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Tag: project

Meta touts plans for ‘world’s longest subsea cable project’

Evercore ISI senior managing director Mark Mahaney reacts to January’s jobs report and reveals his top tech stocks on ‘Varney & Co.’

Meta, the company that owns the popular social media apps Facebook and Instagram, announced plans for “Project Waterworth” a massive subsea cable project.

The project will cover more than 50,000 kilometers, which is more than 31,000 miles, a figure even longer than the circumference of the globe, the company noted.

“Once complete, the project will reach five major continents and span over 50,000 km (longer than the Earth’s circumference), making it the world’s longest subsea cable project using the highest-capacity technology available,” Meta’s announcement, by Gaya Nagarajan and Alex-Handrah Aimé, declares.

META ENDS FACT-CHECKING PROGRAM AS ZUCKERBERG VOWS TO RESTORE FREE EXPRESSION ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

Mark Zuckerberg is seen in attendance during the UFC 298 event at Honda Center on Feb. 17, 2024 in Anaheim, Calif. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

The internet infrastructure undertaking “will bring industry-leading connectivity to the U.S., India, Brazil, South Africa, and other key regions,” the company noted.

The endeavor will cost billions of dollars.

“Project Waterworth will be a multi-billion dollar, multi-year investment to strengthen the scale and reliability of the world’s digital highways by opening three new oceanic corridors with the abundant, high speed connectivity needed to drive AI innovation around the world,” the announcement says.

FACEBOOK OWNER INVESTING UP TO $65 BILLION TOWARD AI IN 2025

Rob Luna Enterprise CEO Rob Luna gives his take on Meta’s market success and gives investment advice on ‘Making Money.’

“We’ve driven infrastructure innovation with various partners over the past decade, developing more than 20 subsea cables. This includes multiple deployments of industry-leading subsea cables of 24 fiber pairs – compared to the typical 8 to 16 fiber pairs of other new systems,” the announcement reads.

“With Project Waterworth, we continue to advance engineering design to maintain cable resilience, enabling us to build the longest 24 fiber pair cable project in the world and enhance overall speed of deployment,” it also notes.

META CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG SAYS ‘EVERYTHING I SAY LEAKS’ FROM INTERNAL MEETINGS: ‘IT SUCKS’

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., center, arrives for the 60th presidential inauguration in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Meta founder, chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.

February 18, 2025
Heritage president reacts to ‘Project 2025′ promptly dropping from liberals’ lips as DOGE takes ax to DC

FIRST ON FOX: In the heat of the 2024 election cycle, the name Project 2025 was on the lips of Democrats and mainstream media figures everywhere, until it was not.

President Donald Trump’s win ushered in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its de-facto leader, Elon Musk. At the same time, Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, launched DOGE committees in Congress, and Project 2025 appeared to fall to the political wayside.

Trump himself repeatedly dispelled allegations he and Project 2025 – a thousand-page policy proposal product of the conservative Heritage Foundation – were joined at the political hip.

Meanwhile, Heritage leaders past and present, like Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese and Heritage President Kevin Roberts, rejected claims there has been anything radical about Project 2025. The quadrennial work has been published under various titles and compositions since the 1980 presidential cycle, with some exceptions.

PROJECT 2025 REMAINS NONPARTISAN, TRUE TO 1980S GOOD-GOVT INCEPTION DESPITE WILD OUTCRY: KEY FIGURES

Roberts, who wrote the foreword to Project 2025, said voters’ collective voices ushered in Trump and DOGE’s current work, not necessarily the policy proposals of Washington’s conservative “do-tank” or scholars inside-the-beltway writ-large.

“The American people delivered a clear mandate in November: dismantle the bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy that is the Deep State. And the latest polling – a 53% approval rating – confirms overwhelming support for President Trump’s efforts to do just that,” he said.

When asked about liberals’ panic over Project 2025 and how it has been muted with the rise of DOGE, Roberts suggested the left will latch onto anything to make an issue out of it if they believe they can make gains.

“The Left has no new ideas—just unpopular ones. When they fail to win on substance, they simply choose to attack. First, it was Project 2025. Now, it’s DOGE. Different name, same baseless fearmongering,” Roberts said in a Monday interview. “But make no mistake: the American people are ready for real change, and we’re not backing down.”

