Macy's has announced the locations of 66 stores slated to close across 22 states.
Scott Olson / Getty Images
Macy's just announced the list of locations it will shutter this year.
The 66 closures are part of a broader plan to shutter 150 stores by the end of 2026.
The department store chain has struggled as shoppers turn to lower-priced rivals and online retailers.
Macy's just revealed a list of 66 stores across 22 states that will close this year.
The company said most of the locations on the list are expected to close before May.
The stores announced Thursday are the first of 150 locations that the retailer plans to shutter through 2026. Following the closings, there will be about 350 Macy's left.
"We are closing underproductive Macy's stores to allow us to focus our resources and prioritize investments in our go-forward stores, where customers are already responding positively to better product offerings and elevated service," CEO Tony Spring said in a statement.
Macy's has struggled for years as online shopping and lower-priced options have grown and the chain's in-store experience floundered. Over the past decade, its share price has been down more than 50%.
The department store chain said its closure plan will allow it to focus on its best-performing locations and online experience, where it will refresh its merchandising assortment and modernize the shopping experience.
Macy's isn't the only department store struggling. Kohl's announced this week that it would close more than two dozen stores this year, and over the past five years, Lord & Taylor and Neiman Marcus filed for bankruptcy.
Here's a full list of the Macy's stores that will close this year.
Arizona
Superstition Springs Center 6535 E Southern Ave, Mesa
California
Broadway Plaza 750 W 7th St., Los Angeles
Hillsdale Furniture (Closed in FY2024.) 2838 South El Camino Real, San Mateo
Billionaires follow a pretty consistent schedule, flying their private jets en masse from Davos in January and Sun Valley in July, stopping in Monaco and St. Barts on their superyachts in between.
iStock; Robyn Phelps/Insider
Between yacht shows and business conferences, a billionaire's calendar can fill up quite quickly.
Each year the uberwealthy flock to the same events and destinations.
There are about 3,320 billionaires in the world. That's about 0.00004% of the global population.
Despite their scarcity, billionaires are surprisingly easy to find. After all, birds of a feather — especially those of a small brood — flock their private jets together.
At the start of the year, they descend en masse on Davos. In July, they fly to Sun Valley for the Allen & Company Conference. And they wrap it up with New Year's Eve in St. Barts.
Here's where the wealthiest among us mingle, wheel and deal, and relax, and how you can join them — for a small price, of course.
January: Davos
Billionaires and world leaders descend upon Davos, Switzerland, every year for the World Economic Forum.
Andy Barton/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
After billionaires shake off their New Year's Eve hangovers, many join world leaders and head to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos to attend lavish dinners, hit the slopes, and discuss the global problem du jour, which, this year, is collaboration for the intelligent age."
The event, which will take place from January 20 to 24, is invite-only and costs tens of thousands per ticket. But those who want to rub shoulders with attendees — last year's guests included Sam Altman, Bill Gates, and Larry Fink — aren't completely barred from the Alpine resort.
Most of Davos' luxury hotels, like the Steigenberger Grandhotel Belvédère and AlpenGold, are closed to the public, so nonofficial guests are better off renting an apartment — for a price. A rental room in a Davos apartment during this year's summit comes at a starting price of more than $1,605 a night.
And good luck finding food. With most of the restaurants booked up for conference events, you may be left paying $43 for a hot dog.
February: Super Bowl
Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt, a member of the billionaire Hunt family, celebrated the team's 2024 Super Bowl win.
Steph Chambers/Getty Images
NFL teams are among the most popular toys of the ultrarich: Walmart's Rob Walton has the Broncos, hedge fund manager David Tepper owns the Panthers, real estate tycoon Stanley Kroenke boasts the Rams, Clark Hunt and his siblings control the Chiefs, and so on.
Every year, these billionaire owners — as well as billionaire fans — flock to the sport's biggest game every year, though Super Bowl weekend as a billionaire involves more than just wings and commercials.
Host committees and travel agencies have curated luxury experiences for the richest football fans. These experiences cost six figures and include chartered jets, five-star accommodations, and access to the field after the game. Suites at this year's game in New Orleans are going for up to $1.8 million on rental platform Suite Luxury Group.
The second hottest ticket, after the game, is the private parties, known for their superstar performers. Last year's Roc Nation party counted billionaires Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey among its attendees, while at the annual Fanatics bash, Michael Rubin mingled with Travis Scott and Robert Kraft posed with Tom Brady.
"The Super Bowl is always a draw. It's an excuse to see the best of the best in terms of sports, parties, and entertainment," Elisabeth Brown, client manager at travel and lifestyle concierge company Knightsbridge Circle, told Business Insider ahead of last year's game.
March: BNP Paribas Open
Larry Ellison and Bill Gates at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
The BNP Paribas Open, which takes place in early March, is one of many tennis tournaments favored by billionaires.
Larry Ellison, the cofounder of Oracle and one of the world's richest people, owns the tournament, and Indian Wells local Bill Gates is a regular attendee.
In 2024, billionaire scions Emma Navarro and Jessica Pegula played in the tournament.
April: The Masters Tournament
Tiger Woods is the only billionaire to have won the Masters Tournament.
Warren Little/Getty Images
Forget Easter. The first signs of spring mean one thing for billionaires: golf.
Each year, the Masters Tournament kicks off the run of major professional golf championships at Augusta National. The famously exclusive club in Georgia — it didn't allow women to join until 2012 — counts a number of billionaires as members.
Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, as well as Warren Stephens, David Ziff, and Stanley Druckenmiller, belong to the club, Bloomberg reported in 2015.
Each year, hundreds of private aircraft land at the airports around Augusta. In past years, billionaires like former Nike CEO Phil Knight, hotelier Robert Rowling, and investor Herbert Allen Jr. have had their planes touch. So has Tiger Woods — the only billionaire winner of The Masters.
His victory means he is the proud owner of one of Augusta National's iconic green jackets, which are only allotted to members and Masters winners.
The secretive club hasn't ever spelled out its membership process, but it's invite-only, and new members can only join when existing ones leave. The general public can, though, spectate alongside some of the biggest names in business. Tickets for the Masters are available through a lottery system — or for as much as $10,000 on the secondary market.
May: The Cannes Film Festival
Billionaire George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, won an honorary Palme d'or at Cannes in 2024.
Lionel Hahn/Getty Images
Summer starts early for billionaires, who dock their yachts for the Cannes Film Festival at the end of May.
While the event is technically reserved for entertainment industry professionals, according to its website, the superrich can pay to play. For them, the fête is as much an opportunity to get a first look at Oscar winners as it is to mingle with stars on the Croisette.
The festival was one of the first stops on Jeff Bezos' 2023 grand debut tour of his $500 million superyacht Koru, which he disembarked to hit up the Vanity Fair party at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, a favorite venue of the very wealthy and those who court them. In years past, the likes of David Geffen and Len Blavatnik have turned up at the same event.
The richest in entertainment, like billionaires Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, have appeared at the festival, while those from other industries, like François-Henri Pinault and the late Paul Allen, hosted their own parties at the film festival. The former throws the Kering Women in Motion Dinner each year, while the latter was known for his themed yacht parties.
June: The Royal Ascot
The Royal Ascot attracts both actual royalty and business royalty. Last year, King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived in a carriage with billionaire Anthony Bamford.
John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images
While a number of billionaires spend June in the Hamptons or on yachts crisscrossing the Mediterranean, some prefer to spend it on dryer land.
The headline billionaires at the Royal Ascot, an annual horse race held about 25 miles outside London, are the members of the British royal family. But many others — and their hats —are in attendance.
The rich crowd is different from the one at a typical F1 Grand Prix, and some billionaire horse owners — like Chanel's Alain and Gerard Wertheimer; the shipping scions of the Niarchos family; Tetra Pak heiress Kirsten Rausing; and construction magnate Anthony Bamford — have even had skin in the game.
For over 200 years, the Royal Ascot has been open to the public, with about 300,000 people attending the five-day event every year.
But don't expect to get near the rich and famous. Joining the Royal Enclosure requires a special application process, including having two sponsors. Plus, there's a strict dress code — no spaghetti straps or bow ties allowed.
July: Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference
Billionaire Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sánchez at the 2024 Allen & Co. conference.
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Every July, private jets descend on the small town of Hailey, Idaho, for the summer counterpart to Davos: the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference — also known as billionaire summer camp.
Since 1983, boutique investment bank Allen & Co — its president, Herbert Allen, is a billionaire himself — has hosted the event, which attracts the biggest and richest names in business, including Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffett.
The conference has become known for the deals struck in between rounds of golf, guided hikes, and tennis matches. It's where Jeff Bezos snagged The Washington Post for $250 million in 2013 and where the seed for Disney's $19 billion acquisition of ABC was planted in 1995.
Hot topics at the 2024 conference included the planned sale of Paramount to Skydance — with Shari Redstone making a grand entrance — artificial intelligence, and the presidential election.
The vacation-cum-business-meeting is invite-only and pretty much restricted to masters of the universe dressed in vests and quarter-zips. Security is strict, with even the press walled off from most of the wheeling and dealing.
But when the conference is not in session, you, too, can stay at the Sun Valley Lodge, the home base of the retreat that offers a year-round ice skating rink, luxe spa, and pool with a view of the mountains. The most basic rooms cost upward of $500 a night over the summer, and suites go for upward of $1,500.
August: Burning Man
Burning Man has its own pop-up airport for all the billionaires who prefer to charter their way to the festival, built around the ideas of "decommodification" and "leave no trace."
Julie Jammot/Getty Images
On its face, Burning Man — the anticapitalist art and music festival in the Nevada desert — doesn't sound like an event for billionaires. But the richest people in the world don't seem to care about whether they're wanted.
Since the 1990s, attending Burning Man has become a sort of status symbol for the tech elite. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are longtime Burners — the festival inspired the very first Google Doodle — as is Eric Schmidt, Google's former CEO.
Facebook cofounders Dustin Moskowitz and Mark Zuckerberg, and Uber cofounder Garrett Camp have also attended. Even Ray Dalio, the billionaire hedge fund manager, wanted to see what all the hype was about and joined in on the party in 2019.
While ticket sales were down last year — the event did not sell out for the first time since 2011 — the uber-rich still attended. Hundreds of private planes flew into Black Rock City's temporary airport during the festival. The starting price to charter a plane through Burner Express Air was $9,000, one way.
The experiences of many celebrities and billionaires on the Playa lean less on the "decommodification" and "leave no trace" principles of the festival and more on the "immediacy" one — as in instant gratification. They travel around in tricked-out art cars (basically fancy golf carts) and forego rustic tents for more fancy camps, complete with furniture, air conditioning, and personal chefs who charge six figures for their services.
This may explain why there was a hefty dose of schadenfreude when Burning Man went underwater, quite literally.
September: The Monaco Yacht Show
A number of billionaires display their superyachts at the Monaco Yacht Show, where they are available to purchase or for charter.
VALERY HACHE/AFP via Getty Images
There are yachts, and then there are the superyachts — and those are aplenty at the Monaco Yacht Show in Monte Carlo, where billionaires gather at the end of the summer to scope out their new toys. (There are also, technically, megayachts, but for plebeian purposes, they are one and the same.)
The 120-plus boats on display have an average length of 165 feet and feature elevators, bars, spas, pools, gyms, hot tubs, and helipads — sometimes more than one. Jet Skis and submersibles are popular add-ons.
Last year, billionaire NFL owner Shahid Khan's superyacht Kismet debuted at the show. The yacht, which features three pools, a pickleball court, and an outdoor movie theater, is available to charter for $3.4 million a week.
Billionaire Google cofounder Sergey Brin's superyacht Dragonfly was also on display. Brin, who owns several boats and water toys, is seeking to sell the ship for $30 million.
In the past, yachts owned by billionaires like Paul Allen, Steve Wynn, and Pier Luigi Loro Piana have been exhibited at the show. The event also used to be a favorite of opulent Russian oligarchs, though sanctions have prevented them from attending for the past couple of years.
If you're looking to peruse boats that you can't afford — or maybe to meet a billionaire who will invite you on theirs — you're in luck: The Monaco Yacht Show is open to the public for the small price of 600 Euros, or $640, a day.
October: The Frieze Art Fair and Art Basel Paris
Wealthy collectors convened in Paris last year for the city's take on Art Basel.
Luc Castel/Getty Images
October brings multiple opportunities for the rich to add to their art collections.
First, the Frieze Art Fair and nearby Frieze Masters, held annually in London, focus on contemporary art and pre-21st century art, respectively. In years past, collectors like Point72's Steve Cohen, Diamond titan Laurence Graff, and the wife of hedge fund legend Louis Bacon, Gabrielle, have all been spotted there.
Shortly after, across the English Channel, is Art Basel Paris, a relative newcomer to the art scene. Last year's fair drew James Murdoch, who is an investor in Art Basel's parent company, and Charles Schwabs's wife Helen, as well as celebrities like Natalie Portman and Owen Wilson.
Louise Bourgeois's sculpture "Spider I" marked the fair's biggest sale, going for a cool $20 million, and several works went for seven-figure sums. Exactly which moneyed collectors are behind specific purchases tends to be kept under wraps.
While anyone can buy tickets to the fair itself, the fetes surrounding art fairs are a more surefire place to spot a billionaire or their younger, edgier heirs. A look at party snaps from the last few years shows Gordon Getty's granddaughter Ivy Getty, Cohen's daughter Sophia, and Roger Penske's granddaughter Sophia mingling with art-world celebrities.
November: Le Bal des Débutantes
Le Bal des Débutantes brings together the daughters of wealthy and famous people from around the world, like Ginevra Fontes Williams, the daughter of Italian princess Valentina Moncada.
Martin Bureau/Getty Images
Le Bal des Débutantes continues the centuries-long tradition of rich, famouswomen presenting themselves to a slice of society.
The ball is invite-only, and no one, not even billionaires, can buy their way in — at least that's what Ophélie Renouard, the founder of the ball's current iteration, told Business Insider in 2023. Renouard handpicks the cohort of about 20 women each year who go to Paris for a weekend of photoshoots, makeup and hair appointments, and traditional waltzes.
Typically, at least one billionaire heiress is among the group of debutantes. Last year's class included Peyton Spaht, the daughter of billionaire private equity titan Holden Spaht; Sienna Gallienne, an heir to the Frère family fortune, and Apple Martin, the daughter of Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow, who, though not a billionaire, made headlines for her appearance.
Araminta Mellon, Kayla Rockefeller, Laila Blavatnik, and Amanda Hearst have also participated in the tradition, usually with their very wealthy parents in tow.
As is often the case for the rich — and rich nepo babies, in particular — things come free: The weekend's dance lessons, couture gowns, glam squads, and jewels are paid for by sponsors.
December: New Year in St. Barts
Superyachts often stop in St. Barths, a favorite of the ultrawealthy for decades.
Alison Wright/Getty Images
Billionaires ring in the New Year seemingly anywhere but at home. And while Aspen and Maldives are popular choices for the wintering elite, there is perhaps nowhere with more billionaires per square foot during the holidays than St. Barts.
The Caribbean island, Saint-Barthélemy, has attracted yachts owned by the likes of David Geffen, Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, and Bernard Arnault for year-end festivities.
For those who don't stay on yachts, rooms at popular luxury hotels like Eden Rock and Cheval Blanc, owned by Arnault's LVMH, cost upward of $5,000. And even the less expensive hotels aren't exactly cheap; a room in the least expensive hotel available for the week between Christmas and New Year's will run into the four figures per night.
Kelly bags by Hermès are a coveted second-hand purchase — and are also commonly ripped off.
Edward Berthelot/Getty Images
Viral Hermès Birkin dupes are selling out at retailers like Walmart.
Actual counterfeits, unlike the Walmart bag, have been infiltrating secondhand luxury.
These are the most commonly knocked-off styles to look out for, and some easy tells.
An Hermès lookalike handbag available to buy from Walmart has gone viral.
People have been calling the bag a dupe, a term used to describe an item that's similar in appearance to a more expensive product. It does not claim to be from Hermès — and is not branded with the fashion house's name. But the bag, which looks a little like the iconic Birkin bag yet costs less than 1% of the price of a real one, is selling out as people seek the style of one of the world's most coveted handbags for under $100.
A real Birkin has a starting price of $10,000 and can run into the six figures. Buying one directly from Hermès requires establishing a relationship of purchases with the French fashion house and time spent on a waitlist, too.
For those who want an authentic Birkin — or any other luxury bag — the secondhand market has become pivotal, with its value rising to $50 billion last year, according to Bain & Company. With a limited supply of the most in-demand bags, some turn to resale to avoid the wait. Aspirational customers are also taking advantage of better prices as a gateway to luxury.
