• Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng said that competition within the auto sector will be even more heated in 2025.
• He said in an internal letter that the industry will face an "elimination round" from 2025 to 2027.
• The Xpeng founder-CEO said in November that most Chinese carmakers wouldn't survive the next decade.

Competition within the auto industry will become even more cutthroat in the years ahead, Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng said in a letter to his company's staff last month.

"The period from 2025 to 2027 marks the elimination round in the automotive industry," He wrote in an internal letter obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

"Competition in 2025 will be fiercer than ever," He added.

In 2024, Xpeng delivered 190,068 vehicles, a 34% increase from the 141,601 vehicles delivered in 2023, per a company filing. The company's vice-chairman and president, Brian Gu, said in March that Xpeng is on track to "achieve profitability at some point in 2025."

Tesla, the world's largest EV maker, delivered 1.79 million vehicles in 2024, a 1% decrease from the 1.81 million vehicles delivered in 2023.

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

He made similar statements on the auto industry's outlook last year. In November, the Xpeng founder-CEO said in an interview with Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times that most Chinese carmakers won't survive past the next decade.

"From 300 start-ups, only 100 of them survived. Today, there are fewer than 50 companies that still exist, and only 40 of them are actually selling cars every year," He told the outlet.

"I personally think that there will only be seven major car companies that will exist in the coming 10 years," he added, without specifying who he thought the surviving companies would be.

In March, He told Singaporean broadcaster CNA that the Chinese EV industry will see a "knockout tournament" in the next three to four years, followed by an "all-star competition" in the next seven to eight years.

To be sure, He isn't the only auto executive who expects intense competition in the industry.

In October, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius told attendees at the Berlin Global Dialogue conference that Western automakers are fighting an existential battle against their Chinese counterparts.

"It's strange. It's a Darwinistic-like price war, market purification. And many of those players that are around now. Many of those are not going to be around five years from now," Källenius said.

• Google is joining tech companies like Amazon and Meta in donating to Donald Trump's inauguration.
• The search giant said it is giving $1 million, more than triple what it gave Trump in 2017.
• In September, Trump threatened to prosecute Google if he was elected president.

Google said it is donating $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump's coming inauguration.

"Google is pleased to support the 2025 inauguration, with a livestream on YouTube and a direct link on our homepage. We're also donating to the inaugural committee," the company's global head of government affairs and public policy, Karan Bhatia, told CNBC.

Google's contribution, which will help fund the celebratory events after Trump takes office, is more than triple what it gave in 2017. The search giant donated $285,000 to Trump's first inauguration, per Federal Election Commission filings.

Back in September, Trump said in a Truth Social post that he would prosecute Google "at the maximum levels" if he won the election.

In his post, Trump accused Google of "illegally" using its system to display only "bad stories" about him while surfacing positive reports about his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Google and Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Trump's second inauguration, on January 20, has seen donations pour in from multiple companies and business leaders.

The president-elect has received contributions from tech companies like Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Uber. Like Google, all four companies have donated $1 million each.

That's on top of the personal donations made by tech executives like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Both Altman and Khosrowshahi donated $1 million each as well.

"One of the big differences between the first term, in the first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend," Trump said at a press conference in December.

"I don't know, my personality changed or something," he added.

Since winning the election in November, Trump has raised more than $200 million in donations, of which at least $150 million will go toward the inauguration, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Trump raised $106.8 million for his first inauguration in 2017, per the FEC.

• Wildfires are rampaging across Los Angeles County this week.
• Hundreds of thousands of people are under evacuation orders or warnings.
• Insured losses could top $20 billion, JPMorgan analysts estimated — the most-ever in California.

The Los Angeles area is battling a series of massive wildfires that continue to rip through its picturesque mountains and hillsides — creating a hellscape of burned-out neighborhoods and livelihoods that could end up being the most costly fire disaster in California history.

JPMorgan analysts said the blazes tearing through the region could lead to more than $20 billion in insured losses — and around $50 billion in total economic losses. That would make these conflagrations "significantly more severe" than the Camp Fires that struck the state in 2018 and racked up $10 billion in insured losses, the current record.

More than 1,500 displaced people were being housed in shelters on Thursday night, authorities said, and an additional 200,000 people had been placed under evacuation warnings — with officials advising them to be ready to leave their homes if fires move closer to their residences.

A curfew is in effect in impacted areas under evacuation orders until 6 a.m. Friday, Los Angeles County said.

Thick bands of smoke could be seen in several directions from the city's downtown core — with at least five fires burning throughout the 4,000 square-mile county that's home to nearly 10 million people.

More than 35,000 acres have burned so far, with the LA County Medical Examiner reporting 10 deaths as of 9 p.m. local time on Thursday.

Over 10,000 homes and other structures have been destroyed, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the scene in LA as apocalyptic.

"Not since the 1990s, when Los Angeles was hit with the fires, the flood, the earthquake, and the riots, have I seen such disaster occur here in our city," Hochman said at a briefing, referring to the Northridge Earthquake and the disturbances in the wake of the Rodney King verdict.

The National Weather Service predicted that the "red flag warning" signaling high fire danger will persist for LA County and nearby Ventura County through Friday.

But there was some brightening on the horizon: Officials said weather conditions are beginning to turn favorably for firefighters.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a Thursday briefing that twenty people had been arrested on suspicion of looting in areas affected by the fires.

Luna issued a stern warning to the public: Anyone who remains in areas under mandatory evacuation orders is guilty of a misdemeanor, and his officers will begin enforcing that. Beyond that, crimes like looting could reach the felony level, he said.

In an X post on Thursday night, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that "taking advantage "of evacuated communities is "absolutely sick," and said that "looting will not be tolerated."

In a separate post on Thursday night, Newsom said that over 8,000 firefighting personnel, as well as over 600 California Guard members, 991 fire engines, and 40 helicopters were hard at work battling the wildfires.

Late Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration warned civilians against flying unauthorized drones in areas undergoing firefighting efforts, after a firefighting plane sustained wing damage from a civilian drone and had to be grounded.

Meanwhile, around 95,000 power customers remain in the dark, Janisse Quiñones, the CEO and chief engineer of the city's Department of Water and Power, said.

