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 U.S. President-elect Donald Trump smiles at the crowd during the National Guard Association of the United States’ 146th General Conference & Exhibition at Huntington Place Convention Center on Aug. 26, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan.

Emily Elconin | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have a particularly sketchy past with President-elect Donald Trump. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is in a heated legal battle with Elon Musk, who became one of Trump’s biggest backers and is poised to have an outsized role in his second administration.

That all helps explain announcements this week regarding donations to Trump’s inauguration fund.

“President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” Altman said in a statement Friday. Altman said he’s planning to make a personal donation of $1 million to the fund, the company confirmed.

Meta donated $1 million to the inauguration, the company confirmed to CNBC, weeks after Zuckerberg dined with Trump privately at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Amazon is also planning to donate $1 million, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Trump has been a vocal critic of tech companies, and he signaled earlier this month that he won’t shy away from antitrust enforcement. The incoming president nominated Gail Slater, who advised Trump on tech policy during his first term, to head the Department of Justice’s antitrust arm.

“Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech!” Trump wrote in a Dec. 4 post on Truth Social announcing Slater’s nomination. “I was proud to fight these abuses in my First Term, and our Department of Justice’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership.”

Some of Trump’s most hostile words in the past have been directed at Amazon and Meta.

In his first term, Trump repeatedly attacked Bezos and his companies, Amazon and The Washington Post, accusing them of dodging taxes or publishing “fake news,” among other things. Trump also repeatedly pointed the finger at Amazon for its use of the U.S. Postal Service to deliver packages to customers, claiming the company contributed to the post office’s budget problems.

The animosity went both ways. In 2019, Amazon blamed Trump’s “behind-the-scenes attacks” against the company for its loss of a multibillion-dollar Department of Defense contract, then called JEDI. And prior to the 2016 election, Bezos criticized Trump’s behavior, saying it “erodes our democracy.” After the then-Republican candidate accused Bezos of using the Post as a “tax shelter,” Bezos, who also owns the Blue Origin space company, in a tweet offered to send Trump into space on one of his rockets.

Blue Origin competes for government contracts with Musk’s SpaceX.

Jeff Bezos: Blue Origin could be best business I've been involved in

At The New York Times’ DealBook Summit on Dec. 4, Bezos said he expects a more friendly regulatory environment in the upcoming administration.

“I’m actually very optimistic this time around,” Bezos said on stage. “He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. If I can help do that, I’m going to help him.”

Trump has called Bezos “Jeff Bozo.” His preferred nickname for the Meta CEO is “Zuckerschmuck.”

Following Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, he sued FacebookTwitter and Google, as well as their respective CEOs in class-action lawsuits. All three companies booted Trump’s accounts from platforms after the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol.

Trump has long accused Facebook of silencing conservative voices. In March, he called the platform “the enemy of the people along with a lot of the media,” in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Now that Trump is heading back to the White House and has been cozying up with Musk, the rest of the tech sector seems keen on currying favor. Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and others all publicly congratulated Trump following his victory in November.

Microsoft declined to comment on whether it’s contributing to the inauguration. Representatives from Apple and Google didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

For OpenAI and Altman, the concerns are a bit different. Altman and Musk were co-founders of OpenAI, which initially was a nonprofit. The two have since publicly split, with Altman remaining as CEO of OpenAI and Musk starting a rival artificial intelligence company called xAI.

In March, Musk sued OpenAI — and co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman — alleging breach of contract and fiduciary duty. He claimed the project had been transformed into a for-profit entity that’s largely controlled by principal shareholder Microsoft, and is suing to thwart the change in structure.

OpenAI clapped back on Friday, claiming in a blog post titled “Elon Musk wanted an OpenAI for-profit,” that in 2017 Musk “not only wanted, but actually created, a for-profit” to serve as the company’s proposed new structure.

Altman’s coming concern is that Musk spent more than $250 million to help boost Trump’s campaign, and is now poised to help lead the “Department of Government Efficiency.” In that role, Musk could influence how AI is regulated in ways that favor his businesses.

On Dec. 5, Trump announced that venture investor and podcaster David Sacks, a friend of Musk’s, will join the Trump administration as the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.”

WATCH: Trump’s Cabinet will have more billionaires than any in history

President-elect Trump's cabinet to have more billionaires than any in history

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How TikTok’s rise sparked a short-form video race

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How TikTok’s rise sparked a short-form video race

TikTok’s grip on the short-form video market is tightening, and the world’s biggest tech platforms are racing to catch up.

Since launching globally in 2016, ByteDance-owned TikTok has amassed over 1.12 billion monthly active users worldwide, according to Backlinko. American users spend an average of 108 minutes per day on the app, according to Apptoptia.

TikTok’s success has reshaped the social media landscape, forcing competitors like Meta and Google to pivot their strategies around short-form video. But so far, experts say that none have matched TikTok’s algorithmic precision.

“It is the center of the internet for young people,” said Jasmine Enberg, vice president and principal analyst at Emarketer. “It’s where they go for entertainment, news, trends, even shopping. TikTok sets the tone for everyone else.”

Platforms like Meta‘s Instagram Reels and Google’s YouTube Shorts have expanded aggressively, launching new features, creator tools and even considering separate apps just to compete. Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, traditionally a professional networking site, is the latest to experiment with TikTok-style feeds. But with TikTok continuing to evolve, adding features like e-commerce integrations and longer videos, the question remains whether rivals can keep up.

“I’m scrolling every single day. I doom scroll all the time,” said TikTok content creator Alyssa McKay.

But there may a dark side to this growth.

As short-form content consumption soars, experts warn about shrinking attention spans and rising mental-health concerns, particularly among younger users. Researchers like Dr. Yann Poncin, associate professor at the Child Study Center at Yale University, point to disrupted sleep patterns and increased anxiety levels tied to endless scrolling habits.

