• President Donald Trump announced Stargate, a new joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank.
• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says Stargate will allow AGI to be built in the US, creating more jobs.
• Altman said that a project like Stargate may not have been possible without Trump.

The US will be able to achieve AGI, or artificial general intelligence, with President Donald Trump's new Stargate AI project, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Tuesday.

Altman was at the White House on Tuesday when Trump announced Stargate, a new joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. Stargate is expected to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure across the US.

"This means we can create AI and AGI in the United States of America," Altman said of Stargate during a Tuesday interview with Fox News's Bret Baier, adding that Stargate wouldn't exist without Trump.

"I think with a different president it might not have been possible. But we are thrilled to get to do this, and I think it'll be great for Americans, great for the whole world," Altman told Baier.

Building AGI in the US would create "hundreds of thousands of jobs," Altman said at the press conference following Trump's Tuesday announcement.

"I'm thrilled we get to do this in the United States of America. I think this will be the most important project of this era," Altman told reporters at the White House.

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

To be sure, the US is likely not close to achieving AGI just yet. Altman, too, took to X to temper expectations that OpenAI is on the cusp of achieving AGI.

On Monday, Altman wrote in an X post that OpenAI was "not gonna deploy AGI next month, nor have we built it."

"We have some very cool stuff for you but pls chill and cut your expectations 100x!" Altman wrote on X.

Still, OpenAI is developing new offerings — and rolling them out quickly. The OpenAI chief wrote in a blog post on January 5 that companies could start using AI agents this year.

"We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it. We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents 'join the workforce' and materially change the output of companies," Altman wrote.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva predicted in a blog post in January 2024 that AI's impact on the job market would be uneven. Around 60% of the jobs in advanced economies will be affected by AI, Georgieva wrote.

"Roughly half the exposed jobs may benefit from AI integration, enhancing productivity," Georgieva wrote in her blog post.

"For the other half, AI applications may execute key tasks currently performed by humans, which could lower labor demand, leading to lower wages and reduced hiring. In the most extreme cases, some of these jobs may disappear," she added.

• President Donald Trump signed an executive order pausing the TikTok ban for 75 days.
• "TikTok is worthless, worthless, if I don't approve it," Trump said.
• The president added that TikTok could be worth $1 trillion and floated a possible joint venture.

Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump said on Sunday that if he's able to halt the ban on TikTok, the US should own half of it.

"I may not do the deal, or I may do the deal. TikTok is worthless, worthless, if I don't approve it," Trump said while signing an executive order that would pause the ban on TikTok for 75 days.

Trump told reporters at the White House that TikTok could be worth $1 trillion and that the US should be entitled to half of the company.

"So I think, like a joint venture, I think we would have a joint venture with the people from TikTok. We'll see what happens," Trump added, though he did not specify who TikTok could partner with.

Several big-name buyers, such as "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary and Trump's former treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin, have expressed interest in buying TikTok.

According to the divest-or-ban law that the Senate passed in April, TikTok had to stop operating in the US on January 19 unless it divested itself from its Chinese-based owner, ByteDance.

The platform briefly went dark for US users on Saturday night but resumed its services on Sunday after Trump said he would pause the ban with an executive order.

"We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive," TikTok said in a statement to Business Insider.

Trump made similar comments about a potential TikTok ban during his first term. In August 2020, Trump said he would ban the platform unless it was sold to a US buyer. The US Treasury should "get a very large percentage" from TikTok's sale, Trump added at the time.

Microsoft expressed its interest in acquiring TikTok in 2020, but that sale did not go through after Trump left office.

However, it is unclear if Trump's executive order will keep TikTok going and prevent the ban altogether.

Under the divest-or-ban law, an extension can only be granted if the president certifies to Congress that "a path to executing a qualified divestiture has been identified" and produces "evidence of significant progress toward executing such qualified divestiture."

Representatives for Trump and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday.
• Big names in business and tech attended the inauguration and other weekend celebrations.
• Here are the billionaires and CEOs who attended Trump's inaugural ceremony.

Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States for the second time on Monday, and key business and tech leaders were there to watch it happen — and to try to get in his good graces.

It's a shift from recent years, when Big Tech leaders and Trump appeared more at odds.

Several of them even sat on the inaugural platform, getting better seats than some of Trump's cabinet appointees.

Tesla's Elon Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Sundar Pichai, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos were among those seated on the inaugural platform. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in contrast, reportedly watched from an overflow room.

Here are the billionaires and CEOs who attended Trump's inauguration.

Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX, and X

Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO who spent hundreds of millions helping to elect Trump, attended the inauguration and spoke at an inaugural rally Monday.

Musk has been a frequent visitor to Trump's Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, since Trump was reelected.

Trump tapped Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, though Ramaswamy confirmed Monday he's leaving DOGE.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, attended the inauguration ceremony and sat on the platform.

Later on Monday, Zuckerberg posted a photo of himself and Chan dressed for an inauguration event with the caption "Optimistic and celebrating," alongside an American flag emoji.

Meta was one of the first major companies to donate $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund, and has started 2025 with a slew of changes that appear to be influenced by Trump's politics.

Zuckerberg dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November, and was "very keen to play an active role" in the president's tech policymaking, Meta's then-global affairs chief, Nick Clegg, said at the time.

Trump was a vocal critic of Facebook in his first term and last year threatened to jail Zuckerberg if re-elected.

While Zuckerberg didn't endorse a candidate for president in 2024, he said Trump's reaction to being shot at a rally in Pennsylvania last summer was "badass."

Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, reportedly met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December. Amazon also donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.

Bezos said at The New York Times' DealBook Summit last month that he was "actually very optimistic" about another Trump term, and would like to help Trump with "reducing regulation"

"What I've seen so far is he is calmer than he was the first time and more settled," Bezos said. "You've probably grown in the last eight years. He has, too."

Bezos didn't always feel this way about Trump.

In 2016, he said Trump's desire to lock up Hillary Clinton and his stated refusal to accept a loss in the presidential election that year "erodes our democracy around the edges."

Trump has also criticized Amazon and The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, frequently over the years.

In 2024, for the first time in decades, The Post didn't endorse a presidential candidate. Bezos reportedly intervened to block an endorsement of Kamala Harris.

Bezos later defended the decision, writing in an op-ed that endorsements "create a perception of bias" and "do nothing to tip the scales of an election."

Tim Cook, Apple

Unlike some of his peers, Apple CEO Tim Cook — better known to Trump as "Tim Apple" — made a $1 million donation to Trump's inaugural fund from his own wallet, rather than from his company.

Cook has credited the first Trump administration with helping Apple break into the retail market in India.

Sam Altman, OpenAI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also made a personal donation of $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.

Altman has stated that he agrees with some of Trump's views around bureaucratic blockades.

