• Tech giants appeared to defend their heavy AI investments during their latest earnings calls.
• Both Meta and Microsoft plan to spend over $60 billion on building out AI infrastructure this year.
• DeepSeek's seemingly cheaper AI model has raised questions.

DeepSeek may have spooked investors at the start of the week, but tech giants are doubling down on their plans to invest heavily in AI.

Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and more reported earnings on Wednesday and Thursday. One of the major topics people were interested in was whether execs would comment on whether Chinese company DeepSeek's seemingly cheaper AI model would change US corporations' lofty spending goals.

The answer appeared to be a resounding no.

"Huge week for Big Tech earnings as Zuckerberg, Nadella, Cook, and Musk doubled down on their AI visions and what this means for each of these tech stalwarts looking ahead," Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, said in an X post, referring to Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Apple's Tim Cook, and Tesla and xAI's Elon Musk.

"This is an AI arms race and the Temu of AI DeepSeek not changing that…AI Revolution just starting," Ives continued.

Investors had been concerned whether a less-expensive open-source AI model like DeepSeek's R1 would highlight that Big Tech companies had been splashing out too much on building out infrastructure — like data centers filled with costly chips — or that less-expensive models would stop them being able to charge customers as much to access them.

However, Big Tech stuck with its spending plans. Meta, for example, said it's still planning for $60 billion to $65 billion in capex for its AI strategy in 2025. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said "investing aggressively" in these initiatives will be the determining factor in Meta's financial trajectory in the coming years.

Meanwhile, Microsoft told investors that demand for AI is so high that it's struggling to provide enough data centers.

"Already, our AI business has surpassed an annual revenue run rate of $13 billion, up 175% year-over-year," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on the FY 2025 Q2 earnings call.

The company plans to spend $80 billion on AI data centers this fiscal year.

Many companies said that cheaper AI models would broaden access to the technology, therefore increasing demand and justifying their spending on chips and data centers.

Zuckerberg told investors that Meta is working to set an "American standard" for open-source models globally as they become more accessible.

"If anything, some of the recent news has only strengthened our conviction that this is the right thing for us to be focused on," Zuck said on the Wednesday call.

DeepSeek disrupted the market in January with a new AI model that its researchers said was trained at a fraction of the cost — less than $6 million — that US tech companies are investing. Shares of many competitors, including Microsoft and Alphabet, fell on concerns that a cheaper model showed they might have been overspending.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been criticized for launching Apple Intelligence later than competitors and taking a more cautious approach. However, that meant the company was insulated from the hit other stocks took from the DeepSeek news ahead of Thursday's call.

While he didn't discuss how much the iPhone maker plans to spend on AI this year, Cook said, "From a CapEx point of view, we've always taken a very prudent, deliberative approach to our expenditure."

Over at Tesla, CEO Elon Musk was all about real-world AI during the Q4 earnings call on Wednesday. Musk told analysts he's "making rapid progress" on technology when asked about accelerating innovation.

He didn't mention DeepSeek but said "the cost of training is dropping dramatically with time," as Tesla ramps up its efforts in developing its humanoid robot, Optimus.

• Meta kicked off 2025 with big changes following a big year for the company.
• In the first weeks of January, it overhauled its content moderation system, nixed DEI programs, and announced layoffs.
• The "rather frenzied start" to the new year sets up an apparent "year of intensity," one analyst told BI.

Coming off of a banner year in 2024, Meta is hitting the ground running in 2025.

With a new president in the White House and the AI arms race in full swing amid DeepSeek mania, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has kept busy.

Referring to Meta's January as "a rather frenzied start," Forrester VP and research director Mike Proulx said that the company's past "year of efficiency" was being "trumped in 2025 with an apparent year of 'intensity.'"

The company made several big announcements in the first week of the new year ahead of Trump's inauguration, and in audio from Meta's all-hands meeting this week obtained by Business Insider, Zuckerberg told employees to "buckle up."

"Everyone always says that every year is a big year, right?" Zuckerberg said.

"When I look at the kind of long-term trajectory for the stuff that we're doing this year, I think by the end of this year we're going to have a much clearer sense of the trajectory of a lot of the long-term things that we're doing, whether that's AI or glasses, or a number of areas around the future of social media, a number of key partnerships that we're working on," the Meta CEO said.

"This year feels a little more like a sprint to me," he added.

New year, new policies that will impact your News Feed

If 2025 represents a sprint for Meta, the first leg of the race saw some of its biggest changes in years.

The most impactful for Meta's billions of users was announced on January 7, when Zuckerberg messaged that Meta's content moderation policy would be overhauled.

In a controversial decision, Meta said that it would sunset its third-party fact-checking in favor of community notes, similar to that of Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter.

Zuckerberg said Wednesday he thinks a community notes model "is just going to be more effective."

The company also loosened its hate speech policies and announced that it would return to promoting political discussions in its apps.

The policy changes may not move the needle much on the ad dollars spent on Meta's platforms as its size alone makes it a "must-have" for advertisers, Truist Securities analyst Youssef Squali told BI.

"Large advertisers will tell you that. Small advertisers will tell you that," the analyst said. "So there's scarcity value for advertisers and their ability to access some of these platforms that actually work for them."

Meta CFO Susan Li said in Wednesday's earnings call that the company hasn't observed a noticeable difference in ad spending since the announcement a few weeks ago. When reached for comment, Meta referred BI to Zuckerberg's video and its blog post on the content moderation changes.

Collectively, Meta's policy overhaul means big changes are coming to your Instagram, Threads, and Facebook news feeds.

Meta maneuvers closer to Trump

The content moderation policy overhaul is one of a slew of recent changes at Meta widely viewed as a way to appease President Trump, who frequently criticized and even threatened the company and its chief executive in the past.

Trump told reporters the content moderation changes were "probably" in response to threats he's made to Meta.

Following a dinner with the president at Mar-a-Lago and Meta's $1 million donation to his inauguration fund, Zuckerberg was one of a handful of tech execs seated close to Trump during his swearing-in ceremony on January 20.

"Having Trump coming back into office — and we all know Trump's position with regards to Meta and Zuck, in particular — I feel there was a lot of pressure for him to revisit his stance," Truist Securities' Squali told BI of the content moderation changes.

Meta's chief marketing officer, Alex Schultz, previously told BI that Trump's election win, coupled with shifting "vibes in America," were factors in the content moderation overhaul.

Other big changes include the company rolling back its programs for DEI. Diversity programs have been a frequent target for Trump and other conservative activist groups.

In Wednesday's earnings call, Zuckerberg said 2025 would be "a big year for redefining our relationship with governments." He added that he's "optimistic" about the Trump administration, saying it "prioritizes American technology winning" and "will defend our values and interests abroad."

Meta also made some personnel changes that could help it better navigate the next four years.

Ahead of the administration change, Meta named Joel Kaplan its new chief global affairs officer. Kaplan, a former adviser to George W. Bush and a longtime Republican lobbyist for Meta, replaced Nick Clegg, former leader of the UK's Liberal Democrats, in the position.

Meta also added several new names to its board of directors, specifically tech investor Charlie Songhurst, Exor CEO John Elkann, and UFC chief Dana White. Zuckerberg, an MMA hobbyist, has been photographed with White, a longtime friend of Trump, multiple times in recent years.

And in a recent move to end a legal battle involving Trump, Meta also agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit the president brought against it and Zuckerberg after Facebook suspended his account in 2021 following the January 6 Capitol riots.

Plans for layoffs and doubling down on AI

Meta's work to reshape its workforce, which began in late 2022, shows no signs of slowing down as it races to keep up with AI pioneer OpenAI and newcomers like Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.

In a memo obtained earlier this month by BI, Meta announced layoffs coming in February for 5% of its workforce, targeting its "lowest performers."

However, discussing its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, Meta said it plans to hire in "the priority areas of infrastructure, monetization, Reality Labs, generative artificial intelligence (AI), as well as regulation and compliance."

The company expects to spend $60 to $65 billion in capital expenditures this year as it barrels full-steam ahead on AI, a significant increase from $39.23 billion in 2024, which already raised eyebrows among investors and analysts.

Zuckerberg said Wednesday he thinks 2025 will be the year an AI assistant hits 1 billion users, and naturally he wants that of Meta AI. He also teased upcoming news about its Llama 4 AI model and hinted at getting back to "some OG Facebook" this year.

Responding to Wall Street analysts' questions about DeepSeek, Zuckerberg said it was important for a US firm to set the standard on open-source AI "for our own national advantage."

"I think that, if anything, some of the recent news has only strengthened our conviction that this is the right thing for us to be focused on," Zuckerberg said.

In audio from Meta's all-hands meeting on Thursday, Meta CFO Susan Li said the company is "excited for the roadmap" this year and for AI initiatives "driving further momentum" that would "fuel 2025 growth."

Do you work at Meta? Contact the reporters from a non-work email and device at [email protected] and [email protected].

• OpenAI introduced o3-mini, a cost-efficient reasoning AI model, on Friday.
• The release comes as DeepSeek's R1 model shakes up the tech industry.
• OpenAI said the o3-mini excels in science, math, and coding.

