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Dell Technologies continued its diversity and inclusion programs through 2025 while other major tech companies retreated, maintaining its DEI goals and reporting on workforce diversity metrics.

Intuit spent $3.7 million on federal lobbying in 2024, more than it has ever spent in a single year, primarily to kill the IRS Direct File program. For over 20 years, Intuit has waged a sophisticated campaign to prevent the government from creating a free filing system. In Q1 2025, Intuit paid $30,000 to lobby DOGE Caucus members on 'tax simplification.' In April 2025, the Trump administration announced plans to eliminate Direct File.

OpenAI increased federal lobbying expenditure from $260,000 in 2023 to $1.76 million in 2024, a 577% increase. The company grew its lobbying team from 3 to 18 lobbyists. Key hires included former Senate staffers for Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham. Spending continued accelerating in 2025, reaching $2.1 million through September 2025. TIME Magazine reported OpenAI successfully lobbied to weaken EU AI Act provisions that would have classified general-purpose AI as 'high risk.'

Apple agreed to a $95 million settlement in Lopez v. Apple, a class action lawsuit filed in 2019 alleging Siri recorded user conversations without the required 'Hey Siri' voice command or button press. Plaintiffs claimed users were unaware that human contractors, not just computers, reviewed audio recordings, and that Apple shared data with advertisers for ad targeting.

Meta spent a record $24.4 million on lobbying in 2024, a 27% increase from 2023 and the most the company has spent since it began federal lobbying in 2009. The effort was powered by 65 lobbyists — one for every eight members of Congress. Combined, Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft spent nearly $69 million lobbying the federal government in 2022 alone.

While other major gaming companies laid off over 10,000 workers in 2024, Nintendo maintained its workforce with less than 2% employee turnover in Japan. The company substantially increased compensation to combat inflation and the weakened yen, despite investor complaints about dividend impact. Nintendo was described as 'the only major gaming company without layoffs in 2024.'

On December 31, 2024, Airbnb made a 'non-monetary' contribution worth $100,000 to Trump's 2025 inaugural committee, providing housing coupons that were originally intended for RNC convention volunteers. CEO Brian Chesky did not attend the inauguration, citing that Airbnb's regulations are 'at the city level and state level' rather than federal.

In 2024, Pierre Omidyar donated $16.4 million to 501(c)(4) 'social welfare' electoral-advocacy and lobbying organizations. The Democracy Voice Fund received over $13 million from Omidyar in 2024. He also gave $500,000 to Governors Safeguarding Democracy, which opposes Trump administration policies, and $750,000 to a fund associated with Democratic lawyer Marc Elias.

Oceankind, founded by Larry Page's wife Lucinda Southworth in 2018, has spent more than $121 million funding marine science, technology, and conservation. Major grants include over $18 million to ClimateWorks for decarbonizing shipping and offshore wind, $7 million to Global Fishing Watch, $8.6 million to The Nature Conservancy, nearly $6 million to Natural Resources Defense Council, $6.4 million to Ocean Conservancy, and $4 million to Blue Ventures. The organization focuses on protecting oceans through technology and conservation.

The Sergey Brin Family Foundation made nearly $243 million in climate-related awards in 2024, up from $147 million in 2023. His foundation granted $1.1 billion total in 2025, with significant portions going to Parkinson's research and climate change mitigation.

Tesla's global Supercharger network has been powered by 100% renewable energy since 2021, achieved through a combination of on-site solar resources and annual renewable energy matching. In 2024, the network maintained 99.95% uptime while running entirely on renewable power. This infrastructure commitment helps ensure Tesla EV charging doesn't rely on fossil fuel electricity.

According to Tesla's 2024 Impact Report, Tesla customers avoided releasing nearly 32 million metric tons of CO2e into the atmosphere through driving Tesla EVs and using Tesla energy storage and solar products. A Tesla vehicle is expected to avoid approximately 51 metric tons of CO2e over its 17-year lifetime compared to internal combustion engine vehicles. Note: A 2025 Greenly study estimated actual avoided emissions may be 28-49% lower than Tesla's claims.

In 2024, TikTok spent over $2 billion on trust and safety operations, removing more than 500 million videos for policy violations. Over 85% of violating content was identified and removed by automated systems, with 99% removed before any user reported it and over 90% removed before gaining any views. The company committed to investing another $2+ billion in trust and safety for the following year. TikTok also became the first platform to implement C2PA Content Credentials for identifying AI-generated content.

Tesla's 2024 sustainability report showed the company achieved 82% renewable energy usage across all global manufacturing sites. Scope 1 emissions were reduced by 35% since 2020, and Scope 2 emissions dropped by 41%. This demonstrates significant progress in decarbonizing Tesla's manufacturing operations beyond just the vehicles themselves.

Tesla's battery recycling facilities now recover up to 92% of battery materials including lithium, cobalt, nickel, and aluminum, feeding them directly back into new battery cell production. The recycling program has cut projected new mining needs for lithium by 28% for vehicles produced after 2024, reducing the environmental impact of raw material extraction for EV batteries.

Universal Music Corp., ABKCO Music Inc., Concord Music Group, and other music publishers sued Anthropic in federal court, alleging Claude reproduces copyrighted song lyrics without proper licensing. On December 30, 2024, Anthropic agreed to a partial injunction while continuing to fight the copyright infringement claims. The case is ongoing in the Northern District of California.

A data breach occurred December 26, 2024 but wasn't detected until May 11, 2025. Overseas support personnel were bribed to access internal systems and steal customer information including names, Social Security numbers, bank details, and transaction histories. The breach affected 69,461 customers. Coinbase recorded $355 million in costs across Q2-Q3 2025. TaskUs, which provided customer service personnel since 2017, laid off 226 staff in India connected to the breach.