"The thing I really deeply agree with the president on is, it is wild how difficult it has become to build things in the United States," Altman told Bloomberg earlier this month.

He added: "Power plants, data centers, any of that kind of stuff. I understand how bureaucratic cruft builds up, but it's not helpful to the country in general."

Shou Zi Chew, TikTok

Shou Zi Chew, TikTok's CEO, was also spotted in the Capitol Rotunda.

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled against TikTok on its challenge against a divest-or-ban law. The platform briefly went dark for US users on Saturday night but resumed its services on Sunday after Trump said he would pause the ban with an executive order.

On Friday, Chew thanked Trump for "his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States."

Sundar Pichai, Google

Google CEO Sundar Pichai was also in attendance Monday.

Google was among the companies that donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.

Rupert Murdoch, NewsCorp

Rupert Murdoch, the patriarch of the Fox News empire, was also in attendance.

Bernard Arnault, LVMH

French billionaire Bernard Arnault, the CEO of luxury conglomerate LVMH, which includes brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior, attended the inauguration.

He was joined by daughter Delphine Arnault, who is CEO of Dior, and son Alexandre Arnault, who will become deputy CEO of LVMH's wines and spirits division, Moët Hennessy, starting in February.

Dana White, UFC

Silicon Valley's growing alignment with the cultural MAGA-verse was also on display Monday.

In attendance at the inauguration was Dana White, president and CEO of UFC, who was recently appointed to the board of Meta, and is a close Trump ally.

White and Meta's Zuckerberg, whose hobbies include MMA fighting, have been spotted together multiple times over the years.

Podcaster Theo Von, one of the internet celebrities Trump used to court young male voters, was at the inauguration, too, representing an ascendant realm of right-wing media.

Joe Rogan, who interviewed Trump on his podcast in late October, also attended.

Miriam Adelson, Las Vegas Sands

Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, was also in attendance.

According to the Associated Press, the longtime GOP megadonor co-hosted a reception for Trump on Monday night alongside Zuckerberg, Tilman Fertitta, Trump's pick for US ambassador to Italy, Todd Ricketts, co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, and Ricketts' wife, Sylvie Légère.

Phil Ruffin, Circus Circus Hotel and Casino

Las Vegas casino magnate Phil Ruffin attended the inauguration with his wife, Oleksandra Nikolayenko.

Trump had served as Ruffin's best man when he married Nikolayenko in 2008.

Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries

Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, attended Trump's inauguration along with his wife Nita, a spokesperson for Ambani confirmed to Business Insider.

The couple also attended Trump's pre-inauguration reception in Washington on Saturday.

Linda McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment

Linda McMahon, Trump's nominee for education secretary and the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, was also present at Trump's inauguration.

While not a billionaire in her own right, McMahon gave $15 million to Trump's campaign and is married to Vincent McMahon, the former executive chairman of WWE-owned TKO Group Holdings, valued at $3 billion.

She led the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019, during Trump's first term in office.

Scott Bessent, Wall Street veteran

Also in attendance was Scott Bessent, Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary.

Bessent founded and runs the macro hedge fund Key Square Group and served as Trump's top economic advisor during the campaign.

If he gets Senate confirmation, Bessent would be the highest-ranking LGBTQ+ official in American history, according to the Associated Press.

Doug Burgum, Arthur Ventures

Former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum was another attendee at Trump's inauguration.

Burgum, Trump's pick to lead the Department of Interior and "energy czar," co-founded Arthur Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage B2B software businesses and manages $1.1 billion.

Chris Wright, Liberty Energy

Chris Wright, founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm with a $3.7 billion net value, was also present.

Trump has tapped Wright to lead the Department of Energy, but he will continue in his positions until the Senate confirms him, the company said.

Howard Lutnick, Cantor Fitzgerald

Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, was another attendee at Trump's inauguration.

Lutnick, who has been put forward as the next commerce secretary, has been president and CEO of the financial services firm since 1991.

In recent years, the billionaire banker has become a key advisor to Trump as well as a major fundraiser.

He is cochair of the Trump transition team.

Others congratulated Trump online

Responses from the corporate world also poured in online.

Pichai, Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg were among those congratulating Trump on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.

Correction: January 20, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated Jeff Bezos' current position at Amazon. He is the founder and executive chairman, not the CEO.

• Donald Trump has been sworn in as president once again.
• He signed a slew of executive orders on Monday.
• They included establishing DOGE and declaring a "national energy emergency."

A political comeback is complete: President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were sworn into office in a ceremony beneath the Capitol Rotunda on Monday.

"The golden age of America begins right now," Trump said in his inaugural speech.

A host of dignitaries — including lawmakers, foreign leaders, and members of Trump's coming cabinet — were on hand. Tech leaders in attendance included Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

In a series of speeches throughout the day — his inauguration speech at the Rotunda, a more freewheeling speech in Emancipation Hall at the Capitol, and a third at Capital One Arena — Trump previewed a flurry of forthcoming actions, including declaring a national emergency at the southern border and establishing an "External Revenue Service."

At Capitol One Arena, he signed several executive orders, including one that rescinded 78 Biden-era executive orders and actions. Later on Monday, in the Oval Office, he signed several more, including pardons for January 6 rioters.

Here's what Trump has pledged to do on day one — and what he's actually done.

Energy and environment

Trump has signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accords, which he also did when he took office in 2017.

Increase fracking and oil drilling: Trump signed an executive order declaring a "national energy emergency" and another designed to ease permitting processes.

Trump's Interior Department will have the power to offer new leases for drilling and natural-gas extraction on federal lands. A last-minute Biden administration ban on deep offshore drilling is set to complicate those actions. While the White House can speed up approval and auction off more leases, it's ultimately up to the energy industry to expand production. Trump also wants to revive canceled projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline that companies have since dropped.

Government restructuring

Remove civil-service protections for federal workers: Trump has said he'll return to his sweeping first-term policy that would have made it easier to fire tens of thousands of federal workers.

On Monday, he signed an executive order instituting a temporary hiring freeze, saying it was "to ensure that we're only hiring competent people who are faithful to the American public." The order says the hiring freeze doesn't apply to the military or "to positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety."

Trump also signed a separate order requiring federal employees to return to in-person work immediately.

Create the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): Trump signed an executive order establishing DOGE in the Oval Office on Monday, saying Elon Musk would be "getting an office for about 20 people" in the executive branch.

The order says DOGE will implement the president's push for government efficiency "by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity."

As part of the order, the US Digital Service is set to be renamed to the US DOGE Service. The US Digital Service was created by then-President Barack Obama in 2014 and provided IT consulting services to federal agencies.

Trump's order also includes the formation of DOGE teams at each federal agency. The order says each team will have at least four members, which could consist of a team lead, an engineer, a human-resources specialist, and an attorney.

