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Big Banks Report Soaring Profits Amid Tensions With Trump Over Credit Card Interest Rates
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The latest trio of big banks reported their results Wednesday — Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo — and while each of them do different flavors of banking the theme is the same: profits are up, dealmaking is healthy, and the consumer is doing just fine.
“While any number of risks continue, we are bullish on the U.S. economy in 2026,” said Brian Moynihan, CEO and chairman of Bank of America, in a statement.
Moynihan added that businesses and consumers are “proving resilient.” Mark Mason, Citigroup’s chief financial officer, used the same word to describe how consumers and businesses were doing.
“The U.S. economy is doing just fine. There’s downside risks out there, geopolitical risks in particular. But when I step back and look at it holistically, we have an economy that has managed uncertainty and risks in a resilient type fashion,” Mason told reporters on Wednesday.
Up until last weekend, the big banks had found an ally in the White House in President Donald Trump. Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill into law in July, which pushed another significant round of tax cuts. Trump’s bank regulators have also been pushing a deregulatory agenda that both banks and large corporations have embraced. Many companies have embraced dealmaking last year, which led to a steady stream of investment banking revenues and fees to the big banks.
But now the banks and Trump are butting heads. Trump said Friday that he wants to cap interest rates on credit cards at 10%, and has been supportive of his Justice Department’s investigation into Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, which bankers see as a threat to the independence of the nation’s central bank. Trump does not appear to be backing down on his attacks as well, doubling down in comments to reporters Tuesday night.
For these big banks, many of which have large and profitable credit card businesses, these banks argue that a credit card interest rate cap simply cannot happen.
“Affordability is a big issue and we look forward to collaborating with the administration on ways we can address this,” Mason with Citi said. “But an interest rate is not something we could or would support. It would restrict credit to those who need it the most and have a delirious impact on the economy.”
Bank executives told reporters they weren’t seeing much evidence of a “K-Shaped” economy, where the rich get richer and the bottom half do less well. Further, the consumer continues to spend and other metrics about consumer financial health like delinquencies and charge-offs remain stable.
Bank of America posted a profit of $7.6 billion, or 98 cents per share, up from $6.8 billion, or 83 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue at the bank was $28.4 billion.
Wells Fargo earned a profit of $5.36 billion, or $1.62 per share, compared to a profit of $5.08 billion, or $1.43 a share, in the same period a year earlier on revenues of $21.3 billion.
At Bank of America, the bank reported a 6% increase in credit and debit card spending and credit card balances rose a manageable 3% year-over-year to $103 billion. Retail deposits also grew to $945.4 billion.
Wells Fargo’s credit metrics also told a similar story. The bank saw consumer loan growth and more activity on its credit cards, but delinquencies and charge-offs were relatively stable.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Photos You Should See – January 2026
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From Climbing Vacuums to Cyber Pets: Some Highlights of CES 2026
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — CES 2026 offered a glimpse of a future that feels straight out of a sci-fi movie: bendable screens, paper-thin TVs and cars and gadgets that can think for themselves as they get to know you and your family’s wants and needs.
As Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang put it, “The ChatGPT moment for physical AI is here.”
And everywhere you looked, robots. They roamed the show floor, assisted workers and entertained crowds — from humanoid helpers and furry “cyber pets” to task-specific machines.
Here’s a recap of some of the attention-grabbing gadgets at CES 2026, the annual technology trade show in Las Vegas:
Lego leaned heavily into fan nostalgia this week to unveil its latest innovation, enlisting Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer David Filoni and a lineup of familiar Star Wars characters, including Chewbacca, R2-D2, C-3PO and X-wing pilots.
On Monday, the company introduced Lego Smart Play, a new platform built around connected bricks, tags and specially designed minifigures in partnership with Star Wars. These smart bricks are equipped with sensors that detect light and distance, triggering coordinated lights and sounds when used together to bring builds to life.
The platform allows fans to build interactive scenes, like space battles or lightsaber duels.
Another point for nostalgia: Clicks Technology is reviving the physical phone keyboard with its magnetic QWERTY model that clips onto phones.
Co-founder Jeff Gadway said the company’s Power Keyboard “is one keyboard for all your smart devices.”
It features a full QWERTY layout, with directional keys and a number row, in a callback to the Blackberry-era of smartphones for those who miss real buttons. The company said it also doubles as a wireless power bank.
