Author: openjargon

• Bob Iger has been heading one of the world's largest entertainment companies for nearly two decades.
• The House of Mouse boss stepped down as Disney CEO in February 2020 only to return in 2022.
• Here's a look at his wealth, spending, and career, from a lowly position at ABC to Disney CEO.

Bob Iger now has something money can't buy: the title of Honorary Knight.

He was given the title Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in a ceremony led by Prince William last week, following an announcement in 2022 that Iger would receive the honorary knighthood.

Perhaps most important on his résumé, though, is his tenure as the CEO of Disney.

Iger started his entertainment career in 1974 as a studio supervisor at ABC and climbed up the show business ranks to lead one of the most powerful businesses in the world.

Though he retired as CEO in 2020, Bob Iger returned to the role in a shocking shakeup two years later. Iger had stepped down as CEO in February 2020 but stayed on as executive chairman until December 2021, when he retired, albeit ultimately briefly.

Iger has amassed a sizeable personal fortune across his 15 years and counting as CEO.

Forbes reported in 2019 that Iger had a net worth of $690 million, which is thought to be higher than that of Disney heiress Abigail Disney, who said that year that she's worth about $120 million. Iger, meanwhile, received $31.6 million in total compensation in 2023, or 595 times what the median Disney employee makes.

Here's what we know about Iger's life and career rise, including how he makes and spends his multimillion-dollar fortune:

Iger was born Robert Allen Iger in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in the small town of Oceanside, New York.

"I am very lucky," Iger told Laurene Powell Jobs at The Atlantic Festival in Washington in 2019. "I was a lower middle class kid or middle class. My father had manic depression so he had trouble holding a job. I started as a $150-a-week employee at ABC 45 years ago and rose up to be CEO of this company. It is a great story, but it is not necessarily because I was extraordinary."

He attended Ithaca College where he graduated magna cum lade in 1973 with a degree in Television and Radio.

At Ithaca College, Iger hosted a campus television show called "Campus Probe." He graduated originally wanting to be a news anchor and briefly worked as a local weatherman in Ithaca, New York.

In 1974, Iger joined ABC, working in New York City. He wrote in his memoir "The Ride of a Lifetime" that he did "menial labor" for basically every show ABC produced out of Manhattan at the time.

Iger wrote in his book that he got his first job at ABC because of his uncle, who was in the hospital for eye surgery. His uncle was in the room next to someone who claimed to be a top executive at ABC, who said he would give the younger Iger a job.

Iger took the "top executive" up on his offer, though he quickly realized that the person was not a "top executive" but instead a lower-level one. Still, the person ran a small department at ABC known as Production Services and was able to secure Iger an interview with the department.

At age 23, Iger was brought on as a "studio supervisor."

But after a confrontation with his boss, Iger was almost fired and forced to look for a new job. Soon after, he moved over to a position at ABC Sports.

Iger has said that one of his bosses accused Iger of spreading rumors about him, causing the young Iger to almost be fired.

"He told me I wasn't promotable and I had two weeks to find another job somewhere in the company or I was gone," Iger recalled at the UCLA Awards Gala in 2013. "Fortunately, I was able to find another job in the company. They didn't think I wasn't promotable, I guess."

He worked his way up the ABC Sports ladder, working closely with Roone Arledge, "a relentless perfectionist," who was the head of ABC Sports at the time.

Iger wrote in his book that Arledge was the person who taught him the mantra which would follow Iger for the rest of his life: "Innovate or die."

Iger went on to become the vice president of ABC Sports.

ABC was later sold to Capital Cities Communications for $3.5 billion in a deal finalized in 1986.

Shortly after, Tom Murphy and Dan Burke — the heads of Capital Cities/ABC — tapped Iger to become the head of ABC Entertainment, and Iger moved to Los Angeles.

Iger wrote in his memoir that the constant traveling put strain on his first marriage, to Kathleen Susan. Eventually, the two divorced. They have two daughters.

While at the helm of ABC Entertainment, Iger was the one who took a chance and put David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" on air.

The critically-acclaimed series was cancelled after two seasons, but Iger wrote in his book that the risk he took putting it on television caught the attention of other famed directors such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. 