Shortly after noon on Monday, several organizations filed lawsuits in a bid to get DOGE to comply with a 1972 law. In the meantime, congressional Republicans eagerly welcomed Musk's efforts and have set up ways to coordinate with DOGE.

Trade

Trump didn't impose any tariffs on Monday, saying his planned tariffs on Canada and Mexico would be imposed in February. He didn't specify a date for his planned tariffs on China, saying he was "going to have meetings and calls" with the country's leader, Xi Jinping.

Trump said on Monday that he was considering imposing a universal tariff on all goods entering the US. He added that while the US was "not ready" for a universal tariff, it could be implemented rapidly.

"You put a universal tariff on anybody doing business in the United States, because they're coming in and they're stealing our wealth," Trump said.

Twenty-five percent tariffs on all Mexican and Canadian goods: Just before Thanksgiving, Trump said he'd levy significant tariffs on the US neighbors because of illegal immigration.

Thanks to Congress, presidents can impose tariffs without legislative action. In his first term, Trump used a law that allows the president to impose them because of national security emergencies. President Joe Biden even expanded some of those duties.

A 60% tariff on all Chinese goods: On the campaign trail, Trump discussed raising tariffs to as high as 60% on all Chinese goods. He's also mused about other wide-ranging tariffs.

Trump has long complained that the US trade deficit with China is too large. The influx of deadly fentanyl, of which the Drug Enforcement Administration has said China is a major source, has only exacerbated those tensions.

The creation of an external revenue service: In his inaugural speech, Trump said he'd establish a new agency to collect tariffs and other foreign fees. "It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources," Trump said.

It's unclear exactly how this service will be set up. Customs and Border Protection is already responsible for collecting customs, and only Congress could set up a new agency.

Effectively pulling the US out of the global tax deal: On Monday, Trump signed an executive order declaring that the "Global Tax Deal has no force or effect in the United States."

This move withdraws US support for the international tax agreement, which aims to establish a 15% global corporate minimum tax. Congress never passed measures to comply with the deal, leaving participating countries able to impose top-up levies on some US multinationals.

The order also calls on officials to look into "options for protection from extraterritorial tax measures."

Crackdown on illegal immigration

Trump signed several executive orders related to immigration on Monday, including declaring a "national emergency" at the southern border.

He also signed an executive order that aims to revoke birthright citizenship, setting up a legal challenge over the meaning of the 14th Amendment.

Trump and his allies have argued that the amendment shouldn't be interpreted to apply to the children of people living in the country illegally. Multiple groups have said they'd challenge any such executive action in court.

He also signed an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Trump said numerous times during the campaign that starting on his first day, he'd take action to begin "the largest deportation operation" in the nation's history.

In his inaugural speech, he said he'd "begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came."

Later, in the Oval Office, Trump said Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids would start soon, though he didn't specify a time.

Crime and justice

Pardons for January 6 rioters: Trump signed an executive order pardoning roughly 1,500 people who were involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The order Trump signed also commuted the sentences of 14 other individuals, who included members of far-right extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.

Culture war

Trump said in his inaugural address that it would "henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female."

The president signed an executive order in the Oval Office that an aide described as "protecting women from radical gender ideologies," which included preventing federal funds from being used to "promote gender ideology" and changes in federal policy to rigidly define terms such as "sex," "man," and "woman" as binary phrases.

Trump also took broad aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and pro-LGTBQ+ policies put in place by the Biden administration. In another order, he ended all federal DEI initiatives and terminated all DEI-related and "environmental justice" offices and positions, such as "chief diversity officer" positions, and all "equity" actions, initiatives, or programs and "equity-related" grants or contracts.

Another executive order renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, a change that Senate Democrats earlier this month indicated they'd be willing to support if the president worked with them on an economic plan to reduce the cost of living for average Americans.

TikTok ban

Trump signed an executive order halting the ban on TikTok for 75 days. While signing the order, Trump told reporters that TikTok could be worth $1 trillion and that the US should own half of it.

According to the divest-or-ban law passed by the Senate in April, TikTok had to cease its US operations on January 19 unless its China-based owner, ByteDance, divested itself from its US holdings.

Correction: January 20, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated Jeff Bezos' current position at Amazon. He is the founder and executive chairman, not the CEO.

• Elon Musk's X is introducing a dedicated video tab for users in the US.
• The new feature comes amid the turmoil surrounding the ban on rival platform TikTok.
• TikTok briefly ceased its US operations on Saturday night before resuming on Sunday.

X, formerly Twitter, debuted a new feature for its US users on Sunday — a tab dedicated to watching videos on the platform.

"The Video Tab has arrived. LFG," X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote in a post on the platform on Sunday night.

According to X's promotional video for the feature, the new tab is located between the dedicated Grok button and notification panel. Grok is an AI chatbot developed by X owner Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI.

To be sure, the app has experimented with video content for years, though this tab marks an intentional shift toward displaying it more prominently. The platform first rolled out its TikTok-like "immersive media viewer" in September 2022, before Musk acquired it.

"X's updated immersive media viewer expands videos to full screen with a single click, allowing you to easily access the full, immersive viewing experience," the company wrote in a blog post at the time.

"Once the video has been launched in full screen mode, we've made video discovery easier as well. Just scroll up to start browsing more engaging video content," the blog post added.

X's new feature comes amid the turmoil surrounding the ban on TikTok.

According to a law passed by the Senate in April, TikTok had to cease its US operations on January 19 unless it divested itself from its Chinese-based owner, ByteDance. TikTok briefly went dark for US users on Saturday night, before restoring services on Sunday.

The resumption of service came after President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that he plans to issue an executive order to delay the enforcement of the TikTok ban.

"We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive," TikTok said in a statement to Business Insider.

X did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Musk's X isn't the only social media company that's making moves while TikTok navigates its regulatory hurdles.

On Sunday, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced a new video editing app called Edits. The app is set to be released on March 13, per its listing on Apple's App Store.

The announcement comes a day just after Apple had removed CapCut, a video editing app made by ByteDance.

Mosseri said in a Threads posts on Sunday that Edits is like "CapCut, but more for creators than casual video makers."

"Not just video editing, but an inspiration tab, idea tracking, and insights built in," Mosseri wrote in his Threads post.

"It's been months and I think it'll end up pretty different than CapCut," Mosseri added.

• RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, has taken the West by storm.
• TikTok users have flocked to RedNote ahead of the looming ban on their app.
• The sudden influx of users has created a mass cultural exchange, but experts say it may not last.

For over a decade, China's social media has been living in its own world.

Without access to YouTube, Facebook, Google, or Instagram, the country instead relies on local apps such as BiliBili, Weibo, Baidu, and, more recently — Xiaohongshu.

Xiaohongshu, now known in English as RedNote, transformed overnight into a bridge between the realms of China's internet and America's, as a sudden wave of US users downloaded the app this week in anticipation of a national ban on TikTok.

