Business
Billionaires are spending big to stop Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayoral bid
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Super PACs supporting Andrew Cuomo and opposing Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race have raised over $40 million, with millions coming from prominent billionaires and family dynasties, according to election filings.
New York billionaires Bill Ackman, Ronald Lauder, William Lauder, Barry Diller and Dan Loeb have all made large donations to a special committee called Fix the City that supports independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, according to election filings. Other non-New Yorkers giving to the group include casino mogul Steve Wynn and Alice Walton, the world’s richest woman.
The wave of big money highlights the growing fear of a Mamdani win by many of New York’s wealthy and national conservatives. A self-described Democratic socialist, Mamdani’s platform includes a rent freeze, free buses, free childcare for all and government-run grocery stores. To pay for the programs, he’s proposed an additional 2% tax on New Yorkers who make more than $1 million a year.
Even as Mamdani maintains a double-digit lead in most of the polls, a vast money machine built on several pro-Cuomo PACs has gained steam as Election Day nears. Fix the City is by far the largest of the so-called “independent expenditure committees,” political fundraising groups akin to super PACs that can accept unlimited funds and were created to get around the new York City’s campaign finance limits. They are not tax deductible to the donors and are not permitted to coordinate their efforts with a specific candidate’s campaign.
According to filings, Fix the City has raised over $32 million, with many large gifts coming after Mamdani’s primary win in June. Two other anti-Mamdani committees include Defend NYC, which has raised $2.5 million, and New Yorkers for a Better Future, which has raised $1.5 million.
A PAC supporting Mamdani, called New Yorkers for Lower Costs, has raised just under $2 million. The only known wealth donor to contribute to that special committee is Elizabeth Simons, the daughter of the late billionaire hedge fund investor James Simons.
Many of the largest donations to Fix the City came before the primary, including two gifts in June from Michael Bloomberg totaling $8.3 million. Bloomberg, who met with Mamdani in September to offer advice, has not made any donations to the group since.
Many billionaires have ramped up their giving after the primary. Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, Tesla board member and White House chief design officer, gave two gifts of $1 million each to two pro-Cuomo PACs in October.
Gebbia declined to comment on the gifts, as did several other billionaires mentioned in this piece. Others could not be reached for comment.
Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for mayor speaks during a press conference celebrating his primary victory with leaders and members of the city’s labor unions on July 2, 2025 in New York.
Angela Weiss | Afp | Getty Images
The Lauder family, heirs to the Estee Lauder fortune, have given over $2 million to anti-Mamdani committees. Ronald Lauder gave $750,000 to Fix the City in September, while William Lauder, chair of The Estee Lauder Companies, gave $500,000 in late August. Other members of the Lauder family have given more than $750,000 combined since June.
More than a half dozen members of the Tisch family, whose fortune stretches from real estate and hospitality to energy, packaging and sports, have given to Fix the City. Abigail, Louise, Maude and Laurie Tisch each gave $100,000 in October, while Alice Tisch gave $500,000. Elizabeth, Jonathan and Merryl Tisch also donated to the PAC after the primary.
The Tisch family donations carry added symbolism since since Jessica Tisch, daughter of Loews Corp. CEO James Tisch, is the popular New York City police commissioner who has overseen a continued drop in crime in the city. Mamdani has said he plans to keep Tisch in her role as commissioner but has also called for an overhaul of policing and a new “department of public safety.”
Many of the large donors backing Cuomo are hedge funders. Bill Ackman, who supported President Donald Trump’s re-election last year, gave $250,000 to Fix the City in October, following two gifts of $250,000 each before the primary. Dan Loeb of Third Point gave $100,000 in October after a $100,000 donation in June.
Some of the larger donors appear to have only loose ties to New York City.
