TRANSPORTATION
Amtrak CEO steps down as Trump targets transit
Amtrak chief executive Stephen Gardner announced that he is leaving his job Wednesday as the Trump administration threatens to pull back on funding mass transit and transportation projects across the nation. “I am stepping down as CEO to ensure that Amtrak continues to enjoy the full faith and confidence of this administration,’’ Gardner, head of the nation’s passenger railroad company, said in a statement. His successor has not yet been publicly announced. Gardner’s departure comes as President Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy send shock waves through transit agencies with threats to pull federal funding from major projects if they don’t comply with new regulations and mandates. The White House is currently trying to stop New York City’s congestion pricing plan, and Duffy recently launched a review of California’s high-speed rail project. Amtrak is a for-profit company with several ties to the federal government. The company’s board members are generally appointed by the president, with the transportation secretary taking one seat. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
TECHNOLOGY
Musk’s X gets nearly $1b in new investment
Elon Musk’s social network X has raised close to $1 billion in new equity from investors, according to people with knowledge of the matter — a deal that gives the company a valuation in line with when Musk took it private in 2022. Musk himself participated in the equity raise, said some of the people, all of whom asked not to be identified discussing private information. The company is considering using some of the proceeds to pay down its remaining debt load, one of the people said. The deal values X’s equity at roughly $32 billion. The Twitter buyout included at least $12.5 billion in debt, meaning the latest fund-raising was completed at roughly the same $44 billion enterprise value as Musk’s initial purchase. Darsana Capital Partners, which bought some of X’s debt earlier this year, participated in the equity round, some of the people said. The VC firm 1789 Capital, which has backed xAI and SpaceX, also invested, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Representatives for X, Darsana, and 1789 declined to comment. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
TECHNOLOGY
Google, Apple warned in EU crackdown
Alphabet Inc.’s Google was warned to step in line with the European Union’s Big Tech rules or risk hefty fines as part of a two-pronged escalation against Silicon Valley that risks further inflaming tensions with President Trump. The European Commission chastised Google for allegedly breaching the bloc’s landmark Digital Markets Act by favoring in-house services across its sprawling search empire and for preventing app developers from steering consumers to offers outside of its Play Store. Meanwhile, Apple Inc. was told it must loosen the shackles on its iPhone operating system in order to comply with the law, approved last year to bolster the EU’s antitrust defenses against the power of Silicon Valley. While the Google decision comes with the threat of financial penalties for noncompliance, the Apple action doesn’t directly lead to that outcome. “Let me be clear: Our main focus is creating a culture of compliance’’ with the DMA, Teresa Ribera, the EU’s antitrust chief said in a statement on the move against Google. The measure targeting Apple is an “important step’’ toward opening its ecosystem, she added. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
BANKING
Fannie Mae board member abruptly resigns
Christopher Stanley, the cybersecurity engineer who has worked for two of Elon Musk’s companies and the billionaire’s effort to reshape the federal government, resigned from the Fannie Mae board of directors a day after he was appointed to the post, according to a regulatory filing. Stanley, who has ties to Musk’s SpaceX, social media platform X and the Department of Government Efficiency, was among a group of new appointments to Fannie’s board of directors announced Monday. Details about the reason for his quick departure weren’t immediately clear. Other new additions to the board on Monday included Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte and the agency’s general counsel Clinton Jones. Several prior members of the board were also removed, according to a filing. Neither Fannie nor Stanley immediately responded to a request for comment. The FHFA declined to comment. The FHFA is the agency that oversees Fannie and Freddie Mac, two mortgage giants in the US housing market. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
FOOD
Ben & Jerry’s accuses parent company of political firing
Ben & Jerry’s accused Unilever, its parent company, of firing its CEO because he allowed the ice cream maker to speak out on political issues, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. In the filing, Ben & Jerry’s said Unilever had fired David Stever because of his commitment to the company’s social mission rather than his job performance. He had held the ice cream company’s top job since 2023. “Unilever has repeatedly threatened Ben & Jerry’s personnel, including CEO David Stever, should they fail to comply with Unilever’s efforts to silence the social mission,’’ Ben & Jerry’s said in the filing. Unilever informed the Ben and Jerry’s board on March 3 that it was planning to remove and replace Stever as CEO, the filing said. This was done without the approval of an advisory board, and went against an agreement the two companies signed when they merged in 2000, Ben & Jerry’s claimed in the filing. It added that, “under Mr. Stever’s tenure, Ben & Jerry’s outperformed Unilever’s ice cream portfolio.’’ — NEW YORK TIMES
TECHNOLOGY
Google launches $499 Pixel 9a, rivaling Apple’s iPhone 16e
Alphabet Inc.’s Google launched a redesigned version of its budget Pixel phone, upgrading the chip and battery life weeks after Apple Inc.’s lower-end iPhone 16e went on sale. The new Pixel 9a, announced Wednesday, costs $499, in line with the price of last year’s Pixel 8a. That compares with the $599 starting price of the iPhone 16e, which went on sale in February and is being positioned as a lower-end alternative to the iPhone 16. The Pixel 9a will be available in stores in April. While Google’s Pixel phones have won over some customers with their artificial intelligence capabilities and integration with Google services, the devices have never made a significant dent in the premium segment dominated by Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. But the lower-end products have helped the company slowly expand its overall market share, with IDC saying Google recorded its “highest-ever smartphone volumes’’ in the third quarter last year. The new iPhone 16e presents Google with fresh competition in the lower-end phone space. At the current price points, the Pixel 9a device is only $100 cheaper than the 16e, with both products offering similar specifications — other than the superior camera on the Google handset. In addition to upgraded internals, the Pixel 9a brings a new design with flat edges instead of curved, matching the general look of the higher-end Pixel 9 introduced last year. It also has a flat back, removing the camera bump from prior models. The back of the phone has two cameras: a 48-megapixel main sensor and a 13-megapixel option for ultrawide photos. The main sensor’s megapixels are a downgrade from the 64 megapixels on the 8a, but Google says the system has actually been improved to let in more light. It also adds a macro focus mode. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