Satellite images of the LA fires showed the destruction left in their wake.

Starlink, Elon Musk's SpaceX subsidiary that provides satellite internet service, said on Thursday that people in the Los Angeles area can use the company's network to text loved ones, contact 911, and receive emergency alerts.

Here's a look at the latest happenings in the main fires spreading throughout the area:

Palisades Fire

The Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades area north of Santa Monica was the first fire to strike the region on Tuesday morning. It has spread to nearly 20,000 acres, making it one of the worst natural disasters in LA history, officials said Thursday.

Data from state agency CalFire early on Friday showed that the fire was 6% contained.

Los Angeles City's Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said in a Thursday briefing that the Palisades Fire had damaged or destroyed more than 5,300 structures.

Around 2,300 firefighters were tackling the blaze as of early Friday, LAFD spokesperson Capt. Adam VanGerpen told CNN.

Wind gusts in the area have calmed down since their Tuesday highs of nearly 100 mph, and are forecast to reduce to around 20 mph on Friday.

Crowley would not confirm reports that the fire started in a resident's garden, saying the origin is still under investigation.

Some celebrities have lost homes in the blaze, including Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal.

Eaton Fire

The second-largest fire in Los Angeles County is the Eaton Fire, which started on Tuesday evening in the Pasadena-Altadena area at the foothills of the Angeles National Forest.

The blaze has spread to over 13,000 acres and is zero percent contained, according to CalFire early on Friday.

About 5,000 structures have been damaged by the Eaton Fire, authorities said on Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

Hurst Fire

The Hurst Fire, which began late on Tuesday night in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, spread to 771 acres as of early Friday, according to data from CalFire.

CalFire estimated it was 37% contained as of early Friday.

LAFD's Crowley said firefighters have been able to hold the fire within a containment area and had established a perimeter.

In an X post on Thursday afternoon, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the mandatory evacuation order for the Hurst Fire had been lifted.

Sunset Fire and others

The Sunset Fire broke out in the Runyon Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening, quickly spreading to scorch over 40 acres and threaten major LA landmarks.

As of Thursday morning, firefighters were able to stop the fire's forward progress, Crowley said.

All evacuation orders related to the Sunset Fire were lifted as of 7:30 a.m. Thursday, she added.

A large structure fire consumed two large homes in the Studio City area but firefighters were able to stop its forward growth at just one acre and prevent another brushfire, Crowley said.

Another fire, the Kenneth Fire, started on Thursday afternoon near Calabasas and Hidden Hills, north of the Palisades Fire. The fire quickly grew from 50 acres to almost 1,000 acres in less than a few hours, according to Cal Fire.

On Thursday night, the Ventura County Fire Department said that firefighters had stopped the forward progress of the fire, with the blaze holding at 960 acres with 0% containment.

It was 35% contained as of the early hours of Friday.

A mandatory evacuation order was issued for several neighborhoods near the fire.

LAPD said it had detained a possible arson suspect, but could not confirm any connection to the fire.

An evacuation notice intended for residents impacted by the Kenneth Fire was mistakenly sent out across LA County due to a "technical error," County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in an X post.

Yet another fire, the Lidia Fire, started Wednesday afternoon in Acton near the Antelope Valley, about 20 miles northeast of the San Fernando Valley. It spread to consume 394 acres but has been 75% contained, per CalFire.

One of the fires has been 100% contained. The Woodley Fire, which began Wednesday morning in the southern part of the San Fernando Valley, has been suppressed and there are no current threats, Crowley said.

Patrols were monitoring the area for any flare-ups, she added.

Events canceled and landmarks closed as smoke chokes LA

Major and minor events alike have been canceled or postponed across the LA area as the city battles the fires.

The 30th Annual Critics Choice Awards, set for Sunday night, were rescheduled for January 26. A National Hockey League game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Calgary Flames, scheduled for Wednesday night at Crypto.com arena, was postponed. The LA Lakers rescheduled Thursday night's game.

Music venues across the city were also canceling or postponing their shows, including The Troubadour, The Wiltern, The Echo, the Kia Forum, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and others.

Flights into and out of LAX, Hollywood Burbank Airport, Ontario International Airport, and Santa Ana's John Wayne Airport were also experiencing delays and cancellations on Thursday.

The fires are also shuttering tourist attractions in and around Los Angeles, which attracts nearly 50 million visitors a year.

The fires forced some Los Angeles-area landmarks to close, including the Hollywood sign, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Broad Museum, the Norton Simon Museum, the Getty Villa and Getty Center, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal CityWalk, and the Griffith Observatory.

Airbnb told CNN that it would be allowing refunds for bookings in areas affected by the wildfires, following a viral social media post from a customer who said the company refused to offer her a refund.

California already struggled with an insurance crisis

The devastating fires this week will likely only worsen California's ongoing insurance crisis, where many homebuyers already struggle to get approved for loans, home insurance, and fire insurance — even in areas outside the typical risk zones.

In recent years, some insurance companies, like State Farm, have stopped accepting new home insurance policies in the state entirely, as wildfire risks have only increased.

Experts told Business Insider that prices are likely to continue rising for those who can still get insurance.

"I've seen numbers go up 200%, 300%, even 500% in a year," Nick Ramirez, the owner of a California insurance agency, told BI.

And as the fires' estimated damages already climb into the billions of dollars, some homeowners will have to rebuild without the help of insurance payouts.

"These fires will likely be the costliest in history, not the deadliest, and that is the only silver lining right now," Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA, told LAist.

This a developing story. Please check back for updates.

• Elon Musk said on Wednesday that saving $2 trillion would be a "best-case outcome" for DOGE.
• Musk said DOGE had a "good shot" at saving $1 trillion, which would still be an "epic outcome."
• The Tesla chief had previously suggested his commission would save at least $2 trillion.

Elon Musk cast doubt on his previous promise that Donald Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" would save the government $2 trillion.

"I think we'll try for $2 trillion. I think that's, like, the best-case outcome," Musk told the political strategist Mark Penn during a Wednesday-evening chat on X.

In October, Musk argued that DOGE would save the government at least $2 trillion. Some federal budget experts questioned the possibility of making such significant cuts, especially given that Trump has promised not to touch programs like Social Security and Medicare.

