Beijing holds Washington responsible for the appropriation of $13 billion worth of Bitcoin in 2020.

We began with Former Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart, who described the economy's condition and notably stated his primary concern wasn't “frog choking” conditions, but rather “frog boiling”—as he put it, “the creeping, long-term changes where you can’t point to a particular event, necessarily, but over time you wake up and find you’re in a different world.”.

So how did the CEOs say they’re managing change? 

For one software firm, it’s a “go all in” on AI with the ability to “answer the ROI question in about 24 months.” For another, it’s “hold on to your best developers” and “train up” everyone to leverage new tech. For an auto supplier, it’s diversifying your supply chain to deal with evolving relationships on the global stage; for a robotics company, it’s “robots building robots” in the U.S. Where tariffs won’t wreck the balance sheet. And, of course, it’s seizing fresh opportunities amid the tumult.

Based on the latest annual CEO survey undertaken with Coins2Day, Jason Girzadas, CEO of Deloitte, emphasized that a “growth mindset” and “emotional intelligence” are crucial abilities for navigating current trends.

“At the highest levels of interest of CEOs,” he said, “in terms of their workforce’s ability to assimilate and adapt.” He added: “Very human skills.”

Many thanks to sponsor, Deloitte, for helping to make the conversation happen.

Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca

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Beijing holds Washington responsible for the appropriation of $13 billion worth of Bitcoin in 2020.

Beijing alleges that the U.S. Government pilfered 127,272 Bitcoin, a sum now valued at approximately $13 billion.

Last week, the Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center released a report—a name that's quite a mouthful, honestly—described the maneuver as a “state-level hacker operation” because of its quiet and slow execution, versus the smash-and-grab approach of a conventional crypto criminal.

In December 2020, tokens were stolen from The LuBian Bitcoin mining pool, marking one of history's most significant crypto thefts.

A Chinese report links the pilfered LuBian tokens to cryptocurrency seized by U.S. Authorities from Chen Zhi, the head of Cambodia's purportedly “pig-butchering” Prince Group. Chen Zhi faced accusations of fraud and money laundering in October.

U.S. Officials did not elaborate on how the Chen Zhi tokens were obtained.

“This is a classic ‘black eats black’ operation,” the report says, referring to one malicious actor hacking another.

This is hardly the first time the Chinese government has accused Washington of orchestrating hacking schemes. Just last month, for example, Beijing said it had “irrefutable evidence” of a U.S. Attack on China’s National Time Service Center. —AN

SoftBank divested its complete holding in Nvidia during October, realizing $5.8 billion.

SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate, has investments in numerous ventures, yet it no longer holds a stake in the planet's most highly valued corporation.

The Masayoshi Son-led conglomerate said this week it divested its full holding in prominent AI chip manufacturer Nvidia, realizing $5.83 billion, to fund (predictably) AI initiatives. 

The CEO, who is familiar with managing a heavily financed business, is divesting some prior investments as he attempts to capitalize on the AI surge by investing in several expensive ventures, including Stargate data centers, chip company purchases, and a share in OpenAI.

(Among them: Part of its stake in T-Mobile, sold for $9.17 billion.)

Underlying all of this is ongoing investor doubt regarding whether substantial AI investments will yield positive outcomes. SoftBank is not unique in facing such scrutiny, considering the astonishing capital expenditure forecasts from Alphabet, Meta, and other companies.

SoftBank shares fell more than 10% in Tokyo on Wednesday in the wake of the news. —AN

Yann LeCun intends to depart from Meta

The long-time leader of Meta's AI initiatives is rumored to be considering a departure.

According to various news reportsYann LeCun has gathered associates and discussed with financiers the establishment of a new venture aimed at creating “world models,”, a distinct field within AI, diverging from the prevalent large language models (LLMs) dominating current media coverage.

It’s hardly a done deal; LeCun could still remain at Meta. But in many ways, it wasn’t a matter of if, but when. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hired LeCun from New York University to lead the company’s fledgling AI group in 2013, back when tech types were excitedly talking about “deep learning.”

Fast forward to the present, and AI stands as Meta's paramount concern. (Farewell, metaverse.) However, when Zuckerberg drastically restructured the now-extensive organization this past summer—appointing Alexandr Wang, 28, formerly of Scale AI, as its leader—LeCun discovered his position within a diminishing AI research department.

It certainly didn’t help that the famously outspoken LeCun was skeptical of the future of LLMs as a path to superintelligence, Meta’s stated goal.

If LeCun starts his own world models startup, he’ll be in good company. AI luminary Fei-Fei Li founded World Labs last year, and several companies—Decart, Runway, and Waabi, not to mention Google DeepMind and Microsoft—are working in the area. —AN

More tech

—CoreWeave shares dropped 16% after it disclosed delays at a data center developer.

—AMD predicts 35% annual revenue growth over the next three to five years thanks to all those new data centers.

—Beijing influencing SMIC chip output. Reported orders to prioritize Huawei over U.S. Firms.

—Apple’s iPhone Air may get a second camera lens after all.

—Coinbase calls off $2 billion BVNK deal. One of the largest deals ever for a stablecoin startup is not to be.

—Samsung’s latest TVs get conversational AI in 10 languages.

—SoFi Crypto: The first nationally chartered bank in the U.S. To offer crypto trading to consumers, the company says.