OpenAI's first small reasoning model is here just weeks after a Chinese AI startup emerged as a potential competitor to its artificial intelligence lineup.

The ChatGPT maker launched OpenAI o3-mini, its "most cost-efficient model" in its reasoning series, on Friday. The model was previewed in December, but the release date comes in the same week that DeepSeek's open-source R1 model disrupted Big Tech.

R1 prompted OpenAI to say it was investigating whether DeekSeek "may have inappropriately distilled" the tech company's models.

"We know that groups in the PRC (People's Republic of China) are actively working to use methods, including what's known as distillation, to try to replicate advanced US AI models," an OpenAI spokesperson previously told BI.

While analysts examined the investment strategies of companies like Meta and Microsoft during their earnings calls, the affordability and efficiency of R1 has raised questions.

Most companies have doubled down on investing heavily in AI, and it appears OpenAI is also beefing up its financial arsenal. The company is reportedly discussing a $25 billion investment from SoftBank in its latest funding round, which could give it a $300 billion valuation.

Like R1, o3-mini is meant to handle complex questions, and OpenAI says it's particularly strong in science, math, and coding. Developers can set reasoning to low, medium, or high, depending on how complicated the challenge is.

ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users have access to o3-mini starting Friday, and free plan users can try it out using the "Reason" option.

• Bill Gates says some of his tech predictions didn't go how expected.
• Gates told the NYT that Silicon Valley's swing toward the right was a "surprise" to him.
• He warns of AI misuse, emphasizing the need for defensive tech against cyber threats.

Bill Gates says he's gotten a few things wrong during his decadeslong tech career.

The Microsoft founder spoke to The New York Times about how some of his predictions for the tech industry didn't pan out the way he thought they would. Gates, who started the tech giant in 1975, has been around long enough to witness significant cultural shifts and innovations in Silicon Valley.

What he didn't expect was its leaders leaning into the right wing.

"I always thought of Silicon Valley as being left of center," Gates told NYT.

His peers, including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos, have shown support for President Donald Trump — attending his inauguration and catching up at UFC events. Musk and Zuckerberg have both previously kept their political beliefs relatively private.

"The fact that now there is a significant right-of-center group is a surprise to me," Gates added. Gates donated $50 million to a pro-Kamala Harris super PAC in 2024, the NYT previously reported.

The advent of social media also brought a twist in technology that Gates said he didn't see coming. When platforms like Facebook and Twitter arrived on the scene, they brought about "ills that I have to say I did not predict."

Gates said tech has been weaponized to sow political division and act against public interest. He told the NYT that he was "wrong" to think of "more information as always a good thing."

"I didn't predict that would happen," Gates said.

Meta and X, formerly Twitter, are owned by Zuckerberg and Musk, respectively, and have both faced complaints about their approaches to content moderation. In January, Zuckerberg said Meta would adopt a "community notes" model similar to X instead of using third-party human fact-checkers.

While he had previously held more positive predictions for the present, Gates said he's less optimistic about the future of tech. Looking to the future, Gates reiterated his apprehension about the evolution of artificial intelligence.

"Now we have to worry about bad people using AI," he told the NYT.

Gates previously expressed his concerns about AI during an interview on the "On with Kara Swisher" podcast. He shared his uneasiness "that bad people with bad intent will use AIs for cybercrime, bioterrorism, nation-state wars."

"In that case you think, OK, let's make sure the good guys have an AI that can play defense against those things, and that makes you want to move ahead and not fall behind," Gates said in the interview.

• As US tech companies prep for earnings this week, there's one major topic on analysts' minds.
• China's DeepSeek introduced an AI model that's similarly effective to US ones but at a lower cost.
• Big Tech is expected to address DeepSeek's potential impact on AI spending during earnings calls.

DeepSeek just made this earnings season a lot more interesting.

A slew of Big Tech names are due to report this week and next. Tesla, Meta, and Microsoft take center stage on January 29, with Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon hot on their heels.

Investors were already scrutinizing the companies, which have been spending multiple billions of dollars on building AI models and infrastructure, for signs about whether the outlay on staff, chips, and data centers is delivering returns.

Now DeepSeek has made justifying that spending to investors and analysts a lot trickier for execs, PR, and IR.

"I expect pretty much everyone to get questions on it," Morningstar analyst William Kerwin said.

DeepSeek's new AI model, R1, shook the tech industry this week, wiping more than $1 trillion off US stocks in market cap in one day. It offers a model that seems similarly effective to ones made by US companies. Moreover, the Chinese company said it cost less than $6 million to train.

In comparison, Meta has said it plans to invest over $60 billion in AI infrastructure in 2025. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion partnership involving OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank to build AI infrastructure in the US.

Markets stabilized a little by Tuesday, but the panic shows how DeepSeek's impact will be top of mind during earnings calls, analysts told Business Insider.

Investors will want to know if R1 changes companies' views on future infrastructure spending, Kerwin said.

That could "temper the demand" for chips from Nvidia, Forrester analysts said in a Tuesday note. Tech companies like Meta and Elon Musk's xAI have been buying and using hundreds of thousands of specialist Nvidia chips for their AI models, helping its stock price rocket. Monday's tech rout already wiped about 17% off Nvidia's market cap.

However, having access to cheaper models could pay off in the longer term because of "creation opportunities for many, many more startups and enterprises alike, thereby increasing demand," per Forrester.

Apple, which reports after the bell on Thursday, stands to gain from a decline in cost for AI training. The iPhone maker took a lower-cost AI strategy than competitors, and it would benefit from integrating cost-effective training for Apple Intelligence, analysts told BI.

Although Apple's stock gained on Monday, CEO Tim Cook should still expect DeepSeek chatter, analysts said.

Nvidia won't report earnings until February 26, yet will likely still have to answer DeepSeek questions.

And across the board, "Beyond cost concerns, tech leaders will need to address whether this signals a need to shift toward more efficient AI development approaches that could reshape strategic planning," Jacob Bourne, analyst at BI sister company EMARKETER, said.

• China's DeepSeek has roiled tech markets.
• Apple's stock, however, rose on Monday while competitors like Alphabet and Microsoft dropped.
• Apple's AI strategy focuses on integration, not cutting-edge model development, analysts said.

Big Tech is reeling from the seemingly sudden popularity of a big new Chinese AI name, but Apple could benefit from a disruption to its competitors' efforts.

DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, released the AI model R1 on January 20. Many in the tech industry believe DeepSeek's large language models could threaten some of the biggest AI players, including Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI.

DeepSeek has spooked markets because it appears to deliver models that are as effective as US versions but much cheaper to produce because they run on less powerful chips.

That undercuts Google, OpenAI, and others' ability to charge premium prices to access the best of their AI models. The Netherlands-based chipmaker ASML's shares fell by 7%, while the AI chip giant Nvidia's stock dropped by more than 17% on Monday.

Apple, however, is in a relatively good position, tech analysts told Business Insider. Its stock rose on Monday, while competitors Alphabet and Microsoft traded down.

"Apple would be a beneficiary if the cost of AI training declined," Gene Munster, the managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said.

One reason Apple stands to gain from cheaper AI training is that it "rightly focuses on how to integrate AI as a product, rather than building the most cutting-edge models," William Kerwin, a tech analyst at Morningstar, said.

Apple could integrate LLMs and improve Apple Intelligence at a cheaper rate than competitors and ultimately keep costs down for consumers, Kerwin said.

If DeepSeek proves that powerful AI capabilities are achievable for a fraction of what most AI companies are spending, it could "benefit Apple by leveling the playing field and allowing it to accelerate AI integration plans without making excessive capital expenditures," Jacob Bourne, an analyst at BI's sister company EMARKETER, said.

Apple has been criticized for being slow to put out its AI offerings. It released Apple Intelligence software last year, months after its Big Tech competitors launched their versions and years after OpenAI launched ChatGPT.

By spending less on AI infrastructure, Bourne said, Apple has some insulation from the fallout its US competitors are facing.

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Tech leaders like Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg have maintained that investing heavily in AI is worth the risk — Meta is expected to invest over $60 billion in AI infrastructure in 2025.

Apple's AI spending appears to be lower than that. Although the iPhone maker hasn't disclosed exactly what it spent on AI in 2024, it reported $45.6 billion in payments for property, plant, and equipment in the fiscal year — up from $43.7 billion in 2023. Those costs would likely include more than just AI spending.

• For federal employees preparing to return to the office full time, dressing right may be hard.
• BI spoke to stylists and federal workers, one of whom described the vibe as "funeral director chic."
• The stylists suggested a few simple suits, understated accessories, and ditching the stilettos.

Faced with President Trump's recent return-to-office mandate, many government employees across the country once again need to figure out how to dress for five days a week at their desks.

The RTO mandates come among a surge of other private and public organizations ordering people back to the workplace, but federal fashion has been known for being more conservative than typical workwear.

Business Insider spoke with three personal stylists who said that government workers have limited office options compared to other employees across corporate America. Here are their tips for looking the part.