Iger and Lucas then developed a show based on the Indiana Jones franchise, which was cancelled after two seasons. But, Iger wrote in his book, Lucas never forgot the risk Iger took on his show, and he remembered it years later when he decided to sell Lucasfilm to Disney.

In 1993, Iger became president of ABC Network's Television Group.

 When Burke retired, Iger was tapped to replace him as president and COO of Capital Cities/ABC.

 

In 1995, Iger married journalist Willow Bay who, at the time, was a stand-in weekend news anchor on Good Morning America, and was poised to take over for then-full time host Joan Lunden.

Iger and Bay became engaged in 1995. But after Disney agreed to buy Capital Cities/ABC that same year, Iger had quick decisions to make.

At that time, he wrote in his memoir, he had been commuting weekly to Los Angeles to meet his new Disney colleagues. He knew that after the acquisition was approved, he and Bay would not have much time to honeymoon. So, they quickly married later that same year.

"Willow and I also knew we'd have no chance for a honeymoon once the deal closed," he wrote. "We radically shortened our engagement and got married in early October 1995."

They are still married and have two children together.

In 1996, The Walt Disney Company bought Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion, and renamed it ABC, Inc.

Iger wrote in his memoir that he heavily considered walking away from Disney at this point. But as part of the Disney-ABC merger, Iger agreed to run a media division at Disney for five years.

In 1999, Iger became the president of Disney International, the business division overseeing Disney's global operations. A year later, he was tapped to become the COO of Disney, working directly under then-CEO Michael Eisner.

Forbes reported that between 1994 and 1999, Eisner made $631 million. In the year 1997 alone, Eisner reportedly made more than $550 million. Over the years, Eisner invested his Disney money and became a billionaire by 2008 — perhaps predicting a financial path Iger may follow.

In the early 2000s, tensions began to brew between Eisner and Disney heir Roy E. Disney. After Eisner stepped down, Iger became the CEO of the Walt Disney Company in 2005.

Iger wrote in his book that, despite being the COO and thereby second in command behind Eisner, his promotion to CEO was not a guarantee. If anything, he wrote, many had associated him with the turbulence of Eisner's era and wanted an outsider for the job. Iger said he campaigned for months until he was officially named CEO in 2005. 

Forbes reported in 2019 that in his first year as CEO, Iger made $22 million, a salary which did not include the stock options worth $2.9 million.

One of Iger's first major moves as CEO was to rebuild Disney's relationship with Pixar. At the time, the relationship between Disney and Pixar was strained, and Iger felt the future of Disney Animation relied on repairing it.

Before he officially became the CEO of Disney, he called to inform Steve Jobs — who was the majority shareholder in Pixar — that he was being appointed CEO and shared his hope they could discuss working together in the future. From there, the two began to slowly work on repairing the fraught relationship between the two companies. 

Iger wrote in his memoir that he felt Disney needed Pixar to help enter the future of animation. Pixar at the time was using technologies to produce content that had never been seen before, Iger wrote in his book.

Iger wanted Disney to be in on it — not just as a distributor for the films, as their previous agreement had stated, but to actually own what Pixar was bringing to the table.

In 2006, Disney announced that it would acquire Pixar for $7.4 billion, making Jobs, the majority shareholder in Pixar at the time, the majority shareholder in Disney.

Iger wrote in his book that the two companies were able to come together after he reached out to Jobs to forge a friendship and address any issues between the two companies. 

Iger and Jobs would go on to have a long friendship until Jobs passed away in 2011. A month after Jobs died, Iger joined the Apple board, where he remained until he stepped down in 2019 ahead of launching Disney+.

In 2009, Iger led Disney's acquisition of Marvel for $4 billion. This gave Disney access to the Marvel comic book library, which was the beginning of the now multibillion-dollar, box office record-breaking Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Iger wrote that part of the reason Marvel CEO Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter was willing to sell the company was because Jobs called Perlmutter to "vouch for" Iger and praised how Iger had handled the Disney-Pixar merger.

Still looking to help Disney expand into the future, in 2012, Iger led Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion. This gave Disney control of not just the Star Wars franchise, but also the Indiana Jones franchise.

Iger said that he knew Lucas was nervous to sell Lucasfim to Disney — mostly because the "Star Wars" creator knew he would be selling his legacy along with it. But eventually, Lucas warmed up to the idea.

