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A view of the Walt Disney World theme park entrance on July 8, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Octavio Jones | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Walt Disney Company isn’t the only business in Florida that operates within a special district, CEO Bob Iger reminded investors Wednesday.

He noted that the Daytona Speedway and the retirement community The Villages reside within two of nearly 2,000 special districts in the state and have not been under the same scrutiny Disney has experienced in the last year.

“The case that we filed last month made our position and the facts very clear,” he said during an earnings call. “And that’s really that this is about one thing and one thing only and that’s retaliating against us for taking a position about pending legislation.”

The battle began last year, when Disney came out against a Florida bill limiting classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity, which critics dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”

DeSantis’ office referred CNBC to previous comments made by the governor.

“You can’t have a situation where the legislature has spoken and one company just decides to contract out against the will of the people,” the governor said during an interview with Newsmax on Friday. “At the end of the day, they just have to understand the party is over for them.”

DeSantis is expected to run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, although he is a distant second in primary polls to former President Donald Trump, a fellow Florida resident.

Earlier this week, Disney expanded its federal lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, accusing the Republican leader of doubling down on his “retribution campaign” against the company by signing legislation to void Disney’s development deals in Orlando.

Disney’s amended lawsuit also noted that Florida’s Republican-led Legislature passed legislation last week targeting Walt Disney World’s monorail system.

Iger addressed the “false narrative” that Disney is battling DeSantis to protect tax breaks in the district. He said the company is the largest taxpayer in central Florida, having paid more than $1.1 billion in state and local taxes last year.

“And we all know there was no concerted effort to do anything to dismantle what was once called Reedy Creek special district until we spoke out on the legislation,” he said. “So this is plainly a matter of retaliation while the rest of the Florida special districts continue operating basically as they were.”

Iger said that if the state’s goal is to “level the playing field,” then the oversight needs to be applied to all special districts.

“And I think it’s also important for us to say our primary goal has always been to be able to continue to do exactly what we’ve been doing there, which is investing in Florida,” he added. “We never wanted, and we certainly never expected, to be in the position of having to defend our business interests in federal court, particularly having such a terrific relationship with the state as we’ve had for more than 50 years.”

Iger said Disney still plans to spend more than $17 billion in investments at Walt Disney World over the next decade, which would create around 13,000 jobs at the company and generate even more taxes for Florida. The company currently employs more than 75,000 people in the area.

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Cramer slams Amazon for considering a circular AI deal reminiscent of the dotcom bubble

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Cramer slams Amazon for considering a circular AI deal reminiscent of the dotcom bubble

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Amazon says AI chief Rohit Prasad is leaving, Peter DeSantis to lead ‘AGI’ group

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Amazon says AI chief Rohit Prasad is leaving, Peter DeSantis to lead 'AGI' group

Rohit Prasad, Senior VP & Head Scientist for Alexa, Amazon, on Centre Stage during day one of Web Summit 2022 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal.

Ben McShane | Sportsfile | Getty Images

Rohit Prasad, a top Amazon executive overseeing its artificial general intelligence unit, is leaving the company at the end of this year, the company confirmed Wednesday.

As part of the move, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company is reorganizing the AGI unit under a more expansive division that will also include its silicon development and quantum computing teams. The new division will be led by Peter DeSantis, a 27-year veteran of Amazon who currently serves as a senior vice president in its cloud unit.

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

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Oracle stock dips 5% on report Blue Owl Capital won’t back $10 billion data center

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Oracle stock dips 5% on report Blue Owl Capital won't back  billion data center

Blue Owl decided not to pursue Oracle’s $10 billion Michigan data center, source familiar

Oracle stock dipped about 5% on Wednesday following a report that discussions with Blue Owl Capital on backing a $10 billion data center in Michigan had stalled, although the cloud company later disputed the report.

Blue Owl had been in talks with Oracle about funding a 1-gigawatt facility for OpenAI in Saline Township, Michigan, according to the Financial Times.

However, the plans fell through due to concerns about Oracle’s rising debt levels and extensive artificial intelligence spending, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

This comes as some investors raise red flags about the funding behind the rush to build ever more data centers.

The concern is that some hyperscalers are turning to private equity markets rather than funding the buildings themselves, and entering into lease agreements that could prove risky.

Blue Owl did look into the project, but pulled out due to unfavorable debt terms and the structure of repayments, according to a person familiar with the company’s plans who asked not to be named in order to discuss a confidential matter.

Blue Owl is still involved in two other Oracle sites, the person said.

The person added that Blue Owl was also concerned that local politics in Michigan would cause construction delays.

Oracle later responded to the FT report, saying the project was moving forward and that Blue Owl was not part of equity talks.

“Our development partner, Related Digital, selected the best equity partner from a competitive group of options, which in this instance was not Blue Owl. Final negotiations for their equity deal are moving forward on schedule and according to plan,” Oracle spokesperson Michael Egbert said in a statement.

The cloud company did not name the firm involved in current equity talks for the project.

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CNBC has reached out to the FT for comment.

The FT said that Blackstone is in discussions to potentially replace Blue Owl Capital as a financial partner for the data center, although no deal has been signed yet.

Blue Owl Capital has been the primary investor in Oracle’s data center projects in the U.S., including a $15 billion center in Abilene, Texas, and an $18 billion site in New Mexico, the FT said.

“This appears to be a case where the deal simply wasn’t the right one, and seasoned investors understand that success does not require winning every transaction,” Evercore ISI analysts wrote in a note on Wednesday.

The bank added that digital infrastructure remains a “core growth vertical” for the Blue Owl, noting an upcoming digital infrastructure fund in 2026 that would add to its $7 billion fund announced in May.

Oracle has $248 billion in lease commitments for data centers and cloud capacity commitments over the next 15 to 19 years as of Nov. 30, the company said in its latest quarterly filing. That is up almost 148% from August.

In September, the cloud computing giant raised $18 billion in new debt, according to an SEC filing. That same month, OpenAI announced a $300 billion partnership with Oracle over the next five years.

By the end of November, the company owed over $124 billion, including operating lease liabilities, according to the filing.

Oracle shares are down about 50% from the high of $345.72 reached in September.

Read the full FT story here.

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