Nonetheless, Project 2025 became styled as a “right-wing boogeyman” talking point on the left.

TRUMP PLANS FIRST PRESIDENTIAL VISIT TO HELENE-RAVAGED NC

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., founded the “Stop Project 2025 Task Force” last year, comparing the project to a “Blitzkrieg” and saying that lawmakers must understand it and “prepare ourselves accordingly.”

At the Democratic National Convention, both Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., and Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, held up copies of Project 2025 on stage.

“It is a radical plan to drag us backwards, bankrupt the middle class, and raise prices on working class families like yours and mine,” said Kenyatta, who has since been elected DNC vice chairman along with gun control activist David Hogg.

The Project’s rumored reputation became fodder for constituents at town halls as well, including in one swing-seat congressional race where a Republican’s incredulous response led to a viral moment, according to Politico.

PROJECT 2025 ISSUES BLISTERING RESPONSE TO HARRIS VIA DOZENS OF INDEPENDENT FACT CHECKS

New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean Jr. was asked about Project 2025 at such an event and responded he had never read the document.

“The first time I’ve ever heard of being supportive of it was when I was accused of supporting it,” Kean reportedly replied.

One of Trump and Musk’s more recent major endeavors – taking an ax to USAID – is more a project of DOGE, while Project 2025 suggests a more measured approach to rein in the agency’s expenditures and politicization.

That project section, authored by former agency COO Max Primorac, describes USAID as having been “deformed” by the Biden administration to pursue a “divisive political and cultural agenda.”

Primorac suggests the next administration “scale back” USAID’s global footprint and return it to pre-COVID budget levels while “deradicalizing” its programs and cutting its international affairs accounts.

Additionally, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli wrote in Project 2025 that the president should “pursue legislation to dismantle the Department of Homeland Security” and that it has not “gelled into one DHS” as was its goal when founded after 9/11.

DOGE MEETS CONGRESS: GOP LAWMAKER LAUNCHES CAUCUS TO HELP MUSK ‘TAKE ON CRAZYTOWN’

DOGE Chair Elon Musk. (Getty)

Cuccinelli had argued that breaking up DHS along “mission[-related] lines” would lead to a more effective government apparatus.

Instead, Trump and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem have expanded DHS’ role versus the Biden administration, including the addition of former ICE acting Director Tom Homan as border czar.

DOGE’s ruminations about reforming or trimming the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – which have enraged the likes of its proverbial “founder” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. – were, however, mirrored in the policy proposal anthology.

“Elon Musk and the guy who wrote Project 2025, Russ Vought, are trying to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” Warren said Monday. “If they succeed, CEOs and Wall Street will once again be free to trick, trap and cheat you.”

Vought did not write Project 2025. He was credited as the author for Chapter 2, which analyzes the executive office of the president.

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Former Chase-Manhattan Bank Vice President Robert Bowes called CFPB “highly politicized, damaging, and utterly unaccountable” in a section of the project he authored.

“It is unconstitutional. Congress should abolish the CFPB and reverse Dodd–Frank Section 1061, thus returning the consumer protection function of the CFPB to banking regulators,” Bowes wrote.

Recent media headlines have tried to tie DOGE to the project, with critical stories headlined “Project 2025 Architect” in reference to people like Vought.

Roberts said Trump’s team should be the beneficiary of such headlines, in that “he and his team deserve the credit” – and that it is a welcome sight that people who embody Heritage’s guiding principles are being tapped for top positions in the new administration.

“Heritage is thrilled to see President Trump appoint so many hardworking patriots who put America First. Russ is one of the great statesmen of our age—a brilliant, principled leader with the vision and intellect to take on ‘The Swamp’ and win.”

“Between Russ at the helm of OMB and Elon at the helm of DOGE, they will rein in wasteful spending, restore fiscal discipline, and ensure that our government serves the people—not the other way around.”

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].

February 11, 2025
Energy experts blast failed billion-dollar DOE project as ‘financial boondoggle,’ ‘disaster’

A major solar power plant project that was granted over a billion dollars in federal loans is on the road to closure, with energy experts blasting the project as a “boondoggle” that harmed the environment.