Federal workwear can resemble 'funeral director chic'

"There is almost zero latitude for personal style in federal government jobs. I think this is where sort of DC gets its reputation for being really boring sartorially," Kate Breen, a DC-based personal stylist who founded GetDressedGo and has worked with federal employees, told BI.

A civil servant at a foreign affairs agency, who did not want to be named because she isn't granted permission to speak by her agency, described the style as "funeral director chic." She has worked largely remotely since the pandemic and BI has verified her identity.

This era of remote work has transformed the way many employees approach dressing for their jobs. Reginald Ferguson, a stylist and the founder of New York Fashion Geek, said hoodies have become just as acceptable as blouses and collared shirts.

However, Ferguson said, "You're not going to see jeans and hoodies" at a government office.

"It's certainly not about originality," he told BI.

Breen said she sometimes sees entire crosswalks full of identically dressed people in DC, especially men.

An August report from the Office of Management and Budget said that 54% of the nation's 2.28 million civil servants worked fully in person, and only 10% were remote as of May.

Even for those accustomed to going into the office, Trump's recent mandates pertaining to the federal workforce, along with his cost-cutting plans as part of the new Department of Government Efficiency, have caused anxiety for workers. One said it's showing up in how people dress.

A federal contractor for a Washington, DC, agency told BI, "People are dressed up. They had nice clothes on. I said, 'Wow!' Because people are worried." One of her colleagues used to wear "a Mr. Rogers sweater" but has started wearing a tie, she said. She didn't want to be named as she's not authorized to speak openly about her role at a government agency; BI has verified her identity.

For government employees that aren't based in the capital, the dress code is business casual but still more conservative than corporate jobs, Jorian Palos, a California-based Department of Public Social Services worker, said. The 24-year-old said that her older coworkers tend to dress more formally, but she sticks to a more relaxed style for her in-person workweek.

Whether they're going back to the office for the first time in years or adjusting to new vibes, it's time for federal employees to beef up their closets with more business-casual options.

Workers should take stock of their existing closet

"Anyone returning back to the office should review their wardrobe and remember that they are no longer dressing for a Zoom," Ferguson said.

Breen suggested that government employees try on all of their clothing and get rid of anything that's in poor condition or doesn't fit, physically or emotionally. She and Ting Lin, another DC-area stylist, advise employees to invest in one or two well-tailored, dark-colored suits.

"The great thing about suits is that they're not remarkable, so wearing the same or alternating them every other day — people don't really notice," Breen told BI.

Lin and Breen said that understated accessories and jewelry can bring personality to an otherwise simple outfit. For younger employees, in particular, Breen said that good-quality shoes and bags can help them stand out and signal professionalism.

The DC-area stylists told BI that comfortable shoes are key. Lin said she doesn't see as many federal employees wearing stilettos to the office anymore, opting instead for a chunky heel or loafer.

"My tolerance for high heels is out the window," the employee at the foreign affairs agency told BI. "In terms of heels — low heels, I'm probably only wearing those to specific events or meetings."

Michelle Obama nailed the look

When asked if anyone exemplified ideal federal workwear, Lin and Breen had the same answer: Michelle Obama. The former first lady, they said, mastered mixing conservative clothing with identifiable personal style. Breen said Obama dressed in a way both "appealing and accessible" and recalled when she paired J.Crew gloves with a designer gown at an inauguration parade.

"A lot of my clients reference her regardless of their political affiliation because she did such a great job not completely capitulating to the DC über-conservative expectations and showing her real personality," she told BI.

Tim Paradis contributed to the reporting of this story.

• Chili's has been having a moment on social media, helped by people testing promotional deals.
• The "Triple Dipper" and "3 For Me" offerings have caught the eyes of new and returning customers.
• I went to my local Chili's to check out the vibes and taste the viral menu items.

It's been a tough few years for a lot of food chains. One that seems to be bucking the trend is Chili's.

So, I went along on a Friday night with my best friend to see who was eating at one of their restaurants in Queen's, NY, what they seemed to be ordering, and what the vibes were like.

What I found was that Chili's seems to be a go-to for a wide range of families, sports fans, and friends at the start of the weekend. And me, a 24-year-old writer from Houston.

As a disclaimer, I'm somewhat of a regular at Chili's, so I know my way around the menu. I hadn't been on a popular weekend night, however, and I was surprised at how busy it was. We didn't mind because this location is situated in a strip mall where we could kill time strolling stores.

Brinker International, the parent company of Chili's, reported a 7.4% increase in same-store sales at Chili's for 2024, and sales jumped 14% on the same basis in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, which ended in September 2024.

The uptick in sales seemed to be reflected at our restaurant. We walked into a packed host area with patrons in line to be seated and a wait time of 45 minutes to an hour at 9 p.m. — something I'd expect more from a trendy restaurant in Manhattan. The other food options in the area were mostly fast-casual with limited seating, save for California Pizza Kitchen.

Once we were seated (in less than 45 minutes), we immediately ordered the viral Triple Dipper appetizer.

If you're new to Chili's, the Triple Dipper is a sampler of appetizers that can be customized to your preferences for under $20. We chose the cheeseburger sliders, chicken tenders, and egg rolls for our three selections.

The Triple Dipper has gained a following online, with TikTokers showing anything from cheese pulls (a video of the epic stretchy string of cheese from mozzarella sticks) to first-timers filming themselves trying the options. These value meals, which we wrote about late last year, are helping the restaurant chain grow, Chili's CMO George Felix said, and they're not going anywhere soon.

In fact, we overheard the table next to us telling the server that it was their first time at Chili's, and they ordered a Triple Dipper too.

For our drinks, we chose the "Marg of the Month": a $6 margarita called "the Resolution Breaker." It's made with tequila, pineapple juice, fresh sour, mango syrup, and Sprite. The price for a cocktail seemed pretty reasonable compared to a lot of places in the five boroughs.

While other eateries have been trying to bring customers back with promotional deals, Chili's has been building momentum. Alongside the "Triple Dipper," the "3 For Me" deal offers an appetizer, entrée, and drink starting at $10.99.

My best friend went for that but upgraded to the six-ounce sirloin for $16.99, with chips and salsa as her appetizer. I decided to get a Chili's classic that I hadn't had in years: the baby back ribs.

Similar to the "3 For Me" or "Triple Dipper," the "Smokehouse Combo" is a customizable plate of barbecue and sides. I got two proteins and two sides for $22.49, which I enjoyed — but saved some for home. I barely touched the ribs by the time I'd finished off my portion of the "Triple Dipper" and our chips and salsa.

We stayed until the last call at the bar, around 10:30 p.m. The dining room stayed packed throughout our hour-and-a-half dinner. I observed families, people just hanging out at the bar watching sports, and a few girls-night-out tables, like us. Servers circulated around the dining room nonstop, it seemed.

Our total check came out to just under $100. We had two alcoholic drinks each, two appetizers, and two entrées, so not a bad deal by New York standards. I'll definitely be back for another "Triple Dipper," but I think I'll stick to weeknights to avoid the crowds and focus on my food.

• Nike is aiming for a retail comeback by reducing discounts and focusing on full-price sales.
• CEO Elliott Hill plans to shift away from heavy discounting strategies.
• Nike will prioritize running, basketball, training, football, and sportswear categories.

Nike is trying to make a comeback in the retail space. Its new approach involves offering fewer discounts.

Veteran employee Elliott Hill took over as CEO of the sports giant in October 2024. Hill had left in 2020 after over 30 years at the company, and the Nike he returned to was struggling to regain its former dominance in-store. Sales were also falling.

Nike's plans include walking back some previous business strategies, like offering discounts or shifting its attention away from its relationships with wholesalers.

That will mean fewer markdowns on Nike styles, starting this spring, as the company strives to provide an "elevated" experience for shoppers, Hill said during an interview with Fortune.

Hill told Fortune that Nike has become "too promotional," and it's hurting the business. Nike started the fiscal year with a 50-50 split of full-price and discounted items, he said during the second-quarter 2025 earnings call in December.

"Being premium also means full price. We'll focus on promotions during traditional retail moments, not at the consistent levels we are today," Hill said then.

He told Fortune that discounting is "not great for margin; it's not great for the brand; it's not great for our wholesale partners."

In the months since he became CEO — succeeding John Donahoe — Nike has also made it clear that it's getting back to its roots as an athletic wear brand.

In the future, Nike will prioritize five categories: running, basketball, training, football, and sportswear. Hill told Fortune he'll work to repair relationships with wholesale retailers after Nike distanced itself from them to focus on its direct-to-consumer business.

• SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has been a champion of AI for years.

• The Japanese conglomerate has invested millions in some of Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies.
• Son joined OpenAI and Oracle to announce a $500 billion joint investment in US AI projects.

Masayoshi Son is the CEO and founder of tech and telecommunications giant SoftBank, and is worth an estimated $16.2 billion.

Through SoftBank and the $100 billion Vision Fund, Son has invested millions in some of Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies, including Uber, Slack, Amazon, Tesla, and Netflix. Softbank was the biggest investor in WeWork, losing more than $4.7 billion after the coworking company's failed IPO. 

