Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the operator of Truth Social and related platforms, has completed a massive $2.44 billion private placement aimed at turning the company into one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin among U.S.-listed firms.

The move underscores a dramatic shift in the company’s financial strategy as it deepens its commitment to digital assets and seeks to redefine its future within what it describes as the “America First economy.”

The company secured the $2.44 billion through two primary vehicles:

• A common stock offering of 55.86 million shares priced at $25.72 each, raising approximately $1.44 billion.
• A convertible note issuance totaling $1 billion. These are 0% senior secured notes due in 2028, which can be converted to equity at $34.72 per share.

The net proceeds—approximately $2.32 billion after fees—will be primarily allocated toward acquiring Bitcoin and supporting general corporate operations. According to a company press release, crypto platforms Crypto.com and Anchorage Digital will provide custodial services for the firm’s expanding Bitcoin holdings.

A Crypto-First Pivot

The move reflects Trump Media’s growing commitment to a crypto-first strategy. CEO Devin Nunes, a former U.S. congressman and staunch Trump ally, framed the deal as an expression of financial independence.

“This capital raise enables us to advance our business and execute on our long-term vision,” he said, describing the Bitcoin investment as a hedge and a foundation for future growth.

This pivot follows other recent crypto-aligned initiatives by Trump Media, including partnerships with Crypto.com to launch crypto-themed ETFs and explore decentralized financial services through the company’s apps—Truth Social, Truth+, and Truth.Fi.

The shift positions Trump Media alongside firms like MicroStrategy and GameStop, which have used capital raises and debt financing to amass substantial crypto holdings. However, Trump Media’s balance sheet now makes it one of the most liquid U.S. companies with direct exposure to Bitcoin, with more than $3 billion in liquid assets post-deal.

Shareholder Dilution and Loss of Trump Majority

One side effect of the offering was the dilution of existing shareholders, including Donald Trump himself, who saw his majority stake fall from 52% to 41.5%. This means that Trump, while still the largest individual shareholder, no longer holds a voting majority—a development that introduces potential governance implications. Analysts noted that this could open the door for activist investors or dissenting shareholders to gain more influence in corporate decisions.

Shares of DJT initially fell earlier in the week but recovered following the announcement of the capital raise. The stock closed higher Friday and showed renewed investor confidence in the company’s evolving direction. Nevertheless, DJT stock remains down over 36% year-to-date, raising questions about how long investor optimism can be sustained given the volatility of the company’s chosen asset—Bitcoin.

Political and Regulatory Overhang

The announcement comes as Donald Trump has openly embraced cryptocurrency in contrast to the regulatory skepticism seen during the Biden administration. The Trump administration recently backed the idea of a federal cryptocurrency reserve using seized digital assets and has rolled back some enforcement measures against major crypto platforms, including Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood.

However, the political proximity between the Trump administration and Trump Media has not gone unnoticed in Washington. Senator Elizabeth Warren has already raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest. She has specifically questioned Trump Media’s plans to expand into ETF offerings, citing the need for transparency and regulatory oversight given the company’s links to the president.

A High-Risk, High-Reward Future

While Trump Media now boasts a formidable war chest and a clear crypto focus, it also faces substantial risks. Bitcoin remains a volatile asset, and the company’s ability to translate this bold financial maneuver into long-term shareholder value is uncertain. Analysts say the real test will come not from Bitcoin’s market swings alone, but whether Trump Media can monetize its media, finance, and tech platforms in a way that complements its crypto treasury.

It is believed that the company, which still derives most of its attention from Trump’s political presence, is betting on financial engineering rather than product innovation. Supporters, however, see the move as a game-changing pivot toward decentralized financial empowerment.

Either way, Trump Media’s $2.44 billion Bitcoin plunge places it at the heart of America’s crypto experiment—and squarely on Wall Street’s radar.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that artificial intelligence could wipe out as much as half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years — a dire projection delivered as companies across industries accelerate job cuts amid deepening structural shifts and economic pressure.

The prediction, shared during an interview with Axios at Anthropic’s inaugural developer conference Code with Claude, comes amid a surge in job cuts at major tech firms — including IBM, Business Insider, and LinkedIn — which have collectively laid off more than 8,500 employees in recent weeks.

“We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming,” he said. “I don’t think this is on people’s radar.”

He warned that unemployment in the United States could reach between 10 and 20 percent within one to five years, driven in large part by AI’s rapid encroachment on white-collar roles.

He criticized the current U.S. policy direction under the Trump administration for aggressively accelerating AI adoption while dismantling prior safety measures.

“That’s a polite interpretation of the Trump administration’s no-questions-asked AI policy,” Amodei told Axios, referring to the executive order that rescinded Biden-era AI safety rules.

The layoff numbers back up the urgency of Amodei’s concern. IBM recently laid off more than 3,500 workers, even as it expands AI-driven enterprise tools. Business Insider has cut over 500 positions as part of a newsroom restructuring, and LinkedIn has eliminated more than 2,000 roles in the last year across engineering, recruiting, and marketing teams. All three companies have publicly embraced AI as part of their long-term strategy.

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 echoes Amodei’s fears. The report, based on a survey of over 11,000 executives, found that “almost half of organizations are expecting to reorient their business models toward new AI-driven opportunities (49 percent), while 47 percent plan to transition employees from AI-disrupted roles to other positions.” Alarmingly, “a significant share (41 percent) also expect to downsize their workforce as AI capabilities to replicate roles expand.”

The report further predicts that “on average, workers can expect that two-fifths (39 percent) of their existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated over the 2025–2030 period.”

