President Donald Trump shakes hands with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during an American Technology Council roundtable at the White House in Washington on June 19, 2017.
Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images
Microsoft said Thursday that it’s contributing $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund.
The software maker is now more closely aligned with its highly valued peers in the technology industry. Google said earlier on Thursday that it’s donating $1 million to the Trump fund, and Meta offered the same amount in December. Amazon was reportedly looking to make a similar contribution.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in December that he would contribute $1 million individually, and Axios reported last week that Apple CEO Tim Cook will do the same.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO and the world’s richest person, has been advising Trump as he prepares to return to the White House following the inauguration later this month.
Microsoft also contributed $500,000 to the first inauguration fund for Trump’s first term and gave the same amount to President Joe Biden’s fund, a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, has met with Trump on multiple occasions, including over negotiations surrounding a possible acquisition of TikTok in the U.S. in 2020. Nadella also joined a Trump roundtable of technology executives from around the country in 2017.
Microsoft is hoping that under Trump, the U.S. will push artificial intelligence policy in a favorable direction.
“The United States needs a smart international strategy to rapidly support American AI around the world,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chair and president, wrote in a blog post last week.
Chris Martin of Coldplay performs live at San Siro Stadium, Milan, Italy, in July 2017.
Mairo Cinquetti | NurPhoto | Getty Images
Astronomer‘s interim CEO said in his first public comment since unexpectedly taking over the role on Saturday that he hopes to move the tech startup past the viral moment that captured national attention last week.
Pete DeJoy was appointed to the top job due to the resignation of CEO Andy Byron, days after he was caught on video in an intimate moment with the company’s head of human resources at a Coldplay concert. Astronomer said over the weekend that it would begin a search for a new CEO.
“The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies — let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world — ever encounter,” DeJoy wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday. “The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name.”
Byron was shown on a big screen at the concert in Boston on Wednesday with his arms around Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot. Byron, who is married with children, immediately hid when the couple was shown on screen. Lead singer Chris Martin said, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.” A concert attendee’s video of the affair went viral.
Read more CNBC reporting on AI
DeJoy helped start Astronomer in 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile, and had been serving as chief product officer since earlier this year.
In May, Astronomer announced a $93 million investment round led by Bain Ventures and other investors, including Salesforce Ventures.
“I’m stepping into this role with a wholehearted commitment to taking care of our people and delivering for our customers,” DeJoy wrote. He added that “our story is very much still being written.”
Astronomer is commercializing the open-source data operations platform Astro. DeJoy wrote that customers “trust us with their most ambitious data & AI projects” and that “we’re here because the mission is bigger than any one moment.”
Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma Inc., after the morning sessions at the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 11, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Design software company Figma on Monday published an updated prospectus for its initial public offering.
The company said it expects to sell about 37 million shares at $25 to $28 each. That would generate as much as $1 billion in proceeds, between the company and selling shareholders.
The IPO could value Figma, led by co-founder Dylan Field, a fully diluted valuation of $14.6 billion to $16.4 billion. Field plans to sell 2.35 million shares, which could be worth as much as $65.8 million.
In a 2024 tender offer, investors valued the company at $12.5 billion. In 2022, Adobe had agreed to acquire Figma for $20 billion, but the deal was scrapped after regulators objected.
The flow of technology companies joining U.S. exchanges has slowed since late 2021. Concerns over inflation and a recession made some investors less interested in backing fast-growing but money-losing companies.
But a few technology stocks have become available in recent months. CoreWeave went public in March, and Circle and Chime shares started trading in June.
Read more CNBC tech news
Figma filed to go public on July 1, announcing plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FIG.”
On Monday, it provided preliminary results for the second quarter, showing $9.0 million to $12.0 million in operating income on $247 million to $250 million in revenue. That would imply year-over-year revenue growth of 39% at the low end and 41% at the high end. Growth in the first quarter exceeded 46%.
During the second quarter, Figma added clients and expanded business with existing ones. The company’s operating margin would be ticking up to 4% to 5%, up from 3% in the same quarter a year ago, based on the preliminary results.
Figma said it has authorized the issuance of “blockchain common stock” in the form of “blockchain-based tokens.” So far, though, Figma said it isn’t planning to issue this type of stock. In July, Figma disclosed investments in a stablecoin and a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
Mike Krieger, a co-founder of Instagram who is now chief product officer of artificial intelligence model developer Anthropic, has joined the board. Luis von Ahn, co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, is also joining the board, according to the filing.
A Microsoft store in New York, US, on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024.
Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Microsoft has warned of “active attacks” targeting its SharePoint collaboration software, with security researchers noting that organizations worldwide stand to be affected by the breach.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Sunday in a release that the vulnerability provides unauthenticated access to systems and full access to SharePoint content, enabling bad actors to execute code over the network.
CISA said that while the scope and impact of the attack continue to be assessed, the agency warned that it “poses a risk to organizations.”
Microsoft late Sunday issued fixes for customers to apply to two versions of the SharePoint software. Another 2016 version remains vulnerable and the company said it is working to develop a patch.
Researchers at Palo Alto Networks said the hack likely reached thousands of organizations globally.
“The exploits are real, in-the-wild and pose a serious threat,” they added.
Read more CNBC tech news
CNBC has reached out to Microsoft for additional comment and information.
In an alert on Saturday, Microsoft said the attack applies only to on-premises SharePoint servers, not those in the cloud like Microsoft 365. SharePoint software is commonly used by global businesses and organizations to store and collaborate on documents.
The vulnerability is especially concerning because it allows hackers to impersonate users or services even after the SharePoint server is patched, according to researchers at European cybersecurity firm Eye Security, which said it first identified the flaw.
SharePoint servers often connect to other Microsoft services such as Outlook and Teams, meaning such a breach can “quickly” lead to data theft and password harvesting, Eye Security researchers said.
Separately, Alaska Airlines briefly halted its ground operations for about three hours on Sunday due to an IT outage. It lifted the ground stop at roughly 2 a.m. EST, the carrier said in a statement.
It was unclear whether the outage was related to the SharePoint attack.