Paramount’s $108B Hollywood Ambush, China’s $1T Trade Milestone, Trump’s Nvidia Greenlight & Carvana’s Stunning S&P 500 Comeback

9th December 2025

Paramount has blown up Hollywood’s dealmaking calendar with a hostile $108.4 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, challenging Netflix’s earlier takeover pact and igniting a new round of antitrust questions. China, meanwhile, posted a record-shattering $1.08 trillion trade surplus, powered by surging exports to Europe and Asia despite collapsing shipments to the U.S. Back in Washington, President Trump says the U.S. will allow Nvidia’s H200 chips to ship to China under a 25% fee structure aimed at preserving America’s AI edge. And in markets, Carvana staged one of the most dramatic turnarounds of the decade, soaring into the S&P 500 after years of bankruptcy whispers. All this and more in today’s Read It And Eat!

Major Headlines 

• Paramount goes to war with Netflix for Warner Bros. Discovery with hostile $108.4B bid

Paramount Skydance on Monday launched a hostile, $108.4 billion bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), days after Warner agreed to be acquired by Netflix for $82.7 billion.  Paramount is going straight to WBD’s shareholders with an all-cash offer of $30 per share, and it noted that its offer provides shareholders $18 billion more cash than the Netflix deal, which offered $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in Netflix shares for a total of $27.75 per share.

Paramount is bidding for all of WBD, while Netflix’s deal with the company only includes its Hollywood studios and streaming business.  CNBC reported on Monday that these were the very terms from Paramount that WBD’s board rejected a week ago. “We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said in a statement. Paramount’s offer is backstopped with equity financing from the Ellison family and the private-equity firm RedBird Capital, in addition to $54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi, and Apollo.

Netflix came out on top on Friday after winning a bidding war against Paramount and Comcast, but Paramount’s hostile bid is sure to drag on the battle for one of Hollywood’s most iconic studios, a fight which has already stretched out for months. Netflix’s proposed deal has already raised antitrust questions, as it would combine two of the most popular streaming platforms into one. Additionally, President Donald Trump has said the deal “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined companies’ market share.

A deal between WBD and Paramount would also likely raise similar concerns.

Netflix agreed to pay WBD $5.8 billion if the deal doesn’t go through. WBD would have to pay Netflix $2.8 billion if it decides to call off the deal. TechCrunch 

• China’s trade surplus tops $1tn for first time 

China’s annual trade surplus in goods has topped $1 trillion for the first time, with plunging exports to the United States amid a tariff war more than compensated for by shipments to other markets, new data shows. Figures released by China’s General Administration of Customs on Monday showed the trade surplus for the first 11 months of the year hit $1.08 trillion in November, as exports climbed 5.9 percent year-on-year that month, reversing a 1.1 percent decline the month prior.

The leap came despite a continued slump in exports to the US, which fell 28.6 percent to $33.8bn last month, the data showed. Beijing and Washington have been locked in a bitter trade war involving hefty tariffs during the second administration of US President Donald Trump, forcing Chinese exporters to pivot to other markets although the leaders of the world’s two largest economies agreed to pause the hostilities during a meeting in South Korea in October. “China’s trade surplus this year has already surpassed last year’s level, and we expect it to widen further next year,” Zichun Huang of Capital Economics wrote in a note. Huang said the weakness in exports to the US was “more than offset by shipments to other markets”.

Exports have proven critical to China’s economy as it grapples with a debt crisis in the property sector and sluggish domestic spending, impacting its growth. But China’s towering trade surplus has rankled leading Western trading partners, with French President Emmanuel Macron the latest to threaten action if the imbalance is not addressed. Exports to the European Union grew by an annual 14.8 percent last month, while shipments to Australia rose 35.8 percent. Meanwhile, the fast-growing Southeast Asian economies took in 8.2 percent more goods over the same period. That boosted China’s trade surplus to $111.68bn in November, the highest since June, from $90.07bn recorded the previous month, and above a forecast of $100.2bn. Aljazeera

• US to allow Nvidia H200 chip shipments to China, Trump says

The United States will allow Nvidia's (NVDA.O), H200 processors, its second-best artificial intelligence chips, to be exported to China and collect a 25% fee on such sales, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday. The decision appears to settle a U.S. debate about whether Nvidia and rivals should maintain their global lead in AI chips by selling to China or withhold the exports, though Beijing has told companies not to use U.S. technology, leaving it unclear whether Trump's decision would lead to new sales.

