears over runaway spending, mounting debt and resistance to datacentres, sending tech shares tumbling. On Thursday Wall Street suffered its worst day since the pandemic as $3.2tn was wiped from markets. Anthropic, developer of the Claude chatbot, is hoping to float within the next fortnight for $1.5tn (£1.1tn), but it may not now get even a trillion dollars. The dominant AI chipmaker Nvidia saw its value crash by more than $400bn. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, lost $113bn in two days . While a few very rich people may be a little less wealthy, the sell-off may not be a bad thing. It brings a needed dose of reality to an industry whose spending plans and valuations depend on heroic expectations of future profits. That is a view held by many influential figures – from Goldman Sachs’ research boss to Nobel laureate Daron Acemoğlu . AI may transform the economy. That does not guarantee investors will earn back the sums being poured into it. Continue reading...

Global tech stocks have plunged after the Democrats’ victory in the US midterm elections, with fears of a slowdown in AI development. Major tech corporations including Apple, Tesla and Nvidia shed about $1tn in a single trading session. Is this stock market jitters, or a sign the AI bubble might be about to burst? Lucy Hough speaks to senior economics correspondent Richard Partington Continue reading...

U.S. markets took a hit as concerns over newly elected Democrats added to fears about AI.

Anticipation that Democrats’ ‘blue wave’ will lead to tighter rules on AI and datacenters sends tech stock plunging. Plus a big eight-legged surprise for customs officials in Peru Good morning. Stock markets around the world have fallen sharply as a rout in US tech stocks spread across the Atlantic after the Democrats’ midterms victory led to fears of a slowdown in the AI industry. A sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday was followed by sharp falls in Asian stocks markets on Friday morning. The dip in investor sentiment has also reached London. Susannah Streeter, the chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: “The tech sell-off has intensified. Big worries are colliding – the build-out of datacenters looks set to slow, which risks shredding the spending spree underpinning the boom, right at the time that investors have become super nervous about returns on this massive investment.” What happened to the Nasdaq? The Nasdaq share index had its worst day in 19 months after slumping 5.5% on Thursday amid growing signs that the AI industry will face tougher regulation. Continue reading...

Sell-off on Wall Street followed by sharp fall in Asian and European markets, with FTSE down 1.5% Business live – latest updates European stock markets have fallen sharply as a rout in US tech stocks spread across the Atlantic, after the Democrats’ midterms victory sparked fears of a slowdown in the AI industry. A sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday was followed by sharp falls in Asian stocks markets on Friday morning. The investor sentiment then reached London, with the FTSE 100 index, which tracks blue-chip shares listed in London, down 1.5%, or 166 points, at the start of trading to 10,615. Continue reading...

The world seems convinced the end is near — and social media is amplifying that belief, convincing people to stock up on food, water, generators and other items. Why it matters: Online chatter is fueling viral predictions of societal collapse amid growing unease about the future. But you're probably not going to die tomorrow. What they're saying: Michael Mills, a researcher at the University of Kent who has studied doomsday prepping for more than a decade, told Axios that modern doomsday fears aren't necessarily about a specific apocalyptic scenario. "It's an overall reaction to uncertainty in most cases," Mills said. He noted that whereas Cold War-era survivalists were often focused on nuclear conflict, modern preppers worry about terrorism, climate disasters, geopolitical threats and emerging technologies. He described the modern mindset as a "multifaceted concern with uncertainty." State of play: Viral posts have repeatedly urged people around the world to stock up on food and water, following similar recommendations from various governments and warnings from former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. The situation has gotten so buzzy that President Trump was asked about it in an interview Monday. He said Americans don't need to stock up because the U.S. is "in good shape. We're strong. We have a great military and we will not have those kind of problems." Separately, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson — a man with 17.9 million followers on X alone — published a lengthy post Sunday evening alleging that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pressuring Trump to launch renewed attacks on Iran after the midterms, potentially with a nuclear weapon. For what it's worth, Carlson has been predicting similar doomsday scenarios for a while, and he's been wrong before. And the Pentagon's newly reported plan calls for U.S. military bases to prepare to operate without outside support for at least 90 days, terrifying some people into asking , "What's the government k

Once among the NFL’s most punishing running backs, Larry Johnson opens up about memory loss, intrusive thoughts and his fears over football’s lasting toll In his heyday, Larry Johnson was the NFL tailback you’d least want to line up against, the steamroller in pads who had defensive players and coaches questioning their life choices on every down. But since Johnson walked away from pro football in 2011, after seven seasons in the league and an All-Pro run with the Kansas City Chiefs, he’s the one doing the soul-searching, grappling with the toll all that gridiron glory has taken on his brain. Johnson, who still cuts a fit and formidable figure at age 46, can scarcely recall his glittering career, much less its highlights. “I go up to maybe 2006, 2007,” he tells me. “Anything before or three years after, I really don’t remember.” Continue reading...