"But I do think that you kind of have to have some overage," Musk told Penn. He added that he thought the commission had a "good shot" at saving $1 trillion.

He continued: "If we can drop the budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and free up the economy to have additional growth such that the output of goods and services keeps pace with the increase in the money supply, then there will be no inflation. So that, I think, would be an epic outcome."

Musk did not specify in October which cuts he planned to make to achieve that target, which would involve slashing government spending by nearly a third; the federal government spent $6.75 trillion in the 2024 fiscal year.

Musk told Penn on Wednesday that he still thought the government was "a very target-rich environment for saving money."

"It's like being in a room full of targets," he added. "Like, you could close your eyes, and you can't miss."

Republican lawmakers have moved quickly to support DOGE's efforts. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia are set to lead their chambers' work with the panel.

The Tesla CEO's influence has soared since Trump's victory. In recent weeks Musk helped kill sweeping legislation to fund the federal government, briefly increasing the risk of a shutdown.

Trump has waved off concerns about Musk's political moves in Europe. The Tesla CEO has repeatedly criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and called for the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, a Trump ally, to step aside. Musk also endorsed Germany's far-right AfD party ahead of elections next month; top leaders have pushed back.

"You mean where he likes people that tended to be conservative? I don't know the people," Trump told reporters during a wide-ranging press conference on Tuesday. "I can say Elon's doing a good job. Very smart guy."

Musk and Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Trump is set to be sworn into office on January 20.

• Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said she looks for candidates who love to learn new things.
• Sweet said in a podcast interview that she would ask people what they have learned recently.
• The former lawyer said it didn't matter even if people just said they learned how to bake a cake.

Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said there's one key question she poses to people who want to work for her.

"There's one question that we ask everyone, regardless of you're a consultant or you're working in technology or whatever you do," Sweet said in an interview with Norges Bank Investment Management CEO Nicolai Tangen on his "In Good Company" podcast, which aired Wednesday.

"We say, 'What have you learned in the last six months?'" she added.

Asking this question, Sweet told Tangen, is a practical way for her to determine if candidates are interested in learning new things.

"If someone can't answer that question, and by the way, we don't care if it's 'I learned to bake a cake,' if they can't answer that question, then we know that they're not a learner," Sweet said.

This wouldn't be the first time Sweet has talked about her expectations for new hires at Accenture. The consulting firm said on its website that it employs around 799,000 employees and operates in more than 200 cities.

The former lawyer said in a 2019 interview with The New York Times that she looks for candidates who demonstrate two main traits.

"The first is curiosity. The new normal is continuous learning, and we look for people who demonstrate lots of different interests and really demonstrate curiosity," Sweet told The Times.

"The second piece is leadership. I don't care what level you are, there is the need to offer straight talk when you're working with clients. You have to have the courage to deliver tough messages," she added.

Representatives for Sweet at Accenture did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Sweet isn't the only C-suite executive who places a premium on learning.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that students should devote their time to learning and reading, and less time on social-media platforms like TikTok and Facebook.

Dimon was speaking at the Georgetown Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy's annual Financial Markets Quality Conference in September when he was asked if he had any advice for the students in attendance.

"My advice to students: Learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. If you're Democrat, read the Republican opinion, the good ones. If you're Republican, read the Democrat ones," Dimon said.

"Read history books. You can't make it up. Nelson Mandela, Abe Lincoln, Sam Walton. You only learn by reading and talking to other people. There's no other way," he continued.

• The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the US Maritime Alliance have struck a deal.
• This deal averted a potential strike involving thousands of dockworkers.
• The strike would have crippled shipping lines along the East and Gulf Coasts.

The International Longshoremen's Association and the US Maritime Alliance said Wednesday they had agreed on a new six-year master contract.

The two sides said in a joint statement that this will allow them to avoid any work stoppages on January 15.

"This agreement protects current ILA jobs and establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf coast ports — making them safer and more efficient, and creating the capacity they need to keep our supply chains strong," the joint statement read, adding that the deal was a "win-win agreement."

The ILA and USMX said they would get their members to review and approve the agreement before it is released publicly. For now, both sides will continue to operate under their current contract until the terms of the new agreement are ratified via a vote.

The strike would have potentially paralyzed shipping lines along the East and Gulf Coasts.

Details of the agreement were not made public, but the joint statement said dockworkers received some protections against having their jobs replaced by automation, which was one of the union's key concerns.

The ILA had the support of President-elect Donald Trump, who said in a Truth Social post in December that the amount of money saved by automation on US docks was "nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen."

Members of the ILA previously went on strike in October for three days. The strike ended when the union secured higher pay, while other contract negotiations continued, and members returned to work. That agreement provided a 62% pay increase over the next six years.

• Jensen Huang says he would be "delighted" to meet with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
• The Nvidia CEO said he has yet to receive an invitation.
• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have visited Trump at his Palm Beach resort.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says he has yet to meet with President-elect Donald Trump following the latter's victory in November's presidential election.

Huang was giving an interview to Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow on Tuesday when he was asked if he'd been invited to visit Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Palm Beach resort.

"Not yet but I would be delighted to go see him and congratulate him and do everything we can to help this administration succeed," Huang told Ludlow.

A Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment on Huang's remarks.

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

In November, Trump said he plans to impose an additional 10% import tariff on Chinese goods entering the US. He previously said in February that he would introduce tariffs of more than 60% on China.

Huang told investors at Nvidia's earnings call in November that the chip giant will "comply with any regulation that comes along fully."

China is an important market for Nvidia, making up nearly 17% of the company's total revenue in the year to the end of January 2024.

Several tech billionaires, ranging from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, have already made trips to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the president-elect.

Trump has enjoyed a warm reception from business leaders as he prepares to take office for the second time.

The president-elect has raised at least $200 million in donations since winning the election, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing people involved with the fundraising.

At least $150 million of the funds will go toward Trump's upcoming inauguration, far outpacing the $106.8 million he received for his first inauguration in 2017. The rest of the donations will help fund Trump's political activities and future presidential library.

"One of the big differences between the first term, in the first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend," Trump said at a news conference last month.

"I don't know, my personality changed or something," Trump added.

