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Sarah James
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Hello, everyone, and welcome to today’s webinar. My name is Sarah James, and I lead the Tech, Media and Telecom News team within S&P Global Market Intelligence. It is my pleasure to moderate today’s webinar, Orbit as the Next Data Frontier: Capital Flows, Risks and Realities.

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Now it’s my pleasure to introduce today’s panel. I’ll begin with my colleague, John Fletcher, a senior analyst with S&P Global Market Intelligence to kick in. John leads the Americas research team for broadband, multichannel video and mobile with a focus on how the U.S. can close the broadband digital divide. Just as a hint, LEO satellites are

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) on Monday said it reached a settlement that it would pay an estimated $5.5 billion to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its baby powder and talc products cause ovarian cancer, which could end years of litigation on the subject.

The company said the proposed settlement would cover about 76,000 claims – including those that have been consolidated in federal court in New Jersey and related cases in state court – to cover nearly all the outstanding claims against J&J.

J&J previously settled most of the cases alleging its talc contained asbestos and caused mesothelioma.

The deal was confirmed by plaintiffs’ law firms on Monday, saying it was a good resolution after a decade-long court battle. The deal has to be accepted by 95% of the ovarian cancer claimants in state or federal court before it becomes final.

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Johnson & Johnson announced a deal to settle talc powder lawsuits. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

J&J denied wrongdoing in its announcement of the settlement, saying that the plaintiffs weren’t able to prove their claims that the talc products caused cancer cases and that the settlement is a way of efficiently ending the litigation.

“While we are confident the company would ultimately have prevailed with further litigation, as it has in the vast majority of cases tried to date, this resolution allows the company to put this matter behind it and remain focused on its mission to develop medicines and devices that save lives,” said Erik Haas, worldwide VP of litigation at Johnson & Johnson.

The company expects to pay out $3 billion in 2027 and make further payments in 2028, though the deal could be worth more depending on how many people participate in the settlement.

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Chris Seeger, an attorney who represents about 2,500 clients with talc claims and helped negotiate the settlement, said J&J could ultimately pay $7 billion or more as the settlement doesn’t cap the total payout and rather assigns specific values to qualifying ovarian cancer claims.

Seeger told Reuters in an interview that the plaintiffs “got a fair settlement, and our clients are going to be happy with it.”

The settlement comes after J&J secured a series of courtroom victories, including in individual trials, moves to disqualify plaintiffs’ lawyers and rulings against experts used by plaintiffs. The company won a significant court victory last week when a federal judge cast doubt on individual plaintiffs’ ability to prove that talc specifically caused their ovarian cancer.

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Johnson & Johnson has denied that its talc products caused cancer and said the settlement is a way to end the litigation. (Cristina Arias/Cover/Getty Images)

J&J has long denied that its talc products caused cancer, saying the products were safe and didn’t contain asbestos. It stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the U.S. in 2020 and switched to a cornstarch product.

The company attempted a legal strategy in which shell-company subsidiaries declared bankruptcy in an effort to settle the cases, though that proved unsuccessful.

It had a mixed record when talc cases went to trial, winning some outright and reducing verdicts on appeal, though it was hit with a multibillion-dollar verdict in a case brought by 22 women.

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The new settlement only applies to existing claims and doesn’t address future lawsuits. The exclusion of future claims made more money available to current plaintiffs and also accelerated the payments so that all claims will be paid within 18 months instead of being spread out over more than a decade, Seeger said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a new op-ed published on Tuesday that the rise of artificial intelligence should be used to empower all people rather than being centralized and controlled by a few institutions.

Zuckerberg wrote in The Wall Street Journal that people will be able to use superintelligence beyond human capacities in the next few years to create and discover new things, as well as drive economic growth and create opportunities. He noted that contrasts with some of the rhetoric from AI developers, and argued that diffusing AI access and its power broadly will lead to a better outcome.

“It is surprising that the discourse from many of those who are developing artificial intelligence is so filled with doom. I don’t understand why anyone who believes that AI will eliminate most jobs and much of humanity’s relevance would rush to build that future,” he wrote.

“The notion that AI is so dangerous that the only safe path is an extreme concentration of power seems dangerous. Historically, hoping that an absolute power will benevolently provide for humanity if sufficiently enlightened hasn’t led to safe or positive outcomes,” Zuckerberg explained.

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerbreg argued that AI should be diffused rather than concentrated in a few institutions. ( John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images)

Zuckerberg said that there have been many transformative advances in technology throughout history that have stoked fears it would leave people behind, and that ultimately people enjoyed more prosperity, health and freedom as those technologies progressed.

“Putting power in people’s hands to pursue their own aspirations is how humanity has made the most progress. Novel ideas and major steps forward rarely originate from established institutions alone,” he wrote.

Zuckerberg alluded to how massive technological developments for humanity like flight, electricity and personal computing were advanced by individuals without deep ties to institutions. He said that as “everyone gains more powerful tools, each person will become more capable of shaping the future, not less.”

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The rise of AI is leading to technological advances as well as investment in infrastructure, like new data centers. (Meta)

The Meta CEO acknowledged that there is a balance between the use of AI for automation and it being a tool that empowers innovation and enables people to expand skills and launch businesses, adding that if the balance leans toward automation it could have a negative impact on jobs and the economy.

“But if superintelligence is widely distributed, then I believe we will see more jobs in the future, not fewer. It will be significantly easier to start businesses without raising large amounts of capital.”

“I expect the economy will become more entrepreneurial with a greater number of people working at small businesses rather than larger companies,” he wrote.

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Zuckerberg said he thinks AI-powered superintelligence can bring about a positive future for humanity. (Reuters/Manuel Orbegozo)

Zuckerberg added that the development of superintelligence “will be the most profound technological advance we will see in our lifetimes.”

“Meta is committed to building with the principles of individual empowerment, invention and balance of power. The arc of human history has bent toward putting more power in people’s hands.” 

“If these values lead the way, then I am optimistic that we can build a positive future for everyone,” he wrote.

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