Lucas enlisted Kathleen Kennedy to lead Lucasfilm right before the company was sold to Disney. The first Star Wars film made without Lucas was released a few years later, in 2015 — "The Force Awakens," directed by J.J. Abrams.

The company's acquisition spree continued in 2018, when Disney agreed to buy 21st Century Fox. At the time, Fox was owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch who, after the sale, became one of the largest shareholders in Disney.

Forbes reported in 2019 that, if Murdoch were to cash in all stock available to him from the Disney deal, he'd own about $10.5 billion worth of Disney stock. In addition, Variety reported that collectively, the Murdoch family members were "the largest individual shareholders in Disney."

Iger wrote in his memoir that Murdoch selling the company he had built from scratch was an indicator that the "disruption" threatening the entertainment industry was now inevitable. 

"As [Rupert Murdoch] pondered the future of his company in such a disrupted world, he concluded the smartest thing to do was to sell and give his shareholders and his family a chance to convert its 21st Century Fox stock into Disney stock, believing we were better positioned to withstand the change and, combined, we'd be even stronger," Iger wrote in his book. 

In March 2019, the merger between 21st Century Fox and Disney was completed, with a price tag of $71.3 billion.

This move made Disney the second-largest media company in the world at the time, Forbes reported.

That year, Iger was also named Time's businessperson of the year.

"In a year when the tide has shifted against Big Business, Big Media and Big Tech, Iger has transformed his enormous media company into a gargantuan media and tech business while ensuring that the Walt Disney Co.'s products remain widely beloved," Belinda Luscombe wrote in Time's profile of him. "But for now, for just this moment, Iger is unassailable. He's transformed his company from a stuffy media doyen into a sexy cultural force."

In 2020, Iger — along with Seth MacFarlane and Cicely Tyson, among several others — was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

Other inductees that year included the likes of Seth MacFarlane and Cicely Tyson.

In February 2020, Disney announced that Iger would step down as CEO and assume the role of executive chairman until his contract expired on December 31, 2021.

Iger was replaced by Bob Chapek, former chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Product. Iger would forgo his entire salary for the year, and Chapek would similarly take a 50% salary cut amid potential multibillion-dollar revenue losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, Business Insider's Ashley Rodriguez reported.

After a short-lived retirement, Bob Iger returned to Disney.

In November 2022, Disney made the shocking announcement that Iger was back to lead the company for two years, during which he'd work with the board to find a successor.

However, Disney's board in 2023 voted to extend his contract to the end of 2026.

In 2019, he had a net worth of $690 million, per Forbes' estimates.

Forbes reported at the time that Iger's net worth was actually higher than that of Abigail Disney, the Disney heiress, who said in 2019 that she was worth about $120 million.

In March 2020, it was announced that Iger would forgo his salary for the year, as Disney dealt with presumed multibillion-dollar losses due to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shutdowns. His base salary was $3 million in the previous fiscal year and he made $47.5 million in total compensation.

Iger is known among peers for being a very kind leader and has been praised by his contemporaries for the way he has handled the mergers of Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm.

During his first stint as CEO, Iger grew Disney's profits 335% to $260 billion, Business Insider reported.

Forbes also reports that under Iger, Disney created more than 70,000 new jobs. 

"Literally, I have never heard one person say a bad thing about him and I have never seen him be mean," billionaire David Geffen told The New York Times in a profile on Iger. "To be honorable, decent, smart, successful, and a terrific guy is unusual anywhere. But it is most unusual in the entertainment business. He's in a category of one."

Iger's own increasing fortune has paralleled the rise in Disney's value over the years he's been at the helm.

Forbes reported that that Iger's fortune is split between his Disney shares "and cash or other investment from sales of Disney shares over the decades."

According to Forbes, Iger was compensated $65.6 million in 2018, which was 1,424 times the average Disney employee's salary. He had been given another $26.3 million in stock after he successfully closed the Disney-Fox merger and for agreeing to extend his contract until 2021. His initial compensation in 2018 was $39.3 million (not including stock rewards).

In April 2019, Abigail Disney publicly criticized Iger's high pay on Twitter and later wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post elaborating on her thoughts. 