Return of LG’s Wallpaper TV line
If you’re not familiar with CES, just know that new TV announcements are ubiquitous to the show — some big, some small, some even transparent. But LG brought something distinct to CES this year: an OLED TV that’s only 9mm thick.
The South Korean tech company announced the OLED evo W6 model from its Wallpaper line just ahead of CES but reporters and industry representatives were able to see it for the first time at the show.
As advertised, the screen displays video nearly edge-to-edge and is ridiculously thin (though it doesn’t roll up like its name implies). Like the previous models in its Wallpaper line, the TV’s inputs are housed in a box that sits nearby. LG representatives claim you can seamlessly stream 4K video and audio to the screen. No pricing was available but the new TV will be available in 77- and 83-inch sizes.
The vacuum that can climb stairs
Chinese robovac maker Roborock introduced a vacuum that literally sprouts chicken-like legs to navigate up and down stairs. There are vacuums out there capable of this feat (and there were even a few others at CES), but this one actually cleans the steps along the way.
The newly introduced Saros Rover took its time in its ascent and descent during the demo on the showroom floor, but Roborock said it will be able to traverse almost any style of stairwell, including spiraled and curved. Unfortunately, no release date was given for the Rover, which the company says is still in development.
Razer goes the smart glasses route with headphones
Gaming tech company Razer brought a very interesting concept to CES, a set of over-ear headphones that can largely replicate the capabilities of currently available smart glasses (think Meta’s Ray Ban glasses).
During the demo, Razer’s host asked the AI-powered headset — dubbed Project Motoko — to translate a Japanese restaurant menu into English and even asked it to search up information on The Associated Press.
The headphones see using built-in cameras and take audio inputs from microphones. What AI model serves as the base of the headphones is up to the user, and it sounded like the usual suspects were supported — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude.
While it’s being developed largely as a consumer product, Razer did mention that it could be sold to businesses to gather data to train AI models. Razer said consumer data retrieved from the headphones wouldn’t be sold for training purposes and that enterprise sales would be siloed from consumer sales.
Extended-reality platform aims to help process grief
Do you wish you could speak one more time with a loved one who died unexpectedly? Or sit down for a conversation with your younger self? One company is exploring how immersive technology might make something like that possible, at least in part.
VHEX Lab showcased its SITh.XRaedo, an immersive extended-reality grief therapy platform that creates a virtual avatar from a single photo and, according the company, is guided in real time by a trained XR therapist. Wearing a virtual reality headset, users can speak with the avatar, which responds through speech, nods, smiles and other gestures.
The company, which won a digital health innovation award at CES, said the platform is designed to help people process grief and find closure, offering an alternative way to mourn.
Personal mobility on autopilot
Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride — that’s exactly what some conference attendees did at Strutt’s booth. Curious volunteers sat blindfolded in the robotics company’s new self-driving personal mobility chair called the EV1, which senses its surroundings and navigates on its own. With the push of a button and a forward lever, the chair guided riders through a small course, looping them around without requiring any active control.
Tony Hong, CEO and founder of the Singapore-based Strutt, told AP that the chair has a full suite of sensors that helps it avoid bumps, walls, people and other obstacles, adjusting in real time as it drives.
A “cyber pet” that turned heads at CES
Allergic to dogs or cats but still craving a furry sidekick? Chinese tech brand Ollobot pitched a futuristic alternative: a rolling, purple “cyber pet” named OlloNi. Part plush toy, part AI robot, OlloNi is designed to feel warm and expressive, unlike the stiff, humanoid home robots that often dominate robotics, the company said.
OlloNi uses a screen mounted at its neck, making eye contact and cycling through thousands of animated expressions meant to mirror human emotion and interaction.
Scratch behind its fuzzy “ears,” and OlloNi’s wide digital “eyes” pop open in apparent delight, which drew attention and laughs from passersby on the show floor.
Uber dives back into the robotaxi game
Uber used CES to pull back the curtain on its upcoming robotaxi, offering the public a first look at a self-driving vehicle developed with luxury EV maker Lucid Motors and autonomous technology company Nuro.
Uber called it the most premium robotaxi yet, with cameras, sensors and radar for full 360-degree awareness, along with a sleek, low-profile roof “halo” fitted with LED screens that display a rider’s initials and ride status. Inside, passengers can tailor the temperature, seat heating and music, while on-screen visuals show what the vehicle sees and the route it plans to follow in real time.
