Musk’s robot army, East Wing payoffs vs. NBA scandals, and Benioff the Protector

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Citi’s Jane Fraser consolidates power with board chair vote — and a $25 million-plus bonus to boot

1. a one-time equity award (the Award), consisting of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) with a grant date value of $25 million and 1.055 million Citigroup stock options

2. the Compensation, Performance Management and Culture Committee

1. Duncan P. Hennes (Chair)*

2. Peter B. Henry*

1. Other directorships: Nike, Inc., Analog Devices, Inc., National Bureau of Economic Research (Board), The Economic Club of New York (Board), Protiviti (Advisory Board), Biospring Partners (Advisory Board), Makena Capital (Advisory Board), and Two Bridges Football Club (Board)

3. Renée J. James

1. Other directorships: Oracle Corporation, Sabre Corporation, Vodafone Group Plc, President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (Member and Prior Chair), and University of Oregon (Trustee)

4. Gary M. Reiner*

5. Diana L. Taylor*

1. Other directorships: Brookfield Corporation, Accion (Chair), Columbia Business School (Board of Overseers),Friends of Hudson River Park (Chair), Mailman School of Public Health (Board of Overseers), The Economic Club of New York (Member), Council on Foreign Relations (Member), Hot Bread Kitchen (Board Chair), Cold Spring Harbor Lab (Member), and New York City Ballet (Board Chair)

6. Casper W. von Koskull

7. Committee Meetings in 2024: 15

3. Citi elected CEO Jane Fraser as Chair

4. John Dugan, who served as Chair of Citi’s Board since 2019, will become Lead Independent Director

2. CEO armies MM

1. Elon Musk Wants ‘Strong Influence’ Over the ‘Robot Army’ He’s Building

1. In a Tesla earnings call Wednesday, the world’s richest man pondered the future of his company’s Optimus robots—and his control over them.

2. “If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over this robot army?” he told investors. “Not control, but a strong influence… I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army unless I have a strong influence.”

3. His repeated use of the word “army” certainly stands out, suggesting the robot could eventually be used as a weapon. Is Musk considering having his robots be deployed as soldiers?

4. Elon Musk Threatens to Leave Tesla if Shareholders Don’t Approve His Trillion-Dollar Pay Package – Warns, “Which Other Automotive CEO Would You Like to Run Tesla Because It Won’t Be Me”

2. Secret Plans Reveal Amazon Plot to Replace 600,000 Workers With Robot Army

3. The ongoing CEO/Trump Oligarchical Bromance

1. Trump pardons convicted Binance founder Changpeng Zhao

1. Zhao, who is widely known as CZ, had pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while CEO of the huge cryptocurrency exchange.

2. Zhao’s plea was part of a $4.3 billion settlement Binance reached with the DOJ in 2023.

3. The pardon of Zhao, widely known as CZ, came two months after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump family’s own crypto venture, which has generated about $4.5 billion since the 2024 election, has been helped by “a partnership with an under-the-radar trading platform quietly administered by Binance.”

4. NBC News, citing a public disclosure filing from Monday, reported that Binance in September had retained the services of the lobbyist Charles McDowell, who is a friend of the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

2. Trump calls off planned 'surge' of federal forces in San Francisco after talking to Jensen Huang and Marc Benioff

3. Here are the donors contributing to Trump’s White House ballroom

1. In summary: techbros, oil, tobacco, crypto

2. Corporations

1. Altria Group, tobacco (donated $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration fund)

2. Amazon (donated $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration fund)

3. Apple (donated $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration fund)

4. Booz Allen Hamilton

5. Caterpillar

6. Coinbase (donated $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration fund)

1. In February, the SEC dropped a pending case against the firm.

7. Comcast Corporation (donated $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration fund)

8. Google (donated $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration fund)

1. $22 million toward the ballroom came from a settlement Trump reached with the Google-owned video site YouTube, ending a lawsuit he brought over the company’s 2021 decision to suspend his account in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

9. Hard Rock International

10. HP Inc.

11. Lockheed Martin

1. In an emailed statement, the company said it was “grateful for the opportunity to help bring the President’s vision to reality and make this addition to the People’s House, a powerful symbol of the American ideals we work to defend every day.”

12. Meta Platforms (donated $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration fund)

1. In January, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit brought by Trump that alleged the company’s suspension of his social media accounts after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol amounted to an act of censorship.

13. Micron Technology (donated $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration fund)

14. Microsoft

15. NextEra Energy (donated $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration fund)

16. Palantir Technologies

1. Has won hundreds of millions of dollars in new and expanded business since Trump’s second term began, including contracts at the FAA, CDC, and further contracts with the U.S. military.

17. Ripple (donated $4.9 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration fund)

1. In March, the company’s CEO announced that the SEC would drop its long-running litigation over whether its cryptocurrency is a security.

18. Reynolds American, tobacco company.

19. T-Mobile

20. Tether America

1. The company, which has ties to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, is the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, a type of cryptocurrency designed to hold a steady value.