• Mark Zuckerberg wore a Greubel Forsey Hand Made 1 watch in a Facebook video he posted on Tuesday.
• The Meta CEO was announcing the end of the company's fact-checking partnerships in the US.
• Zuckerberg has also worn watches from the other Swiss brands De Bethune and Patek Philippe.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sported a new luxury timepiece while announcing the end of his company's fact-checking partnerships in the US on Tuesday.

Zuckerberg's watch, a Greubel Forsey Hand Made 1, costs more than $900,000 and is assembled entirely by hand. Greubel Forsey says on its website that it makes only two or three models of the Hand Made 1 every year.

"Hey, everyone. I want to talk about something important today, because it's time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram," Zuckerberg said while wearing the Hand Made 1 on his left wrist in a video he posted on Facebook.

When asked about the video, Greubel Forsey CEO Michel Nydegger told Bloomberg that Zuckerberg's choice of timepiece showed a "true appreciation for the most traditional approach to fine watchmaking today."

According to Greubel Forsey's website, the "Hand Made 1" has 281 parts, most of which are made in-house by the watchmaker.

Meta and Greubel Forsey didn't respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

This isn't the first time Zuckerberg has publicly demonstrated his interest in luxury timepieces.

In September, Zuckerberg wore a rose gold De Bethune DB25 Starry Varius during an interview with the business podcast "Acquired." The watch costs about $90,000, according to listings by the watch retailers The 1916 Company and The Hour Glass.

Zuckerberg was also seen wearing the Patek Philippe Grand Complications In-Line Perpetual Calendar 5236P-001 when he posted a selfie with his wife, Priscilla Chan. The watch costs $141,400, according to Patek Philippe's website.

Zuckerberg has expressed some interest in timepieces to other business leaders. At Anant Ambani's pre-wedding party in March, he showed his admiration for Ambani's Richard Mille watch.

"You know, I never really wanted to get a watch. But after seeing that, I was like, watches are cool," Zuckerberg told Ambani, according to a video circulated on social media.

Joseph Rosenfeld, an image consultant in New York, told BI in September that Zuckerberg's "love for premium watches and subtle luxury" suggested a shift in the Meta CEO's style and identity.

"He's stepping into a role where his appearance reflects his position as a tech innovator," Rosenfeld said.

Zuckerberg's penchant for expensive watches appears to be one facet of a wider image transformation.

For one, the Meta chief has ditched his gray t-shirts and hoodies, opting for shearling jackets and gold chains instead.

But watches aside, what Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday is set to have far-reaching ramifications on Meta's approach toward content moderation.

Meta said it was replacing its fact-checking partners with a crowdsourced moderation tool like the community notes used by X, formerly Twitter.

"We've seen this approach work on X — where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see," Meta's chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, wrote in a blog post.

"We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they're seeing — and one that's less prone to bias," Kaplan added.

• Dell is ditching its old naming system for PC products.
• The company is dividing its PC line-up into three categories: Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max.
• Dell executives said Apple didn't own the words "pro" and "max" when asked about the similar names.

Tech giant Dell has announced a new naming system for its PC line-up.

But that sparked some questions from people who attended a media briefing on Monday, who pointed out that Dell's new naming system seemed similar to a key competitor's.

Dell told reporters ahead of this year's Consumer Electronics Show that it was dividing its PC products into three categories: Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max.

This replaces Dell's current system which features names like Inspiron, OptiPlex, and XPS. The company said at the briefing that the new names won't apply to its gaming brand, Alienware.

"Your branding sounds a lot like Apple. Aren't you just following them?" one audience member said at the briefing, Bloomberg's Brody Ford reported on Monday.

Ever since the iPhone 11 was introduced in 2019, Apple has used the "Pro" and "Pro Max" labels for the iPhone's higher-tiered variants. The naming system is also used for some of Apple's other products as well, like the iPad Pro tablet, and the AirPods Pro earphones.

Apple doesn't own the words "pro" and "max," Dell's executives said at the briefing.

The company's COO Jeff Clarke said that the naming decision was based on research Dell did with "tens of thousands of customers," per Bloomberg.

The new naming system will "make it easier for our customers to do business with us," said Dell founder and CEO, Michael Dell.

Dell and Apple did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.

To be sure, Apple isn't the only tech company who has used words like "pro" in its product names. For instance, Microsoft has its Surface Pro tablets as well as its AI subscription offering, Copilot Pro.

Rival HP made a similar move to simplify their product naming system last year. The company said in May that it was using the prefix "Omni" for its consumer laptops and desktops, and the prefixes "Elite" and "Pro" for its commercial offerings.

Although Dell is best known for its computer business, the company has increasingly turned its attention toward its flourishing AI business. The company said in June that it was partnering with chip giant Nvidia to build an AI factory for Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI.

In November, Dell said its Infrastructure Solution Groups, which includes sales of AI servers, earned $11.4 billion in revenues for the third quarter of 2024, a 34% year-on-year increase.

Dell's shares were up by over 57% last year.

• Justin Trudeau, 53, announced that he's stepping down as the leader of Canadian's Liberal Party.
• The party will choose a new leader. Once that happens, Trudeau will step down as prime minister.
• Trudeau has served since 2015 but faced repeated calls to step down in recent weeks.

Justin Trudeau on Monday announced that he would step down as prime minister of Canada once his party chooses a new leader.

"This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election," Trudeau said at a press conference in Ottawa.

The Canadian leader said that he would step down as Canada's Liberal Party, and that he would cease to be prime minister once his party selects a new leader "through a robust, nationwide, competitive process."

Trudeau, 53, has been Canada's prime minister since 2015. His nine-year-long tenure as premier is coming to an abrupt end following weeks of turmoil within Trudeau's own party, the Liberal Party.

He faced repeated calls from party colleagues to step down after the Liberal Party lost three by-elections last year. In December, Trudeau's deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, announced her sudden resignation from his cabinet.

Freeland, who was also the finance minister, said Trudeau had offered her another cabinet position, but she decided to step down because it was "the only honest and viable path for me." She had clashed with Trudeau over his push for increased spending and how Canada should handle the incoming Trump administration.

In November, President-elect Donald Trump said he planned to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico.

Since then, Trump has continued to taunt Trudeau by referring to him as Canada's "governor" and has joked about making Canada the 51st US state.

