• Nearly 160 accounting execs and partners were asked about why firms were making more auditing errors.
• The auditors were split on whether a better work-life balance could reduce the number of errors.
• But they have to consider whether remote work could help attract Gen Zers amid an accountant shortage.

US accounting firms are split on how to deal with the shift to remote work, a report published by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a government-backed audit-oversight board, has found.

The report, published last month, was part of the PCAOB's investigation into why auditing errors had surged following the pandemic and whether internal culture contributed. Though deficiency rates slowed in 2023, they've consistently risen since 2020. Accounting errors can lead to embarrassing and costly legal challenges and damage business integrity.

The report was based on inspections of quality-control systems and anonymous interviews with 156 executives and partners at six major firms: Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, BDO, and Grant Thornton.

Sixty-four percent of respondents said that improving work-life balance for firm personnel improved audit quality.

However, roughly one-third of senior executives and partners from the six major firms surveyed said that contemporary remote- and hybrid-work culture had negatively affected auditing firms' quality control.

They said a loss of in-person interactions was making assimilation into the firm's culture more difficult, with newer recruits less attuned to the cultural importance of audit control.

Development opportunities were another concern, with some respondents saying firms were losing the "apprenticeship culture" they've traditionally favored.

"The delayed development of firm personnel affected productivity and made it difficult for some to meet deadlines and expectations," some respondents said.

At one of the audit firms, managers and partners were stepping down a level to do audit work traditionally performed by more junior personnel. This led to reduced scrutiny of the audit work, respondents said.

The Gen Z problem

Tied up with the questions about work-life balance and audit quality is another big issue facing accounting firms: how to attract Gen Z talent.

Respondents from all six firms said that "resource challenges" in terms of hiring were a factor in the increasing audit deficiencies or an overall concern for their companies.

In recent years, auditing firms have struggled to attract younger workers, who expect a better work-life balance.

"The younger generation have differing views on careers than their older counterparts, with many viewing their work more as a job, rather than a career, and are therefore more likely to leave the profession if presented with more attractive opportunities," the PCAOB said.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants says about 65,000 students in the US completed bachelor's or master's degrees in accounting in the 2021-22 school year, 18% fewer than a decade earlier. Of those who study accounting, only a portion become certified public accountants. About 30,000 people took the CPA exam in 2022, compared with nearly 50,000 people in 2010.

The fear of personnel leaving was one reason that return-to-office policies weren't being pushed at firms, some respondents said.

• EY, Deloitte, PwC, and KPMG make up the world's largest accounting and consulting firms — the Big Four.
• The sector is tackling a slowdown in demand, new regulatory pressures, and the need to adapt to AI.
• These are the four leaders who have made it to the top of the firms.

EY, Deloitte, PwC, and KPMG make up the world's largest accounting and consulting firms, known as the Big Four.

They're billion-dollar companies with a collective 1.5 million staff and influence over hundreds of industries.

In recent years, the Big Four have faced a series of challenges, including a downturn in demand after the height of the pandemic, shifting regulatory requirements, and the need to adapt their skills and services for the emerging AI future.

Two of the firms appointed new leaders in 2024. The process varies by firm but generally includes hustings, in which contenders present their vision to voters, a partner vote, and global board ratification.

These are the four people who now sit at the helm of the world's biggest professional-services firms.

PwC — Mohamed Kande

In July, Mohamed Kande was elected as PwC's global chair for a four-year term, becoming the first Black leader of a Big Four firm.

Kande is also the first PwC head to come from the advisory division, as opposed to the audit wing.

Kande was born and raised in the West African country of Ivory Coast. When he was 16, he moved to France alone to study. He worked at a PwC subsidiary called PRTM Management Consultants before joining the firm in 2011. He became a global advisory leader in 2019.

Kande took over leading PwC's 370,000 employees at a time when it appeared to be tightening purse strings amid the consulting slowdown. Partner payouts dropped and more PwC partners took early retirement at the end of the year. In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that the firm would make its first major layoffs since 2009 and cut 1,800 jobs.

PwC is also working to rebuild trust in the Asia-Pacific region following scandals in Australia and China.

"The need for reinvention has never been more urgent," Kande said in the firm's 2024 annual review.

In 2021, he wrote a 1,000-word essay on LinkedIn about the impact his race had on his career in professional services.

"Often, I had to work hard to be included because I was different. I have felt slight but sharp jabs about my accent and my name, accompanied by quieter, larger unspokens about my skin color," Kande wrote.

"I try to give the opportunities that others gave me," he added. "I try to bring them into the room, knowing that their diversity, their unique perspective is a strength and something to be valued."

Deloitte — Joe Ucuzoglu

Joe Ucuzoglu has been Deloitte's global CEO since January 2023.

Ucuzolgu, who grew up in Los Angeles, was CEO of Deloitte US from 2019 to 2022 before ascending to the top job. He was a college intern in 1997. He rose to become a senior advisor at the SEC before rejoining Deloitte in 2015.

Deloitte is the largest of the Big Four by both revenues and number of employees, with 460,000 staff.

In March 2024, Deloitte announced a major restructuring aimed at cutting costs and repositioning it for future success. It said it was "modernizing and simplifying" its core offering into four categories: audit and assurance, tax and legal strategy, risk and transactions, and technology and transformation.

Ucuzoglu told the firm's partners in an email that the reorganization would reduce the firm's "complexity" and "free up" more partners for client work instead of managing staff.

Under Ucuzoglu, Deloitte has taken steps to drive investment in green hydrogen, releasing a report in 2023 estimating that the energy source could become a $1.4 trillion global market by 2050 and arguing that it "is moving into prime position as a solution for hard-to-abate sectors."

The CEO continues to engage with clients. He's also a frequent speaker at the World Economic Forum, a member of the Business Roundtable, and regularly gives interviews on issues affecting the business community.

EY — Janet Truncale

Janet Truncale was elected as EY's global chair and CEO in July, making her the first woman to lead a Big Four accounting firm. She joined EY as an intern in 1991.

Prior to her election, Truncale had spent almost four years as the vice chair and regional managing partner of the Americas Financial Services Organization.

The New Jersey native now heads EY's global workforce of more than 400,000 staff.

In her first public statement as global CEO, she launched a new strategy called "All in."

"All in is not just a business strategy, it captures an attitude and way of working," Truncale said. Her focus on unity has come after EY was rocked by a failed plan to break up its consultancy and audit divisions into two units, known as Project Everest.

Truncale was named as one of the "25 Most Influential Women" of 2023 by the Financial Times, which described her as "a trust builder" and "an advocate of being down to earth."

Outside EY, she serves as board chair for Women's World Banking and is on the board of UNICEF USA and the US-China Business Council.

Truncale has a BSE from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia University.

KPMG — Bill Thomas

Bill Thomas became KPMG's global chairman and CEO in October 2017. Three years later, he was unanimously reelected to a second term.

Thomas has more than a decade in executive-level leadership and was previously the chairman of KPMG's Americas region from 2014 to 2017.

The Canadian leads KPMG's 275,000 employees. The firm is the smallest of the Big Four.

Over the past seven years, Thomas has focused on overseeing the development and implementation of KPMG's global strategy. Under Thomas, KPMG has launched a $5 billion digital-strategy investment plan.

"Over the coming years, my focus will be on continuing to enable and empower these talented teams to achieve their full potential," he said in a statement released on his reelection in 2020.

KPMG's global annual revenues have grown by 45% since the year Thomas was appointed CEO. In its latest annual earnings, it reported annual revenue of $38.4 billion.

Thomas stays largely out of the media spotlight, giving few interviews. Before entering the business world, he studied science, which he says is "extremely relevant today as technology infuses every part of our business and the businesses of clients."