The companies said on-road testing, led by Nuro, began in the San Francisco area last month, as they work toward launching the service before the end of the year.
Associated Press journalists Aya Diab, Jessica Hill and Ty ONeil contributed to this report from Las Vegas.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Photos You Should See – December 2025
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Euro zone inflation hits 2% in December, in line with forecasts
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Downtown Amsterdam
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Euro zone inflation stood at 2% in December, flash data from Eurostat showed on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected the inflation rate to cool to 2%, in line with the European Central Bank’s (ECB) target. In November, the inflation rate stood at 2.1%.
Core inflation, which excludes more volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, stood at 2.3% in the year to December, down from 2.4% in November, while the annual rate of services inflation cooled to 3.4%, compared with 3.5% in November.
The ECB held its key deposit facility rate at 2% for the fourth consecutive time in December, having last cut rates in June.
The trim, which coincided with euro zone inflation hitting 2%, was part of a rate-cutting cycle that has brought rates down from 2024’s record high of 4%.
Top ECB board members told CNBC late last year that the easing cycle is close to, or at its end, although the central bank has repeatedly said it will take a meeting-by-meeting and data dependent approach to rate setting.
The euro and Stoxx 600 were unchanged on Wednesday following the data release, although the inflation rate returning to the ECB’s target could signal further rate cuts ahead.
“The move should please equity markets, as it gives the ECB yet another reason to cut interest rates further in 2026. That said, inflation has been hovering either side of the 2% level for most of last year, so today’s move is minor, but a positive, nonetheless,” Michael Field, chief equity strategist at Morningstar, said in emailed comments Wednesday.
“Central bankers walk a tightrope, attempting to stimulate the economy without igniting inflation. But with inflation low and steady, they should be able to take their foot off the brake and lean towards more stimulus sooner rather than later.”
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India economy estimated to grow 7.4% in 2026 despite looming trade uncertainties
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India is set to become the world’s fourth-largest economy.
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Amid rising global trade uncertainties, India’s economy is projected to grow 7.4% in the fiscal year ending March 2026, higher than 6.5% in the last fiscal year, according to first advance estimates released by the Indian government on Wednesday.
In 2025, the advance estimates offered the first official sign of a slowdown in the world’s fastest-growing economy, pegging India’s growth at 6.4%, the weakest since the pandemic. This figure was later revised to 6.5% in May.
Private consumption is expected to expand by 7%, down slightly from the previous year’s growth of 7.2%. Meanwhile, government spending is projected to rise 5.2%, up from a 2.3% increase in the previous year.
Indian exports to the U.S., its biggest trading partner, have been subject to 50% tariffs since August last year. While negotiations toward a trade agreement are ongoing, the prolonged tariffs are expected to weigh on economic momentum.
Last month, the International Monetary Fund said India’s real GDP is projected to grow 6.6% in fiscal 2026 before moderating to 6.2% in fiscal 2027, assuming a prolonged delay in a U.S.-India trade deal.
Despite these risks, the Indian economy has been surprisingly resilient in the first half of fiscal 2026, growing faster than expected at 7.8% in the June quarter and 8.2% in the three months ending September.
India’s central bank last month revised the real GDP growth for fiscal 2026 to 7.3% from the earlier estimate of 6.8%, citing easing price pressures.
The Reserve Bank of India has lowered its consumer price inflation forecast to 2.0%, from 2.6% for this fiscal year. That gave the central bank room to cut its policy rate by 25 basis points to 5.25%, even as it flagged weakness in some key economic indicators.
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Trump’s shake-up of the old world order sends shock waves through Europe
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Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, US President Donald Trump, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte gather and chat with each other in the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, United States on August 18, 2025.
Ukrainian Presidency | Anadolu | Getty Images
As 2026 kicks off with several unexpected geopolitical earthquakes, Europe looks woefully unprepared to deal with the upending of old rules — and the new world order — being created by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Less than a week into the new year and not only has the U.S. deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and threatened Colombia, Iran, Cuba and Mexico, but has also turned its sights on taking over Danish territory Greenland, potentially using military force, and threatening the very fabric and future of NATO.
Then there’s Ukraine, with European leaders’ efforts this week to cement security guarantees in a potential peace deal to end the war looking like small fry as other potential territorial takeovers garner global attention.
