Dell’s $6bn “gift”, OpenAI’s code red, Costco as moral center, and proxy advisors say no to a director

What this episode covers

The Giving Tree Michael and Susan Dell to donate $6.25 billion to fund 'Trump accounts' for 25 million U.S. kids Lyft CEO: This Giving Tuesday, I’m matching every rider’s donation David Risher: $78M in 2023 Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos commit $102.5 million to organizations combatting homelessness across the U.S.: ‘This is just the beginning’ The wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez in Venice is estimated to have cost between $46.5 million and $55.6 million MacKenzie Scott’s $19 billion donations have turned philanthropy on its head—why her style of giving actually works Fighting back! (Stakeholders Rule!) New York City Council passes landmark AI oversight package The New York City Council unanimously passed a collection of bills that are designed to provide a heightened level of oversight for the city's use of artificial intelligence tools. Bernie Sanders and Mamdani joined the Starbucks picket line in Brooklyn More than 1,000 Amazon employees sign open letter warning the company’s AI ‘will do staggering damage to democracy, our jobs, and the earth’ Costco sues Trump administration over tariffs, seeks full refund Costco filed a lawsuit at the U.S. Court of International Trade on Friday, saying the administration’s tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) are unlawful. The 1977 law has historically been used to impose sanctions against other nations. Exxon bid to dismiss Connecticut climate lawsuit fails A judge moved the case closer to trial after rejecting the company’s request to toss it out. OpenAI Completed Its Conversion. A New Ballot Initiative Seeks to Reverse It A coalition that tried and failed to block OpenAI’s conversion earlier this year is back with a new tactic: a California ballot initiative aimed at reining in the startup’s power. The planned initiative, dubbed the California Charitable Assets Protection Act, was filed Monday with California’s attorney general. It doesn’t mention OpenAI by name, but calls for the creation of an oversight board empowered to review and potentially reverse conversions to nonprofit organizations engaged in scientific and technological research that have happened in the state since January of 2024. Starbucks to settle with over 15,000 New York City workers for roughly $35 million Starbucks will pay about $35 million to more than 15,000 New York City workers to settle claims it denied them stable schedules and arbitrarily cut their hours. The company will also pay $3.4 million in civil penalties under the agreement with the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. It also agrees to comply with the city’s Fair Workweek law going forward. Fighting back! (Shareholders Rule!) Michael Burry calls Tesla ‘ridiculously overvalued’ and knocks tech industry for a widely used practice The post is critical of Tesla and the technology industry as a whole for its use of stock-based compensation and then ignoring it as a legitimate expense. Burry said Tesla share dilution should continue following shareholder approval of CEO Elon Musk’s historic pay package. Second proxy adviser calls for vote against Westpac director over ASX stint A second influential proxy adviser has recommended institutional investors vote against re-electing Westpac non-executive director Peter Nash, citing his six-year stint on the board of the troubled Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). CGI Glass Lewis said in a new report on Tuesday that investors should vote against Nash who joined the Westpac board in March 2018 and chairs the board's audit committee. Norway wealth fund to back call for Microsoft human rights report at AGM Microsoft AGM takes place on December 5 Norway wealth fund is Microsoft's eighth-largest shareholder The fund also said it would vote against the re-appointment of CEO Satya Nadella as chair of the board, as well as against his pay package. Potpourri OpenAI declares ‘code red’ as Google catches up in AI race In the memo, reported by the Wall Street Journal and The Information, Altman said the company will be delaying initiatives like ads, shopping and health agents, and a personal assistant, Pulse, to focus on improving ChatGPT. This includes core features like greater speed and reliability, better personalization, and the ability to answer more questions, he said. Corporations say they prioritize people. So why do so few chief people officers become CEOs? Only 16 of the CEOs at the 1,000 biggest companies have HR experience. Stephanie Mehta is CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Inc. and Fast Company MATT Uplifting stories: Costco sues Trump admin seeking tariff refunds before Supreme Court rules if they’re illegal Why it’s uplifting: Costco is the retail bulwark against stupidity - and they’re getting paid for it with persistent quarterly growth Costco board member defends DEI practices, rebukes companies scrapping policies Costco Under Fire in 19 States for Taking Stand Against Trump Second proxy adviser calls for vote against Westpac director over ASX stint Why it’s uplifting: This IS NOT AN ACTIVIST DRIVEN VOTE, and it isn’t about attendance! This is purely driven by conflict of interest - an ASX listed company using an ASX board member, a board member who up until 6 years ago lead KPMG in Australia - and KPMG is now Westpac’s auditor The move is underway - ISS/GL were never going to vote against directors in the US first, but Australia is much easier to target Google’s data centers could actually be going to the moon Why it’s uplifting: While we couldn’t solve the climate crisis for the sake of HUMANITY, we WILL solve it for the sake of AI: one hundred trillion times more energy than we produce in all of Earth today The space pitch arrives when Earth is starting to look like a bad long-term landlord for the AI build-out. A 2024 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report found that U.S. data centers already chew through about 4.4% of the country’s electricity, and that share could climb to as much as 12% by 2028 as GPU farms multiply. McKinsey puts a price tag on the race to scale data centers: roughly $6.7 trillion in global data center capex by 2030, about $5 trillion of that aimed at AI-ready infrastructure extraterrestrial data centers could cut emissions by a factor of 10 compared with their earthbound cousins Also, GTFO!