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Second time’s charm: After a brief revolt Friday morning, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Shreveport, was reelected as speaker of the House Friday afternoon. Johnson lost by a mere two points during the first round of voting, and secured the necessary 218 in the second round by convincing two Republican defectors—Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Keith Self of Texas—to switch their votes. Read more from Axios.
$80 billion investment: Microsoft Corp. plans to spend $80 billion this fiscal year building out data centers, underscoring the intense capital requirements of artificial intelligence. More than half of this projected spending through June 2025 will be in the U.S., Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote in a blog post Friday. Read more from Bloomberg. A subscription may be required.
Hold on a minute: A U.S. bank regulator told banks to pause dabbling directly in crypto in 2022 and 2023, but did not order them to stop providing banking services to crypto companies, contrary to industry complaints of widespread “debanking,” according to documents released on Friday. A judge ordered the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to provide versions of supervisory “pause letters” it sent to unidentified banks after a lawsuit was filed against the agency to release them. Read more from Reuters.
