Raphael Stevens

President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee raised a record $239 million thanks to dozens of mega corporations that contributed to the fund.
When many companies made their donations, the business community was still feeling positive about Trump’s election. Months later, the mood has changed as business leaders digest the impact tariffs will have on their businesses.
CNBC analyzed seven industries that contributed to the fund and broke down which businesses are better or worse off now that Trump is in office.

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the Business Roundtable’s quarterly meeting at the Business Roundtable headquarters on March 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. 
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images

America’s richest and most powerful companies shelled out millions to fund President Donald Trump’s inauguration festivities.
Three months later, some may be asking whether the famously transactional president has their backs. Many of those corporations have had their businesses roiled by Trump’s tariff policy and resulting consumer caution, dampening the optimism much of the business and finance community felt when he was reelected.

Some of the nation’s largest companies, including General Motors, BlackRock and Meta, donated to Trump’s inaugural committee, leading it to raise a record $239 million – more than the previous three inaugural committees took in combined, according to filings released Sunday.
Presidential inaugural committees are set up as charitable organizations, and the money they raise has traditionally funded parades and galas around the president’s formal swearing in. Unlike presidential election campaigns, there is no set limit on how much a corporation or U.S. citizen can give to an inaugural committee. (President Joe Biden did not have traditional inaugural events in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic).
This makes inaugural donations an early opportunity for companies to publicly show support for the incoming president. And in Trump’s case especially, to ensure that the company has a seat at the table as policy decisions are being made.
Inaugural committees must disclose their donors, but they are not required to disclose how they spend the money. After raising hundreds of millions of dollars more than it costs to put on three balls and an indoor parade, the Trump inaugural committee is expected to put the rest toward Trump’s eventual presidential library.
Some of this year’s donors, like Target, McDonald’s and Delta Air Lines, hadn’t contributed to an inaugural committee in more than a decade. Others including Pfizer, Walmart and Visa were regular contributors, as they donated the same amounts in 2025 that they did in 2021 and 2017. 

What just about every donor had in common was they wrote their checks at a time when the business community was still riding high on the president’s victory. Consumer confidence was surging, Trump had promised tax cuts were coming and triple-digit tariffs on critical trading partner China weren’t part of the conversation.
But in the weeks and months since, many of those same corporations have seen their businesses upended by Trump’s economic policies, which have centered on tariffs that economists from across the ideological spectrum have warned could raise costs for consumers and tip the economy into a recession.

Banks that were expecting a resurgence in IPOs and deals are instead contending with skittish capital markets. Some airlines that were excited about deregulation and a government that would be friendlier to businesses are now slashing their guidance, saying consumers won’t travel when they’re uncertain about the future of their wallets. 
“The expectation was because the last administration was very, very difficult for business, very, very difficult to engage and to communicate broadly across all industries, the expectation was that this would be improved,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday. “There are certain things that have been put forward from a policy perspective that, you know, that don’t feel in line with the expectation people had.” 
While Trump and key administration officials have given signals they could soon reduce the tariffs on Chinese imports, sending stock markets higher, there’s no guarantee they will strike a deal to do so.
Companies mentioned in this report either did not respond to requests for comment, declined to comment or highlighted their past support for inaugurations for both political parties or policies they consider good for business.
Beyond corporations, many of the individuals who contributed to Trump’s inauguration are now working closely with the White House or shaping policy. 
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, donated $1 million to the inauguration. He is now working on the Stargate Project, a collaboration between OpenAI and the government to build AI infrastructure in the U.S.  
Jared Isaacman, Trump’s nominee for NASA administrator, donated $2 million to the inauguration. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave $250,000. 
Here’s a closer look at the ways various industries contributed to Trump’s inauguration and how those businesses are faring three months into his administration. 

Tech

The tech industry’s biggest companies — and many of their CEOs — lined up to donate to Trump’s inaugural fund as part of a targeted effort at creating a friendlier relationship with the White House after a tumultuous four years during Trump’s first term.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was eager to get into the president’s good graces after his platform kicked Trump off in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Trump later gave the company founder the nickname “Zuckerschmuck,” and he routinely called Facebook an “enemy of the people.”
Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos was another frequent Trump target, largely due to his ownership of the Washington Post, and he too has rushed to appease the president this time around.
Meta and Amazon each donated $1 million to the inaugural fund, as did Google and Apple CEO Tim Cook. Microsoft and Adobe kicked in the same amount. So did AI infrastructure players Nvidia and Broadcom. Uber did the same.