"The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau," Trump said of Freeland's resignation in a Truth Social post last month.

Shortly after Freeland's resignation, opposition politician and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh said his party would bring a vote of no confidence against Trudeau when parliament sat again in January.

Singh's party entered into a confidence-and-supply agreement with Trudeau's minority government in March 2022, but withdrew from it in September.

"I called for Justin Trudeau to resign, and he should," Singh wrote in an open letter on December 20.

Canada's next general election must be held by October 2025.

• Sam Altman wrote a blog post about his experience running OpenAI on Sunday.
• Altman said OpenAI would have fallen apart in 2023 without Ron Conway's and Brian Chesky's help.
• That was the year Altman was briefly ousted and then reinstated as OpenAI's CEO.

OpenAI would have fallen apart back in 2023 without venture capitalist Ron Conway and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Sam Altman wrote in a blog post on Sunday.

Altman expressed his gratitude to Conway and Chesky in a blog post titled "Reflections," which detailed his brief ouster from OpenAI. Altman said the post was inspired by a recent interview he gave to Bloomberg, which was published on Sunday as well.

"Ron Conway and Brian Chesky went so far above and beyond the call of duty that I'm not even sure how to describe it," Altman wrote.

Altman was fired as OpenAI's CEO on November 17, 2023. The company's board said in a statement that it was removing Altman because he "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board" but did not elaborate further.

Altman returned as CEO on November 22, 2023, after nearly all of OpenAI's staff threatened to quit if he wasn't reinstated.

In his blog post, Altman said "there were a lot of people who did incredible and gigantic amounts of work" to help him and OpenAI when he was ousted, but Conway and Chesky "stood out from all others."

"I've of course heard stories about Ron's ability and tenaciousness for years and I've spent a lot of time with Brian over the past couple of years getting a huge amount of help and advice," Altman wrote.

"But there's nothing quite like being in the foxhole with people to see what they can really do," he continued. "I am reasonably confident OpenAI would have fallen apart without their help; they worked around the clock for days until things were done."

Conway and Chesky, Altman wrote, gave him "great advice" and "stopped me from making several mistakes." The pair also tapped on their vast networks to assist him, Altman added.

"I thought I knew what it looked like to support a founder and a company, and in some small sense I did," Altman wrote. "But I have never before seen, or even heard of, anything like what these guys did, and now I get more fully why they have the legendary status they do."

Representatives for Conway and Chesky did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Conway and Chesky are longtime friends of Altman and were one of the first people he called after OpenAI fired him.

Conway was also one of Altman's guest speakers when the latter taught a class on startups at Stanford University in 2014.

Altman and Chesky's friendship, meanwhile, goes back more than a decade. Altman mentored Chesky when Airbnb was a part of Y Combinator, a startup accelerator.

When Altman was fired from OpenAI, he briefly considered launching another AI startup but was discouraged by Conway and Chesky, The New York Times reported in December 2023.

"You should be willing to fight back at least a little more," Chesky told Altman, per The Times.

OpenAI's board, Conway later told Time magazine, had fired Altman for "nitpicky, unfireable, not even close to fireable offenses."

The billionaire venture capitalist had spoken to the magazine as part of a profile on Altman that was published in December 2023.

"It is reckless and irresponsible for a board to fire a founder over emotional reasons," Conway told the outlet.

• Sam Altman was ousted as OpenAI's CEO by the company's board in November 2023.
• Altman said he was left with a "complete mess" after he was reinstated as CEO.
• Altman said his ouster was "a crazy thing to have to go through" and that he had "no time to recover."

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the ChatGPT maker was like a house on fire following his brief ouster from the company.

Altman told Bloomberg in an interview published Sunday that he was left with a "complete mess on my hands" after being reinstated as CEO.

On November 17, 2023, OpenAI's board said in a statement it was removing Altman because he "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board."

The board, however, didn't give further details about Altman's firing. Altman was later reinstated as CEO just five days later, after OpenAI's employees protested the board's decision.

"And it got worse every day. It was like another government investigation, another old board member leaking fake news to the press," Altman told Bloomberg.

"And all those people that I feel like really fucked me and fucked the company were gone, and now I had to clean up their mess," he added.

Altman did not specify which board member he was referring to.

Back in November, OpenAI's board consisted of six people: Altman, fellow cofounders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, AI researcher Helen Toner, and Tasha McCauley, an entrepreneur and researcher at the RAND Corporation. Sutskever, D'Angelo, Toner, and McCauley had voted for Altman's removal.

D'Angelo was the only one of the four to remain on OpenAI's board following Altman's return as CEO. Sutskever left his position as OpenAI's chief scientist in May.

"It was just a crazy thing to have to go through and then have no time to recover, because the house was on fire," Altman told Bloomberg.

When approached for comment, OpenAI told Business Insider that it had nothing further to add to Altman's interview.

OpenAI saw multiple exits in its leadership ranks following Altman's return as CEO.

Sutskever's co-lead for OpenAI's superalignment team, Jan Leike, left his post at the same time Sutskever did, and joined the company's rival, Anthropic.

Then, in August, the company's cofounder and head of its alignment science efforts, John Schulman, left OpenAI to join Anthropic too.

In September, OpenAI's CTO Mira Murati announced her departure from the company as well.

OpenAI is in talks with California's attorney general's office about becoming a for-profit entity, Bloomberg separately reported. The company was launched as a non-profit research organization in 2015.

In October, OpenAI closed a $6.6 billion funding round, valuing it at $157 billion.

• Parts of the US are being battered by Winter Storm Blair, with states of emergency declared.
• The frigid conditions are impacting travel, with icy Midwest roads and flights and trains canceled.
• Snow hit Washington, DC, on Monday as the area prepares for the Trump administration transition.

Ice-storm warnings and unpleasantly cold conditions are expected to continue in much of the northern US.

The Arctic outbreak, dubbed Winter Storm Blair by the Weather Channel, has disrupted travel and resulted in at least five deaths.

The storm is bringing heavy snow to areas in the mid-Atlantic region that haven't seen such weather in a decade, the National Weather Service warned.

