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Walmart said Tuesday that it has reached a deal with OpenAI to allow shoppers to buy items directly through ChatGPT.
The retail giant is trying to keep up with the new ways that consumers are discovering products.
OpenAI announced the Instant Checkout feature in late September and launched with Etsy.

Serene Lee | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Walmart said Tuesday it has struck a deal with OpenAI to allow shoppers to make faster purchases directly through artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.
With the move, the retail giant and largest U.S. grocer is trying to keep up with changes in how consumers discover items to buy. Along with purchasing items they see on social media or products recommended by retailers, shoppers are increasingly going to ChatGPT or similar AI chatbots for gift ideas or help finding the best deals.

“For many years now, eCommerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a news release. “That is about to change.”
He said the AI feature will be “multi-media, personalized and contextual,” adding that Walmart is “running towards that more enjoyable and convenient future.”
The company did not say when shoppers would be able to start buying Walmart items on ChatGPT.
Shares of Walmart rose nearly 5% on Tuesday, touching a 52-week high.
In late September, OpenAI first announced the Instant Checkout feature that will soon allow shoppers to buy items through Walmart, and said it would initially support single-item purchases from Etsy sellers. OpenAI said at the time that more than one million Shopify merchants, including Skims and Glossier, would be coming soon.

The Instant Checkout feature is a new moneymaker for OpenAI. Walmart did not disclose any financial terms of the deal, but OpenAI has previously said it will charge companies a fee for transactions completed through ChatGPT.
Along with the OpenAI deal, Walmart has an AI-powered shopping assistant on its app called Sparky.
— CNBC’s Ashley Capoot contributed to this report. More

Spotify announced Tuesday that it’s partnering with Netflix to bring video podcasts to the streaming platform.
Spotify said the move is the next step in evolving the company into a multimedia experience.
The move comes as media companies capitalize on the popularity of video podcasts.

Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Spotify is officially bringing video podcasts to Netflix.
The partnership will bring a selection of podcasts from The Ringer, a network acquired by Spotify in 2020, to the streaming company in early 2026 for U.S. users.

The podcasts will range from sports to culture to true crime, aiming to both complement Netflix’s current slate and bring in new audiences, pulling from The Ringer’s lineup. The companies said more markets outside of the U.S. are in the pipeline.
“This partnership marks a new chapter for podcasting,” Spotify’s Head of Podcasts Roman Wasenmüller said in a statement. “Together with Netflix, we’re expanding discovery, helping creators reach new audiences, and giving fans around the world the chance to experience the stories they love and uncover favorites they never expected. This offers more choice to creators and unlocks a completely new distribution opportunity.”
Lauren Smith, Netflix’s vice president of content licensing and programming strategy, said the curated selection “adds fresh voices and new perspectives to Netflix.”
The shows coming to Netflix include “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” “The Rewatchables” and “Serial Killers,” with more expected after the initial launch.
Spotify said the move is the next step in evolving the company into a multimedia experience, with more initiatives planned in the future to “bring similar opportunities to a wider range of creators.”

Tuesday’s announcement comes as media companies have turned to video podcasts as the next big thing among their audiences. In particular, video podcasts have soared in popularity on Google’s YouTube, which is increasingly nabbing a bigger share of viewership.
This has led traditional media and streaming companies to lean into the medium.
At this year’s Upfront advertising presentations, some companies, including Amazon’s Prime Video, noted the recent success of podcast content as creators sign multimillion dollar deals and garner millions of followers and views.
On an April earnings call, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the company is “constantly looking at all different types of content.” Sarandos added that the line between podcasts and talk shows is becoming increasingly blurred.
“We want to work with kind of great creators across all kinds of media that consumers love,” Sarandos said. “Podcasts … have become a lot more video-forward.”
— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this report. More

Air traffic controllers handed out leaflets at airports in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., to urge the public to push Congress to end the shutdown.
Controllers on Tuesday received their first partial paycheck and could go without pay altogether in two weeks if the shutdown continues.

An airplane takes off the control tower at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on Oct. 8, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

U.S. air traffic controllers have received partial paychecks, their union said Tuesday, and they could miss their next paychecks altogether if the government shutdown lasts another two weeks.
“The job is stressful enough as it is. Now you’re adding this factor of, ‘Hey, when am I going to get this next paycheck?'” said Raymond Dahlstrom, an air traffic controller.

