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Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive officer of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, speaks during the Institute of International Finance (IIF) annual membership meeting in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022.

Ting Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is backing down from a previous comment suggesting he could spend $1 billion or more in races from now through the 2024 election.

In May, the 30-year-old said on the Pushkin Industries podcast, “What’s Your Problem,” that he expected to give “north of $100 million” in the next presidential election and had a “soft ceiling” of $1 billion. In an interview with Politico’s Morning Money this week, however, the founder of the global cryptocurrency exchange FTX called it a “dumb quote.”

“I think my messaging was sort of sloppy and inconsistent in some cases,” said Bankman-Fried, who also founded trading firm Alameda Research.

Instead, Bankman-Fried has reportedly invested around $40 million in political action committees and campaigns this year in the runup to midterm elections, with most of that money going to Democratic candidates. The FTX CEO has been the driving force behind the Protect Our Future PAC, which has raised more than $28 million thus far — and could move the needle in upcoming House races.

But for now, Bankman-Fried is hitting pause on his political campaign spending, telling Politico, “At some point, when you’ve given your message to voters, there’s just not a whole lot more you can do.”

“You can spend more time on it, and more messaging, more money, more anything else, [but] you’re not accomplishing anything more,” the FTX CEO told Politico.

The crypto market has tanked since Bankman-Fried first pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars earlier this year.

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, is down more than 50% in the last six months and more than 70% since hitting its all-time high in November 2021. Meanwhile, the crypto market as a whole, which less than a year ago had a market cap of around $3 trillion, is less than $1 trillion today.

For his part, Bankman-Fried has been spending a lot of money the last few months to prop up the digital asset industry during the 2022 crypto winter. The quant trader-turned-CEO has bailed out multiple crypto firms to protect against a wider contagion effect across the sector, and Bankman-Fried told CNBC in September that FTX still has another $1 billion to deploy.

Bankman-Fried was also interested in helping to fund Elon Musk’s proposed takeover of Twitter, according to personal text messages that were released recently as part of Twitter’s lawsuit to force Musk to complete the deal. At one point, the billionaire was ready to commit up to $8 billion, according to a message to Musk from Bankman-Fried’s “collaborator,” professor Will MacAskill. However, he never made a formal offer, according to reports.

Meanwhile, U.S. regulators and politicians have been increasingly turning their attention to crypto policy in recent months, as a spate of bankruptcies and crypto bank runs have eroded confidence in the emerging asset class.

In September, for example, the Biden White House released its first-ever framework on what crypto regulation in the U.S. should look like — including ways to crack down on fraud in the digital asset space.

CNBC’s Brian Schwartz contributed to this report.

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Big Tech split? Google to sign EU’s AI guidelines despite Meta snub

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Big Tech split? Google to sign EU’s AI guidelines despite Meta snub

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Google on Wednesday said it will sign the European Union’s guidelines on artificial intelligence, which Meta previously rebuffed due to concerns they could stifle innovation.

In a blog post, Google said it planned to sign the code in the hope that it would promote European citizens’ access to advanced new AI tools, as they become available.

Google’s endorsement comes after Meta recently said it would refuse to sign the code over concerns that it could constrain European AI innovation.

“Prompt and widespread deployment is important,” Kent Walker, president of global affairs of Google, said in the post, adding that embracing AI could boost Europe’s economy by 1.4 trillion euros ($1.62 trillion) annually by 2034.

The European Commission, which is the executive body of the EU, published a final iteration of its code of practice for general-purpose AI models, leaving it up to companies to decide if they want to sign.

The guidelines lay out how to meet the requirements of the EU AI Act, a landmark law overseeing the technology, when it comes to transparency, safety, and security.

However, Google also flagged fears over the potential for the guidelines to slow technological advances around AI.

“We remain concerned that the AI Act and Code risk slowing Europe’s development and deployment of AI,” Kent Walker, president of global affairs of Google, said in the post Wednesday.

“In particular, departures from EU copyright law, steps that slow approvals, or requirements that expose trade secrets could chill European model development and deployment, harming Europe’s competitiveness.”

