Aurelia Butler

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This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters hereGood morning and welcome back. Today’s agenda: Trump puts $300bn of potential infrastructure spending at riskByteDance’s $12bn AI plansNetflix’s subscriber recordAnd Alex Soros has Lunch with the FTDonald Trump’s return to the White House has put more than $300bn of potential federal infrastructure funding at risk, according to US investors. Trump’s “Unleash American Energy” executive order has halted federal disbursements to manufacturers and infrastructure developers.The money was provided under Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law. This includes almost $50bn in Department of Energy loans already agreed and another $280bn worth of loan requests under review, according to analysis by the Financial Times. But while putting infrastructure spending in peril, Trump unveiled a massive new AI infrastructure project with OpenAI and SoftBank. The two groups said they were looking to spend $100bn in Big Tech infrastructure projects, rising to as much as $500bn over the next four years. The joint venture, dubbed Stargate, aims to boost capacity to train and run new AI models. The president said the project would “include the construction of colossal data centres”, starting with a Texas site that the companies said was already being built. Here are more details on Stargate.And more highlights from Trump’s first full day in office:For more day 2 administration news go to our live blog and for in-depth coverage of Trump’s second term sign up for the White House Watch newsletter. The FT will also be holding an exclusive subscriber webinar, featuring FT reporters and guests to discuss the policy priorities of the new administration. Sign up here. And here’s what we’re watching today:Davos: ECB president Christine Lagarde will be one of the speakers at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. The FT continues to bring you live updates and analysis from the Swiss mountain resort.Results: Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Procter & Gamble and electronics equipment maker Amphenol report earnings.Steve Bannon: Donald Trump’s former adviser is due in court to face fraud charges stemming from a nonprofit’s push to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.This Friday, join consumer editor Claer Barrett, writer of the Sort Your Financial Life Out newsletter series, as she discusses how to invest in 2025 with other FT experts. Register for free.Five more top stories1. Netflix added a record 19mn subscribers in the fourth quarter as viewers flocked to stream the new series of Squid Game and live sporting events, including a much-hyped boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. The platform’s shares surged more than 14 per cent in after-hours trading.2. Goldman Sachs has promoted a new generation of executives to head its key investment banking and trading businesses as the bank overhauls its top ranks and prepares to capitalise on an expected Wall Street boom under US President Donald Trump. Read more on Goldman’s effort to refresh its leadership bench and position itself for future challenges.3. Exclusive: ByteDance plans to spend more than $12bn on artificial intelligence infrastructure this year, double the amount it laid out last year. The TikTok parent also plans to invest nearly $7bn overseas to beef up its foundation model training capabilities using advanced Nvidia chips. Here’s a breakdown of the investment.4. The memecoins launched by President Donald Trump and his wife days before the inauguration are damaging the industry’s reputation and risk a backlash from investors, crypto executives have warned. The total nominal value of $TRUMP and $MELANIA initially surged over the weekend but have since lost more than half their value. 5. Mike Madigan, the longest-serving legislative leader in US history, took the stand to defend himself in his corruption trial this week. The testimony was the latest twist in a trial that has featured tales of Viagra bribes and sex acts in massage parlours — and gripped a city in which politics has been called a “blood sport”.Today’s Big Read© Handout/EPA-EFEDonald Trump relished the thought of returning to the White House and the power it would give him to take down the “deep state” actors who once opposed him — and almost sent him to prison. John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser and one of the president’s harshest critics, had his security clearance revoked within hours of Trump’s return to office as the vendetta campaign began. We’re also reading . . . Edward Luce: Very little stands in the way of the president’s goal of remaking America, writes our US national editor.Judge-shopping: Trump will probably appoint more judges sympathetic to conservative activists — and corporate America should prepare, writes Brooke Masters.Alex Soros: The chair of Open Society Foundations sits down with FT editor Roula Khalaf to discuss his vision for the liberal megadonor his father created.Gaza ceasefire: Many Palestinians have returned to find only sand, twisted metal and shredded concrete where they used to live.Luxury sector: Brands are looking to US consumers and a post-election Trump bump to drive their recovery after a trying year.Chart of the daySome content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.What impact will Donald Trump’s second coming have upon the world, asks Martin Wolf in his latest column. He points to a “fascinating” report which illustrates the different attitudes to Trump’s return among people who live the “global south”, who are generally more positive, versus those located in countries that are traditional allies of the US. Take a break from the news . . . Almost 19,000 video games were released last year via digital distribution platform Steam, and 2025 promises far more. In an age of unprecedented gaming abundance, FT critic Tom Faber writes it’s time to rethink how and what we play. ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ is one of a number of big releases for 2025 More