"I'm not arguing that Iger and others do not deserve bonuses. They do," Disney wrote. "They have led the company brilliantly. I am saying that the people who contribute to its success also deserve a share of the profits they have helped make happen."

Most recently, Iger received $31.6 million in total compensation in 2023, or 595 times what the median Disney employee makes.

As Iger is a very private person, not much is known about his spending.

He and his wife bought a home in Brentwood, California, in 2006 from actress Michelle Pfeiffer for about $19 million, the Orlando Sentinel reported that year.

The home reportedly was 7,500 square feet and had five bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a guest house, a tennis court, and a pool. As of a 2018 interview with Vogue, Iger was still living in Brentwood with his wife and their two children.

The Igers also previously owned an apartment on the Upper East Side of New York City. The property sold in 2018 for $18.75 million, Business Insider reported.

The Igers' former home has a library, living room views of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park, and four bedrooms, including one master suite with two bathrooms and a walk-in closet.

Iger spends time — and likely money — maintaining his mental and physical health, about which he's notoriously rigorous. He told The New York Times that he wakes up at 4:15 every morning and doesn't touch his phone until he's finished with his morning exercise routine.

Iger has also said that he doesn't eat carbs unless it's pizza, recalling that during his high school years, he worked at his local Pizza Hut.

Iger reportedly has multiple yachts.

He has a 180-foot superyacht called Aquarius, which he wrote about in Vanity Fair in 2014.

He's also having another built, expected to be 30 feet longer, according to The Wall Street Journal.

When he's "off the clock," he travels. Iger is a regular attendee at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. The media conference is a hub for entertainment and tech moguls.

Variety reports that in 2019, Iger attended the conference along with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Shari Redstone, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, and even former Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper.

In 2019, Iger and his wife committed $1 million to launch the Iger-Bay Endowed Scholarship at Iger's alma mater, Ithaca College. The scholarship aims to boost diversity in the media industry.

The scholarship was funded through the proceeds from Iger's memoir.

Iger also spends some of his fortune on vacations. Beyond their business dealings related to Disney and Pixar, Iger was also close personal friends with Jobs and has said the two would vacation together in nearby resorts in Hawaii.

"We vacationed at adjacent Hawaiian hotels a few times and would meet and take long walks on the beach, talking about our wives and kids, about music, about Apple and Disney and the things we might still do together," he wrote in his book. "You don't expect to develop such close friendships late in life, but when I think back on my time as CEO — at the things I'm most grateful for and surprised by — my relationship with Steve is one of them."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Iger has been seen on billionaire David Geffen's yacht. In August 2017, Iger was seen on the yacht with Oprah Winfrey, Diane von Furstenberg, and Diane Sawyer.

Geffen owns a megayacht, known to be a common hang-out spot for celebrities and fellow billionaires, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, during the summer months, as seen on his Instagram page.

The yacht is worth $590 million, as previously reported by Business Insider.

In his personal life, Iger has a set of A-list friends who have been known to rave about him. One of those friends is Winfrey, who has said that if Iger were to run for president, she would not just vote for him but eagerly campaign on his behalf.

"I'll tell you the truth, this is not really where I intended to be tonight," Winfrey said at the Centennial Awards, where Iger was being honored, in 2019. "I was hoping that by this time in early fall, I would be knocking on doors in Des Moines, wearing an 'Iger 2020' T-shirt. Because I really do believe that Bob Iger's guidance and decency is exactly what the country needs right now."

Iger is also close to Jeffrey Katzenberg, cofounder of Dreamworks and former chairman of Walt Disney Studios.

After Comcast bought Dreamworks in 2016 for $3.8 billion, Katzenberg's net worth rose to $900 million. 

Iger and Katzenberg have been friends for years, and Katzenberg is among the group of people who tried to encourage the Disney CEO to run for president.

"No matter how much I begged Bob," Katzenberg said while presenting the Simon Wiesenthal Center Humanitarian Award to Iger in 2019. "He just wasn't willing to run for president of the United States."

In his memoir, Iger admitted that he once considered running for president, but ultimately decided against it.

"I think the Democratic Party would brand me as just another rich guy who's out of touch with America who doesn't have any sense for what's good for the plight of the people," he told The New York Times in a 2019 profile.

Despite many people — including some major Hollywood players — urging him to run for president in late 2019, Iger publicly remained firm that he had no plans to pursue a presidential campaign.

Iger has also spent his free time involved in politics in the past. Shortly after Donald Trump was elected president, Iger joined Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum.

Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum was a business council created to hear the perspectives of different leaders on how to improve job growth in the US. 

But Iger stepped down from the role in 2017 after Trump announced the US would withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, Variety reported.

Iger announced his resignation from the council in a tweet stating: "As a matter of principle, I've resigned from the President's Council over the #Paris Agreement withdrawal." 

The council, which ultimately disbanded, also included JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, and Stephen A. Schwarzman, the cofounder of private equity firm Blackstone.

In September 2019, however, Iger did outline what would have been the central themes of his campaign, had he decided to run.

"America is gravely in need of optimism, of looking at the future and believing that so many things are going to be all right, or that we as a nation can attack some of the most critical problems of our day," Iger said at The Atlantic Festival in Washington in 2019. "And that could be the environment, that could be income disparity, that could be the technology's impact on the world from a disruption perspective. It could be the cost of education, availability of affordable housing, healthcare. You name it."

• Martin Shkreli is being sued over claims he made and shared copies of a unique Wu-Tang Clan album.
• Shkreli is accused of copying the album despite a purchase agreement banning its reproduction.
• PleasrDAO is seeking damages and for Shkreli to surrender all copies and profits from the album.

"Pharma bro" Martin Shkreli has been accused in a lawsuit of making and sharing copies of a supposedly one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album before he sold it for $4.75 million.

According to court documents filed on Monday and seen by Business Insider, Shkreli boasted multiple times online about making copies of the album, claiming during one interview that he "burned the album and sent it to like, 50 different chicks."

"Do you know how many blowjobs that album got me?" he reportedly told the interviewer.

As a result, the album's current owner, the crypto collective PleasrDAO, says the famously unique cultural artifact is anything but that.

Shkreli, notorious for price-gouging the life-saving drug Daraprim in 2015, bought "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" from the Wu-Tang Clan for $2 million in 2015.

Only one copy of the landmark album — both its physical form and digital assets — was ever produced.

The artists said that the project was intended to make a comment about the impact of streaming and piracy on the value of music, The Guardian reported.

When Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud in 2017, a government forfeiture order forced him to give up the album, which PleasrDAO then bought for $4.75 million, along with its copyright and the rights to exploit it, the group says.

"The Album was supposed to constitute the sole existing copy of the record, music, data and files, and packaging," the group said in its lawsuit.

But it went on to describe multiple alleged examples of Shkreli either playing the album on livestreams or bragging about how many copies he has.

Shkreli did not immediately respond to multiple attempts to contact him for comment.

During one livestream, during which he is alleged to have played the album, Shkreli said, per the lawsuit: "Of course I made MP3 copies, they're like hidden in safes all around the world."

He reportedly added: "I'm not stupid. I don't buy something for two million dollars just so I can keep one copy."

In other comments cited in the lawsuit, Shkreli suggested he'd "sold" copies and that more than 5,000 people had copies.

According to the lawsuit, the album's original purchase agreement included an 88-year ban on "duplicating, replicating, or exploiting the Album for any reason other than for "exhibition or playing," in "spaces not customarily used as venues for large musical concerts."

The group argues that in playing and sharing the album, Shkreli breached the terms of the forfeiture order under which it was sold, which required him not to do anything that would diminish its value.

PleasrDAO is seeking unspecified damages exceeding $75,000, and wants Shkreli to declare and give up all copies he's kept, as well as disclosing any profits he's made in the process.

"Imagine thinking you can bind those "rights" on third parties," Shkreli wrote on X, in response to the lawsuit, mocking the notion that the group can "hunt down everyone who made copies of copies."

• One of the Russian warships docked in Cuba can carry Putin's prized hypersonic missiles.
• Russian leadership has touted the Zircon as a fast, highly maneuverable, and unbeatable weapon.
• The missile's actual capabilities are questionable, but Russian hypersonic missiles are a concern. 

A Russian warship docked off the coast of Cuba can carry advanced strike capabilities, specifically new hypersonic missiles.