Do you work at the Big Four and have a tip or story to share? Contact this reporter in confidence at [email protected] or on Signal.

• Turo is an app that allows people to rent out their cars to other drivers.
• The app was used to rent the vehicles used in two deadly incidents on New Year's Day.
• Since it was founded in 2009, it has grown into the largest car-sharing app of its kind.

Turo is the car-sharing app used to rent the vehicles involved in deadly New Year's Day incidents in Las Vegas and New Orleans.

It's like an Airbnb for cars, allowing people to get paid for leasing their vehicles to other drivers.

Users get easy access to short-term rentals, while owners can rent out their vehicles as a side hustle or even a full-time business.

Compared with conventional car rental companies, Turo can sometimes offer lower prices or more convenient locations. It makes a commission on rentals and doesn't have to run a fleet of cars.

Turo lists a very wide variety of vehicles, with some 1,600 makes and models on offer, including the CEO's own Porsche 911 Carrera S. The platform also lists campervans and more exotic vehicles such as the Cybertruck to rent.

Andre Haddad, CEO of Turo, told CNBC on Friday that the company is working with law enforcement and that neither of the men who rented vehicles raised red flags when using the platform.

He said they were "decorated servicemen" and that they could have rented vehicles from a traditional car rental chain or checked into any hotel.

"There were no red flags. No one would have flagged them as a security risk. So it's a very challenging situation to deal with," he said.

Haddad said that the company uses an algorithm to screen for potential "trust and safety issues" with renters. He also said the company hasn't seen any short-term changes from owners listing their vehicles on the platform.

The biggest car-sharing app in the US

Turo was called RelayRides when it was founded in 2009 by Shelby Clark, an entrepreneur and investor. The company changed its name to Turo in 2015 as it began to focus on longer-term rentals over quick trips. That year, it was included on Forbes' list of "hottest on-demand startups," with a valuation of $311 million.

It's now the largest car-sharing app in the US, ahead of competitors such as Getaround and Car Shair. Turo had 360,000 cars listed on its platform at the end of 2023, and about 3.7 million bookings were made that year, according to a March 2024 filing. It is available in Canada, France, the UK and Australia as well as the US.

Turo says it aims to put the world's 1.5 billion vehicles to better use and aspires to "fundamentally change car ownership," per its website.

"The goal for us is to continue to grow the business as fast as possible for the next many many years," Haddad told CNBC in September.

Haddad is a former eBay executive who was born in Lebanon. His company bio states that he helped grow eBay revenue from $750 million to $11.7 billion before joining Turo as CEO in 2011.

Turo reported nearly $880 million in revenue in 2023, up 18% year-on-year. It posted $14.7 million in profits, down from $154.7 million in 2022. Losses and high costs are common for fast-growing tech companies, especially those that are not yet public.

Turo has close to 1,000 employees and was valued at $1.5 billion in 2020, per PitchBook. The company registered for an IPO in 2021 but has not yet gone public.

In September, Turo announced a partnership with Uber that will give users access to Turo rentals on the Uber app.

"By joining forces with Uber, Turo is well positioned to penetrate a massive $150B-plus total addressable market," Andro Vrdoljak, Turo's business and corporate development VP, said in a press release.

How Turo vets users

To book a car on Turo, users need to set up an account with their email, phone number, credit card, and driver's license.

In most cases, approval is instant but can take up to 48 hours if additional information, such as an insurance score or criminal background check is needed, according to the company's website.

"Every Turo renter is screened through a proprietary multi-layer, data-science-based trust and safety process. We utilize over 50 internal and external data sources to build, maintain, and improve on our best-in-class Turo Risk Score," a Turo spokesperson told Business Insider on Thursday.

The men involved in both incidents had valid driver's licenses and clean background checks, they added.

After 12 years of operation and 27 million trips booked, fewer than 0.1% of Turo rentals ended with a serious incident, such as vehicle theft, the spokesperson said.

The company was working with law enforcement to support investigations into both incidents.

Employees from Turo's trust and safety team have interrupted vacations and returned to work to help monitor and respond to the aftermath of the incidents, Bloomberg reported.

In the March 2024 filing, Turo said that it has no control over or ability to predict the actions of car renters, who it calls guests.

"We cannot conclusively verify the identity of all guests, nor do we verify or screen third parties who may be present during a trip using a vehicle booked through our platform," Turo stated. "Our trust and safety processes focus primarily on guests to reduce the risk of vehicle theft and motor vehicle accidents."

Cybertrucks

Most major car rental companies don't offer Cybertrucks, so drivers who want to try one out but aren't willing to shell out nearly $100,000 to buy one have turned to platforms like Turo.

Last January, about a month after Tesla's launch event for the Cybertruck, some owners were already listing their vehicles on Turo for about $1,000 per day.

Some Turo hosts bought Cybertrucks specifically to rent them out to those curious about the model, InsideEVs reported in August.

Rental rates appear to have come down since then. On Thursday, for instance, Business Insider saw the option on Turo's website to book a Cybertruck for $174 a day in the Washington, DC, area.

In November, Tesla started offering leases for Cybertrucks. A three-year lease runs $1,249 a month.

Tesla first unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019, though production didn't start until 2023. The model has attracted attention from renters and buyers for its distinct shape, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has billed the Cybertruck as tough enough to survive an apocalypse.

In the past year, Tesla has issued six recalls for the model, the latest of which warned that the Cybertruck could lose drive power.

What's your experience hosting or renting with Turo? Contact these reporters at [email protected] and a[email protected]

• In 2024, companies were seizing the AI opportunity and calling workers back to the office.
• Few big businesses embodied those trends more than PC maker and cloud storage provider Dell.
• BI spoke to the company and analysts about some of Dell's biggest developments over the year.

Dell made its name in the 1990s as the trusty brand for office PCs.

It has since evolved into a major server vendor and data storage provider, but outside tech circles, the company has mostly retained its original reputation.

In the last year, Dell's 40th as a business, it's become clear that another transformation is underway at the Texas-based company, one that positions it as a key player in the AI game.

The company has also embodied another major business trend of the year — the RTO movement.

Business Insider spoke to the company and tech analysts about some of Dell's biggest developments over the year.

Dell's AI transformation

Adopting AI has been at the forefront of most business strategies this year, Dell included.

The company rolled out AI across its internal operating model in the summer. It has also made it its mission to help all enterprises do the same.

"Our purpose really is to accelerate the adoption of AI by our customer," Vivek Mohindra, Dell's senior vice president of corporate strategy, told BI.

Bob O'Donnell, president and chief analyst at Technalysis Research, said Dell has been "aggressive" in bringing all the infrastructure and services needed for AI adoption to market.

Dell's product suite, which it refers to as the Dell AI Factory, now includes AI PCs, GPU-enabled servers, storage offerings, networking solutions, and advisory services.

Mohindra said Dell's lineup of PowerEdge servers has doubled this year from five to 10; six are air-cooled, and four are direct liquid-cooled.

They are exactly the kind of energy-efficient, high-density systems that companies require to run their own models on-premises. If Dell's servers can power heavy AI workloads, then its data and cloud-based offering can help streamline and scale data workflows.

The nuanced offering has helped Dell capture the market of very large customers or "tier-2 CSPs."

Think the likes of Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Pfizer, or Vultr, explained Patrick Moorhead, CEO and chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

Moorhead, who has been following Dell for 14 years, said the company had done even better than he expected this year. It is taking advantage of the surge in companies wanting to run their own models and store data on-premises. It has succeeded in optimizing its offering by adding deployment services on top of great engineering, he added.

"It's a clever strategy and it's something that I didn't necessarily expect to see so much success so quickly," said Moorhead. "They're pulling it all together and making it a reality for enterprises."