Largely seen as the “Old World” by the rest of the globe, Europe appears to have fallen far behind other power blocs on a number of levels, with its economy in the slow lane and its geopolitical isolation — and apparent impotence — in stark contrast with bullish regional superpowers like the U.S., Russia and China.
It’s a dangerous moment for Europe and the existing international order, analysts say, as the established rules-based international order is torn up.
“What happened in Venezuela and now talk about Greenland, Cuba or Colombia, we are really into getting into uncharted territory, and we have to be really extremely careful,” Wang Huiyao, founder and president at the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization, told CNBC Wednesday.
“The international community has to work together now and probably stop this kind of unilateral approach. It’s a wake-up call for the European countries so closely allied with the U.S. who have suddenly realized now that its fundamental basis has been eroded and has been really challenged.”
Europe senses danger
There’s no doubt that Europe knows the trouble it’s in as it confronts both the dangers of ongoing war in Ukraine, and an elusive peace deal, as well as the real possibility of a confrontation with the U.S. over Greenland, which belongs to EU and NATO member Denmark.
European leaders met on Tuesday to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, but also issued a statement pushing back against any American territorial ambitions over the Arctic island, insisting: “Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
A flurry of fraught diplomacy ensued on Wednesday morning, with France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stating that he had spoken to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The French politician said Rubio had “ruled out the possibility of what happened in Venezuela happening in Greenland.”
Rubio reportedly told lawmakers at a closed briefing on Capitol Hill on Monday that the Trump administration did not plan to invade Greenland, but aimed to buy it from Denmark, the Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday.
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNBC on Tuesday that the administration was considering “a range of options” in order to acquire Greenland — including “utilizing the U.S. Military.”
Greenland and Denmark have requested a meeting with Rubio to discuss the U.S.’ intentions. On Monday, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned that “if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country, everything will stop.”
Existential crisis?
It’s not the first time that the transatlantic partnership has looked shaky under Trump’s leadership, with the president barely containing his disdain for Europe’s perceived shortfalls in recent years, particularly when it comes to defense spending, investment, and economic prowess.
In December, the U.S. warned in its new national security strategy (NSS) that the region faced oblivion. Trump then called Europe’s leaders “weak” and said the region was “decaying.”
European officials responded to Trump’s comments with irritation, but the uncomfortable question was whether the U.S. had a point.
In its NSS, the U.S. listed Europe’s waning economy, migration policies, and “loss of national identities and self-confidence” as reasons to worry for the continent. It then warned that European countries faced “civilizational erasure” and questioned whether they can “remain reliable allies.”
Ian Bremmer, founder and president of the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, told CNBC that Washington was essentially telling Europe not only what it already knew, but what it was already trying to fix.
“Civilizational erasure’ sounds offensive, but many European leaders – in France, Germany, Italy – have been raising similar concerns for years. In fact, EU migration policy has tightened considerably since [former Chancellor Angela] Merkel’s open-door approach,” he told CNBC.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meets with U.S. President Donald Trump during the 80th United Nations General Assembly, in New York City, New York, U.S., Sept. 23, 2025.
Alexander Drago | Reuters
“The key difference is that Europeans want to address these and other challenges by making Europe stronger, not by tearing it apart,” Bremmer said.
“European leaders see this for what it is,” he added.
“If Washington is no longer aligned with Europe on values Europeans consider essential, then the United States can no longer be counted on as an ally. That’s an existential crisis for the transatlantic alliance … What the Europeans are prepared to do about it is another matter entirely.”
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At CES, Auto and Tech Companies Transform Cars Into Proactive Companions
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — In a vision of the near future shared at CES, a girl slides into the back seat of her parents’ car and the cabin instantly comes alive. The vehicle recognizes her, knows it’s her birthday and cues up her favorite song without a word spoken.
“Think of the car as having a soul and being an extension of your family,” Sri Subramanian, Nvidia’s global head of generative AI for automotive, said Tuesday.
Subramanian’s example, shared with a CES audience on the show’s opening day in Las Vegas, illustrates the growing sophistication of AI-powered in-cabin systems and the expanding scope of personal data that smart vehicles may collect, retain and use to shape the driving experience.