“Infinite scrolling and short-form video are designed to capture your attention in short bursts,” Dr. Poncin said. “In the past, entertainment was about taking you on a journey through a show or story. Now, it’s about locking you in for just a few seconds, just enough to feed you the next thing the algorithm knows you’ll like.”

Despite sky-high engagement, monetizing short videos remains an uphill battle. Unlike long-form YouTube content, where ads can be inserted throughout, short clips offer limited space for advertisers. Creators, too, are feeling the squeeze.

“It’s never been easier to go viral,” said Enberg. “But it’s never been harder to turn that virality into a sustainable business.”

Last year, TikTok generated an estimated $23.6 billion in ad revenues, according to Oberlo, but even with this growth, many creators still make just a few dollars per million views. YouTube Shorts pays roughly four cents per 1,000 views, which is less than its long-form counterpart. Meanwhile, Instagram has leaned into brand partnerships and emerging tools like “Trial Reels,” which allow creators to experiment with content by initially sharing videos only with non-followers, giving them a low-risk way to test new formats or ideas before deciding whether to share with their full audience. But Meta told CNBC that monetizing Reels remains a work in progress.

While lawmakers scrutinize TikTok’s Chinese ownership and explore potential bans, competitors see a window of opportunity. Meta and YouTube are poised to capture up to 50% of reallocated ad dollars if TikTok faces restrictions in the U.S., according to eMarketer.

Watch the video to understand how TikTok’s rise sparked a short form video race.

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Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings in talks to raise $20 billion, Bloomberg News reports

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Elon Musk's xAI Holdings in talks to raise  billion, Bloomberg News reports

The X logo appears on a phone, and the xAI logo is displayed on a laptop in Krakow, Poland, on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Elon Musk‘s xAI Holdings is in discussions with investors to raise about $20 billion, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The funding would value the company at over $120 billion, according to the report.

Musk was looking to assign “proper value” to xAI, sources told CNBC’s David Faber earlier this month. The remarks were made during a call with xAI investors, sources familiar with the matter told Faber. The Tesla CEO at that time didn’t explicitly mention any upcoming funding round, but the sources suggested xAI was preparing for a substantial capital raise in the near future.

The funding amount could be more than $20 billion as the exact figure had not been decided, the Bloomberg report added.

Artificial intelligence startup xAI didn’t immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment outside of U.S. business hours.

Faber Report: Elon Musk held call with current xAI investors, sources say

The AI firm last month acquired X in an all-stock deal that valued xAI at $80 billion and the social media platform at $33 billion.

“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said on X, announcing the deal. “This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”

Read the full Bloomberg story here.

— CNBC’s Samantha Subin contributed to this report.

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Alphabet jumps 3% as search, advertising units show resilient growth

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Alphabet jumps 3% as search, advertising units show resilient growth

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai during the Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, on May 10, 2023.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Alphabet‘s stock gained 3% Friday after signaling strong growth in its search and advertising businesses amid a competitive artificial intelligence environment and uncertain macro backdrop.

GOOGL‘s pace of GenAI product roll-out is accelerating with multiple encouraging signals,” wrote Morgan Stanley‘s Brian Nowak. “Macro uncertainty still exists but we remain [overweight] given GOOGL’s still strong relative position and improving pace of GenAI enabled product roll-out.”

The search giant posted earnings of $2.81 per share on $90.23 billion in revenues. That topped the $89.12 billion in sales and $2.01 in EPS expected by LSEG analysts. Revenues grew 12% year-over-year and ahead of the 10% anticipated by Wall Street.

Net income rose 46% to $34.54 billion, or $2.81 per share. That’s up from $23.66 billion, or $1.89 per share, in the year-ago period. Alphabet said the figure included $8 billion in unrealized gains on its nonmarketable equity securities connected to its investment in a private company.

Adjusted earnings, excluding that gain, were $2.27 per share, according to LSEG, and topped analyst expectations.

Read more CNBC tech news

Alphabet shares have pulled back about 16% this year as it battles volatility spurred by mounting trade war fears and worries that President Donald Trump‘s tariffs could crush the global economy. That would make it more difficult for Alphabet to potentially acquire infrastructure for data centers powering AI models as it faces off against competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic to develop largely language models.

During Thursday’s call with investors, Alphabet suggested that it’s too soon to tally the total impact of tariffs. However, Google’s business chief Philipp Schindler said that ending the de minimis trade exemption in May, which created a loophole benefitting many Chinese e-commerce retailers, could create a “slight headwind” for the company’s ads business, specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. The loophole allows shipments under $800 to come into the U.S. duty-free.

Despite this backdrop, Alphabet showed steady growth in its advertising and search business, reporting $66.89 billion in revenues for its advertising unit. That reflected 8.5% growth from the year-ago period. The company reported $8.93 billion in advertising revenue for its YouTube business, shy of an $8.97 billion estimate from StreetAccount.

Alphabet’s “Search and other” unit rose 9.8% to $50.7 billion, up from $46.16 billion last year. The company said that its AI Overviews tool used in its Google search results page has accumulated 1.5 billion monthly users from a billion in October.

Bank of America analyst Justin Post said that Wall Street is underestimating the upside potential and “monetization ramp” from this tool and cloud demand fueled by AI.

“The strong 1Q search performance, along with constructive comments on Gemini [large language model] performance and [AI Overviews] adoption could help alleviate some investor concerns on AI competition,” Post wrote in a note.

WATCH: Gemini delivering well for Google, says Check Capital’s Chris Ballard

Gemini delivering well for Google, says Check Capital's Chris Ballard

CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.

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