The Zircon scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missiles, relatively new weapons in Moscow's arsenal, have been touted by the Kremlin as being unbeatable and unrivaled by any other system, though questions remain about their actual capabilities.

The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov arrived in Cuba on Wednesday ahead of a Caribbean air and maritime exercise after conducting drills in the Atlantic earlier in the week. The ship — along with two other vessels and a stealthy, nuclear-powered submarine that's especially concerning to the US and NATO — will remain in Cuba for a five-day official visit.

The visit and training are quite routine for Russia and Cuba. US officials have noted that they're monitoring the situation and don't anticipate any threat.

But the arrival of the Admiral Gorshkov, a first-in-class vessel commissioned in 2018 and the first ship to carry the Zircon, and the Kasan make the visit nonetheless notable. It is currently unclear if the frigate is carrying the missiles, as it also carries Kalibr cruise missiles.

The Zircon, sometimes spelled Tsirkon, was first tested on the Admiral Goshkov in October 2020. At the time, Russia's Defense Ministry said it flew at speeds of Mach 8 before hitting a target nearly 300 miles away. Subsequent testing has also occurred, and last year, the ship sailed into the Atlantic with the weapons on board.

The new weapon is capable of being used against targets on land and at sea.

Hypersonic missiles are fast, highly maneuverable, and fly unpredictable flight paths and patterns that can make intercepting them extremely difficult. The missiles fly low and can change direction in an instant, and their direction and altitude make them harder to track and kill than, for example, a ballistic missile on a parabolic flight path.

But while Putin has touted the Zircon's capabilities as unbeatable, unrivaled, and unlike any other weapon in the arsenals of the world's militaries, it remains to be seen if it can actually live up to those grand claims. Other Russian weapons haven't.

Experts have said that although the missile shouldn't be underestimated, its ability to travel at blinding speeds and hit moving targets, as Putin has claimed, may not be entirely true.

Along with Russia, China has also developed a hypersonic missile, designated the DF-ZF, which it claims can travel five times the speed of sound and hit targets at a distance of 3,400 miles.

The US is working on its own hypersonic missiles, but there are notable concerns that the development and fielding of these weapons continue to trail behind America's rivals. The US is also working with Japan on new air defense systems that can intercept hypersonics.

• Tim Cook discusses his legacy in an interview with tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee.
• Cook says that, like Apple, he's more focused on looking forward than back.
• The Apple CEO, who took over for Steve Jobs in 2011, said any legacy is for others to decide.

Steve Jobs famously said he wanted to "put a ding in the universe," and many would argue bringing the iPhone to market did just that.

So what will be the legacy of his successor, Tim Cook?

The Apple CEO said he hasn't given it much thought — and it's for others to decide.

Cook spoke to tech YouTube Marques Brownlee in an interview released Wednesday, saying that "legacy is something that is defined by other people."

While he's content with letting the public determine his own, Cook said his focus is looking forward, not dwelling on the past. This mirrors Apple's ethos, he said, especially amid its recent major announcements at WWDC 2024 earlier this week.

"You won't find a museum here," Cook said. "We would have lots of things that you might like to see and reminisce about, but we just don't."

And Apple doesn't have much time to reminisce — it's been playing catch-up in the AI arms race in recent years since the launch of ChatGPT.

But the wait to see what Cook had up his sleeve is over, now that Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, its suite of generative AI tools baked into the operating systems of its most popular devices.

For Apple, it could mark the beginning of a new era, and how Cook navigates the AI race could impact his legacy.

He's also overseen the launch of the Apple Watch and AirPods, growing sales from Apple's wearables business to the size of a Fortune 200 company, and built up Apple's services business with the launch of Apple TV+.

Most recently, he introduced Apple's first major new product category since the Watch: the Vision Pro. Apple is betting "spatial computing" is the future, and with the long-rumored Apple car project reportedly scrapped, the Vision Pro is "one of his last big swings as Apple CEO and will affect his legacy," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman wrote last year.

It's not clear when Cook will end his tenure at Apple, but he's said the company has a succession plan in place and in 2021 predicted he wouldn't still be CEO in 10 years. Last year, he told Dua Lipa in an interview that he doesn't plan on stepping down anytime soon, but that he wants his successor to come from inside Apple.