Steve Wynn, the longtime Republican donor who listed his address as Las Vegas, gave $500,000 to Fix the City in October. Alice Walton, the world’s richest woman, listed her address as a post office box in Bentonville, Arkansas — Walmart’s hometown — when she made a $100,000 donation in August, on top of a $100,000 donation in April. Walton has little history of political giving in New York, beyond donating to pro-charter school groups and candidates. Mamdani has said he opposes the expansion of charter schools.
While many of the anti-Mamdani billionaires are Republicans, a notable exception is Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC and longtime New York philanthropist who’s giving has typically leaned toward Democrats. Diller gave $500,000 to Fix the City across two donations, with the most recent in October.
The worry by some pro-Cuomo supporters is that the giving by billionaires and the family dynasties could backfire in an increasingly populist political climate. Mamdani has made the donations a point of pride on the campaign trail, saying the spending by the rich is proof that his policies would restore power to everyday New Yorkers.
“They’re spending more money than I would even tax them,” Mamdani said in an interview with MSNBC Tuesday.
Business
Will AI mean the end of call centres?
Jane WakefieldTechnology reporter
Getty ImagesAsk ChatGPT whether AI will replace humans in the customer service industry, and it will offer a diplomatic answer, the summary of which is “they will work side by side”.
Humans though, are not so optimistic.
Last year, the chief executive of Indian technology firm Tata Consultancy Services, K Krithivasan, told the Financial Times that AI may soon mean that there is “minimal need” for call centres in Asia.
Meanwhile, AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues by 2029, predicts business and technology research firm Gartner.
There is currently a lot of hype around “AI agents”. That is the term given to AI systems that can operate more autonomously and make decisions.
They could turbo-charge current non-AI chatbots, known as “rule-based chatbots”, which can only answer a set list of questions.
My own recent experience with parcel delivery firm Evri’s chatbot illustrates the existing, non-AI state of play.
My parcel had not arrived, and Ezra (the name of the chatbot), offered to “get this resolved straight away”.
It asked for a tracking reference, and after I had typed that in, it told me that my parcel had been delivered.
I could request proof of delivery, and when I did so it showed me a photo of the package… at the wrong front door. And there was no option to advance the conversation after this “evidence” was shown.
In response, Evri tells the BBC it is investing £57m to further improve the service.
“Our intelligent chat facility uses tracking data to suggest the most helpful responses and ensure the customer’s parcel is delivered as soon as possible, if this has not happened as scheduled,” it says.
“Our data confirms the vast majority of people get the answers they need from our chat facility, first time, within seconds. We’re always reviewing feedback to ensure our services are as helpful as possible, and we continue to make enhancements on a rolling basis.”
On the flipside, rival parcel delivery firm DPD had to disable its less rule-bound AI chatbot after it criticised the company and swore at users.
Getty ImagesGetting the balance right between being on brand and genuinely helping customers is a tricky one for businesses to grapple with as they migrate to AI.
Some 85% of customer service leaders are exploring, piloting or deploying AI chatbots, according to Gartner. But it also found that only 20% of such projects are fully meeting expectations.
“You can have a much more natural conversation with AI,” says Garner analyst Emily Potosky.
“But the downside is the chatbot could hallucinate, it could give you out-of-date information, or tell you completely the wrong thing. For parcel delivery I would say rules-based agents are great because there are only so many permutations of questions about someone’s package.”
Resources and money are among the key reasons businesses may be considering the move from human to AI customer service. But Ms Potosky points out that it isn’t a given that AI will be cheaper than human agents.
“This is a very expensive technology,” she says.
The first thing that any business wanting to replace humans with AI will have to do is ensure that they have extensive training data.
“There’s this idea that knowledge management becomes less important because generative AI can solve the fact that their knowledge is not particularly well organised, but actually the opposite is the case,” adds Ms Potosky.
“Knowledge management is more important when deploying generative AI.”
Joe Inzerillo, chief digital officer at software giant Salesforce, tells the BBC that call centres provide fertile training grounds for AIs, particularly ones that have been moved to low-cost areas such as the Philippines and India.