But the sheer volume of actual counterfeits demonstrates the dangers of buying on the secondhand market, which has been infiltrated by "dupe culture."
Business Insider spoke to Hunter Thompson, the director of authentication and brand compliance at secondhand luxury retailer The RealReal, earlier this year about the proliferation of increasingly convincing fakes.
"In 2024, if it can be faked, it's faked," Thompson said. "Someone wears something one day, and in a few weeks, it's been counterfeited."
Each month, The RealReal prevents about 5,000 fraudulent items from hitting the market and has kept more than 250,000 out of circulation since its inception in 2011. Some are sold by unwitting owners who have been misled, while others are part of a larger network of counterfeit suppliers seeking to make a buck from knock-offs.
"The level of sophistication there has definitely only increased," Thompson said, adding that wannabe sellers are even faking receipts, hoping that proof of purchase will sway someone to accept a rip-off.
Hardware — like the feet of a Birkin, zippers, and pulls — can indicate that something is off, as can discrepancies in logos and spacing. For less obvious inconsistencies, the company deploys a microscopic camera that compares the bag with thousands of others, looking at everything from the grain of the leather to the edges of a brand stamp.
Here are the bags that Thompson said are most commonly faked —and some tell-tale red flags to look out for.
"It changes and stays the same. There are always those bags that are going to be counterfeit," he said. "Anything that's popular is totally game for being counterfeited."
Hermès Birkin and Kelly
The Birkin bag is arguably Hermès' most exclusive handbag, costing at least $10,000 — sometimes much more — and racking up yearslong waitlists.
Edward Berthelot/Getty Images
If you're in the market for a secondhand Hermès Birkin — priced $6,200 to $350,000 on The RealReal — or Kelly — priced $5,000 to $165,000 — be sure to turn it upside down and check the small pieces of hardware on its bottom.
"If the feet unscrew, it's bad," Thompson said. "That's the first thing I'm checking."
And if it comes with an orange authenticity card: code orange. "Hermes does not issue those," he added.
The stitching is also a telltale sign: Hermès bags are sewn by hand, so it shouldn't actually be as uniform and perfect as a machine-made stitch.
Louis Vuitton: from key chains to trunks
Louis Vuitton bags — particularly those with the traditional "LV" print — are perennially faked.
Edward Berthelot/Getty Images
Anything Louis Vuitton — from key fobs to luggage — can be faked, Thompson said, with people perennially interested in the logoed bags.
For Louis Vuitton, the color is a dead giveaway, former employee Shelley Alvarado told Business Insider last year.
"There's a richness in color on the real product that doesn't appear obvious at first glance, but once you compare materials, you can absolutely tell the difference," she said.
Gucci's signature styles
A Gucci Chain Horsebit bag — one of the brand's more popular styles.
Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images
"Gucci, it's across the board and that's one that it's always up there — it always ranks very high in terms of counterfeit percentage for us," Thompson said.
Signature styles like the Horsebit or the Jackie are more likely to be copied than niche ones.
Like with Louis Vuitton bags, the logos are a helpful tool in spotting a fake. For example, the spacing and edges of the letters may be off, or the shape of a monogram.
Prada re-editions
Prada re-editions, like the 2002 Moon bag, have grown in popularity in recent years.
Edward Berthelot/Getty Images
In recent years, Prada has been rereleasing some of its styles from the early aughts, which have become popular — and popular to fake.
The triangular metal Prada logo is an easy tell, Thompson said.
"We're able to see the etching deep in, so we could see if it's striated, for example. That's a big red flag," he said, adding that the company uses its microscopic Vision software to check. With "20/20 vision, you're not really going to see that."
The Row's Half Moon bag
As quiet luxury becomes more popular, bags like The Row's Half Moon are more commonly counterfeit.
Courtesy of The RealReal
"There's the whole quiet luxury movement — those are even harder to spot," Thompson said, pointing to The Row, and specifically the brand's Half Moon, Alexia, and Sophia bags. "Things are more minimalistic, so there is a lack of identifiers."
Without logos, The Real Real zeros in on hardware, the grain of leather, and the stitching.
Celine's Luggage styles
Celine bags, including the brand's luggage styles, have become more commonly faked over the past year.
Courtesy of The RealReal
Celine bags, like the brand's Luggage styles, are more likely to be faked than they were a year ago.
Bernard Arnault lost more money than any other billionaire this year — while Elon Musk's fortune nearly doubled.
Chesnot/Getty Images; Marc Piasecki/Getty Images
In 2024, the rich largely got richer as tech stocks flew and markets experienced a postelection bump.
However, some luxury titans shed billions amid an industry downturn.
Here are the biggest billionaire winners and losers of the year, according to their net worth.
2024 was a good year to be a billionaire.
The S&P 500 gained 25% this year, while the Nasdaq grew 33%. The uberwealthy, many of whom are invested in companies on each index, benefited greatly.
The five billionaires who gained the most wealth in 2024 saw their net worths climb a collective $542 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of December 27.
These billionaires all come from the tech sector, where AI fever and a postelection rally pushed many stocks to all-time highs.
There were, though, those whose fortunes took a hit. Some billionaires whose money comes from luxury retail, which struggled this year, lost double-digit billions.
Here are the billionaires who gained and lost the most this year — and just how much their fortunes changed as of December 27.
The biggest winners of the year are…
Elon Musk: $239 billion richer
Musk, who backed Donald Trump's campaign, has become $200 billion richer since the election.
Getty Images
Elon Musk, who is worth $468 billion, nearly doubled his net worth in 2024, owing in no small part to the stock market's rally after Donald Trump's election victory. Since Election Day, he's become more than $200 billion richer.
His fortune is predominantly made up of Tesla stock and equity in SpaceX. Even though sales of electric vehicles have slowed down, Tesla's stock price has jumped more than 70% this year. SpaceX, meanwhile, has doubled in value in the past year and is now worth a reported $350 billion.
Musk, who gave more than $200 million to Trump's reelection efforts, has become an advisor to the president-elect, who tapped him and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead his newly created Department of Government Efficiency. Investors are bullish that his relationship with the commander in chief will benefit his companies.
Mark Zuckerberg: $85 billion richer
Zuckerberg, Meta's largest individual shareholder, saw his fortune thanks to a strong year for the company.
@zuck via Instagram
Mark Zuckerberg is riding on the success of Meta's strong year. The CEO, who is worth $213 billion, owns about 13% of the company's stock, making him its largest individual shareholder.
Meta's share price is up over 70% this year thanks to its strong ad business and push further into AI. The company announced its first-ever dividend in February, and its stock hit record highs multiple times this year.
Jensen Huang: $78 billion richer
A newly minted centibillionaire, Huang has become one of the best-known figures in the booming AI industry.
I-hwa Cheng/Getty
The AI boom minted a new centibillionaire this year in Jensen Huang, who is worth $122 billion.
The Nvidia CEO and cofounder owns about 3.5% of the company, whose share price is up more than 175% year-to-date thanks to its dominance in the AI chip industry.
Larry Ellison: $70 billion richer
Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images
Larry Ellison, who is worth $193 billion, is the founder and chief technology officer of Oracle.
The database software company's stock, which makes up the largest share of his net worth, is up more than 60% year-to-date thanks to its cloud applications and infrastructure, which can be used to train AI.
Ellison also owns more than 1% of Tesla stock, which is worth $20 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Jeff Bezos: $69 billion richer
Jeff Bezos remains Amazon's largest shareholder and has benefited from the company's 2024 rally.
Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The New York Times
Jeff Bezos, the Amazon cofounder, remains the company's largest individual shareholder, owning nearly 9% of the $2.4 trillion company. His stake in the retail and tech behemoth makes up more than 80% of his $246 billion fortune.
Amazon's stock, which is up more than 45% year-to-date, surged after Trump's election. The company has also benefited from its leadership in e-commerce and cloud computing.
Meanwhile, some billionaires did experience hits to their fortunes.
Bernard Arnault: $31 billion poorer
By the numbers, Arnault is the biggest billionaire loser of the year.
Tefano Rellandini/Getty Images
This year was one of the worst years for luxury in recent memory, and Bernard Arnault has an 11-figure loss to show for it.
The CEO of LVMH, who is worth $176 billion, has a 48% stake in the company, which owns brands like Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. Luxury labels have struggled this year, particularly in China, which has experienced a real estate crisis and high youth unemployment.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers: $25 billion poorer
Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers' net worth is derived from her stake in L'Oréal.
Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images
Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, the heir to the L'Oréal fortune, is the second-richest woman in the world with a fortune of $75 billion.
The cosmetics company has struggled this year as sales in China took a hit. Its share price is down more than 26% year-to-date.
Carlos Slim: $23 billion poorer
Carlos Slim has a diversified fortune, with stakes in many public companies in Latin America.
AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, who is worth $82 billion, saw his fortune slip with telecommunications giant América Móvil's stock this year.
Colin Huang: $17 billion poorer
Colin Huang's fortune is derived from Temu, the fast-fashion retailer he founded.
VCG/Getty Images
Nearly all of Colin Huang's $35 billion fortune lies in his stake in Pinduoduo, the parent company of fast-fashion retailer Temu, whose stock has fallen more than 30% this year.
In August, Temu announced it expected profits to fall in the future due to growing competition and changing consumer sentiment. The company took another hit following Trump's victory, given the uncertainty of how future tariffs may affect sales.
Francois Pinault: $14 billion poorer
Francois Pinault founded the luxury group Kering, whose stock plummeted this year.
REUTERS/Charles Platiau
Francois Pinault's fortune is another casualty of the luxury downturn this year.
He founded the luxury group Kering, which includes brands like Balenciaga, Gucci, and Saint Laurent, and the majority of his $22 billion net worth is tied up in the company, whose stock is down more than 40% year-to-date.
Bezos owns three properties on Miami's Indian Creek island.
Take a look at the enclave, known as "Billionaire Bunker," and see why it attracts the wealthy.
A lot has opened up in one of South Florida's most expensive enclaves — and for a cool $200 million it can make you neighbors to Jeff Bezos.
After 29 years in Seattle, the Amazon founder announced he would be moving to Miami at the end of 2023. He chose the ultra-exclusive Indian Creek neighborhood, a collection of homes surrounding a golf club on a highly secure island. The area, informally called the "Billionaire Bunker," is known for its privacy.
Bezos owns three properties in the community: In June 2023, he purchased a $68 million mansion, followed by an adjacent one for $79 million in October of that year. By September 2024, he added a third mansion to his collection, purchased for $90 million.
Now, the waterfront lot next to one of his homes is for sale. The empty 1.84-acre property is listed for $200 million — many times more than its last sale price of $27.5 million in 2018 — and includes plans for a 25,000-square-foot house.
The real-estate agent representing the sellers told Bloomberg that Bezos's presence on the island is one reason for the premium.
"Those prices just didn't exist before he came to Indian Creek," he said.
But Bezos isn't the only big name on Indian Creek. High-profile figures, including football legend Tom Brady and Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump's husband, also own property there.
Take a look inside the neighborhood.
In December 2022, Business Insider toured the neighborhood to learn why celebrities are drawn to its high levels of privacy and security.
An aerial view of Indian Creek Island.
Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
Indian Creek Island, located in Biscayne Bay about 15 miles from Miami, is accessible only by a single bridge connecting it to the mainland.
The neighborhood has about 40 homes spread throughout its 300 acres, according to real-estate brokerage Miami Luxury Homes.
Despite only having a few dozen homes, Miami's Indian Creek Village has its own mayor and local government.
An aerial view of Indian Creek Island.
Google Maps
The Florida legislature incorporated Indian Creek in 1939 under a now-defunct law that allowed 25 or more neighbors to form a town, according to the Florida Auditor General.
One bridge leads to the island, on which privacy and security are paramount.
A bridge connecting the island to the mainland.
Hannah Towey/Insider
The island has been home numerous ultrawealthy and high-profile residents, including Wall Street tycoon Carl Icahn, supermodel Adriana Lima, and singer Julio Iglesias.
The island's entrance is heavily guarded, with the Indian Creek Village Police headquarters immediately to the left.
Boats at dock.
Hannah Towey/Insider
The town has its own police force. About 15 police officers secure the island by land and sea, per the Indian Creek Village police directory.
To enter the island, you must be a resident or have your name added to a verified visitor's list.
Construction is common on the island.
Construction vehicles on a lot.
Hannah Towey/Insider
Tom Brady is building an "eco-mansion" on the island.
In 2020, the seven-time Super Bowl champion and his ex-wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, acquired the two-acre lot for over $17 million, Page Six reported.
The home has since been demolished to make way for an "eco-mansion" that Brady commissioned.
In July, Brady nabbed a $35 million loan for his two-story estate, likely replacing a previous $35 million construction loan he obtained the year prior.
The Real Deal reported that the mansion is still under construction and plans to include a separate gym, cabana, waterfront pool and spa, sports court, and other luxurious amenities.
Every home on the island has stunning views of Biscayne Bay and many feature private docks.
An aerial view of Indian Creek Island.
Todd Michael Glaser/Dina Goldentayer
The area is home to aquatic wildlife like manatees, sea turtles, and sawfish, and dolphins are occasionally sighted.
A national park protects its southern expanse and other ecosystems, including Florida's coral reefs.
Some mansions are well-hidden from the street.
A home on Indian Creek Island.
Hannah Towey/Insider
Discretion is a top priority for the millionaire and billionaire residents, with some mansions hidden from view.
Real-estate agent Dina Goldentayer said this "quintessential privacy" coupled with extensive security measures is a major draw for high-profile individuals.
Unlike other high-end Miami neighborhoods, residents do not have direct beach access.
Many island residents have private docks.
Hannah Towey/Insider
It's less than 10 minutes to Surfside Beach, which fronts the Atlantic Ocean north of Miami Beach.
Bezos's first two home purchases are side by side on the west side of the island, while his most recent property is in the southeast.
Some of Bezos' Indian Creek properties are still undergoing construction.
Todd Michael Glaser/Dina Goldentayer ᐧ
Bezos' Indian Creek holdings include a $68 million mansion bought in June 2023, a $79 million property adjacent to the first purchased in October 2023, and a $90 million property bought in 2024.
The seller of the second property has filed a lawsuit — but Bezos isn't involved.
Real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman handled the $79 million sale of the property — which has a seven-bedroom mansion with a home theater, a wine cellar, a library, and a pool — and received a commission of over $3 million.
The former owner is suing Douglas Elliman for the $6 million difference between the listing and sale price, alleging he was misled about the buyer, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Jay Parker, the Florida CEO of Douglas Elliman, denies knowing that Bezos was the buyer.
The former owner did not respond to requests for comment sent by Business Insider; Douglas Elliman declined to comment.
Indian Creek's median listing price in July 2024 was $13.5 million, according to a Rocket Homes housing market report.
A home on Indian Creek Island.
Hannah Towey/Insider
That price does not automatically include admission into the neighborhood's ultra-exclusive country club.
Indian Creek Country Club dates back to the 1920s.
The Indian Creek Country Club.
Hannah Towey/Insider
In the early 2000s, the country club was accused of discriminating against Black and Jewish residents, local outlets reported. The club denies the allegations.
Beyond the private homes and country club, there's not much else on the island.
A field on the island.
Hannah Towey/Insider
Indian Creek Island Road is the neighborhood's single street — and it's a dead end.
"There's no action here," Goldentayer said. "But you're 10 minutes from the action."
Some residents own or rent additional properties off the island.
Another home on the island.
Hannah Towey/Insider
Kushner and Trump, for example, rent an apartment in Miami's Surfside neighborhood, which is only about a mile away.
The two-story, six-bedroom duplex spans 7,000 square feet and is located in the oceanfront complex Arte Surfside. The unit includes two gourmet kitchens, personal direct beach access, and wraparound terraces.
Luxury labels — including Gucci — struggled this year, leading to poor showings for their parent companies.
Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Luxury powerhouses struggled in 2024 as they faced macroeconomic headwinds.
The stock price of Kering, the owner of Gucci, has fallen more than 40% this year.
Two luxury companies, Hermès and Richemont, managed to buck the trend.
2024 was a bad year for luxury.
Many of the world's largest luxury companies saw their share prices decline this year as the market for high-end goods experienced a brutal slowdown.
"50 million luxury consumers have either opted out of the luxury goods market or been forced out of it in the last two years," Claudia D'Arpizio, who leads Bain's global luxury goods and fashion practice, wrote in a report last month.
"The negative environment predicted by many in the fashion industry this time a year ago has now materialized," a McKinsey report said earlier this year.