Across the industry, companies were hopeful that a second Trump administration would lighten up on regulations following a burdensome era under Biden, when IPOs ground to a halt and big merger efforts were quashed.
The industry is now getting hammered by Wall Street on concern that a combination of higher import costs and reduced business spending will dramatically shrink profit margins. For Meta and Google, the primary issue is the potential for advertising budgets to dwindle, but there are other challenges that permeate the entire industry.
The tech giants have been loading up on Nvidia chips and other hardware to build out their infrastructure for the AI boom. Those products are all subject to various tariffs, particularly goods coming from China and Taiwan. While Trump said there will be an exemption for phones, computers and chips, the administration later indicated that there would be separate tariffs for those products.
And when it comes to regulations, Google and Meta are currently in court for antitrust cases. Trump’s Federal Trade Commission on Monday filed suit against Uber, accusing the ride-hailing and delivery company of deceptive billing and cancellation practices tied to its subscription service.
— Ari Levy

Food and beverage

With a $5 million donation, poultry giant Pilgrim’s Pride was the top contributor to Trump’s inaugural fund. Brazilian meat giant JBS, Pilgrim’s largest stakeholder, is awaiting approval to go public through a dual U.S.-Brazil listing as it faces opposition from environmentalists, U.S. beef producers and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
More broadly, the meat industry has been pushing Trump to roll back regulations, which his administration did during his first term.
Beyond big meat, McDonald’s gave to the presidential inauguration for the first time in more than a decade with its $1 million donation. While the fast-food chain is one of Trump’s favorite caterers, McDonald’s could face scrutiny from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has pledged to “Make America Healthy Again.” Kennedy has started by taking aim at artificial food dyes, but fast food could be on the list; he recently praised Steak ‘n Shake for using beef tallow to cook its fries.
The uncertainty of tariffs and growing recession fears could also weigh on McDonald’s sales, if consumers cut back on their Big Macs and McNuggets. Over the last year, the company has already seen U.S. sales struggle as diners cut back on eating out. 

Fat Brands, which owns Fatburger, Johnny Rockets and more than a dozen other restaurant chains, donated $100,000 to the inaugural fund. Last year, the company and its chair Andy Wiederhorn were indicted over what prosecutors called a “sham” loan scheme that netted him $47 million, allegations he and the company deny. 
Trump reportedly personally fired the assistant U.S. attorney leading the case against Fat Brands and Wiederhorn in March. However, Justice Department officials in California told The Oregonian that the prosecution will continue.
On the beverage side, spirits giant Diageo chipped in $125,000 in in-kind donations of beverages. While the Johnnie Walker and Don Julio owner is facing higher tariffs for some of its brands, its Mexican tequila and Canadian whisky are exempt because of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, both regular contributors to presidential inauguration funds, wrote checks this year as well. Both beverage companies are under fire by Kennedy’s MAHA agenda, which is pushing states to seek bans on using federal food assistance to buy soda and junk food. The American Beverage Association, a trade group that counts Keurig Dr Pepper among its members, also chipped in $250,000.
— Amelia Lucas 

Retail 

The retail industry was one of the only sectors that had a dour outlook after Trump was elected because of the acute impact tariffs can have not just on their supply chains, but also on consumer confidence and spending. 
That could be why both the National Retail Federation, the industry’s lobbying arm, and big box giant Target contributed to the inauguration committee for the first time in at least a decade. 
The NRF gave $250,000 to the fund, while Target wrote a check for $1 million.
Since Trump was elected, and even before, the NRF has been sounding the alarm about the impact tariffs will have on consumers and its retail members, calling the duties a tax on American families. 
Target is more exposed to tariffs than its longtime rival, Walmart, because more of its sales come from discretionary goods like clothes and home goods that tend to be manufactured overseas. The discounter’s annual sales have been roughly flat for four years in a row and last month, Target said it expects sales to grow only 1% for this fiscal year.
Target has also felt the heat from conservative groups in recent years, and from shoppers and potential customers who have shown support for the administration and its policies. Earlier this year, Target rolled back its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts soon after Trump vowed to dismantle every DEI initiative across the federal government. 
The retail industry has lobbied the Trump administration to take a common sense approach to tariffs and stressed it will be difficult, if not impossible, to move some manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Yet it remains unclear if that push will work — especially when the 90-day tariff pause ends in countries outside of China that have become key manufacturing hubs, such as Vietnam.
The best the industry has achieved so far was a meeting at the White House on Monday between Trump and the chief executives of Walmart, Target and Home Depot.
After the meeting wrapped, the three companies issued nearly identical statements.
“We had a productive meeting with President Trump and our retail peers to discuss the path forward on trade,” Target said. “We remain committed to delivering value for American consumers.” 
Walmart contributed $150,000 to the inaugural committee for Trump. But the Arkansas-based retail giant has donated the same amount for the past three inaugurations — including Biden’s in 2021 and Trump’s first in 2017.
— Gabrielle Fonrouge and Melissa Repko 

Health care and pharmaceuticals 

The pharmaceutical industry and some health-care companies shelled out big for Trump this time around. While Trump has maintained his focus on curbing high health-care costs, the pharmaceutical industry was banking on a softer stance on drugmakers, or at least a more open ear to their concerns about Biden-era policies that cracked down on prescription drug costs and aimed to increase industry competition. 
Now, drugmakers are bracing for Trump’s proposed pharmaceutical tariffs and grappling with uncertainty around the sweeping overhaul of federal health agencies under Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic. But Trump offered the industry some reprieve last week: He signed an executive order targeting a law that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices, proposing changes long sought by pharmaceutical companies. 
PhRMA, the industry’s powerful trade association, and leading drugmakers including Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Gilead and Bayer each gave $1 million, while Eli Lilly contributed $500,000. 
All were first-time donors except for Pfizer, which contributed $1 million to both Biden’s 2021 and Trump’s 2017 inaugurations. 
Vaxcyte, a small clinical-stage vaccine maker, also donated $1 million for the first time. The move may reflect growing concern among vaccine makers over Kennedy’s leadership, which already appears to be impacting U.S. vaccine policy. 