Dahlstrom and some of his colleagues handed out leaflets outside of LaGuardia Airport in New York on Tuesday to urge the public to ask lawmakers to end the shutdown. Air traffic controllers were also scheduled to hand out informational pamphlets at other airports in Washington, D.C., and Chicago on Tuesday.
The government shut down on Oct. 1, as the Senate has failed to pass a bill to fund the government. Air traffic controllers and airport security screeners are among the thousands of government employees who are required to work despite not getting paid during the impasse.

Read more CNBC airline news

Last week, shortages of air traffic controllers caused delays at airports, including in Nashville, Tennessee, and Burbank, California, though most facilities were sufficiently staffed.
“We’re still showing up, nobody is calling out sick … other than they’re sick,” Dahlstrom said. He said some controllers are taking second jobs like driving for ride-hailing companies to help make ends meet while they’re going without pay.
A more-than-monthlong shutdown starting in late 2018 ended hours after a shortage of air traffic controllers snarled air travel in the New York area.

Even outside of the shutdown, the U.S. has been dealing with a shortage of trained air traffic controllers, which has periodically disrupted flights. Airline executives have pushed for more training initiatives and more modern technology for years.
But the government shutdown has also put additional focus on U.S. aviation.
Some airports including Las Vegas, the three major New York City airports and others are refusing to air a video of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that blames the shutdown on Democrats, airport officials told CNBC on Tuesday. More

Boeing handed over 55 aircraft in September, the most since 2018 as its production stabilizes after a host of safety and production crises.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg has said the company is planning to increase 737 Max production at 42 a month by the end of the year.
The company’s production of its cash-cow 737 Max is currently capped by the FAA at 38 a month after a near-catastrophic blowout of a door plug during a flight in January 2024.

Boeing 737 Max planes sit at the airport in Renton, Washington.
Leslie Josephs | CNBC

Boeing delivered 55 aircraft to customers last month, putting it on track for its best year since 2018 as its production stabilizes and its executives eye increased output rates of its 737 Max cash cow airplanes.
Forty of the deliveries were 737 Maxes, Boeing said Tuesday, with customers including European budget carrier Ryanair, which took 10, as well as Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, China Southern and leasing firm AerCap.

In the first nine months of 2025, Boeing has delivered 440 airplanes, compared with 568 in the same period of 2018, before two deadly crashes of 737 Maxes within five months of each other upended the company.
Rival Airbus has reported 507 deliveries to customers so far this year.

Read more CNBC airline news

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg last month said the manufacturer expects the 737 Max production rate to reach 42 a month by the end of the year, a step-up from the 38 a month cap set by the Federal Aviation Administration after a near-catastrophic blowout of a door plug on a flight in January 2024.
“I think we’re pretty aligned,” Ortberg said regarding the approval process with the FAA at a Morgan Stanley investor conference in September. “We’ve got to get this final metric stabilized. And then we’re certainly still planning to be producing at 42 a month by the end of the year.”
Boeing on Tuesday also reported net orders of 48 aircraft in September, or 96 gross sales before accounting for adjustments, including 64 787 Dreamliners, with 50 for Turkish Airlines, and 30 737s for Norwegian Airlines. More

The sudden surge in demand for data is fast creating new commercial real estate sectors, including so-called powered land.
The land needs to be secured with the permits, utility commitments, and infrastructure needed to deliver power to a data center.
Roughly 40,000 acres of powered land, almost 2 billion square feet, are needed to support current projections for data center growth over the next five years, according to a new research paper from Hines, a global real estate investment manager.

Aerial view of the Apple Data Center in Mesa near Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. on August 6, 2017. Picture taken on August 6, 2017. Apple plans to build its second data center in China at Ulanqab City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Jim Todd | Reuters

A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
The sudden surge in demand for data is fast creating new commercial real estate sectors – not just data centers, but so-called quantum real estate and powered land.