One chart — featuring some of the luxury's most notable companies — shows just how rough 2024 was through mid-December.
Only two companies — Hermès and Richemont, the parent company of Cartier and Van Cleef — managed to beat the STOXX Europe 600, an index that represents a mix of European stocks, this year.
Meanwhile, share prices for LVMH — the largest of the luxury conglomerates and owner of brands like Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior — and Burberry have fallen this year. (Prada and Moncler also slipped, though aren't pictured here.)
Kering, the company behind Balenciaga and Saint Laurent, fared the worst. Its stock price dropped more than 40% this year as its headline brand, Gucci, floundered.
While certain high-end lines suffered from specific pitfalls — Burberry priced their goods too high, Gucci spread itself too thin — the economy at large was to blame for a number of luxury's troubles.
"Many are navigating a momentary crisis, driven by macroeconomic pressures and a polarized customer base," Claudia D'Arpizio, who leads Bain's global luxury goods and fashion practice, wrote in a report.
An economic crisis in China, where real estate sales slumped and unemployment rose, meant a consistent group of luxury shoppers reined in their spending. In America, inflation squeezed the aspirational shoppers who had rushed to buy expensive goods during the post-pandemic spending boom. And in Europe, political uncertainty led consumers to hold off on big purchases.
2025 may be brighter for high-end companies, however.
HSBC analysts wrote in a December note that they believe the third quarter will be the "trough for the sector." Meantime, EMARKETER, a sister company to Business Insider, predicts that personal luxury retail sales will grow 4.1% next year — up from a low of 3.2% this year.
Lauren Sánchez and Jeff Bezos have spent their holidays in both Aspen, Colorado, and St. Barths.
BG041/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
As the holidays approach, the ultrawealthy will decamp to some of the world's most expensive destinations.
Whether aboard yachts or ski lifts, the 0.01% tend to travel to familiar locales.
Here's a look at some of the most popular places for the rich during the holidays.
Deck the gangways with boughs of holly.
Billionaires are deploying their private jets and superyachts in preparation for the holiday season, with many headed to familiar hot spots.
Each December, the richest among us depart for expensive destinations to enjoy time with their families — and often other billionaires.
This year will be nothing different.
"It's going to places that are exclusively pretty much high net worth," Winston Chesterfield, the founder of Barton, a consulting firm focused on luxury and the wealthy, told Business Insider. "They want these private resorts away from everyone else because they don't want to be around everyone else."
Many of the world's largest yachts have already sailed to warmer waters.
Jeff Bezos' yacht Koru and Barry Diller's Eos are both floating in the Caribbean Sea, according to ship tracker Marine Traffic. Eric Schmidt's Whisper is headed to Barbados, and Len Blavatnik's Odessa II was most recently docked in Antigua.
Once their billionaire owners are aboard, several of these ships will likely make their way to St. Barths.
"I always say if you want to have your toes in the sand and eat a croissant that feels like you're in Paris, St. Barths is the place for you," Elisabeth Brown, the membership director at luxury concierge service Knightsbridge Circle, told BI.
Superyachts often stop in St. Barths, a favorite of the ultrawealthy for decades.
Alison Wright/Getty Images
Known for its exclusivity, fine hotels and restaurants, and natural beauty, the island has been a favorite among the uberwealthy for decades. Rockefellers and Rothschilds built estates there in the mid-1900s.
Last year, Bezos, his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, and Michael Jordan were spotted on St. Barths, and David Geffen's superyacht, the Rising Sun, was seen nearby.
For those who don't stay on yachts, popular luxury hotels like Eden Rock and Cheval Blanc, owned by billionaire Bernard Arnault's LVMH, cost upward of $5,000 per night for a room at this time of year.
The less expensive hotels aren't exactly cheap — which is part of the appeal. A room in the least expensive hotel available for the week between Christmas and New Year's costs more than $3,000 per night.
"There is nothing mass-market about it. It's impossible to be there unless you are really wealthy," Chesterfield said.
Other superrich travelers opt for colder destinations, choosing to embrace the winter weather.
"The holidays in the mountains are more of an escape than any other holidays, even escapes to their own remote private islands and things," Chesterfield said.
In Europe, that means the Alps. Gstaad, St. Moritz, Courchevel — which was a favorite of Russian oligarchs — and Val-d'Isère are classic choices for the ultra-high net worth set, Chesterfield and Brown said.
Recently, Chesterfield said he's seen some choose quieter destinations, like Crans-Montana in Switzerland, where billionaire Vicky Safra has a home, or Kitzbühel, Austria.
"You're less likely to bump into people that you know there," he added.
Some of the very wealthy own eight-figure chalets that they rent out for as much as $40,000 a week during peak season. Real estate prices continue to rise in these locations, with homes in Gstaad, the most expensive locale, costing 41,500 euros per square meter (about $43,350), according to property consultancy Knight Frank's 2024 Alpine Index.
Buying luxury condos within resorts, like the Six Senses in Courcheval, is becoming more common, too, in large part due to the amenities, which include spas, saunas, ski valets, and concierges.
Stateside, Aspen remains the most elite ski resort.
The town has the highest density of residents worth more than $30 million in the US, according to a 2023 study by data firm Altrata. Billionaires like Steve Wynn, Daniel Och, and Terry Taylor own homes there, and in recent years, wealthy celebrities like Rihanna and Kylie Jenner have been photographed downtown during the holidays.
"It is the closest you'll get to a European après situation," Brown said. "Great mountains, great skiing, the hotels are top-notch, the restaurants are awesome."
There's a restaurant by chef Nobu Matsuhisa, designer shops like Prada and Gucci, and private clubs to make the uber-rich feel at home. Plus, there are plenty of top resorts like the St. Regis and Little Nell, where rooms cost four figures a night.
Of course, sometimes billionaires are just like us — at least kind of. One of Brown's clients is gifting their family a trip to Disney World, though it will cost more than the typical American family's vacation to Cinderella's Castle.
"It's a few days, for about seven or eight people. It'll probably end up being $75,000, give or take," Brown said.
Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle brand Goop has undergone two rounds of layoffs in recent months.
The company has said it's pivoting to focus on beauty, fashion, and food.
The changes highlight Goop's challenges to build a sustainable business beyond its famous founder.
Gwyneth Paltrow took a measured tone earlier this year when she discussed Goop, her newsletter turned e-commerce company, onstage at a Forbes event. She didn't brag about the nine figures the brand had raised or its latest product release. Instead, she said she was proud Goop was still in business.
"Some years we're down, then we're back up," she said. "I'm proud that we're still alive and kicking."
That might seem surprising for a company that was valued at $433 million in 2020 and was a trailblazer for what a celebrity brand could be. But it's reflective of a company that — despite its name recognition and pop-culture footprint — has undergone several painful pivots in recent years.
In September, Goop laid off nearly 20% of its staff, including its chief technology officer and VP of content. A few weeks later, it laid off about 6% of the remaining employees.
Goop's recent cuts come as the company shifts focus to its beauty, fashion, and food businesses. It's the latest in a series of strategy changes over the last several years.
Changes in focus are normal for a startup. Still, after 16 years of existence, the company isn't profitable and continues to struggle to build a firm foundation apart from Paltrow.
The company's once-buzzy supplement regimens generated $100,000 in sales on the day they launched in 2017. Now, only one of the four initial regimens is still offered online, and for a discount. A Goop spokesperson told Business Insider that any new supplements it launched would be part of its beauty business.
Goop, whose founder Gwyneth Paltrow is pictured, has expanded into a number of different verticals over the past decade-plus.
Layne Murdoch Jr./Getty Images
Julia Hunter, a Goop board member and the former CEO of Jenni Kayne, addressed some of the company's struggles in an interview with Puck, published after BI sent Goop a series of questions for this story.
"The company is doing very well from a revenue perspective, but operating expenses have continued to grow," Hunter said. "I know that it's unpopular to let people go, but they hired a lot of people that they probably shouldn't have."
On the content side, Goop has recently cut many editorial positions, including the VP of content, head beauty editor, and several other editors. A review of Goop's website shows few new articles, and its book imprint hasn't published a new release in over a year. The magazine ran two issues before folding, and while there were reports that Goop's Netflix series, "The Goop Lab," was renewed, it hasn't materialized.
Paltrow's importance to the brand is evident in product launches, two former Goop employees told BI. They spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation; their identities are known to BI.
When she's part of a launch — what is called in Goop parlance an "A launch" — the performance of the advertising on social media "quadruples," one of the former employees said. Performance often drops off once she's no longer involved, this person added.
Last month, a video featuring Paltrow that promoted Goop's newest release, a retinol serum, drew 1,100 likes on Instagram. The next day, a second post about the serum — which didn't include Paltrow — got fewer than 275 likes.
"Brands need to find viable business models, rather than simply a celebrity face," Simeon Siegel, an analyst at BMO Capital, said of A-list entrepreneurs.
The celebrity brands that have grown to be the largest — like Kim Kardashian's Skims, Rihanna's Fenty, and Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty — have moved beyond their founder's image. Skims, which is valued at $4 billion, has made using models from popular culture a core part of its marketing strategy, for instance.
From newsletter to e-commerce shop: over a decade of pivoting
Goop's founding story has become lore to a certain type of aspirant. In 2008, Paltrow was sitting in the kitchen of the London house she shared with her then-husband, Chris Martin, when she decided to pen a newsletter for "family, friends, and friends of friends." The issue featured a recipe for banana muffins and photos shot on Paltrow's Blackberry.
"It was one of the first of its kind to leverage a curated lifestyle of a celebrity," Stacy Jones, the CEO of branding agency Hollywood Branded, told BI. "It is aligned to her own personal brand in a very unique way that hadn't been done to that extent before."
Before long, Paltrow was earning small checks from advertisers and began dreaming of a media empire.
Paltrow hired media veterans from Meredith and Condé Nast to run the publication. There was a lifestyle website with travel guides and interviews on alternative medicine. In 2015, Paltrow launched a publishing imprint, Goop Press, and in 2017, a magazine in partnership with Condé Nast. Conferences promised to be the next big thing for the brand when the In Goop Health Summit series kicked off in 2017, offering (mainly) women the promise of looking and feeling like Paltrow for the four-figure ticket price. In 2020, as streaming entered its golden age, she scored a deal with Netflix.
Gwyneth Paltrow's Netflix series "The Goop Lab" never came back for a second season.
Rachel Murray/Getty Images
But Goop suffered in recent years amid a broader digital media downturn.
"Advertising business as a big part of revenue started to decline, and that was probably the biggest shift to revenue of the last several years," Hunter told Puck, adding that going forward, editorial would be "integrated with social media."
Paltrow still posts regular episodes of the Goop podcast, and after a few years off due to the pandemic, the In Goop Health Summit returned last year.
That said, Goop's media projects appear to have been largely shut down, as many of the staffers behind them were affected by the recent cuts.
As Goop's media initiatives fell short, its e-commerce ambitions — or what the company dubbed "contextual commerce" — took center stage.
The core of its e-commerce business has ebbed and flowed over the years. First, it pushed skincare, then fashion, then wellness.
Now, it's back to beauty and fashion.
"It's a lot of testing" of different verticals, the second former employee said.
In the latest restructuring, the hope of a revitalization
In May, Goop brought in outside consultants, led by Hunter, to help streamline the organization and reduce payroll.
Then, in September, Goop announced its latest pivot, saying it would double down on fashion, beauty, and food. These aren't new initiatives for Goop, but the company has touted their recent growth.
G. Label, the company's in-house clothing line, launched in 2016. The company told BI that the brand's sales are up 45% this year compared to the same period last year, but declined to share its revenue numbers.
The two former employees said they felt G. Label had historically underperformed partly because it was initially designed to fit Paltrow, who, at a slender 5-foot-nine-inches tall, has a much different figure than the average American woman.
"We were just putting together whatever Gwyneth felt like wearing," the first former employee said. They added that the company revised the line in the last year using a new, standard-fit model, which they said had helped its sales.
The Goop spokesperson said a new designer had been hired for G. Label in the last year, who revamped the line.
Goop's first foray into beauty was also in 2016.
A few of the products have repeat customers — the neck peptide serum is a top seller — but there isn't a breakthrough hero product.
Some recent efforts to expand the beauty offerings haven't taken off. Last year, the company launched Good Clean Goop, a moderately priced line, in Target and Amazon. Since then, the company has discounted a number of the brand's products, including the Daily Juice Cleanser and Aging Serum. Puck reported in June that Good Clean Goop was in the bottom 15% of beauty brands at Target. The brand has not posted on social media in more than a month. The two former employees said Goop's contract with Target ends at the beginning of next year.
Good Clean Goop, the company's lower-priced line, is sold in Target and on Amazon.
Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for good.clean.goop
Then there's Goop Kitchen, the "food" piece, which is not part of the core company. The Goop spokesperson said Goop Kitchen is set up as a joint venture and called it a "separate commercial entity." They declined to share what ownership stake Goop has, if any.
Goop has publicly touted growth statistics — like a 25% sales increase for Goop Beauty and a 45% increase for G. Label. The former employees said these figures were driven in part by an influx of paid ad spend.
The Goop spokesperson declined to comment on whether the company is profitable. Hunter told Puck it wasn't.
Whether Goop's latest efforts to boost revenue and cut back on staff are enough to turn the company around remains to be seen. Paltrow, for her part, has hinted that she wants Goop to thrive without her.
"I don't think I can have this job forever," she told The New York Times last year. "I think it would be nice to return my investors' money, and I really want to do that. That's important to me."
Amazon is one of the latest companies to mandate employees return to the office.
Jeenah Moon for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Many major companies are requiring employees to return to the office full or part-time.
Business Insider compiled a running list of the companies calling employees back.
The list includes companies like JPMorgan, Starbucks, and Amazon.
The start of 2025 could herald a new return to office push.
Corporate giants like Amazon and AT&T announced at the end of 2024 that they would bring their employees back into the office five days a week this year. Sweetgreen, too, said in December that it's upping support staff's in-person requirement for 2025.
Other major employers, including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, have also abandoned the hybrid attendance policy they adopted during the pandemic and instead implemented full return-to-office mandates.
Several executives and leaders have said they believe productivity increases when workers are in the office together, while others hope to increase in-person collaboration. Even some CEOs who previously praised the flexibility of remote work have backpedaled, telling workers to comply with RTO mandates. Some are tracking attendance and firing employees who don't comply.
Here's a list, in alphabetical order, of major companies requiring employees to return to offices. Business Insider will update this list regularly.
Amazon
CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a September 16 memo that Amazon would end remote work starting in 2025.
"We've decided that we're going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID," Jassy said. "When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant."
The CEO cited easier employee collaboration and connection and said in-person work would strengthen the company's culture. This echoes his February 2023 memo, which mandated employees spend at least three days a week in the office.
Not everyone agrees. Some Amazon employees took to an internal Slack channel to criticize the new RTO policy, BI's Ashley Stewart first reported, with one staffer writing that it was "significantly more strict and out of its mind" than pre-COVID operations.
"This is not 'going back' to how it was before," they wrote. "It's just going backwards."
The critical reaction is reminiscent of employees' response to 2023's surprise return-to-office rule. Thousands of Amazon workers joined a Slack channel to share their thoughts, with some even organizing to file a petition against the change.
In December, BI reported that Amazon is delaying full RTO for some employees over office-capacity issues.
Apple
In August 2022, Apple's senior leaders told workers they had to return to the office at least three days a week after previously requiring two days a week. CEO Tim Cook said the decision was meant to restore "in-person collaboration." Some employees fought back and issued a petition shortly after the announcement, arguing that staffers can do "exceptional work" from home.
AT&T confirmed to BI that it's requiring all office employees to work on-site five days a week starting in January.
The change follows about a year of AT&T accommodating a hybrid schedule in its widely publicized office push.
"The majority of our employees and leaders never stopped working on location for the full work week — including during the pandemic," a spokesperson for the telecom giant told BI.
AT&T told BI it's updating its facilities amid the policy change.
"As we continue to evolve our model, we are enhancing our facilities and workspaces, adapting our benefits programs, and incorporating best practices to ensure our employees are best equipped to serve our customers," the spokesperson added.
BlackRock
In 2023, BlackRock mandated employees return to the office four days a week. The investment firm, which is headquartered in New York City, intended to bring employees into its then newly leased office space — which spans 1 million square feet across 15 floors, according to Hudson Yards.
In a May 2023 memo sent by the company's COO, Rob Goldstein, and the head of human resources, Caroline Heller, the execs wrote: "Career development happens in teaching moments between team members, and it is accelerated during market-moving moments, when we step up and get into the mix. All of this requires us to be together in the office."
