History Listory

2018

2018-01-17 Apple announced it would invest $350B in the U.S. economy over the next 5 years.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/01/apple-accelerates-us-investment-and-job-creation/

2020

2020-09-19 Trump backed a TikTok deal where Oracle and Walmart partnered with ByteDance; Walmart would hold 7.5% and ByteDance 80%.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/19/trump-says-he-has-approved-tiktok-oracle-deal-in-concept.html

2023

2023-05-07 HP introduced printer subscription tiers charging monthly fees, print limits, overage fees, and cancellation penalties.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2251993/the-nightmare-is-real-hp-makes-printing-a-subscription.html

https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/printers/hp-begins-subscription-plans-for-its-printers-and-ink-up-to-dollar36-per-month-includes-limits-and-cancellation-fees

2023-11-01 After the Hamas attacks on Israel, lawmakers pushed for a TikTok ban over alleged anti-Israel bias; venture capitalist Jeff Morris described a “TikTok War.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/tiktok-ban-israel-gaza-palestine-hamas-account-creator-video-rcna122849

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/usa-congress-members-conservative-activists-and-wealthy-tech-investors-call-for-ban-on-tiktok-for-alleged-pro-palestine-bias-incl-co-comment/

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/05/tiktok-invites-uk-lawmakers-to-review-algorithm-after-china-probe.html

https://x.com/jmj/status/1717404573214671068

https://x.com/jmj/status/1717404589262025031

2024

2024-05-06 Reports claimed lawmakers admitted TikTok ban efforts were tied to pro-Palestinian content.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/right-tiktok-boost-palestinian-content-1234876108/

https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2024/05/06/senator-romney-antony-blinken-tiktok-ban-israel-palestinian-content

https://www.commondreams.org/news/mitt-romney-tiktok

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/lawmakers-tiktok-ban-pro-palestinian-content-1235016101/

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/tiktok-sues-government-ban-violates-first-amendment-1235016534/

https://x.com/NathanJRobinson/status/1787176314023092727

2025 January STARGATE

2025-01-01 Larry Ellison, OpenAI Sam Altman, and Masayoshi Son of Softbank announced The Stargate Project to invest $500B in AI infrastructure in the U.S. by 2029.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_LLC

2026-01-13 Jeff Bezos said personal computing will inevitably move to the cloud, so someday people will have to “rent” cloud space just to use their computers.

https://www.idnfinancials.com/news/60515/jeff-bezos-ai-signals-the-end-of-the-pc-era-drives-shift-to-cloud#:~:text=LM,that%20has%20become%20newly%20relevant.

https://www.sdxcentral.com/control-plane/jeff-bezos-wants-you-to-rent-cloud-space-instead-of-buying-pcs-for-gamers-thats-truly-terrible

https://www.aol.com/articles/may-not-actually-own-next-164700527.html?

https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/jeff-bezos-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-bezos-envisions-that-youll-give-up-your-pc-for-an-ai-cloud-version

https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/thats-not-going-to-last-jeff-bezos-believes-ai-will-force-you-to-rent-your-pc-from-the-cloud-and-the-ram-crisis-is-accelerating-it

2025-01-18 TikTok shut itself down for about 15 hours as Trump’s ban law took effect.

TIKTOK TIMELINE https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/tiktoks-journey-global-sensation-trump-target-2025-09-16

https://www.npr.org/2025/01/18/nx-s1-5266146/tiktok-offline-supreme-court-ban

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-signs-executive-order-to-suspend-tiktok-ban-for-75-days-to-find-u-s-buyer

https://hls.harvard.edu/today/is-the-new-us-tiktok-safer/

https://www.wired.com/story/trump-executive-order-tiktok-ban/

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/21/tech/tiktok-national-security-concerns/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scVV1SscRWg

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/tiktok-reaches-deal-new-us-joint-venture-avoid-american-ban-2026-01-23/#:~:text=Summary,the%20Biggest%20in%20the%20World.%22

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/bytedance-s-agreement-to-sell-tiktok-puts-21251979.php

2025-01-21 Trump announced the $500B private-sector AI infrastructure investment through Stargate.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/21/tech/openai-oracle-softbank-trump-ai-investment

2025-01-25 Trump handed four big tech giants massive tax breaks.

https://itep.org/trump-meta-tesla-alphabet-amazon-obbba-taxes/

https://www.geekwire.com/2025/big-beautiful-tax-benefit-amazon-and-other-tech-giants-reap-the-rewards-of-new-law-for-now/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazons-tax-bill-plunges-gop-182806826.html

https://www.uscirf.gov/publications/sudan-issue-update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a1VhttWfDI&list=WL&index=1

2025 April

2025-04-12 Apple received retroactive exemptions from certain Chinese tariffs on smartphones.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/04/12/apple-iphone-trump-tariff-exemption/83059143007/

2025 August

2025-08-06 Apple announced a $600B U.S. investment over 4 years.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/08/apple-increases-us-commitment-to-600-billion-usd-announces-ambitious-program/

2025-08-07 Trump called for Intel’s CEO to resign, causing the company’s stock to drop.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/trump-says-intels-ceo-must-resign-sending-its-stock-tumbling

2025-08-11 Trump reversed course on Intel’s CEO after a meeting, praising his “success and rise”, writing on Truth Social “The meeting was a very interesting one. His success and rise is an amazing story. Mr. Tan and my Cabinet members are going to spend time together and bring suggestions to me during the next week”.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/11/intel-ceo-trump-lip-bu-tan.html

2025-08-22 The federal government announced a 10% stake in Intel, purchasing 433.3M primary shares.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-economic-and-policy-experts-think-about-the-u-s-governments-stake-in-intel#:~:text=On%20Aug.%2022%2C%20President%20Donald,per%20share%2C%20equaling%209.9%25

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/22/tech/trump-intel-10-percent-stake

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-economic-and-policy-experts-think-about-the-u-s-governments-stake-in-intel#:~:text=On%20Aug.%2022%2C%20President%20Donald,per%20share%2C%20equaling%209.9%25.

2025 September

2025-09-15 Trump considered selling TikTok to Larry Ellison.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/oracles-stake-tiktok-us-joint-venture-is-worth-roughly-2-billion-filing-shows-2026-03-11/

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/11/oracle-tiktok-us-stake-outages.html

2025-09-21 Trump considered selling ByteDance to Rupert Murdoch while seeking U.S. control of 6 of 7 TikTok board seats.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/21/trump-tiktok-murdoch-fox-bytedance.html

2025-09-26 Trump joked he would make TikTok’s algorithm “100% MAGA.”

2025-09-16 Microsoft announced a $30B AI infrastructure investment in the UK.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/microsoft-will-invest-30-billion-in-ai-infrastructure-operations-across-u-k-5099a7be?mod=WTRN_pos2

2026 February

2026-02-15 A global push for online age verification accelerated. Peter Thiel-backed Persona became a major provider.

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releases/roblox-reddit-and-discord-users-compelled-to-use-biometric-id-system-backed-by-palantir-co-founder-peter-thiel/

https://fortune.com/2026/02/24/discord-peter-thiel-backed-persona-identity-verification-breach/

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2026/02/age-verification-vendor-persona-left-frontend-exposed

2026-02-26 NVIDIA’s driver updated focused on vibecoding.

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-new-gpu-driver-is-a-disaster-it-has-now-been-pulled-back/

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/584070/announcing-geforce-hotfix-driver-59602-released-32/

2026 March

2026-03-14 Trump received a $10B transactional payout for brokering TikTok’s sale to Larry Ellison.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/03/donald-trump-tiktok-deal-10-billion-ellison-bytedance-china/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/business/trump-tiktok-10-billion-fee.html

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5787721-trump-equity-stakes-companies/

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/22/deal-for-us-ownership-of-tiktok-is-closed-company-says-00743145

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/18/nx-s1-5648844/tiktok-deal-oracle-trump

2026 April

2026-04-16 AllBirds pivoted from footwear into AI GPUs and announced a rebrand to “NewBird AI.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98mrepzgj7o

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/15/allbirds-bird-stock-shoes-ai.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/allbirds-buzzy-shoe-startup-pivots-ai-rcna331943

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTfyd_0F45w

https://www.reuters.com/business/allbirds-shares-jump-over-400-plans-pivot-ai-sneakers-2026-04-15/

2026-04-23 Microsoft announced they would be cutting around 9000 workers amid AI shifts.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/23/meta-microsoft-tech-ai-layoffs

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/316128/20260424/meta-microsoft-announce-job-cuts-thousands-employees-set-lose-their-jobs.htm

https://www.fastcompany.com/91531600/microsoft-voluntary-buyout-employees-first-ever-move-to-cut-jobs-workforce-ai-shift

2026 June

2026-06-01 Anthropic filed for an initial public offering after it raised $65B and pushed its valuation to $965B. Bernie Sanders announced a new bill that would create a sovereign wealth fund by imposing a one-time 50% tax on big-tech stock. Sanders wrote in an op-ed it would, “give the public a direct role in determining the future of this technology….not simply to make the richest people in the world even richer…”.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/insight/anthropic-files-for-ipo-after-65b-funding-boost/gm-GMDE74FCD0

https://www.anthropic.com/news/confidential-draft-s1-sec

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/28/anthropic-open-ai-startup-value.html

https://www.democracynow.org/2026/6/2/headlines/anthropic_confidentially_files_for_ipo_as_sen_sanders_calls_for_50_tax_on_stock_of_ai_companies

2026-06-18 SanDisk drives prices soared to almost $3000.

https://www.engadget.com/2196530/sandisks-new-8tb-ps5-ssd-costs-more-than-three-times-as-much-as-the-ps5-pro/

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/bernadette-giacomazzo/ps5-owners-hit-price-increase

2026 July

2026-07-06 Microsoft cut 4800 more jobs, citing a loss of 64 cents for every dollar the company invested.

https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-jobs-cuts-across-sales-and-xbox-read-the-memo-2026-7

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/06/microsoft-cuts-2point1percent-of-employees-as-xbox-unit-plans-to-spin-studios.html

https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/article/microsofts-xbox-cuts-3200-jobs-says-we-lost-64-cents-for-every-dollar-we-invested-145525525.html

2026-07-10 The US granted the UAE expanded access to AI chips.

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-902621

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-makes-it-easier-export-certain-military-items-ai-chips-commercial-satellites-2026-07-10/

SUB WALL https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/uae-ai-chips-iran-war-26c10d77

2026-07-13 Apple sued OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/apple-sues-openai-alleging-misappropriation-trade-secrets-court-records-show-2026-07-10/

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/10/apple-openai-lawsuit-trade-secrets.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-13/how-apple-s-lawsuit-threatens-to-disrupt-openai-s-bid-to-rival-the-iphone

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/13/openai-lawsuit-threatens-plans/

2026-07-14 Elon Musk’s company XAI installed more gas turbines without federal permits. The pollution is primarily affecting Black neighborhoods.

https://electrek.co/2026/07/14/musk-buys-gas-turbine-company-apr-energy-grok/

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/elon-musks-colossus-2-data-center-installed-59-natural-gas-turbines-without-permission-report-claims-thousands-of-tons-of-pollutants-reportedly-impact-black-communities-in-mississippi-already-suffering-from-elevated-lung-disease-rates

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/pollution-musks-unpermitted-xai-power-project-hits-hardest-black-communities-2026-07-14/

TIMESTAMP 11:05 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YThcfluu8f8&list=WL&index=5

2026-07-18 Google-backed satellites for wildfire detection launched. This was after Trump defunded wildlife prevention services and dismantled a satellite program intended to track wildfire smoke and pollution.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/google-backed-satellites-for-wildfire-detection-launch-as-smoke-chokes-us-canada/

https://www.pcmag.com/news/these-google-backed-satellites-could-detect-wildfires-early

https://futurism.com/science-energy/trump-cancelled-satellite-geoxo-noaa-monitoring-wildfire-smoke

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/04/nx-s1-5453731/nasa-carbon-dioxide-satellite-mission-threatened

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/15/fire-tech-california-trump-washington-dc-technology-wildfires-00996949

2026-07-18 Hewlett-Packard India was fined $14.4M for rigging government bids and fixing ink and toner prices.

https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/hp-fined-millions-dollars-acting-175942607.html

2026-07-20 The Trump administration is considering restrictions on newer Chinese open weight AI models.

https://www.axios.com/2026/07/20/ai-us-china-open-source-kimi

2026-07-20 LG monitor owners noticed unwanted pop-up ads and automatic installation of bloatware.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/967983/lg-monitors-mcafee-adware-gamers-nexus

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/companies-are-now-using-automatic-windows-installers-to-display-adware-through-the-microsoft-store-when-you-install-new-hardware-customer-immediately-gets-mcafee-ads-on-their-pc-after-connecting-new-lg-monitor-heres-how-to-block-the-new-ads

2026-07-22 Apple teamed up with Klarna on a new Apple upgrade leasing program. Customers will pay a monthly subscription to use devices rather than own them outright.

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/apple-reportedly-launching-device-leasing-013400947.html

https://www.pcmag.com/news/apples-upgrade-leasing-plan-feels-like-a-trap

2026-07-24 Microsoft forced LG to stop silently installing McAfee bloatware.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/970489/lg-mcafee-ads-windows-microsoft-crackdown

2026-07-24 Framework doubled memory pricing and downgraded ram on pre-orders.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/969819/framework-laptop-13-pro-preorder-ram-price-updates

https://www.pcmag.com/news/800-more-memory-crunch-derails-pricing-for-frameworks-newest-laptop

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/framework-is-downgrading-some-laptop-13-pro-orders-after-a-massive-ram-cost-spike/

2026-07-24 NVIDIA raised the price of GPU kits.

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/after-months-of-surprising-stability-in-graphics-card-prices-apparently-nvidia-is-now-raising-the-cost-of-its-gpu-kits-for-aib-partners/

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/112801/nvidia-is-reportedly-increasing-the-prices-of-its-geforce-rtx-gpus-due-to-rising-memory-costs/index.html

https://www.techpowerup.com/351018/nvidia-reportedly-raises-gddr6-and-gddr7-memory-kit-prices-for-rtx-gpus

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-rtx-5060-spikes-75-overnight-in-china-as-memory-kit-hike-ripples-across-the-entire-gpu-market/