Alex Osola (3:13)

The Trump administration's criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is drawing criticism from some lawmakers and former officials. Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen and other former officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations defended Powell. They said the investigation was an attempt to undermine the Fed's independence to set monetary policy. Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, also criticized the investigation and said he would block any new nominee to the Fed until it's resolved. Tillis doing that could make it harder for Trump to influence the central bank. Meanwhile, Kevin Hassett, a top White House economic adviser and a finalist for President Trump's nomination to succeed Powell as Fed chair, said that the DOJ investigation is a move to promote accountability. In an interview last night, Trump said he didn't know about the Justice Department subpoena and that any criminal investigation isn't related to disagreements the White House has had with Powell over interest rates. The stock market reaction to the Powell investigation was muted, with the three indexes all finishing slightly higher. The the Nasdaq led gains and closed up 0.3%, but what's known as the debasement trade got a revival. That's when investors worried about inflation sell the US Dollar and buy up gold and silver as safe havens. The dollar today slipped compared with a basket of foreign currencies, while gold rose 2.5% and silver jumped more than 7%. Google parent Alphabet rose above $4 trillion in trading today, joining a small club of companies to cross that mark. Google's pulled ahead in the AI race with its latest Gemini 3 model. And in an example today of Google's abilities, Apple said Gemini would power a new, more personalized version of Siri that's coming later this year. The company finished the day at $4.009 trillion. Paramount continues to push its hostile bid for Warner Brothers discovery. Paramount said today that it plans to launch a proxy fight for Warner's board seats and also filed a lawsuit seeking to force Warner to release more information about its merger agreement with Netflix War Warner says the lawsuit has no merit. And there's also AI news from Meta today, which says it's created a top initiative focused on getting the computing power it needs for AI, the Facebook and Instagram parent also named a new president and vice chair, Dina Powell McCormick. She's a wall street veteran and former Trump advisor and she'll work on developing government partnerships for data centers around the world. She'll report directly to Mark Zuckerberg. Coming up, the group chat where Silicon Valley's elite are planning for a possible billionaire tax. Plus President Trump ways how to proceed with Iran. That's after the break. AI is here and Chevron is working to power it. We're aiming to develop multi gigawatt power plants near data centers. AI gets the power it needs, communities get the jobs and the grid stays strong.

Anvi Bhutani (6:11)

Foreign.

Alex Osola (6:16)

A proposed 5% tax on California billionaires wealth has rattled some Silicon Valley titans. They're complaining about the tax in a signal chat called Save California. I'm joined now by WSJ Enterprise reporter Emily Glazer. Emily Some of the people in the chat are Andrew co founder Palmer Luckey, Trump administration crypto czar David Sachs, and Ripple co founder Chris Larson. That's a wide spectrum of politics here. But what are they saying in this group chat?

Emily Glazer (6:42)

Well, our reporting shows that a number of people are pretty agitated. We're aware of dozens of billionaires that were in this signal chat called Save California and they were complaining about the proposed tax. They were trying to suggest alternatives and in some cases they were sharing efforts to weaken their ties to California.

Alex Osola (7:03)

How common is this negative sentiment about this proposed tax among California's billionaires? Like, are there people who say they're fine with it?

Emily Glazer (7:11)

There are. One of the most public examples is Jensen Wang, the Nvidia CEO who recently said that he supported it. But the Wall Street Journal reported that Larry Page has been buying up properties in Florida and his Google co founder Sergey Brin is in talks on a property in Florida. So we're seeing a range.

Alex Osola (7:32)

Why are these billionaires so mad? Like, why do they feel the need to? As the name of the chat is so Save California, some of them are.

Emily Glazer (7:40)

Frustrated with how California is being run. They feel that California should first root out fraud and waste before they look for new sources of funds. There's a sense that if California won't do what it needs for them, they're going to move elsewhere.

Alex Osola (7:55)

This billionaire tax is still a proposal. It is not implemented. Why is it causing concerns now?

Emily Glazer (8:01)

So the proposal needs about 875,000 signatures to get on the ballot in November, and then it would need a simple majority to pass. It would retroactively apply to billionaires who are residents of the state of California. On January 1, 2026. So that is why we saw some billionaires like Peter Thiel or Larry Page or David Sachs even make announcements prior to January 1st establishing residency or their offices of certain companies elsewhere.

Alex Osola (8:32)

So it sounds like they're not just venting to the group chat, which like honestly relatable there. It sounds like some people are actually doing stuff about it. Right? That's true.

Emily Glazer (8:40)

And I would say they're still doing things about it. There are some ideas that have been floated by billionaires and conveyed to labor leaders. Our reporting shows that includes giving the government illiquid stock for around 10 years as a no or low interest loan, taxing the loans on assets, or applying the tax to stock that is already public. I think that's a pretty important part because entrepreneurs, tech founders, their wealth is really tied up in their company stock. And that might not be public stock either. It might still be private company. Phone calls are slated for this week to explore a possible consensus, but there are also still phone calls slated to explore how the billionaires could defeat the tax proposal.

Alex Osola (9:22)

Definitely something to be keeping an eye on in the coming weeks and months. That was WSJ Enterprise reporter Emily Glaser. Thanks, Emily.

Emily Glazer (9:29)

Thank you.

Alex Osola (9:33)

U.S. officials say President Trump is leaning toward military strikes on Iran. But some senior aides, led by Vice President J.D. vance, are urging the president to try a diplomatic route before hitting Iran over its recent killing of protesters. Iran has made a last minute offer for negotiations over curbing its nuclear program. Officials say Trump hasn't made a decision and is meeting with senior aides tomorrow to determine his approach. And finally, Does that sound make you immediately think of clean floors? Then you may be a fan of the robot vacuum Roomba, which has had a dedicated following for years. People loved them like a pet and gave them names like Merrill Sweep. But now competitors are offering fancier, cheaper vacuums and some of the fandom has switched over. And as for Roomba, last month its parent company declared bankruptcy and will be taken over by a Chinese manufacturer. And that's what's news for this Monday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bienname with supervising producer Tali Arbel. I'm Alex Osola for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening. Want to break free from the AI frenzy and truly transform your marketing with Adobe? The path to ROI and the opportunity is all around you. Let's turn AI's promise into your marketing reality. It starts with Adobe.