Cook acknowledged in the interview with Brownlee that, eventually, his time would come.

"At some point, there will be another CEO," Cook said. "And my whole focus in life will be on making them successful."

• Ford is ending a controversial program that required dealers to invest between $500,000 and $1 million to sell EVs.
• EV sales are now open to all Ford dealers without certification requirements.
• The change comes after Ford over-estimated EV sales growth.

Ford dealers no longer need to invest up to $1 million in order to sell electric vehicles.

The Blue Oval is ending its controversial EV dealership program less than two years after it was first announced, Ford Chief Operating Officer Marin Gjaja told reporters Thursday, according to CNBC.

Ford dealers will no longer be required to invest in certification to get EVs on their lot, opening battery-electric sales to Ford's entire dealership network — a move Gjaja said is designed to grow Ford's EV sales.

The program, first announced in September 2022, asked dealers to spend between $500,000 and $1.2 million to become "EV Certified." The steep price included expensive DC fast-chargers for dealer lots to double as charging locations and EV training for staff.

This rigorous buy-in program was built on optimistic EV sales forecasts that dealers would make back their investments as electric-car popularity increased. But a lot has changed in the US EV market since the fall of 2022, and growth in the segment hasn't played out as Ford initially expected, Gjaja said.

EV sales have slowed down in the past year. They are still on the rise but at a slower rate than the boom in growth that happened between 2020 and 2022. With wealthy early adopters largely sated, car companies are now trying to entice a new group of EV shoppers who are more frugal and practical.

Ford dealers were among the first to raise alarm bells about this slowdown when some stores started turning down Mustang Mach-E allocations last summer. Later, dealers started reporting issues with F-150 Lightning demand — further eroding Ford's relationship with its dealers.

Since then, Ford and other major automakers have gone back to the drawing board on their EV strategies.

Even before this slowdown in EV sales, many Ford dealers were unhappy with the high price of entry for selling electric cars. Several dealer associations filed lawsuits related to the program. In one case, an Illinois board ruled in favor of the dealers' claim that Ford's EV certification program violated state laws.

As of December of last year, a little more than half of Ford's nearly 3,000 US dealers had opted out of the EV investment requirements, an early sign that the program had backfired.

Ford's dealers will still need to make some investments to support EV sales on their lots, but they will no longer be held to the minimum $500,000 investment.

• Jim Chanos warned market speculation is approaching the absurd excesses of 2021.
• The short seller flagged the resurgence of meme stocks like GameStop and SPACs as dangerous trends.
• The longtime Tesla bear said the company should honor Elon Musk's mammoth compensation deal.

Jim Chanos clanged the alarm on market mania — and called for Elon Musk to receive his contested mammoth pay package.

The famed short-seller and Tesla bear told Bloomberg on Wednesday that 2021 was the "most speculative market" he'd seen in four decades of investing — and "we're getting back to that."

"Not quite there, but it's close," Chanos continued. He pointed to the resurgence of meme stocks such as GameStop, special-purpose acquisition vehicles (SPACs) and the "absolutely insane valuations" of some restaurant chains.

The Chanos & Co boss is best known for rooting out fraud at companies including Enron and Wirecard, then betting against them. But he's since converted his hedge fund into a family office after several years of underperformance.

The Wall Street veteran warned retail investors against blindly following the crowd and buying the latest hot asset with no fundamentals to support its sky-high valuation. He emphasized that kind of FOMO-style trading was a "disaster" for them in 2021.

While Chanos has repeatedly bet against Tesla, he said the EV maker should honor Musk's compensation deal from 2018 as the CEO hit all his performance targets.

Several Tesla investors have blasted the payout as excessive and sued to stop it, and the result of a shareholder vote on the package was due Thursday.

"Even though I'm a bear on Tesla, I think a deal's a deal even if it's a bad deal, and they agreed to it," Chanos said. He added that while he's "not a big fan of Elon," that doesn't change the fact that Musk achieved the goals he was set.

However, Chanos did underscore that the deal was "very expensive" for shareholders and exceeded all the retained earnings Tesla has ever generated. He also questioned what Musk could demand next if he does get his way.

• Saudi Arabia is seeking investment for its Neom megacity project from China. 
• In recent years, China has signed various tech deals with Saudi Arabia. 
• But the US is warning of consequences if the Saudis draw too close to China. 

