‘I’m glad it’s over.’ Google CEO thanks Trump for antitrust ‘resolution’

Published

3 months ago

September 5, 2025

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Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., speaks during a meeting of the White House Task Force on AI Education in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. The White House has been actively promoting artificial intelligence and domestic manufacturing, with recent announcements including a plan to reduce regulation of artificial intelligence and support for leading AI chipmakers. Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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At a White House dinner with tech executives, President Donald Trump congratulated Google CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin following Alphabet’s favorable antitrust ruling on Tuesday.

“Well you had a very good day yesterday,” Trump said, calling on Pichai at the Thursday evening dinner. “Google had a very good day yesterday. Do you want to talk about that big day you had yesterday?”

Alphabet this week added $230 billion to its market cap after avoiding a breakup in a landmark antitrust case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2020. Google was found to hold an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search last year. Deciding on the penalties this week, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled against the most severe consequences proposed by the DOJ, causing shares of the search company to jump.

“I’m glad it’s over,” Pichai responded to Trump, causing an eruption of laughter from the other table guests.

“It’s a long process,” Pichai said. “Appreciate that your administration had a constructive dialogue, and we were able to get it to some resolution.”

“Right,” Trump replied.

“The AI moment is one of the most transformative moments any of us have ever seen or will see in our lifetimes, so making sure the U.S. is at the forefront — and I think your administration is investing a lot,” Pichai said. “Already the AI action plan under your leadership I think is a great start, and we look forward to working together. And thanks for your leadership.”

The plan Pichai referred to is the administration’s “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan,” launched in July, which claims to identify 90 federal policy actions across three pillars: the acceleration of innovation, building of artificial intelligence infrastructure and leadership in international diplomacy and security. Part of that plan includes a July executive order that says AI models should not incorporate “Woke AI” or “ideological dogmas such as DEI,” meaning diversity, equity and inclusion.

Google is also in discussions with Trump’s lawyers for an ongoing lawsuit that the president filed more than four years ago, accusing the online video platform YouTube of unlawful censorship. The lawsuit stemmed from the suspension of Trump’s accounts on social media sites after the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.

Earlier Thursday, Pichai attended the White House “AI Education Taskforce” event hosted by First Lady Melania Trump.

Trump interrupted Pichai’s Thursday evening response to say “Biden was the one who prosecuted that lawsuit, you know that right?” Trump said, referring to the search monopoly case.

The search case was brought by the DOJ while Trump was in office during his first term. Pichai did not correct him.

WATCH: Alphabet antitrust ruling the ‘dream scenario’ for Google, says Wedbush’s Dan Ives

Technology

Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup’s robots could ‘fracture a human skull’

Published

8 hours ago

November 21, 2025

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$Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup's robots could 'fracture a human skull'$

Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.

Figure AI

Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup’s former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company’s robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.”

Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel’s attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his “most direct and documented safety complaints.”

The suit lands two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That’s a 15-fold increase in valuation from early 2024, when the company raised a round from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.

In the complaint, Gruendel’s lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot’s lethal capabilities, and said one “had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.”

The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to “downgrade” a “safety road map” that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company.

Gruendel worried that a “product safety plan which contributed to their decision to invest” had been “gutted” the same month Figure closed the investment round, a move that “could be interpreted as fraudulent,” the suit says.

The plaintiff’s concerns were “treated as obstacles, not obligations,” and the company cited a “vague ‘change in business direction’ as the pretext” for his termination, according to the suit.

Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial.

Figure didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did attorneys for Gruendel.

The humanoid robot market remains nascent today, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic offerings, alongside Figure, while China’s Unitree Robotics is preparing for an IPO. Morgan Stanley said in a report in May that adoption is “likely to accelerate in the 2030s” and could top $5 trillion by 2050.

Read the filing here: