TikTok distrust 2.0

Hiya, it’s Alex in Los Angeles. We’re all having a bit of TikTok-ban déjà vu. But first...Today’s must-reads:• Indian warehouses are the hot [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hiya, it’s Alex in Los Angeles. We’re all having a bit of TikTok-ban déjà vu. But first... Today’s must-reads: • Indian warehouses are the [hot thing]( to invest in now • Chip globalization is over, says [the founder of TSMC]( • Baidu’s ChatGPT rival debut came [without a live demo]( No, seriously, we’re not spies In a week’s time, TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew will testify before Congress at what may be the fight of his career: pleading the case that TikTok isn’t a secret spying tool for the Chinese government. The backdrop is dire. News broke Wednesday that, not for the first time, the office of a US president has told ByteDance Ltd. that it needs to sell its stake in TikTok or risk the app being banned in America. Joe Biden’s Treasury Department is leading the discussion this go-round through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or Cfius. Two and a half years ago, a similar message was delivered via Donald Trump’s executive order. The first try was largely a Republican effort. The order eventually got blocked by a court and tossed by Biden’s administration. This time, the urge to limit TikTok’s power and reach is a bipartisan one. There are four bills, one with White House support, proposed to Congress that could result in enforcement actions: from a forced sale to an outright ban. TikTok’s leadership has already begun discussing a [divestiture]( as a last resort to keep the app in the US, my colleague Olivia Carville and I reported Tuesday. The general concerns then and now are about the popular app’s Chinese parentage and the potential national security implications. Senators argue that TikTok imperils US user data and, more perniciously, might be used by the Chinese Communist Party to distribute propaganda to impressionable young Americans. Chew’s team is preparing him to absorb the legislators’ barbs and “take the tough questions,” according to one person close to the company. His goal is to center the conversation on details of TikTok’s $1.5 billion plan to cordon off sensitive US data and operations, according to people familiar with the matter, and lay out how extensive the firm’s security measures are compared to other technology companies. The effort has the apt name of Project Texas. He’s trying to combat existential fears about China with cold hard facts, a strategy he’s always favored. But those entreaties may fall on deaf ears, given we already know Cfius is not sold on TikTok’s plan. Chew also has at the ready some ideas that TikTok’s representatives have been message-testing in closed-door meetings with lawmakers. Among them: bring on the privacy legislation, but make it comprehensive and fair; give us clear rules to follow, and make rivals like Meta Platforms Inc. abide by them too. It’s not a bad approach with a US legislature that’s often tried and failed to pass legislation to rein in the power of internet firms. The leading bill TikTok’s facing, from Virginia Democrat Mark Warner and South Dakota Republican John Thune, could give the president the ability to evaluate the national security risk of foreign-owned tech and limit its US operations if necessary. It doesn’t name TikTok” or ByteDance, but the intent is clear and Warner hasn’t shied away from criticizing TikTok in public. It’s been a dramatic road to get to this point, which we [detailed]( in the latest Businessweek issue. If past social-media CEO trips to Congress are any guide, the drama is all but guaranteed to continue. —[Alex Barinka](mailto:abarinka2@bloomberg.net) The big story Startups from Silicon Valley to Tel Aviv are preparing for life after Silicon Valley Bank, the [lender of choice for many in the global tech industry](. Get fully charged OpenAI is partnering with Stripe to take payments and subscriptions as the company [seeks to monetize its wildly popular AI tools]( like ChatGPT and Dall-E. Autonomy founder Mike Lynch asked a London court for the right to [appeal his US extradition](, where he faces criminal charges over the HP sale fraud. SoftBank is likely to come under greater scrutiny in the [wake of SVB’s collapse](. Watch: “This is going to be a [much different fundraising environment]( than even a few months ago,” said Sarah Kunst, the founder and managing director of Cleo Capital, in a TV interview on Bloomberg Technology. 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