Additionally, the memo notified staffers that the firm would give them the opportunity to work remotely for two weeks during a relevant time period in their country, to offer "seasonal flexibility."
Chipotle
The fast-food chain announced in June 2023 that corporate workers should work in the office four days a week, Bloomberg reported. Chipotle had previously required workers to show up three days a week, according to the report.
Citigroup
Citigroup asked its 600 US workers, who were previously eligible to work remotely, to return to the office full-time, Bloomberg reported. In a memo released by the investment firm in May, the majority of staff are reportedly still able to work a hybrid schedule, with up to two days a week outside the office.
HSBC and Barclays followed suit, mandating workers to come into the office five days a week, according to the report.
Vaccinated Citigroup employees across the US were asked to return to the office for at least two days a week in March 2022, an internal memo obtained by Reuters said.
Dell
Dell told its sales staff to return to the office five days a week starting on September 30. Previously, the company let US employees pick between working remotely or following a hybrid schedule with about three days a week in the office.
September's sales-team mandate came with just a few days' notice, Business Insider reported, sending employees with kids into a hurry to find childcare.
Disney
In a January 2023 memo obtained by Business Insider, CEO Bob Iger told workers that starting that March, any Disney staff member working "in a hybrid fashion" would need to return to Disney's offices four days a week.
In response, over 2,300 employees signed a petition asking Iger to reconsider the mandate.
"This policy will slow, or even reverse, our post-COVID recovery and growth by creating critical resource shortages and causing irreplaceable institutional knowledge loss," signees wrote, according to The Washington Post.
Goldman Sachs
In March 2022, CEO David Solomon told Fortune that the company was asking employees to return to the office five days a week. Seven months later, he told CNBC that about 65% of staffers were working in the office.
However, some staff have failed to follow the policy a year into its implementation, causing senior managers to become frustrated and Goldman Sachs to further crack down on employees to return to the office full-time, Bloomberg reported.
Google
In March 2022, Google employees in the San Francisco Bay Area and "several other US locations" were told to return to the office for at least three days a week starting the following month.
The next year, however, the company tightened RTO expectations, telling staff in an email viewed by BI that office attendance would factor into their performance reviews.
Fiona Cicconi, Google's chief people officer, wrote in the memo that requests to work remotely full time will now be considered "by exception only."
Some employees expressed feeling "frustrated" with the new policy. One staffer previously told BI, "We don't like being micromanaged like school kids."
IBM
At the start of 2024, IBM told managers to either come into offices or leave the company.
IBM asked all US managers to report to an office or client location at least three days a week, according to a memo viewed by Bloomberg.
A source told the outlet that staff would have to live within 50 miles of an IBM office or client location. The memo said employees had until August to complete their relocation arrangements, and those who were unable to comply with the new policy must "separate from IBM."
CEO Arvind Krishna previously told the news outlet that employees' careers could suffer if they work from home. He said that although he wasn't forcing his own staffers back to the office, he thought remote workers may struggle to get promotions.
JPMorgan
JPMorgan Chase was a first mover in the full return to office push.
The bank began requiring managing directors to work in person five days a week in April 2023 — and, at the time, reminded all other employees to come in at least three days a week.
Now, the company plans to double down. Bloomberg reported in January 2025 that JPMorgan may soon require all of its workers to return to the office five days a week and eliminate the option of remote work entirely.
CEO Jamie Dimon has long been vocal about the importance of onsite work in the face of pushback from employees.
"I completely understand why someone doesn't want to commute an hour and a half every day, totally got it," he told The Economist in July 2023. "Doesn't mean they have to have a job here either."
The company has also been collecting data on staff activity, including tracking attendance.
Meta
Meta updated its remote work policies in September 2023, requiring employees to head into the office three days a week.
It had also stopped offering remote work in new job listings. People familiar with the company previously told BI that hiring managers could no longer post new jobs that list the work location as "remote" or outside an existing office.
In June 2023, the company doubled down on its RTO efforts, telling workers that their attendance would be tracked daily and that failure to comply could lead to termination.
However, some employees returning to the office said they were met with a lack of space and privacy, with one worker calling the mandate "a mess."
Redfin
In April 2023, real estate company Redfin announced an updated return-to-office policy via a memo from CEO Glenn Kelman.
The memo noted that starting July 2023, Redfin would require "headquarters employees" who live within 20 miles of the company's Seattle, San Francisco, and Frisco offices to work from the office for a full day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The company said those who live beyond the 20-mile radius were required to visit the office in person once a quarter for a day or more of meetings.
To hold employees accountable, the memo included a "no-exceptions" section, reading that "to determine your distance from an office, we'll use Google Maps, with the distance from your home address measured in miles driven over roads by car."
Salesforce
Salesforce told employees in an internal memo seen by The San Francisco Standard in July that, as of October 1, the majority of workers had to be in an office four to five days a week.
According to the memo, the new policy is mandated for select staff in sales, workplace services, data center engineering, and on-site support technicians.
Early in 2023, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff revised the company's annual strategic plan, including return-to-office mandates, according to a draft shared in an internal Slack message viewed by BI.
The updated draft return-to-office policy required nonremote employees to work three days a week in the office and employees in "non-remote" and "customer-facing" roles to work four days a week. Engineers must work from the office 10 days per quarter, down from 20 in the initial draft, which was updated based on employee feedback.
Snap
Snap implemented a new mandate in September 2023, requiring employees to work in an office at least four days a week. The change represented a shift from the company's former "remote first" policy, which allowed employees to work from home or elsewhere.
Employees previously told BI that some managers told them the company can track workers' WiFi connections to see who is complying.
Starbucks
In a January 2023 memo to corporate staffers, then-CEO Howard Schultz said employees within commuting distance would be required to return to the office at least three days a week.
Schultz said some staff had failed to "meet their minimum promise of one day a week" and also said that Starbucks baristas didn't have the "privilege" of working from home. The executive had previously said he "pleaded" with workers to come back to the office.
Starbucks employees responded by signing an open letter protesting the company's return-to-office mandate.
In October, the company threatened to fire staff if they did not comply with the RTO policy, Bloomberg first reported, citing an internal memo.
Beginning in January, the company plans to initiate a "standardized process" to hold workers accountable to the hybrid schedule at the team level, where consequences will cover "up to, and including, separation," according to the email obtained by Bloomberg.
Employees, however, may request exemptions due to physical or mental medical reasons.
Sweetgreen
Salad chain Sweetgreen is shifting to a four-day workweek from January 2.
The mandate will apply to its few hundred support staff who do not work at the chain's restaurants, Bloomberg reported on December 18.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Sweetgreen's cofounder and chief executive Jonathan Neman said that the company will move to a "hard four" days in the office policy, a shift from its current "more flexible" three to four-day policy.
He said the decision was in the works earlier in the year then solidified after Amazon put out its own five-day workweek RTO announcement in September.
"That was the big turning point where everyone's like: 'Oh, they're doing it, now we can do it,'" Neman said to Bloomberg.
Representatives of Sweetgreen did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular business hours.
Tesla
In June 2022, Tesla employees were notified of a mandatory return-to-office policy.
The email from Elon Musk told employees "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned," and said that everyone at Tesla must work from the office at least 40 hours a week.
Musk, who has called remote work "morally wrong," nodded to his frequent presence at Tesla factories as the reason for the business' success. "If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt," he wrote.
Ubisoft
In September, Ubisoft, the France-based maker of the popular "Assassin's Creed" and "Far Cry" video game series, ordered its staff worldwide to return to the office three days a week.
French workers at the video game maker went on strike on October 15 over the RTO mandate.
X
After buying X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, Musk told employees that not showing up to an office when they're able to was the same as a resignation.
Musk also told staffers in an email that remote work was no longer allowed and that employees were expected to be in the office for at least 40 hours a week unless given explicit approval to work elsewhere.
In 2023, the National Labor Relations Board filed a formal complaint saying that X had illegally fired an employee who complained about Musk's RTO policy.
The complaint said that Yao Yue, a principal software engineer, criticized the mandate, tweeting, "don't resign, let him fire you." She also posted, "don't be fired. Seriously" in a company Slack channel.
Yue was then fired five days later and told it was due to violating an unspecified company policy.
Uber
In a memo obtained by Business Insider, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees that beginning in April 2022, Uber staffers in 35 of the company's locations were required to return to the office at least half the time. He added that on other days, staffers were allowed to work remotely and that some could be entirely remote if they got clearance from their managers.
Khosrowshahi said in 2024 that remote work took away some of Uber's "most frequent customers," adding that "there is an audience who kind of stopped using us as frequently as they used to."
Staffers located in smaller offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto were being directed to the company's central hubs, including its headquarters in Arkansas or New Jersey, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The retail giant would still permit hybrid schedules as long as workers come in-person most of the time, according to the outlet.
The Washington Post
William Lewis, CEO and publisher of The Washington Post, told staffers in early November that they would be required to return to the office five days a week, according to a memo obtained by BI.
"I want that great office energy for us every day," Lewis wrote, referring to the energy in the office during election week. "I am reliably informed that is how it used to be here before Covid, and it's important we get this back."
All employees were expected to return to the office by June 2, 2025, while managers were expected to return by February 3, 2025.
After starting remote work in 2020, the Post previously required employees to return to the office three days a week in early 2022.
The announcement at the Post came shortly after Amazon's return-to-office mandate. The Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and executive chairman.
Zoom
Zoom, the darling of remote work, said in 2022 that less than 2% of staffers work in person full time. However, in 2023, the video-calling company asked employees to return to the office.
Workers living within 50 miles of one of its offices were mandated to work there at least two days a week.
"We believe that a structured hybrid approach — meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams — is most effective for Zoom," a spokesperson previously said in a statement. "As a company, we are in a better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers."
Last fall, stars assembled in London at the over-the-top clubstaurant Lavo to celebrate one of their own. Janet Jackson smiled in a velvet booth with Idris Elba. The supermodel Naomi Campbell, the evening's host, posed in a black dress.
At the center of it all was Sean "Diddy" Combs in a leather jacket and Cartier sunglasses cutting into a bright red cake featuring artwork from his latest release. It was the mogul's 54th birthday party, as well as a celebration of his "The Love Album." As far as partygoers and paparazzi could tell, he was on top of the world.
Since his rise to fame in the late 1990s as a rapper and producer, Combs had built a business empire and become one of the richest and most well-connected entertainers of all time.
Behind the scenes that November, though, Combs' life was about to start crumbling. Negotiations were failing between Combs and the R&B singer Cassie Ventura, his ex who was on the brink of going public with details of their relationship.
Exactly one week after his star-studded party, the tensions bubbling under the surface boiled over when Ventura sued Combs. The lawsuit alleged a cycle of physical abuse, as well as rape by Combs, who Ventura also said forced her to have sex with sex workers.
Combs' lawyers alleged that her lawyers tried to extort $30 million in exchange for stopping a tell-all book about their 10-year relationship last year.
He eventually apologized to Ventura after CNN released surveillance footage of him physically abusing her at a hotel in 2016. He settled the lawsuit and, at the time, denied any wrongdoing — a stance he has maintained amid a flurry of subsequent allegations — but it marked the beginning of a year that turned his world upside down.
Over the next 12 months, Combs went from being one of the richest music moguls in history, known for his wide network in the entertainment industry and business savvy, to being behind bars, facing a criminal indictment, dozens of civil lawsuits, and an empire in decline.
Combs' freedom, reputation, and finances are all in jeopardy. If he's found guilty of criminal charges, it would mean one of the most celebrated entertainers is also a heinous criminal.
"He looked like he was the king of the world — as flossy as possible, blinged out, with the family, and everything's good," Kenny Hull, a reality show director who worked on the second iteration of "Making the Band," which featured Combs, told Business Insider about the last time he saw Combs, a few years ago at a park in Los Angeles.
"From the top to the absolute bottom," he added. "Canceled and done."
Combs has vehemently and consistently denied all accusations of sexual assault and sex trafficking since Ventura's lawsuit was filed, and each time a new allegation has been made against him.
"Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone — man, woman, adult or minor," lawyers for Combs told BI.
A birthday behind bars
Sean "Diddy" Combs cutting a cake during a birthday party before his one at Lavo.
KMazur/WireImage
Combs celebrated his 55th birthday not at a luxe international club but at the notorious Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, where, a person previously told BI, he was sharing a dormitory with the crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
Instead of flowing Champagne or DeLeón, a jailhouse dinner was served on Combs' November birthday, consisting of Salisbury steak or black-eyed peas, mashed potatoes, and green beans. There was no partying with A-listers, though he did receive a phone call from his kids.
Combs has been in jailpretrial sincehe was arrested in September, following a monthslong investigation that led to a grand jury indictment on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution for allegedly causing victims and paid sex workers to cross state lines.
The Bad Boy Records founder faces anywhere from 15 years to life in prison on a federal indictment alleging that for decades, he used violence, threats, and drugs to coerce women into sexual performances, including at elaborately planned, dayslong parties called "freak offs."
And more criminal charges may be coming, as prosecutors have said grand jurors are weighing a new indictment that could include allegations of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors allege that Combs has used phone accounts belonging to other people held at the jail to contact family members and associates and enlist them to plant negative stories about his accusers and funnel payments to a witness.
They also say agents recovered three AR-15 rifles with defaced serial numbers when search warrants were executed in March at Combs' homes in Miami and Los Angeles and at a Florida airport. And in September, when Combs was arrested at the Park Hyatt, a five-star hotel in midtown Manhattan, they recovered bags of pink powder that prosecutors said in September they believed contained ecstasy and other drugs. Prosecutors have not revealed the results of a drug test they said was conducted in September.
"No condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community," including of witnesses and prospective jurors, US District Judge Arun Subramanian wrote in the most recent bail denial, issued the day before Thanksgiving.
An avalanche of lawsuits
Attorney Marc Agnifilo represents Combs in his criminal case.
James Devaney/GC Images
Just two weeks after Combs was arrested and subsequently locked up at the Brooklyn jail, the Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee held a press conference to announce that his firm was representing 120 people accusingCombs of sexual misconduct.
"We are going to follow this evidence wherever it takes us. We will find the silent accomplices. We will expose the enablers who enabled this conduct behind closed doors," Buzbee said of his legal offensive.
Since Ventura's bombshell November 2023 lawsuit, more than 30 civil lawsuits have been filed accusing Combs of sexual abuse, including about 20 from Buzbee's clients, all listed as John Doe or Jane Doe.
"It feels really good to know he's behind bars," Adria English, who is not a Buzbee client, told BI. She worked as a dancer at Combs' famous white parties and filed a lawsuit in July accusing him of sex trafficking. "What we're having to speak of already sounds like we're lying — it already sounds like a movie because it's so horrible," she said. "It's so disgusting."
Attorneys for Combs pointed BI to a statement previously released in response to English's lawsuit, saying in part: "No matter how many lawsuits are filed it won't change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted, or sex trafficked anyone."
The "I'll Be Missing You" rapper has been accused by both men and women of rape, sexual assault, and lacing drinks with drugs. Over half a dozen of the lawsuits allege the abuse of boys and girls between 10 and 17 years old. Four lawsuits allege that sexual attacks happened at Combs' famed A-list white parties throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, and two of those four lawsuits allege teenagers were victimized.
Timeline of events
Date
Event
November 16, 2023
Sean Combs is accused in a lawsuit of rape and abuse by the R&B singer Cassie Ventura, his ex-girlfriend.
November 28, 2023
Combs announces he has stepped down as chair of Revolt, the cable network and media company he cofounded.
November 2023 to February 2024
Five civil lawsuits are filed against Combs and his businesses.
January 16, 2024
Diageo and Combs end their more than 15-year partnership.
March 25, 2024
Federal officials raid Combs' Los Angeles and Miami mansions.
April 2024 to September 2024
Six more accusers, including Adria English, sue Combs, alleging various forms of drugging or sexual abuse.
May 17, 2024
CNN publishes surveillance footage that shows Combs physically abusing his then-girlfriend, Ventura.
September 16, 2024
Combs is arrested in Manhattan following an indictment by a grand jury on federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty.
October 1, 2024
The Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee announces at a press conference that his firm is representing 120 accusers with sexual misconduct claims against Combs.
October 14, 2024
The first tranche of lawsuits that Buzbee pledged to bring against Combs is filed in New York.
November 4, 2024
Combs — who has remained behind bars at Brooklyn's notorious Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest — celebrates his 55th birthday.
Earlier this month, a woman accused the rapper Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, of raping her with Combs when she was 13 years old at a party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. An unnamed plaintiff originally filed the lawsuit in October, identifying Carter only as "Celebrity A."