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under former President Barack Obama issued $1.6 billion in loan guarantees to finance the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, a green energy project that consists of three solar concentrating thermal power plants in California.

The facility was touted by then-Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz as an “example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy.” But after 10 years, the federally funded plant is now on track to close.

“Ivanpah is yet another failed green energy boondoggle, much like Solyndra,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, an American energy advocacy group, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Despite receiving $1.6 billion in federal loan guarantees, it never lived up to its promises, producing less electricity than expected while still relying on natural gas to stay operational.”

ENERGY SEC. WRIGHT ISSUES DAY-1 ORDERS TARGETING OIL RESERVES, APPLIANCE RULES, ‘NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE’

Ivanpah Solar Power Facility (U.S. Department of Energy)

“Now, with its power contracts canceled, Ivanpah stands as a testament to the waste and inefficiency of government-subsidized energy schemes,” Isaac said.

Ivanpah consists of three individual units, two of which were contracted by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) in 2009 and scheduled to run until 2039.

EXPERTS SAY FIRST WEEK OF ‘TRUMP EFFECT’ IS DERAILING GLOBAL CLIMATE MOVEMENT’S ‘HOUSE OF CARDS’

In January, PG&E announced plans to cancel its agreement with Ivanpah 14 years early, determining that “ending the agreements at this time will save customers money compared to the cost of keeping them through 2039” – ultimately putting Ivanpah on notice for closure.

“The Ivanpah plant was a financial boondoggle and environmental disaster,” Julia Dowell of the Sierra Club, an environmental activism group, said of the power plant.

The $1.6 billion loan to Ivanpah was delivered under former President Obama’s administration. (AP )

“Along with killing thousands of birds and tortoises, the project’s construction destroyed irreplaceable pristine desert habitat along with numerous rare plant species,” Dowell said. “While the Sierra Club strongly supports innovative clean energy solutions and recognizes the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels, Ivanpah demonstrated that not all renewable technologies are created equal.”

This comes after another DOE-funded green energy project, Solyndra, went bankrupt in 2011 after receiving $535 million in federal loan guarantees from the Obama administration.

“Green projects have a long history of expensive taxpayer-subsidized disaster that is getting more so,” Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy & Environmental Legal Institute and former Trump EPA transition team member, said in a statement to Fox.

Chris Wright, chief executive officer of Liberty Energy Inc., was recently confirmed to head the U.S. Department of Energy under the Trump administration. (Al Drago)

Milloy suggested that further green energy failures could come from projects funded by recent Democrat-backed legislation that aims to push the green energy agenda.

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“Soon we will be looking at failures of larger magnitude than Green New Deal spending. No green project relying on taxpayer subsidies has ever made any economic or environmental sense,” Milloy said. “It’s important that President Trump stop the taxpayer bleeding by ending what he accurately calls the Green New Scam.”

Aubrie Spady is a Writer for Fox News Digital.

February 9, 2025
Experts rally around Trump’s under the radar executive order unlocking ‘critical’ project blocked by Biden

President Trump signed an executive order overlooked by some in the media on his first day of office that experts tell Fox News Digital will play a critical role in developing mineral resources in the United States.

On the first day of his presidency, Trump signed an executive order advancing the Ambler Access Project, a 211-mile industrial road through the Brooks Range foothills that enables commercial mining for copper, zinc and other materials in a remote Arctic area in Northwest Alaska.

That executive order, one of dozens signed by Trump in the early hours of his administration, reverses a move by former President Biden to block the project and represents a significant change in energy policy, according to experts who spoke to Fox News Digital.

“President Biden issued 70 executive actions that discouraged tapping into Alaska’s natural resources and public lands access,” Gabriella Hoffman, Independent Women’s Forum Center for Energy & Conservation Director, told Fox News Digital. “Unlike his predecessor, President Trump recognizes Alaska’s potential to meet domestic energy and national security needs for reliable energy and critical minerals—including restoring the Ambler Access Project connecting to the Ambler Mining District.”