Across the show floor, the car emerged less as a machine and more as a companion as automakers and tech companies showcased vehicles that can adapt to drivers and passengers in real time — from tracking heart rates and emotions to alerting if a baby or young child is accidentally left in the car.
Bosch debuted its new AI vehicle extension that aims to turn the cabin into a “proactive companion.” Nvidia, the poster child of the AI boom, announced Alpamayo, its new vehicle AI initiative designed to help autonomous cars think through complex driving decisions. CEO Jensen Huang called it a “ChatGPT moment for physical AI.”
But experts say the push toward a more personalized driving experience is intensifying questions about how much driver data is being collected.
“The magic of AI should not just mean all privacy and security protections are off,” said Justin Brookman, director of marketplace policy at Consumer Reports.
Unlike smartphones or online platforms, cars have only recently become major repositories of personal data, Brookman said. As a result, the industry is still trying to establish the “rules of the road” for what automakers and tech companies are allowed to do with driver data.
That uncertainty is compounded by the uniquely personal nature of cars, Brookman said. Many people see their vehicles as an extension of themselves — or even their homes — which he said can make the presence of cameras, microphones and other monitoring tools feel especially invasive.
“Sometimes privacy issues are difficult for folks to internalize,” he said. “People generally feel they wish they had more privacy but also don’t necessarily know what they can do to address it.”
At the same time, Brookman said, many of these technologies offer real safety benefits for drivers and can be good for the consumer.
On the CES show floor, some of those conveniences were on display at automotive supplier Gentex’s booth, where attendees sat in a mock six-seater van in front of large screens demonstrating how closely the company’s AI-equipped sensors and cameras could monitor a driver and passengers.
“Are they sleepy? Are they drowsy? Are they not seated properly? Are they eating, talking on phones? Are they angry? You name it, we can figure out how to detect that in the cabin,” said Brian Brackenbury, director of product line management at Gentex.
Brackenbury said it’s ultimately up to the car manufacturers to decide how the vehicle reacts to the data that’s collected, which he said is stored in the car and deleted after the video frames, for example, have been processed. “
“One of the mantras we have at Gentex is we’re not going to do it just because we can, just because the technology allows it,” Brackebury said, adding that “data privacy is really important.”
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Photos You Should See – December 2025
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Asian Shares Trade Mixed After Wall Street Hits Records on Tech Gains
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TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares traded mixed Wednesday, calming somewhat from the buzz set off by recent record rallies on Wall Street, while investors’ attention turned to global interest rates and uncertainty caused by developments in Venezuela.
Despite a broad rally on Wall Street, Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.9% to 52,041.97 and South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.5% to 4,503.23. Both had set records a day earlier.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% to 8,708.50.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1% to 26,471.97, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.3% to 4,095.94.
On Tuesday, broad gains led by technology stocks pushed prices on Wall Street to more records. The gains mirror much of the action from the previous year, when big technology stocks often drove the market to a series of records.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% to 6,944.82, setting a record on just the third trading day of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% to 49,462.08, hitting a record for a second-straight day. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.6%, to 23,547.17.
Small company stocks outpaced their larger counterparts as the Russell 2000 jumped 1.4%. It’s now just below its record set in December.
Amazon, which surged 3.4%, is one of the most valuable companies in the world. Technology companies, especially those focused on artificial intelligence, are being closely watched this week during the industry’s annual CES trade show in Las Vegas. AI advances helped propel the broader U.S. market to a series of records in 2025.
The Federal Reserve will be analyzing economic data for its next meeting in late January. The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate three times late in 2025. Wall Street expects the Fed to hold interest rates steady at its January meeting.
Treasury yields rose in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.16% from 4.15% late Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which moves more closely with expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do, rose to 3.46% from 3.45% late Monday.
In other trading early Wednesday, the price of benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 78 cents or nearly 1.3% to $56.35 per barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 59 cents to $60.11 per barrel.
Gold prices slipped 0.3% and silver prices declined 1.5%. Such assets are often considered safe havens in times of geopolitical turmoil. The metals have notched record prices over the last year amid lingering economic concerns brought on by conflicts and trade wars.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 156.71 Japanese yen from 156.62 yen. The euro cost $1.1696, inching up from $1.1692.
AP Business Writer Damian J. Troise contributed.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Photos You Should See – December 2025
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The Most Interesting Tech AP Saw on Day 1 of CES
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Sure, Nvidia, AMD and Intel all had important chip and AI platform announcements on the first day of CES 2026, but all audiences wanted to see more of was Star Wars and Jensen Huang’s little robot buddies.