RedNote's rise was relatively recent in the Chinese space, with the app only gaining significant mainstream traction from 2018 onward.

It's most often compared to Instagram, with a heavy focus on photos presented through a grid-like feed. In China, it's been largely defined as a popular app for beauty and lifestyle content, especially among young women.

Then came the looming TikTok ban and the Americans. By Monday, RedNote became the most downloaded iPhone app in the US. As of Thursday evening, it still holds the top spot.

The sudden surge in interest in RedNote comes as TikTok inches closer to its divest-or-ban deadline on January 19. The Senate passed a law in April that would require TikTok to stop operating in the US if it didn't divest itself from its Chinese-based owner, ByteDance.

Last week, TikTok appealed to the Supreme Court for an emergency injunction to pause the divestment deadline. The court is expected to rule on TikTok's fate this week.

New US users, calling themselves "TikTok Refugees," flooded RedNote with memes and introduction videos. In turn, their Chinese counterparts uploaded welcome posts and guides on how to use Chinese online slang. Some even asked for help with their English homework.

Cultural exchange on a mass scale

It's a mass cultural exchange on an unprecedented scale.

International users typically have little incentive or opportunity to dive into Chinese social media apps, which cater to local audiences and are often locked behind strict user requirements that align with Beijing's government standards.

Weibo, for example, requires all users to register with their full names, and the app displays their location and gender to other users.

Even TikTok, founded by Chinese company Bytedance, is separate from China's version of the app, Douyin.

Cross-border interactions on RedNote have been mostly friendly, at a time when US-China tensions have dominated global politics.

"It's so amazing to have you here," said one Chinese user in a viral post. "For so long, we haven't been able to connect or talk to each other like this. But now we finally can, and it feels so special."

His video, titled "American friends please stay here," received over 174,000 likes.

Some users began hosting "cultural exchange" livestream audio chats, inviting young American and Chinese people to discuss their lives and befriend each other. One such livestream, seen by Business Insider, was watched by 70,000 users, with hundreds tuning in at a time.

Too early to tell how RedNote will impact US-China relations

Researchers and academics who study US-China relations told BI they're watching the space with interest, but that it's still too early to say how the RedNote migration might play out.

"I think it's likely true that many Chinese are interacting with Americans for the first time," said Stanley Rosen, a professor of political science at the University of Southern California's US-China Institute.

Rosen said China's government might initially be pleased by the influx of American users to RedNote, given how Beijing has criticized the impending ban on TikTok. Congressional leaders who voted to pass the divest-or-ban law against ByteDance had cited concerns about Chinese ownership.

But Rosen added that letting Chinese and American users mingle en masse could eventually disrupt Beijing's careful governance of its online platforms. For instance, a Chinese person's complaints about low pay could be met with well-intentioned — yet potentially contentious — replies from Americans, who might suggest forming a union or going on strike, Rosen said.

American users are still subject to Chinese rules on RedNote. For example, two writers from the entertainment news site The Wrap reported on Wednesday that they uploaded a post about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests — a heavily censored topic on the Chinese internet — and found that it was taken down within five minutes.

Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, told BI that it's unlikely that any friendly interactions on RedNote would impact US-China relations.

"The tensions between these countries are based on very long-term problems," Wu said.

"I think this sort of passion will die very soon," he added.

RedNote's popularity may not last

In fact, RedNote's newfound popularity in the West could just end up being a temporary phenomenon.

Natalie Pang, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's department of communications and new media, told BI that such massive user migrations from one platform to another haven't always been sustainable.

"Many years ago, when WhatsApp announced certain features on their platform, people also left WhatsApp and migrated to Signal, but those migrations were not sustained," Pang said.

Platforms are only able to retain these new users if their network moves along with them, she added.

"We have to understand that these 'TikTok Refugees' are moving to Xiaohongshu as part of a protest against the TikTok ban. So if we understand this move as part of a protest, then I think we'll see more sustained migration toward the platform if interest in the protest continues," Pang said.

That said, TikTok may not be out of the game just yet.

The social media platform may get some reprieve from President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to take office on January 20, a day after the divestment deadline passes.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month and plans to attend Trump's inauguration.

Trump had pushed for a ban on TikTok during his first term, but has since reversed his position on the platform. The president-elect filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on December 27, asking the court to pause the deadline so that he could come up with a political resolution.

"You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok," Trump told reporters at a press conference last month.

On Wednesday, Trump's pick for national security advisor, Mike Waltz, said in an interview with Fox News that Trump would "find a way to preserve" TikTok.

"He is a dealmaker. I don't want to get ahead of our executive orders, but we're going to create the space to put that deal in place," Waltz said.

• The Chinese foreign ministry says Vice President Han Zheng will attend Donald Trump's inauguration.
• The Trump team said in December that it had invited Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but Xi will not attend.
• Foreign heads of state do not usually attend US presidential inaugurations.

China's foreign ministry says it is sending Vice President Han Zheng to attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20.

The Trump transition team said last month that it had invited Chinese leader Xi Jinping to the event. The move came as a surprise given that foreign heads of state usually do not attend US presidential inaugurations.

"China follows the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation in viewing and growing its relationship with the United States," the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday morning local time announcing Han's attendance.

The statement said China is "ready to work with the new US government to enhance dialogue and communication" and "jointly pursue a stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relationship."

The White House, Trump's transition team, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, and the Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

'A channel of communication'

International relations experts told BI the move to send Han to Trump's inauguration is a positive sign for the US-China relationship.

"Han's attendance is significant, and even though the vice president does not really wield political power, it is still consequential, and he certainly will be able to play the role of an interlocutor and a channel of communication," Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at the Nanyang Technological University, told BI.

"Symbolically, the presence of Han for Trump's inauguration is also important to underline that political communication and cooperation is possible despite the campaign rhetoric and threat of tariffs," Loh added.

Han's visit to the US also allows China to "respectfully accept Trump's invitation without sending too strong of a signal or doing anything overly unconventional," said Austin Strange, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong's department of politics and public administration.

"China's government prefers a better, more stable relationship with the United States, and it can signal an initially friendly posture to the new administration, without making any concrete commitments, by sending a representative such as Han," Strange added.

Ian Ja Chong, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, told BI that while Han's presence suggests "respect for Trump and the invitation," he isn't a member of China's Politburo Standing Committee, the Chinese Communist Party's top decision-making body.

"That insulates the CCP and the Politburo Standing Committee somewhat from blame should US-PRC relations not turn out as the CCP and Xi would prefer," Chong said.

"The PRC is willing to accord respect to Trump and set relations on a positive footing, but are not ready to engage with the Trump administration on substantive issues at the inauguration," he added.

Trump made tariff threats on the campaign trail

US-China relations have been tenuous since Trump's first term, with both the Trump and Biden administrations imposing tariffs on China.