In November 2024, SoftBank reported quarterly profit of 1.18 trillion yen, or $7.7 billion at the time. It was the firm's biggest profit in two years; revenue was boosted by Son's big bets on AI.

Over the years, Son has been a big proponent of the tech, and has invested billions, including in OpenAI.

Now, Son's company is partnering with other tech leaders to fund a $500 billion investment in US AI. He joined President Donald Trump, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Oracle CTO Larry Ellison on January 21 to announce Stargate, a project that seeks to build US AI infrastructure and create jobs.

Here's a look at Son's life, career, investments, and real-estate portfolio.

Son was born in 1957 to Korean immigrants on the Japanese island of Kyushu.

The 67-year-old CEO was one of four brothers, and his father worked at restaurants, farms, and fisheries.

In 1972, when he was 16, Son met one of his business idols.

He met McDonald's Japan founder Den Fujita, who encouraged him to go study in the United States. Son took his advice and moved to San Francisco the next year to continue high school, Bloomberg reported.

Son went on to study computer science and economics at the University of California at Berkeley.

Before he was 21 years old, Son sold his first company, a multilingual translator bought by Sharp for about $1 million, according to Bloomberg.

In the 1980s, Son founded SoftBank, a company that today pours billions of dollars of capital into tech startups, including through its Vision Fund.

Through its main investment vehicle, the Vision Fund, SoftBank has invested in major tech companies like Uber, WeWork, DoorDash, and Chinese e-commerce retailer Alibaba.

Son's investment strategies are considered unconventional in Silicon Valley.

The size of Son's $100 billion Vision Fund and its investment strategies have shocked Silicon Valley investors, per Bloomberg. 

In early 2019, Fast Company called Son "the most powerful person in Silicon Valley" for his ambitious vision — and financial means — to transform industries from real estate to food to transportation through his investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Son's talks with Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman helped raise $100 billion for the Vision Fund.

Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, met with Son in 2018, and their talks led to the formation of a solar energy project that seeks to develop more energy storage systems and create more jobs in Saudi Arabia, according to an announcement.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is the SoftBank Vision Fund's largest backer, having contributed $45 billion of the fund's $100 billion bankroll, Bloomberg reported.

The SoftBank CEO is known for paying his executives handsomely — and he's far from the highest-paid person at the company.

Six of SoftBanks' top executives made $83 million combined (9.1 billion yen) in compensation in 2018, while Son's salary rose to about $2.1 million (229 million yen), according to Bloomberg.

"The range of executive salaries in Japan has gone up, but compensation in the billions of yen is still unheard of beyond a handful of global companies," Noriko Watanabe, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles, an executive search company, told Bloomberg in 2019.

The head of SoftBank's Vision Fund made $15 million in 2019 — despite the fund losing billions of dollars — while its COO made more than $19 million, per Reuters. Son himself made just under $2 million.

Son owns millions of dollars worth of property in Tokyo, where SoftBank is headquartered.

In 2013, he spent $326 million on Tokyo's landmark Tiffany Building in the Ginza luxury shopping district, per Reuters. He reportedly sold the building in 2020 for an undisclosed amount.

He also owns a $117.5 million Silicon Valley estate that comes with a 9,000-square-foot house, a 1,117-square-foot pool house, a detached library, a swimming pool, a tennis court, and formal gardens, Forbes wrote in 2013. Son reportedly bought the Woodside, California, property in 2012 from private equity investor Tully Friedman.

Son is married and has at least two children, but he keeps his family life private.

The CEO married Masami Ohno, the daughter of a prominent Japanese doctor, while they were both students at UC Berkeley, The Seoul Times reported. The couple reportedly have two daughters, but little information about the family can be found online.

The SoftBank CEO reportedly has personal relationships with billionaire CEOs and entrepreneurs.

Son has ties to Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Rupert Murdoch, and Tadashi Yanai. He has visited Ellison's Silicon Valley home, where he met Steve Jobs, per Bloomberg.

Yanai sat on SoftBank's board of directors until he stepped down in December 2019.

Son reportedly once had a close relationship with Adam Neumann, the cofounder and former CEO of WeWork, in which SoftBank was once the biggest investor.

Neumann told Business Insider in a 2019 interview that he and his wife, Rebekah, call Son "Yoda," in reference to the "Star Wars" character.

"He is Yoda," Neumann said. "He has the Force with him."

But WeWork's valuation plummeted amid its failed IPO attempt in September 2019. Son reportedly "lost faith" in Neumann and wanted him demoted, the Financial Times reported. A couple of days later, Neumann stepped down as CEO.

SoftBank took control of WeWork in a deal that gave Neumann almost $1.7 billion and required him to step down as chairman of the board, though Neumann actually walked away with less than half that amount in cash and stock, plus some other benefits, the WSJ reported. Son later said on an earnings call that he felt "foolish" for investing $18.5 billion into WeWork.

In 2019, SoftBank dumped its nearly 5% stake in chip-maker Nvidia — another stumble.

SoftBank sold its 4.9% stake in Nvidia in 2019 for about $4 billion. If it hadn't, the position might've been worth more than $175 billion today.

In May 2019, SoftBank announced the creation of a second Vision Fund, after having already spent more than half of the first one.

"Various investors from around the world are telling us they definitely want to participate in Vision Fund 2. We will set it up soon," Son said at the beginning of May 2019, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal later reported that Son had trouble raising money for this new fund, a claim SoftBank disputed. 

"While we don't comment on fundraising, much of The Wall Street Journal's reporting on investor sentiment is misleading and even inaccurate," a SoftBank spokesperson told Business Insider in an email in 2019.

In July 2019, the company announced plans for $108 billion worth of investments in its second Vision Fund.

SoftBank confirmed that Apple, Foxconn, and others would invest in the fund, as well as Microsoft for the first time, BI previously reported.

Although Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund was the largest backer of the first Vision Fund, having contributed $45 billion of the fund's $100 billion bankroll, Saudi Arabia was missing from the list of backers for the new fund. Vision Fund 2 has a size of $56 billion as of 2025, according to Pitchbook. Its recent investments include ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

But SoftBank suffered following WeWork's downfall and amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In April 2020, SoftBank said its Vision Fund would suffer a $17 billion annual operating loss.

SoftBank-backed companies including Oyo, Uber, Zume, and WeWork laid off over 29,000 people in 2020. In September that year, SoftBank's market value took a roughly $10 billion hit after The Wall Street Journal reported that it had been making massive, risky investments in tech stocks.

In June 2020, as protests over racial injustice and the death of George Floyd swept the globe, SoftBank announced the launch of a $100 million fund to invest in entrepreneurs of color.

The fund was overseen by SoftBank's chief operating officer Marcelo Claure and two black tech leaders: TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot and Pindrop cofounder Paul Judge.

"When it comes to diversity, SoftBank absolutely has to do better as an employer, investor, and partner. But we can't just talk — we have to put money behind it, set plans, and hold ourselves accountable," Claure wrote in an email to employees. "This fund will only invest in companies led by founders and entrepreneurs of color."

The announcement came on the ninth day of protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a white police officer, which started in Minneapolis and spread to all 50 states and countries including England, France, Germany, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

Softbank sold its Opportunity Fund to Claure and Judge in 2023.

Despite his company's losses post-pandemic, Son remained optimistic.

On an earnings call in May 2020, Son talked about how the coronavirus created a valley — the "Valley of Coronavirus" as he called it — that some companies would fall into, but other "unicorn" companies would be able to fly out of and succeed.

"Things will probably get worse," Son said in the call, per The New York Times. "But we will keep working hard to survive."

In August 2020, after three quarters of devastating losses, SoftBank finally reported a profit again and proceeded to make investments in Amazon, Tesla, Alphabet, and Netflix.

SoftBank had another tough year in 2022.

SoftBank earned a reputation of writing big checks for cash-burning tech startups, but rising interest rates challenged that strategy as investors became more cautious of such investments in 2022. In an earnings call that year, SoftBank reported a nearly $10 billion in loss on its venture investments for the quarter.

"We have to be in defensive mode," Son said as he announced that subsequent calls would be handled by SoftBank's CFO.

In 2020, Softbank announced that it would sell its UK-based chip designer Arm to Nvidia for $40 billion, but the deal fell through in 2022 amid regulatory pressure. And in May 2023, its tech investment unit reported $32 billion in losses for its full year.

SoftBank sold its Alibaba stake in 2023.

SoftBank first invested $20 million in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2000. It realized a $72 billion gain on its investments in Alibaba over the course of 23 years.

Son reportedly spent recent years unwinding Softbank's stake in the Chinese tech giant, however, amid local government crackdowns on corporates and as the Vision Fund lost billions.

Son's interest in AI began paying off in 2024.

Son took a bold stance on AI in 2023, slamming its doubters at SoftBank's World corporate conference that year. His beliefs started to pay off as AI picked up steam in the tech industry. 