However, Amodei’s warnings are not universally accepted. A recent paper titled Artificial Intelligence and the Labor Market, authored by Menaka Hampole (Yale), Dimitris Papanikolaou and Bryan Seegmiller (Northwestern), and Lawrence D.W. Schmidt (MIT), found that the impact of AI on labor has so far been muted due to offsetting effects — namely, productivity gains that result in overall job creation despite losses in certain sectors.

Papanikolaou, a finance professor at Northwestern, clarified the distinction between job exposure and actual displacement.

“People tend to think that, okay, if a job is exposed to AI, that means the AI is going to do my job and then I’m going to be out of work. So the point we’re trying to make is that, well, not necessarily. There are some potentially offsetting factors,” he said.

He added, “What matters is not just the average exposure of your job, but also how that’s distributed across the different tasks that you’re doing. If AI is good at only some of those tasks, workers may be able to focus on what it can’t do.”

Another study, Large Language Models, Small Labor Market Effects, authored by economists Anders Humlum and Emilie Vestergaard, analyzed how AI tools such as chatbots affected employment in 11 occupations in Denmark.

“These tools have really not made a significant difference in employment or earnings in any occupation,” Humlum said, stressing that AI’s real economic impact — if significant — may take decades, just as it did with steam power, electricity, and computing.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna has argued that AI hasn’t reduced his company’s workforce overall.

“Our total employment has actually gone up, because what it does is it gives you more investment to put into other areas,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

While Krishna insists that AI has allowed the company to invest in new business areas, a closer look at IBM’s job postings shows the majority of new roles are opening outside the U.S., particularly in cheaper labor markets. And

Amodei believes there is little time left to delay serious conversations around AI and employment.

The uncertainty around AI’s future impact hasn’t stopped companies from betting on it as a transformational force. While AI has generated some new opportunities, the pace and distribution of those gains remain uneven — especially in developed economies facing stagnant real wages and rising cost-of-living pressures.

In a fresh move to transform Nigeria’s oil and gas sector and attract more investment, President Bola Tinubu has signed a new Executive Order designed to lower project costs, reward operational efficiency, and enhance government revenues.

The order, titled “The Upstream Petroleum Operations Cost Efficiency Incentives Order (2025),” introduces performance-based tax incentives for companies that cut costs and meet industry benchmarks.

The new order forms part of a broader effort by Tinubu’s administration to reposition Nigeria’s energy sector for global competitiveness, following what officials described as significant investment gains and sector-wide reforms since he took office in May 2023.

Under the directive, investors will now receive 50 percent of incremental government revenue generated from verified cost savings. Meanwhile, the maximum tax credit a company can claim has been capped at 20 percent of its annual tax liability.

The Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen, said the order strikes a balance between protecting state revenues and offering strong fiscal incentives to efficient upstream operators.

“This is not just about reducing costs. It’s about rewarding performance and positioning Nigeria as a competitive and resilient oil and gas investment destination,” Verheijen said while unveiling the order.

Nigeria’s Cost Burden

Nigeria has long struggled with some of the highest oil production costs in the world. Depending on the terrain, field, and security conditions, the cost to produce a barrel of oil in the country ranges between $25 and $48. That figure stands in stark contrast to Saudi Arabia and Iraq, where average costs hover around $3 to $10 per barrel.

Industry stakeholders often blame this disparity on Nigeria’s unstable policy environment, multiple regulatory agencies, frequent delays in contracting, and complex local content requirements. While the local content drive was meant to stimulate indigenous participation and capacity, companies have noted that it has made operations more expensive in the short term.

The new Executive Order seeks to overhaul this operating climate by introducing cost benchmarks that will be developed annually by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), based on operational terrain — onshore, shallow water, and deep offshore.

According to the order, companies that exceed cost-saving targets will earn tax credits tied directly to their production volumes and operating cost reductions.

“The aim is to progressively eliminate the cost premium in Nigeria’s upstream sector,” Tinubu said in the order, stressing that annual benchmarking studies by the NUPRC will anchor implementation and compliance.

Building on Previous Reforms

Since taking office, Tinubu has signed multiple directives to address inefficiencies in the sector. These include:

1. The Oil and Gas Companies (Tax Incentives, Exemption, Remission, etc.) Order, 2024
2. A Presidential Directive on Local Content Compliance Requirements
3. A directive to increase the contract approval threshold to $10 million and reduce timelines.

Verheijen said the new order is a continuation of those reforms, adding that inter-agency coordination would be led from her office to ensure the policies translate into measurable outcomes.

“This is about creating jobs, securing our energy future, and making every barrel count,” Tinubu said.

The African Energy Chamber (AEC), through its Executive Chairman NJ Ayuk, welcomed the move, calling it a timely intervention that strengthens investor confidence and Nigeria’s position as a leading African oil producer.

“The executive order could not come at a better time,” Ayuk said, referencing Nigeria’s targets of hitting 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in oil production and 12 billion standard cubic feet per day (bscf/d) in gas output—up from the current 7.3 bscf/d.

Ayuk acknowledged that Nigeria has suffered years of declining upstream investment due to regulatory uncertainty and an unattractive business environment. But with the combined weight of the new order and the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) signed in 2021, he said the country appears ready to turn that trend around.

The recent influx of over $8 billion in investments into deepwater oil and gas projects such as Bonga North (Shell) and Ubeta (TotalEnergies) is one of the early signs of renewed investor confidence. These projects stem from Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) secured under Tinubu’s administration and were highlighted by Verheijen at the 2025 Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan.

Analysts say if properly implemented, the Executive Order could drastically reduce Nigeria’s cost per barrel and unlock more production, but caution that its success hinges on effective oversight and streamlined agency coordination.

With ambitious targets and global investors watching closely, the pressure is now on the Tinubu administration to effectively implement the executive order.