Amgen has a track record of bipartisan support, contributing $500,000 to this year’s inauguration as well as the previous two. Medical device maker Abbott Laboratories also gave $500,000 this year, a notable increase from its contributions in 2021 and 2017.
Outside of the pharmaceutical industry, telehealth company Hims & Hers Health contributed $1 million as it seeks support for its compounded medications, which have faced backlash from weight loss drugmakers like Eli Lilly. 
Health-care companies HCA Healthcare, Molina Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield contributed small amounts for the first time. All three insurers offer Medicare Advantage plans. Insurers in that market have been lobbying Trump to pursue lighter regulations for those privately run government programs.
Centene, which provides government-sponsored health plans, was an outlier, contributing just $50,000 this year. That’s far less than its previous donations of $500,000 to Biden in 2021 and $250,000 to Trump in 2017. 
— Annika Kim Constantino 

Finance

The biggest players in American finance pumped more money into Trump’s coffers this year than they did for previous inaugurations, while lobbying aggressively for sweeping deregulation across traditional and cryptocurrency markets.
JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, the biggest U.S. retail bank and one of the most powerful Wall Street firms, respectively, each gave $1 million to the Trump inauguration, compared with nothing for Biden’s in 2021.
Capital One, which hadn’t donated in the two previous election cycles, gave Trump’s inaugural committee $1 million. The bank at the time was seeking approval for its $35 billion acquisition of Discover Financial, announced in early 2024 and finally greenlit last week. 
The same is true for BlackRock and Blackstone, the twin titans of the asset management universe, which each gave $1 million to the inauguration fund after not donating in the two previous election cycles.

The stakes for banks were high. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has repeatedly complained about the “regulatory assault” from Biden-era banking regulators that would hit revenue by tens of billions of dollars and add capital requirements for the biggest U.S. banks.
Dimon and others, including bank trade groups, fought back against efforts to increase capital requirements on the industry, dubbed the Basel III Endgame. They also opposed a series of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules designed to limit overdraft and credit card late fees.
Thanks to the takeover of the CFPB by Trump pick Russell Vought and the nomination of Michelle Bowman as Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision, it appears banks will get much of what they hoped for. Vought has dropped a string of high profile legal cases against banks and other financial firms while attempting to shutter the agency, while Bowman is considered to be friendly to the industry. 
But financial firms have more pressing issues these days. Concerns that Trump’s aggressive trade policies will start a recession have hammered financials in recent weeks, pushing the KBW Bank Index into a bear market decline of 20% from its post-election high.
Shares of Blackstone were hit even more, down about 38% from their November 2024 high, on concerns that tariff uncertainty will make it hard for the private equity industry to sell its portfolio companies.
Crypto players also gave generously. Robinhood contributed $2 million to the inaugural committee after not donating in the two previous elections, while the Coinbase founder and his company gave a combined $2 million.
The industry has already benefited from a loosening of restrictions around cryptocurrency and banking spurred by the Trump administration, and legislation is progressing that will allow more players to offer stablecoins to retail customers.
— Hugh Son 

Airlines and aerospace

Delta and United, which each gave $1 million to the Trump inauguration, are cutting their domestic capacity plans this year due to weaker demand, particularly from the economy cabin. (About $250,000 of United’s contribution was an in-kind donation of flights).
Months earlier, in November, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said that the incoming Trump administration would likely be a “breath of fresh air” in terms of regulation after Biden’s Transportation Department. During Biden’s administration, the DOT issued a host of new rules aimed at protecting consumers from airline fees and ensuring they get refunds if flights are delayed or canceled.
Earlier this month, Bastian took a different tone on the administration when the carrier reported quarterly earnings. In an interview, Bastian called Trump’s tariff policy “the wrong approach” and said it hurt bookings, leading Delta to pull its 2025 earnings forecast.
Boeing, which also gave $1 million to the Trump inauguration, is the nation’s top exporter and is once again caught in trade conflicts, none more pronounced than the tit-for-tat tariffs with China.
Boeing’s CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday that China has stopped taking deliveries of its aircraft amid the trade war. He said the company could hand over some of the airplanes that were destined for Chinese airlines to other customers this year.