Arm, the chip maker that SoftBank acquired in 2016, aims to put its products in the hands of tech companies to power their GenAI projects.

"Arm is central to our AI shift," CFO Yoshimitsu Goto said in May 2024.

"We have moved from Alibaba, and are focused on leading the AI revolution," Goto said during an earnings presentation in February 2024.

SoftBank invested $500 million in OpenAI in an October 2024 funding round.

The Japanese conglomerate was part of a $6.6 billion funding round with a $500 million investment in the ChatGPT maker. Son's commitment to an AI-powered future began before OpenAI became a household name; SoftBank's second Vision Fund backed the startup.

SoftBank became Nvidia's first customer for its Blackwell chips in November 2024.

The Blackwell chips will be used to create an AI supercomputer in Japan, the companies said in November 2024. Demand for Nvidia's chips has exploded since AI took the tech industry by storm.

"Together we're going to build Japan's largest AI factory," Huang said at the company's AI summit in Tokyo.

The Blackwell chips are expected to ship in the first quarter of 2025.

SoftBank will invest $100 billion into US projects over the next 4 years.

Donald Trump and Son came together in December 2024 to announce the deal, which Trump said will generate 100,000 jobs in the US. The investment will go towards building up the AI infrastructure, Associated Press reported.

Son reportedly pledged $50 billion in investments when Trump was elected in 2016.

Trump announced a $500 billion AI infrastructure investment plan involving SoftBank on January 21.

Son joined OpenAI's Sam Altman, Oracle's Larry Ellison, and Trump to announce the planned private-sector investment. The president said the three companies would work together to boost AI infrastructure in the US in a project they're calling Stargate.

SoftBank's stock rose over 9% in Japan after the announcement.

"Together these world-leading technology giants are announcing the formation of Stargate," Trump said.

He added, "Put that name down in your books, because I think you're going to hear a lot about it."

Editor's note: January 24, 2025: This story was updated to clarify that Neumann eventually received a smaller exit package from SoftBank than the originally planned $1.7 billion.

• Two sets of analysts downgraded Apple, citing weak iPhone demand.
• Apple's AI-powered iPhone 16 has had mixed reviews; its biggest feature is unavailable in China.
• Chinese smartphone makers like Xiaomi are gaining market share over Apple in the key region.

Wall Street's confidence in Apple's China performance seems to be slipping as its first-quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings announcement approaches.

Apple, which is scheduled to report quarterly data on January 30, was downgraded to "underperform" by analysts at Jefferies. It was also cut to "hold" from "buy" at Loop Capital, Bloomberg reported.

Shares have fallen more than 10% in 2025, and dropped more than 3% on Tuesday.

In a note published Monday, Jefferies analyst Edison Lee cited weak iPhone demand, particularly in the key Greater China region. Jefferies estimates a 4% drop year over year in iPhone shipments in the first quarter. Meantime, Loop cited ongoing iPhone sales weakness, Bloomberg said.

Apple released its highly anticipated Apple Intelligence features in October 2024 after announcing the AI software at the Worldwide Developers Conference earlier that year. At the time, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said it could drive a "golden" upgrade cycle.

However, "AI would be unlikely to kickstart a super upgrade cycle anytime soon," Jefferies' Lee said.

Since the AI-powered iPhone 16 launched in September, it's been met with mixed reviews in the US. Apple Intelligence is also not yet available in China. MoffettNathanson also gave Apple a rare "sell" recommendation this month.

Apple's standing in China has been rocky this past year, with local smartphone makers gaining ground in a crucial market for the tech giant. Chinese competitor Xiaomi grew handset sales the fastest in 2024, according to data from Counterpoint.

Apple was late to launching its AI offerings compared to its tech competitors, but it seemed to invigorate Wall Street with demonstrations of Apple Intelligence at WWDC. Citi analysts said it was the "best WWDC" in a long time.

However, they're still waiting for the Apple Intelligence rollout to move the dial for iPhone sales.

"Any delay in advanced packaging roadmap would be a further negative sign," Jefferies' Lee said.

• The TikTok ban, which may be shortlived, prompted some users to reevaluate scrolling culture.
• The app went dark over the weekend before Trump said he would extend TikTok's deadline to sell.
• The uncertainty drove many users to other apps. Others said they might ditch scrolling altogether.

As the days turned into hours ahead of the TikTok ban, many Americans shared a common refrain: "Follow me on RedNote!"

The mass migration to yet another Chinese-owned short-form video app pushed Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, to the top of Apple's app store, with Lemon8, TikTok's sister app, close behind. Apps like Instagram, X, and YouTube are also vying for users' attention.

Some TikTok users, however, say that the confusion over the app's future is causing them to consider another option: Ditch scrolling altogether.

TikTok went dark overnight on Saturday in anticipation of a ban. Then, on Sunday, it began coming back online after President-elect Donald Trump said he would delay the ban via executive order.

It was just the latest about-face in a week of uncertainty that left TikTok users feeling "jerked around," Casey Lewis, author of the youth consumer insights newsletter After School, told Business Insider.

"I think this has been the weirdest week on TikTok, from a consumption standpoint," Lewis said. "I had an onslaught of people resharing the first TikTok they ever made or the first sound they ever saved, so that sort of nostalgia."

At 37, Lewis said she's seen her share of social media apps come and go.

"These young people who stumbled onto TikTok, unless something just is totally right there, easy to jump into, I can't see that they will seek something out, and I do think that their screen time will drop," Lewis said.

From mourning to reevaluating

While many users said they would find similar apps to fill the void left by TikTok, others said they'd look for better things to do, like read, work out, or even "touch grass" to avoid being pulled onto yet another app and back into "doom-scrolling" culture in general.

"I am a victim of doom-scrolling all the time. I really shouldn't be because I have a baby too, so it's like when she's napping, I should really be getting stuff done, but I'm on my phone on TikTok," Robin Reineke, a 28-year-old real-estate agent in St. Louis, told Business Insider.

Reineke said she made some money from her lifestyle content on TikTok, but it wasn't her whole life or her sole source of income. Part of what made the app special was its algorithm and the community it forged among its users, as if "you're on FaceTime with your best friends," she said.

Given the app's unresolved future, she intends to pour more time and energy into herself and her work.

"I'm excited to be able to take my life back, and I am trying to focus on this new healthy era for myself," she said. "It's giving me the opportunity to just focus back on physical and mental health and not consuming so much of what everybody else is doing all the time."

Creators question moving to other social media apps

Users aren't the only ones reassessing — content creators are, too.

Sierra Boudreaux, a 26-year-old who worked in finance until she became a full-time content creator, had similar thoughts. In a TikTok she posted last week, she joked: "And if we do lose this, I don't think I'm going to RedNote. Like, I think I'm just going to have a baby, shit!"

While she told BI she was mostly poking fun at her screentime on TikTok — "If I'm not spending all of my time creating content or consuming content on this app, I would have the time to then get pregnant, have a baby, raise a child" — she said she is skeptical about pivoting to RedNote, which she said may not have as many branding and monetization opportunities as other apps that are more established in the United States.

"I think that while it could be fun," Boudreaux said, "a lot of creators are probably like me in this mode where it's like, 'Okay, what is our next pivot career-wise, and what makes a lot of sense to invest our time in?'"

While RedNote is well-established in China, it could be just a "blip in the radar" for Americans, Boudreaux said.

"Should I be creating content for this up-and-coming (in the US market, at least) platform?" she said. "Or should I be focusing on X, my podcast that I have, Instagram, the whole Meta universe?"

Boudreaux said spending time reading or training for a marathon might be a better move for her, noting that she had already scaled down her TikTok screentime in recent months.

"As a creator engaging with other creators, whether they're mutuals of mine or not, there's this underlying level of comparison. What is their engagement? What are their views? What are their likes? And so it wasn't really just this reprieve for me, it was also this breeding ground for me to see what everyone else doing and then compare myself to it," she said. "So I have filled my time in other ways."

The business of magic in a bottle

While some people might rethink their social media habits, the majority will likely focus on finding an adequate substitute (at least until TikTok figures out its future), Charles Lindsey, an associate professor of marketing at the University at Buffalo's School of Management, told BI.

When there's industry change for regulatory or competitive reasons, "sometimes you'll see a certain percentage of people that will say, 'You know what? I'm going to take this time to reflect and unplug before I decide what to do next.' And that's certainly a valid response," Lindsey said.

But the vast majority of users would still end up migrating to other apps if they haven't already, he said.

So the race is on to see which app can absorb wayward TikTok users, whether that's RedNote or Lemon8, Meta platforms, X, or YouTube. There's also a possibility that other apps emerge to fill the void, Lindsey said.

"For a lot of users and content creators, it really boils down to dollars and cents," Lindsey said. "I think whichever platform makes the most sense in terms of pushing out their content, developing a critical mass of followers, and getting their existing followers to migrate over and so on."

Though the TikTok ban brought on a distinct upswing in Mark Zuckerberg-hate and promises to boycott his apps, outrage alone may not be enough to move the needle on which app ultimately fills the void.