More than 200,000 delivery workers across Zomato, Swiggy, Zepto, Amazon, Blinkit, and Flipkart struck on December 25, 2024 and December 31, 2025 (New Year's Eve). Workers demanded: (1) restoration of old payout system, (2) removal of 10-minute delivery model forcing unsafe speeds, (3) stopping ID deactivation without reason, (4) fixing algorithms that reduce incentives, and (5) social security including health insurance. Base pay as low as 5 rupees (10 cents) per order. Workers forced to complete 35-40 orders daily, working 16-hour days for 700 rupees ($7.70) after expenses. One delivery rider became accident victim every three days in Hyderabad; 17,000+ traffic violations recorded in single week as riders forced to run red lights. Strike caused 50-60% order delays on December 25. Union leader Shaik Salauddin: 'Delivery workers are being pushed to the breaking point by unsafe work models, falling incomes, and total absence of social protection.'

In December 2024, investigations revealed that PayPal's Honey browser extension (acquired for $4 billion in 2020) had been secretly re-attributing affiliate marketing sales by modifying affiliate links at checkout, crediting Honey even when no coupon was applied. The extension also collected extensive user data including full URLs visited, timestamps, and device IDs. Honey lost 3 million of 20 million users within two weeks. PayPal faces over 20 class-action lawsuits alleging wiretapping, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment.

BBC data analysis in December 2024 showed Palestinian news outlets saw 77% decline in engagement after October 7, 2023, while Israeli outlets saw 37% increase. Leaked internal documents revealed Instagram's algorithm was adjusted within a week of October 7th, lowering the moderation confidence threshold for Palestinian content from 80% to 25%, causing significantly more removals.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi personally donated $1 million to Trump's 2025 inauguration fund. This represents a dramatic reversal from 2017-2018 when he was a vocal Trump critic, opposing the travel ban, deleting the Uber app from his phone in solidarity with protesters, and publicly criticizing Trump on Twitter. Khosrowshahi is an Iranian immigrant.

Uber contributed $1 million to Trump's 2025 Presidential Inaugural Committee. This is notable as CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was a vocal Trump critic in 2017-2018, having opposed the travel ban and publicly criticized Trump on Twitter.

Masayoshi Son appeared at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence on December 16, 2024 to announce a $100 billion investment in the US over four years, promising 100,000 jobs focused on AI. Son stated 'My confidence level to the economy of the United States has tremendously increased with his victory.' This doubled his 2016 pledge of $50 billion after Trump's first election.

Amazon announced it was 'winding down outdated programs and materials' as part of a broader review of hundreds of DEI initiatives. VP of Inclusive Experiences Candi Castleberry stated the company would focus on 'programs with proven outcomes' rather than individual group programs. Amazon also streamlined its public policy webpage, consolidating separate sections for 'Equity for Black people,' 'Diversity, equity and inclusion,' and 'LGBTQ+ rights' into a single paragraph.

In December 2024, Amazon began winding down DEI programs under an internal memo from VP Candi Castleberry. By February 2025, Amazon removed all references to diversity and inclusion from its annual report and consolidated separate DEI policy sections on its website into a single paragraph, removing mentions of 'transgender.' Jassy characterized the cuts as part of cost-cutting efforts. This reversed years of investment in DEI initiatives including HBCU partnerships and representation targets.

Amnesty International documented Serbian authorities using Cellebrite tools alongside spyware to target journalists and activists. A student activist's phone was hacked using a Cellebrite zero-day exploit (CVE-2024-53104) affecting millions of Android devices. Cellebrite only suspended sales to Serbia's security services in February 2025 after the public Amnesty report—despite ongoing abuse documented since 2024.

An 18-month Senate HELP Committee investigation led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, reviewing 7 years of data and interviewing 130+ workers, found Amazon warehouse workers suffered 6.6 serious injuries per 100 workers — more than double the 3.2 rate at non-Amazon warehouses. Internal 'Project Soteria' studies found speed caused injuries, but Amazon chose not to implement recommendations to protect its bottom line. OSHA cited Amazon at multiple facilities for ergonomic hazards and inadequate medical care. Amazon settled with OSHA in December 2024 for $145,000 and agreed to corporate-wide ergonomic measures.

On December 16, 2024, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son appeared with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago to announce a $100 billion US investment pledge over Trump's term, promising 100,000 AI and infrastructure jobs. This doubled Son's 2016 pledge of $50 billion and 50,000 jobs made after Trump's first election - commitments where the money was eventually spent but it remains unclear whether the jobs were created. Analysts described this as 'SoftBank's version of an inaugural donation, in pursuit of a lighter regulatory touch for the firm and its portfolio companies' including its stake in TikTok parent ByteDance. SoftBank spent $2.68 million on US lobbying in 2024.

McKinsey agreed to pay $650 million to resolve federal criminal and civil investigations into its consulting work advising Purdue Pharma on strategies to turbocharge OxyContin sales between 2004-2019. The firm advised on targeting high-volume prescribers and communities already hard-hit by opioids, and recommended cash prizes to boost sales. This marked the first time a management consulting firm was held criminally responsible for advice resulting in client crime. McKinsey also paid $573M to 47 states in a separate 2021 settlement.

In December 2024, Sony disclosed that its audit of Kawaguchi Manufacturing, a Malaysian supplier of plastic components, found violations of Sony's supply chain code of conduct. The violations involved 251 Bangladeshi workers who were denied pay for seven months. Sony stated it implemented remedial measures in collaboration with the Responsible Business Alliance.