While Boeing makes its aircraft in the United States, the company and the manufacturers of large aircraft parts like engines and wings rely on a global supply chain that could be impacted by a broad-based 10% tariffs on much of the world that Trump imposed earlier this month, as well as duties on imported aluminum and steel.
Major aerospace suppliers are also in the crosshairs of the trade war. Even if they produce their exported products in the U.S., companies are reliant on a global supply chain that’s still fragile from the Covid-19 pandemic and could be impacted by tariffs. Foreign companies producing goods in the U.S. are also affected, like Airbus, which assembles some of its narrow-body planes in Alabama, but relies on imports.
GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp met with Trump and other White House officials this month and said he suggested that the industry be able to go back to the mostly duty-free trade it’s enjoyed under a 45-year-old agreement.
“We have suggested, as the administration works through a myriad of issues, is that they can consider the position of strength that the country enjoys as a result of this tariff-free regime and to consider reestablishing the same,” said Culp.
RTX and GE Aerospace, a defense contractor and commercial aerospace supplier, respectively, estimated Tuesday that higher expenses from tariffs will cost their businesses more than $1 billion combined. GE said it will offset $500 million with corporate cost cuts and price increases.
— Leslie Josephs 

Autos 

American-based automakers such as Ford Motor and General Motors have contributed to inaugurations in the past, but they increased their donations from hundreds of thousands of dollars to $1 million or more, including vehicles, for Trump’s inauguration this year.
GM, Ford and the North American operations for Chrysler parent Stellantis each donated at least $1 million to this year’s inauguration. Ford, as disclosed in Sunday’s filing, also provided roughly $200,000 in vehicle services as in-kind donations. GM provided vehicles as well, but the monetary value was not immediately available.
In addition to the traditional “Detroit automakers,” foreign-based companies Hyundai Motor and Toyota Motor also donated $1 million to the fund through their American operations, after not contributing to the past two inaugurations.
In total, the automotive sector donated roughly $5.3 million to Trump’s inauguration, including $100,000 from Schumacher Automotive, a dealer group based near Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Florida.Since the inauguration, Trump has caused what some, such as Ford CEO Jim Farley, have described as “chaos” around automotive tariffs and inconsistent messaging around the levies. The industry is currently dealing with 25% tariffs on materials such as steel and aluminum, as well as 25% levies on imported vehicles from outside of the U.S. Tariffs on automotive parts imported into the U.S. are also set to take effect by May 3.
The new levies were introduced and implemented swiftly, making it difficult for the automotive industry to plan, especially for expected increases in the cost of auto parts.
Many smaller suppliers are not equipped to change or move manufacturing operations quickly and may not have the capital to pay for tariffs, potentially causing stoppages in production.
“Most auto suppliers are not capitalized for an abrupt tariff induced disruption. Many are already in distress and will face production stoppages, layoffs and bankruptcy,” six of the top policy groups representing the U.S. automotive industry wrote in a letter to Trump administration officials. “It only takes the failure of one supplier to lead to a shutdown of an automaker’s production line. When this happens, as it did during the pandemic, all suppliers are impacted, and workers will lose their jobs.”
The statement followed Trump saying he may “help” some auto companies who need more time to move production or find new suppliers, but he has not announced any actual plans since then.
— Mike Wayland More

Boeing could hand over some of its aircraft that were destined for Chinese airlines to other carriers after China stopped taking deliveries of its planes amid a trade war with the United States.
CEO Kelly Ortberg said that a few 737 Max planes that were in China set to be delivered to carriers there have been flown back to the U.S.
Trump said Tuesday that he’s open to taking a less confrontational approach to trade talks with China, calling the current 145% tariff on Chinese imports “very high.”

China has ordered its airlines not to take any further deliveries of Boeing Co. jets as part of the tit-for-tat trade war that’s seen US President Donald Trump levy tariffs of as high as 145% on Chinese goods.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Boeing could hand over some of its aircraft that were destined for Chinese airlines to other carriers after China stopped taking deliveries of its planes amid a trade war with the United States.
“They have in fact stopped taking delivery of aircraft due to the tariff environment,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Wednesday.

Ortberg said that a few 737 Max planes that were in China set to be delivered to carriers there have been flown back to the U.S.
He said some jets that were intended for Chinese customers, as well as aircraft the company was planning to build for China later this year, could go to other customers.
“There’s plenty of customers out there looking for the Max aircraft,” Ortberg said. “We’re not going to wait too long. I’m not going to let this derail the recovery of our company.”
The CEO’s comments came after Boeing reported a narrower-than-expected loss for the first quarter and cash burn that came in better than analysts feared as airplane deliveries surged in the three months ended March 31.

Kelly Ortberg, CEO of Boeing, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Jan. 28th, 2025.

President Donald Trump earlier this month issued sweeping tariffs on imports to the U.S. While he paused some of the highest rates, the trade war with China has only ramped up.

Trump said Tuesday that he’s open to taking a less confrontational approach to trade talks with China, calling the current 145% tariff on Chinese imports “very high.”
“It won’t be that high. … No, it won’t be anywhere near that high. It’ll come down substantially. But it won’t be zero,” Trump said.

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Ford Motor is offering its most premium pickup truck customers a more curated, exclusive experience.
The package, which is for “Platinum Plus” trucks, includes a personal concierge, accessory discounts and a maintenance plan, among other things.
Other automakers have offered more curated, exclusive services, but they have largely been for luxury and premium brands rather than mainstream brands or vehicles like Ford’s F-Series.