21. Union Pacific Railroad

3. Individuals

1. Stefan E. Brodie: an American businessman, convicted felon, and political donor known for co-founding The Bro-Tech Corporation (Purolite Company), a chemical manufacturing firm

2. Harold Hamm: the billionaire oil executive played a key role in helping Trump raise funds from oil industry donors during the 2024 election

3. Benjamin Leon Jr., the health-care company founder was nominated as U.S. Ambassador to Spain in March.

4. The Lutnick Family: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is a billionaire and former Wall Street executive.

5. Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter: former Marvel NEO who donated over $25 million towards the 2024 Republican campaign.

6. Stephen A. Schwarzman: Blackstone CEO who donated $40 million to Republican organizations for last year’s election.

7. Konstantin Sokolov: private equity investor.

8. Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher: Loeffler is head of the Small Business Administration; Sprecher is CEO/CHair/founder of Intercontinental Exchange

9. Paolo Tiramani: founder of prefabricated homes company BOXABL 

10. Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss: co-founders of crypto platform Gemini.

4. Activist investor group that includes Travis Kelce aims to revive struggling Six Flags

1. Travis Kelce is part of an activist investor group (with JANA Partners and others) that has acquired roughly a 9 % economic interest in Six Flags. 

2. The group’s stated intention is to engage with Six Flags’ management and board to improve performance, guest experience, marketing, etc. 

3. In the reporting by Reuters, it explicitly says that “Consumer executive Glenn Murphy and technology executive Dave Habiger … could, along with Kelce, serve as potential board nominees.”

Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):

1. DR: Hundreds of Power Players, From Steve Wozniak to Steve Bannon to Richard Branson, Just Signed a Letter Calling for Prohibition on Development of AI Superintelligence

1. "Nobody developing these AI systems has been asking humanity if this is OK."

2. The letter cites recent polling from FLI, which was cofounded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Max Tegmark, showing that only five percent of Americans are in favor of the rapid and unregulated development of advanced AI tools

2. MM: Linda McMahon mixed up AI and A.1. — so of course now the steak sauce is all over it

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Robot armies DR

1. Secret Plans Reveal Amazon Plot to Replace 600,000 Workers With Robot Army

2. Elon Musk defends $1 trillion pay package: ‘I just don’t feel comfortable building a robot army here and then being ousted

3. Meta tells some employees their jobs are being replaced by tech: read the memo

4. AWS Outage That Took Down Internet Came After Amazon Fired Tons of Workers in Favor of AI

5. US firm’s Star Wars-style humanoid robot soldier brings sci-fi to battlefield

1. 2024: What Is a ‘Clanker’? New Slur for Robots Catches On (it’s also from Star Wars)

2. Fake retirement

1. Jeff Bezos Says He's the 'Least Retired Person in the World'...And He'll 'Never Retire Because Work Is Too Much Fun'

2. In our data, there are 251 US board chairs that are executives at the company, WERE the CEO, but are NOT the CEO now - that’s 251 Jeff Bezos’ who get paid like a CEO to work how they want without any accountability

1. They don’t give press conferences or earnings calls

2. They don’t answer to the CEO, they answer to themselves

3. They control the board without having to answer to it

3. 122 of them are NOT family or founder firms - meaning they were just the CEO and they’re sticking around

1. That includes Donald Umpleby at Caterpillar

2. At Schwab, Charles Schwab is a CO-chair with ex-CEO Walter Bettinger II, and the board has a THIRD CEO on it in Richard Wurster

4. The average TSR performance of these people is .477 - below average

5. In zero situations is it worth having any of these people on the board

3. Boys

1. Trump says Jensen Huang and Mark Benioff helped convince him not to send troops to San Francisco

2. Citi CEO’s $25 Million Bonus Is Excessive, Top Bank Analyst Mike Mayo Says

1. Elon Musk got feisty about his $1 trillion pay package in the final minutes of Tesla's earnings call

2. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's annual pay jumps to $96.5 million

3. Palmer Luckey says he told Anduril investors they can't complain if he takes time off to be on 'Survivor'

4. Elon Musk Accuses Head of NASA of Being “Gay”

5. Bill Ackman calls Trump the 'most pro-business president we've ever had'

4. Integrity for sports

1. While the Trump Administration inserts itself in every crypto venture with no oversight, openly insider trades, and Congress does the same, heaven forbid it happen in sports… Chauncey Billups, others arrested in FBI probe linking NBA to Mafia gambling ring

Headliniest of the Week

1. DR: Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has one question he likes to ask every entrepreneur: ‘Why does your company deserve to exist?’

2. MM: SPEED ROUND

1. Tesla recalls over 63,000 Cybertrucks due to the front lights being too bright

2. Mosquitoes found in Iceland for first time

3. Cracker Barrel CEO Says Logo Update Wasn't 'Woke' — Just Easier to Read

1. Reading IS woke!

4. McDonald's CEO says he eats at the chain '3 or 4 times a week'

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: obviously Jane

2. MM: Mosquitos

Predictions

1. DR: In 2070, future MetaSoul (née Facebook/Meta Platforms) CEO August Zuckerberg has one question she likes to ask every non-AI human: ‘Why do you deserve to exist?’

2. MM: McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski goes from his reported weight of 158lbs to 220lbs inside a year