House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent subpoenas to eight technology companies asking for more information about their communications with foreign governments over concerns that they seek to “censor speech” in the U.S.

The subpoenas were sent Wednesday to the CEOs of Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and TikTok, as well as X and video platform Rumble.

“The Committee must understand how and to what extent foreign governments have limited Americans’ access to lawful speech in the United States, as well as the extent to which the Biden-Harris Administration aided or abetted these efforts,” Jordan said in a statement.

CNBC reached out to each of the subpoenaed companies for comment. A spokesperson for Microsoft said the company is engaged with the panel and “committed to working in good faith.”

A Rumble spokesperson said it “has received the subpoena and we look forward to sharing information related to the ongoing efforts of numerous governments around the globe who seek to suppress the innate human right to self expression.”

Jordan pointed to the European Union’s Digital Services Act, a similar set of laws in the U.K., called the Online Services Act, and regulations around illegal content and hate speech in Brazil and Australia.

The committee is seeking communications around the companies’ compliance with “foreign censorship laws, regulations, judicial orders or other government-initiated efforts” and any internal correspondence discussing those matters.

The subpoenas come after the Federal Trade Commission last week launched an inquiry into “tech censorship.” FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said in a statement that the probe will help the agency “better understand how these firms may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds.”

The FTC’s request for public comment defines tech platforms as companies that provide a range of services, from social media and video sharing to event planning and ride sharing.

The Republican-led committee has previously accused major tech companies of censorship. The panel subpoenaed Alphabet, Meta and other firms in 2023, demanding they turn over communications between the companies and the U.S. government over censorship concerns.

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Design software maker Autodesk said Thursday that it will lay off 1,350 employees, which works out to 9% of its workforce.

The job cuts follow a series of large headcount reductions across the tech industry.

In January, Meta said it would let go of 5% of its workers, and earlier this month Workday, which sells human resources and finance software, announced an 8.5% decrease. Google this week also announced cuts to its human relations and cloud divisions, CNBC reported, and PC maker HP said in a Thursday regulatory filing that it would reduce its headcount by 1,000 or 2,000, representing under 4% of total headcount.

“Our GTM model has evolved significantly from the transition to subscription and multi-year contracts billed annually to self-service enablement, the adoption of direct billing, and more,” Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost wrote in a memo to employees. “These changes position us to better meet the evolving needs of our customers and channel partners. To fully benefit from these changes, we are beginning the transformation of our GTM organization to increase customer satisfaction and Autodesk’s productivity.”

The company is also conducting the layoffs to stay competitive in the current economy and protect the company’s leadership in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, Anagnost wrote.

San Francisco-based Autodesk will make facility reductions as well. But it will not close any offices, a spokesperson told CNBC in an email. It expects $135 million to $150 million in restructuring costs before taxes.

The company on Thursday also announced better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results. The company delivered $2.29 in adjusted earnings per share on $1.64 billion in revenue, which was up 12% year over year. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had been looking for $2.14 per share and $1.63 billion in revenue.

For the fiscal first quarter, Autodesk called for $2.14 to $2.17 in adjusted earnings per share on $1.600 billion to $1.610 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected $2.08 per share and $1.598 billion in revenue.

Management sees $9.34 to $9.67 in adjusted earnings per share for the 2026 fiscal year, with $6.895 billion to $6.965 billion in revenue. The LSEG consensus was $9.24 per share and $6.902 billion in revenue.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission issued long sought after guidance Thursday evening saying it does not deem most meme coins securities under U.S. federal law.

Meme coins “typically have limited or no use or functionality” and are “more akin to collectibles,” according to the agency’s Division of Corporation Finance.

“It is the Division’s view that transactions in the types of meme coins described in this statement do not involve the offer and sale of securities under the federal securities laws,” the statement says. “Persons who participate in the offer and sale of meme coins do not need to register their transactions with the Commission. … Accordingly, neither meme coin purchasers nor holders are protected by the federal securities laws.”

It also said “a meme coin does not constitute any of the common financial instruments specifically enumerated in the definition of ‘security’ because, among other things, it does not generate a yield or convey rights to future income, profits, or assets of a business. In other words, a meme coin is not itself a security.”

The clarification comes after the latest rapid rise of such cryptocurrencies following the election of President Donald Trump, as well as their crash in recent weeks. It’s also another notch in the belt of the new administration, which has promised to create clearer and perhaps more favorable regulatory conditions for the crypto industry, and to do so swiftly.

“The SEC’s recent statement on meme coins is the clarity that the digital asset space has been demanding for years,” said Ishmael Green, a crypto attorney and partner at the law firm Diaz Reus. “This will drive continued investment in the U.S. crypto space, as the vast majority of meme coins launched in the last 12 months with multibillion dollar market caps have been released on Solana, an American blockchain.”

“[It] also comports with the current administration’s promise to the crypto community to end needless and frivolous enforcement actions which stifle innovation and investment,” he added.

Dogecoin, the original meme coin and sixth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, rose 3%. The token tied to Solana, which has become the go-to host for meme coins – including the Official Trump meme coin – rose 2%.

Shares of both Coinbase and Robinhood rose about 1% in after hours trading.

The clarity could pave the way for both exchange operators to list more meme coins without the risk of regulatory enforcement.

In January, at the height of the Trump-fueled meme mania, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that “given there are [about 1 million] tokens a week being created now, and growing … evaluating each one by one is no longer feasible,” in a post on X. “And regulators need to understand that applying for approval for each one is totally infeasible at this point,” he said.

Meme coins, of which there are thousands, sit at the furthest end of the risk spectrum. They’re three to four times more actively traded than bitcoin and ether, adjusting for market cap, which makes them lucrative offerings for newcomers to the market who feel they may have missed the boat on bitcoin. Historically, they’ve been a gauge of retail interest and risk appetite in crypto, though most market participants warn strongly against them.

Despite their purely speculative nature and lack of intrinsic value, they’re widely viewed as a significant sector of the crypto market and an important part of internet culture that reflects the origins, culture and permissionless nature of the crypto community.