Dell is also partnering with Silicon Valley's biggest names. It already works closely with Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Intel. In June, it announced that it was providing hardware to power the supercomputer being built by Elon Musk's company, xAI.

In November, Dell and Meta joined forces to provide on-premises AI infrastructure using Llama 2 AI models and Dell hardware.

These partnerships show how much Dell is extending its reach and make a statement that there is opportunity at the company, said O'Donnell.

"The fact that they're able to meet the requirements and demands of somebody like a Meta is a great sign."

The success of this AI strategy was evident in Dell's most recent quarterly earnings.

Revenue from the Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) — which includes AI servers, storage, and other network capabilities — jumped to a record $11.4 billion for the third quarter, a 34% increase on the previous year.

Specifically, servers and networking revenue was up 58% year over year. The company's shares have now soared from below $34 in September 2022 to around $117 in late December 2024, giving it a market capitalization of around $82 billion.

Nobody out there is indestructible, said Moorhead, but Dell's broad offering, strong supply chain, and scalability have set it up for continued success.

"They're one of the few companies in the world that sells all of those pieces. So I think they've positioned themselves pretty well," he said.

Mohindra is just as positive: "As I tell my teams, buckle up because next year, the change is going to be even more accelerated than this year."

RTO

As it rolled out products for the AI future, Dell was also making some big internal changes.

In August, the company implemented a major restructuring of business operations, including a round of layoffs. Dell also pushed a steady RTO policy throughout the year, which was connected to AI.

"As we enter a new AI world, in-person human interaction will be more important than ever," an internal memo sent by executives in September stated.

The policy blocked some workers from promotions and saw workers tracked for their attendance. For more than a decade, Dell had allowed some staff to work remotely leaving many of its employees frustrated by the changes.

BI obtained data on the workforce that showed close to 50% of Dell's full-time workers in the US opted to stay remote.

In September, another RTO policy called sales staff back to the office full time. "It became clear to us that there are huge benefits for sales to be together in terms of learning from each other, training, and mentorship," Mohindra told BI.

Several employees told BI that they had heard unofficially from managers that the five-day order would be extended to other departments in 2025. When asked if that was true, Mohindra said Dell is "a continuously learning organization."

Dell was more vocal than most of its competitors about RTO, said O'Donnell and Moorhead, but both analysts did not believe it would have a major impact on the company.

"It doesn't seem like their policies are radically different than what a fair number of tech companies are starting to do," said O'Donnell. "It's not like I think Dell's going to lose a whole bunch of people to HP or Lenovo."

"I think it will be a good thing for growth," said Moorhead, "especially product development."

• 28-year-old Aamanh Sehdev was named a McKinsey partner this December.
• After joining as a summer intern, he's climbed the ranks in just seven years.
• Sehdev spoke to BI about how he heard the news and what helped him progress at McKinsey.

Aamanh Sehdev had spent a week in early December trying to distract himself by seeing friends and playing padel.

He'd been an associate partner for two of his seven-year career at McKinsey and knew there was a chance he'd be promoted to partner.

But there was a low number of elections this year, so he thought it was fifty-fifty.

The news usually arrives at the end of the week. But at around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sehdev received a call at home. It was from Tunde Olanrewaju, managing partner of McKinsey's UK, Ireland, and Israel offices.

"The nerves were kicking in, but he got straight to the point," Sehdev told Business Insider.

"Hey, it's great news. Welcome to the partnership. We're really excited to have you on board," Sehdev recalled Olanrewaju telling him. "I said thanks, but in a slightly higher pitch voice than I typically have."

Sehdev is one of around 200 McKinsey employees promoted to partner this December. Amid a slowdown in demand for consulting services, this year's cohort is one of the firm's smallest in recent years.

The promotion elevates him to one of the most senior positions you can reach in a major consulting firm. Partnerships are participatory, giving individuals a say in the direction of the firm. Those promoted to equity partners receive a share of the annual profits.

On McKinsey's website, partners are described as "not only meeting McKinsey's high bar for exceptional leadership, but they are also dedicated to finding solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges."

At 28, Sehdev is one of the youngest in the cohort. He spoke to BI about what it was like to receive the news and what it takes to make partner.

'Enjoy the moment'

Although his call with Olanrewaju lasted only a few minutes, Sehdev spent the next hour and a half on the phone with sponsors and mentors.

"Obviously, there was a lot of excitement, a lot of congratulations, and a bit of a common thread of 'let it sink in, don't rush into the next thing, enjoy the moment,'" he said.

He also called his mother and brother that evening. His parents didn't go to university, so it was a major milestone for the family. "They were super proud and excited," he said. "They've obviously been pretty key in shaping my journey."

But the following morning, it was into the office to carry on as usual and keep the news a secret from his colleagues until McKinsey's formal announcement a week and a half later.

Sehdev said he was still digesting the achievement. In the new year, he's taking a 17-day trip to Australia to "carve out a little bit of time to think about it a bit more formulaically."

His first focus is to switch off and get some sun, he added.

Becoming a partner is notoriously difficult and competitive. It's the ultimate goal for many consultants starting their careers.

Not for Sehdev.

When he began studying mechanical engineering at London's Imperial College, Sehdev had never heard of McKinsey.

"It was something that people around me were talking about alongside banking," he told BI. "I turned up to a career fair, it was interesting, and I applied for the internship."

For the first half of his career, Sehdev said he was doing "a bit of a random walk" through a whole host of sectors and different functions. It helped him find the right home at the firm — he now works on a combination of private capital and McKinsey's telecommunications (TMT) practice.

Sehdev acknowledged that seven years was a fast ascent up the ranks, but said that meritocracy was one of McKinsey's benefits.

"What McKinsey has a tendency to do is when you get comfortable, they take you to the next role or level, and then you get uncomfortable again. That snowballed for me over the last seven years."

Sehdev said three reasons he was selected as a partner came through in his evaluation.

First, he always has a focused strategy for what he's doing and what he wants to do next at the firm. Second, he showed entrepreneurship and originality, particularly when it came to creating novel ways to work with the smaller software businesses he concentrates on. Lastly, he invested time with the teams and created a positive, energizing atmosphere.

There's an element of luck involved in it as well, he added, saying he was fortunate to have met managers early on who would stay late in the evenings to teach him.

No matter how good you are, working at a top consultancy can be intense. Sehdev said he carves out time to exercise, spend time with family, and protect his weekends. He doesn't expect that to change now he's a partner.

"My mindset has always been, look, I'll set a really high bar, but I'll not let the micro-events or little things take away too much energy. That's made me better at my job."

• Deloitte UK has had a year of reorganization and cost-cutting amid a consulting slowdown.
• It is planning to cut staff travel and expenses by 50% for the rest of the financial year, the FT reported.
• The cuts to spending were short-term, a senior exec said in internal messaging.

The Big Four consulting firm Deloitte wants to cut its spending on staff travel and expenses by more than 50% in the UK, where it is headquartered.

In an email sent to partners and directors in October, Deloitte said the "firmwide cost management measures" were being introduced because of "challenging market conditions" in the UK, the Financial Times reported.

Deloitte reportedly said it was only aiming to maintain the cost cuts until the end of its current financial year in May and described the reduction in spending as "limited" and "temporary."

The email was sent by Sarah Humphreys, chief operating officer of the tax and legal division. Humphreys said Deloitte was also reviewing its "recruitment agency costs, licence fees, bad debts and global recharges," the FT reported.

The cost-saving efforts come after a year of reorganization and redundancies at Deloitte, as the firm grapples with an industry-wide slowdown in demand for consulting services that has hit revenue growth.

Deloitte's global consulting revenues grew by 1.9% in the 2024 financial year ending 31 May. The previous year, they grew by 19.1%.