Carter, in a statement through the X account of his entertainment company, Roc Nation, denied the allegations, calling them "heinous" and accusing Buzbee, the plaintiff's lawyer, of trying to "blackmail" him.
Attorneys for Combs continue to call all the lawsuits brought by Buzbee publicity grabs.
"Mr. Buzbee's lawsuit against Jay-Z and Mr. Combs and the recent extortion lawsuit Jay-Z brought against Mr. Buzbee exposes Mr. Buzbee's barrage of lawsuits against Mr. Combs for what they are: shameless publicity stunts, designed to extract payments from celebrities who fear having lies spread about them, just as lies have been spread about Mr. Combs," attorneys for Combs told BI Thursday.
The accuser in the lawsuit filed against Combs and Carter said in a recent interview with NBC News that there were some inconsistencies in her story but that she stood by the allegations.
Combs' lawyers are challenging the claims in at least seven lawsuits, which are ongoing. He has not respondedin court to the lawsuits brought by Buzbee, which were all filed after his arrest.
A Los Angeles entertainment attorney, Camron Dowlatshahi, who's not involved in the lawsuits against Combs, told BI that though the rapper is still considered wealthy, litigating each of these cases through trial and potentially being exposed to multimillion-dollar judgments "does not seem prudent."
"Each of the lawsuits piggy-back on the other, and witnesses will be plenty," Dowlatshahi, a partner at the law firm Mills Sadat Dowlat, said.
Dowlatshahi said that lawsuits typically settle before trial and that he anticipated the same in Combs' case.
"Diddy will have to be strategic, however, in which cases he settles first and for how much," Dowlatshahi said.
Down with Diddy's empire
Combs' ventures include his lifestyle brand, Sean John. He's seen here arriving at Saks Fifth Avenue to hand-deliver the Unforgivable fragrance in 2005.
Evan Agostini/Getty Images
As the allegations against Combs have piled up, so have his legal bills.
Combs was once estimated to be worth $820 million, according to Forbes. He'd created an assortment of lucrative revenue drivers that contributed to regular eight-figure annual paydays, including a deal with Diageo; his lifestyle brand, Sean John; a record label; and a music catalog.
One by one, those income streams have dried up.
When the civil lawsuits started, Combs was already engaged in a legal back-and-forth with Diageo, his most bankable partner.
Combs signed with the liquor giant in 2007, agreeing to be the face of Cîroc vodka in exchange for a cut of sales. The partnership became one of the most lucrative celebrity liquor deals in history, expanding further when Combs and Diageo launched DeLeón, a co-owned tequila line. Over 15 years, the company paid him nearly $1 billion, Forbes reported.
While Combs originally sued Diageo in May 2023, alleging the company did not support his ventures, the mounting sexual abuse lawsuits did him in, in the end.
"Mr. Combs is well-aware that these lawsuits make it impossible for him to continue to be the 'face' of anything," Diageo lawyers wrote in a letter to a judge in December 2023.
By January, the matter was resolved. Combs received $200 million for his stake in DeLeón tequila and not a penny for his longtime work with Cîroc.
It's a similar story for his other ventures.
Combs' lifestyle company, Sean John, had already slipped: In 2016, he sold a majority stake in the business, which at that point included fragrances and furnishings, to Global Brands Group for $70 million, Forbes reported. Just five years later, Global Brands Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and Combs bought back the business for $7.55 million, just over 10% of what it was once worth.
The clothing line's website has gone defunct, its Instagram scrapped, and it is no longer sold at Macy's, once the exclusive home of the brand's sportswear line — and one of its last remaining retailers. The department store, which was accused by one of Buzbee's clients of covering up a 2008 sexual attack by Combs, did not comment on whether the removal of his Sean John line had to do with the compounding lawsuits. Macy's didn't respond to the allegations of covering up a sexual assault in court or to a request for comment about them from BI.
The disintegration of Combs' entertainment businesses, though, was a direct reaction to his mounting legal problems.
Soon after Ventura filed her lawsuit, Combs stepped down as chair of Revolt, the cable network and media company he cofounded. By June, he'd given up his stake. A Hulu reality show that was supposed to follow Combs and his family was scrapped. Any chance of his being able to cash out and sell his music catalog is slim.
"There are so many lost opportunities," Clayton Durant, a professor who teaches music business at Long Island University's Roc Nation School, told BI in October. "There is no way a brand is touching Diddy — probably forever."
With no moneymaking on the table, Combs has taken to trying to sell the assets he does have.
Earlier this year, he listed his Los Angeles mansion in the tony Holmby Hills for $61.5 million. His private jet, LoveAir, is also listed for sale, and while he awaits a buyer, he's been renting it out.
It's not clear how much use he will have for it anyway, at least in the near future.
On the eve of Thanksgiving, Combs lost his third application to be freed on $50 million bail.
Subramanian ordered that he remain held pending his May 5 trial, citing the rap mogul's history of violence and of contacting and threatening prospective witnesses.
"Diddy's been the ultimate puppet master for the last 30 years, and people wanted to say something … they've been too afraid," English, the dancer who accused Combs in a lawsuit of sex trafficking, told BI. "But now because of the raids, everybody's about to be exposed, regardless, so it's going to come out."
One of the reasons: She capitalized on some of her most popular spots with "mini-residencies."
Here's a look at Swift's touring strategy and how it's made her so rich.
Taylor Swift wrapped up her Eras Tour in Vancouver last week — and it grossed more than any tour in history.
With 149 dates across 21 countries, the Eras Tour earned more than $2 billion, according to Pollstar. While that 10-figure sum is in large part due to the sheer number of shows she played — she said the tour was attended by over 10 million people — there was a strategy to her touring that helped her maximize the profits from each stop.
Swift spent eight nights in London and six in cities like Toronto, Los Angeles, and Singapore. Meanwhile, she skipped nearby cities that she visited on past tours, like Ottawa and Pasadena.
These mini-residencies likely added millions of dollars to her personal bottom line.
The underlying business assumption was that Swifties would travel and pay big bucks for tickets, no matter where she performed. It turned out to be correct: All of her shows were sold out. Playing in fewer cities meant less money spent on production, travel, and labor — which in turn meant more profit for Swift and her team.
"It significantly reduces the overhead of a tour," Nathan Hubbard, the former CEO of Ticketmaster who founded the management firm Firebird, told Business Insider. "Think about the cost of taking down an entire stage, packing up 50 trucks, moving it all to another town. Every night you can avoid striking the set saves millions of dollars."
Swift's representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
Swift isn't the first performer to employ this strategy.
Harry Styles tested it with his 15-night runs at New York's Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles' Kia Forum, an extension of the Las Vegas residencies that have long minted millions for stars.
"Coming out of Covid, the largest artists understand that their fan bases will travel to be with them," Hubbard said. "Previously, this was just happening in Las Vegas. But so many of these cities can be a fun excursion for a fan and their friends. That's driving a lot of what we're seeing in the evolution of touring right now."
"I probably would've come to Scotland at one point, but it was the concert that got me here," one Swiftie from Minneapolis told BI.
"We said to ourselves, 'Let's just go and have an adventure," her friend added. "Tickets are outrageously expensive in the US, and this entire trip for both of us was cheaper than our friends back home paid."
Of course, it's a delicate balance. Swift is considered among the pop stars most in touch with her fans and wouldn't want to alienate anyone by skipping over their local venues. But with nearly 150 shows in 50-plus cities, it would be hard to complain about her doing a few extra nights in one place and passing over another.
Plus, she's charged less — an average of about $219 per ticket, per Pollstar — than she could have. The average resale price for the North American leg of her tour was $3,801, Pitchfork reported.
And she's not the only one profiting.
The Common Sense Institute said that "the totality of Taylor Swift's US tour could generate $4.6 billion in total consumer spending, larger than the GDP of 35 countries." In Europe, the total figure will surely be impressive as well.
Sean "Diddy" Combs has been hit by a series of lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault.
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
In the past year, Sean Combs has been hit by dozens of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse, as well as a federal indictment.
Some suits include allegations against other known figures — but not all are listed as defendants.
These are the stars associated with the accusations piling up against Diddy.
The lawsuits against Sean Combs, more commonly known as Diddy, continue to pile up.
Since his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura sued Combs in November 2023 accusing him of rape, abuse, and drugging, more than 30 civil suits have been filed against the hip-hop mogul.
In September, Combs was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Combs and his lawyers have denied all the allegations against him.
"Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process," the lawyers said. "In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone — adult or minor, man or woman."
"We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the US Attorney's Office," Marc Agnifilo, Combs' lawyer, said in a statement to Business Insider following the federal charges.
While the federal indictment lists only Combs as a defendant, it refers to some of his employees and associates as members of the criminal enterprise he led. The series of civil suits that have hit him over the past year have also identified several powerful and wealthy people in Combs' orbit.
Some are outright accused by plaintiffs of wrongdoing — whether that be witnessing the abuse and not stopping it or providing drugs to Combs. Others — such as Prince Harry, Nicki Minaj, or Usher — are simply mentioned in passing and not accused of any wrongdoing.
In one of the most recent and serious lawsuits, an anonymous woman accuses Combs and Shawn Carter, known as Jay-Z, of drugging and raping her when she was 13 years old.
Here are the well-known people linked to the accusations against Combs.
Jay-Z
Shawn Carter, or Jay-Z, was accused of rape in a civil complaint filed against Diddy.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation
In December, an unnamed plaintiff filed an amended complaint accusing Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z, and Combs of drugging and raping her in 2000, when she was 13 years old.
The incident occurred at a house party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, the amended complaint alleges.
The complaint was initially filed in October and referred to Jay-Z as "Celebrity A." A third celebrity — as yet unnamed — "stood by and watched as Combs and Carter took turns assaulting the minor," the complaint says.
Carter has strongly denied the allegations.
R&B singer Aaron Hall
Aaron Hall is an R&B singer and defendant in a lawsuit brought against Combs.
Paras Griffin/Getty Images
Aaron Hall, an R&B singer who was part of the group Guy, was named as a defendant in a complaint filed against Combs last November in the New York Supreme Court ahead of the expiration date for New York's Adult Survivors Act, which provided a one-year window in which people could bring cases of sexual assault outside the typical statute of limitations.
The plaintiff, named Liza Gardner, accuses Combs and Hall of sexually assaulting her and a friend in Hall's apartment after a music-industry event hosted by MCA Records in 1990 when she was 16 years old. She says that Combs "coerced" her into having sex with him and that afterward, "Hall barged into the room, pinned her down, and forced" her to have sex with him too.
The plaintiff also alleges that Combs found her at her home and choked her until she passed out; he was worried his girlfriend would find out about the incident, the complaint says.
In one YouTube video cited in the complaint, Hall says in an interview that "Puffy" — what Combs was known as in the 1990s — had seen him have sex.
Hall couldn't be reached for comment. His lawyer wasn't yet identified in court documents as of April 8.
Music producer Harve Pierre
Harve Pierre and Combs worked together at Bad Boy Records.
Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images
The music producer Harve Pierre was named as a defendant in two lawsuits filed against Combs ahead of the Adult Survivors Act's expiration date. Both lawsuits were filed anonymously, one in the New York Supreme Court and the other in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York, with the plaintiff listed as Jane Doe on both documents. He was also listed as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by Dawn Richard.
Pierre was Combs' first employee at Bad Boy Records and the president of his Bad Boy Entertainment, and he worked with artists such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Faith Evans.
In the first complaint, filed in November 2023, a former employee of Bad Boy who worked as Pierre's assistant accuses Pierre of using his position of power "to groom, exploit, and sexually assault her." The complaint says Combs and his companies enabled the abuse.
In a second lawsuit filed in December 2023, the plaintiff alleges that when she was 17 in 2003, Combs, Pierre, and an unnamed third defendant gang raped and sex trafficked her. Specifically, she alleges that Pierre smoked crack cocaine and then forced her to give him oral sex before bringing her from Detroit to New York City on a private jet.
The complaint alleges that in New York, at a studio owned by Combs, the defendants provided the plaintiff with drugs and alcohol before raping her.
Pierre's lawyer didn't respond to a request for comment from BI. He has denied the accusations made in both complaints.
"This is a tale of fiction. I have never participated in, witnessed, nor heard of anything like this, ever. These disgusting allegations are false and a desperate attempt for financial gain," he said in a statement obtained by TMZ.
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr.
The actor Cuba Gooding Jr. is named as a defendant and accused of sexual assault.
Shareif Ziyadat
An amended complaint filed in March in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York by Rodney Jones Jr. — a music producer who goes by Lil Rod — lists Cuba Gooding Jr. as a defendant. Jones accuses Gooding of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Specifically, Jones accuses Combs of grooming him to "pass him off" to Gooding. The complaint says the two were left alone in a makeshift studio on a yacht rented by Combs.
There, Gooding began "touching, groping, and fondling Mr. Jones' legs, his upper inner thighs near his groin, the small of his back near his buttocks, and his shoulders," the complaint alleges.
Gooding's attorney didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.
Justin Dior Combs
Justin Dior Combs, Diddy's son, is a defendant in one of the lawsuits against his father.
Prince Williams/Getty Images
While not necessarily a celebrity in his own right, Justin Dior Combs — Combs' 30-year-old son — is a defendant in Jones' amended complaint in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York.
In a wide-ranging list of allegations, Jones accuses Justin Combs of soliciting sex workers and underaged girls, as well as engaging in "freak-offs."
He also says the younger and older Combs were the only other people present in the room when "G," a friend of his, was shot at a recording studio — implying one of them shot G.
Justin Combs was at Combs' Los Angeles home when it was raided by feds and was seen handcuffed on the lawn outside, though he wasn't arrested.
Justin Combs' lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said on his radio show, "Beyond the Legal Limit," that the complaint was "utterly bonkers."
"It's clearly written in an effort to get as much publicity as possible, not only for the case but for the lawyer whose name I don't even remember, literally some maniac," he said.
Lichtman didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.
Jacob the Jeweler
Jacob Arabo and Combs at a 2004 party for the opening of Arabo's flagship store.
Thos Robinson/Getty Images
Jacob Arabo, better known as Jacob the Jeweler, is named as a defendant in a complaint filed against Combs by Adria English in July.
In the lawsuit, English accuses Combs of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sex trafficking. The complaint alleges that she worked at Combs' famous white parties as a go-go dancer for years and that, at at least one of the parties, he forced her to have sex with Arabo, one of the party guests.
"Plaintiff, fearing not only her safety, but her and her then-boyfriend's job security, did as instruct and went with Defendant Jacob where she engaged in forced sexual intercourse with Defendant Jacob at the demand and behest of Defendant Combs. Plaintiff knew refusing Defendant Combs demands was not an option," the complaint says.
The complaint also says English saw Arabo "solicit and ingest narcotics." In a photograph included in the complaint, English and Arabo are together.
Arabo has been a character on the hip-hop scene for decades, with early clients including Notorious B.I.G. and Combs. Jay-Z raps about him in Beyoncé's "Upgrade U," as does Kanye West in Rick Ross' "Live Fast, Die Young."
"I really wanted to make statement pieces," he told BI in 2016 about the flashy pieces that became his signature.
"They would stand there waiting for me to be available to see them to show them jewelry. A line of people waiting," he added of his A-list clientele. "Before you know, you have Michael Jackson as a client, you have David Beckham, you have Madonna, you have all these celebrities."
The complaint against him is not Arabo's first run-in with the law. In 2006, he was arrested on money-laundering charges. As part of a plea deal, he was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison for falsifying records and making false statements, CBS reported.
Arabo didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.
Rapper Yung Miami
The rapper Yung Miami isn't listed as a defendant in any of the complaints.
Terence Rushin/Getty Images
Yung Miami, a member of City Girls, is mentioned in Jones' amended complaint, filed in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York. She isn't a defendant, nor is she accused of sexual misconduct.
She's listed as being a part of Combs' sex-trafficking operation and accused of bringing Combs tuci, a drug sometimes called "pink cocaine," on a private jet.
The complaint says she was retained on a monthly stipend as one of Combs' sex workers. It also alleges that her cousin, named as Jane Doe 1, assaulted Jones, forcibly giving him oral sex without consent.
A representative for Yung Miami didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.
DJ and producer Stevie J
Stevie J and Combs have been longtime collaborators.
Johnny Nunez/Getty Images
Jones alleges in his amended complaint filed in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York that the Grammy winner Stevie J, Combs' longtime collaborator, recruited sex workers and participated in Combs' "freak-offs," though he doesn't name Stevie J as a defendant.
Jones accuses Combs of instructing Stevie J to teach him "the type of sex workers to solicit, and way to solicit them."