Earlier this month, Meta declined to sign the EU AI code of practice, calling it an overreach that would “stunt” the industry.

“Europe is heading down the wrong path on AI,” Joel Kaplan, Meta’s global affairs chief, wrote in a LinkedIn post at the time. “This code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for model developers, as well as measures which go far beyond the scope of the AI Act.”

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South Korea’s LG Energy Solution signs $4.3 billion battery supply deal with undisclosed party

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South Korea's LG Energy Solution signs .3 billion battery supply deal with undisclosed party

The logo of LG Electronics is seen on the opening day of the Integrated Systems Europe exhibition in Barcelona on January 31, 2023.

Pau Barrena | Afp | Getty Images

South Korea-based LG Energy Solution announced Wednesday that it had signed a $4.3 billion contract for supplying batteries to a major corporation, without naming the customer.

The effective date of contract — receipt of orders — began Tuesday and will conclude at the end of July, 2030. During this period, the counterparty will not be disclosed to maintain business confidentiality, the company’s filing with the Korea Exchange showed Wednesday. Reuters reported that Tesla was the counterparty.

Earlier this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the EV maker was behind a previously undisclosed $16.5 billion chip contract with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics. 

LG Energy said in its filing that details of the contract such as the deal amount were subject to change and the contract period could be extended by up to seven years. 

“Investors are advised to carefully consider the possibility of changes or termination of the contract when making investment decisions,” the company cautioned. It’s shares were trading 0.26% lower. 

The filing did not clarify whether the lithium iron phosphate batteries would be used in vehicles or energy storage systems. Its major battery customers include American electric-vehicle makers Tesla and General Motors.

The company has been expanding its battery production in the U.S., and is constructing a plant in Arizona that will produce lithium iron phosphate batteries. 

LG Energy Solution and Tesla did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment. 

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CyberArk’s stock jumps on report Palo Alto Networks in talks to buy company for over $20 billion

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CyberArk's stock jumps on report Palo Alto Networks in talks to buy company for over  billion

Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, looks on during the closing bell at the Nasdaq Market in New York City, U.S., March 25, 2025.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

CyberArk shares soared as much as 18% on Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported that cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks has held discussions to buy the identity management software maker for over $20 billion.

Cloud security is becoming an increasingly critical piece of the enterprise tech stack, especially as rapid advancements in artificial intelligence bring with them a whole new set of threats, and as ransomware attacks become more commonplace.

Founded in 2005, Palo Alto Networks has emerged in recent years as a consolidator in the cybersecurity industry and has grown into the biggest player in the space by market cap, with a valuation of over $130 billion. CEO Nikesh Arora, who was appointed to the job in 2018, has been on a spending spree, snapping up Protect AI in a deal that closed in July, and in 2023 buying Talon Cyber Security, Dig Security and Zycada Networks.

But CyberArk would represent by far Arora’s biggest bet yet. The Israeli company, which went public in 2014, provides technology that helps companies streamline the process of logging on to applications for employees.

CyberArk faces competition from Microsoft, Okta and IBM‘s HashiCorp. Another rival, SailPoint, returned to the public markets in February.

With Tuesday’s rally, CyberArk shares climbed to a record, surpassing their prior all-time high reached in February. The stock is up 29% this year, pushing the company’s market cap to almost $21 billion, after jumping 52% in 2024. Palo Alto shares, meanwhile, slid 3.5% on the report and are now up about 9% for the year.

Representatives from Palo Alto Networks and CyberArk declined to comment.

During the first quarter, CyberArk generated around $11.5 million in net income on around $318 million in revenue, which was up 43% from a year earlier.

It’s been an active stretch for big deals in the cyber market. Google said in March that it was spending $32 billion on Wiz, its largest acquisition on record by far, and a purchase intended to bolster its cloud business with greater AI security technology.

Networking giant Cisco also made its biggest deal ever in the security space, buying Splunk in 2023 for $28 billion. Splunk’s technology helps businesses monitor and analyze their data to minimize the risk of hacks and resolve technical issues faster.

— CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report

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