"I think you can have a preference, and we're seeing that with RedNote shooting up to the top," Lindsey added. "Whether that then becomes the app of choice three, six months, a year down the road, I think it all boils down to the functionality of the app."

It may also come down to mimicking the magic-in-a-bottle that was the TikTok experience, which had a unique rise to popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic and a subsequent five-year reign, Lewis said. TikTok had an "unbeatable" algorithm and comment sections that kept users entertained and engaged, she said.

"I think if they have to search too hard for a suitable alternative, then they will reevaluate their time," Lewis said. "Consumers aren't lazy, but they aren't going to jump through hoops in order to figure out a way to waste time on the internet."

• Light unveiled its Light Phone 3 with a new back camera feature.
• "Dumb phones" have targeted users seeking a break from high-tech gadgets.
• Intentional tech use will be on the rise in 2025, Amazon's Werner Vogels said.

"Dumb phones" are devices with much less functionality than the typical smartphone. However, they still have a high-tech feature that their users can't stand to lose.

Light announced the third iteration of its simplified cellphone in June 2024. It doesn't look much different from its predecessor, which started shipping in 2019, and the company says it didn't change much in terms of software.

It spent most of its time and resources on introducing a particular aspect of the Light Phone 3: the back camera.

The new Light Phone is "a little bit bigger, a little bit faster, and a slightly different screen, but the camera is definitely the new feature," Joe Hollier, the cofounder of Light, told Business Insider.

The Light Phone 3 can call and text and has smarter features such as fingerprint ID, rear- and front-facing cameras, and the potential to support a digital wallet, the company said.

The other available tools, according to the company, include an alarm, a timer, a calculator, a calendar, a directory, directions, notes/voice memo. There's the option to add music and podcasts to the device by connecting to a computer and downloading them from the Light website.

Smartphone makers have also been working on improving their cameras. Apple's latest phone lineup, the iPhone 16, has an "Ultra Wide" camera and autofocus for photos that can be edited using AI. Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra has an AI-powered camera that can improve low-light photography.

Light doesn't expect their new camera to compete with an iPhone, which Hollier acknowledged can shoot commercials, but it's a "very intentional" tool, he said.

It saw a need to add a new camera with a "nostalgia feel." Hollier said his interest in film photography was a "North Star" for the Light Phone 3's new back camera. Photos from the dumb phone don't look quite as clear as those from the iPhone, but Hollier said they weren't designed to be.

Users have turned to dumb phones for a break from the bright and colorful smartphone displays and all the distractions they offer. That's similar to a trend Amazon CTO Werner Vogels highlighted for 2025. As artificial intelligence charges ahead, people will turn to more intentional tech use, Vogels wrote in a blogpost.

Although Hollier said adult Gen Zers are becoming more interested in dumb phones, it remains the smallest portion of its user base at 12%. However, their older siblings, Zillennials between the ages of 25 and 34, make up 38% of Light Phone users.

Light has set out to reduce the "infinite feed," as Hollier put it, by guaranteeing that its phones will never have email, social media, or an internet browser. The company treads a careful line when deciding what to offer in Light Phones.

That's at odds with the many companies trying to evolve by incorporating AI into their operations. Apple launched Apple Intelligence in 2024, and Samsung's S24 is a lineup of AI-powered phones. Hollier said Light has no current plans to bring AI to its phones.

The Light Phone 3 is available for preorder for $599 as of January 16— a $200 discount from its retail price. Shipping is expected to begin in May.

• When Wolfe Herd took Bumble public in 2021, she became the youngest female CEO to make such a move.
• Before Bumble, Wolfe Herd cofounded rival dating app Tinder.
• Wolfe Herd left her CEO role in 2024, and Bumble announced she'll return in March 2025.

Whitney Wolfe Herd is coming back as CEO of dating app Bumble just over a year after stepping down in 2024.

Wolfe Herd, who co-founded the app, transitioned into the executive chair position at Bumble in January 2024. She did so at a time when the dating app industry faced challenges. In her stead, Lidiane Jones had the top job before resigning, citing personal reasons, a press release said.

In 2021, Wolfe Herd made a bold move when she took Bumble public. She was 31 at the time, which made her the youngest female CEO to take a US company public.

Since going public, Bumble has experience ups and downs. Bumble's annual revenue was up 16% year-over-year in 2023, but its latest results for the third-quarter of 2024 dropped 1% year-over-year to $274 million. Wolfe Herd expanded her company and relinquished some of her responsibilities after the company went public, including hiring Drena Kusari, Bumble's first global general manager. 

In May 2023, Bumble also acquired Official, a relationship app designed for couples that helps with date planning and mood check-ins, according to Fast Company. 

"We're really trying to build the entire relationship journey and take care of the entire relationship from start to finish," Wolfe Herd told Fast Company.

Keep reading to learn more about Bumble cofounder Whitney Wolfe Herd.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, 35, is a Utah native.

Wolfe Herd was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, The Times of London reported. Her father is a property developer and her mother is a homemaker, per The Times.

The CEO has been a feminist from an early age, telling The Times that she disliked how Utah's dating culture was dominated by men — women were expected to wait for them to make the first move.

Wolfe Herd went on to attend Southern Methodist University in Texas, and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, per Fast Company. She's still close with many of her sorority sisters and even employs a few at Bumble.

Wolfe Herd also launched her first business at 19 while still in college, per Money Inc. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill pumped crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for five months in 2010, Wolfe Herd enlisted celebrity stylist Patrick Aufdenkamp to design tote bags that could be sold to help fund relief efforts. The resulting nonprofit, called the Help Us Get Cleaned Up Project, became nationally known after Nicole Richie and Rachel Zoe were spotted with Wolfe Herd's bags.

After earning a degree in International Studies, Wolfe Herd did a brief stint in Southeast Asia.

Wolfe Herd spent her time in Asia volunteering at local orphanages, per Money Inc.

Wolfe Herd is currently at the head of Bumble, it isn't the first dating app she cofounded.

At 22, Wolfe Herd was hired to work at startup incubator Hatch Labs in Los Angeles, according to The Times of London. After hours, she starting collaborating with a group that was looking to build a dating app.

That app, which is now known as Tinder, quickly grew into a global phenomenon with Wolfe Herd's help. She even came up with the name Tinder, per The Telegraph. She is credited as a cofounder and spent two years as the company's vice president of marketing, per The Times.

Wolfe Herd didn't leave Tinder on good terms.

During her tenure at Tinder, Wolfe Herd dated fellow cofounder and her then-boss Justin Mateen, per The Times of London. She left the company shortly after they split, and filed a lawsuit alleging that she had experienced sexual harassment and discrimination.

The legal dispute was settled privately outside of court, with neither party admitting to wrongdoing.

Following the legal battle, Wolfe Herd also faced online harassment.

"I was inundated with hatred online, lots of aggressive behavior, people calling me names, really painful things that I'd never experienced," Wolfe Herd told The Times in 2018. "I felt like my entire self-worth, any confidence that I had, had been sucked away. There were dark times when I thought, 'Well, this is it. I won't have a career ever again. I'm 24, coming out of one of the world's hottest tech companies, but the internet hates me.' It was a horrible time. Then I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'm going to rebuild myself.'"

Wolfe Herd launched Bumble in 2014, originally planning to build a female-focused social network instead of a dating app.

Wolfe Herd was persuaded to forgo her original plan for the app by former business partner and Russian billionaire Andrey Andreev, according to CNN Business.

The app's women-led model was initially inspired by Sadie Hawkins school dances, where women ask men to be their date, Wolfe Herd told Business Insider in 2015.

"We're definitely not trying to be sexist, that's not the goal," Wolfe Herd said. "I know guys get sick of making the first move all the time. Why does a girl feel like she should sit and wait around? Why is there this standard that, as a woman, you can get your dream job but you can't talk to a guy first? Let's make dating feel more modern."

Wolfe Herd has since expanded the app with additional services to help women meet new friends and expand their professional networks, called Bumble BFF and Bumble Bizz respectively. Bumble has also invested in other apps, including gay dating app Chappy, TechCrunch reported.

Bumble has 3.6 million paying users across 150 countries as of June 2023, according to the company.

Wolfe Herd also reorganized and took the helm of Bumble's former parent company, Magic Lab, after its owner was ousted amid accusations of racism and sexism.

In addition to being Wolfe Herd's close friend and business partner who she said she was "incredibly in sync" with and called "two to five times a day," Andreev owned a 79% stake in Bumble, according to Fast Company.

After the allegations of racism and sexism against Andreev were published by Forbes in 2019, Wolfe Herd released a statement saying she had had "nothing but positive and respectful" experiences with Andreev but "would never challenge someone's feelings or experiences."

"All of us at Bumble are mortified by the allegations about Badoo (Bumble's majority owner) from the years before Bumble was born, as chronicled in the Forbes story," Wolfe Herd said in the statement. "I am saddened and sickened to hear that anyone, of any gender, would ever be made to feel marginalized or mistreated in any capacity at their workplace."

Even before she took on her expanded role, Wolfe Herd was already a workaholic.

