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In this photo illustration a virtual friend is seen on the screen of an iPhone on April 30, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia.

Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday announced it is issuing orders to seven companies including OpenAI, Alphabet, Meta, xAI and Snap to understand how their artificial intelligence chatbots potentially negatively affect children and teenagers.

The federal agency said AI chatbots may be used to simulate human-like communication and intrapersonal relationships with users, and that it wants to understand what steps these companies have taken to “evaluate the safety of these chatbots when acting as companions,” according to a release.

“Protecting kids online is a top priority for the Trump-Vance FTC, and so is fostering innovation in critical sectors of our economy,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement.

Meta declined to comment on the inquiry. Alphabet, Snap and xAI did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The FTC said it is seeking information about how these companies monetize user engagement, develop and approve characters, use or share personal information, monitor and enforce compliance with company rules and terms of service and mitigate negative impacts, among other subjects.

“Our priority is making ChatGPT helpful and safe for everyone, and we know safety matters above all else when young people are involved,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. “We recognize the FTC has open questions and concerns, and we’re committed to engaging constructively and responding to them directly.”

Character Technologies, which operates the Character.ai bot, and Instagram, which is owned by Meta, were also named in the release. Character did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

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Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, a host of chatbots have emerged, creating a growing number of ethical and privacy concerns, as CNBC has previously reported.

The societal impacts of companions are already profound, even with the industry in its very early stages, as the U.S. suffers through a loneliness epidemic. Industry experts have said they expect the ethical and safety concerns to intensify once AI technology begins to train itself, creating the potential for increasingly unpredictable outcomes.

But some of the wealthiest people in the world are touting the power of companions and are working to develop the technology at their companies. Elon Musk in July announced a Companions feature for users who pay to subscribe to xAI’s Grok chatbot app. In April, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said people are going to want personalized AI that understands them.

“I think a lot of these things that today there might be a little bit of a stigma around — I would guess that over time, we will find the vocabulary as a society to be able to articulate why that is valuable and why the people who are doing these things, why they are rational for doing it, and how it is actually adding value for their lives,” Zuckerberg said on a podcast.

Last month, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., announced an investigation into Meta following a Reuters report that the company allowed its chatbots to have romantic and sensual conversation with kids.

The Reuters report detailed an internal Meta document that described permissible AI chatbot behaviors during the development and training of the software. In one example, Reuters reported that a chatbot was allowed to have a romantic conversation with an eight-year-old and could say that “every inch of you is a masterpiece – a treasure I cherish deeply.”

Meta made temporary changes to its AI chatbot policies following the Reuters report so the bots do not discuss subjects like self-harm, suicide, eating disorders and avoiding potentially inappropriate romantic conversations.

Similarly, OpenAI outlined its plans to address how ChatGPT will handle “sensitive situations” last month after a lawsuit from a family blamed the chatbot for their teenage son’s death by suicide.

If you are having suicidal thoughts or are in distress, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor.

–CNBC’s Salvador Rodriguez and Annie Palmer contributed to this report

WATCH: Why it’s time to take AI-human relationships seriously

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Google and Nvidia VC arms back vibe coding startup Lovable at $6.6 billion valuation

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Google and Nvidia VC arms back vibe coding startup Lovable at .6 billion valuation

The VC arms of Google and Nvidia have invested in Swedish vibe coding startup Lovable’s $330 million Series B at a $6.6 billion valuation, the company announced on Thursday.

The news confirms an earlier story from CNBC, which reported on Tuesday that Lovable had raised at that valuation, trebling its valuation from its previous round in July, and that the investors included U.S. VC firms Accel and Khosla Ventures.

CapitalG, one of Google’s VC divisions, and Menlo Ventures led the round. Alongside Accel and Khosla, Nvidia venture arm NVentures, actor Gwyneth Paltrow’s VC firm Kinship Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Databricks Ventures, Atlassian Ventures, T.Capital, Hubspot Ventures, DST Global, EQT Global, Creandum and Evantic also participated.

The fresh funds take Lovable’s total raised in 2025 to over $500 million.

"Everyone can be a developer of software," says Lovable CEO

“Lovable has done something rare: built a product that enterprises and founders both love,” said Laela Sturdy, managing partner at CapitalG in a statement accompanying the announcement.

“The demand we’re seeing from Fortune 500 companies signals a fundamental shift in how software gets built.”

Lovable’s platform uses AI models from providers like OpenAI and Anthropic to help users build apps and websites using text prompts, without technical knowledge of coding.

The startup reported $200 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in November, just under a year after achieving $1 million in ARR for the first time. It was founded in 2023 by Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin.

Vibe coding startups have seen big interest from VCs in recent times, as investors bet on their promise of drastically reducing the time it takes to create software and apps.

In the U.S., Anysphere, which created coding tool Cursor, raised $2.3 billion at a $29.3 billion valuation in November. In September, Replit hit a $3 billion price tag after picking up $250 million and Vercel closed a $300 million round at a $9.3 billion valuation.

The rise of AI 'vibe coding'

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Micron stock pops 15% as AI memory demand soars: ‘We are more than sold out’

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Micron stock pops 15% as AI memory demand soars: 'We are more than sold out'

The Micron logo is seen displayed at the 8th China International Import Expo.

Sheldon Cooper | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Micron Technology‘s stock jumped 15% after the company signaled robust demand for its memory chips and blew away fiscal first-quarter estimates.

During an earnings call with analysts, Micron, which makes memory storage used for computers and artificial intelligence servers, said data center needs have fueled greater demand for its products.

Micron said it expects the total addressable market for high-bandwidth memory to hit $100 billion by 2028, growing at a 40% compounded annual growth rate. Management also upped its capital expenditures guidance to $20 billion from $18 billion.