The former refers to structures designed to house specialized quantum computers. The latter is land prepared and ready for data center operations, with a focus on obtaining a reliable and sufficient power supply. That land would have to be secured with the permits, utility commitments and infrastructure needed to deliver power to a data center.
There are currently about 20,000 acres of powered land sitting under operational data centers around the world. Roughly 40,000 acres of powered land, almost 2 billion square feet, are needed to support current projections for data center growth over the next five years, according to a new research paper from Hines, a global real estate investment manager. That’s equivalent to just under the size of three Manhattans or about 1½ times the size of Paris.
Hines, which has been developing data centers for more than 20 years, has pivoted to a new business in just the past year. It is now securing power and entitlements for hyperscale sites. What that means on the ground is mapping grids, negotiating with landowners and providing financial guarantees to grid operators, who now demand it.
“The challenge isn’t building walls anymore. It’s getting megawatts to the site,” said David Steinbach, Hines’ global chief investment officer. “Hines is focused on this front-end work, making land AI-ready before the buildings even rise.”

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Steinbach said powered land has become its own investable asset class, because power rights themselves are scarce and valuable. Once grid connections and permits are secured, you’ve created a tradeable asset with clear demand from hyperscalers and operators, he said. 

The competition for powered land is being led more by tech companies and energy producers than real estate developers, but Hines clearly doesn’t want to be left behind. 
“The smartest capital today isn’t chasing square footage — it’s enabling computation,” said Steinbach, citing the recent Nvidia deal with Intel to co-develop chips for data centers and personal computers. “Nvidia’s $5 billion bet on Intel isn’t just a chip deal, it’s a seismic signal that AI infrastructure is the new oil.”
In August, Silver Lake, a global private equity firm focused on technology investment, along with Commonwealth Asset Management, a real estate and infrastructure investment firm, announced the launch of a powered land platform aimed at data center development. It will deploy $400 million of capital “to assemble a global portfolio of strategically located powered land sites to address the key scarce input in meeting the escalating demand for data centers,” according to a news release.
The platform is currently operating in and targeting high-growth markets across the U.S., Canada and the U.K., where power access is becoming increasingly scarce.
“This investment represents a long-term commitment to not only meeting the immediate needs of AI-driven data center growth but also positioning the company as a leader in the future of digital infrastructure and a one-stop shop for rapidly growing developers and hyperscalers,” said Lee Wittlinger, managing director at Silver Lake, in the release. “Our innovative approach to land and power solutions, combined with strategic relationships with key energy partners, will enable us to meet the evolving demands of hyperscalers with a holistic, differentiated approach.”
Data center hubs will now have to expand beyond already crowded markets like northern Virginia and into power-rich regions in the Midwest and Texas. Hines’ research paper points to big opportunities right now in Europe, where undersupply and growing demand could mean big potential for both developers and investors. It also highlights the Middle East as an emerging market with growing potential as governments there invest heavily in artificial intelligence, renewables and grid infrastructure.
This is not to say that this new concept of powered land is without challenges, including securing the appropriate land, managing entitlement processes with local governments, and working with utility providers to obtain sufficient commitments.  
“This isn’t just a tech story,” said Steinbach. “It’s a building cycle story reshaping how and where the real estate business develops for decades to come.” More

Jeep is overhauling its top-end Grand Wagoneer lineup for the 2026 model year under a yearslong turnaround plan.
The changes include updated exterior styling, a new extended-range powertrain and a simplified model lineup all under the “Grand Wagoneer” name.
Since launching in 2021, the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer models have not lived up to expectations.

2026 Jeep Grand Wagoneer

DETROIT – Jeep is overhauling its top-end Grand Wagoneer lineup for the 2026 model year under a yearslong turnaround plan for the quintessential American SUV brand.
The changes include updating exterior styling, introducing a new forthcoming extended-range powertrain and creating a simplified, less expensive model lineup all under the “Grand Wagoneer” name. Jeep will also kill off the standalone “Wagoneer” nameplate.

“This marks a significant portfolio moment in refining our flagship SUV to reach a broader audience,” Jeep CEO Bob Broderdorf said during a media event.
Since launching in 2021, the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer have not lived up to expectations. Initial production of the vehicles was riddled with problems and the dual nameplates for the same-looking vehicles confused consumers.

2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer

The initial pricing for those vehicles also could top $111,000 — which had been unexplored territory for the brand known for rugged SUVs — and they featured a host of tiered trim levels that complicated ordering.
“We confused our buyers. We confused our dealers,” Broderdorf said. “I’m here to tell you we got the message. We’re fixing it.”
The 2026 Grand Wagoneer will start under $65,000, including mandatory destination charges. That is similar to where the Wagoneer currently starts in pricing, but Jeep said it includes additional features and is more in line with competitors’ pricing.