Despite a slower job addition rate in November 2024, with only 9,100 new jobs created, the overall employment growth in Texas is still in line with historical trends. The moderation in hiring across several industries, including transportation, utilities, and manufacturing, is partly attributed to higher interest rates affecting consumer demand and financing costs. The state’s unemployment rate has seen a slight uptick to 4.2% from 3.9% at the start of the year, which coincides with a significant increase in the labor force, indicating a slackening but still healthy job market.Texas has also witnessed substantial population growth, adding nearly 563,000 residents in 2024 and ranking as the third fastest growing state. This growth has more than doubled the state’s population since 1980, bringing the current total to approximately 31 million people. The state’s robust population increase continues to be a key driver of its economic resilience.The real estate market in Texas has experienced a deceleration, with home sales in November 2024 falling almost 24% from the same month in 2021. The cooling housing market is a consequence of high mortgage rates and inflated home prices, which have challenged affordability and tempered buyer activity. The multifamily housing sector has also corrected, with new starts declining to pre-pandemic levels amid a surge in completed units and tighter financing conditions.Looking ahead, the Texas economy is poised for continued solid growth into 2025. With the Federal Reserve expected to ease monetary policy, sectors previously hindered by high financing costs may see improvement. Texas’ strong demographic trends and economic fundamentals are likely to sustain its growth trajectory, despite the recent slowdown from its rapid expansion in recent years.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The renminbi weakened and Chinese stocks fell after US President Donald Trump said he could impose a 10 per cent tariff against China from next month.The CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed companies closed down 0.9 per cent on Wednesday, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index retreated 1.6 per cent, led lower by the mainland Chinese companies listed in the territory.The offshore renminbi, which trades free of the limits imposed by Chinese financial authorities, weakened by 0.3 per cent on Wednesday to 7.29 a dollar before recovering to 7.27.The dollar strengthened by 0.15 per cent against a basket of currencies including the pound and the yen. The price of gold also rose to an 11-week high of $2,758 per troy ounce.“The central question about tariffs is does Trump want [higher] tariffs or does he want them as a tool to negotiate?” said Andrew Tilton, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Goldman Sachs, which forecasts that “more tariffs are likely”.China had largely avoided direct attention from Trump during his whirlwind first day in office, in which he suggested levying 25 per cent tariffs on the US’s largest trading partners Canada and Mexico, leading traders to slash bets on a resumption of the trade war started in his first term.Trump said on Tuesday that the 10 per cent tariff was being considered to punish China for the flow of the opiate fentanyl to Mexico and Canada. The US has accused China of sending the chemicals used to make fentanyl to Mexico, where cartels manufacture the drug. It was a repetition of an earlier threat the new president had made last year, on top of a campaign vow to impose a blanket 60 per cent levy on Chinese imports.Traders widely expect the US dollar to continue to strengthen against the currencies of major trading partners, including China, as higher tariffs and lower interest rates in China weigh on the renminbi. More than a quarter of fund managers polled in a Bank of America survey said “long US dollar” was the most crowded trade in January.“Market moves have in no way fully undone [the pricing of] tariff risk; if the US were to come out and say ‘no tariffs’ you would likely see a meaningful weakening in the US dollar,” said Tilton.Stocks in the rest of Asia were broadly up on Wednesday. Korea’s Kospi rose 1.3 per cent and Japan’s broad Topix climbed 0.9 per cent. Taiwan’s benchmark index advanced 1 per cent while India’s Sensex edged up 0.2 per cent. More

$99 for your first yearFT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday, plus FT Digital Edition delivered to your device Monday-Saturday.What’s included Weekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysis More

$99 for your first yearFT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday, plus FT Digital Edition delivered to your device Monday-Saturday.What’s included Weekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysis More