- In today’s CEO Daily: Lee Clifford on adding an AI and corporate governance.
- The big story: Trump’s crypto empire has earned him $1 billion-plus so far.
- The markets: Mostly up.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. Would you add an AI to your company’s board? Yes, the idea sounds crazy. Then again, what would you think about a board member with perfect recall, exemplary computation skills, and the ability to dig into data and ask hard questions? Starts to sound not so crazy after all. And at least one CEO who spoke at the Fortune Most Powerful Women summit, which wrapped up in D.C. yesterday, says she’s open to it.
Hanneke Faber, CEO of global tech manufacturing company Logitech, says she’d entertain the idea of an AI joining her board, as my colleague Sydney Lake reported. “We already use [AI agents] in almost every meeting,” Faber told the audience. She said that while AI agents (in her case Microsoft Copilot as well as internal bots), are currently summarizing and notetaking and idea generating, things are progressing fast. “As they evolve—and some of the best agents or assistants that we’ve built actually do things themselves—that comes with a whole bunch of governance things,” Faber said. “You have to keep in mind and make sure you really want that bot to take action. But if you don’t have an AI agent in every meeting, you’re missing out on some of the productivity.”
Reshema Kemps-Polanco, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at global pharmaceutical company Novartis, also said she’s been training an AI bot to help run a “very rigorous commercial launch.” The bot is being trained to assess the team’s launch plan, and is getting “smarter and smarter” about asking strategic questions, she said. “It’s trained to look for gaps in the plan,” said Kemps-Polanco during a session titled “Dissecting the Global Economy,” which was presented by Novartis.
Of course, the idea of having an AI board member opens up a host of thorny ethical issues. What would happen if the AI recommended a strategy that goes south? Or relies on biased data to make a decision? However, given that the average director of an S&P 500 company made $336,352 in total compensation last year according to Spencer Stuart, adding a bot to a board may be a better deal than you think.—Lee Clifford
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
Top news
Trump’s crypto empire has earned him $1 billion-plus so far
The president has earned $550 million from the WLFI token and $362 million from the $TRUMP coin, among other crypto ventures, according to the FT. His stake in Trump Media & Technology Group, which has a bitcoin-treasury, is now worth $1.9 billion.
“Of course there’s a bubble,” says AI VC, “bubbles are good.”
VC funds have ploughed $161 billion this year into a handful of AI startups whose collective valuation is now around $1 trillion. Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst, told the FT, “Bubbles are good. Bubbles align capital and talent in a new trend, and that creates some carnage but it also creates enduring, new businesses that change the world.”
10,000 federal workers will be fired in shutdown
The number is more than twice as big as previously disclosed. About 300,000 federal jobs have been lost through attrition this year, the White House said.
Morgan Stanley’s earnings blowout
Morgan Stanley smashed Wall Street expectations during its earnings call on Wednesday, posting $18.2 billion in net revenue for the quarter. That’s an 18% year-over-year increase, thanks in part to increased dealmaking and trade activity.
BlackRock-led group to acquire data infrastructure company for $40 billion
The AI Infrastructure Partnership, a group of investors led by BlackRock, agreed to acquire Aligned Data Centers for $40 billion, the companies announced on Wednesday. The deal comes just a day after BlackRock CEO Larry Fink dispelled concerns about an AI bubble on CNBC Squawk Box.
Must-read profile on secretive First Brands CEO
The FT unpicks how a virtually unknown business leader with a string of failed businesses behind him was able to borrow $12 billion from Wall Street. Separately, the WSJ explores whether Jefferies should have known that the company was unsound when it was helping the company refinance its loans.
Elsewhere: Trump says he has persuaded India to stop buying Russian oil … National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said the government would bail out farmers whose businesses have been ruined by the trade war after the shutdown ends … The president approved of covert CIA operations inside Venezuela but few other details are available.
The markets
S&P 500 futures were up 0.23% this morning. The index closed up 0.4% in its last session. STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.12% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was down 0.12% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.27%. China’s CSI 300 was up 0.26%. The South Korea KOSPI was up 2.49%. India’s Nifty 50 was up 1.03% before the end of the session. Bitcoin was down to $110.8K.
Around the watercooler
Mark Cuban warns that OpenAI’s new plan to allow adults-only erotica in ChatGPT could ‘backfire. Hard’ by Eva Roytburg
MacKenzie Scott has cut her stake in Amazon by 42%—worth nearly $13 billion—as the billionaire casually donates over $110 million to DEI causes by Jessica Coacci
Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says ‘so much of the internet is dead’—and the rise of bots and ‘quasi-AI, LinkedIn slop’ killed it by Sasha Rogelberg
CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.