“I’m here to win,” Broderdorf said. “I want to come out very, very fast and see what we can do to really gain some share and continue to grow the brand … that was the mission for me.”

2026 Jeep Grand Wagoneer

Jeep, owned by French-Italian-American automaker Stellantis, said it expects to the Grand Wagoneer to be the first SUV with a plug-in technology known as a range-extender, or EREV. It can operate as a zero-emissions EV until its battery dies and an electric onboard generator — powered by a 27-gallon, 3.6-liter V6 engine — kicks on to power the vehicle.
Stellantis’ Ram Trucks brand was expected to be the first to launch an EREV model, but after several delays and the brand conducting its own turnaround plan, the Jeep model is expected to be the first EREV available beginning next year.
Jeep is one of the most crucial of Stellantis’ 14 brands — if not the most important in North America. The revamped Grand Wagoneer is the second of four major product announcements that began this summer with the reveal of its new Jeep Cherokee SUV.
The turnaround plan also has included reworking pricing of Jeep SUVs, which inflated in recent years above market norms, and re-engaging with its alienated dealer network amid a lack of new products and declining sales.
So far, Jeep’s U.S. sales are moving in the right direction. The brand is on track to report its first year-over-year sales gain since 2018, when it recorded all-time high sales of more than 973,000 vehicles. That compares to 587,725 units sold last year, a 40% drop from Jeep’s sales peak.
“Quite frankly, my only interest is growing this brand and doing so in a very fun, historical Jeep way,” said Broderdorf, who succeeded now-Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa in leading Jeep in February. More

Disney plans to announce a successor to CEO Bob Iger in early 2026.
Disney executives Dana Walden and Josh D’Amaro are both frontrunners for the job.
Naming Walden and D’Amaro as co-CEOs could be an option for the Disney board, but the company’s corporate culture and history of bumpy successions may make the arrangement suboptimal.

As 2025 enters its final months, Disney inches closer to the announcement the entire entertainment industry has been waiting for — who will take over for Bob Iger as the company’s next CEO.
Disney has publicly stated it will name Iger’s successor in early 2026. Two internal candidates stand out as the most likely contenders: Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden and Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro. Walden brings decades of Hollywood expertise; D’Amaro worked in consumer products before his elevation in the theme parks division all the way up to running the unit when its previous leader, Bob Chapek, was named Disney CEO in 2020.

Given Walden’s and D’Amaro’s complementary skill sets — and given recent momentum behind co-CEO appointments both in media and beyond — the Disney board could opt to select both to jointly replace Iger.
It’s a strategy rival Netflix has similarly — and effectively — used since 2020, when Reed Hastings named Ted Sarandos his co-CEO. Three years later, Hastings relinquished that post and moved on to become the company’s executive chairman, elevating Greg Peters into his spot as co-CEO.
Last year, Iger called Sarandos and asked him about Netflix’s co-CEO model, CNBC has confirmed, based on interviews with people familiar with the matter. That call was first reported by the Wall Street.
Netflix’s success has contributed to a recent co-CEO wave. Last month, Spotify named Alex Norstrom and Gustav Soderstrom as co-CEOs to replace founder Daniel Ek; Oracle named Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia to jointly lead the company; and Comcast tapped president Mike Cavanagh to join longtime CEO Brian Roberts in the chief role.
But while a dual CEO structure may superficially make sense for Disney, company insiders and corporate governance experts warn there are considerations specific to the Mouse House that would make such a dynamic unwise.

The Netflix strategy

Netflix has a specific set of circumstances that make a co-CEO structure workable.
For starters, Sarandos and co-CEO Peters have different areas of passion, according to people familiar with Netflix’s leadership styles, who asked to remain unnamed because the details are private. That’s allowed the two leaders to make decisions without stepping on each other’s toes.
If Sarandos and Peters disagree on something, they work it out by deferring to the leader who is more passionate about the answer. That typically means Sarandos wins out if it’s a content or creative decision, and Peters triumphs if the decision is more product- or technology-based. A Netflix spokesperson declined to comment.
If there’s a grey area, the co-CEOs can always fall back on Hastings, the company’s co-founder and CEO of 25 years. Peters and Sarandos worked together under Hastings for many years. That comfort level — and Netflix’s famously un-hierarchical corporate culture — have helped maintain a dual CEO structure without turf wars and while serving shareholders, Sarandos told Iger, according to the people familiar.
Since Peters stepped in as co-CEO in January 2023, Netflix shares have gained about 275%.