Disappointing earnings reports from Alphabet, Amazon and Intel renewed fears on Friday that the AI trade could unravel.

Binance halted trading Thursday after hackers allegedly linked to North Korea stole more than $6 billion, the largest crypto hack in history. Why it matters : The attack comes after a wave of high-profile cyber intrusions and data breaches during "Black October," when a series of security incidents and AI -discovered bugs triggered fears of a global crisis. Driving the news: Binance co-founder Yi He said on X that the crypto exchange had suspended deposits and withdrawals. "User funds are safe," she wrote. "Binance will cover all hacking losses." An estimated $6.3 billion were drained from wallets in the incident, Binance said , although the exchange and partners managed to freeze about $3 billion that can potentially be recovered. "This is unprecedented," said Kevin March, a co-founder of JPEG Trading, a cryptocurrency trading firm that closely tracked the hack to monitor market conditions. An initial investigation found linked the hack to a compromised laptop from one Binance engineer. That access allowed an attacker to gain access to Binance's systems to make withdrawals, the exchange said. Zoom in : Researchers from TRM Labs and Pangolin Intelligence found that the attack appeared to be the work of a North Korean hacking collective. "This was absolutely North Korea," Nick Carlsen, a senior TRM investigator, told The Wall Street Journal . Representatives of North Korea have previously denied allegations of hacking crypto exchanges. The country has turned hacking and scams into an industrial-scale scourge, focusing on crypto heists and a widespread practice of tricking Western companies into hiring North Korean workers . A Binance spokesperson said the exchange's security teams are "reviewing all relevant information with urgency." The big picture: If estimates hold up, the suspected Binance hack would be the biggest crypto attack in history. In 2025, North Korea-linked hackers stole about $1.5 billion worth of crypto from the Bybit exchange. Between the lines : C

The 2026 midterms already face a messy pileup of lawsuits and ballot battles, raising fears about election confidence before voters even finish casting ballots . Why it matters: Election challenges aren't unusual, but as the Trump administration continues to make false claims about widespread voter fraud, officials are juggling fights over voter lists, mail-ballot rules and election certification challenges. What they're saying: "The types of challenges that we are seeing pre-election, this close to election day, are very unusual, and mostly because they are coming from the federal government," Jonathan Diaz of the Campaign Legal Center told Axios. "These lawsuits are frivolous," Diaz said, adding they could "create doubt in the minds of the public about the legitimacy of the election process." The other side: The White House referred Axios to comments President Trump made to the media. The Department of Justice did not respond to Axios' request for comment. Here's some of the ways chaos and uncertainty have shaped the 2026 midterms: California In the Golden State, the Trump administration asked state election officials to set aside ballots from roughly 20,000 registered voters whom the DOJ suspects are noncitizens. A federal judge rejected that push Wednesday night, warning that the administration lacked sufficient evidence to justify potentially disenfranchising eligible voters. The judge noted that the DOJ had made similar claims in neighboring Nevada, where election officials determined that 185 voters the DOJ had flagged as noncitizens were actually U.S. citizens. Diaz told Axios that, from his perspective as a voting-rights advocate, the California battle is "not a real lawsuit. It's a political press release that they just happened to submit to the court." The other side: The White House directed questions about the ruling to remarks Trump made Thursday, in which he said "California is very corrupt," and the state's elections are "extremely corrupt." He did n

