Incidents and actions from tracked entities.
23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2025, raising serious concerns about the fate of genetic data from 15 million customers. Multiple state attorneys general urged users to delete their data before a potential sale.
Uber stopped using DEI goals for executive compensation, dropped promises to include women and minority candidates when filling board seats, and removed statistics about board diversity from its 2025 proxy statement. The company's 2024 annual report omitted sections about diversity efforts and didn't mention the word 'diversity' at all.
Nokia has been recognized by Ethisphere as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the eighth time overall in 2025. The company is one of only two telecommunications companies and the only Finnish company to be honored. Recognition is based on strong business ethics, governance, and sustainability practices.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak criticized Trump and Elon Musk's DOGE mass firings and treatment of Ukraine, calling them 'bullies.' He said 'If you're in school, the bully is going to force their way on the little guy' and added about Musk: 'Sometimes you get so rich at these big companies, and you're on top — it goes to your head.'
On March 5, 2025, Salesforce filed its annual report removing all references to DEI, diversity hiring targets, and language about diversity being a 'core value'. The section was renamed 'Equality' and now only discusses legal compliance with anti-discrimination laws. Previously, Salesforce had goals to increase underrepresented minority leadership by 50% and achieve 40% women/non-binary representation by 2026.
In early March 2025, Anthropic quietly removed several voluntary commitments made in conjunction with the Biden administration in 2023 from its transparency hub, including pledges to share information on managing AI risks and research on AI bias and discrimination. Co-founder Jack Clark later stated this was unintentional and they were working on a fix.
In March 2025, Andreessen Horowitz paused its Talent x Opportunity (TxO) fund, which since 2020 had supported 60+ companies from underserved communities including women and minority founders. Several employees were laid off in October 2024. The Fearless Fund lawsuit created legal precedent making such programs 'extremely vulnerable.'
Unlike in 2017 when DoorDash CEO promised free food to lawyers supporting immigrants and refugees, the company has been silent on immigration in Trump's second term. While delivery workers—many of them immigrants—continue doing the actual delivering, DoorDash and other delivery companies are offering no immigration help or legal support, despite earlier commitments.
The ACLU filed a complaint in March 2025 alleging HireVue's AI hiring tools violated anti-discrimination laws by systematically disadvantaging candidates based on race, disability, and other protected characteristics.
When Google released Gemini 2.5 Pro in March 2025, the company failed to publish a model card with capabilities and risk assessments. This violated pledges made at the UK-South Korea AI Summit (Feb 2024), White House Commitments (2023), and EU AI Code of Conduct (Oct 2023). 60 UK lawmakers signed open letter accusing Google DeepMind of 'breach of trust'.
Nvidia's fiscal 2024 and 2025 due diligence processes revealed multiple supplier non-compliance issues including hiring fees charged to workers, document and passport retention, excessive working hours, and penalties for leaving employers before specified time periods. An independent human rights assessment commissioned by Nvidia found forced labor and child labor to be salient risks in the supply chain.
In March 2025, TSMC announced over $100 billion in US investments at an event with President Trump at their Arizona facility. The company is building multiple advanced chip fabs in Phoenix as part of US efforts to onshore semiconductor manufacturing under the CHIPS Act.
Dispute arose between OrCam's controlling shareholders Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram and institutional investors (Clal, Harel, Leumi, and Meitav) over the conversion mechanism of a SAFE financing round. Founders, who had injected around $9 million, sought to convert their investment into shares at a valuation of $30-40 million, contrasting sharply with the several hundred million dollar valuations at which institutional investors had previously invested. This dispute highlighted the company's dramatic fall from unicorn status ($1B valuation in 2018) to near-worthless valuation.
In March 2025, Bill Gates dissolved Breakthrough Energy's public policy units in both the United States and Europe, saying the advocacy work was 'not likely to have a significant effect in Washington' as the second Trump administration promoted fossil fuels and dissolved climate programs. The decision shifted Breakthrough's strategy away from policy advocacy toward supporting clean energy technology alone.
In February 2025, Sundar Pichai ended Google's DEI hiring goals that he had announced in 2020 (30% increase in underrepresented leadership by 2025). Google discontinued DEI training, dropped 58 DEI-related groups from funding, and removed DEI language from its 2024 10K filing. Pichai told employees the changes were needed to comply with Trump executive orders.
Delaware Bankruptcy Court Judge John Dorsey ruled that $533 million from a $1.2 billion loan was fraudulently transferred from BYJU's Alpha Inc. to Camshaft Capital Fund, a hedge fund run by a man in his mid-20s operating out of an IHOP in Miami. The court found Think & Learn actively misled lenders into believing funds remained in cash equivalents. Court filings alleged the money was routed through intermediaries to Byju's Global Pte Ltd, a Singapore entity wholly owned by Byju Raveendran. Raveendran denies orchestrating fraud, claiming funds were used for legitimate international expansion.