Disney’s choice

At first glance, Walden and D’Amaro present a similar dynamic to Sarandos and Peters. Walden’s expertise is Hollywood, and D’Amaro’s is parks and consumer products. Iger could theoretically advance to the executive chairman role, keeping him around in a similar fashion to Hastings.

Dana Walden and Josh D’Amaro.
Michael Buckner | Errich Petersen | Getty Images

Selecting both Walden and D’Amaro as Iger’s long-awaited successor may allow Disney to keep both leaders at the company. If the board chooses one over the other, Disney risks losing a top executive who may want a chance to be CEO elsewhere. This happened to Disney in 2020, when streaming chief Kevin Mayer departed the company to become TikTok’s CEO after he was passed over for Chapek.
But a Disney co-CEO arrangement also comes with a number of red flags that don’t exist at other companies.
First, if Iger sticks around on the board, some employees — and external partners — may still view him as a CEO. That could undercut the power-sharing structure of two CEOs, especially given Iger’s reputation for wanting to remain the company’s No. 1 leader.
While Hastings has turned his attention to hobbies like skiing since giving up his CEO role, Iger has developed a reputation for wanting to hang around as Disney’s head honcho. He’s five times pushed backed retirement to remain at the helm, and he came back to replace Chapek in 2022 after hand-picking him as his replacement.
Second, during Chapek’s tenure, Iger didn’t fully give up his operational responsibilities right away, choosing to direct the company’s “creative endeavors” for more than a year. That led to an ugly power-sharing situation between Iger and Chapek, as CNBC detailed in 2023. Even if Walden and D’Amaro have different domain strengths, choosing a co-CEO model after suffering through a recent time period where control lines were blurred may be a case of failing to learn from one’s mistakes.
Third, Walden and D’Amaro haven’t worked together as long as Peters and Sarandos (or other co-leader arrangements with long-term success, such as CAA’s co-chairman arrangement with Bryan Lourd, Richard Lovett and Kevin Huvane). Walden did work in a co-chair arrangement with Gary Newman at Fox for many years running Fox TV, proving she’s capable of succeeding in such an arrangement, but it’s unclear if she’d relish the opportunity to go back to a pairing.
Fourth, Disney’s corporate culture is famously political. The company has had several tortured succession processes with Iger and Disney’s former CEO Michael Eisner. While Netflix is largely untouched by M&A, Disney is an amalgam of many acquisitions and units over the years, including ABC, ESPN, Fox, Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm. That’s brought employees from many different cultures together, rather than breeding a unified corporate mindset from its founding.
“It wouldn’t work for Disney,” a senior media executive told CNBC privately. “There would be so much backbiting. That’s how it’s always been there.”
A Disney spokesperson declined to comment.

Netflix vs. tradition

On top of all of that, traditional corporate governance experts have broadly dismissed a co-CEO setup as suboptimal.
About 1.2% of companies in the Russell 3000 index have employed a co-CEO structure at any given time in recent years, The Wall Street Journal reported last month, citing data from Equilar.
“When you create two sources of authority in an organization, that’s never good,” said Charles Elson, founding director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, in an interview. “Two in charge means no one is in charge.”
Still, there are mitigating factors that can make a co-CEO arrangement more palatable, Elson said. Having Hastings as executive chairman is likely important for Netflix because he can act as a de-facto tiebreaker in a co-CEO arrangement.
Similarly, a co-CEO structure can work if it’s clearly done for more-drawn-out succession planning, such as Comcast’s decision to elevate Cavanagh to co-CEO alongside Roberts, said Elson.
When push comes to shove, Hastings and Roberts can make the deciding calls on the biggest decisions, Elson said. Roberts is Comcast’s controlling shareholder. Oracle similarly has a controlling shareholder in co-founder Larry Ellison.
While Iger could play a tie-breaking role for Disney as executive chairman, he isn’t a founder of the company and owns less than 1% of shares outstanding. That gives him less skin in the game for the Disney’s future than someone like Roberts or Ellison, noted Elson.
Selecting just one CEO may be a leap of faith for the Disney board, but it’s better than setting up instability, said Elson.
“Inevitably, one CEO dominates and the other one goes away,” he said. “That’s the nature of humanity.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant. More

Rockefeller Capital Management, the wealth manager born from the Rockefeller heirs’ family office, is valued at $6.6 billion after new investment, CNBC has learned.
The recapitalization was led by Mousse Partners, the Chanel owners’ private investment firm; family office Progeny 3 and hedge fund Abrams Capital.
Rockefeller CEO Greg Fleming told CNBC why investment firms of the ultra-rich are backing the wealth advisory, which manages $187 billion in assets.

