Influencers are everywhere you look these days—including on America’s campaign trail. Some 200 social-media stars attended the Democratic National Convention in August, where they were entertained at lavish parties and on boat trips. A few even got to chat with Kamala Harris. Donald Trump has likewise given interviews to influencer bros such as Logan Paul and Theo Von in an effort to appeal to their followers. More
Call it a modern-day version of a spectacular Renaissance patronage. Since 2019 Microsoft has provided more than $13bn in cash and computing capacity to OpenAI, a once-penniless startup that is now at the forefront of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and, as of its most recent fundraising round, worth $157bn. In exchange, Microsoft has gained the exclusive right to run OpenAI’s models on Azure, its cloud-computing business. More
TO CALL APPLE a corporate behemoth is to be uncharitable. It is much bigger than that. On many financial measures it makes more sense to compare the iPhone-maker not with other companies but with stockmarket indices—and not some obscure ones, either. Exclude financial firms and India’s Nifty 50 sit on less cash. When Apple reports its annual results on October 31st analysts reckon its net profit will be just below what Germany’s DAX blue chips raked in last year. On October 21st its market capitalisation nudged $3.6trn, more than Hong Kong’s Hang Seng. More
However much you might want to keep politics out of business, politics has other plans for you. Events have a habit of sucking organisations into controversy. In 2022 Disney was caught up in a very public row with the state of Florida over a bill about teaching sexuality and gender identity in public schools. Earlier this year Google fired some employees who had taken part in a sit-in to protest against the tech firm’s cloud-computing contract with Israel. University administrators have conspicuously struggled to manage the passions aroused by the war in Gaza. More
Investors are accustomed to volatility in the semiconductor industry. But recent ups and downs have been especially discombobulating. On October 15th ASML, a supplier of chipmaking gear, reported that orders during its most recent quarter were only half what analysts had expected, causing its shares to plunge. Two days later TSMC, the world’s biggest chip manufacturer, reported record quarterly profits and raised its sales forecast for the year. More
Few parts of the global economy hold more obvious promise than South-East Asia. Multinational firms hoping to move manufacturing away from China are racing to establish supply chains in the region. Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam are expected to be among the fastest-growing economies in the world during the rest of the decade. Malaysia is likely to join the ranks of the world’s high-income economies soon. Singapore’s importance as a financial hub has grown as foreigners have deserted Hong Kong. More
Among the many newcomers to the business of weight-loss drugs is Hims & Hers, an American e-pharmacy better known for hawking remedies for erectile dysfunction and hair loss. Since May it has offered its own version of Wegovy, a blockbuster slimming jab, thanks to a quirk in American law that lets pharmacies replicate some brand-name drugs when there are shortages. Analysts expect that the company will pocket around $145m from its weight-loss drug this year. More
“My morale for this job is gone, gonna totally check out,” an Amazon worker recently wrote on Blind, an online forum where employees whinge about their employers. The cause of his discontent was a letter sent last month by Andy Jassy, the tech giant’s boss, that ordered staff back to the office five days a week. The mandate has caused grumbling among Amazon’s office drones, who had previously been required to show up in person only three days a week. At a meeting on October 17th Matt Garman, head of Amazon’s cloud-computing division, told a group of staff that if they did not want to adhere to the policy they could quit. More