"Like many organisations, we are looking carefully at our costs to ensure we're able to meet clients' needs while continuing to make investments in our firm and our people," Deloitte said in a statement shared with Business Insider Monday.

The downturn comes after many consultancies hired aggressively during the pandemic.

In March, Deloitte carried out a global overhaul of its operations aimed at cutting costs and repositioning it for future success. It simplified its core offering from five to four categories: audit and assurance, tax and legal strategy, risk and transactions, and technology and transformation.

It has also held several rounds of layoffs in the UK, where it has around 25,000 employees. In internal messages seen by Business Insider, Deloitte said layoffs of around 180 staff in September were "necessary to enable us to navigate the remainder of a challenging FY25."

The firm has also cut UK partner's pay to save on costs, leaving the most senior class of employees with roughly £50,000 ($63,000) less than the previous year — a 4.5% decline. UK partners still took home an average of around £1 million ($1.2 million) for the fourth year running.

Do you work at Deloitte? Contact this reporter in confidence to share your thoughts on the industry at [email protected]

• Nissan and Honda have announced they are beginning merger talks.
• A third Japanese automaker, Mitsubishi, will also participate in the discussions.
• The companies hope a merger could help them take on Tesla and Chinese EV makers, Nikkei previously reported.

Nissan and Honda, two of Japan's largest car companies, have announced that they are beginning merger talks.

The two automakers have agreed to proceed with discussions to build a "strategic partnership focused on intelligence and electrification," according to a statement issued on Monday.

Nissan and Honda are looking to reach a conclusion in talks by the end of January 2025.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) has also been signed with a third company, Mitsubishi, signaling its involvement in the merger talks.

It would be the largest domestic merger in Japanese automotive history, and if finalized, it would create the world's third-largest automaker by sales.

The companies hope that a merger could help them better compete against Tesla and Chinese EV makers.

Profits were down in the latest earnings reports for all three of Japan's top auto companies — Toyota, Nissan, and Honda — with slumping sales in China a constant theme.

"At this time of change in the automobile industry, which is said to occur once every 100 years, we hope that Mitsubishi Motors' participation in the business integration discussions of Nissan and Honda will lead to further social change," said Toshihiro Mibe, Honda's Director and Representative Executive Officer.

Japan's stock market had closed for trading on Monday when the announcement was made. However, Honda's New York-listed stock was up 13% in premarket trade Monday on the back of the news.

After news of the merger was reported last week, Nissan's stock had surged by nearly 24%.

• Donald Trump has said the EU will face tariffs unless they make up their trade deficit with the US.
• He has told the bloc to make a "large scale purchase" of US oil and gas to balance trade relations.
• In 2022, the US purchased $131.3 billion more of goods and services from the EU than vice-versa.

US President-elect Donald Trump said he has told the European Union it must purchase a large quantity of US oil and gas, or he will impose tariffs on the trading bloc.

"I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas. Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!" Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Friday.

The EU and US have long maintained deep economic ties, but in recent years, the balance of trade has tilted in Europe's favor. In 2022, the overall US goods and services trade deficit with the EU was $131.3 billion.

While the US imports more goods in the trade partnership than the EU, the reverse is true for services.

In 2023, the US exported €396.4 billion ($411.5 billion) of services to the EU, while importing €292.4 billion ($303.5 billion) — a US surplus of €104 billion ($107 billion), according to EU figures.

"The EU and US have deeply integrated economies, with overall balanced trade and investment," Olof Gill, a European Commission spokesperson, told Business Insider.

"We are ready to discuss with President-elect Trump how we can further strengthen an already strong relationship, including by discussing our common interests in the energy sector," he added.

"The message is clear: the European Union is committed to continue working with the United States, pragmatically, to strengthen transatlantic ties," European Council President António Costa told reporters following a meeting of the European Council on Thursday.

Trump made tariffs central to his reelection campaign, suggesting a blanket 10% tariff on goods from all countries. It is still uncertain which policies he will introduce once in office.

The US is one of the EU's largest trading partners, particularly for industries like automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and luxury goods.

Individual countries like Germany, whose stuttering auto market depends heavily on imports to the US, would be particularly hard hit by renewed tariffs.

The pressure of potential tariffs comes as the eurozone struggles with sluggish economic growth and the ongoing war in Ukraine. The bloc expanded by 0.2% in the most recent quarter, compared to 0.7% growth in the US.

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Trump's proposed tariff plans pose more uncertainty to the US economy in the coming year.

"We don't know what will be tariffed, from what countries, for how long, in what size. We don't know whether there'll be retaliatory tariffs. We don't know what the transmission of any of that will be into consumer prices," Powell told reporters.

The European Commission did not reply immediately to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, is close to lifting its ban on Apple iPhone 16 sales.
• Its government had blocked sales of the new model for failing to comply with domestic regulations.
• Apple's $1 billion investment offer helped sway Indonesia's president, Bloomberg reported.

Apple is close to resolving its dispute over iPhone sales in Indonesia.

At a meeting on the weekend, Indonesia's president Prabowo Subianto told officials to accept Apple's $1 billion investment offer, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The offer was made in an effort to end the country's ban on iPhone 16 sales.

In October, Indonesia's Ministry of Industry blocked Apple from selling its latest iPhone model, which first launched in September, for failing to comply with domestic regulations.

The southeast Asian country requires that at least 40% of the material in smartphones and tablets sold in stores nationally come from Indonesian producers — a measure to protect local producers and attract foreign investment.

Apple offered to expand its investment plans in Indonesia's growing tech economy in an effort to ease the ban.

The offer included a proposal for one of Apple's suppliers to set up a plant producing AirTags on the island of Batam, with the aim that it will one day account for 20% of global production of AirTags, Bloomberg reported.

Apple had previously proposed a $10 million payment for a factory in Bandung, located southeast of Jakarta, the country's current capital. The factory would manufacture accessories and components.

The Indonesian market represents an insignificant portion of Apple's total sales globally, but has become one of the company's key alternatives in the region as it looks to move manufacturing out of China.

In April, CEO Tim Cook visited Indonesia and said that Apple was investigating the feasibility of establishing local manufacturing facilities there. The tech giant has already built four developer academies in Indonesia.

With over 280 million citizens, Indonesia is the world's fourth-most-populous nation and is a growing market for Apple.

Bloomberg reported that Subianto told his cabinet to seek more future investments.

Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment made outside normal US working hours.

• Michael Dell is one of the world's wealthiest people, with a net worth of more than $100 billion.
• The Dell Technologies founder made his fortune by democratizing the PC and striking shrewd deals.
• Here's a look at his background, career, and how he spends his fortune.

Michael Dell, the tech entrepreneur who helped bring the personal computer to the masses, ranks among the world's wealthiest people with a net worth of $122 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

From his early career as one of the youngest CEOs of a Fortune 500 company until now, Dell is used to getting his way. He was only 23 when his company had its IPO in 1988. Dell took the PC maker private in 2013 only to relist it five years later, and has now shifted the company's focus toward serving the artificial intelligence boom.

Dell lives the extravagant life of a successful business figure as well, complete with all of the private planes, summer homes, and sweet rides you'd expect from a billionaire.

Michael Dell was born on Feb. 23, 1965, in Houston, Texas.

Dell was fascinated with gadgets from a young age. When he was 15, he bought one of the first Apple computers and disassembled it to see if he could put it back together.

Source: Academy of Achievement

When Dell was in high school, he got a job selling newspaper subscriptions.

After figuring out how to target an untapped customer base, he made $18,000 in just one year.

Source: Academy of Achievement

Though he was really only interested in computers, Dell entered the University of Texas at Austin as a pre-med student in 1983.

He spent his spare time upgrading PCs and selling them from his dorm room, making $180,000 in his first month of business. Though Dell never came back for his sophomore year, he returned to his dorm for a photo opp in 1999.