In May, President Joe Biden announced an increase in tariffs on Chinese-exported steel, aluminum, medical products, and electric vehicles.

Those tariffs could be ratcheted up even further when Trump takes office. During his campaign, Trump said he plans to impose tariffs of more than 60% on Chinese goods entering the US.

In November, Trump said he plans to impose an additional 10% import tariff on Chinese goods unless China does more to curb the inflow of fentanyl into the US.

In January, Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that his representatives have been speaking to Xi's staff.

"I had a great relationship with President Xi. It was very solid, very strong, very friendly. He's a strong man, a powerful man," Trump told Hewitt in an interview that aired on January 6.

"He's certainly revered in China, but they are having problems and I think we will probably get along very well, I predict, but you know it's got to be a two-way street," Trump added.

Business leaders, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Shou Chew, are planning to attend Trump's inauguration on January 20. Meanwhile, US companies, including Amazon, Google, and Meta, have made $1 million donations to Trump's inauguration fund.

• SpaceX's Starship rocket exploded during a test Thursday.
• The Federal Aviation Administration issued a warning after the explosion, calling the area "dangerous."
• After the explosion, some flights near Turks and Caicos were diverted, per Flightradar24.

Flights near the Turks and Caicos islands were spotted diverting to avoid debris after SpaceX's Starship exploded on Thursday.

SpaceX was conducting its seventh test flight of its unmanned Starship mega-rocket from its Starbase launch site near Brownsville, Texas. The launch occurred around 5:30 p.m. ET.

The Starship's Super Heavy Booster, which boosts the Starship spacecraft, successfully touched down back to the launchpad, marking another milestone in SpaceX's goal to create reusable boosters.

However, the upper stage of the system, Starship, was lost in what the company called a "rapid unscheduled disassembly."

Videos on social media appeared to show debris light up the sky near Turks and Caicos as it fell back to Earth.

Dean Olson, who captured footage of the Starship debris while in the area, told Business Insider that he heard the sound of constant "thunder" for about a minute after witnessing the explosion.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in an X post on Thursday night that the rocket "had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall."

Musk wrote that the leak "was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity."

"Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent area. Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month," he added.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a warning after the explosion, calling the area "dangerous" and warning of "falling debris of rocket Starship."

"The FAA briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling," an FAA spokesperson said. "Normal operations have resumed."

Flight data from Flightradar24 showed several aircraft near the Turks and Caicos Islands diverting from destination routes.

One flight was an Airbus A320-232, operated by JetBlue, headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Fort Lauderdale, according to the website. The flight was diverted back to Fort Lauderdale International.

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

SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket has exploded in two of its previous tests.

In November 2023, the Super Heavy booster exploded as it returned to Earth while the Starship continued to climb toward space.

• SpaceX launched its Starship mega-rocket for the seventh time on Thursday.
• It performed an epic booster catch for the second time, but the Starship exploded shortly after.
• The launch marked the first flight of a new-generation Starship.

SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket has stumbled on the road to commercial use. On Thursday, it unexpectedly dropped out of communications and exploded as it screamed toward space for its seventh flight.

Shortly after Starship's explosion, Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, wrote on X, "Improved versions of the ship & booster already waiting for launch."

The mishap happened on the same day the SpaceX rival Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, successfully launched its New Glenn rocket into orbit. Blue Origin lost New Glenn's booster during Thursday morning's test flight.

What happened to the Starship

After liftoff, the rocket's Super Heavy booster heaved the Starship spaceship toward space, separated itself, and fell back toward Earth. As the falling booster approached SpaceX's Texas facilities, it nailed a complex maneuver that had happened only once before.

The booster fired its engines to lower itself to a catch tower, where a pair of giant "chopstick" arms closed around its trunk and caught it.

This technological feat is key to reaching SpaceX's goal of building a fleet of rapidly, fully reusable rockets to help slash spaceflight costs, advance the company's business model, and ultimately build a city of people on Mars.

"Kudos to you and the whole SpaceX team on the flawless booster catch! Very impressive," Bezos wrote to Musk on X about the achievement.

Shortly after the booster catch, SpaceX said the upper stage of the system, Starship itself, was lost. The company later confirmed on X that it had suffered a rapid unscheduled disassembly, which is another way of saying it exploded.

"We were just coming up to the end of that ascent burn for the ship when we started to lose a couple of the engines," Dan Huot, one of the hosts of SpaceX's livestream of the launch, said in the broadcast.

Then the ship dropped out of communications, meaning there was some kind of anomaly, and Starship was lost, Huot said.

"This was a brand-new vehicle essentially," he added. "With that, there's a lot of things you're upgrading, but there's a lot of things you're going to learn as all those systems are now interacting with each other for the first time."

In an X post on Thursday night, Musk wrote that preliminary indicators suggested Starship "had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity."

"Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent area. Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month," Musk added.

Dean Olson, who captured footage of the Starship debris while he was in Turks and Caicos, told Business Insider he heard the sound of constant "thunder" for about a minute after witnessing the explosion.

"I'm just walking out of the restaurant holding a cocktail, and I just looked up," Olson said. "Everyone's breath is kind of just taken away."

"Nobody knew what was going on," he added. "There was a lot of people panicking, to be honest with you."

SpaceX didn't respond to a request for comment.

SpaceX's 7th Starship flight didn't achieve all it set out to

For the first time, SpaceX flew Starship with a reused Raptor rocket engine.

The Super Heavy booster runs on 33 Raptor engines. For the entire rocket to be reusable, as Musk has said he intends it to be, those engines must be recycled and reused, too.

Aboard Thursday's flight, one of those engines was the same one that SpaceX flew on its October flight.

Also flying for the first time was SpaceX's new-generation second-stage Starship. This new generation comes with significant upgrades designed for "bringing major improvements to reliability and performance," the company wrote on its website.

For example, the flaps on this upgraded Starship are smaller and reoriented, so they're not exposed to as much heat upon reentry. These flaps are designed to eventually help Starship fly back and touch down on land, making it reusable.

But SpaceX has not yet recovered a Starship from spaceflight. So far, every Starship that has flown to space has sunk into the Indian Ocean. The ship on Thursday's flight was expected to have the same fate before it was lost shortly after launch.

Starship was scheduled to deploy a set of 10 Starlink simulators, or dummies. They were about the same size and weight as SpaceX's next-generation V3 Starlink satellites. Deploying them was practice for eventually the real thing, which is a key part of SpaceX's business plan.

Starship is set to make other SpaceX rockets obsolete

In its final form, Starship should be able to release up to 100 second-generation Starlink satellites at a time, increasing SpaceX's internet coverage and a core pillar of its income.

Once Starship is operational, its sheer power will probably make it the cornerstone of SpaceX's business, which has long hinged on the comparatively wimpy Falcon 9 and its hefty counterpart, Falcon Heavy.