This is because a lot of staff training will have been done, which the AI can also learn from.
“You have a huge amount of documentation, and that’s all really great stuff for the AI to have when it is going to take over that first line of defence,” he says.
Salesforce’s AI-powered customer service platform, AgentForce, is currently being used by a range of customers from Formula 1, to insurance firm Prudential, restaurant-booking website Open Table, and social media site Reddit.
Mr Inzerillo says that when Salesforce first put the platform through its paces it learned some valuable lessons about how to make the AI seem more human-like.
“While a human might say ‘sorry to hear that’, the agent just opened a ticket,” says Mr Inzerillo.
So the AI was trained to show more sympathy, especially when a customer has a problem.
Salesforce also found that not allowing the agent to talk about competitors proved problematic.
“This backfired when customers asked legitimate questions about integrating Microsoft Teams with Salesforce,” says Mr Inzerillo. “The agent refused to help because Microsoft appeared on our competitor list.”
The firm subsequently replaced that rigid rule.
Salesforce has ambitious plans for the continuing rollout of its AI agents, and so far it claims that they are a hit with its customers. It also says that the vast majority of customers, 94%, are choosing to interact with AI agents when given the option.
“We’ve seen customer satisfaction rates that are in excess of what people get with humans – then AI can unlock the next level of customer service,” says Mr Inzerillo.
It has also meant that the firm has cut customer service costs by $100m, but he was keen to play down recent headlines that suggest this has led to 4,000 jobs being slashed.
“A very large percentage of those people got redeployed in other areas around customer service.”
Fiona ColemanFiona Coleman runs QStory, a firm which is using AI to offer human call centre workers more flexibility in their shift patterns. Its customers include eBay and NatWest.
While she sees the value in AI improving working conditions, she is not sure the technology can ever replace humans entirely.
“There are times where I don’t want to have a digital engagement, and I want to speak to a human,” she says.
“Let’s see what it looks like in five years’ time – whether an AI can do a mortgage application, or talk about a debt problem. Let’s see whether the AI has got empathetic enough.”
The use of AI in customer service could, in fact, already be facing a backlash.
Legislation currently proposed in the US to move off-shore call centres back to America also requires businesses to disclose the use of AI, and transfer a caller to a human if asked to do so.
Meanwhile, Gartner predicted that by 2028 the EU may mandate what is called ‘the right to talk to a human” as part of its consumer protection rules.
Business
China to ease chip export ban in new trade deal, White House says
China will begin easing an export ban on automotive computer chips vital to production of cars across the world as part of a trade deal struck between the US and China, the White House has said.
The White House confirmed details of the deal in a new fact sheet after Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met in South Korea this week.
The nations also reached agreements on US soybean exports, the supply of rare earth minerals, and the materials used in production of the drug fentanyl.
The deal de-escalates a trade war between the world’s two largest economies after Trump hit China with tariffs after he entered office this year, leading to rounds of retaliatory tariffs and global business uncertainty.
Chinese Embassy in Washington spokesman Liu Pengyu told the BBC in a statement that details of the agreements reached had been shared by “competent authorities”.
“China-US economic and trade relations are mutually beneficial in nature,” he said.
“As President Xi Jinping noted, the business relationship should continue to serve as the anchor and driving force for China-US relations, not a stumbling block or a point of friction.”
Speaking on Sunday following the release of the deal details, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN: “We don’t want to decouple from China… (But) they’ve shown themselves to be an unreliable partner.”
Much of what is in Saturday’s fact sheet was announced by Trump and other officials following the meeting between the two leaders.
Trump had described the talks, held in South Korea, as “amazing”, while Beijing had said they had reached a consensus to resolve “major trade issues”.
One of the issues addressed in the deal was the export of automotive computer chips. There had been concern that a lack of chips from Nexperia, which has production facilities in China, could create global supply chain issues.
Nexperia is a Chinese-owned company, but is based in the Netherlands. About 70% of Nexperia chips made in Europe are sent to China to be completed and re-exported to other countries.
