Corporate Governance

Dario Amodei, along with all six other Anthropic cofounders, pledged to donate 80% of their wealth, citing concerns about wealth concentration from the AI boom. In an essay titled 'The Adolescence of Technology,' Amodei wrote: 'The thing to worry about is a level of wealth concentration that will break society. Wealthy individuals have an obligation to help solve this problem.' Each cofounder's net worth is estimated at ~$3.7B, potentially directing tens of billions to philanthropy. The pledge is not legally binding and no donations have been made yet - equity is 'set aside' pending implementation.

Anthropic announced it will match employee donations after employees individually pledged billions of dollars worth of Anthropic shares to charities. The matching program was announced alongside the cofounders' 80% wealth pledge as part of efforts to address wealth inequality from the AI boom.

In January 2026, Andreessen Horowitz hired Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran acquitted in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless street performer. The hire was widely seen as a political statement. Andreessen himself framed the firm's controversies as providing 'this incredible competitive advantage' for attracting founders who want to work with investors who are 'brave.'

Germany's BaFin imposed new restrictions on N26 in December 2025 after a 2024 special audit found serious deficiencies in risk management, complaint handling, and lending. Restrictions include a ban on new mortgages in the Netherlands, higher capital requirements, and a second special monitor appointment since 2021. The company's funding process was suspended.

In December 2025, the Spanish government imposed a €64 million fine on Airbnb for breaches of consumer laws, including operating over 65,000 unlicensed listings. Fine reflects growing regulatory pressure over Airbnb's impact on housing markets across Europe.

Klarna faced a securities class action lawsuit (Nayak v. Klarna Group) alleging the company's September 2025 IPO documents were misleading by understating credit risks from lending to financially unsophisticated customers at high interest rates. When Q3 2025 results showed a 102% year-over-year increase in credit loss provisions, shares fell about 20% below IPO price.

Larry Summers resigned from OpenAI's board on November 19, 2025, after Congress released documents revealing frequent email communications with Jeffrey Epstein in 2017, 2018, and 2019. In emails, Summers sought Epstein's advice on personal matters, with Epstein describing himself as a 'wing man.' Summers also resigned from Harvard, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Santander's advisory board. He stated he was 'deeply ashamed' of his actions.

In November 2025, former partner Michelle Ritter filed a lawsuit against Eric Schmidt alleging sexual assault, physical abuse, and digital surveillance. The lawsuit claims Schmidt raped her on a yacht in November 2021 and at Burning Man 2023, photographed her without consent while nude, physically shoved her leaving bruises, and used a 'backdoor' to spy on employees. Ritter is seeking at least $100 million in damages. Schmidt's attorney called the claims 'false and defamatory' and part of a business dispute. The case follows a December 2024 domestic violence restraining order that was withdrawn after a financial settlement.

In December 2024, OpenAI announced plans to convert from a nonprofit-controlled structure to a for-profit public benefit corporation. California AG Bonta approved the restructuring in October 2025 after extracting concessions. The deal gave Microsoft ~27% ownership and was contingent on SoftBank's $30B investment. A coalition of 60+ California nonprofits (Eyes on OpenAI) criticized the deal as setting a dangerous precedent for startups evading taxes and having 'a bazillion conflicts of interest.' Elon Musk attempted to block it, at one point offering $97.4B to acquire the company.

Ron Conway resigned from Salesforce Foundation board in October 2025 after Marc Benioff voiced support for Trump's National Guard deployments. Conway told Benioff their 'values were no longer aligned' and that he 'barely recognizes the person I have so long admired'.

Revolut's full UK banking license, conditionally granted in July 2024, was delayed well beyond the typical 12-month mobilization period. The PRA and FCA expressed concerns about risk management systems, anti-money laundering controls, and cross-border payments compliance across Revolut's 40 markets. UK customers remain without FSCS deposit protection (limited to £50,000 holdings). Co-founder Nik Storonsky admitted it was 'a mistake' to prioritize growth over licensing. Revolut also topped UK fraud complaint rankings for the second consecutive year.

In October 2025, China's SAMR opened antitrust investigation into Qualcomm's June 2025 acquisition of Israeli automotive chipmaker Autotalks. Qualcomm completed the deal without filing merger notification despite SAMR's March 2024 written notice requiring filing. Qualcomm had initially claimed it was dropping the deal after regulatory notice, then proceeded anyway. With $17.8B China revenue (46% of total), Qualcomm faces potential penalty up to $1.8 billion. Shares fell 4% on probe announcement.

President Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao in October 2025 following his federal conviction and prison sentence for anti-money laundering violations at Binance.

In October 2025, ARM lost its lawsuit against Qualcomm after a U.S. District Court confirmed Qualcomm's jury trial victory and rejected ARM's claims that Qualcomm breached architecture license agreements. ARM had sued Qualcomm in August 2022 for breach of contract related to the Nuvia acquisition. Critics noted that now that ARM owns Ampere Computing and directly competes with its own customers, it lends credence to Qualcomm's claims of anticompetitive behavior. The lawsuit creates risk by pushing chip designers toward open-source RISC-V alternatives, creating existential threat to ARM's licensing model.

The US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware held Byju Raveendran in civil contempt for failing to appear before the court and submit evidence on time in the $533 million fraud case. Raveendran was ordered to pay $10,000 per day for each day he remained in contempt. He skipped hearings, missed extended deadlines, and provided evasive and incomplete responses regarding the alleged transfers. A default judgment of over $1.07 billion was subsequently issued in November 2025, though it was later amended to set a new damages phase for January 2026.

Intel accidentally turned off its air pollution mitigation equipment at an Oregon facility, releasing caustic gases into a nearby neighborhood for two months before the issue was discovered and corrected. This raised serious questions about environmental monitoring and community safety protocols.

N26 co-founders Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal were pushed out by investors following repeated regulatory failures. Stalf stepped down as co-CEO in September 2025 with Tayenthal following by year-end. Both would give up special voting rights. UBS executive Mike Dargan will take over as sole CEO in April 2026 after regulatory approval.

In July 2025, Taavet Hinrikus (holding 5.1% of Wise through Skaala Investments) publicly challenged the company he co-founded over its proposal to extend the dual-class share structure by ten years as it prepared to move its primary listing to the US. He accused Wise of misleading shareholders by embedding the voting rights extension into the US listing vote without allowing separate votes on each proposal. The matter is heading to court review.

Wise US, Inc. agreed to pay $4.2 million under a multistate settlement with California, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Texas, and one other state for serious shortcomings in Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering compliance. The Multi-State MSB Examination Taskforce found suspicious activity reporting deficiencies, transaction monitoring data integrity issues, and failure to timely correct past deficiencies detected in prior examinations.

The FCA fined Monzo £21,091,300 for inadequate anti-financial crime systems from 2018-2020, and for violating a requirement preventing it from opening accounts for high-risk customers from 2020-2022. Monzo onboarded customers using implausible information such as Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street as addresses, and opened over 34,000 accounts for high-risk customers in defiance of FCA orders.