"Starship obsoletes Falcon 9 and the Dragon capsule," SpaceX's chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell, said at the Baron Investment Conference in November, according to Ars Technica.

"We'll be flying that for six to eight more years," she added, "but ultimately, people are going to want to fly on Starship. It's bigger. It's more comfortable. It will be less expensive. And we will have flown it so many more times."

• TikTok CEO Shou Chew is planning to attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.
• TikTok may go dark in the US the day before the inauguration, as dictated by a divest-or-ban law.
• Trump asked the Supreme Court to give TikTok more time as he seeks a political resolution.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew is planning to attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Business Insider.

Chew has been invited to sit on the dais alongside other important figures, including Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, the source said.

The New York Times first reported on plans for Chew to attend.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

An appearance by Chew is notable, considering that a divest-or-ban law is pushing TikTok to go dark in the US on Sunday, a day before Trump's inauguration.

TikTok challenged the law in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in December but lost its case. It appealed to the Supreme Court for an emergency injunction to stop enforcement and awaits a decision.

Trump pushed for a TikTok ban in 2020, when he was last in office, but now he says he wants to save the app.

On December 27, Trump filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, asking it to pause the enforcement of TikTok's divestment deadline to give him time to find a political resolution. Trump met with Chew at Mar-a-Lago on December 16.

"You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok," Trump said at a press conference that day.

• Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, has launched its first orbital rocket, New Glenn.
• New Glenn is one of the largest, most powerful rockets ever built.
• The maiden launch marks a milestone for Blue Origin.

Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin has entered the rocket big leagues.

At 2:03 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Blue Origin's 32-story-tall New Glenn rocket fired its seven engines and climbed atop a cloud of fire and steam for the first time, roaring into the skies above the launch complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

"LIFTOFF! New Glenn is beginning its first ever ascent toward the stars," Blue Origin wrote in an X post on Thursday morning.

Bezos, who was present at New Glenn's launch, uploaded a minute-long clip of the launch on X shortly after liftoff.

New Glenn belongs to a new generation of the largest, most powerful rockets ever built, next to Elon Musk's SpaceX's Starship and NASA's new moon rocket, the Space Launch System.

These heavy-lift vehicles have roughly the size and heft of NASA's Saturn V — the rocket that launched Apollo astronauts to the moon — but they're designed for even more ambitious goals.

Musk and Bezos have espoused plans to establish permanent human settlements on Mars and on a giant space station, respectively. NASA aims to build permanent science stations on and around the moon and eventually send astronauts to Mars with SpaceX's and Blue Origins' help.

First, though, Blue Origin needs to strengthen its business. New Glenn's maiden launch positions the company to fly payloads to orbit and challenge SpaceX's dominance.

Blue Origin was originally planning to launch New Glenn on Monday. The launch was repeatedly delayed and eventually postponed after Blue Origin said they had to "troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue."

"I'm incredibly proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt," Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp on Thursday. "We knew landing our booster, So You're Telling Me There's a Chance, on the first try was an ambitious goal. We'll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring. Thank you to all of Team Blue for this incredible milestone."

Blue Origin loses booster in an otherwise successful launch

In a statement two hours after the launch, Blue Origin confirmed that it had lost its booster after it separated from the rocket

The booster was meant to return to Earth and land on a platform in the ocean, which would have been the company's first step to proving the reusability of its booster.

This makes SpaceX the only company to have recovered and reused a rocket's booster. The Musk-led rocket company has been retrieving its much smaller Falcon 9 first-stage boosters for reuse in this way for years.

SpaceX's Starship booster recently proved a different landing method, lowering itself into the waiting arms of a landing tower in October.

Like Falcon 9, and unlike Starship, New Glenn is only partially reusable — its second stage is not designed for reuse.

Musk congratulated Bezos shortly after New Glenn's successful liftoff.

"Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt! @JeffBezos," Musk wrote on X.

Blue Origin's future depends on New Glenn

Trailing behind SpaceX, Blue Origin is one of the leading companies paving the way for reusable rockets, which can help slash spaceflight costs.

Weeks before New Glenn's debut launch, during the New York Times 2024 DealBook Summit, Bezos said Blue Origin "is not a very good business, yet."

He added, "It's going to be the best business that I've ever been involved in."

New Glenn is Blue Origin's second rocket, but its first designed to insert itself into Earth's orbit.

The company began construction on New Glenn in 2016. Bezos has said he isn't happy with the company's speed of progress.

"Blue Origin needs to be much faster," Bezos told Lex Fridman in December 2023. "And it's one of the reasons that I left my role as the CEO of Amazon a couple of years ago."

For comparison, SpaceX began developing its first orbital rocket, the Falcon 9 v1.0, in 2005. It made its debut launch five years later, in 2010.

That said, New Glenn is more than three times more powerful than SpaceX's first Falcon 9.

Blue Origin's comparatively tiny New Shepard rocket, which carries paying customers and other payloads to suborbital space, has been reused nearly 30 times since its first launch in 2015.

New Glenn's maiden voyage is carrying a test payload

As Blue Origin's barge sails the booster back to the coast, the rocket's second stage is scheduled to remain in space for about six hours while carrying the company's prototype Blue Ring pathfinder spacecraft.

Blue Ring is designed for multiple mission types, including transporting, refueling, and communicating with other craft in space. The pathfinder prototype launched on Thursday is a test launch and is set to remain onboard and not be deployed into space.

"There is a growing demand to quickly move and position equipment and infrastructure in multiple orbits," Limp wrote on X in December. Blue Ring is designed to fulfill that need for both government and commercial customers, the Blue Origin CEO said.

The Federal Aviation Administration has granted Blue Origin a license to launch New Glenn to orbit from Cape Canaveral for the next five years.

Blue Origin's customers include NASA, Amazon, and several telecommunications providers.

• Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea's impeached president, was arrested on Wednesday.
• This was the South Korean authorities' second attempt to arrest Yoon.
• Yoon was impeached on December 14 after he attempted to impose martial law, triggering protests.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested by investigators early on Wednesday morning, local time.

Yoon's arrest comes after weeks of attempts by South Korean anti-corruption investigators to bring him in for questioning. This makes him the first sitting South Korean president to be detained.

Yoon has repeatedly defied attempts to arrest him. During a particularly tense standoff on January 3, investigators had to stand down after six hours when Yoon's security team barred them from taking the president.

More than 3,000 police officers and anti-corruption investigators were involved in Yoon's arrest on Wednesday morning, per Reuters.

South Korea's Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials said they had executed an arrest warrant for Yoon at 10.33 am local time, per a statement obtained by Yonhap News.

Yoon said in a statement on Wednesday that he had chosen to comply with the warrant "to prevent unsavory bloodshed," according to a translation by Reuters.