Source: Entrepreneur

In 2018, Dell tweeted out the first financial statement from his dorm PC company.

Dell used the statement to convince his parents that he didn't have to go back to college.

He sold nearly $1 million worth of computers and, after paying salaries and expenses, made over $198,000 in gross profit.

He officially launched his company in 1984, under the name PC's Limited.

It soon became one of the fastest-growing companies in the country, raking in more than $6 million in sales in its first year of business.

Source: Entrepreneur

He changed the company's name to Dell Computer Corp. in 1987, and sales continued to soar.

It went public in 1988, raising $30 million. Dell made about $18 million from the deal, and by 1992, the 27-year-old CEO was the youngest person to lead a Fortune 500 company.

Source: Entrepreneur, Academy of Achievement

In 1988, he went on a blind date with Susan Lieberman, a fashion designer from Dallas.

The two had an instant connection. "Most men I dated talked about themselves a lot and tried to impress me," Susan told Texas Monthly. "He was the nicest guy I'd ever met."

They were married in October 1989 and have four children.

In 2001, Susan Dell designed the inaugural ball gowns for Jenna and Barbara Bush.

She operated a successful boutique in Austin and even had two labels of her own before opening a new fashion brand, Phi, in New York City, which she closed in 2009.

Source: Austin Business Journal, Texas Monthly, New York Magazine

His son, Zack Dell, started following in his dad's footsteps.

In 2014, at age 17, Zach cofounded his own dating startup Thread. Thread later became a photo-sharing app but is no longer around.

The family's 33,000-square-foot home outside Austin is called "the Castle" because of its hilltop perch and heavy security presence.

The house boasts eight bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, a tennis court, indoor and outdoor pools, and gorgeous views of Lake Austin.

Source: The Independent

 

Dell also owns a 6,380-square-foot contemporary ranch house in the nearby hills, where the family keeps Arabian horses.

Source: Mother Jones, The Nation

The Dell family has spent vacations at the "Raptor Residence," a seven-bedroom, 18,500-square-foot compound in Kukio, Hawaii.

Source: Business Insider and The Pinnacle List

Dell loved the resort area of Hualalai so much that in 2006, with the help of Walmart heir Rob Walton, he bought the hotel and resort through his investment company, MSD Capital

Dell started MSD Capital in 1998 to manage his family's wealth. The firm has made investments in a number of companies, including IHOP and Applebee's parent company, apparel company Phillips-Van Heusen, and offshore oil drilling company Independence Contract Drilling.

Source: Bloomberg, Pitchbook, SEC filings.

Through MSD Capital, Michael Dell also invested in real estate in Hawaii, Mexico, and California.

The company invests in luxury hotels, commercial and multifamily properties, and land development, and it participates in other real-estate-development funds.

Dell has his fair share of hot wheels as well.

His car collection at one point included a 2004 Porsche Boxster, a Porsche Carrera GT, and a Hummer H2.

Source: MSN 

He's also owned private jets including a Gulfstream V.

Private planes come in handy when Michael and Susan Dell travel for their nonprofit.

Since 1999, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation has given billions to nonprofits and social enterprises in the US, India, and South Africa.  

 

Dell is friends with other tech billionaires.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is a particular buddy. The two of them did a public Fitbit walking challenge in 2014 and Benioff's team won. But Dell is so competitive (and also a fitness fanatic), that Benioff jokingly suspected that Dell put his Fitbit on his dog to help him score more steps.

Source: Fitbit, Business Insider

CEO to chairman and back again

In 2004, Dell left the helm of his PC company and became chairman. But in 2007, with Dell's share of the PC market declining, he shook up management, took the reins as CEO, and never let go again. As the PC market continued to decline, he expanded into new markets through new products and acquisitions.

In 2013, the Texan won a long battle to take Dell private, fighting off legendary activist investor Carl Icahn, who wanted to stop the deal, replace the board, and fire Dell.

 

Two years after winning that battle, Dell announced plans to buy EMC for $67 billion.

The financing of a deal this huge was complicated, and at first, skeptics thought it would fall apart, citing everything from tax complications to pushback from investors in VMware, a company EMC mostly owned.

Dell didn't lose.

Instead, he catapulted his company into a much bigger one with the purchase of EMC. He became the leader of what was then the largest private company in the tech industry.

After five years as a private company, Dell went public again in late 2018 through a complex arrangement that involved buying back shares in VMware, the software business in which it held an 80% stake.

He received a huge windfall in November 2023, when Broadcom closed its $69 billion takeover of VMware.

The PC tycoon owned nearly 40% of the cloud-computing business before it was sold to the microchip giant. As a result, he received well over $20 billion in Broadcom stock and cash in exchange for his stake, filings show.

Dell stock has surged by over 300% over the past two years, as investors bet it will be a key player in the AI revolution.

Dell shares have soared from below $34 in September 2022 to around $115, valuing the company at about $79 billion.

The stock surge likely reflects the company's pivot to providing a broad suite of AI solutions to corporations, selling everything from servers and data storage to AI PCs, networking, and services.

Dell trumpeted AI's potential in an interview published this September, saying it would "accelerate and advance scientific discovery" and "make humans happier, healthier, and more successful."

"I'm incredibly excited about it," he added. "As with any new thing, there are all sorts of uncertainties and questions, including how's it all going to happen. Nobody knows, and we love being in the middle of it."

Source: McKinsey

 

Dell's net worth has soared to more than $100 billion.

Dell's surging stock has supercharged its founder's net worth, raising it from about $45 billion two years ago to $122 billion.

Dell is now one of the dozen or so centibillionaires, and ranks 11th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

• The Big Four — EY, Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC — are the world's largest accounting and consulting firms.
• They pull in billions annually but have faced a slowdown in demand for their services.
• This is how the Big Four have performed in recent years, and how they're looking to adapt in future.

Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC are the world's largest accounting and consulting firms, known as the Big Four.

With histories dating back to the 19th century, they have grown into billion-dollar companies employing hundreds of thousands of staff who earn high salaries and often work very long hours.

The Big Four offer companies services such as workforce transformations, reshaping corporate finance portfolios, assurance, valuation, and optimizing the use of technology.

Put simply, they're there to assess businesses and tell them how to run more efficiently.

The pandemic changed the landscape for the major firms, with a surge in demand that sparked a hiring boom. The Big Four are now attempting to balance operations amid slowing demand.

Here's a look at where the Big Four stand.

EY

After a series of mergers, EY was formed in 1989 as the accountancy firm Ernst & Young. It has since diversified its offerings and, in 2013, rebranded to EY.

Headquartered in central London, EY has more than 700 offices in 150 countries. Janet Truncale, the global chair and CEO, took over from Carmine Di Sibio in July.

EY focuses heavily on consultancy and assurance but also covers tax and strategy, and transactions.

Revenue was up 3.9% on the previous year to $51.2 billion, according to the firm's latest annual report published in October. It was EY's poorest performance since 2010. Assurance services were its largest revenue generator.

In May 2024, the firm was caught up in a scandal along with PwC and fined $11.7 million by UK authorities for a series of auditing failures.

As pressure has mounted, EY cut UK partner payouts by 5% and laid off employees. Overall employee numbers dropped by 2,450 during EY's latest financial year — the first decrease in 14 years.

EY's global head count now stands at about 393,000.

In 2023, the firm launched EY.ai, an AI platform aiming to assist clients across all its professional services. It also offers clients a conversational AI assistant called EYQ.

Deloitte

Deloitte is the largest of the Big Four by both revenue and employees.

Founded in the UK in 1845, Deloitte expanded into the US in 1890. It is headquartered in London and has more than 700 offices in some 150 countries. It's known for strong business and technology consulting services.