Nvidia (NVDA.O), shares rose 2% in after-hours trading after Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, following a 3% rise during the day on a report by Semafor. Trump said in his post that he had informed President Xi Jinping of China, where Nvidia's chips are under government scrutiny, about the move and that he "responded positively." He said the U.S. Commerce Department was finalizing details of the arrangement and the same approach would apply to other AI chip firms such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O),  and Intel (INTC.O). Trump's post said the fee to be paid to the U.S. government was "$25%", and a White House official confirmed he meant 25%, higher than the 15% proposed in August.

"We will protect National Security, create American Jobs, and keep America’s lead in AI," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "NVIDIA’s U.S. Customers are already moving forward with their incredible, highly advanced Blackwell chips, and soon, Rubin, neither of which are part of this deal." Trump did not say how many H200 chips would be authorized for shipment or what conditions might apply, only that exports would occur "under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security." Administration officials consider the move a compromise between sending Nvidia's latest Blackwell chips to China, which Trump has declined to allow, and sending China no U.S. chips at all, which officials believe would bolster Huawei's efforts to sell AI chips in China, a person familiar with the matter said. Reuters

• Carvana stock surges on S&P 500 inclusion, marking dramatic turnaround

  
  

Carvana (CVNA) stock surged 12% Monday after the online car retailer was tapped to join the S&P 500 (^GSPC), marking a dramatic turnaround for the once heavily shorted company. On Monday, shares surged to a high of nearly $448 ahead of their inclusion in the broad-based index's Consumer Discretionary (XLY) category on Dec. 22. The move follows a stretch of record-breaking quarters, with record revenue and units sold in the third quarter, as well as record profits per unit sold in Q2. The company also reaffirmed its long-term goal of selling 3 million cars within the next five to 10 years.

On Monday, BofA analysts reiterated their Buy rating on the stock and raised their price target to $455 from $385. The firm's researchers noted that they've been calling an S&P 500 inclusion a "top potential catalyst" since June, as the company has met the profit requirements for several quarters now while gaining market share against competitor CarMax (KMX). "We see consumer demand as stable/strong, leading to little deceleration, in part driven by share gains vs. CarMax," BofA analyst Michael McGovern wrote in a note. "We expect Carvana to surpass CarMax in quarterly units sold at some point in 2026," he added. In its third quarter shareholder letter on Oct 29, the company said, "We were once again the most profitable and fastest growing automotive retailer. And once again by significant margins."

The company reported a net income margin of 4.7% which was "more than 2x the industry average in the quarter." Carvana also highlighted growing customer adoption of its fully online model, noting that over 30% of buyers now complete the entire transaction without interacting with a customer advocate until pickup or delivery, while more than 60% of sellers do the same. The Tempe, Ariz.-based online car platform represents one of the most dramatic turnaround stories in recent years, burning short sellers who bet against its stock along the way. Shares of Carvana are up more than 10,000% from their all-time lows of below $4 in December 2022, when the retailer was facing bankruptcy speculation.  Yahoo.Finance

Minor Headlines 

• X deactivates European Commission’s ad account after the company was fined €120M TechCrunch 

  
  

• Ben & Jerry's chair will not resign despite pressure from Unilever unit Reuters

  
  

• Boeing completion of $4.7bn Spirit purchase paves way for Airbus supplier deal Financial Times 

  
  

• EU backs migration ‘return hubs’ in echo of Trump’s crackdown Financial Times 

  
  

• Apollo buys stake in Wrexham football club Financial Times

  
  

• Hedge fund ordered to pay bonus to trader who made 97% of its revenues Financial Times

  
  

• Berkshire Hathaway stock picker Todd Combs to leave for JPMorgan Financial Times 

  
  

• German corporate bankruptcies surged to a decade high this year Reuters