Roughly 6,500 supporters were present outside Yoon's presidential residence when he was arrested, per Yonhap News.

Yoon was impeached and stripped of his presidential powers on December 14. South Korean lawmakers voted to remove him from duties after a stunning declaration of martial law, which triggered large-scale protests and calls for his resignation.

South Korea's nine-member Constitutional Court is set to rule on Yoon's removal from office.

The trial, which must conclude within 180 days from the date of Yoon's impeachment, could take months to resolve. If the court decides to remove Yoon from office, a presidential election must be held within 60 days.

Last month, South Korean lawmakers impeached the country's acting president, Han Duck-soo, after he had refused to fill the Constitutional Court's three vacancies.

Han, who was also South Korea's prime minister, was replaced by the country's finance minister, Choi Sang-mok. Choi said in December that he would move quickly to fill up the court's vacancies.

There are currently eight justices on the court, after two new justices started their terms this month. Choi said he would appoint a ninth candidate after both the ruling and opposition parties come to an agreement on the nomination.

At least six votes are needed to remove Yoon.

• A Chinese social media app called Xiaohongshu is one of the biggest winners from a looming TikTok ban.
• It's so popular in the US that Chinese users have started a new hashtag to welcome Americans.
• The cultural exchange frenzy has birthed posts of people asking for help with English homework, among other requests.

A Chinese social media platform has grown so popular in the US that it's this week's most downloaded iPhone app — and it's become the site of a sudden East-Meets-West cultural exchange.

Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, hit the top spot on the US Apple store's ranking this week as a divest-or-ban law threatens to shut off American access to TikTok.

The app, commonly referred to as China's version of Instagram, has been flooded with posts from Chinese users greeting the influx of US newcomers.

One post titled "American please help me" went viral on Monday and received over 10,000 comments after its poster, from Zhejiang, requested help with their English homework.

Other popular posts also featured users, who listed their location as being in the US, offering their assistance for Chinese users' homework.

"Ask me any questions! I can help with your English homework, or answer questions about America (Texas). Thank you for welcoming us TikTok refugees," one post read. Several commenters uploaded photos of English-language worksheets in response.

The surge in American users on Chinese apps has also led to a rise in the hashtag #TikTokRefugee on Xiaohongshu, with dozens of Chinese creators posting guides on how to use the platform. The hashtag itself has been viewed over 64 million times, according to data seen by Business Insider.

"If you see a video that's downright awesome, just comment 6 or 66 or 666," said a cowboy hat-toting user, Big Tooth Chinese Redneck, in one viral video, referencing a Chinese internet slang term.

The sudden interest in Chinese social media platforms comes as TikTok continues to challenge the divest-or-ban law that the Senate passed in April. According to the law, TikTok will have to stop operating in the US on January 19 if its Chinese-based owner, Bytedance, doesn't sell the app.

The divest-and-ban law was passed amid widespread security concerns that the Chinese government could access user data if Bytedance continued to own the platform. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told The Wall Street Journal in 2023 that such concerns are unfounded since the company would work with Oracle to store user data in the US.

TikTok argued its case with the Supreme Court on Friday, saying it will "go dark" in January if the court doesn't extend its divestment deadline. The court is expected to rule on the company's fate this week.

There's a lot on the line for TikTok now — it lost a challenge to the law in December when it brought the case before a panel of three judges from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

In December, President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause the law until after his inauguration. Trump is set to take office on January 20.

Allowing TikTok to operate in the US is a reversal of Trump's policy position on the company. Trump pushed for a TikTok ban in 2020 when he was still president. But more recently, the president-elect told reporters in December that he had a "warm spot" in his heart for TikTok.

Still, TikTok's troubles have brought unexpected benefits to platforms like Xiaohongshu and Lemon8, which both surged to the top two spots on Apple app store rankings. Lemon8 is also owned by Bytedance.

Meagan Loyst, founder of the investor collective Gen Z VCs, told Business Insider on Monday that users were flocking to these platforms to protest the government's planned TikTok ban.

"It really is just retaliation towards the government in the simplest way, but in a way that feels very native to Gen Z," Loyst said.

Representatives for TikTok and Xiaohongshu did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Eric Sim retired from his 20-year banking career in 2017 after achieving financial freedom.
• But the former investment-bank managing director says he's not a fan of the FIRE lifestyle.
• Sim became a professional speaker and executive coach after he left banking in 2017.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Eric Sim, 54, a former banker who became a published author, professional speaker, and career coach. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider previously published an essay about Sim's banking career.

When I started my career in banking, I didn't give much thought to retiring early.

I figured I would retire at age 65 and engage in typical retirement activities like going on cruises and hanging out with old friends.

But things changed after I became a managing director at UBS. After working for a few years there, where I managed to earn multiple annual bonuses, I realized that I was actually financially free.

That got me thinking: If I didn't need to work for someone else, what would I do?

I knew that I couldn't just quit my job without a plan. I needed to find a meaningful project to which I could devote my energies.

After much thought and reflection, I decided to leave banking to run my own training institute for young professionals. I started the Institute of Life in 2015 with the mission of helping young people achieve success at work and in life.

FIRE isn't as great as you think it is

Even though I have achieved financial freedom, I'm not a fan of the Financial Independence Retire Early, or FIRE, movement.

To achieve FIRE, you must save a lot of your income during your working years. But the truth is, people often don't have a clear idea of what retiring will look like for them or if they'll enjoy it — especially if they're in the weeds and working toward it.

Of course, when you first retire, you can do whatever you want. You can travel overseas, hit the spa, or play golf.

After working for 10 to 20 years, being free from the grind for the first three months feels good. But you'll get bored very quickly.

When you are working, you don't have to plan for what you want to do. Your day job will give you more than enough things to do.

But if you are financially independent, without a regular schedule to adhere to, you need to find projects to occupy your time. If you don't do that, then your days are wasted.

A good retirement isn't just about having money in the bank

To have a good retirement, you will need three types of capital. Besides financial capital, you need human and social capital if you want to make the most of your time.

Human capital refers to the knowledge you possess. You can build this up through your career or through your side hustles and hobbies. By developing your interests and skills, you will know what activities you want to do when you go into retirement mode.

Social capital refers to the goodwill you accumulate with others. The small help that you offer to others can come back in a big way when you retire.

Ultimately, you need to know what you want to do after leaving your day job. If there is something that you always wanted to do, and is meaningful, I would say go for it.

But if you have nothing to look forward to and don't have a mission yet, just stay in your day job. You can still pursue your own interests on the side without quitting your job.

• Blue Origin was set to launch its New Glenn rocket on Monday morning.
• The launch was postponed because of a "vehicle subsystem issue," Blue Origin said.
• "We're reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt," the company said.

The rocket company Blue Origin postponed its highly anticipated New Glenn rocket launch Monday morning, citing a need to "troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue."