EXPERTS SOUND ALARM ON BIDEN’S OFFSHORE DRILLING BAN HAVING REVERSE EFFECT ON ENVIRONMENT: ‘DISGRACEFUL’

President Donald Trump, left, and the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Alaska, right (Getty )

“The Ambler Access Project has endured extensive environmental review and would bring economic development to rural communities in dire need of it without despoiling Alaska’s natural beauty,” Hoffman added. “”Those who would benefit from employment by Ambler also hunt, fish, and enjoy public lands.”

Research by the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development on the economic impact of the project concluded that the development of the Ambler Mining District could create thousands of direct, indirect, and induced jobs and the project could mean a projected $1 billion for the state in revenue, mining license tax revenue, corporate income taxes, and production royalties.

“Ambler Road is the equivalent of a shoe lace on a football field: a blip in the vast remoteness of Alaska’s wilderness,” Power The Future founder and Executive Director Daniel Turner told Fox News Digital, “Yet somehow bureaucrats in DC who do not live there and cannot find it on a map have the authority to prevent Alaskans from developing their own land and growing their economy. It’s insanity.”

AMERICA’S ENERGY CRISIS IS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT AND IT’S WORSE THAN YOU KNOW

U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters from the Resolute Desk (Getty Images)

Unlocking the project comes under the backdrop of China’s emergence in the market for critical minerals as the country controls roughly 60% of the world’s production of rare earth minerals and materials prompting warnings from U.S. officials on the over-reliance on foreign suppliers.

Turner explained that projects like Ambler Road being held up by the Biden administration have increased US dependency on China.

“Critical projects in Alaska like Ambler Road and Pebble Mine and oil and gas exploration in ANWR which are held up by radical green ideologues have forced our dependency on China for these raw materials, compromised our national security, but also prevented our fellow Americans in Alaska from the prosperity and economic opportunities they deserve,” Turner said.

“So many raw materials we need are in Alaska, and Governor Dunleavy is hamstrung by green insanity in San Francisco and Washington, DC from developing them and growing his state’s prosperity. The Trump Administration could be the most pro-Alaskan Presidency since Lincoln bought it.”

Hoffman told Fox News Digital that “critics” of the Ambler project “ignore” is that “access to the Ambler Mining District is guaranteed by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980.”

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Sunset Inside Passage near Sitka, Alaska, Inside Passage. (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

“My fellow Lower-48ers treat Alaska as a national preserve to be untouched and unexplored–dismissing locals and their perspectives,” Hoffman said. “President Trump is actually listening to Alaskans and their needs.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Alaska GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan said he looks forward to “working with President Trump’s administration and Alaskan leaders in the region to fully implement President Trump’s Alaska-specific EO, which includes reversing Biden’s denial of the Ambler road.”

“After enduring a four-year onslaught of 70 executive orders and actions by the Biden administration targeting my state, Alaskans have a new sense of hope and optimism for our future across a whole host of sectors and projects, including in our ability to develop our vast deposits of critical minerals and metals—many of which the United States is almost wholly dependent on China for,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan added that he worked “closely” with the first Trump administration to approve a road to the Ambler Mining District before the Biden administration “issued an order that killed that road last June, even though federal law mandates it.”

“Ironically, during Joe Biden’s final overseas trip as president, he announced $600 million in aid to build a railroad in Angola to help that country produce and market its critical minerals. That’s insane.”

Trump also signed an executive order which he said will “unleash American energy” by directing agencies to revise and rescind actions that impose undue burdens on domestic mining.

“The Trump Administration is unwavering in its commitment to securing America’s energy future, strengthening national defense, and fostering economic growth,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital.

“By unlocking one the world’s largest undeveloped mineral belts, President Trump is ensuring a domestic supply of critical minerals, reducing our reliance on foreign adversaries, and creating thousands of American jobs. This project is a win for national security and the American people.”

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].

February 5, 2025
Musk casts doubt on Trump-backed Stargate project: ‘They don’t actually have the money’

President Donald Trump makes a major infrastructure announcement on his second day in office.

Business magnate and X CEO Elon Musk has cast doubt on whether there is enough funding available to follow through on a massive $500 billion artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project announced by President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

The new project, called Stargate, will see Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle join forces to build data centers in the U.S. for the further development of AI, which holds the promise of increasing productivity by automating work.