Ford is launching a program that aims to give its “Platinum Plus” pickup truck customers a more curated, exclusive experience.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor is launching a program that aims to give its most premium pickup truck customers a more curated, exclusive experience.
The Detroit automaker’s new ownership experience is for its “Platinum Plus” customers. The program ranges from offering a personal concierge and virtual tutorial tours to gifts, accessory discounts and a “Ford Protect Premium Maintenance Plan” for 25,000 miles or two years, whichever comes first.

The “Platinum Plus” package is the highest-end version of Ford’s 2025 F-Series pickup trucks that start around $100,000 for the automaker’s Super Duty vehicles. It replaces “Limited” models as the priciest pickups for Ford.
“We think it’s a competitive advantage, this whole experience. So we’re excited about that potential to grow that into the future,” Brian Rathsburg, marketing manager for Ford F-Series Super Duty, said during an event Tuesday. “When [customers] purchase the top of the lineup for Super Duty, they expect a more premium experience. And we’re excited to kind of start with this concept.”
The new program essentially groups together many services Ford was offering owners individually, while adding a few new ones. Rathsburg said the program will adapt to include whatever experiences customers want.

Interior of Ford’s “Platinum Plus” model for its F-Series Super Duty pickup trucks.

In addition to the new program, the Platinum Plus vehicles feature plush “Smoked Truffle” interiors that include Venetian leather and unique exterior design features such as a satin finish grille with bright chrome inserts.
Rathsburg declined to discuss if President Donald Trump’s 25% auto tariffs will impact the price of its F-Series Super Duty pickups, including the new Platinum Plus offering.

“That’s a very murky, very uncertain, very tenuous space. We’re monitoring it,” Rathsburg said. “Certainly, there’s things down the road that we may not know about, yet we’ll react accordingly.”
Ford last week told dealers it could increase prices on newly built vehicles next month if Trump doesn’t ease tariffs on automotive imports, according to Automotive News. That comes after the company has been offering an employee pricing program to promote its U.S. operations, which are the largest among automakers.
The auto industry has offered more curated, exclusive services in the past, but they have largely been for luxury and premium brands rather than mainstream brands or vehicles like Ford’s F-Series.
The new service package follows Ford betting big on such curated services for its “Pro” fleet customers, including more hands-on assistance as well as logistics and fleet management.
“Everything we see says that this is gonna be a nice improvement for consumers,” Rathsburg said. More

Boeing’s first-quarter loss narrowed to $31 million and it burned less cash than analysts estimated.
Boeing’s airplane deliveries rose close to 60% from a year ago as the company worked to stabilize production.
Executives are likely to receive questions about tariffs and President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Boeing is preparing to ask for Federal Aviation Administration approval to ramp up production of its bestselling 737 Max jets to 42 a month later this year, CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday, as airplane deliveries picked up this year and the company narrowed its losses.
Boeing reported a first-quarter net loss of $31 million, improvement from a loss of $355 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 18% to $19.5 billion, slightly ahead of analysts’ estimates.

The company’s cash burn of about $2.3 billion was an improvement over the nearly $4 billion it used in the first quarter of 2024, and was better than analysts expected. Ortberg told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that the company is on track to generate cash in the second half of the year.
Shares of Boeing gained about 6% in premarket trading.
The results include only the impact of global tariffs as of March 31, the company said. Executives will get questions on Wednesday’s 10:30 a.m. ET earnings call about tariffs as the manufacturer is currently caught in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s trade war, which is set to drive up prices of aircraft and imported parts and materials.
GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp said Tuesday that he’s met with Trump and suggested restoring duty-free trade for the aerospace industry, a major U.S. exporter that helps soften the United States’ trade deficit. GE, which makes aircraft engines, and RTX said they expect tariffs to cost more than $1 billion combined this year.
“While we are closely watching the developments in global trade, our strong start to the year combined with the demand for airplanes and our half trillion-dollar backlog for our products and services gives us the flexibility we need to navigate this environment,” Boeing CEO Ortberg said in a staff note Wednesday.

Here’s how Boeing performed compared with what Wall Street analysts surveyed by LSEG expected for the first quarter:

Loss per share: 49 cents adjusted vs. $1.29 loss expected
Revenue: $19.5 billion vs. $19.45 billion expected

On a per-share basis, the company reported a loss of 16 cents, compared with a loss of 56 cents during the same quarter a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items related to pensions costs and income taxes, among others, Boeing reported a loss of 49 cents per share.
Ortberg, who was hired last year and tasked with getting the manufacturer past a series of safety and manufacturing crises, outlined progress, including production rates of its best-selling 737 Max.
The CEO has in recent months touted improved safety and manufacturing processes at Boeing’s factories as he tries to guide the company past several accidents, including a door plug that blew out from a packed flight midair in January 2024 after the 737 Max left Boeing’s factory without key bolts installed. There were no fatalities or major injuries.