Joe Ucuzoglu has been its global CEO since 2022.

In March, Deloitte announced a major restructuring aimed at cutting costs and repositioning it for future success.

It is "modernizing and simplifying" its core offering into four categories: audit and assurance, tax and legal strategy, risk and transactions, and technology and transformation.

Global revenue climbed 3.1% to $67.2 billion in the 2024 financial year, but, like EY, that performance was far lower than the 14.9% growth in 2023.

The slowdown has affected partner payouts, which fell by 4.5% to about $1.27 million. Equity partners took home roughly $63,000 less than they did a year ago.

Deloitte's global workforce expanded to 460,000 in 2024, an increase of 3,000.

Deloitte has pledged to invest $3 billion in AI by fiscal year 2030 and has partnered with technology industry leaders Nvidia, Google Cloud, and AWS to develop its client offering.

PwC

PwC is often considered the most prestigious of the Big Four, and topped the latest Vault Accounting 25 ranking.

Officially formed in 1998 from a merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, PwC's headquarters is almost opposite EY's main office in London.

Mohamed Kande has been the global chairman since July.

PwC has three core lines of business — assurance, advisory, and tax and legal services — but the firm is particularly known for its strong and well-established audit client base.

It employs more than 370,000 people in 149 countries and territories.

In 2021, PwC committed to creating over 100,000 net new jobs over a five-year period, and in October 2024, it said it had already hit three-quarters of that target.

PwC was the second-highest earning of the Big Four, posting record gross revenue of $55.4 billion and 3.7% annual growth in the year to June 30.

Though not as stark a slowdown as Deloitte or EY, growth at PwC still dropped noticeably compared to the 9.9% rise reported for the previous 12 months.

A number of high-profile scandals in the Asia-Pacific region involving its work with the Australian and Chinese governments damaged business.

To handle the changing environment, PwC cut partner pay by 5%, leaving partners taking home an average of $1.09 million this financial year.

In October The Wall Street Journal reported that the firm would make its first major layoffs since 2009 and cut 1,800 jobs.

PwC has invested $1.5 billion to expand and scale its AI capabilities. In February 2024, it unveiled a tax AI assistant for 2,300 PwC tax professionals in the UK to use.

KPMG

The smallest of the Big Four in terms of revenue and employees, KPMG is headquartered in Amsterdam and has a long-serving leader in chairman and chief executive Bill Thomas.

Its core services cover audit, tax and legal, and advisory.

The last of the Big Four to report its 2024 results, KPMG reported in December that in the 12 months to September 30, it saw revenues of $38.4 billion, a rise of just over 5% compared to 2023.

Overall, its revenues are the lowest among the Big Four, close to $20 billion less than its three competitors.

KPMG has faced scrutiny across several markets for its auditing and accounting work. In 2023, it was fined a record $26 million in the UK after "exceptional" failures in its accounting work.

Employee numbers grew by just over 1% in the 2024 financial year to reach 275,000. That's 185,000 people fewer than Deloitte.

Over 2024, KPMG has made a series of layoffs. About 330 staff, or 4%, were cut from its US audit practice; 5% cut across advisory, tax, and back-office functions; and 2% from its advisory workforce in 2023, according to Accountancy Age.

KPMG said it is looking to invest more in specialist roles in areas like ESG, tax, and technology.

While it lags behind in revenues, the firm is seen to foster a less cutthroat workplace than its competitors. The firm has said it aims to have women in a third of partner or director roles by 2025.

According to its latest report, women hold 29.9% of leadership roles.

What's your experience of working at the Big Four accountancy firms? Contact this reporter in confidence at [email protected]

• Peter Thiel has praised Elon Musk's attitude to risk and said it's a bad idea to bet against him.
• The world's richest person understands risk in a way that most people don't, Thiel said.
• "Peter is right on all counts," Musk tweeted in agreement with some of Thiel's comments.

Elon Musk's entry into politics has caused some trepidation in Washington circles.

But his former business partner and fellow billionaire, Peter Thiel, has a message for the DC establishment: "You should never bet against Elon."

Thiel discussed Musk's unique skill as an entrepreneur during an appearance on the latest episode of the talk show Piers Morgan Uncensored, which was released Thursday.

Thiel said that in the 2000s Silicon Valley just viewed Musk as someone building two "super crazy" companies — his car company, Tesla, and rocket company, SpaceX.

"If only one of them had succeeded, one might still have said that it was just extraordinarily lucky. The fact that, to first approximation, both have wildly succeeded, tells us that Elon knows something about risk that the rest of us don't."

It appears to be a "high-wire, crazy, risk-taking act" from the outside, but his methods somehow work, he added.

Thiel said he has asked Musk before about how he approaches risk.

"I think there is something he understands about it that we don't. It's hard to articulate. I don't know if he can articulate it."

The two billionaires formed PayPal in 2000 after merging their two companies. Thiel has since cofounded Palantir, founded the VC fund Founders Fund, and started the Thiel Fellowship. He is an outspoken libertarian and generous donator to the Republican Party.

Musk's business strategies have come under scrutiny since he was appointed to head the Trump administration's new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

His goal is to significantly reduce the federal budget, cutting as much as $2 trillion in spending.

"The strong consensus view in the DC establishment is that this is going to go nowhere. That it's just absolutely impossible to fix things, and this is going to be a very frustrating dead end," said Thiel during the interview.

"The alternate view, I would say, is you should never bet against Elon," he said.

"Peter is right on all counts," Musk tweeted in response to the interview clip on DOGE.

Musk's businesses have seemed to thrive since the election as investors and analysts wager he will continue to play a leading role in the new administration in a phenomenon dubbed the "Trump bump."

This week, SpaceX, Musk's space transportation company, was valued at $350 billion, doubling its worth in a year. Tesla has also enjoyed a major rally, with shares surging more than 60% this year.

• A team of eleven lawyers from EY have left the firm to join Hunton Andrews Kurth, a US law firm.
• US law firms are expanding their presence in the UK to serve global clients.
• EY's legal division has cut jobs over the past year and is reportedly considering restructuring.

Eleven lawyers from the Big Four firm EY have been poached by the London office of Hunton Andrews Kurth, a US law firm.

The team of departees includes Charles Morrison, a partner and former head of EY's energy-services team; three other partners; a counsel; a consultant; and five associates, the firm said in a statement. They will focus on transactions in the energy sector.

Hunton Andrews Kurth is an energy and infrastructure specialist. It's the 70th-largest law firm in the US by employee numbers, with 754 lawyers in 2023, according to Law.com.

Sam Danon, Hunton Andrews Kurth's managing partner, said that the group "aligns well with our international growth strategy, which is focused on ensuring that we've achieved critical mass in key practices, in core industry focus areas and in geographies where client demand is strong."

Hunton Andrews Kurth has seen demand for its services rise in recent years. Law.com said the firm's revenue rose by 3.5% to $823 million in 2023.

The team's move also plays into a wider trend in the industry — the growing presence of US law firms in the UK. Firms like Latham & Watkins have been building their UK teams to leverage their American client bases in Europe, often poaching staff from legacy British establishments.

Ferdinand Calice, a managing partner of Hunton Andrews Kurth's London office, said the energy-focused corporate and disputes teams in London had "experienced tremendous growth" in the past year.

Since August 2023, more than two dozen lawyers, including two more former EY staffers, have been added to the London office.

EY's legal division in the UK has been struggling. In the past year, the firm has closed down a business unit and held several rounds of layoffs, Financial News reported.

In October, sources told the paper that EY was reviewing the future of its legal arm in the region, considering further layoffs and a joint venture deal with a major international law firm.