Heavy snowfall has occurred in places such as Kansas City, Missouri, where local media reported 10 inches of snow on Sunday night, and Louisville, Kentucky, which saw its largest single-day snowfall in about 25 years.

On Tuesday, snow is expected to dwindle in most of the areas blanketed by it as the storm moves south.

Two people have died in a weather-related crash in Wichita, Kansas, a Missouri public works employee was fatally injured during snow removal operations, and a person in Houston, Texas, died due to cold weather, NBC reported on Monday afternoon.

As of 3 a.m. ET Tuesday, about 207,063 utility customers were without power across Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Virginia, Illinois, and Missouri, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks power outages across the US. That was down from about 254,000 customers on Monday afternoon.

Travel delays and cancellations

More than 2,900 flights were canceled and over 9,300 flights within, into, or out of the US were delayed on Monday, according to FlightAware.

More than half of Monday flights were canceled at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, while the nearby Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport saw 125 flights, or 43% of those scheduled Monday, canceled.

Chicago O'Hare and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airports are leading the country in delays.

Amtrak, the US national rail operator, also announced a series of cancellations in the Northeast and the Midwest on Monday.

The numbers of impacted flights are expected to continue to rise.

Airlines including American, Delta, Southwest, and United have said they're waiving change fees for flights impacted by the storm.

Meanwhile, freezing temperatures led to icy roads and dangerous driving conditions in the Midwest on Sunday. The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported 436 crashes and 1,788 stranded motorists by 3 p.m. on Monday.

Heavy snow and cold to continue

The NWS Weather Prediction Center said Monday that the adverse weather would move toward the mid-Atlantic throughout the day, bringing up to 12 inches of snow and dangerously cold temperatures.

Snow — possibly mixed with sleet and freezing rain — reached about 8 inches in Washington, DC, where preparations are underway for Donald Trump's incoming administration.

Additional cold weather warnings have also been issued in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis, with officials warning to limit travel in the impacted areas, The Weather Channel reported.

The Baltimore-Washington National Weather Service said on Monday afternoon that heavy snow would continue through 11 p.m., dropping up to 3 more inches before the snow system exits the area.

On Monday night, it predicted light snow to continue into the night with an extra 1 to 2 inches near urban areas and in the mountains, and low temperatures in the single digits in the west to upper teens elsewhere.

In an X post in the early hours of Tuesday, the mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser, said more than 200 snow plows would work through the night, and that school would be closed Tuesday.

Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Arkansas have declared states of emergency, with Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey declaring a state of emergency for several counties.

In all, about half the US population is expected to experience freezing temperatures over the next week, Axios reported.

• Tesla annual sales declined for the first time in over a decade.
• The US EV giant sold 1.79 million cars in 2024, a 1% drop from the 1.81 million sold in 2023.
• Tesla is still the world's largest EV maker but Chinese rivals like BYD are closing in on it.

Chinese auto companies like BYD are giving Tesla a run for its money this week.

On Thursday, Tesla announced that it had delivered 1.79 million vehicles last year, a 1% drop from the 1.81 million vehicles it delivered in 2023. This is the first time Tesla's annual sales have declined in over a decade.

Tesla shares fell by as much as 8% on the same day, trading as low as $373.40 before paring losses.

Tesla's Chinese rivals, on the other hand, saw a rise in sales at the end of 2024.

BYD said on Wednesday that it had sold 1.76 million battery electric cars in 2024, a 12% increase from the 1.57 million cars it sold in 2023.

Smaller EV makers like Nio and Xpeng saw similar improvements in their sales figures as well.

Nio said in a statement on Wednesday that it had delivered 221,970 vehicles in 2024, a 38.7% increase from the 160,038 cars it delivered in 2023.

Xpeng delivered 190,068 vehicles last year, a 34% increase from the 141,601 vehicles delivered in 2023, per a filing made on Wednesday.

To be sure, Tesla is still the world's largest EV maker. The company played a pioneering role in popularizing EVs when it first burst into the scene with the Roadster in 2008.

But the Elon Musk-led EV giant had to engage in a price war in the past year to fend off its rivals.

Besides slashing prices for its vehicles in China, Tesla also doled out incentives like three months of free Supercharging and its Full Self Driving (Supervised) beta software to entice US customers.

Back in January 2024, Musk told investors in an earnings call that Chinese automakers are the "most competitive car companies in the world."

"If there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world," Musk said.

Tesla, BYD, Nio, and Xpeng did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel at Las Vegas on Wednesday.
• Las Vegas police thanked Elon Musk for his assistance in investigating the blast.
• Musk gave the police further information on the blast and footage from Tesla's charging stations.

Las Vegas police expressed their appreciation for Tesla CEO Elon Musk's assistance after a Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel on New Year's Day.

"I have to thank Elon Musk specifically," Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference on Wednesday.

"He gave us quite a bit of additional information in regards to how the vehicle was locked after it exploded due to the nature of the force from the explosion as well as being able to capture all of the video from Tesla charging stations across the country, he sent that directly to us so I appreciate his help on that," the sheriff added.

The explosion, which took place at 8:40 a.m. Las Vegas time, left one dead and seven injured. The driver, who was killed in the explosion, has not been named.

McMahill told reporters that the Cybertruck's cargo bed contained gasoline canisters, fuel canisters, and "larger mortar fireworks." The FBI is trying to determine whether the blast was an act of terrorism.

"The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards," Musk wrote in an X post on the same day, echoing McMahill's remarks at the press conference.

"The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet because it had most of the blast go up through the truck and out," McMahill said at the press conference.

"In fact, if you look on that video you'll see that the front glass doors of the Trump hotel were not even broken by that blast which they were parked directly in front of," he added.

A video of the blown-up Cybertruck was also shown during the briefing. The vehicle's cargo bed was torched by the explosion, but its hull appeared to be otherwise intact, per the footage.

Tesla did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The blast happened just hours after a driver plowed into a crowd of people in New Orleans with a rented Ford pickup truck.

At least 15 people were killed during the New Orleans attack. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that authorities are investigating if the two incidents are linked.

"The whole Tesla senior team is investigating this matter right now," Musk wrote on X following the explosion in Las Vegas.

Musk wrote in a subsequent X post that "the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself."

"All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion," he added.