Democrats will happily tell you how good they feel about retaking the House on Tuesday — just as soon as they stop hyperventilating into a paper bag. Why it matters: They've been burned too many times on Election Day to feel anything more than "nauseously optimistic," as one House Democrat put it to Axios. The polls point to a decisive Democratic victory on Nov. 3, yet fears of a massive polling error or some other eleventh-hour disaster are giving party members sleepless nights. "One woman at a rally in New Jersey told me last week that she was 'nauseously optimistic,'" Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told Axios. "That may capture a lot of people's last-minute jitters." A House Democrat who has spoken to leadership told Axios: "They feel optimistic. You know, guarded. Guarded optimism. Where we're going to end up, you never know." State of play: Democrats are targeting dozens of Republican-held seats they think could flip, some of which President Trump carried by 10, 15, even 20 percentage points in 2024. Democrats' House Majority PAC, for instance, went on the air Wednesday in retiring Rep. Elise Stefanik's (R-N.Y.) district, which Trump won by 21 points. They also began spending against Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), who won his last reelection with 60% of the vote. HMP is so bullish it has moved money out of the races to replace retiring Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), which they believe Democrats are on track to win handily. "I am cautiously optimistic we win between 20-25 seats," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told Axios. Democrats' landslide scenario puts them closer to 40 or 50 pickups, which would be a historic night for the party. Yes, but: Mid-decade redistricting in Republican-controlled Southern states is all but certain to cut into those gains. The GOP is expected to easily flip redrawn seats in Tennessee and Louisiana where the incumbent Democrats chose to retire rather than face uphill reelection battles. Democratic lead

Eye-opening revelations this past week have solidified my personal fears about the year ahead: As a nation and as a globe, we're facing a record number of wild risks that are way outside our control. My growing hunch about this scenario has been bolstered by daily conversations with CEOs, government insiders and top investors. Why it matters: It feels likely — not certain — that between now and 2028, we'll face society-level disruptions, possibly including cyberattacks and fast-twitch economic shocks. What we're facing: We've navigated single-shot crises like the financial meltdown of 2008 and the pandemic of 2020. This next year will be different. The real risk is a chain reaction: One shock sets off others — faster than we can process, and caused by AI dynamics we don't fully understand. Call it chain-reaction chaos . And that's against the backdrop of this age of post-processable velocity : The speed of change exceeds the ability of any individual, company, market or government to fully absorb, understand and respond. The reason this scenario looks so likely is that so many obvious risks, all with relatively high probabilities, keep piling up. Any one of them will rock already highly volatile markets and politics: Cyber chaos. This past week was a big flashing siren. AI-detected flaws in PHP, the code behind millions of websites, knocked government sites offline worldwide and prompted the National Security Agency to warn organizations to patch immediately or go dark. Major banks found unauthorized AI agents inside customer accounts, some trying to take actions customers never asked for. And Anthropic's deputy chief information security officer, Jason Clinton , warned that as bad as the past several days had been, cyber threats will get "a lot worse before they get better." Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff quickly agreed , writing on X: "Code red." As Madison Mills reported for Axios , the AI companies and the banks are scrambling for "day after" planning, fully antici

U.S. intelligence finds Iran has "substantially increased" its efforts to target American diplomats and officials in the Middle East and beyond, with lethal plots reaching "advanced stages," according to an Oct. 23 memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio obtained by Axios. Why it matters: U.S. officials say the intelligence is one reason the State Department is drawing down personnel at several American embassies across the Middle East, amid mounting fears of a broader regional conflict. U.S. officials also fear that Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen could expand their attacks beyond Saudi Arabia to other countries in the region. Adding to the volatile security environment is the prospect of renewed U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran, potentially after the midterm elections. News of the memo exploded across the internet after Axios posted it last night, with media coverage worldwide . What they're saying: "We may do another little Operation Epic Fury, or [the Iranians] will agree [to a deal]," President Trump said at a rally in Florida on Friday. "If they're smart, they will just say, 'Let's get down to business,' but I doubt they will do that because perhaps they're not smart." Driving the news: In the one-page, unclassified memo obtained by Axios, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned Rubio that intelligence about Iranian assassination plots needs to reach more U.S. personnel than are currently authorized to receive it. The memo does not identify specific targets, countries outside the Middle East or the nature of the plots, but says the underlying intelligence has already been shared with senior State Department officials. Clayton offered to downgrade as much of the sensitive intelligence as possible so Rubio could share it more widely with personnel potentially at risk. State of play: Earlier this week, the State Department ordered family members and nonessential personnel to leave the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh and consulates in Jeddah