• This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

Come see how good we look! We've redesigned our homepage and boy does it look pretty. Check it out for yourself.

In today's big story, plans for building the country's tallest, most expensive skyscraper show the challenges around the RTO debate.

What's on deck

Markets: The key to understanding who crushed earnings might be the US dollar.

Tech: There's a new person in one of Amazon's most-prized roles.

Business: Businesses are rushing to cash in on Gen Zers looking for booze-free fun.

But first, the cost of doing business.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

The big story

Sky is the limit

New York City. A new massive — and expensive — skyscraper. Donald Trump.

Plans for 175 Park Avenue have a little bit of everything. They also represent the challenges that come with Corporate America's continued push to get workers back into the office.

Business Insider's Dan Geiger has a story on how New York developers RXR and TF Cornerstone are hoping to build a 1,575-foot-tall office and hotel tower next to Grand Central Terminal with a little help from the federal government.

The tower, which would be the tallest in the US by roof height, won't come cheap. At an estimated cost of $6.5 billion to construct, it would also be the country's most expensive.

That's a hefty bill to foot in the best of circumstances, let alone when serious questions remain about the market for office space.

However, the developers have a unique workaround, Dan reports. They're hoping work they're planning on doing to the neighboring train terminal and subway station will allow them to tap into federal funding.

That's where the president-elect comes in. The federal money is discretionary and distributed by the US Department of Transportation, meaning the Trump administration will make the final call on whether to reward the developers with the loans.

Coincidentally, the project includes tearing down the Commodore Hotel, a property Trump redeveloped nearly 50 years ago, serving as a career breakthrough for the then-young developer.

Financing commercial real-estate, as difficult as it might be, is only half the battle.

Companies' efforts to get workers back to the office haven't always been well received. Take advertising giant WPP. Thousands of workers have signed a petition calling on the firm to revoke its four-day RTO mandate, writes BI's Polly Thompson.

It's not just causing internal drama, as the company's stock is down more than 8% since announcing the RTO plans. (To be fair, WPP is down more than 15% this year.)

It's those types of headaches investors are trying to avoid, which is one of the reasons why funding new commercial real-estate projects has been such an uphill battle.

However, for those willing to take the risk, there might be opportunity. For the companies that are pushing forward with RTO plans, a common theme is arising: They don't have enough space.

From Amazon to AT&T, the call back to the office has been full of chaos due to a lack of resources to accommodate a workforce that sometimes has grown considerably since before the pandemic.

News brief

Top headlines

• Los Angeles braces for fires to get even worse with 'extremely dangerous' wind forecasts.
• Mark Zuckerberg says he wants more 'masculine energy' at Meta. So, why don't more men use Facebook?
• Blockchain giant Chainalysis acquires stealth AI agent security startup Alterya for over $100 million.
• Jack Smith's final report about January 6 is out. Read it here.
• The S&P 500's postelection rally has now been completely erased.
• A $30 million campaign to free social media from billionaire control is now underway.
• The Lively-Baldoni battle fits into a broader PR trend that can be costly for the media.

• As TikTok ban looms, two other Chinese social apps are surging in popularity.

  ---

  3 things in markets

  

  1. Energy stocks are surging. For the first time in years, energy stocks are outpacing the S&P 500's year-to-date performance. After a difficult few years, the sector is the best in the market thanks to a rebound in oil and gas prices as cold weather hits the US.

  2. So much for 2025's rate cuts. Wall Street is feeling pessimistic about the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates this year. A strong December jobs report and fears of Trump policies reigniting inflation have some predicting the central bank will pause its cutting cycle for a while.

  3. The US dollar is bringing main-character energy to earnings season. Morgan Stanley chief US equity strategist Mike Wilson said the greenback's increasing power could be the deciding factor between winners and losers. Companies heavily relying on foreign sales face the biggest risk.

  ---

  3 things in tech

  

  1. Stepping into Andy Jassy's shadow. The Amazon CEO has a new right-hand man, according to an internal organization chart obtained by BI. Alex Dunlap, a 17-year veteran of AWS, will serve as Jassy's "shadow" advisor and join almost every CEO meeting. Former shadow advisors have gone on to huge roles at Amazon — Jassy himself was one.

