Amazon vs The Walt Disney Company

US Tech CEOs Expected at Trump-Xi State Banquet

US President Donald Trump will host Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state banquet at the White House, with top tech executives including Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Albert Bourla (Pfizer), Elon Musk (Tesla), and CEOs from Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, OpenAI, Dell, and Nvidia expected to attend. The meeting aims to stabilize bilateral relations strained by trade, Taiwan, Iran, and AI disputes, despite deep economic ties. JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon and Citigroup's Jane Fraser are also likely to attend. The visit follows Musk's praise of Xi in an interview with Chinese state TV. Financial interdependencies remain strong, with US banks leading $17.2 billion in capital raises for Chinese tech firms this year, including IPOs for MiniMax and Victory Giant. Experts anticipate a continuation of the trade truce and a potential AI dialogue, though regulatory approaches differ.

• US President Donald Trump hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state banquet at the White House.
• CEOs from Meta, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, OpenAI, Dell, Nvidia, Pfizer, Tesla, JPMorgan, and Citigroup are expected to attend.
• Trade, Taiwan, Iran, and AI disputes are key topics of the bilateral meeting.

Amazon Launches US Beta of AI-Powered Seller Assistant Plugin

Amazon is expanding its Seller Assistant into a persistent AI agent for merchants, introducing new capabilities such as a permanent memory for business context, autonomous workflows for recurring tasks, and a new plugin that integrates with Amazon Quick and Anthropic's Claude. The Seller Assistant, built on Amazon Bedrock and using Claude models, now serves over 90% of global sellers in their respective languages and reaches hundreds of thousands of active users. Merchants can define workflows in natural language to automate tasks like inventory monitoring, price changes, and account checks, with options for recommendations or executed actions, all logged and controlled by the seller. The plugin, initially in beta for US sellers, allows merchants to access sales data, inventory, and performance metrics directly within Quick and Claude, and to trigger actions within their Amazon business. Amazon is also offering a free 12-month Quick Plus subscription for account holders. This move positions Amazon as a provider of agentic infrastructure for merchant operations, with plans for further integrations with other AI platforms.

• Amazon's Seller Assistant will gain a persistent memory and autonomous workflows, transforming it into a continuously working agent for sellers.
• Amazon introduces a new Selling-Partner Plugin for Seller Assistant, initially in beta in the US, integrating with Amazon Quick and Anthropic Claude.
• The Seller Assistant is built on Amazon Bedrock and uses Claude models from Anthropic, and is now available to over 90% of global selling partners.

Paramount Legal Hurdle Cleared; Amazon Bars Meta's Muse

The article is a digest covering two major ad tech news items. Paramount Global has cleared a legal hurdle, likely an antitrust or regulatory challenge, in its proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, setting the stage for the combination of the two media giants. In a separate development, Amazon has barred Meta's AI-powered shopping agent, Muse, from its platform, preventing the AI agent from accessing Amazon's retail ecosystem for agentic shopping tasks. This move highlights the growing tensions and strategic decisions as AI agents begin to play a larger role in e-commerce and advertising.

• Paramount Global cleared a legal hurdle ahead of its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
• Amazon has barred Meta's AI agent, Muse, from its platform.
• The action prevents Muse from performing agentic shopping on Amazon.

The Walt Disney Company Names Karandeep Anand to Newly Created Role of Chief Technology Officer

The Walt Disney Company Names Karandeep Anand to Newly Created Role of Chief Technology Officer (September 18, 2026). Also: Adam Smith Named Chairman, Direct-to-Consumer, Disney Entertainment (September 17, 2026).

The Walt Disney Company Names Karandeep Anand To Newly Created Role Of Chief Technology Officer

Disney announced the appointment of Karandeep Anand as its first Chief Technology Officer, a newly created role, signaling a strategic focus on technology and innovation.