EY recorded its poorest performance since 2010 this year, with global revenue rising 3.9% on the previous year to $51.2 billion — a decline on the 16% growth recorded the year before. The slowdown has also hit fellow its Big Four firms: PwC, KPMG, and Deloitte.

EY did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Do you work in the legal division at one of the Big Four firms? Contact this reporter in confidence at [email protected].

• McKinsey will promote about 200 people to partner this year, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• That's down from about 250 partner promotions in 2023.
• Partner payouts at the Big Four consultancies have been falling amid a tough climate for professional services.

Consulting firm McKinsey is promoting one of the smallest groups in recent years to the level of partner.

The firm is only advancing about 200 employees to the coveted position, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources. That marks a 20% reduction from 2023 and as much as half the level of other recent years.

In 2023, McKinsey created about 250 partners, while the number was more than 400 in 2021.

Many employees at major consulting firms view reaching the role of partner as the pinnacle of achievement, a sign of excellence and dedication. Partnerships are participatory, giving individuals a say in the direction of the firm, and those promoted to equity partner receive a share of the annual profits.

That also means any downturn in demand for services hits partners' pockets.

The falling number of partner promotions comes as McKinsey's global staff numbers have grown rapidly. According to its website, there are about 45,000 staff globally, up by almost 50% from the roughly 30,000 people it employed as recently as 2021.

McKinsey did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

McKinsey's partners are not the only senior consultants facing harder times. Partner payouts at the Big Four consultancies have fallen this year.

At EY, partner payouts in the UK were down by 5% this year. UK partners received an average of £723,000 (about $938,000), compared with £761,000 (about $987,000) the previous year.

At PwC, more partners will take early retirement at the end of this year.

Do you work at a consulting firm? Contact this reporter in confidence to share your thoughts on the industry at [email protected]

• Apple has topped the Drucker Institute's annual ranking of the 250 best-managed companies in the US
• Fellow tech giants Nvidia, Microsoft, and Intel all made the top 10.
• Apple ranked particularly highly in innovation and financial performance.

Apple has taken the No. 1 spot in a widely-watched annual ranking of America's best-run companies.

Tim Cook's company dethroned Microsoft to take the top spot in Drucker Institute's Management Top 250 ranking, ending the PC maker's four-year streak at the top of the pile.

Microsoft was pushed down into third place, while rapidly growing chipmaker Nvidia ranked second on the list.

Intel ranked fourth, Alphabet in eighth, and Adobe in ninth.

The list's top 10 included four non-tech companies: Mastercard, which ranked fifth, up from 24th spot last year; Johnson & Johnson, in sixth place; Procter & Gamble, in seventh; and tobacco giant Philip Morris International in 10th.

The Management Top 250 ranking was developed by the Drucker Institute and The Wall Street Journal to measure corporate effectiveness. It assesses companies' performance in five key areas: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility, and financial strength.

The ranking includes 660 US companies whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq and meet criteria related to their value and prominence.

Apple's innovation score in the Drucker Institute's ranking helped boost it to the top spot. It scored 99.9 in this category, higher than any other company. In the top 25 of the ranking, only Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Walmart scored higher than 90 points for innovation.

In 2024, it launched the iPhone 16, the first from the Cupertino-based tech giant to incorporate its Apple Intelligence AI software.

Alongside a high score for innovation, Apple also ranked second highest in the ranking for its financial performance. It was bested only by Nvidia, which became the world's most valuable company earlier this year.

Booming demand for its AI chips pushed its share price ever higher with a market cap of more than $3.5 trillion at its peak in November. Apple has since regained its crown with a valuation of about $3.7 trillion.

Apple's score score of 62.7 in the Drucker ranking for employee engagement and development was the lowest of any company in the top 10.

• Meta's Nick Clegg said Elon Musk could try to become a "political puppet master" in Trump's administration.
• Musk will jointly lead the new Department of Government Efficiency and has become a close Trump advisor.
• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants an "active role" in conversations about technology and AI, Clegg said.

Elon Musk could try to become a "political puppet master" during the second Trump presidency, Meta's global affairs chief said.

Nick Clegg, a former UK deputy prime minister who is now one of Mark Zuckerberg's key lieutenants at Meta and has played a key role in the company's censorship policies, made the comments on the BBC News podcast "Political Thinking."

Asked if Musk was "a threat to democracy," Clegg said that the X owner is "obviously now playing an outsize role in both the election and now the formation of the new US administration."

Musk could either choose to be an "avid and well-heeled supporter" of the president-elect, or a "political puppet master, going well beyond Trump, deciding who the next Republican candidate should be and the one after that," Clegg said.

The latter path would be "quite different to the general tradition of American democracy," he said.

After donating tens of millions to the Trump campaign and making several star appearances at rallies, Musk has cemented his role as a close advisor to the president-elect. The SpaceX founder was announced as the co-leader of a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.

The close relationship has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, the level of influence Musk could have on politics, and how his multiple businesses might benefit.

Earlier this week, Clegg said that Zuckerberg — Meta's CEO and longtime Musk rival — is seeking a more prominent role in political conversations.

"Mark is very keen to play an active role in the debates that any administration needs to have about maintaining America's leadership in the technological sphere" and "particularly the pivotal role that AI will play," Clegg said.

Having greater involvement in government debates would also bring Zuckerberg closer together with Musk and Trump.

Musk's libertarian stance on censorship and social media has put him at odds with Zuckerberg. The two billionaires have also disagreed over open-source AI models and SpaceX, and even challenged each other to a cage fight.

Trump has also been a critic of Zuckerberg, particularly following the Meta CEO's decision to indefinitely suspend the then president from Facebook following the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Trump previously threatened to imprison Zuckerberg if he won the 2024 election.

Zuckerberg was quick to congratulate Trump following his election victory, and in November, the two had a Thanksgiving eve dinner at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago resort.

• Consulting firm McKinsey has agreed to pay over $122 million to settle bribery claims.
• The plan earned McKinsey and McKinsey Africa profits of about $85 million, the US DoJ said.
• A former senior partner at the firm's Africa division pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge.

McKinsey has agreed to pay more than $122 million to settle bribery claims stemming from its work in South Africa, the US Justice Department said in a statement on Thursday.

The payment forms part of a three-year deferred prosecution agreement that would dismiss the charges if McKinsey met certain conditions.

The consulting firm was under investigation for its involvement in a plan to pay bribes to officials at two state-owned and operated companies in South Africa between 2012 and 2016.

According to court documents and admissions, a senior partner agreed to pay bribes to receive confidential and non-public information from officials at Eskom, South Africa's largest energy company, and Transnet, a port and freight rail operator, which helped secure multimillion-dollar consulting contracts. Under the arrangement, McKinsey Africa's partners paid a portion of their fees as bribes to officials at Transnet and Eskom.

The Justice Department said that McKinsey and McKinsey Africa earned profits of about $85 million as a result of the arrangement.

The firm was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the Southern District of New York.

"McKinsey Africa bribed South African officials in order to obtain lucrative consulting business that generated tens of millions of dollars in profits," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

A former McKinsey senior partner, Vikas Sagar, separately pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA.

In a statement, McKinsey said that Sagar had concealed his conduct from the company and had been fired. It added that fees had been repaid to Eskom and Transnet several years ago.

"We publicly apologized in 2018 and chose to take accountable action, including taking responsibility for Sagar's conduct," McKinsey said in the statement.

"McKinsey welcomes the resolution of these matters and the closure of this regretful situation. McKinsey is a very different firm today than when these matters first took place," the firm said.

McKinsey and Company Africa operates in South Africa as a wholly owned and controlled subsidiary of the international consulting firm. The $122,850,000 that the firm has agreed to pay includes a penalty in South Africa.