Wolfe Herd typically wakes up every morning at 5:15 a.m. and immediately starts responding to emails, she told The Times of London.

She has even been known to wake up every two hours during the night to check her inbox. "I'm trying to stop that," Wolfe Herd told The Times in 2017. "I get no downtime. I don't get a weekend, I haven't lived like a twenty-something since I started Bumble in 2014."

Wolfe Herd is also politically active, helping outlaw digital sexual harassment in Texas.

Sending unsolicited nude photos — a phenomenon that has plagued dating apps and even AirDrop — is punishable under a new law championed by Wolfe Herd, Inc. reported. She is now advocating for a similar law in California and hopes it will soon be federal law, too.

"It is time that our laws mirror this way we lead double lives, in the physical and the digital," Wolfe Herd told Inc. shortly after the Texas law was passed in August 2019. "You look at government right now, it only protects the physical world. But our youth are spending a lot more time in the digital world than they are in the physical."

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The CEO says she doesn't have political aspirations of her own, however. "I could never run for [office]," Wolfe Herd told The Times of London, saying that she is frequently asked if she's considered it. "There are people so much smarter than me."

Wolfe Herd is also a mom.

Wolfe Herd married Texas oil heir Michael Herd in an elegant three-day ceremony on Italy's Amalfi Coast in 2017, per Vogue.

The couple first met while skiing in Aspen in 2013, but Wolfe Herd first saw him on a dating app. "He has the kind of face you remember," she told The Telegraph.

He is now the president of the oil and gas field operator founded by his late grandfather, Herd Producing Company, and also owns a high-end farm to table restaurant called the Grove Kitchen + Gardens.

The pair have two sons named Henry and Bobby, named after Michael's late grandfather, and they makes frequent appearances on Wolfe Herd's Instagram account.

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The couple also has a Great Dane named Duke and a yellow lab named Jett, per The New York Times.

"[Duke] is a kind animal but does not understand how big he is," Wolfe Herd told The Times in 2019, while describing her daily after work routine. "At 175 pounds, he could quite literally kill me. I have to lock myself in the car while I wait for my husband to come home and get him away from me."

Wolfe Herd has been open about her struggles with anxiety.

"I haven't gone through the testing, but I should," Wolfe Herd told The Times of London. "It's anxiety about everything. I worry about awful things happening to people I love. They say phones are a strong catalyst for making anxiety worse, so I have this interesting balance — how do I make sure I'm on top of everything, but also preserve my mental health?"

The Herd family splits time between their two Texas houses.

The Herds have one home along the Colorado River in Austin near Bumble's headquarters and another further north in Tyler, near Michael Herd's office, per The New York Times. They also own a vacation home in Aspen, Bumble's chief brand officer Alex Williamson told Aspen Magazine.

The couple also owns Michael's 6.5-acre family estate on Lake Austin, according to Mansion Global. The waterfront compound boasts a movie theater, helipad, putting green, 10 garages, multiple boat docks, and a guest house, as well as a 5,000 square foot cabana designed for entertaining. That property was listed for sale for $28.5 million.

They also travel a lot.

Wolfe Herd takes frequent trips for both work and pleasure. Wolfe Herd told Travel +Leisure in 2017 that her all-time favorite trips include a sailing expedition through Myanmar and Thailand and a family trip to India.

For their honeymoon, Wolfe Herd and her husband stayed at Four Seasons resorts in both Bora Bora and Maui after leaving the site of their destination wedding in Italy, according to a blog post by the Indagare, the group that planned the trip.

Wolfe Herd told Indagare that she wanted a beach-heavy honeymoon because she and Herd were "looking for the ideal place to unwind, where we could take in the sun and swim. Our favorite moments were just relaxing and appreciating each other in such beautiful locations."

In July 2019, she celebrated her 30th birthday with a multi-day party on a yacht off the coast of Capri, Italy, per Guest of a Guest.

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Wolfe Herd has an estimated net worth of $400 million, according to Forbes.

Wolfe Herd's multimillion-dollar fortune landed her at No. 39 on Forbes' list of the wealthiest self-made women in America in 2020.

In 2022, Bumble's total revenue increased to $903.5 million, according to its financial earnings. The company brought in nearly $243 million in quarter one of 2023, a 16% increase, according to Bumble.

Forbes previously reported that Wolfe Herd was the youngest self-made woman billionaire after she took Bumble public — a title that lasted for ten months. Wolfe Herd's net worth is currently $400 million, per Forbes.

"I feel like what I'm doing is quite important," Wolfe Herd told The Times of London in 2018. "A lot of people are, like, 'What do you mean it's important? It's a dating app.' But it's important because connections are at the root of everything we do. Human connection defines our happiness and our health. This company feels like a piece of me. I know this sounds cheesy and weird, but I really feel like it's my mission."

In November 2023, Bumble announced that Lidiane Jones would be replacing Wolfe Herd as CEO.

Bumble announced on November 6 that Jones, then CEO of Slack, would replace Wolfe Herd as CEO of the dating app starting January 2024.

Jones replaced Slack cofounder Stewart Butterfield in January 2023 and was CEO of the company for less than a year before her new role at Bumble was announced.

Wolfe Herd stayed on as the executive chair of Bumble. 

 

In May 2024, Wolfe Herd shared her thoughts on AI dating.

Wolfe Herd attended the Bloomberg Technology Summit in May where she said Bumble is eyeing ways to foster "healthy and equitable relationships" using AI.

She used the term "AI dating concierge" to describe tech that would ease the pressure of online dating.

"If you want to get really out there, there is a world where your dating concierge could go and date for you with other dating concierge," she said at the summit.

Bumble announced in January that Wolfe Herd would be coming back as CEO.

Bumble announced that Wolfe Herd would return to the CEO role in a press release on January 17 — just over a year after stepping down. She'll succeed Jones, who'll remain at the helm until the change goes into effect in March.

"I am deeply grateful for the transformative work Lidiane has led during such a pivotal time for Bumble, and her leadership has been instrumental in building a strong foundation for our future," said Wolfe Herd in the release.

In her own statement, Jones praised the platform for its "tremendous progress."

"It has been an honor to serve Bumble's stakeholders, and I will remain an enthusiastic supporter of Whitney and the Company, especially the outstanding team behind the brand," Jones said.

• TikTok CEO Shou Chew reacted to the Supreme Court upholding the upcoming ban.
• Chew thanked Trump for what he said was a commitment to a solution to keep TikTok in the US.
• Trump previously said his decision would come "in the not too distant future."

With neither the Supreme Court nor the outgoing Biden administration having stepped in to prevent a looming TikTok ban, the app's CEO publicly addressed President-elect Donald Trump in his reaction to the news.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a short video to his account on the platform addressing millions of American users and thanking Trump for what he described as his support.

He also took the opportunity to mention just how many views Trump's videos had generated on the platform.

"I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States," Chew said.

Chew said TikTok has been "fighting to protect" free speech for its over 170 million American users. He thanked Trump on behalf of those users and "everyone at TikTok."

Chew said the president-elect was someone who "truly understands our platform," using it "to express his own thoughts and perspectives" — and generating over 60 billion views from his videos.

While Chew's words suggest he is hopeful Trump will intervene, there is no guarantee the president-elect will once he takes office the day after the ban is set to go into effect.

Trump previously called for a TikTok ban in 2020, however, he utilized the platform for his 2024 campaign and has since said that he has a "warm spot in my heart for TikTok."

The pair met at Mar-a-Lago on December 16, and Trump later filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court requesting an extension from the January 19 deadline.

On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the law requiring TikTok's owner, ByteDance, to divest its US-based operations or face a ban did not violate the First Amendment.

"The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!"

In his video posted to TikTok, Chew said the company "will do everything in our power to ensure our platform thrives" for years.

"More to come," the TikTok CEO said.

• The Supreme Court upheld the January 19 deadline for TikTok to sell to a US company.
• TikTok users are mourning the app in advance, sharing memories and viral moments.
• Reactions to TikTok's fate have been spreading as users bid it farewell.

Content creators and their audiences are sharing their disappointment that the Supreme Court has decided to uphold a January 19 deadline for TikTok to be sold to a US company or banned in the US.

Memes about TikTok's looming Sunday shutdown haven't stopped since the US government cranked up the heat on the platform, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, over concerns that the app poses a national security threat. Without an extension to the deadline, the beloved short-form video app will be removed from app stores and likely face a full shutdown in the US.

The reality of the Supreme Court's ruling is setting in for US TikToker users who'd been holding out hope for a different resolution.

Offline, flyers around New York City advertised a "celebration of life" memorial for the app at Washington Square Park on Sunday.

Online, users are sharing the first viral moments they ever saved, participating in old trends "one last time," and wishing each other well on new platforms.

Some said they're getting in their last "doom scrolls" before the app potentially goes away for good.

"These last few days on TikTok have felt like the end of school," one creator said, like "signing yearbooks and just goofing off."

TikTok probably won't disappear from phones in the US immediately on Sunday, though the app would no longer be updated.