Greg Fleming, Rockefeller Capital Management president and CEO, speaks during CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ on July 10, 2025.

Rockefeller Capital Management, the wealth manager born from John D. Rockefeller’s family office, has raised new funds from investment firms of other ultra-rich families, CNBC has learned.
On Tuesday, Rockefeller plans to announce the financing and its new valuation of $6.6 billion, up from $3 billion in 2023. The terms of the recapitalization, which traditionally use equity or debt to fund growth, strengthen the balance sheet, or provide liquidity to investors, were not disclosed.

The recapitalization was led by Mousse Partners, the family office of Chanel’s owners; Progeny 3, a Kirkland, Washington-based firm built on a shipping fortune; and Abrams Capital, the hedge fund manager founded by David Abrams, a protege of The Baupost Group’s Seth Klarman.
The Rockefeller family still owns a minority stake in the firm, having rolled over some of their equity from their former family office into Rockefeller when it was formed in 2018 with only $18 billion in assets. The firm now manages $187 billion in assets, mostly through its global family office division. Rockefeller also has asset management and investment bank divisions.
With the transaction, which is expected to close by the end of 2025, hedge fund and founding backer Viking Global Investors will no longer be the firm’s majority shareholder, but will still own the largest stake.
Rockefeller CEO Greg Fleming told CNBC in an interview the new investors are emblematic of the entrepreneurial, high-net-worth clients that the firm targets. Rockefeller typically caters to clients with $25 million to $100 million in assets. With the fresh funding, the firm plans to reach more American business owners by hiring more advisors in existing markets including Boston and Houston and new ones like Miami and Minneapolis, he said.
“Our new families that are investing here have created wealth through building businesses,” Fleming said. “In America, 4 [million] to 5 million new businesses are started and developed every year.”

Rockefeller is also looking to tap into international wealth by partnering with local wealth advisory firms, most likely in Singapore and the Middle East, he said.
“The Rockefeller brand is a global brand, an iconic brand,” he said, pointing to the Standard Oil family’s philanthropic efforts abroad, such as founding a hospital in Beijing over a century ago. “That’s another growth lever. The slingshot that we’ve got coming out of this transaction will allow us to go after it.”

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Fleming said negotiations for the financing began in earnest this past summer. He said the patient capital of family offices, which can afford to invest for decades or even generations, were a good fit for the firm’s long-term vision. The Desmarais family, one of Canada’s richest, invested $622 million in Rockefeller in 2023 through its financial services conglomerate, Power Corporation of Canada.
“They know if you’re going to build something that’s excellent that it takes time, and they look for investments that flourish over the long run,” Fleming said of family-office investors.
Mousse Partners, the family office of Chanel owners Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, is better known for its consumer bets such as clean beauty label Beautycounter, recently rebranded as Counter, and the luxury fashion brand The Row. That said, Mousse Partners has invested in financial services before, having backed the private takeover of Rothschild & Co. alongside the bank’s namesake family and the families behind Peugeot and Dassault.
Fleming said family offices see wealth management as a growth business with stable fee-based revenue. He added that the firm is also poised for growth during the great wealth transfer, with $124 trillion expected to be passed down by 2048 by Cerulli Associates’ estimate.
“If you’re focused on the client first, and you do a really good job, you can do more and more for the existing clients and bring in more and more new clients,” he said.
The lofty expectations of ultra-rich clients also plays into the firm’s favor, as they increasingly expect a broad range of services from direct investing advisory to philanthropic education and a seamless tech interface, he said.
“It’s a business where, particularly in 2025, there’s a lot of investment needed to be able to create the capabilities to serve these high-net-worth and ultra-net-worth families. They are sophisticated,” he said. “It’s quite hard to do it.” More