CES is a huge opportunity annually for companies both large and small to parade products they plan to put on shelves this year. And, as predicted, artificial intelligence was anchored in nearly everything as tech firms continue to look for AI products that will attract customers.
AP has been on the ground looking at booths and covering big announcements, here is a roundup of the highlights we saw on the first day of CES.
The biggest buzzword in the air at CES is “physical AI,” Nvidia’s term for AI models that are trained in a virtual environment using computer generated, “synthetic” data, then deployed as physical machines once they’ve mastered their purpose.
CEO Jensen Huang showed off Cosmos, an AI foundation model trained on massive datasets, capable of simulating environments governed by actual physics. He also announced Alpamayo, an AI model specifically designed for autonomous driving. Huang revealed that Nvidia’s next generation AI superchip platform, dubbed Vera Rubin, is in full production, and that Nvidia has a new partnership with Siemens. All of this shows Nvidia is going to fight increased competition to retain its reputation as the backbone of the AI industry.
But once Huang called for two little, waddling, chirping robots to join him on stage, that’s all the audience wanted to see more of.
The chips are back in town
AMD CEO Lisa Su announced a new line of its famed Ryzen AI processors as the company continues to expand its footprint in the world of AI-powered personal computers.
For gamers, AMD also showed off the latest version of its gaming-focused processor, the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D.
Meanwhile, Intel announced its new AI chip for laptops, Panther Lake (also known as the Intel Core Ultra Series 3), and said the company has plans to launch a new platform to address a growing market for handheld video gaming machines.
Intel, a Silicon Valley pioneer that enjoyed decades of growth as its processors powered the personal computer boom, fell into a slump after missing the shift to the mobile computing era unleashed by the iPhone. It fell further behind after the AI boom propelled Nvidia into the spotlight.
President Donald Trump’s administration stepped in recently to secure a 10% stake in the company, making the government one of Intel’s biggest shareholders. Federal officials said they invested in Intel to support U.S. technology and domestic manufacturing.
Uber dives back into the robotaxi game
Uber is giving the public a first look at their robotaxi at this CES this week. Uber, along with luxury electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors and vehicle tech company Nuro, introduced an autonomous vehicle with an Uber-designed in-cabin experience.
Uber calls it the most luxurious robotaxi yet. It features cameras, sensors and radars that provide 360-degree perception and a low-profile roof “halo” with integrated LEDs that will display riders’ initials to help them spot their car and track their ride status. Inside, riders can personalize everything from climate and seat heating to music, while real-time visuals show exactly what the vehicle is seeing on the road and the route it plans to take.
Autonomous on-road testing began last month in San Francisco, led by Nuro, marking a major step toward what the companies said is a planned launch before the end of the year.
Star Wars and Lego announce new a partnership
When Lucasfilm chief creative officer David Filoni brought out an array of X-Wing pilots, Chewbacca, R2D2 and C-3PO, he won the Star Wars fandom for Lego.
Lego announced its Lego Smart Play platform on Monday, which introduces new smart bricks, tags and special minifigs for your collection. The new bricks contain sensors that enable them to sense light and distance, and to provide an array of responses, essentially lights and sounds, when they are used in unison.
Combine this with a newly announced partnership with the Star Wars franchise and now you can create your own interactive space battles and light-saber duels.
LG reveals a new robot to help around the home
File this one under intrigued, for now.
The Korean tech giant gave the media a glimpse Monday of its humanoid robot that is designed to handle household chores such as folding laundry and fetching food. Although many companies have robots on display at CES, LG certainly is one of the biggest tech companies to promise to put a service robot in homes.
It will be on display — and we assume demonstrating some of its purported abilities — beginning Tuesday, so we’ll have more to report soon.
What’s new with lollipops?
Music you can taste was on display Monday at CES: Lollipop Star unveiled a candy that plays music while you eat it. The company says it uses something called “bone induction technology,” which lets you hear songs — like tracks from Ice Spice and Akon — through the lollipop as you lick it or bite it in the back of your mouth, according to spokesperson Cassie Lawrence.
The musical lollipops will go on sale after CES on Lollipop Star’s website for $8.99 each. And if that wasn’t enough star power, Akon was expected to visit the company’s booth Tuesday when CES opens to the public.
