| | Good morning. Look what you made her do. Cathay Home, the bedding retailer, said Monday that it has withdrawn a bid to trademark the brand name "Swift Home" for a product line after Taylor Swift filed an appeal with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Looking to preserve the Reputation singer's, er, reputation, her team argued in a filing Friday that the trademark could give the false impression that she endorsed the line. Only a handful of Midnights later and Swift justice was done, with Cathay adding it withdrew the application because it wasn't "essential to its business" and therefore not worth the hassle. If the company has a plan Cardi B, it isn't saying. | | | | | With US markets off for Presidents' Day, a quiet news cycle let the world's largest pork producer hog some attention. Virginia-based, Hong Kong-owned Smithfield Foods announced plans to build a $1.3 billion "state-of-the-art" processing facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Local officials billed it as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity," though they have plenty of reasons to ham things up. Bringing Home the Bacon Founded in 1936 and named for its "Ham Capital of the World" Virginia hometown, Smithfield was a central player in the US pork industry's global ascendance through aggressive expansion. It acquired more than three dozen companies from the 1980s to the 2000s and is responsible for roughly a quarter of US pig production. But Smithfield's multinational operations and massive market share couldn't insulate it from years of rising commodity prices, particularly for grain, and it was sold for $4.7 billion to China's WH Group in 2013 as pressure from investors over tighter margins intensified. Since taking over in 2021, CEO Shane Smith (who, while also bearded, is not to be confused with the Vice cofounder) has focused aggressively on resizing the business and reducing its exposure to commodity swings by trimming the number of hogs it owns (to 11.5 million last year, from 17.6 million in 2019). The company has also focused on packaged meats like bacon and sausage, which make up 59% of sales and yield stronger margins than pork cuts. Last year, not long after spinning off its European business, Smithfield listed on the Nasdaq, and sales and profits have since jumped, with its latest quarterly operating profit of $310 million up 9% year-over-year. The big new Sioux Falls plant aims to add to the efficiencies, which have been a boon for investors: - Subject to regulatory approvals, Smithfield said the new facility, which will employ 3,200 people, could be up and running by the end of 2028. At an announcement with local officials, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden said the new, more advanced location will allow the company to increase its processing capacity beyond the current 20,000 hogs per day.
- Smithfield's focus on curbing its commodity price exposure and streamlining its business has coincided with a boom in its shares, which have climbed 19% in the past 12 months and more than 12% so far this year. While US pork consumption has been mostly flat since the 1960s, coming in around 50 pounds per year, according to USDA data, Smithfield recently launched a campaign to emphasize pork's versatility to young consumers who are more exposed to "international, bolder flavors."
  Something to Chew On: Because China's WH Group maintains majority control of Smithfield, its plans may face heightened scrutiny. Some GOP legislators have argued that US food and agriculture ownership is a national security issue. For example, after Smithfield agreed to buy Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs for $450 million last month, House Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) tweeted that a "proud American company" had "fallen to China." Written by Sean Craig | | | | | | | | | Photo via Fisher Investments | | | | | | Mark Zuckerberg is expected to take the stand tomorrow in Los Angeles, where he'll testify in a case born of concerns that social media use harms teens' mental health. It's one of two trials examining how the Meta founder's platforms affect young users. In Los Angeles, the question is whether the platforms are deliberately addictive. And in New Mexico, the court aims to determine if Meta has done enough to protect kids and teens from sexual exploitation. The trials, which are expected to last six to eight weeks, could result in massive fines, mandated platform redesigns, and possibly, a reckoning regarding Section 230 — a provision in a 1996 law that absolves media platforms of liability for user-posted content — which critics say affords too many protections to companies like Meta. This Generation's Big Tobacco Trial The pressure on social media companies has been ramping up for more than a decade, as concerns mount about the industry's potential impacts on a generation that has grown up scrolling. Zuckerberg last year apologized to parents at a Senate hearing focused on online child safety, as he testified alongside the CEOs of TikTok, Discord, X and Snap. In LA and New Mexico, Meta has denied allegations that it's responsible for kids' and teens' mental health struggles: - Meta told ABC that it has made "meaningful changes" to protect young users, including the teen accounts it rolled out in 2024. In a blog post, Meta wrote that blaming social media companies for teens' mental health challenges is an oversimplification that doesn't take into account other factors, including academic pressure and school safety. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri likened the platform's addictiveness to binge-watching Netflix shows during his testimony in LA last week.
- Prosecutors argue that Meta prioritized engagement, growth and, ultimately, profits over young users' health and safety, both by failing to adequately protect them and by deliberately making its platforms addictive through features like infinite scrolling. The LA lawsuit compares the ways social media maximizes addictiveness to slot machines and cigarette sellers.
Deinfluencing: Top social platforms are facing thousands of lawsuits as public sentiment against kids and teens using the platforms has soured. More than seven in 10 respondents in a poll by The Wall Street Journal said they'd support banning most social media for people under 16. Australia already rolled out such a ban, while countries including Denmark and France are considering their own. Social media companies stand to lose a big chunk of change: A Harvard study found they made $11 billion from youth-targeted ads in 2022, with Instagram making the most of any platform off teens at $4 billion. Written by Jamie Wilde | | | | | | With deal volume projected to rise in 2026, firms are rethinking the tools behind every transaction. This on-demand webinar breaks down how modern deal technology helps teams move faster, reduce friction and stay competitive, with real-world biotech and healthcare examples. Watch now.  | | | | | | | | Any roughneck could tell you the best way to produce energy is to dig a hole deep into the earth and pump some oil out. They're only half-right, at least according to Deep Fission. Instead of pumping oil out, the nuclear startup wants to bury a small modular reactor a mile underground. Last week, the company scored $80 million in new financing to help turn the long-discussed concept in the nuclear energy world into reality. And, yes, it's yet another play at powering those energy-starved data centers. Notes From the Underground There are two key reasons to bury SMRs deep beneath the earth's surface. The first is that, obviously, nuclear fission carries the risk of releasing radiation into the surrounding area, which makes a mile's worth of earth, dirt and rocks the perfect natural containment system. The second reason is related to the first: It's a lot cheaper to dig a (very deep) hole and drop an SMR down it than it is to build a whole nuclear facility around a surface-dwelling SMR. That means Deep Fission's SMRs might not just be safe, but also more rapidly deployed than their above-ground competitors. And it's why big names have lined up to back the company in two massive financing rounds just months apart: - Last week's $80 million funding round featured participation from major backers, including Montrose Capital and EE Holdings, and is built around "a new strategic relationship" with Blue Owl Capital's Real Assets platform, the company said in a statement.
- The cash infusion comes after the company secured a $30 million funding round in a go-public reverse merger (read: SPAC move) with Surfside Acquisition Inc., with plans to eventually list public shares on the OTCQB Venture Market, the lesser-known exchange for, fittingly, riskier investments. The merger occurred shortly after Deep Fission won a spot in the Department of Energy's Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program to expedite the commercialization of nuclear energy in the US.
The Hole Truth: Most importantly, the fresh $80 million will be used to continue operations at the company's pilot site in Parsons, Kansas, where it officially broke ground in December — and then, presumably, kept digging and digging and digging. Written by Brian Boyle | | | | | - Unaccountable AI: A KPMG partner in Australia was fined roughly $7,000 for cheating on internal training with artificial intelligence tools; more than two dozen staffers at the firm's operations down under have been caught using similar tactics in the past year.
- Cruise Control: ByteDance vowed to add safeguards to its powerful AI video-making tool Seedance after complaints from Hollywood, spurred by an AI video of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, that it was pirating copyrighted characters and intellectual property.
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