  2. What new chip export restrictions mean for Nvidia. President Biden introduced last-minute semiconductor regulations, restricting the number of GPUs Nvidia can export to specific countries. Experts break down possible impacts on sales, production, and AI innovation.

  3. Microsoft's new AI group. In an email to employees, CEO Satya Nadella announced Microsoft is forming a new engineering group led by Jay Parikh, Facebook's former head of engineering. The group will build its AI platform and tools, as the company anticipates AI agents fundamentally changing application development.

  ---

  3 things in business

  

1. No booze, no problem. A growing cohort of Gen Zers are opting out of America's drinking culture. For the younger demographic, it's a cheaper and more rewarding way to socialize — and restaurants and clubs are cashing in.

2. Elon Musk's X takes aim at more advertisers. The company plans to add more defendants to its lawsuit against advertisers, according to a new legal filing. The suit accuses some advertisers of illegally conspiring to boycott the platform.

3. Records reveal FTC probe of Publishing.com. The company sells $2,000 courses and tools for publishing AI-generated books, and it's drawn scrutiny for flooding Amazon with AI-generated content. A BI investigation found the FTC received 62 complaints against it, alleging high-pressure sales tactics and difficulties getting refunds.

In other news

• Meet the 'Donald of Dubai' who's betting big on US data centers, has ties to Trump and Musk — and is worth $13 billion.
• Here's why 2025 is shaping up to be the year of altcoins.
• Get ready for more robots.
• Photos show the devastating aftermath of the Los Angeles fires as parts of the city continue to burn.
• 152,000 student-loan borrowers are getting $4.2 billion in debt cancellation through Biden's relief efforts a week before Trump takes office.

• These TikTok alternatives could help you fill the void if the app is banned.

  ---

  What's happening now

• Senate confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense.
• Boeing announces Q4 and 2024 deliveries.

The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York.

• Daniel Pinto will step down as president and CEO of JPMorgan in June and retire at the end of 2026.
• The JPMorgan veteran has long been CEO Jamie Dimon's stand-in in case of an emergency.
• Jennifer Piepszak has been promoted to COO but doesn't want the CEO role.

Daniel Pinto, long the JPMorgan Chase executive who would stand in for Jamie Dimon as CEO in the event of an emergency, will be stepping down as a top lieutenant.

Pinto, who has been referred to by Dimon as his "hit-by-the-bus" executive, will be stepping down as president and chief operating officer in June and retiring at the end of 2026, the bank said in a press release. His COO replacement, Jennifer Piepszak, currently cochief executive officer of JPMorgan's commercial and investment bank, said she doesn't want the CEO role.

"Jenn has made clear her preference for a senior operating role working closely with Jamie and in support of the top leadership team going forward and does not want to be considered for the CEO position at this time," bank spokesman Joseph Evangelisti said.

"She is deeply committed to the future of the firm and our people and wants to help the company in any way she can," Evangelisti added.

The moves could rekindle speculation and guessing over who will ultimately succeed Dimon, who turns 69 in March. At the bank's investor day last May, Dimon abandoned his usual answer to the succession question to say that his timeline was "not five years anymore." He has led the bank, America's biggest and most influential, since January 2006.

Piepszak will be succeeded at the commercial and investment bank by Doug Petno, currently co-head of global banking, the bank announced on Tuesday. Troy Rohrbaugh, the other coCEO of the commercial and investment bank, had been promoted to the post in a reshuffle a year ago.

Rohrbaugh has been seen as a potential candidate to succeed Dimon, as has Marianne Lake, who remains chief executive of consumer and community banking at JPMorgan.

In other moves announced on Tuesday, John Simmons, head of commercial banking, will succeed Petno. He will team up with Filippo Gori as coheads of global banking.

Pinto, 63, will remain on through the end of 2026 to help with the transition to Piepszak.

In the press release, Dimon called Pinto "a first-class person who I am proud to call a friend, and he has made a truly significant impact on our company for more than 40 years. I'm thrilled he will continue to support and advise us."

