🌏 Musk v. Bezos

Good morning, Quartz readers!

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The head of the FDA hopes Donald Trump doesn’t install vaccine skeptics at the agency. Trump’s presumed pick to run the FDA is not not a vaccine skeptic.

Google has officially been asked to sell its Chrome internet browser subsidiary. The Justice Department request came in a proposed order after Google was found to be violating antitrust law.

There are lots of ways to play in the cryptocurrency space without owning cryptocurrency. Would-be dabblers can mine or stake it instead, among other routes.

Somebody bought a banana for $6.2 million. The fruit is part of Maurizio Cattelan’s famed “Comedian” artwork.

Nvidia could be about to take a major step up. Its Blackwell AI platform will be on backorder through 2026.

The acronym providing a pathway crypto plays

Bitcoin is approaching record levels and possibly within reach of hitting $100,000. But wary investors who think the volatile cryptocurrency is too hot to touch have a way of getting in on the action without singing their hands.

Exchange-traded Bitcoin funds, whose legalization earlier this year is helping propel the asset’s rally, are giving lots of investors an entryway. If Donald Trump’s favorable treatment of the sector comes as part of his looming presidency, ETFs provide another way to play that particular market.

Quartz’s Vinamrata Chaturvedi explains the allure of the ETF and the effect that Bitcoin’s rise is having on other cryptocurrencies.

A Trump-y bit of billionaire head-butting

There’s a tumultuous piece of gossip swirling among the world’s richest men. Elon Musk alleges that Jeff Bezos was trying to bear-y the Tesla CEO’s companies. The rumor is that Bezos was telling people to sell their Tesla shares pre-election because a Trump loss would mean a great deal of negative scrutiny for Musk’s business dealings.

Though Bezos is denying that he said any such thing — via his fourth-ever post on Musk’s X platform — the story illustrates the tension between the billionaire who has Donald Trump’s ear and the one who now has to figure out how to get his own interests heard.

How else are Musk’s and Bezos’s enterprises intertwined in a second Trump administration? William Gavin lays out the stakes of their ultra-wealthy chatter.

MORE FROM QUARTZ

🐕 The Musk-Ramaswamy government-slashing DOGE is enlisting Marjorie Taylor Greene

🦃 Here are some Thanksgiving deals from Walmart, Aldi, and more 

👋 SEC head Gary Gensler says he’s not sticking around to get fired by Donald Trump

🫁 A robot successfully completed a double lung transplant surgery

📉 Bankrupt Spirit Airlines is officially a penny stock now

💰 Meanwhile, Spirit Airlines CEO Ted Christie got a $3.8 million bonus not to jump ship

SURPRISING DISCOVERIES

The Disney-version Hell’s Angels have been kicked out of heaven. Disneyland’s gang-aping “social clubs” are finding it too complicated and expensive to meet up at their favorite theme park. (paywall)

A Georgia town is about to have an especially big New Year’s Eve fireworks show. The municipality of Macon is planning to blow up an empty hotel.

Pokemon Go trainers have also been training AI. Niantic, the company behind the game, is using players’ movements to build a “large geospatial model.” (paywall)

The intelligence community doesn’t think Trump’s director of national intelligence selection is a smart choice. America’s spies are wary of Tulsi Gabbard’s potential role as their new boss.

The drugmaker Abbott keeps a cadre of pandemic hunters on payroll. The company’s Pandemic Defense Coalition spans the globe looking out for the next COVID-19. (paywall)

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Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, tidbits of billionaire gossip, and bankruptcy bonus payments to [email protected]. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Melvin Backman and Audrey McNamara.