Read more CNBC airline news

Last week, Boeing released results of an employee survey that showed that only 27% would highly recommend working at Boeing and that 67% felt proud of working at Boeing, down from 91% in 2013. Less than half of employee respondents said they had confidence in senior leaders’ ability to “make decisions, communicate direction and respond to concerns raised by employees.”
Since the January 2024 accident, Boeing must receive approval from the FAA to increase production of the 737 Max to above 38 jets a month. Boeing had been producing significantly below that level after the accident and a nearly two-month union strike last year halted much of the company’s production.
Revenue in Boeing’s commercial airplane unit rose 75% during the first quarter from a year ago to $8.1 billion, with deliveries up to 130 planes from 83 a year ago.
“We are moving in the right direction and making progress as we reported our first-quarter 2025 results today,” Ortberg said in Wednesday’s staff memo. “From delivering more airplanes to scoring a transformational win for the fighter of the future, there is a lot of good work happening across our teams, and we are seeing positive results in the four key areas of our recovery plan that will position us for the rest of the year and beyond.”
Boeing has been refocusing its efforts on its core businesses. On Tuesday, it announced it would sell parts of its digital aviation businesses, including its Jeppesen navigation unit, to Thoma Bravo for $10.55 billion in an all-cash deal.
Revenue in its defense unit, which has been plagued with cost-overruns and quality issues, fell 9% during the first quarter to $6.3 billion, though the company recently scored a major win after Trump awarded Boeing a contract to build the U.S. Air Force’s all-new fighter jet, dubbed the F-47.

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Less than a decade after cable giants like Comcast and Charter Communications jumped into the mobile business, the segment has become a significant financial driver.
Nearly half of all wireless line additions last year were from a cable operator, according to data from MoffettNathanson.
Investors have largely shrugged at the strides made in mobile, likely due to the intense focus on broadband, industry executives and analysts told CNBC.

10’000 Hours | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Cable companies are increasingly calling on mobile for their next big opportunity.
The cable industry’s foray into wireless has long been considered a retention tool for the behemoth broadband business. Less than a decade after cable giants like Comcast and Charter Communications jumped into the mobile business, the segment has become a significant financial driver — and a priority when it comes to growth.

“It’s not only a play for additional broadband customers, it’s a product that kind of generates financial returns in and of itself, and where we continue to grow really dramatically,” said Charter Communications Chief Financial Officer Jessica Fischer in a recent interview.
Cable companies, once well known for offering pay TV bundles and landline phone service, are now burgeoning providers of home internet and, most recently, mobile phone services. Comcast provides its services under the Xfinity brand, while Charter’s products are under the Spectrum banner.
These two companies, as well as smaller operators like Altice USA, have experienced consistent quarterly growth in mobile customers. Nearly half of all wireless line additions last year were from a cable operator, according to data from MoffettNathanson.
This is the flipside of cable’s broadband business, which has been plagued by net customer stagnation and even losses, weighing down stock prices. Cable executives have pointed to intense competition, and it’s unclear if or when this trend will change. In response, Charter has centered offerings and bundles around mobile, and Comcast recently said it will follow suit.
Customers have been attracted to cable wireless offerings in part due to much cheaper pricing, sometimes as much as hundreds of dollars less each year than traditional wireless plans.

But the growth in mobile hasn’t yet equated to growth in the companies’ stock prices.
Investors have largely shrugged at the strides made in mobile, likely due to the intense focus on broadband, industry executives and analysts told CNBC.

Media analyst Craig Moffett, co-founder of MoffettNathanson, said this dynamic reminds him of the 2009-2010 time period, when investors were focused on the decline of pay TV, once considered cable’s “core business,” and didn’t give broadband growth its due.
“The threat to the broadband business today is nowhere near the threat of the [pay TV] business,” said Moffett. “[Pay TV] was facing an existential and secular decline, and now broadband is facing some competition. But no one is arguing that it’s going away.”
He noted the mobile market is about double the size of the broadband market, so cable operators have a big opportunity in capitalizing on both.
“There’s much more to gain, and much less to lose,” he said.
Comcast Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong highlighted the company’s growth potential during an earnings call in January.
“While we are the incumbent in the $80 billion U.S. residential broadband market, we are the challenger in the far larger $200 billion U.S. wireless market,” said Armstrong. “Wireless is an integral part of our broadband strategy.”
Comcast and Charter report first-quarter earnings on Thursday and Friday, respectively.

Dialing up

Mobile has taken off for cable companies since being launched less than 10 years ago.
Charter’s Spectrum Mobile lines have grown from 1.08 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 9.88 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Over that same period, Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile lines increased from 2.05 million to 7.83 million, and Altice expanded its Optimum Mobile base from 69,000 to nearly 460,000.
This pales, however, in comparison to Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, which each have more than 100 million wireless customers. These companies are also offering home broadband options now, including fiber-based broadband as well as 5G high-speed internet, which is becoming an increasingly popular alternative. Verizon touted its home internet growth during its earnings report this week.
Conversely, cable companies have collectively lost over 1 million internet customers and 8.7 million cable customers in the past three years.
Last year, Charter unveiled a series of changes, including aggressive pricing and packages that included mobile lines. Earlier this year, Comcast said it would shift its strategy to similar tactics to grow its mobile business even further.
“We will lean into wireless more than ever before,” Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said during January’s earnings call with investors.
This week, Comcast introduced a new Xfinity Mobile higher-end plan in a bid to attract more customers. The company also recently created the role of chief growth officer and hired media and tech veteran Jon Gieselman to focus on its Xfinity residential business.