The Justice Department said McKinsey Africa had received credit for cooperating with its investigation and conducting anti-corruption training for employees.

McKinsey, which is widely considered one of the top three strategy consulting firms in the world, is also close to paying $600 million to settle a separate investigation into its work advising opioid manufacturers on how to boost sales, the FT reported in November.

• KPMG's head of AI, David Rowlands, is helping the firm transform for an AI future.
• He spoke with Business Insider about the barriers businesses face as they try to do the same.
• Don't focus on single-use cases for AI and sort out your data, he advised.

KPMG, one of the Big Four consultancies, has weaved AI into all its operations and is advising global businesses about how to do the same.

All employees across the firm's three divisions — accounting, tax, and advisory — have the ability to use AI. Everyone has access to a form of GPT and roughly a fifth of the global workforce have Copilot licenses, David Rowlands, KPMG's global head of AI, told Business Insider.

"Whatever they were doing already, they can now do quicker," he said in an interview.

But the vast majority of companies are still on the adoption path, and clients who come to KPMG are still thinking about how to get it going and how to get the data, Rowlands said.

Clients' concerns about AI have shifted over time: First, it was ethics, hallucinations, and trust; the past four or five months, it's been about realizing the business case and enabling the workforce to adopt it; and next, it's the question of data and how organizations differentiate through their data and protect it.

BI spoke with Rowlands about KPMG's own adoption journey and how the firm advises businesses as they deepen their use of AI.

One of the biggest barriers for companies to overcome is the focus on single-use cases for AI systems.

Many businesses are deploying an AI agent to sit over a curated database and pick out data to make rapid recommendations to a human operator, he explained. But systems must have reusability.

"What you have to think about is having AI embedded in your operating model," he said. "At KPMG, we're keen to get people beyond use cases because a point piece of technology, a point use case, hasn't been a particularly effective business case."

Clarity on the business case is also the best way to see a return on investment, he added.

The question of returns has been a hot topic among CEOs as billions of dollars continue to pour into AI infrastructure. Some economists and analysts have warned that money is being wasted on hype, while others have said the rate of improvement is slowing and AI is hitting a wall.

KPMG is buying into the hype. In 2023, the firm said it would invest $2 billion in artificial intelligence and cloud services in partnership with Microsoft over the next five years and expected the strategy to generate more than $12 billion in revenue over that period.

In November, it announced a $100 million investment in Google Cloud, which it said could drive $1 billion in growth.

Rowlands said it's hard to get clients to see the wider impact when they can't see an immediate ROI. But he said the benefits would come through improvements in growth, quality, and agility: "We already see that a copilot system saves about 40 minutes a week."

In mid-2024, some of KPMG's surveys on returns were "ambivalent," but they're now "getting some anecdotal evidence of ROI," Rowlands said. This time next year, he added, COOs and CFOs are going to be positive about the returns they're getting.

Data will differentiate your business

How to approach data is another barrier for clients in their AI journey, Rowlands said.

"Organizations will be increasingly differentiated by the data that they own," he said. That requires becoming more mindful about where your data sits, who owns it, where it's generated, and how you keep it up to date.

Data will only be more integral as we enter the next stage of AI's evolution, Rowlands added. He expects that within the next 12 months, multi-agent models — a group of specialized AI agents that coordinate to solve a collective goal —will rapidly become a reality.

"That is where AI is going to start to have a big impact on solving some of the biggest problems, such as decarbonization," he said.

Preparing the workforce for these changes is part of implementing AI responsibly, Rowlands said.

KPMG ran a "24 hours of AI" training session in January this year. The key message was that everyone should know how to use AI against their problems and be trusted and innovative with their use of it in front of clients. The firm is continuing to train its workforce in data curation, looking after data, and prompt craft.

Rowlands doesn't deny that AI will have a "deep transformational impact" on the professional-services industry. He said there would be a rotation of jobs, as happened with the internet, but it wouldn't diminish consultants' purpose.

"We don't really think about replacing jobs. It's more about enhancing individuals and roles. And those who are using AI well are being more successful than those who aren't.

"Our consultants will, as they've always done, strive increasingly to make sure that our clients are getting valuable outcomes out of our work."

• Elon Musk's SpaceX is now valued at $350 billion in the latest round of staff share purchases, Bloomberg reported.
• The deal doubles SpaceX's worth from a year ago.
• Elon Musk's net worth keeps rising following gains in Tesla stock and SpaceX's valuation.

Elon Musk's space transportation company has doubled its value in only a year.

SpaceX and approved investors will purchase up to $1.25 billion of employees' shares, valuing the company at about $350 billion, Bloomberg reported late Tuesday, citing an internal memo and unnamed sources.

SpaceX is offering to purchase as much as $500 million worth of common stock itself, according to the memo.

The $185 a share valuation is almost two-thirds higher than the $112 set in the last round of purchases less than three months ago, per Bloomberg.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The deal is double the company's $175 billion valuation in December 2023. SpaceX shares were being sold at a valuation of $210 billion in June and $255 billion just last month, Bloomberg previously reported.

The company has long executed tender offers at fairly regular intervals. The arrangement allows employees to sell some of their shares, which often make up a significant part of their compensation, to SpaceX-approved investors.

The boost in valuation is another boost for Musk, whose net worth has reached record highs since Donald Trump was reelected president last month. Musk was worth $384 billion at Tuesday's close, up $155 billion this year, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Musk is set to work closely with the Trump administration as the co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory committee also known as DOGE.

His businesses are thriving from his close relationship with Trump as investors wager he will continue to play a leading role in the new administration in a phenomenon dubbed the "Trump bump."

Musk's AI startup, xAI, was reportedly valued at $50 billion in late November after raising more than $5 billion in a funding round.

Tesla has also enjoyed a major rally, with shares surging more than 60% this year. The EV maker's stock closed above $400 on Tuesday, putting it within touching distance of its record high of about $415, adjusted for stock splits.

• Saudi Arabia is trying to diversify its economy away from oil under a plan called Vision 2030.
• Neom is one element, and its finance minister said the project is a "very long-term program."
• The kingdom forecast a near-$27 billion Budget deficit for 2025.

Saudi Arabia's finance minister has described the kingdom's ambitious Neom project as a "very long-term program" and returns should not be expected in the coming years.

"Neom is a 50-plus-year plan. If anyone is thinking Neom in its grand size is going to be built and operated and making money in five years, that's foolish. We are not foolish. We are wise people," Mohammed Al Aljaadan said on Tuesday in comments reported by Reuters.

"Some projects within Neom will make returns in the short to medium term, but this is a very long-term program."

Neom, a futuristic development in Saudi's north, has become the centerpiece of its Vision 2030 plans to transform the oil-dependent economy. Some aspects of Neom, such as The Line, have been scaled back this year amid lower oil revenues and other issues.

Earlier this month the CEO of Neom abruptly stepped down after six years in the role. No explanation was given for this departure.

Saudi Arabia forecast a $26.8 billion deficit for 2025, or about 2.3% of GDP, in its Budget statement on Tuesday.

Aljaadan said in a press release that the Kingdom had maintained its strong financial position and that its development projects and plans had not been significantly affected.

Total expenditure in 2025 is forecast to be 1.285 trillion riyals ($342 billion), while total revenue is expected to be 1.184 trillion riyals ($315 billion).

Saudi Arabia's strategy for economic transformation has captured global attention but relies on hundreds of billions of dollars in investment in areas such as tourism, entertainment, and infrastructure.

The Saudi economy has contracted in recent years as the changes take place and global oil prices have declined.

In 2022, Saudi Arabia was the fastest-growing G20 economy, according to the IMF. Its GDP contracted in 2023.

The Saudi government has forecast 0.8% growth this year, and a sharp acceleration in 2025 as non-oil activities take off.