Jones also accuses Stevie J of sending threatening messages when Jones publicly asked Combs to pay him for his work on Combs' "The Love Album."
The complaint also says Combs used his connection to Stevie J — Jones' "idol" — to pressure Jones into sex.
"I've never seen my man doing anything foul like they talking about," Stevie J told TMZ earlier this month, adding: '"I've never seen it. I've known him for 29 years."
His attorney didn't reply to a request for comment from BI.
Singer Kalenna Harper
Dawn Richard, Combs, and Kalenna Harper, the three members of Diddy — Dirty Money, in 2011.
Jason LaVeris/Getty Images
Kalenna Harper was a member of the group Diddy — Dirty Money, along with Dawn Richard and Combs.
In Richard's complaint, she says she and Harper were at Combs' home, where they witnessed him yell at and choke Ventura before throwing a "scalding hot pan of eggs" at her and dragging her up the stairs.
Richard's complaint says that Harper led her out of the house but that the two of them later spoke to Ventura and encouraged her to leave the relationship. Combs responded by threatening them, the complaint says.
The complaint also says that Combs forced Richard and Harper to work for days on end without breaks to sleep or eat and that the two weren't properly compensated for appearances.
In response to the lawsuit, Harper posted on Instagram.
"While I fully respect Dawn's right to recount her experiences, l want to emphasize that her account reflects her personal perspective and should not be interpreted as a universal truth applicable to everyone involved," she wrote in an Instagram story, according to People.
"It's important to understand that while I was present in some of the same professional settings mentioned, many of the allegations and incidents described in this suit are not representative of my experiences, and some do not align with my own truth."
Harper was also mentioned by federal prosecutors during Tuesday's bond hearing, during which prosecutors argued that Combs shouldn't be released ahead of trial.
The prosecutor, discussing Combs' contact with witnesses, said that between September 10, the day Richard filed the lawsuit, and September 14, the day Harper made her statement on Instagram, Combs called or texted Harper 58 times.
Interscope Records cofounder Jimmy Iovine
One complaint says Jimmy Iovine witnessed Combs assault Casandra Ventura.
JOCE/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images
Richard's complaint also includes mention of Jimmy Iovine, the cofounder of Interscope Records and Beats Electronics.
The complaint recounts a dinner party held by Combs in the months leading up to a deal between his Bad Boy Entertainment and Iovine's Interscope Geffen A&M Records.
The complaint says that at the dinner, in front of Iovine, as well as the dinner guests Ne-Yo and Usher, Ventura and Combs had an argument that resulted in Combs punching her in the stomach, "causing her to double over in visible pain, crying."
"Even after Mr. Iovine watched Mr. Combs commit a violent assault in front of numerous high-profile witnesses, the Bad Boy-Interscope deal took place and remained in effect, providing Mr. Combs with immense financial rewards and enabling him to commit further acts of violence without fear of repercussions," the complaint says.
Usher, Ne-Yo, and Iovine didn't reply to a request for comment from BI about the allegations in Richard's complaint.
Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge
Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge has denied all wrongdoing.
Cindy Ord/VF23
The CEO of Universal Music Group and father-in-law to Sofia Richie, Lucian Grainge, was originally listed as a defendant in Jones' amended complaint filed in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York, along with Universal Music Group and its label Motown Records. He has since been removed.
He was initially accused of aiding and abetting Combs, specifically in racketeering and sex trafficking. Universal's Motown Records had a licensing agreement with Combs' Love Records.
The complaint says that as CEO, Grainge "had a duty to ensure that the financial support they provided to Sean Combs and Love Records was not being used for sex workers, drugs, and laced alcohol."
Attorneys for Grainge filed a motion to dismiss, in which they called the accusations "offensively false." In a sworn statement to the court, Grainge called the accusations "completely untrue and absurd" and said he planned to "pursue both plaintiffs and his counsel for having made such false accusations."
Grainge also noted that he's the CEO of a "multi-national public company" — and said he wasn't involved in the "day-to-day operations" of the company's "thousands of agreements."
In a statement to BI when the lawsuit was first filed, Grainge's attorney Donald S. Zakarin called the complaint "offensively reckless" and said they would seek legal repercussions against Jones' attorney.
"The plaintiff has now attempted to amend his claims against Sir Lucian, removing the original set of outrageous falsehoods related to Sir Lucian, replacing them with wholly contradictory new falsehoods that are equally absurd," he said. "Not only will we demonstrate the offensive falsity of these claims, but we will seek recovery of every penny of cost and damage caused by their assertion."
In May, Jones' attorney dropped the claims against Grainge, Motown Records, and Universal Music Group with prejudice — which means they cannot be refiled at a later date.
"Based on my examination of all of the papers submitted in support of both motions to dismiss, which addressed the issues I had, I have concluded that there is no legal basis for the claims and allegations that were made against the UMG Defendants," Jones' attorney wrote.
October 16, 2024: This story has been updated with new details from a lawsuit.
Jay-Z has denied accusations of raping and drugging a 13-year-old girl with Sean Combs in 2000.
Pablo Morano/BSR Agency/Getty Images
A new legal filing accuses Jay-Z of drugging and raping a 13-year-old in 2000.
The rapper strongly denied the accusations, which come as part of a lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs.
Read hip-hop billionaire Jay-Z's full statement below.
Shawn Carter, better known as the rapper Jay-Z, has responded to a civil lawsuit that accuses him and Sean "Diddy" Combs of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.
The accusation, which comes from an unnamed plaintiff, is included in an amended complaint to a lawsuit originally filed in October that accuses the two hip-hop moguls of assaulting the girl at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Prior to the amended complaint, Carter was referred to as a "Celebrity A."
The amended complaint marks the first time that Carter has been accused in a lawsuit of any wrongdoing in conjunction with Combs.
Carter strongly denied the accusations in a statement on his company Roc Nation's X account.
The complaint comes as Combs remains behind bars, awaiting trial on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He also faces more than 30 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct.
He has denied any wrongdoing, and a lawyer for Combs has said he will not be making public statements on the case.
The plaintiff's lawyer, Tony Buzbee, who has filed more than a dozen lawsuits against Combs on behalf of unnamed plaintiffs, told Business Insider that he had attempted mediation with Carter prior to publishing his name.
Buzbee told Business Insider that before the filing of the amended complaint, he had sent a letter to Carter requesting that Carter and the plaintiff engage in mediation.
Carter's alleged response is detailed in the amended complaint.
"Jay-Z responded to said letter by not only filing an utterly frivolous lawsuit, but by also orchestrating a conspiracy of harassment, bullying and intimidation against Plaintiff's lawyers, their families, employees and former associates in an attempt to silence Plaintiff from naming Jay-Z herein," the complaint says. "Plaintiff chose to file this amendment as a result of the egregious conduct perpetuated by Carter."
"The pleading speaks for itself. This is a very serious matter that will be litigated in court," Buzbee told BI.
Read Carter's full statement below:
My lawyer received a blackmail attempt, called a demand letter, from a "lawyer" named Tony Buzbee.What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle.No sir, it had the opposite effect! It made me want to expose you for the fraud you are in a VERY public fashion. So no, I will not give you ONE RED PENNY!!These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!!Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree?These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case.This lawyer, who I have done a bit of research on, seems to have a pattern of these type of theatrics!I have no idea how you have come to be such a deplorable human Mr. Buzbee, but I promise you I have seen your kind many times over. I'm more than prepared to deal with your type. You claim to be a marine?! Marines are known for their valor, you have neither honor nor dignity.My only heartbreak is for my family. My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people. I mourn yet another loss of innocence. Children should not have to endure such at their young age. It is unfair to have to try to understand inexplicable degrees of malice meant to destroy families and human spirit.My heart and support goes out to true victims in the world, who have to watch how their life story is dressed in costume for profitability by this ambulance chaser in a cheap suit.You have made a terrible error in judgement thinking that all "celebrities" are the same. I'm not from your world. I'm a young man who made it out of the project of Brooklyn. We don't play these types of games.We have very strict codes and honor. We protect children, you seem to exploit people for personal gain.Only your network of conspiracy theorists, fake physics, will believe the idiotic claims you have levied against me that, if not for the seriousness surrounding harm to kids, would be laughable.I look forward to showing you just how different I am.
In response to Carter's denial, Buzbee told BI that the plaintiff never demanded money from Carter.
CEOs and politicians weighed in on Elon Musk's role as a political advisor to president-elect Donald Trump.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Several of the world's power brokers gathered for a New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday.
While Elon Musk was not in attendance, he was the most-talked-about person there.
Here's what business leaders and politicians had to say about the richest person on Earth.
Several masters of the universe convened on Wednesday, and they had one name on their lips: Elon Musk.
At the annual New York Times DealBook Summit, the world's richest man was a topic of conversation among his fellow billionaires, CEOs, and political elite.
To be sure, Andrew Ross Sorkin, DealBook's founder and the day's MC, asked nearly all of his guests about Musk, who made headlines at the same summit last year for telling advertisers on X to "go fuck" themselves.
And while the Tesla CEO wasn't present this year, many conversations touched on his latest role. Over the past couple of months, Musk has become a political advisor and confidant to President-elect Donald Trump and one of his biggest donors, shelling out about $119 million to support his campaign.
The reaction to Musk's new role as co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency ranged from cautiously optimistic to not giving a damn.
Ken Griffin, the billionaire hedge fund manager and GOP donor, praised Musk's entrepreneurial ability.
"He runs Tesla, he runs SpaceX at a level of excellence that very few companies can even start to relate to," Griffin said.
At the same time, he questioned just how much Musk could impact federal spending.
"He's going to have to hit the hard reality, the hard truth, that making cuts of any form whatsoever will be politically very unpopular," Griffin said. "It'll be very hard to squeeze numbers in the trillions of dollars out of the baseline budget."
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who has been embroiled in a personal and legal feud with Musk, similarly praised the Tesla CEO's business acumen.
"At a time when most of the world was not thinking very ambitiously, he pushed a lot of people, me included, to think much more ambitiously," Altman said of his OpenAI cofounder.
"It would be profoundly un-American to use political power, to the degree that Elon has it, to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses," Altman said. "It would go so deeply against the values I believe he holds very dear to himself."
Jeff Bezos, whose Blue Origin is in direct competition with Musk's SpaceX, agreed that Musk's relationship with Trump was not that concerning.
"I take it face value what has been said, which is that he is not going to use his political power to advantage his own companies or to disadvantage his competitors," Bezos said. "Let's go into it hoping that the statements that have been made are correct, that this is going to be done above board in the public interest."
And Sundar Pichai, the Alphabet CEO, said Musk's xAI artificial intelligence company is a formidable competitor "given Elon's track record."
Those interviewed with actual political experience — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and former President Bill Clinton — appeared the most unfazed by Musk's new position of power.
Powell seemed confident in the independence of the Fed, even though Musk has signaled support for moving the central bank under the president's command.
And Clinton seemed to almost entirely brush off Musk's burgeoning influence — including the fact that he was on a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"Trump's whole shtick is that all these rules and systems don't amount to anything," the former president said.
"Being the richest guy on Earth is far more important than anything else that you could be to him," Clinton added. "That's what he values. It's no big deal."
"Call Her Daddy" host Alex Cooper announced she's launching an electrolyte beverage.
Lyvans Boolaky/Getty Images
Alex Cooper announced a new product: an electrolyte drink called Unwell Hydration.
The "Call Her Daddy" star said the drink is low in sugar and contains B vitamins.
Cooper's move follows a trend of celebrities launching beverage brands.
Alex Cooper is getting into the beverage business.
The "Call Her Daddy" host announced on Wednesday that she'd be launching Unwell Hydration, an electrolyte beverage, early next year. The brand's website says it will be available on January 1.
"What could be my first consumer product? Probably something that would make the most sense would be that it could integrate into your unwell lifestyle," she said at Wednesday's DealBook Summit, a nod to her media network, Unwell.
She said the beverage would be marketed primarily to women, be low in sugar, and contain B vitamins. Its website says it will be "gently caffeinated" and come in strawberry, orange hibiscus, and mango citrus flavors.
The drink is a partnership with Nestlé. Cooper did not specify the ownership structure of the endeavor.
"Every time I went to pick up an energy drink or any type of hydration drink, it's all catered to men," she told DealBook's Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Still, it's hardly the first celebrity beverage on the market.
Energy or hydration drinks backed by famous faces date back to at least the early 2000s when 50 Cent partnered with Vitamin Water in a deal that Forbes reported led to a $100 million payday. There have been several others since. For example, 50 Cent launched a follow-up beverage brand, Street King, which is now defunct; Dwayne Johnson created Zoa; and Kim Kardashian has Alani Kimade.
Perhaps the most successful of the bunch has been Prime Hydration from YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI. While the company has been facing legal battles in recent months, it surged in popularity after its launch in 2022. Bloomberg reported that sales were on track to exceed $1.2 billion for 2023.
Then there are the celebrity alcohol brands, some of which have turned out to be extremely lucrative. George Clooney pocketed more than $200 million when he sold Casamigos to Diageo in 2017, Sean Combs earned nearly $1 billion over his decade-plus-long partnerships on Cîroc and DeLeón, and Ryan Reynolds and his partners sold Aviation American Gin for $610 million.
Cooper could also soon jump on that trend. In November, Cooper's company filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for a product called "Popular Vodka by Unwell" consisting of alcoholic beverages (except beer), including distilled spirits, fruit spirits, liqueurs, liquors, vodka cocktails, and prepared cocktails consisting primarily of distilled spirits.
Cooper has been expanding her media business as well. Last year, she launched Unwell Network, which produces a slate of podcasts by influencers like Alix Earle, Harry Jowsey, and Madeline Argy. In August, Cooper signed a three-year deal with SiriusXM that was valued at up to $125 million.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had some kind words for his OpenAI cofounder — and current legal opponent — Elon Musk.
Getty Images
Sam Altman offered some kind words for his OpenAI cofounder Elon Musk.
Altman and Musk have been embroiled in a legal dispute for the better part of a year.
The OpenAI CEO said he believes Musk will not abuse his new political influence.
It seems like at least one-half of technology's hottest feud is offering an olive branch.
Sam Altman, the CEO and cofounder of OpenAI, had mostly positive words about Elon Musk, his OpenAI cofounder and current competitor, at Wednesday's DealBook Summit.
"I grew up with Elon as a mega hero. I thought what Elon was doing was absolutely incredible for the world," Altman told DealBook founder Andrew Ross Sorkin.
"Of course, I have different feelings about him now, but I'm still glad he exists," he added. "Not just because I think his companies are awesome, which I do think, but because I think, at a time when most of the world was not thinking very ambitiously, he pushed a lot of people, me included, to think much more ambitiously."
Despite what Altman characterized as his "different feelings," he still believes Musk will do the right thing given his new proximity to political power as an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump.
"I believe pretty strongly that Elon will do the right thing," Altman said. "It would be profoundly un-American to use political power, to the degree that Elon has it, to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses."
"I don't think Elon would do it," he added. "It would go so deeply against the values I believe he holds very dear to himself."
Musk seemed to appreciate the comment — liking a post on X that included Altman's quote.
The pair have been battling it out both in court and online for the better part of two years, but their troubles go back to 2018 when Musk stepped down from OpenAI's board after the company reportedly rejected his offer to run the company and he pulled future funding.
After a series of jabs — with Altman's being more mild-mannered — Musk sued OpenAI and Altman in March, alleging that the company's transition to a "capped-profit" entity and its partnership with Microsoft was in opposition to its founding as an open-sourced nonprofit.
Musk dropped the OpenAI suit in June, reportedly after he met Altman on the sidelines of a technology conference in Big Sky, Montana. The pair shared a hug after speaking, The Wall Street Journal said. However, Musk filed a new suit a couple of months later, claiming he was "deceived" into cofounding the firm. Last month, he amended the lawsuit to add Microsoft as a defendant.
"OpenAI has attempted to starve competitors of AI talent by aggressively recruiting employees with offers of lavish compensation, and is on track to spend $1.5 billion on personnel for just 1,500 employees," lawyers for Musk said in the complaint.
Since Trump won the US presidential election, people close to Musk have said he "despises" Altman, the Journal also reported. The outlet said Altman's attempts to contact the president-elect through friends or business associates have been largely unsuccessful because they knew his entreaties would be unwelcome to Musk.
Musk has skin in the game. His own artificial intelligence company, xAI, which could compete with OpenAI, was recently valued at $50 billion, just 16 months after it was founded. OpenAI was last valued at $157 billion in October.
Altman, for one, didn't seem surprised about xAI's swift success.