For Charter and Comcast, mobile customer additions most often come from their existing base, rather than incoming customers.
Customers of Altice USA’s Optimum mobile who bundle the service with other products like broadband and cable TV are more than 20% less likely to drop their service, according to Michael Parker, Optimum’s president of consumer services.
An Optimum-commissioned survey published Tuesday highlights the bundling opportunity for cable companies. About 25% of Americans said they would likely subscribe to a bundle in the next year, and 80% believe bundling internet and mobile is more cost-effective than purchasing them separately.
Altice USA’s mobile plans are offered to anyone in the company’s footprint, even if they don’t subscribe to other Altice services. This is the opposite of most other operators, which require you to be a customer in order to receive mobile.
Altice has set a goal of 1 million mobile customers by the end of 2027.
Mobile “wasn’t really intended at the outset to really drive meaningful business. But everyone figured out real quickly that it actually is a strong standalone business,” Parker said.

Going mainstream

Igor Golovniov | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Mobile and the other segments of the cable business work somewhat in symbiosis.
The higher-margin broadband segment partially subsidizes mobile, which on its own would not be as attractive of a business, according to KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Brandon Nispel. And in turn, bundles that include mobile can appeal to current or prospective broadband customers.
But the cable companies still face a particular challenge in brand awareness for their mobile offerings.
Besides being newer entrants to mobile, the brands are often most recognizable to those in the footprints of the cable companies. That means a fairly siloed addressable market, in some respects. But as the companies have broadened marketing for their mobile services, uptake has improved, executives say.
Altice’s mobile lines grew 42.6% year over year during the fourth quarter, which Parker attributed to both product construct and marketing.
Rich DiGeronimo, Charter’s president of product and technology, said more people are catching on to Spectrum’s mobile business.
“I think our brand recognition of Spectrum Mobile — it now exists,” said DiGeronimo. “I think we’re much more mainstream than we used to be.”
A big part of the marketing magic is affordable pricing.
Cable operators are able to extend much cheaper offers due to the agreements that allow them to use existing wireless networks.
Charter and Comcast use Verizon’s network, while Altice has an agreement with T-Mobile. Since the cable operators don’t own and maintain the networks, these agreements allow them to offer mobile plans at much lower rates than the network providers do.
Executives point out that much of the overwhelming amount of customer traffic is over Wi-Fi rather than the wireless network.
“To be frank, I think wireless for us, given the advantages we have with acquisition costs and offloading wireless onto Wi-Fi, is a firmly profitable business for us,” Comcast’s Armstrong told CNBC in an interview.
For wireless companies, even when they lose customers to cable companies, there’s a silver lining. The customers are still on Verizon’s network, so they get a cut from the cable operators. Industry executives say the deal is mutually attractive.
Telecommunications leaders have acknowledged that their cable partners are increasingly encroaching on their territory, but none express concern. For one, it’s not easy to get someone to drop their wireless plan.
“If cable wants to get aggressive and if they want to give away a free line, that’s certainly their prerogative,” said Verizon Chief Financial Officer Tony Skiadas at a March investor conference. “But whether they charge for it or not, they still have to pay us, Verizon, for the free line. So, look, we’re going to compete on the strength of our offerings.”
AT&T CEO John Stankey said at a recent investor conference that cable operators are on the defensive when competing against the company’s broadband product. AT&T has a better product, improving cost structure and higher-rated service, he said.
“To their credit, they’ve had a couple of good decades,” Stankey said, referring to the cable companies. “I would like this to be our decade.”
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. More

Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, or AANHPI, consumers are taking a bigger share of the live sports audience, according to a Nielsen report.
These audiences are spending 15% more time viewing live sports compared with the general public, and are 33% more likely to subscribe to sports-specific streamers, the report found.
Live sports almost always nab the biggest audiences on both traditional TV and streaming, and have drawn the most advertising dollars.

Los Angeles, CA, Wednesday, April 2, 2025 – Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) celebrates as he approaches home plate after hitting a game-winning, walk off homer to beat the Atlanta Braves 6-5 at Dodger Stadium,. 
Robert Gauthier | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Asian Americans are making up a bigger share of live sports viewership than ever before, according to a report from Nielsen.
The Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, or AANHPI, audience spends 15% more time viewing live sports than the general public, Nielsen reported Wednesday.

