Here’s Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son’s grand plans for investing SoftBank’s massive $100 billion Vision Fund: The company has recently made moves to buy nearly a fifth of Uber’s existing stock; Son is focused on owning pieces of other data-driven companies that may underpin the global shifts brought on by artificial intelligence to transportation, food, work, medicine and finance. [Katie Benner / The New York Times]
Recode Daily: SoftBank’s $100 billion investment strategy, explained
Plus, Facebook sends Sheryl Sandberg to D.C. and helps out in Puerto Rico, Apple partners with Steven Spielberg on a retro reboot, and the stunt flavor of the week.
Facebook is flying its powerful COO, Sheryl Sandberg, to Washington, D.C., to do damage control on the company’s Russian-ad problem. Sandberg is also expected to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus; her D.C. house call comes as Facebook plans to join Twitter and Google in testifying at two public congressional hearings focused on suspected Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election. Here’s a riveting spy vs. spy look at how Israel caught Russian hackers in real time as they scoured computers around the world for U.S. secrets. [Tony Romm / Recode]
Twitter flip-flopped after blocking a campaign video ad for Rep. Marsha Blackburn on Monday, when it called a reference to Planned Parenthood “inflammatory.” On Tuesday, Twitter changed its mind and allowed the Tennessee conservative’s ad to run after all. [Kurt Wagner / Recode]
Apple is partnering with director Steven Spielberg to reboot his 1980s sci-fi series “Amazing Stories,” as part of its major foray into creating original content with A-list talent. Apple has said it is willing to spend $1 billion or more on its own shows, and may be paying upward of $5 million an episode for 10 episodes of the anthology series [Peter Kafka]
Tesla, Facebook, Alphabet are pitching in to help storm-devastated Puerto Rico recover. Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered to help rebuild the island’s power grid using solar power; Facebook pledged $1.5 million and flew in employees from its connectivity team to help get the territory back online, and Alphabet got an experimental license to use its balloon-distributed internet service to restore online access to Puerto Rico. Facebook topped its assistance with an apology after CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared as a cartoon avatar in a tone-deaf VR tour of the destruction. [Kat Bogerding / Recode]
Top stories from Recode
A group of Silicon Valley tech experts is raising money to help 500 Democrats win elections in 2018.
Sam Altman, Chris Kelly and Chamath Palihapitiya are involved with Tech for Campaigns.
Snap has partnered with TripAdvisor, Foursquare and others.
Time is money.
This is cool
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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