What's up: Snowflake strikes $200 million deal with Anthropic; Sam Altman explored space deal; Democrats press tech firms about Trump ballroom donations

Good morning. Corporate boards are struggling to keep up with the rise of artificial intelligence, and a reckoning is at hand, McKinsey warns.

The global management consulting firm released a new report this morning called, "The AI Reckoning: How Boards Can Evolve." Here are highlights from the research, as well as insights from co-author Aamer Baig, senior partner and leader of McKinsey's technology practice.

Governance lags AI usage. More than 88% of organizations report using AI in at least one business function, but as of 2024, “only 39 percent of Fortune 100 companies disclosed any form of board oversight of AI—whether through a committee, a director with AI expertise, or an ethics board.”

A global survey of directors found that 66% report their boards have “limited to no knowledge or experience” with AI, and nearly one in three say AI does not even appear on their agendas, the global management consulting firm said today.

McKinsey said it interviewed directors from 75 boards across a range of industries and geographies, and analyzed findings from the McKinsey Global Survey on the state of AI and its data sets, which cover thousands of executives.

(For more on corporate AI governance, see our coverage from the WSJ Leadership Institute’s inaugural Board of Directors Council Summit in Palm Beach last month.)

AI governance looks way beyond technology. “The most effective directors described a shift in mindset, treating AI adoption not as a tech review but as a strategy and operating model inflection,” Baig said. “Their stories were consistent. When boards evolved their practices, management teams accelerated.”

The most effective boards with respect to AI begin by defining their AI posture, which can run the gamut from pioneer to transformer, reinventor, or cautious adopter. That step alone can help lead to better strategic decisions, risk calibration, and capital allocation, according to McKinsey.

Furthermore, McKinsey says boards should ask what AI means for their company’s operating model, talent, and governance. They should focus on value creation, as well as risk mitigation, pushing management to articulate how AI creates advantage in cost, speed, or capability and linking it all back to shareholder value.

Boards should also approach director education as an ongoing dialogue with internal and external experts and appoint AI-literate directors or external advisers.

How does your company’s board approach AI governance? Use the links at the end of this newsletter and let us know.

The latest news underscore rapid innovation in AI alongside ongoing concerns about the economic and operational risks.

Snowflake struck a $200 million deal with Anthropic to bring Claude-powered AI agents to its platform, WSJ reports. Separately, Snowflake posted a third-quarter loss of $294 million compared with a loss of $324.3 million a year earlier.

Also, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that the AI industry is assuming major financial risk as companies pour hundreds of billions into data centers. Speaking at the New York Times DealBook Summit, he said even slight miscalculations could put some players in trouble. Amodei noted that Anthropic itself faces uncertainty. “I think it’s genuine uncertainty and a genuine dilemma, which we as a company try to manage as responsibly as we can.,” he said.

MIT Technology Review reports on how OpenAI is testing “confessions,” where models explain how they completed tasks and admit mistakes, to better understand LLM behavior. 

Recent updates on two major vendors show a mixed landscape for AI products, with one finding new momentum, the other confronting slower-than-expected sales in some areas.

Salesforce raised its full-year outlook as its AI product Agentforce reached $540 million in annual recurring revenue and saw rising adoption, WSJ reports. The company said it had closed 18,500 Agentforce deals since the product launched in October 2024, about half of which are paid deals.

Microsoft shares fell Wednesday on a report from the Information that the company eased quotas for AI products after salespeople missed their goals over the previous fiscal year. Microsoft in a statement shared with MarketWatch said that  "aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been lowered."

Regulators and lawmakers are zeroing in on Big Tech’s power and its political reach.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats are pressing the leaders of Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com and Meta to provide details on their donations to support President Trump’s White House ballroom—and whether the companies have any quid pro quo arrangements with the Trump administration, WSJ reports.

The European Commission opened an antitrust investigation into whether Meta’s rules governing AI developers’ access to WhatsApp hurt competition, WSJ reports. “As a result of the new policy, competing AI providers may be blocked from reaching their customers through WhatsApp,” the regulator said in a statement. A spokesperson for Meta said the commission’s claims are baseless.

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman has explored putting together funds to either acquire or partner with a rocket company, a move that would position him to compete against Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

Apple’s head of user interface design, Alan Dye, is heading to Meta Platforms, Bloomberg reports, the latest in an exodus of design talent in the wake of Jony Ive’s 2019 departure. Dye will report to Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth.

Another a professor has set course to Silicon Valley.

Improvements in the way artificial intelligence can tackle complex mathematical problems was enough to encourage University of Virginia's Ken Ono, one of the world’s most prominent mathematicians, to join a Silicon Valley startup, WSJ Columnist Ben Cohen reports. 

The startup, Axiom Math, is betting that a mathematical superintelligence could have all kinds of commercial applications—software and hardware verification, logistics optimization, algorithmic trading and financial engineering.

“I have the luxury of participating in transforming how the world actually works,” Ono tells the WSJ. “As a pure mathematician, that has rarely been the case.”

This February 10–11, technology leaders will gather in Palo Alto for The WSJ Technology Council Summit to explore the realities of enterprise AI, the evolving role of tech leadership and the urgency behind building meaningful, business-driving AI strategies. Join the Technology Council and be part of the conversations shaping the future of corporate innovation.

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President Trump’s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was the result of something extraordinary for a Central American leader and convicted cocaine trafficker—a web of powerful advocates stretching from Washington to Mar-a-Lago. (WSJ)

Two survivors of a Sept. 2 U.S. strike on a boat in the Caribbean were killed in follow-up attacks after they were seen still aboard the damaged vessel alongside packages of illegal narcotics, a senior commander is expected to tell lawmakers Thursday. (WSJ)

The total number of billionaires across the globe reached new heights in 2025, due partly to the soaring valuations of tech companies and rising stock markets, according to a new study by Swiss banking giant UBS. (WSJ)

The WSJ CIO Journal Team is Steven Rosenbush, Isabelle Bousquette and Belle Lin.

The editor, Tom Loftus, can be reached at thomas.loftus@wsj.com.