Plus: Reel trouble. Good morning, Quartz readers! Chair-ish the moment. Donald Trump may think Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is a “total stiff,” but the president reiterated that he won’t try to fire the central bank chief. No more Trump cards. As tariffs and recession fears continue to hit businesses hard, CEOs have a message for the president: It’s time to make a deal — and fast. The bot-tom line. Google’s antitrust lawsuits aren’t just about monopolies. They’re also about keeping the search engine giant from dominating AI’s future.
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Good morning, Quartz readers!

Chair-ish the moment. Donald Trump may think Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is a “total stiff,” but the president reiterated that he won’t try to fire the central bank chief.
No more Trump cards. As tariffs and recession fears continue to hit businesses hard, CEOs have a message for the president: It’s time to make a deal — and fast.
The bot-tom line. Google’s antitrust lawsuits aren’t just about monopolies. They’re also about keeping the search engine giant from dominating AI’s future.
Search warrant. There’s a lot at stake for Google in its twin monopoly lawsuits — e.g., selling Chrome and its ad tech business — and for Silicon Valley at large.
Early retirement? At 94, Warren Buffett is stepping down from Berkshire Hathaway, and business leaders are reflecting on the man who defined an era of investing.
Abel-bodied. With Buffett out, Greg Abel is on deck. And there’s a lot to know about the Oracle of Omaha’s successor, a man who has revamped Berkshire’s energy business.
Gate expectations. Newark Airport is melting down. It’s dealing with flight cancellations, delays, and staff shortages that are turning travel into chaos.
Collect call. Trump announced that student loan collections are starting back up Monday. Here’s what people can expect after a pandemic pause in payments.

Microsoft just gave Wall Street a masterclass in how to own the AI narrative.
In the latest Big Tech earnings smackdown, Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform posted a blistering 33% revenue jump, leaving Amazon’s AWS — still the cloud’s biggest player — trailing with 17% growth. Nearly half of Azure’s growth came from AI workloads, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made one thing abundantly clear: AI isn’t just a feature — it’s the foundation.
Microsoft didn’t just beat estimates — it reaffirmed its $80 billion infrastructure spend and served up a confident, coherent story about how enterprise AI is already reshaping its business. Meanwhile, over at Amazon, things were more complicated. Sure, AWS is a cash machine. And yes, the company posted record margins. But rainy days may be coming for Amazon’s cloud platform: With the company’s AI ambitions, satellites, low-cost-goods platform, and a new James Bond flick, investors are still trying to figure out what Amazon’s story is.
The race won’t just have one winner, since the AI-powered cloud is massive and still expanding. But in a quarter where clarity and confidence mattered as much as capability, Microsoft made its pitch look like the only one that mattered. Quartz’s Catherine Baab has more on the tech titan cashing in on the AI gold rush.

Netflix just got written into the trade war’s script.
The streaming giant had been riding high: bullish analysts, resilient retention, and a reputation as a safe macroeconomic play. But over the weekend, Donald Trump threw a wrench into that narrative when he posted about a 100% tariff proposal on movies made outside the U.S.
Calling foreign film production a “national security threat,” Trump declared: “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick followed up with a cryptic “We’re on it.” Wall Street, unsurprisingly, didn’t love the cliffhanger: Netflix stock dropped nearly 4% at Monday’s open, before clawing back some losses.
So far, no one knows if these tariffs would hit just theatrical releases or streaming, too — or whether they’d be based on budget, box office, or just the president’s whims. But if Trump’s goal is to boost U.S. film production, early reactions from the movie industry suggest the real effect could instead be fewer movies.
Netflix may still be the king of streaming — but when the trade war rolls credits, even a stable storyline can get rewritten. Quartz’s Shannon Carroll has more on the plot twist no one saw coming.