Sergey Brin published an internal memo to Google's Gemini employees recommending 60-hour work weeks and requiring employees to be in office every weekday. He wrote 'Competition has accelerated immensely and the final race to AGI is afoot. I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts.'
Australian Federal Police and regulators executed search warrants at WiseTech offices regarding alleged trading by founder Richard White and three employees during late 2024 to early 2025. White reportedly sold $200M+ in shares without following proper processes, including during blackout periods when executives are prohibited from trading.
On February 26, 2025, Jeff Bezos announced that The Washington Post's opinion section would only publish columns 'in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,' and that viewpoints opposing those pillars would not be published. Opinion editor David Shipley resigned following the announcement. Former executive editor Marty Baron wrote that Bezos was doing this 'out of fear of the consequences for his other business interests.' Over 75,000 subscribers cancelled within two days. Senator Bernie Sanders called it 'what Oligarch ownership of the media looks like.' The move followed Bezos's October 2024 decision to block the paper's Harris endorsement.
At Apple's February 2025 shareholder meeting, Tim Cook defended DEI programs, stating 'Our strength has always come from hiring the very best people and providing a culture of collaboration.' Over 97% of shareholders voted against a proposal to end DEI efforts. Trump attacked Apple the next day on Truth Social, writing 'APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES.'
Qualcomm progressively escalated its return-to-office requirements: initial policy suggested 2 days per week, upgraded to 4 days in May 2023, and announced full 5-day in-office mandate in February 2025. CEO Cristiano Amon announced during an all-hands meeting on February 19, 2025, that 5 days in office would be fully implemented by end of FY25. Employees not in compliance with the 4 days/week mandate received notices giving them 45 days to comply before termination. Employee comments on forums describe concerns about work-life balance and 'worst toxic management' with 'unimaginable' stress levels.
On February 18, 2025, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative disbanded its diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility team, just 39 days after reassuring concerned staff on January 10 that Meta's DEI cuts would not affect CZI. CZI COO Marc Malandro cited 'the shifting regulatory and legal landscape.' CZI also canceled its $1.5 million Science Diversity Leadership Awards, ended its Diverse Slate Practice for hiring, scrubbed all DEI references from its website, and laid off staff working on affordable housing and economic inclusion. The move followed Meta's own DEI rollback and Zuckerberg's $1M Trump inauguration donation.
On February 16, 2025, a cyclist was hospitalized after being doored by a passenger exiting a Waymo robotaxi. The cyclist sued Waymo, alleging the vehicle had stopped in an unsafe location and failed to warn passengers before exiting. The incident raised questions about autonomous vehicle passenger safety protocols.
In 2025, Alibaba was confirmed as Apple's AI partner for China. Users have an additional Alibaba layer over Apple Intelligence that manipulates output to ensure all information is censored according to Chinese government requirements. This partnership enables systematic content filtering and government compliance in AI responses.
A spokesperson at Hewlett Packard Enterprise confirmed to The Register that it is not dismantling its DEI team, stating: 'We know that differences of experiences, perspectives, opinions, and ways of thinking lead to better debate, better innovation, and better decision making.' CEO Antonio Neri has championed DEI, and HPE was named 'America's Most Just Company' for 2024 by JUST Capital.
In February 2025, Microsoft contributed $100,000 to oppose Proposition 1A, a ballot measure to fund Seattle's social housing authority through a 5% payroll tax on companies for salaries over $1 million. Microsoft joined Amazon and other corporate donors in spending $780,000 total against the measure. Despite the corporate opposition, the measure passed with 63% voter support.
In February 2025, Amazon contributed $100,000 to oppose Proposition 1A, a ballot measure to fund Seattle's social housing authority through a 5% payroll tax on companies for salaries over $1 million. Amazon joined Microsoft and other corporate donors in spending $780,000 total against the measure. Despite the corporate opposition, the measure passed with 63% voter support.
In 2025, Google systematically retreated from its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments. In February, the company announced it would end diversity-based hiring goals, review its DEI initiatives, and removed DEI commitments from its annual report, citing compliance with federal policies. By August, Google had purged more than 50 DEI-related organizations from its funding list, including the African American Community Service Agency, Latino Leadership Alliance, and similar groups. The rollback followed the Trump administration's executive orders against DEI programs.
PayPal has largely removed language on diversity from the human capital section of its annual report to investors. Bloomberg Law reported on February 5, 2025, that PayPal cut diversity language in its new report to shareholders.
Demis Hassabis co-authored the February 2025 blog post justifying removal of Google's 2018 pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance. The post framed military AI as necessary for 'democracies to lead' in AI development. This contradicted DeepMind's founding promise that its technology would never be used for military purposes.