The Cybertruck was first announced by Tesla in November 2019, but design changes saw the its release get delayed from 2021 to 2023.

When Musk first unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019, he said that the vehicle will be made from the same stainless-steel alloy used in SpaceX's Starship rocket.

The Cybertruck's skin "is literally bulletproof to a 9-mm handgun," Musk said.

"So, you know, when you say something's built tough, that's what we mean," he added.

• Justin Baldoni sued The New York Times over its story on Blake Lively's sexual-harassment claims.
• The Times stood by its reporting and said it would defend against the lawsuit.
• Lively also filed a lawsuit accusing Baldoni of retaliation for her harassment claims.

Justin Baldoni is taking legal action against The New York Times after the paper reported about his costar Blake Lively's allegations of misconduct against him.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Los Angeles Superior Court, named Baldoni, his publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, and the "It Ends With Us" producers Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz as plaintiffs.

The lawsuit, obtained by Business Insider, accused the Times of relying "almost entirely" on what it described as "Lively's unverified and self-serving narrative" and said the newspaper disregarded "an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives."

The lawsuit, embedded in full below, included screenshots of messages that it said contradicted the Times' reporting.

The lawsuit said the plaintiffs suffered damages that amounted to at least $250 million.

In a statement provided to BI, a Times spokesperson said the outlet stood by the reporting and would "vigorously defend against the lawsuit."

"Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article," the statement said.

The spokesperson also said the paper published Baldoni's full response statement to its story and said he and other subjects "have not pointed to a single error" in its reporting.

Lawyers for Lively said in a statement provided to BI: "Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively's California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today."

The federal suit, also reviewed by Business Insider, named Baldoni and members of his PR team. It was based on the California civil-rights complaint and accused Baldoni and others of orchestrating a campaign to retaliate against her for speaking up about what she said was sexual misconduct.

The lawyers also said they encourage everyone to read Lively's full lawsuit, which is embedded below.

Representatives for Baldoni did not address Lively's lawsuit directly when reached by BI.

Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Baldoni and the other plaintiffs suing the Times, told BI in a statement that Lively and her team had orchestrated a "vicious smear campaign" against his clients and that the Times had "cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful 'untouchable' Hollywood elites."

The Times' bombshell story, "'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine," was published December 21 and detailed messages exchanged between Baldoni and his PR team.

Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni at about the same time, where she accused him of sexual harassment and of coordinating a smear campaign to tarnish her reputation.

Baldoni's lawyers argued in their complaint Tuesday that the Times' story was based on "a premise that is categorically false and easily disproven," saying the Times had access to messages proving that Lively and not Baldoni was at fault.

Read Baldoni's lawsuit against the Times:

Read Lively's lawsuit against Baldoni and others:

• Chief Justice John Roberts flagged threats to the judicial system in his year-end review.
• Disgruntled lawmakers and litigants pose a threat to judicial independence, Roberts wrote.
• Roberts didn't name anyone specifically when he admonished public officials for intimidating judges.

False accusations and charged rhetoric against judges pose a threat to judicial independence, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his year-end review for 2024.

The report, published on Tuesday, delved into the dangers posed by disgruntled politicians and litigants against judges and the wider judicial system.

Roberts said in his report that some judicial decisions are "egregiously wrong" and do merit pushback, but that "not all actors engage in 'informed criticism.'"

"I feel compelled to address four areas of illegitimate activity that, in my view, do threaten the independence of judges on which the rule of law depends: (1) violence, (2) intimidation, (3) disinformation, and (4) threats to defy lawfully entered judgments," Roberts wrote.

The report came not long before President-elect Donald Trump is due to be inaugurated on January 20.

Roberts did not mention Trump in the report, though it did cite instances of litigants airing their criticisms of judges.

"Today, in the computer era, intimidation can take different forms," Roberts wrote. "Disappointed litigants rage at judicial decisions on the Internet, urging readers to send a message to the judge."

"They falsely claim that the judge had it in for them because of the judge's race, gender, or ethnicity—or the political party of the President who appointed the judge," the chief justice added.

Trump has notably clashed with judges presiding over cases against him.

He was repeatedly fined for violating his gag order during his New York hush-money trial.

The former president was held in contempt of court after criticizing his presiding judge, New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan during an interview with "Real America's Voice" in April.

"But this judge, uh, said that I can't get away from the trial. You know he's rushing the trial like crazy. Nobody's ever seen a thing go like this. The jury was picked so fast — 95% Democrats," Trump said in a phone interview with the network.

Trump also clashed repeatedly with Lewis Kaplan, the judge in a defamation suit brought against him by E. Jean Carroll.

In his report, Roberts admonished public officials for attempting to intimidate judges, though he stopped short of naming them.

"Public officials certainly have a right to criticize the work of the judiciary, but they should be mindful that intemperance in their statements when it comes to judges may prompt dangerous reactions by others," Roberts wrote.

The chief justice also admonished lawmakers for trying to defy the Supreme Court's decisions.

"Elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings," the chief justice wrote.

In April 2023, congressional Democrats urged the White House to ignore a federal judge's decision to block the sale of the abortion pill mifepristone. The Biden administration rejected the suggestion. The Supreme Court later upheld access to the drug in a ruling issued in June.

The Supreme Court did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Geoffrey Hinton doesn't support OpenAI's plan to become a for-profit company.
• Hinton said OpenAI has "received numerous tax and other benefits from its non-profit status."
• Hinton voiced his support for the injunction Elon Musk filed against OpenAI's transition.

Elon Musk has a new supporter in his legal fight against OpenAI: AI "godfather" Geoffrey Hinton.

"OpenAI was founded as an explicitly safety-focused non-profit and made a variety of safety related promises in its charter," Hinton said in a statement issued by Encode, a youth-led advocacy organization for human-centered AI, on Monday.

"It received numerous tax and other benefits from its non-profit status. Allowing it to tear all of that up when it becomes inconvenient sends a very bad message to other actors in the ecosystem," he added.

Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in physics in October. He's known as the godfather of AI for his work in neural networks and he spent more than a decade at Google before quitting in May 2023.

OpenAI was launched as a nonprofit research organization in 2015. Hinton's comments come as OpenAI takes steps towards becoming a for-profit company.

Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman and others but left its board in 2018, is trying to block that move. Last month, his lawyers filed an injunction against OpenAI to stop its transition to a for-profit entity. When asked about the filing, a spokesperson for OpenAI told BI Musk's latest filing "continues to be utterly without merit."

Encode filed an amicus brief in support of Musk's efforts on December 27.

"From the start, OpenAI's mission was to keep its technology under the control of a nonprofit accountable to the public," Adam Billen, Encode's vice president of public policy, said in a statement to Business Insider on Tuesday morning.

"Its decision to abandon that mission in favor of profit underscores why public involvement is essential in shaping the future of this transformative technology," Billen continued.

Musk's legal battle against OpenAI

In February, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT-maker of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft.

Musk withdrew the lawsuit in June, only to refile it in August.

Musk's lawyers are arguing that OpenAI's executives "deceived" Musk into co-founding the company by playing on his concerns about AI's existential risks.

This isn't the first time Hinton has criticized OpenAI.

At a press conference in October, Hinton said Altman is "much less concerned with safety than with profits," and described the situation as "unfortunate."

OpenAI closed a $6.6 billion funding round in October, valuing it at $157 billion.

OpenAI, Hinton, and Musk did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.

• Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have reached a divorce settlement after eight years.
• Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, two years after the pair got married.
• Her representative said in a statement to BI that she was exhausted but relieved it was over.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have reached a divorce settlement.

"More than eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr. Pitt. She and the children left all of the properties they had shared with Mr. Pitt, and since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family," Jolie's lawyer, James Simon, told Business Insider on Tuesday.

"This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago," Simon said, adding that Jolie was "exhausted" but "relieved this one part is over."

Jolie and Pitt signed off on the settlement on Monday, Simon told People.

Pitt's representative declined to comment when contacted by BI.

Jolie, 49, and Pitt, 61, became an item after working together on the 2005 film "Mr and Mrs Smith." At the time, Jolie was in the process of divorcing actor and director Billy Bob Thornton, while Pitt was married to "Friends" actress Jennifer Aniston.

Pitt and Aniston were idealized as Hollywood's perfect couple, which made rumors that Pitt and Jolie were having an affair all the more shocking.

A month after Aniston filed for divorce in March 2005, Pitt and Jolie were photographed on vacation in Kenya.

In the years that followed, the couple built a family: Jolie adopted her son Maddox in 2002 and her daughter Zahara in 2005 while she was with Pitt. In 2006, their first biological child, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, was born, and they adopted Pax a year later. In 2008, Jolie gave birth to twins: Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline.

The couple got engaged in 2012 and secretly married in France in 2014.

They were photographed together for the final time in July 2016, and Jolie filed for divorce later that year, citing irreconcilable differences and requesting primary custody of their six children.

That September, Pitt was accused of physically abusing one of his children. After an investigation, the FBI agency said no charges had been filed and it would not pursue the case further.

What followed was what is widely regarded as a messy split, with the couple disagreeing over child support, custody, and how to divide their respective stakes in a winery that they bought in 2008, and where they married in 2014.

In 2022, in an FBI report obtained by Rolling Stone and Puck, Jolie alleged Pitt assaulted her on the 2016 flight, was intoxicated, and caused $25,000 worth of damage to their private jet.

At the time, spokespeople for Jolie, Pitt, and the FBI did not respond to BI's requests for comment.

A divorce lawyer for Pitt told the New York Times at the time that while he accepted responsibility for some things in his past, he would not accept responsibility for what he did not do.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

• Nichole Wischoff worked at Citi for a year before leaving for the startup world.
• Wischoff said that even though she made a lot of money in banking, she didn't love her job.
• Working with startups was a better match for her personality, she says.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nichole Wischoff, 34, founder of Wischoff Ventures. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider previously published essays about her first recruit at Wischoff Ventures, Neal Mintz, and his hiring experience.

I picked up running while on a high school student exchange in Belgium.

Running taught me a lot. For one, there are no short-term wins in running. If you want to finish a marathon, you need to put in a lot of super-consistent work to build up your mileage.

Running taught me to keep chipping away at the things that I really want. There's no such thing as short-term success when building your career. But one thing's for sure — if you are willing to put in the work every day, you will see results over time.

Getting into but not enjoying banking

Before I entered the startup world, I worked on project finance at Citi Community Capital, an arm of Citi that deals with community development lending and investing.

Even though I made a lot of money in banking, I didn't enjoy working there.

To be sure, I loved the work itself. It was challenging and super interesting, but I felt suffocated in that environment. But I felt like I was chained to my desk for 14 to 16 hours a day, working continuously and skipping lunch breaks.

Entering the world of startups and venture capital

Fortunately, because I was based in the Bay Area, I was able to make friends in tech and learn more about their careers.

My then-boyfriend, now husband, worked in tech and he encouraged me to give tech a shot.

When I was recruited by my first tech company, a fintech company named Blend, he helped me negotiate the offer. I ended up getting roughly 40% more than what I was making in banking.

After accumulating years of experience in the startup world, I started making angel investments in startups.

Eventually, I started my early-stage venture capital firm, Wischoff Ventures.

I know that I'm not meant for the boardroom

Looking back at my career, I would say that working with and in startups was a good match for my personality. Startups allow you to do as much as you possibly want until you can't take it anymore.

In contrast, your role will be very structured and defined if you work in a big corporate company. There won't be a lot of flexibility. You will be given three to five objectives, and you need to hit them.

In startups, you get to do a lot of things. You can dabble in business development, product management, and fundraising. I enjoy having variety in my work.

I know, too, that I'm not meant for the boardroom. Even now, as a VC, I don't take board seats because I don't find them to be very interesting or useful. What I want is to help get companies off the ground. I don't want to manage hundreds of employees or report to tons of people.

Of course, I do get really bad days in venture capital now and then. But I have stuck on it because I love the adrenaline of clinching a deal. It could be an addiction, but I love momentum and knowing that I'm making progress every single day.

The truth is, you have to be crazy to raise a venture capital fund. You need to make hundreds of pitches and stomach the rejections.

It is a lot like running a marathon. You have to put in the work every day, and it's not sexy. That's what it takes to make it as a VC. You have to like pain and doing hard things.