The fact sheet states that China will “take appropriate measures to ensure the resumption of trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China, allowing production of critical legacy chips to flow to the rest of the world”.
It follows Beijing saying on Saturday that it was considering exempting some firms from the ban.
Last month, the likes of Volvo Cars and Volkswagen warned a chip shortage could lead to temporary shutdowns at their plants, and Jaguar Land Rover said the lack of chips posed a threat to their business.
On other key issues, Beijing will now pause export controls it brought in last month on rare earth minerals – vital in the production of cars, planes and weapons – for a year.
The White House also said it would lower tariffs brought in to curb the import of fentanyl into the US, with China agreeing to take “significant measures” to deal with the issue.
Fentanyl is a synthetic drug manufactured from a combination of chemicals, and while it is approved for medical use in the US, the powerful and highly-addictive substance has since become the main drug responsible for opioid overdose deaths in the US.
The chemicals used in its manufacturing, some of which have legitimate uses, are mostly sourced from China.
On soybeans, China has committed to buying 12 million tonnes of US soybeans in the last two months of 2025, and 25 million metric tonnes in each of the following three years – which is roughly the level they were previously at.
China’s decision to stop purchasing soybeans from the US earlier this year denied American farmers access to their largest export market.
In response, Trump revived a bailout for farmers which was in place during his first term in office.
Business
Competition law vs patent rights: NCLAT rules CCI has no power to probe patented product disputes; upholds case against Swiss drugmaker Vifor – The Times of India
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has ruled that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) does not have the power to investigate disputes related to patented products, holding that the Patent Act takes precedence over the Competition Act in such cases, PTI reported.Dismissing an appeal against a CCI order that had closed a complaint against Swiss pharma major Vifor International (AG), a two-member NCLAT bench said that the fair trade regulator lacks jurisdiction to examine such matters, PTI reported.“Considering the judgment of the Delhi High Court in the case of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (PUBL) and the Supreme Court in SLP No. 25026/2023, it is apparent that the CCI lacks the power to examine the allegations made against Vifor International (AG),” the tribunal observed.Vifor International held the patent for Ferric Carboxymaltose (FCM) injection, a drug used to treat Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA). The tribunal stated: “The Patent Act will prevail over the Competition Act in the facts of this case, as the subject matter of contention is FCM, which was developed and patented by Respondent No. 2 (Vifor International).”NCLAT noted that Section 3(5) of the Competition Act provides specific protection to patent holders to restrain infringement or impose reasonable conditions to safeguard their rights. “The Competition Act, in Section 3(5), has laid down that the Act will not restrict the right of any person in protecting his rights under the Patent Act,” it said.The appeal was filed by Swapan Dey, CEO of a hospital offering free dialysis services under the Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP). Dey alleged that Vifor’s “anti-competitive and abusive conduct” had made FCM injections unaffordable and inaccessible to patients.However, the CCI had closed the case in its October 25, 2022 order, finding no prima facie contravention under Sections 3(4) or 4 of the Competition Act. Dey then challenged the order before NCLAT, arguing that the CCI failed to properly define the relevant market or assess Vifor’s dominance.Vifor countered the claim, asserting that the CCI lacked jurisdiction since the matter involved a patented molecule governed by the Patent Act. The company also informed the tribunal that its patent for FCM, granted on June 25, 2008, had expired on October 21, 2023, making it freely available for manufacturing and sale.NCLAT held that while the patent’s expiry meant the drug had entered the public domain, the key question was jurisdiction—whether CCI could have examined the issue when the product was still under patent protection.Citing the Delhi High Court’s earlier decision in Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (PUBL), which held that the Patent Act overrides the Competition Act, the tribunal noted that the Supreme Court had upheld that position by dismissing CCI’s appeal on September 2, 2025.“Following the judicial guidance as noted above, we hold that there is no merit in this appeal. Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed,” NCLAT concluded.
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