“We are more than sold out,” said business chief Sumit Sadana. “We have a significant amount of unmet demand in our models and this is just consistent with an environment where the demand is substantially higher than supply for the foreseeable future.

Micron topped Wall Street estimates for the fiscal first quarter and issued blowout guidance.

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The company reported adjusted earnings of $4.78 per share on $13.64 billion in revenue, surpassing LSEG estimates for earnings of $3.95 per share and $12.84 billion in sales.

Revenues in the current quarter are expected to hit about $18.70 billion, blowing past the $14.20 billion expected by LSEG. Adjusted earnings are forecast to reach $8.42, versus expectations of $4.78 per share.

JPMorgan upped its price target on the stock following the results, citing the favorable pricing setup, while Bank of America upgraded shares to a buy rating.

Morgan Stanley called the results the best revenue and net income upside in the “history of the U.S. semis industry” outside of Nvidia.

“If AI keeps growing as we expect, we believe that the next 12 months are going to have broader coat tails to the AI trade than just the processor names and memory would be the biggest beneficiary,” analysts wrote.

WATCH: Micron shares spike on better-than-expected quarterly results

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Trump defends economy, CPI report returns, monster Medline IPO, and more in Morning Squawk

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Trump defends economy, CPI report returns, monster Medline IPO, and more in Morning Squawk

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 17, 2025.

Doug Mills | Via Reuters

This is CNBC’s Morning Squawk newsletter. Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

1. Trump on defense

President Donald Trump, with approval ratings sagging, touted his economic and other policies in a White House address, taking jabs at his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. “I inherited a mess,” Trump said, referring to when he returned to the White House last January. “And I am fixing it.”

Here’s what to know:

  • Trump projected “the largest tax refund season of all time” thanks to the tax and spending package he signed into law over the summer.
  • The president also announced a “warrior dividend” of $1,776 for 1,450,000 U.S. military members, that’s set to cost about $2.5 billion.
  • The address came as Trump’s approval ratings are sagging across the board, on issues ranging from immigration to inflation, and as Republicans seek to hold on to majorities in the House and Senate in the 2026 midterms.
  • Obamacare subsidies extension will go to a vote after 4 Republicans bucked leadership.
  • Meanwhile, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said he will step down in January.
  • The U.S. government admitted fault, citing missteps by members of the U.S. Army and the FAA, in the fatal collision of an Army Black Hawk Helicopter with an arriving American Airlines regional jet in January that took 67 lives.

2. Return of the CPI

A shopper browses a holiday food display while shopping for groceries ahead of the Thanksgiving Day holiday at an Albertsons supermarket in Redmond, Washington, U.S., November 24, 2025.

David Ryder | Reuters

The November consumer price index report, the first since the record government shutdown ended last month, is due out at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect it to show a 12-month inflation rate of 3.1%. When excluding food and energy, core CPI is forecast to post an annual rate of 3.0%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has said the release “will not include 1-month percent changes for November 2025 where the October 2025 data are missing,” because the agency canceled the October inflation report in late November, weeks before the Federal Reserve’s final meeting of the year.

3. Time for a rebound?

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 22, 2025.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Stock futures were ticking up ahead of the return of the monthly inflation report.

Micron Technology jumped 10% in premarket trading after its latest results and forecast topped Wall Street estimates. Shares of Olive Garden parent Darden rose premarket on an improved sales outlook.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the previous session lower for the fourth day in a row. Oracle had dropped more than 5% after the Financial Times reported that the cloud infrastructure company’s primary investor pulled out of its $10 billion Michigan data center.

Trump Media and Technology Group on Thursday announced a merger agreement valued at more than $6 billion with TAE Technologies, a fusion power company, showing the company that operates President Donald Trump‘s Truth Social platform is branching out even further.

4. Healthy IPO market

CEO Jim Boyle celebrates with others as medical supplies giant Medline (MDLN) holds it’s IPO at the Nasdaq stock market site in Times Square in New York, Dec. 17, 2025.

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

Shares of medical supply giant Medline, which makes everything from hospital beds to scrubs, jumped 41% in their Nasdaq debut Wednesday as the world’s biggest IPO of the year. The stock opened at $35, up from its $29 IPO price, and ended its first trading day at $41 a share, bringing Medline’s market capitalization to roughly $54 billion.

Just over 200 IPOs have priced this year despite market volatility in the spring, driven by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and the longest U.S. government shutdown in history in the fall. It is the largest U.S. listing since Rivian‘s $13.7 billion deal in November 2021, according to data compiled by CNBC.

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5. Delta’s platinum president is retiring

Glen Hauenstein, president of Delta Air Lines Inc., center left, and Ed Bastian, chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines Inc., center right, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Delta Air Lines President Glen Hauenstein, who helped shape Delta into the industry’s profit leader, will retire at the end of February. Hauenstein, who joined Delta 20 years ago, led the airline’s lucrative embrace of travelers willing to spend more for a more luxurious trip, or at least a few more inches of legroom on board.

Some of Delta’s strategies became too successful for customers’ tastes, such as its popular airport SkyClubs, which Delta recently raised the entry bar.

The Daily Dividend

And the winner is…YouTube. In a major shift away from traditional television, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday it’s signed a multiyear deal with the Google-owned service to stream the Oscars starting in 2029 and running through 2033, red carpet coverage included.

CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Justin Papp, Kevin Breuninger, Amelia Lucas, Dan Mangan, Garrett Downs, Annika Kim Constantino, Pia Singh and Sarah Whitten contributed to this report. Melodie Warner edited this edition.

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