China raising the flag of U.S. protectionism after recent cross border corporate takeovers were scuttled over national security concerns. This comes after Alibaba's Ant Financial scrapped its acquisition of MoneyGram. Axios Media Reporter Sara Fischer explains what this means for the future of data security and technology.
"Media is becoming so technology and data focused so any business move to take over a company that would give a Chinese internet company data not only affects those companies in trade, but it affects media and technology," explains Fischer.
The Committee for Foreign Investments in the United States is now taking a closer look at investments Chinese companies and private equity firms are making in U.S. technology companies. Fischer explains CFIUS is concerned giving foreign interests so much access to data would be a national security problem.
Threatened by possible shortages of lithium for electric car batteries, automakers are racing to lock in supplies of the once-obscure “white gold” in a politically and environmentally fraught competition from China to Nevada to Chile.
U.S. states could face some hurdles as they experiment with road usage charging programs aimed at one day replacing motor fuel taxes, which are generating less each year, in part due to fuel efficiency and the rise of electric cars.