Larry Ellison, the chair of Oracle, also suggested that the project could make it easier to treat diseases such as cancer by possibly developing a customized vaccine by tying the technology with digital health records.

Elon Musk, right, has cast doubt on whether there is enough funding available to follow through on a $500 billion AI infrastructure project announced by President Donald Trump on Tuesday. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, left, pushed back on Musk’s claims. (Getty Images / Getty Images)

TRUMP ANNOUNCES LARGEST AI INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT ‘IN HISTORY’ INVOLVING SOFTBANK, OPENAI AND ORACLE

The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum. Microsoft, NVIDIA, investor MGX and the chipmakers Arm are also partners in the project.

“The Stargate Project is a new company which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. We will begin deploying $100 billion immediately,” an announcement by OpenAI posted to X on Tuesday reads.

But Musk, who has had a fractured relationship with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, suggested on X that the AI company does not have the cash to back up its announcement.

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk tweeted on X in response to OpenAI’s post.

Musk then followed up his post by writing, “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”

But Altman clapped back on Musk’s assertions.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

TRUMP URGING TIKTOK BAN HALT, LOOKS TO FOCUS ON AI IN SECOND TERM

“Wrong, as you surely know. Want to come visit the first site already underway?” Altman wrote.

“This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you’ll mostly put America first.”

Altman also appeared to dial the situation down, commending Musk for being one of “the most inspiring entrepreneurs of our time.”

In March, Tesla CEO Musk announced he was suing ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Altman, among others, saying they had abandoned the company’s original founding mission to develop open-source artificial general intelligence technology for the benefit of humanity over profits.

Meanwhile, a source familiar with Stargate told FOX Business that Stargate is prepared to deploy the $100 billion immediately.

The source said that the companies in the venture are in a good position to make the investments with the equity coming from well-capitalized founding partners, additional equity from co-investors, as well as third-party debt and other sources.

OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle are joining forces to build data centers in the U.S. for the further development of AI. (Dilara Irem Sancar/Anadolu via Getty Images / Getty Images)

For instance, SoftBank had $24.3 billion of cash on its balance sheet as of Sept. 30, 2024, per latest earnings. As for earnings, SoftBank’s loan-to-value stood at 12.5%.

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MGX is understood to have $100 billion in capital commitments, and Oracle has $11 billion cash on its balance sheet, while OpenAI recently announced a capital raise of more than $10 billion, per the source.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Wednesday said that Microsoft was committing $80 billion to the project when asked on CNBC about Musk’s comments.

“All I know is I’m good for my $80 billion,” Nadella said. “Customers can count on Microsoft with OpenAI models being there everywhere in the world, serving OpenAI models and other models.”

FOX Business understands that the companies involved in Stargate have not decided on how they will break down the commitments towards the $500 billion figure. Some may put down more than others into the project.

January 22, 2025
Fox News AI Newsletter: Tech titans sound off on Trump’s AI project

Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.

IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:

– AI executives praise Trump’s Stargate project: ‘This is a very large investment that affects all of humanity’

– Trump announces major AI infrastructure investment involving Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle

– AI company Perplexity bids to merge with TikTok to avoid ban: report

– Chinese tech firm shares robot training secrets with the world

President Donald Trump announced a major AI infrastructure investment involving Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

‘FOR THE GOOD OF HUMANITY’: The three tech CEOs who have joined forces in President Donald Trump’s multi-billion dollar artificial intelligence infrastructure project defended the venture as an investment that “impacts all of humanity.”

POWERING UP: President Donald Trump unveiled a massive artificial intelligence infrastructure project from the private sector on the first full day of his second term in office on Tuesday.

Humanoid robot training (AgiBot)

TIME’S UP: Artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI has bid to merge with TikTok U.S., so the video sharing platform can avoid being banned in the country, according to a report.

ROBOT TRAINING SECRETS: AgiBot, a pioneering Chinese artificial intelligence and robotics company, has introduced a transformative open-source dataset called AgiBot World Alpha.

Network of mesh lines forming brains of different sizes in dark background with red and yellow glowing particles. Illustration of the concept of artificial intelligence, ideas and creativity

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This article was written by Fox News staff.

January 22, 2025