When asked by Sorkin if he'd expected xAI to be a serious competitor, Altman was resolute: "Yes."
Bill Gates has three children with Melinda French Gates, his ex-wife, and now has his first grandchild as well.
Mark J. Terrill/AP Images
Bill Gates, the Microsoft cofounder, shares three kids with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates.
They include a recent med school graduate and a fashion startup cofounder.
Here's what we know about the children of one of the world's richest men.
Bill Gates' story is a quintessential example of the American entrepreneurial dream: A brilliant math whiz, Gates was 19 when he dropped out of Harvard and cofounded Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen in 1975.
Nearly 50 years later, Gates' net worth of $131 billion makes him one of the richest and most famous men on Earth, per Forbes. He stepped down from Microsoft's board in 2020 and has cultivated his brand of philanthropy with the Gates Foundation — a venture he formerly ran with his now ex-wife Melinda French Gates, who resigned in May.
Even before founding one of the world's most valuable companies, Gates' life was anything but ordinary. He grew up in a well-off and well-connected family, surrounded by his parents' rarefied personal and professional network. Their circle included a Cabinet secretary and a governor of Washington, according to "Hard Drive," the 1992 biography of Gates by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. (Brock Adams, who went on to become the transportation secretary in the Carter administration, is said to have introduced Gates' parents.)
His father, William Gates Sr., was a prominent corporate lawyer in Seattle and the president of the Washington State Bar Association.
His mother, Mary Gates, came from a line of successful bankers and sat on the boards of important financial and social institutions, including the nonprofit United Way. It was there, according to her New York Times obituary, that she met the former IBM chairman John Opel — a fateful connection thought to have led to IBM enlisting Microsoft to provide an operating system in the 1980s.
"My parents were well off — my dad did well as a lawyer, took us on great trips, we had a really nice house," Gates said in the 2019 Netflix documentary "Inside Bill's Brain."
"And I've had so much luck in terms of all these opportunities."
Despite his very public life, his three children with French Gates — Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe — largely avoided the spotlight for most of their upbringing.
Like their father, the three Gates children attended Seattle's elite Lakeside School, a private high school that has been recognized for excellence in STEM subjects — and that received a $40 million donation from Bill Gates in 2005 to build its financial aid fund. (Bill Gates and Paul Allen met at Lakeside and went on to build Microsoft together.)
But as they have become adults, more details have emerged about their interests, professions, and family life.
While they have chosen different career paths, all three children are active in philanthropy — a space in which they will likely wield immense influence as they grow older. While Gates has reportedly said that he plans to leave each of his three children $10 million — a fraction of his fortune — they may inherit the family foundation, where most of his money will go.
Here's all we know about the Gates children.
Gates and his children did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Jennifer Gates Nassar
Jennifer Gates and Bill Gates at the Paris Olympic Games.
Jean Catuffe/Getty Images
Jennifer Gates Nassar, who goes by Jenn, is the oldest of the Gates children at 28 years old.
In 2018, Gates Nassar received her undergraduate degree in human biology from Stanford University, where a computer science building was named for her father after he donated $6 million to the project in 1996.
She then attended the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, from which she graduated in May. She will continue at Mt. Sinai for her residency in pediatric research. During medical school, she also completed a Master's in Public Health at Columbia University — perhaps a natural interest given her parents' extensive philanthropic activity in the space.
"Can't believe we've reached this moment, a little girl's childhood aspiration come true," she wrote on Instagram. "It's been a whirlwind of learning, exams, late nights, tears, discipline, and many moments of self-doubt, but the highs certainly outweighed the lows these past 5 years."
In October 2021, she married Egyptian equestrian Nayel Nassar. In February 2023, reports surfaced that they bought a $51 million New York City penthouse with six bedrooms and a plunge pool. The next month, they welcomed their first child, Leila, and in October, Gates Nassar gave birth to their second daughter, Mia.
"I'm over the moon for you, @jenngatesnassar and @nayelnassar—and overjoyed for our whole family," Bill Gates commented on the Instagram post announcing Mia's birth.
In a 2020 interview with the equestrian lifestyle publication Sidelines, Gates Nassar discussed growing up wealthy.
"I was born into a huge situation of privilege," she said. "I think it's about using those opportunities and learning from them to find things that I'm passionate about and hopefully make the world a little bit of a better place."
She recently posted about visiting Kenya, where she learned about childhood health and development in the country.
Rory John Gates
Rory Gates, the least public of the Gates children, has reportedly infiltrated powerful circles of Washington, D.C.
Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Rory John Gates, who is in his mid-20s, is Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates' only son and the most private of their children. He maintains private social media accounts, and his sisters and parents rarely post photos of him.
His mother did, however, write an essay about him in 2017. Titled "How I Raised a Feminist Son," she describes as a "great son and a great brother" who "inherited his parents' obsessive love of puzzles."
In 2022, he graduated from the University of Chicago, where, based on a photo posted on Facebook, he appears to have been active in moot court. At the time of his graduation, Jennifer Gates Nassar wrote that he had achieved a double major and master's degree.
Little is publicly known about what the middle Gates child has been up to since he graduated, but a Puck report from last year gave some clues, saying that he is seen as a "rich target for Democratic social-climbers, influence-peddlers, and all variety of money chasers." According to OpenSecrets, his most recent public giving was to Nikki Haley last year.
The same report says he works as a congressional analyst while also completing a doctorate.
Phoebe Gates
Melinda Gates and Phoebe Gates.
John Nacion/Variety
Phoebe Gates, 22, is the youngest of the Gates children.
After graduating from high school in 2021, she followed her sister to Stanford. She graduated in June after three years with a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology. Her mom, Melinda French-Gates, delivered the university's commencement address.
In a story that Gates wrote for Nylon about her graduation day, she documented her graduation day, including a party she cohosted that featured speeches from her famous parents and a piggyback ride from her boyfriend Arthur Donald — the grandson of Sir Paul McCartney.
She has long shown an interest in fashion, interning at British Vogue and posting on social media from fashion weeks in Copenhagen, New York, and Paris. Sustainability is often a theme of her content, which highlights vintage and secondhand stores and celebrates designers who don't use real leather and fur.
That has culminated in her cofounding Phia, a sustainable fashion tech platform that launched in beta this fall. The site and its browser extension crawl secondhand marketplaces to find specific items in an effort to help shoppers find deals and prevent waste.
Gates shares her parents' passion for public health. She's attended the UN General Assembly with her mother and spent time in Rwanda with Partners in Health, a nonprofit that has received funding from the Gates Foundation.
Like her mother, Gates often publicly discusses issues of gender equality, including in essays for Vogue and Teen Vogue, at philanthropic gatherings, and on social media, where she frequently posts about reproductive rights.
She's given thousands to Democrats and Democratic causes, including to Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Democratic Party of Montana, per data from OpenSecrets. According to Puck, she receives a "giving allowance" that makes it possible for her to cut the checks.
Perhaps the most public of the Gates children — she's got over 450,000 Instagram followers and a partnership with Tiffany & Co. — she's given glimpses into their upbringing, including strict rules around technology. The siblings were not allowed to use their phones before bed, she told Bustle, and to get around the rule, she created a cardboard decoy.
"I thought I could dupe my dad, and it worked, actually, for a couple nights," she told the outlet earlier this year. "And then my mom came home and was like, 'This is literally a piece of cardboard you're plugging in. You're using your phone in your room.' Oh, my gosh, I remember getting in trouble for that."
It hasn't always been easy being Gates's daughter. In the Netflix documentary "What's Next? The Future With Bill Gates," she said she lost friends because of a conspiracy theory suggesting her father used COVID-19 vaccines to implant microchips into recipients.
"I've even had friends cut me off because of these vaccine rumors," she said.
Secondhand luxury execs have a heads-up on which brands will be on-trend next year.
Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Secondhand luxury platform The RealReal has a trove of data about the hottest brands.
Demand for trendy items influences how they're priced on The RealReal.
These are the brands that two executives from The RealReal say you should buy now.
It's the most wonderful time of the year to be a shopper — but anyone who wants lasting bang for their buck knows to look beyond 2024's biggest trends and choose styles that will last.
Two experts from The RealReal, chief creative officer Kristen Naiman and associate director of fashion Noelle Sciacca, broke down which brands and trends shoppers should add to their carts now before they sell out or get more expensive on the secondhand market.
Using customer data, including about which designers are seeing spikes in search queries, the company can predict budding trends, Naiman said on "The Cutting Room Floor" podcast last week.
The RealReal prices its items based on several variables, including seasonality, condition, availability, and demand, measured through search volume and how quickly items sell out.
The more popular a brand gets, the more expensive it can become, Naiman said on the podcast.
These are the hottest brands to buy this season to be on-trend — and avoid overpaying for — next year, according to Naiman and Sciacca.
Bally
Bally, popular among fashion insiders, will see a spike next year, Naiman said.
Christian Vierig/Getty Images
"Bally is super hot right now," Naiman said of the Swiss brand, which is already popular among "diehard, interesting fashion people."
It's only a matter of time before it goes mainstream, she added, telling "The Cutting Room Floor" host Recho Omondi that if she wants to buy an item from Bally, she should "do it now."
The brand began to surge earlier this year; Bally sales were up 42% year-over-year in August, Sciacca told Business Insider.
Romeo Gigli
Romeo Gigli is expected to see a comeback next year.
Alena Zakirova/Getty Images
Romeo Gigli is "really trending right now" for vintage-lovers, Naiman told Omondi. The Italian brand became a staple in the 1980s and early 1990s for its romantic style and soft tailoring.
Although its popularity dwindled over the years, Naiman predicted a resurgence.
Styles from the designer's heydey are "particularly captivating consumers," Sciacca said.
Brands like Miu Miu and Loewe will continue to be popular
Miu Miu is a favorite, and it's showing no signs of slowing down.
Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images
Miu Miu is among the hottest labels of 2024, with retail sales up 86% in the first half of the year. Sciacca and Naiman don't foresee that changing.
Searches are surging on The RealReal, particularly for the brand's bags and sunglasses, with queries up 100% and 212% year-over-year, Sciacca said.
The label's Puzzle Tote "is selling for an impressive 90% of its original price, while searches for the Flamenco bag have jumped 87% year-over-year," Sciacca said.
Moschino will kick off the year in a big way
Moschino will gain popularity as consumers move away from uniform dressing.
Daniele Venturelli/WireImage
"Moschino is a brand to watch as expressive styles gain momentum over uniform dressing," Sciacca said. "We're kicking off 2025 with a Moschino spotlight on-site."
The Italian designer is known for its lighthearted take on fashion.
Customers are searching for Ralph Lauren and Alaïa
Ralph Lauren has experienced an increase in search volume this quarter.
Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP
Both Ralph Lauren and Alaïa are seeing surges in search queries on The RealReal. The former is experiencing a 57% increase in searches this quarter compared to last year, while searches for the latter have risen 29% year-over-year.
For Alaïa, there is particular interest in handbags, including the most recent styles and vintage pieces from the 1980s and 1990s.
President-elect Donald Trump (C) is set to surround himself with a handful of billionaires like Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnik (L) and Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R).
Getty Images
Donald Trump has surrounded himself with fellow billionaires as he nears a second term as president.
His cabinet nominees and advisors hail from various industries —and include the world's richest man.
Here are the billionaires Trump is working with as he readies for the White House.
President-elect Donald Trump has long been associated with wealth. Trump, as his supporters like to say, was famously a businessman before he became president — or the host of a reality TV show. Even a young Barack Obama mentioned him as the epitome of success that Americans craved.
While some have questioned how successfully he ran his real-estate empire there is no arguing that he is now very rich. The net worth of the president-elect sits at $6.1 billion, according to Forbes' estimates as of December 23.
As Trump prepares for a second term as president, it looks as if like attracts like: He counts several billionaires among his advisors and cabinet nominees.
Trump's first-term cabinet was the wealthiest in modern times and included several multimillionaires among its ranks, including centimillionaires Wilbur Ross and Steve Mnuchin. Betsy DeVos, his former Secretary of Education, and her family were worth $2 billion when she held office, Forbes reported. More billionaires, including Diane Hendricks and Isaac Perlmutter, were among his early advisors.
There will be more clarity about the net worths of Trump's current cabinet picks and his remaining nominees when they file public financial disclosures due soon after their nominations become official.
These disclosures will also bring to light any conflicts of interest, which often result in large divestments. For example, in 2017, Steven Mnuchin, then the Treasury secretary nominee, agreed to divest from 43 companies and investments to comply with those standards.
Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in some cases, nominees from the private equity or venture capital worlds may find it difficult to divest their assets in time.
Vincent Viola, a Florida billionaire and Trump's pick to be Army secretary in 2017, withdrew his name from consideration after it became clear how difficult it would be to disentangle his financial holdings.
"You have to be prepared to divest of any asset," Canter told Business Insider. "The president needs to be able to call on any member of their cabinet and all of their senior officials, right? And not have to worry about whether by calling them and asking for their advice on a particular matter" they would create a criminal conflict of interest.
Here are the billionaires advising President-elect Trump and how rich they are. The net worths are based on Forbes estimates as of December 6 unless otherwise stated.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk has become one of Donald Trump's most vocal supporters — and his richest.
Allison Robbert-Pool/Getty Images
Elon Musk is by far the richest person to sign up to work for Trump, with a net worth of $435.5 billion.
Musk, the cohead of Trump's government efficiency commission, will work with conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy outside the federal government on the "Department of Government Efficiency." The duo has said they want to cut more than $2 trillion from the federal budget.
For now, Musk, the world's richest man, is not subject to divestment requirements as he's outside the Trump administration. Ethics experts say it remains to be seen if DOGE will meet the definition of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. This 1970s-era law sought to bring order to the external and sometimes secretive panels that advised the federal government. If DOGE does, Musk and Ramaswamy may be required to file financial disclosure forms. Most critically, DOGE may also have to hold open meetings and make its records available to the public.
Musk's approach to the federal government may mirror the one he takes at his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, which has made him very rich. His stakes in EV company Tesla — he owns about 13% of the trillion-dollar company — and rocket manufacturer SpaceX make up the bulk of his fortune. Musk illustrated his power when he played a leading role in killing an initial spending deal to avert a government shutdown. Congress later passed a pared down package, which billionaire said he approved.
He spent about $119 million boosting Trump's campaign — and his bet on the president-elect paid off. Since the election, Musk's fortune has grown by about $90 billion. The success of his companies, particularly SpaceX, has been tied to the government before. The New York Times reported that Tesla and SpaceX signed nearly $3 billion of government contracts last year.
Tilman Fertitta
Houston Rockets Owner Tilman Fertitta is Trump's pick to be the next US ambassador to Italy.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is Trump's pick to be US ambassador to Italy.
Fertitta, worth an estimated $10.4 billion, previously starred in CNBC's "Billionaire Buyer," which chronicled his travels around the nation to find new potential products for his restaurants and casinos.
He is president and CEO of Landry's, a privately-owned restaurant and entertainment company. Among its properties are Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, Rainforest Cafe, and Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouses. Fertitta also owns Golden Nugget Casinos.
Fertitta is a major GOP donor.
Stephen Feinberg
Private equity CEO Steve Feinberg values his privacy, which may be tested if he's confirmed as a top Pentagon official.
AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari
Stephen Feinberg is the secretive co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, a major private equity firm.
Cerberus has a number investments in the defense industry, including through its majority stake in Navistar Defense, a specialized military automaker. As one of the top Pentagon officials, Feinberg will likely face major potential conflicts of interest given that if he is confirmed by the US Senate his post would give him sway over the Defense department's budget.
Feinberg, Trump's pick to be deputy defense secretary, is worth an estimated $5 billion. During the first Trump administration, the billionaire investor led the president's Intelligence Advisory Board.
The investor's love of privacy is well known. In 2007, The New York Times reported that Feinberg was said to have jokingly threatened anyone who had his photo during Cerberus' annual meeting.
"If anyone at Cerberus has his picture in the paper and a picture of his apartment, we will do more than fire that person," Feinberg said, per the Times. "We will kill him."
Feinberg's firm took a major hit when its gamble on Chrysler Financial looked to not have paid off when the automaker filed for bankruptcy. In 2010, Cerberus sold its stake to Toronto Dominion bank for $6.3 billion, recouping most of its money, Forbes reported.
Warren Stephens
In this 2011 photo, investment banker Warren Stephens poses with former President George W. Bush at a golf tournament in Stephens' native Little Rock.
Danny Johnston/AP
Investor banker Warren Stephens is Trump's nominee to be the next US ambassador to Britain.