The launch, originally scheduled for a three-hour window from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. ET, was repeatedly delayed before it was ultimately postponed.

"We're standing down on today's launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window," Blue Origin wrote in an X post. "We're reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt."

Ahead of the scheduled launch, Blue Origin's leadership — including its founder, Jeff Bezos — awaited the rocket's blastoff at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

A liftoff time of 1:31 a.m. was first set at the beginning of the launch's livestream. It was then delayed from 1:52 a.m. to 2:07 a.m., 2:27 a.m., 2:48 a.m., and finally, 3:15 a.m.

At press time, Blue Origin had not confirmed a new launch date.

Before the launch was postponed, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had wished Blue Origin well. SpaceX remains the only company to have recovered and reused a rocket's booster stages.

Ahead of the initially scheduled launch time, Blue Origin said on X that the company hoped to have the New Glenn "reach orbit safely."

"Anything beyond that is icing on the cake. We know landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious—but we're going for it," the company wrote on X early Monday morning. "No matter what happens, we'll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch."

A successful launch would have greatly boosted Bezos' spacefaring ambitions for Blue Origin.

Besides the New Glenn rocket, Blue Origin has developed other space vehicles, including the New Shepard.

But one of New Shepard's uncrewed missions failed on September 12, 2022, when Blue Origin lost a first-stage booster about a minute into the flight.

That resulted in the New Shepard getting grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration. Blue Origin had to take 21 corrective actions, including redesigning some components, before the New Shepard could fly again.

Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000. The billionaire told the podcaster Lex Fridman in a 2023 interview that he stepped down as Amazon's CEO in 2021 because he wanted to focus on Blue Origin.

"I've turned the CEO role over, and the primary reason I did that is so that I could spend time on Blue Origin, adding some energy, some sense of urgency," Bezos told Fridman.

Representatives for Blue Origin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• DOGE plans to deploy its staffers to major government agencies after Donald Trump takes office.
• Two DOGE representatives will be embedded at each agency, The New York Times reported.
• The commission has been hiring since it was announced in November.

Elon Musk's government efficiency commission is looking to embed staffers at government agencies to lead cost cutting efforts.

Most major government agencies will be given two representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20, The New York Times reported on Sunday, citing about a dozen people who are familiar with DOGE's operations.

Those who aren't deployed will instead be stationed at the US Digital Service, a branch of the White House that provides IT consulting services to federal agencies, the outlet reported.

Then-President Barack Obama described the USDS as a "startup at the White House" when he created the agency in 2014.

The Times added that DOGE could also have an office at the White House's Office of Management and Budget. The OMB prepares the president's budget request for Congress.

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

In November, Trump announced that DOGE would be co-led by Musk and biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy. The commission, Trump said in his announcement, is set to conclude its work by July 4, 2026.

DOGE kicked off its recruitment efforts in the same month. The commission started an account on Musk's social network X and asked applicants to send in their CVs via direct message.

Thus far, the commission said it has been hiring for software engineering, information security engineering, HR, IT, and finance roles.

Back in October, Musk said that DOGE would help the government to save at least $2 trillion, though he didn't specify where the savings would come from. The federal government spent $6.75 trillion in the 2024 fiscal year.

Last week, Musk said that saving $2 trillion would be "the best-case outcome" for DOGE, adding that his commission had a "good shot" at saving $1 trillion.

"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 told Mark Penn, the chairman and CEO of marketing company Stagwell, in an interview on January 8.

• 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 burning across Los Angeles County.
• 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 upended livelihoods that could ultimately be the most costly fire disaster in California history.

Authorities on Friday night expanded the evacuation zone related to the largest blaze, the Palisades Fire, east toward Santa Monica, less than 1.5 miles from the iconic Santa Monica Pier. The zone now encompasses the famous Getty Center, home of the Getty Museum.

Officials have now ordered over 153,000 residents to evacuate and warned another 166,000 to be ready to leave if the fires continue to spread. About 38,000 acres have burned. Officials have reported 13 deaths related to the fire as of Saturday.

At a press conference on Friday evening, officials managing the Eaton fire, which now spans over 14,000 acres and is one of the largest and deadliest, said they did not expect the blaze to spread significantly over the weekend due to more moderate wind conditions. However, officials said they are anticipating another high-wind event early next week. It was strong Santa Ana gusts of up to 90 miles per hour that first whipped the fires into a frenzy earlier this week.

JPMorgan analysts said the blazes tearing through the region could lead to over $20 billion in insured losses — and about $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.

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the scene in LA as apocalyptic, as thick bands of smoke surrounded the city. Los Angeles County is home to about 10 million people.

"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.

Erroneous emergency alerts telling residents to evacuate areas unaffected by the fires further heightened panic in the region. Kevin McGowan, the director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, apologized for the messages at Friday's conference.

"There is an extreme amount of frustration, anger, fear, with regards to the erroneous messages that have been being sent out through the wireless emergency alert system. I can't express enough how sorry I am for this experience," he said.

He reassured residents that resolving the issue is his "top priority" and that he has technical specialists working to identify the root cause. "I implore everyone to not disable the messages on your phone," he said.

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.

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 Thursday that people in the Los Angeles area can use the company's network to text loved ones, contact 911, and receive emergency alerts.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday announced that he's doubling the number of California National Guard personnel on the ground to 1,680 members.

"The men and women of the California National Guard are working day and night to help Los Angeles residents during their greatest time of need," he said in a statement.

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 over 21,500 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Around 11% of the fire is contained, it says.

Five people have died in the Palisades fire, according to the medical examiner's office.

Los Angeles City's Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said at a press briefing earlier this week that the Palisades Fire had damaged or destroyed over 5,300 structures.

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.

On Thursday, a drone hit the wing of one of two Super Scooper planes fighting the wildfires, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at a Friday press conference. He said the plane was under urgent repairs and set to be flying again by Monday. "If you fly a drone at one of these brush fires all aerial operations will be shut down," he said.

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.

Eight people have died in the Eaton fire, Los Angeles County Sheriff Commander Tania E. Plunkett said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.

The blaze has spread to over 14,100 acres, Marrone said at the Saturday conference, adding that over 7,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed and 15% of the fire is contained.

The cause of the fire remains "unknown," Marrone previously said.

Hurst Fire

The Hurst Fire, which began late on Tuesday night in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, spread to 799 acres and is 76% contained, per Cal Fire.

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

Kenneth Fire

On Thursday, a small brush fire erupted at the Victory Trailhead near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Marrone said that the fire had been stopped. It burned just over 1,000 acres, but no structures were reported damaged. It is 80% contained, per Cal Fire.

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.

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.

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 consumed 395 acres but is now 100% contained, according to CalFire.

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 Los Angeles 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. LAX, however, remains open.

The fires are also shuttering tourist destinations 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.

• 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.