In general, live sports draw the largest audiences for both traditional TV and streaming platforms. As more consumers shift to streaming, the pay TV bundle has dwindled. More sports content than ever is now available on streamers, in some cases exclusively.
As a result, advertisers are increasingly spending more on live sports rather than other content on TV and streaming platforms. The rise in Asian American consumption across various forms of media is a signal to advertisers and marketers that this is a key demographic to cater to, according to the Nielsen report.
“As digital media and commerce evolve, Asian American consumers are leading the charge, embracing interactive and shoppable ad experiences at higher rates than the general population,” said Stacie de Armas, senior vice president of diverse insights & intelligence at Nielsen, in the release. “Marketers who recognize the importance of cultural connection in their digital strategies will build stronger relationships with this influential and engaged audience.”
In general, AANHPI consumers are more digitally connected, Nielsen said, as they spend an average of nine hours and six minutes per week logged onto their computers, which is almost an hour more than all U.S. adults.
Since January, streaming has taken 53% of Asian Americans’ total TV time, up 45% from last year — with 20% of that viewership happening on YouTube.

These audiences also “over index the total U.S.” when it came to time spent on Netflix and Amazon, which have the highest percent of programs featuring Asian talent, according to Nielsen.
The AANHPI audience is 33% more likely to subscribe to sports-specific streaming platforms, according to Nielsen’s report. While major streaming platforms like Amazon’s Prime Video, Netflix and others have added sports to their rosters, some services, like Disney’s ESPN+ and direct-to-consumer counterparts of regional sports networks, are also offerings.
In particular, Nielsen said Asian American viewership spiked 146% during the 2024 World Series, which saw the Los Angeles Dodgers triumph over the New York Yankees. The Dodgers’ star Shohei Ohtani has nabbed some of the biggest audiences for baseball in both the U.S. and his home country, Japan.
The AANHPI audience’s interest in women’s basketball has also risen. The demographic’s viewership of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship was up nearly 70% year over year, while the WNBA draft rose 240%. Nielsen pointed to Natalie Nakase becoming the WNBA’s first Asian American head coach this year, and players like Te-Hina Paopao driving the audiences’ interest.
Sports podcasts are also becoming more popular with Asian American audiences, with listenership up 28% between 2022 and 2024.

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Eli Lilly & Co. is suing four telehealth companies selling compounded versions of tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Lilly’s weight-loss drug Zepbound and diabetes drug Mounjaro.
Lilly claims Mochi Health, Fella Health, Willow Health and Henry Meds are deceiving consumers and turning them away from Lilly’s medicines.
Selling compounded GLP-1s became a booming business amid shortages of popular drugs such as Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.

An injection pen of Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug, is displayed in New York City on Dec. 11, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Eli Lilly is suing four telehealth companies selling compounded versions of the pharmaceutical giant’s weight loss drug Zepbound and its diabetes treatment Mounjaro, the company’s latest attempt to crack down on the booming industry of copycat drugs.
In lawsuits filed Wednesday, Lilly accuses the sites — Mochi Health, Fella Health, Willow Health and Henry Meds — of deceiving consumers about “untested, unapproved drugs” and turning them away from Lilly’s medicines.

Lilly alleges the companies are claiming to offer personalized options when they are actually mass-marketing slightly different versions of Lilly’s drugs in order to skirt FDA rules. Lilly also claims some of the sites are selling formulations of the drugs that haven’t been studied, such as oral tablets and drops.
Mochi, Fella, Willow and Henry Meds didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro went into short supply in late 2022, allowing pharmacies and outsourcing facilities to produce the treatment, a practice called compounding. Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Wegovy was also in short supply, opening up the market for compounding GLP-1s.
That business boomed online, where people sought versions of the treatments if they couldn’t find the brand names or couldn’t get them covered by insurance. Mass compounding of tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound, was supposed to stop last month after the Food and Drug Administration declared the shortage of the drugs over.
Some pharmacies kept doing it anyway, producing versions that differ slightly from the brand name, which could possibly keep them out of the FDA’s crosshairs. Earlier this month, Lilly sued two pharmacies, alleging they falsely marketed their products as personalized versions of the drugs that have been clinically tested and are made using stringent safety standards.
One of the telehealth platforms Lilly is now suing, Mochi Health, planned to continue selling compounded versions of tirzepatide, betting that offering personalized treatments would keep it out of legal trouble, Mochi CEO Myra Ahmad told CNBC in March.

Asked whether she feared legal action from Lilly, Ahmad said she wasn’t worried about her prescribers since “they have established patient-physician relationships” and “the beauty of medicine is really that they get full autonomy to decide what is the best way to manage their patients.”
Lilly in its filing Wednesday claimed Ahmad is not a licensed physician and that Mochi and its “unlicensed owners exercise undue influence and control over, among other things, the prescribing decisions of physicians” and as a result engage in the “unlawful corporate practice of medicine.”
Lilly makes a similar allegation against Fella Health, accusing the company of making “sweeping corporate decisions that dictate patient care, such as when Fella changed patients en masse from one tirzepatide formulation to another with additives.”
In all four cases, Lilly is seeking to stop the sites from marketing or selling tirzepatide. But it could take months, or even longer, for the cases to make their way through the courts. More