Stephens, who is worth $3.4 billion, operates the Little Rock, Arkansas-based investment bank, Stephens Inc., which has been tied to his family since the 1930s. The firm was a major player in Walmart's 1970 IPO and later helped finance the construction of the Superdome, home to the NFL's New Orleans Saints.
The ambassador to the Court of St. James, as the post is formally known, is considered one of the poshest assignments in the foreign service. Presidents often name major donors to the role. Trump's first ambassador to the UK was Woody Johnson, co-owner of the NFL's New York Jets.
Stephens donated $3.5 million to pro-Trump causes, including $2 million to Make America Great Again Inc., the main super PAC for the former president.
Stephens hasn't always been supportive of Trump. In 2016, he donated $2 million to a group trying to block him, The New York Times reported. Before Trump locked up the nomination, Stephens supported Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
"Over the last 38 years, while serving as the President, Chairman, and CEO of his company, Stephens Inc., Warren has built a wonderful financial services firm, while selflessly giving back to his community as a philanthropist," Trump wrote in his statement announcing Stephens' nomination.
Jared Isaacman
Jared Isaacman has been to space twice through SpaceX.
Eugene Gologursky/Getty
Trump has chosen Jared Isaacman, who is worth $1.8 billion, to head up NASA.
A high school dropout, Isaacman made his money through two companies: payment processing firm Shift4, which is publicly traded, and aviation venture Draken International, which he sold to Blackstone.
Isaacman would bring real space experience to his role as NASA administrator.
He's been to space twice on SpaceX's civilian flights that he funded and he conducted the first-ever commercial spacewalk in September.
Isaacman said that leading NASA would be "the honor of a lifetime."
Howard Lutnick
Howard Lutnick's net worth is thanks to his decadeslong position as CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Trump's pick for Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, is worth more than $1.5 billion thanks to his decades on Wall Street. He's been CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm, since 1991 and of its spinoff brokerage firm, BGC Partners, since its formation. Cantor Fitzgerald's deals include Johnson & Johnson's $1.9 billion acquisition of Ambrx.
In addition to his work at Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick is chairman of the Newmark Group, a roughly $2.6 billion commercial real estate giant.
Trump said that Lutnick would be his point person on trade, even though the US Trade representative, a Cabinet-level post, typically fills that role. If confirmed, Lutnick would oversee 13 agencies, including the Census Bureau and the Patent and Trademark Office. During Trump's first term, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, another former banker, was central to the White House's trade war with China.
Vivek Ramaswamy
Vivek Ramaswamy was named the cohead of the Department of Government Efficiency, alongside Elon Musk.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Musk will co-lead the DOGE with fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy, who made his fortune in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, is worth $1.1 billion.
He founded Roivant Sciences, a drug company that went public in 2021. The company has a market cap of nearly $9 billion, and Ramaswamy, who was the company's CEO before stepping down in 2021 to focus on politics, owns about 10% of its outstanding shares.
In 2022, Ramaswamy cofounded Strive Asset Management, an investment company that takes a non-ESG approach to money management. The company counts Vice President-elect JD Vance, who attended law school with Ramaswamy, as an investor.
Like Vance and Trump, Ramaswamy built his political reputation on the foundation of his business experience. Ramaswamy was harshly critical of corporate ESG and DEI initiatives, which he railed against in his 2021 best-selling book "Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam."
During the 2024 Republican presidential primaries, Ramaswamy stood out from the rest of the field by just how much he embraced Trump — a sign of loyalty that he quickly noticed. Despite his lack of political experience, Ramaswamy repeatedly qualified for debates while other more conventional picks struggled to meet the polling and donor thresholds. He dropped out of the field after finishing fourth in the Iowa Republican caucuses and quickly endorsed Trump.
During the summer, Ramaswamy bought a stake in BuzzFeed to remodel the online publication in his conservative image.
Linda McMahon
Linda McMahon is married to WWE billionaire Vincent McMahon.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Linda McMahon, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, is the cochair of his transition team and led the Small Business Administration during the president-elect's first term.
According to multiple reports, McMahon hoped to be named Commerce Secretary, but that post fell to Lutnick after failing to get the Treasury Department role.
She doesn't have much experience in education policy, but she has spent the past few years leading the America First Policy Institute, a think tank that many in Trump's orbit flocked to after he lost the 2020 election.
When he announced her role, Trump pledged that McMahon would champion school choice, a long-sought-after conservative goal to allow public funds to cover the costs of sending children to private and charter schools. Some in the Republican Party have even argued for the dissolution of the Education Department entirely and ceding the policymaking power to state and local governments.
While not a billionaire in her own right, McMahon donated $15 million to Trump's campaign and is married to Vincent McMahon, the former executive chairman of WWE-owner TKO Group Holdings, worth $3 billion.
The McMahons cofounded and ran WWE, and Linda served as CEO for over a decade. Vincent resigned from TKO's board of directors earlier this year after a former employee filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual misconduct.
Kelly Loeffler
Trump is set to give former Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia a second chance at politics by naming her to a cabinet-level post.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Former US Sen. Kelly Loeffler is Trump's pick to lead the Small Business Administration.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to serve out former Sen. Johnny Isakson's term which he resigned from early due to health concerns. Loeffler went on to lose the 2020 Georgia Senate runoff to Sen. Raphael Warnock, part of a pair of Peach State defeats that handed Democrats control of the US Senate.
She led cryptocurrency company, Bakkt, which is connected to the Intercontinental Exchange. Loeffler's husband, Jeffery Sprecher, is CEO of the Intercontinental Exchange and chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. Sprecher is worth an estimated $1.1 billion.
According to The New York Post, Trump Media and Technology Group, Truth Social's parent company, is nearing a deal to buy Bakkt.
Loeffler is among a handful of failed US Senate candidates whom Trump is set to tap to new roles in his second administration.
Steven Witkoff
President-elect Donald Trump has appointed his longtime friend Steve Witkoff to a key diplomatic post.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Steven Witkoff will serve as Trump's special Middle East envoy, as well as the cochair of his inaugural committee.
A real estate developer, Witkoff is worth at least $1 billion thanks to his stake in the development company the Witkoff Group, which is responsible for luxury condos, hotels, and office space across the country, and his personal portfolio of homes in New York City, the Hamptons, and Florida. He's also partnered with Trump on the cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial.
Witkoff, like many on this list and in the broader Trump cabinet, has no formal experience in his role. During Trump's first term, the president-elect relied on Jared Kushner, his wealthy son-in-law, to play a similar role, which later resulted in the Abraham Accords, a series of deals to normalize relations between Israel and four Arab states.
Scott Bessent
Scott Bessent spent decades on Wall Street, including working for George Soros.
DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, Trump's nominee for Treasury secretary, is likely a billionaire — though Forbes has not yet crowned him one.
A Wall Street veteran, Bessent has worked for George Soros twice and was behind two of the financier's most lucrative bets, the shorting of the British pound and Japanese yen. In 2017, he launched his own firm, Key Square Capital, which has struggled to produce consistent returns.
While he has supported Democrats in the past, Bessent is now fully aligned with Trump. This election cycle, he donated $3 million to Trump-aligned PACs and Republican committees.
Bessent prevailed amid intense private jockeying to lead the Treasury Department, securing the role without Musk's blessing, who had backed Lutnick instead. Markets reacted positively toBessent's appointment, but Trump soon clarified that this more conventional pick would not limit his tariff commitment.
Meta is joining the growing list of companies that is slashing its DEI efforts.
Meta
Several companies have pulled back DEI programs amid backlash from a conservative activist.
Companies that have withdrawn or toned down DEI initiatives include Meta, McDonald's, and Walmart.
Many of these companies have faced pressure from conservatives to roll back their policies.
Meta and Walmart are two of the latest companies to roll back their diversity, equity, and inclusion plans.
The move away from DEI policies is part of an ongoing wave of backlash against diversity programs at American companies.
Tech companies such as Microsoft, Meta, and Zoom cut DEI programs last year, and law firms, including Winston & Strawn, faced lawsuits for affirmative action.
Some DEI initiatives have faced backlash from conservatives, including mounting social media campaigns, many led by Robby Starbuck. Starbuck, a prominent conservative activist with a sizable social media following, has argued that these initiatives don't align with the values of companies' largely conservative consumer bases.
That said, 61% of Americans support DEI practices, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll in April.
The Human Rights Campaign slammed companies' DEI rollbacks in an August statement to BI.
"Decisions to cut DEI initiatives send a clear signal to employees that their employers simply don't care about equality in the workplace. Putting politics ahead of workers and consumers only hurts the same folks that these businesses rely on," wrote Eric Bloem, the nonprofit group's vice president of programs and corporate advocacy.
Here are how some companies have cut their DEI programs.
Meta
Meta slashed its DEI team in January.
Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
Meta announced it was rolling back many of its DEI initiatives in January.
In an internal memo, the company's vice president of human resources, Janelle Gale, said there would no longer be a team focused on DEI, adding that the term had become charged and that it suggested, to some, "preferential treatment of some groups over others."
"The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing," she wrote. "The Supreme Court of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI."
The changes affect diversity efforts across hiring, choosing suppliers, and training, the memo said.
McDonald's
A McDonald's storefront in Poland.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Fast food giant McDonald's joined the ranks of large American companies rolling back some DEI initiatives.
The company announced in a press release on January 6 that it would stop setting representation goals, pause participating in external surveys related to DEI, and end a requirement for supply chain partners to adhere to DEI targets.
McDonald's diversity team will also get a new name. It'll be called the "Global Inclusion Team" instead, the company said in its January announcement.
Despite these changes, McDonald's says inclusion remains one of its "core values."
Representatives of McDonald's did not respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular working hours.
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson said that it would drop diversity-related programs following conservative backlash.
Georg Wend/Getty Images
In August, Harley-Davidson said on X that it would drop diversity-based spending goals from suppliers, halt socially motivated employee training, and withdraw from an annual LGBTQ acceptance rating by the Human Rights Campaign, Bloomberg reported.
Harley told Bloomberg that the company was "saddened by the negativity on social media over the last few weeks, designed to divide the Harley-Davidson community," following Starbuck's calls on X for the company to apologize and change its policies.
Bloem, from the Human Rights Campaign, said in the statement to BI that retreating from DEI hurts employees and customers.
"Harley-Davidson's choice to back away from the Corporate Equality Index is an impulsive decision fueled by fringe right-wing actors and MAGA extremists who believe they can bully their way into dismantling initiatives that help everyone thrive in the workplace," Bloem wrote.
John Deere
John Deere was the target of Starbuck's social media campaign in July.
Rick Wilking/Reuters
John Deere has pulled back on its DEI commitments, including no longer participating in cultural awareness events and abolishing the company's pronoun policy, BI reported in July.
While John Deere did not publicly announce the reason for its decision, the shift came following online criticism from Starbuck in a video from X, which garnered over 5 million views in July.
Tractor Supply Company
Tractor Supply was the target of a social media campaign that led to a pullback of DEI programs in June.
Tractor Supply Co.
Tractor Supply significantly scaled back its DEI programs, including eliminating diversity roles and withdrawing from Pride event sponsorship. The company also announced that it would no longer provide data to the Human Rights Campaign, and it would end its carbon emission goals. This came after Starbuck's criticized the company for promoting what he labeled as "woke" policies, NPR reported in June.
Polaris
Polaris was not a target of Starbuck, but chose to cut DEI efforts in a bid to abstain from political conversation.
Bruce Bisping/Getty Images
While Starbuck did not specifically target Polaris, the Harley competitor has reduced its DEI efforts, including removing any mention of the term from its web pages. In a statement to Bloomberg, the company emphasized its intention to abstain from political discussion.
Lowe's
Lowe's announced it would withdraw from surveys by the Human Rights Campaign and merge resource groups for minority employees
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Home improvement retailer Lowe's said that it would scale back its DEI programs in an internal note viewed by Bloomberg.
Per the memo, the company will stop participating in surveys run by the Human Rights Campaign, and it will merge resource groups for minority employees into one umbrella organization, Bloomberg reported on August 27.
Starbuck said on X that he caused Lowe's policy shift. However, a Lowe's spokesperson told Bloomberg that they had already begun making changes prior to Starbuck's involvement.
Lowe's has a consumer base largely consisting of rural baby boomers, according to data from the consumer analytics firm Numerator.. The company was labeled "best place to work for LGBTQ equality" by the Human Rights Campaign in Lowe's 2021 culture, diversity, and inclusion report.
Orlando Gonzales, the senior vice president of programs of research and training at the Human Rights Campaign, told BI in a statement that scaling back from DEI policies would have negative consequences for companies in the long run.
"Companies should not cower to a random guy with zero business experience," Gonzales said, citing Starbuck's removal from the Tennessee GOP ballot in 2022.
Ford
Ford announced that it would withdraw from participation in HRC diversity rankings and restructure employee resource groups
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
In an internal email shared with Bloomberg by Starbuck, the carmaker said that it would pull out of certain diversity rankings, such as the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index.
The company also said that it would reorient its employee resource groups to make them accessible to all staff. Ford also pledged to be less involved in political matters and changed some corporate sponsorships.
Ford faced backlash last month after it saw quality issues and vehicle recalls.
Starbuck wrote in a post on X that Ford's withdrawal from DEI initiatives came just as he was investigating Ford's "woke policies."
Meanwhile, the HRC said that Ford "cowered" to Starbuck and that the company had "decades of commitment to inclusion and top ratings on the HRC Corporate Equality Index."
"The Human Rights Campaign could not be more disappointed to see the company shirking its responsibility to its employees, consumers, and shareholders," said HRC president Kelley Robinson in a statement.
Molson Coors
Molson Coors is pulling back on DEI policies, including supplier diversity quotas and DEI-based company training programs.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Beverage company Molson Coors is scrapping many of its DEI policies and initiatives, CNBC reported in September.
In an internal memo obtained by BI, Molson Coors said it would remove quotas for supplier diversity. These quotas, which encourage sourcing supplies from minority or women-owned businesses, can be "complicated and influenced by factors outside" the company's control.
Additionally, the brewer stated that it will shift company training away from DEI-based programs to focus more on key business objectives.
The company said the decision to scale back, which was in the works since March, was made to ensure that executive compensation is solely based on business performance and does not include "aspirational representation goals," according to the memo.
Molson Coors will also no longer participate in the HRC Equality Index or any other third-party company rankings, reported CNBC. The company has previously received a perfect 100-point score for 19 consecutive years.
The memo added that the driving force behind the change was "the understanding that when all our people know they are welcome, they are more engaged, motivated, and committed to our company's collective success."
Survey results published by the HRC in September found that more than 75% of adults from the LGBTQ+ community unfavorably view companies that rolled back DEI initiatives.
The HRC's Gonzales said that the LGBTQ+ community holds over $1.4 trillion in spending power in the US and wants to "work for and support companies who support us."
None of the companies responded to BI's requests for comment.
Walmart
Walmart is rolling back its DEI programs amid backlash from conservative activist Robby Starbuck.
Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Walmart will end some of its DEI initiatives, including winding down its nonprofit Center for Racial Equity, which Walmart funded with $100 million in 2020 for five years, and discontinuing programs that assist minority-owned suppliers.
The company will also stop using the phrase DEI in company documents, stop sharing the details of its LGBTQ+ corporate policies with the Human Rights Campaign and stop allowing third-party sellers to list items marketed toward the LGBTQ+ community.
"We are willing to change alongside our associates and customers who represent all of America. We've been on a journey and know we aren't perfect," Walmart said in a statement to BI.
In a post on the social media platform X, conservative activist Robby Starbuck claimed credit for Walmart's policy change, calling it "the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America."
Nissan
Nissan said it was rolling back some DEI initiatives.
Josh Lefkowitz/Getty Images
Nissan is rolling back some of its diversity initiatives, Starbuck announced on social media in December.
In a statement provided to BI when asked about Starbuck's post, Nissan said, "Whether with employees, customers, business partners, or the communities we serve, we believe that Nissan is a company for everyone. For nearly four decades, our commitment to respect and inclusion has been rooted in our values, shaped an environment where each of our team members can contribute at work, and ultimately contributed to the success of our business."
Starbuck said when he reached out to Nissan about their "woke policies" the company was receptive. He shared a letter that he said was sent to Nissan employees from company exec Jeremie Papin.
The letter said the company would stop participating in third-party surveys with organizations "heavily focused on political activism." Starbuck said that meant the company would not participate in the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.
The letter also said the company would align employee training with "core business objectives" that support "personal job performance and career advancement."
Nissan told BI it was already working on its communications with employees due to questions received internally but acknowledged it had also spoken with Starbuck ahead of the announcement.