Atlas holds up Hyundai’s (manufacturing) world
Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics publicly demonstrated its humanoid robot Atlas for the first time at the CES tech showcase, ratcheting up a competition with Tesla and other rivals to build robots that look like people and do things that people do.
The company said a version of the robot that will help assemble cars is already in production and will be deployed by 2028 at Hyundai’s electric vehicle manufacturing facility near Savannah, Georgia.
Delta Air Lines is taking entertainment to new heights as the “official airline” of the Sphere in Las Vegas. The airline announced a new multiyear partnership with Sphere Entertainment Co. that it says will deliver premium experiences to the venue, including a Delta SKY360° Club lounge.
The carrier said SkyMiles members can unlock exclusive access to other experiences at the Sphere, starting during the final weekend of the Backstreet Boys’ residency in February with features including private suite seating, food and beverages. The partnership brings Delta branding to the Sphere’s massive exterior LED screen. Delta says more exclusive SkyMiles experiences will roll out in 2026 and beyond.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Photos You Should See – December 2025
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A Rare ‘Thank You’ to the Media From the Trump Administration
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In the wake of last weekend’s U.S. military action in Venezuela, the news media got something it has seldom heard from the Trump administration: a “thank you.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio credited news organizations that had learned in advance about last Saturday’s strike that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with not putting the mission in jeopardy by publicly reporting on it before it happened.
Rubio’s acknowledgment was particularly noteworthy because Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has cited a mistrust of journalists’ ability to responsibly handle sensitive information as one of the chief reasons for imposing restrictive new press rules on Pentagon reporters. Most mainstream news organizations have left posts in the Pentagon rather than agree to Hegseth’s policy.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Rubio said the administration withheld information about the mission from Congress ahead of time because “it will leak. It’s as simple as that.” But the primary reason was operational security, he said.
“Frankly, a number of media outlets had gotten leaks that this was coming and held it for that very reason,” Rubio said. “And we thank them for doing that or lives could have been lost. American lives.”
Semafor, citing “people familiar with communications between the administration and news organizations,” reported that The New York Times and The Washington Post had both learned of the raid in advance but held off reporting on it to avoid endangering U.S. military personnel. Representatives for both outlets declined comment to The Associated Press on Monday.
Withholding information on a planned mission for that reason is routine for news organizations, said Dana Priest, a longtime national security reporter at the Post who now teaches at the University of Maryland. Even after the fact, the Post has asked government authorities about whether revealing certain details could endanger people, she said.
When The Atlantic magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently included in a text chain last spring where Hegseth revealed information about a military attack in Yemen, the journalist did not report on the events until well after U.S. personnel was out of danger and the information had been thoroughly checked out.
Most Americans learned of the Venezuela attack in the predawn hours of Saturday when President Donald Trump announced it on his Truth Social platform upon completion.
While The Associated Press did not have advance word that the operation would happen, its journalists in Venezuela heard and observed explosions taking place there, and that was reported on the news wire more than two hours before Trump’s announcement. The U.S. involvement was not made clear until Trump’s post, however.
Decisions on publication have many dimensions
Hegseth, in defending rules that restrict reporters’ movements and reporting in the Pentagon, told Fox News last year that “we have expectations that you’re not soliciting classified or sensitive information.” The Times last month filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the rules.
Decisions on whether to report information that could put lives or a mission in danger often involve high-level discussions between editors and government officials. But Priest stressed that in a country with freedom of the press, the ultimate decision on whether to report the information lies with the news organization.
Generations ago, President John F. Kennedy persuaded editors at the Times not to report when it learned in advance of a U.S.-backed attack by Cuban exiles on Fidel Castro’s forces at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The mission proved a monumental failure and a Times editor, Bill Keller, later said that Kennedy expressed regret that the newspaper had not reported on what it had known because it could have prevented a fiasco.
Many mainstream journalists covering the military and national security have extensive experience dealing with sensitive issues, Priest said. But there’s a difference, she said, between reporting information that could put someone in danger and that which could prove embarrassing to an administration.
“The reporters are not going to be deterred by a ridiculously broad censorship edict by the Trump administration,” Priest said. “They’re going to dig in and work even harder. Their mission is not to curry favor with the Trump administration. It’s to report information to the public.”
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