Jeff Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin is laying off 10% of its workforce, CEO Dave Limp told employees on Thursday.
Why it matters: Bezos' company competes with Elon Musk's SpaceX in the rocket race, with both founders pouring tens of billions of dollars into their respective ventures.
President Trump directed top trade officials to study retaliatory tariffs on global trading partners that have steep import duties on U.S. goods, a process that could take several weeks to complete.
Why it matters: It threatens a historic attack on global trade norms to address what Trump has deemed unfair imbalances, but also leaves room for the White House to strike deals that might ultimately avert tariffs.
More than a dozen major U.S. news organizations on Thursday said they were suing Cohere, an enterprise AI company, claiming the tech startup illegally repurposed their work and did so in a way that tarnished their brands.
Why it matters: The lawsuit represents the first official legal action against an AI company organized by the News Media Alliance — the largest news media trade group in the U.S.
In Robinhood's annual reportfor 2024, the final quarter stands way, way out — it absolutely exploded.
Between the lines: It's crypto trading that did it.
By the numbers: In Q3 the online brokerage brought in $319 million in total transaction-based revenue derived from options, crypto and stock trading.
In Q4, it brought in $358 million just from crypto.
Context: That's a 487% jump in the quarter compared to Q3 from crypto, fueling 111% growth overall. Digital assets vaulted to 53% of Robinhood's transaction-based revenue mix in the final quarter, up from 19% in Q3.
Crypto trading volumes 7Xed on the platform between October and November.
As executive vice president of corporate affairs for Hilton, Katherine Lugar is responsible for managing and enhancing the reputation of more than 8,400 hotels across 140 countries and territories.
Why it matters: Lugar held several CEO positions before moving over to Hilton to lead its corporate affairs team, saying that experience prepared her for managing many stakeholder groups.
Elon Musk will withdraw his $97.4 billion bid to purchase the assets of OpenAI if OpenAI gives up on its plan to spin out its for-profit subsidiary, Musk's lawyers said in a new court filing Wednesday.
Why it matters: Musk's bid for OpenAI was the latest surprise maneuver in a long-running legal battle that has pitted him against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Is Elon Musk's political profile and BFF status with President Trump hurting Tesla sales? Maybe — but it's complicated, analysts say.
Why it matters: Tesla is by far the U.S. EV sales leader and long the world's top seller (though it has recently been trading the lead with China's BYD).
If you want to protect yourself against the risk of resurgent inflation and you have some savings to spare, you could do worse than just invest them in the stock market, where dividend income has grown impressively in real terms.
Why it matters: People whose earnings come from labor have seen much less income growth than those who rely on the stock market.
Apptronik, a Texas-based developer of humanoid robots, announced Wednesday that it's raised $350 million in Series A funding.
Why it matters: This is a quantum of capital that's designed to scale the company's robots from tech conference novelty acts to essential "workers" in a variety of industries.
When "Saturday Night Live" celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend, it's likely many viewers won't tune into NBC's "SNL50" special at all, instead discovering clips via YouTube or social media.
Why it matters: Late-night TV is a tough business these days, as viewers and revenue continue to decline, but "SNL" has led a shift toward digital, away from its dying time slot.
One of Pablo Picasso's earliest Blue Period paintings contains another portrait hidden beneath its surface, specialist imaging technology has revealed.
The big picture: The artwork of the mystery woman was discovered when Courtauld Institute of Art conservators "took x-ray and infrared images of Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto — a portrait depicting Picasso's sculptor friend painted in 1901," per a statement this week from the specialist college at the University of London, U.K.
Chevron plans to cutits global workforce by 15% to 20%, with most reductions before the end of 2026, the U.S.-based multinational giant said Wednesday.
Why it matters: It's the second-largest U.S. oil and gas company behind ExxonMobil.
