Business & Markets — July 26, 2026

EU fines Google €890 million. European regulators fined Google €890 million under the Digital Markets Act for favoring its own services, prompting President Trump to vow an investigation of the EU.

The Financial Times frames the penalty, equivalent to about $1 billion, as an early test of how Washington will respond when Brussels enforces the Digital Markets Act against American technology companies. The president's pledge to open an inquiry into the bloc signals the dispute could widen beyond a single enforcement action, turning a regulatory penalty into a broader transatlantic flashpoint over how far the EU can go in policing Big Tech.

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Judge pauses $81 billion Paramount-Warner merger. A federal judge halted the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery megamerger this week, giving states two weeks to press their antitrust case. Paramount agreed to delay the deal as late as June 2027.

The pause does not kill the transaction; it sets a two-week window for the states pursuing antitrust claims to make their case before the deal can move forward. Paramount's agreement to push the closing deadline as far out as June 2027 suggests both companies anticipate a potentially lengthy court fight and are structuring the merger timeline to survive extended litigation rather than abandoning it.

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Nvidia locks in SK Hynix memory supply. Nvidia secured long-term high-bandwidth memory supply from SK Hynix in a $500 billion deal this week, squeezing rival chipmakers as AI infrastructure spending continues to climb.

High-bandwidth memory has become a critical bottleneck for AI chips, and CNBC reports the long-term arrangement gives Nvidia guaranteed access to SK Hynix's output as demand for AI infrastructure keeps rising. Locking up supply at this scale leaves competing chipmakers contending for constrained remaining capacity, which could shape which companies can meet AI hardware demand in the coming years.

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