Amazon had been planning to roll out a new Alexa powered by generative AI in October 2024, but that obviously didn't happen. According to reports that came out back then, the company pushed back its new voice assistant's release to sometime this year. Now, a new report by The Financial Times says the company still needs to be able to overcome "several technical hurdles" before it can launch a more powerful version of Alexa. One of the main problems it has to solve is "hallucinations," which are incorrect or false results that generative AIs produce at times. 

Hallucinations have to be "close to zero," Rohit Prasad, leader of Amazon's artificial general intelligence (AGI) team told FT. Since people tend to use Alexa throughout the day, it could end up spitting out a lot of false information if Amazon fails to address the issue. Prasad admits that hallucinations are "still an open problem in the industry," but his team is "working extremely hard on it." Amazon also has to work Alexa's response speed or latency, because users expect to get a response quickly after they ask the assistant a question or after they ask it to perform a task. 

The Amazon AGI lead said that getting Alexa to that last mile has been really hard. "Sometimes we underestimate how many services are integrated into Alexa, and it’s a massive number," he told FT. His team has to ensure that the new assistant will be able to work with hundreds of third-party apps and services. The new Alexa is expected to be powered by Anthropic’s Claude AI and the company's in-house Amazon Nova models, and it will reportedly require a subscription as a way for the company to make money. But it still has no solid release date, and based on what a current employee told the publication, it's not rolling out anytime soon. Amazon still has a lot of things to do, they said, such as making sure it works "close to 100 percent of the time," adding child safety filters and testing Alexa various integrations. 

DirecTV just launched its new sports-only streaming service, MySports. The initial launch includes 40 sports from channels like ESPN, Fox Sports, the Golf Channel and more. It also includes sport-specific channels like the MLB Network, the NFL Network and NBA TV. The service will initially be available in 24 metro areas, including New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

It’ll also include local channels owned by ABC, Fox and NBC so that people can watch games exclusively available on those channels. DirecTV will also add more channels to the mix in the future, as it’s currently in talks with CBS to gain access to its content.

A MySports subscription costs $70 a month, but if you sign up right now, you can pay $50 a month for the first three months. This offer lasts until February 25. If you don’t want to commit so soon, there’s also a five-day free trial, Variety notes. A MySports subscription is around $10 cheaper than what competitors like YouTube TV and Fubo offer, priced at $83 and $80 a month, respectively.

You can watch MySports content using the DirecTV app on iOS and Android. It’s also available on smart TV platforms like Fire TV, Android TV and Apple TV.

• Southwest Airlines is cutting costs.
• It's pausing corporate hiring, summer internships, and a team-building tradition.
• The move comes after a dispute with the activist firm Elliott Investment Management.

Southwest Airlines is pausing corporate hiring to cut costs, a company spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.

The spokesperson said the airline was "pausing all noncontract internal and external hiring."

It's also pausing summer internships. Southwest said it would honor all internship offers already made but would not make new offers.

CNBC first reported the news, citing a memo from CEO Bob Jordan.

"Every single dollar matters as we continue to fight to return to excellent financial performance," he told staffers in the memo.

Southwest said it was also cutting noncore spending, including its staff rallies.

"We are limiting discretionary costs, including holding on the Southwest Rallies for this year, as we focus on reducing costs," the spokesperson told BI.

Southwest Rallies, where senior leaders lay out plans for the year and celebrate accomplishments with staff, have been a team-building tradition since 1985.

"We'll continue to evaluate hiring needs on an ongoing basis to determine when it makes sense for the business to resume hiring," the spokesperson added.

Southwest continues to face pressure from investors over poor financial performance.

The activist fund Elliott Investment Management has been the most prominent voice; in 2024 it called for the airline to replace its CEO and review its business model.

Last July, Southwest said it would ditch its open-seating model and offer some premium-seating options — a departure from its no-frills offering that inspired the budget-airline model.

In October, Southwest and Elliott reached a deal in which Jordan would remain in the top job while Elliott named six directors to the airline's board.

Southwest's stock is up by 13.7% over the past year but down by 40% over the past five years.