On X, a user reshared a video of a crying and dancing woman, which has been a viral meme on TikTok for a while.

On TikTok itself, users posted video compilations of their favorite moments, set to songs like "American Pie" by Don McLean and "Good Riddance" by Green Day.

Some users said their "For You" pages were taking them down memory lane with nostalgic sounds, dances, and some of the most talked-about moments.

"How am I going to share my reactions to the unhinged Mafia romance books I read?" user rachelsreading.rambles said on TikTok in a post captioned, "If I don't laugh I will definitely cry."

Another TikToker, kailebrodersen, said, "I have had to hold back tears because TikTok is my main source of income" and expressed anger at the US shutdown, saying TikTok "showed us the American Dream."

Users have been flocking to alternative short-form video platforms, like the China-based RedNote, to try to replace the app, but it's unclear whether RedNote, YouTube, Instagram, or other apps will eventually adopted as alternatives to TikTok.

But for now, it looks like the era of TikTok is truly coming to an end in the US.

• TikTok users are reacting to a potential US ban by creating memes.
• The government has said the Chinese-owned app presents national security concerns.
• Users are turning to humor to cope with uncertainty about the platform's future.

It's a week of mourning for TikTok users, and they're using humor to make peace with the looming ban.

A slew of videos and photos have emerged as TikTokers make memes to say goodbye to the short-form video platform. A TikTok ban isn't certain, but users will find out the app's fate on Sunday — the deadline for its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to find a buyer in the US.

In true internet fashion, TikTokers are posting what could be their final jokes on the app. Some of them are hosting fake funerals for TikTok; others are bidding goodbye to their "Chinese spy," a reference to the US's concerns that the app represents a threat to national security.

Meanwhile, others are blaming Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for trying to take away TikTok. Zuckerberg could win big if "TikTok refugees," as they call themselves, flocked to Meta's Instagram to watch short-form reels.

Some, like TikToker Santina Rizzi, aren't so sure Zuckerberg is "going to get" the top spot for short videos if a ban goes through. She said users would go to YouTube instead.

"I'll be touching grass before I return to anything Meta," a top comment said.

Still, users are finding ways to laugh instead of panicking about the potential shutdown.

Some said they're willing to move to another country to have access to TikTok, and others joked they're willing to learn Chinese to use an emerging platform called Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote. The China-based app shot to the top of the Apple App Store this week as people sought an alternative to Instagram reels or YouTube shorts.

While some have found substitute apps to fill the void, others have pondered turning a new leaf in their social media usage and trying to regain some of their time and energy.

"I think I'm just going to finally read a book," one commenter said in response to a video from Sierra Boudreaux (@averagesisi).

"I'll probably actually start getting my 10k steps in," another added.

Over the years, TikTok has been the birthplace of iconic memes, phrases that have entered the cultural lexicon, or just a place for people to consume short-form content tailored to their interests.

Without TikTok, the world might have never learned slang terms like "unalive," "rizz," or "demure," which initially became popular on the platform.

But many users have also made peace with the potential dissolution of TikTok, and they're trying to enjoy the time they have left with the app — however long that may be.

This isn't the first time a beloved social media app has faced a big change. Twitter users mourned the platform as they knew it before it became X under Elon Musk's ownership. Like TikTok, users laughed and despaired over the fate of their go-to platform.

TikTok's future is yet to be determined, but users are going hard on the jokes in case it's their last chance to get one in.

And if all else fails, there's always the library.

• Americans are flocking to Xiaohongshu as a potential TikTok ban looms in the US.
• Xiaohongshu, known as RedNote, offers similar short-form video content to TikTok.
• The app, founded in 2013, reached over 200 million users by 2019.

Americans are flocking to another China-based social media app as a potential TikTok ban looms.

Xiaohongshu has risen to the top of the App Store in the US as so-called TikTok refugees search for apps that provide similar short-form video content. The name translates to "little red book" in English but it's referred to as RedNote or Red Book by English speakers.

Its format isn't much different from TikTok, and some familiar faces have already started popping up in the "Explore" section. It's unclear if users are posing as celebrities on the platform, but actor Selena Gomez's alleged profile has a verified check mark next to her name. It looks like Gomez has been posting there since as early as 2023.

Most of the app's instructions are set in English once you choose the language, but there are still aspects written in Chinese. Xiaohongshu describes itself as "a lifestyle platform for young people" founded in 2013. The site says it reached over 200 million users in 2019.

"Users can record their daily lives, share their lifestyles, and interact based on their interests through short videos, pictures and texts," it said on its "About" page.

It's still up for debate on where most Americans will go for short-form video content if a TikTok ban goes into effect. Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, and apps like Lemon8 have all been touted as alternatives.

Here's how to get started on RedNote.

First, you'll have to agree to terms of services related to how data is collected and shared. Then, you can create an account using your phone number.

You can decide what sort of content you're interested in viewing, like fashion, food, and reading, and access feeds related to them. Like TikTok, there's a "For You" page to browse videos and "Shop" section that doesn't have much English translation.

From there, it's not much different from TikTok. You can like, share, comment, and favorite videos. Americans have taken the app by storm.

Your profile functions similarly to TikTok, with a bio, profile picture, and a customizable username.

Representatives for Xiaohongshu didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Over on TikTok, users are still unsure which app will prevail, but RedNote has been the Apple App Store's No. 1 download for the last few days.

• Apple's global market share of smartphone sales slipped in 2024.
• Apple's AI, Apple Intelligence, isn't available in Greater China, impacting sales.
• Chinese competitor Xiaomi grew the fastest, according to Counterpoint data.

Apple's 2024 was defined by significant launches like the Vision Pro and Apple Intelligence, but the iPhone lost ground to smartphone competitors last year.

While some of its competitors saw fast growth in 2024, Apple's global market share fell to 18% — a one percentage point drop year over year, according to data from Counterpoint. The amount of phones it sold fell 2%, while the overall market grew 4%.

The iPhone 16, which Apple described as its first model built for AI, was released in September, and some analysts expected it to be a driver of sales as people upgraded to get all the benefits of Apple Intelligence. Wedbush Securities' Dan Ives coined it a "golden" upgrade cycle — but it hasn't happened yet.

Apple Intelligence isn't available in a key market for Apple: Greater China. The iPhone maker is reportedly working to collaborate with a local tech company to bring its AI to smartphones in the region. Counterpoint said Chinese competitor Xiaomi grew handset sales the fastest in 2024.

Apple has been facing headwinds in the region for a while; fourth-quarter revenue missed estimates in Greater China

Samsung had the largest global market share with 19% in 2024. That was due, in part, to its AI-enabled S24 series, which outperformed models that came before it, Counterpoint said.

Apple was notably late with its entrance into AI. Apple Intelligence came months after competitors like Meta and Microsoft launched their genAI features and years after OpenAI's ChatGPT took the tech industry by storm in 2022.

The Apple Intelligence features that have rolled out so far have been met with mixed reviews, and its availability is limited to iPhone 15 Pro models or later. Apple said users can expect to see more AI-powered tools come out in April.

Apple has laid the foundation of its AI push, but the challenges it faced in 2024 are still present in 2025.

• Nike plans to launch new running shoes this year.
• In 2024, Nike trailed competitors like Asics and Adidas in running-shoe launches.
• BMO analysts are optimistic about Nike's 2025 lineup despite past performance challenges.

Nike's shoe competitors were on a tear in 2024, so expectations are high for the sportswear giant this year.

Data from BMO indicates most footwear brands launched at least six shoes in 2024. Asics, Adidas, Brooks Running, and Hoka led the way in running-shoe launches, but Nike had fewer than six.

As part of its moves to improve sales, Nike is getting back to basics. That includes redefining itself as a running brand. To keep up with the competition, it will have to prove that in 2025.

According to BMO, Asics launched new models or updated performance running models 11 times last year, while Adidas and Brooks launched or updated 10 and nine models. Nike only updated its running-shoe lineup and released no new models.

Nike has said it will launch the Pegasus Premium in late January and the Vomero 18 in late February. It said the Vomero Plus, the Vomero Premium, and the new Structure model would come "later in 2025."

Retail analysts at BMO say that with this running lineup, Nike's launch schedule in 2025 "looks more promising." Its new product line received a positive response from consumers and industry watchers when it was announced at The Running Event, a trade show held in November.

"We believe NKE's inflection is a question of 'when' compelling product begins to roll in rather than 'if,'" BMO analysts wrote.

Brands like On Running and Hoka have been growing in popularity over the past few years. Brooks said this summer that it reached a quarterly revenue record, adding that its North American sales in the second quarter grew by 19%.

In October, Nike brought a veteran employee, Elliott Hill, out of retirement to take over as CEO, and he has his work cut out for him. Revenue for the Nike brand grew by only 1% in the latest fiscal year, dragged down partially by declines in North America.

The company has acknowledged that it will take time to see its desired results.

"A comeback at this scale takes time, but we see early wins — from momentum in key sports to accelerating our pace of newness and innovation," Matthew Friend, Nike's executive vice president and chief financial officer, said during its first-quarter earnings call.