At a recent exhibition in Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia showcased its futuristic vision for its planned Neom megacity.

Among the exhibits were designs for The Line, a sprawling residential structure consisting of two skyscrapers that were originally intended to house nine million people.

It also showcased plans for a network of underground tunnels that residents could use to travel between different regions and a desert ski resort in the mountains.

It was part of Saudi Arabia's drive to secure billions in new investment for the project, which is the centerpiece of Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 strategy.

Vision 2030 is meant to reorient the kingdom's economy away from fossil fuels and toward innovation and technology.

But the vast scale and cost of the project, which reports say could spiral to more than a trillion dollars, is posing difficulties even for Saudi Arabia, despite its reserves of oil wealth.

A growing alliance

The exhibition helped make Neom "less mysterious," but reactions were "mostly neutral," Leonard Chan, chair of the Hong Kong Innovative Technology Development Association, told AFP.

There remain hopes in Saudi Arabia, however, that China will invest billions in the project.

One of the main areas of recent cooperation between the states has been technology, with Saudi Arabia working with China on AI and surveillance tech projects as it seeks to transform itself into a tech superpower.

Robert Mogielnicki, an analyst at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told Business Insider that Chinese investors likely see opportunities in Neom in sectors including construction, renewable energy, telecommunications, and smart city-related services.

"Chinese economic actors interested in Neom likely see a longer-term project pipeline with various opportunities to generate profits," said Mogielnicki.

But it's an alliance of growing concern to Saudi Arabia's main geopolitical ally, the US.

A shared authoritarian vision

One of the main tools China's leader Xi Jinping is using to broker alliances globally, particularly with nations ambivalent about the West's insistence on human rights, is the prospect of access to China's sophisticated surveillance technology.

China has developed AI-enabled face recognition software that allows officials to monitor citizens in real time and access data on aspects of their private lives, including health, employment, and financial histories.

It's a tool with an obvious appeal for Crown Prince Mohammed, who is accused of brutally persecuting dissidents and critics.

China sees Saudi Arabia as not just a business opportunity but a way of undercutting the influence of its longtime Saudi ally, the US.

In April, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund-subsidiary Alat signed a deal with Dahua Technology, one of China's most important surveillance technology firms. The US has sanctioned Dahua Technology over national security concerns.

The creation of surveillance cities

Unlike Western firms, which have policies to protect data, Chinese companies have fewer compunctions about sharing the information they collect, Camille Lons, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told BI.

"Gulf countries are indeed significant clients of Chinese surveillance technologies," said Lons. "The fact that Chinese companies are more open to share the collected data than their Western counterparts makes them attractive partners to the Gulf states."

It's an aspect of China's involvement in Neom that's alarmed some critics.

Neom is being designed as a "smart city," whose services will be regulated by data collected from residents through smart phones or surveillance cameras. Last year, analysts told BI that data collected about Neom residents through Chinese technology could be used as part of a mass surveillance program.

"They're being marketed as 'eco cities' or 'smart cities,' we call them surveillance cities," said Fatafta, of cities such as Neom whose infrastructure uses Chinese data services and surveillance technology.

But there are risks for the Saudis

Saudi Arabia's increasingly close ties with China are of growing concern to the US.

The Biden administration is seeking to broker a normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel and is offering the Saudis potential access to valuable nuclear technology. An alternative deal would offer the Saudis enhanced US security guarantees.

But as a condition for any agreement, the US is demanding that the Saudis restrict their new tech alliance with China.

"The main risk today to Saudi Arabia's tech cooperation with China is the growing China-US tech war. The US is increasingly putting Riyadh under pressure over its cooperation with Chinese companies in the tech sector," said Lons.

The US is concerned that China could seek to exploit its relationship with Saudi Arabia to steal US tech secrets, with chips used to power AI systems among the areas of concern, The New York Times reported.

"US companies are now making clear that if Saudi Arabia wants to access advanced US technologies, it will need to make a choice and prove that it won't serve as a backdoor to China to access those technologies," said Lons.

But with Saudi Arabia reportedly considering scaling back some of its flagship Neom projects amid funding concerns, it will likely continue walking the tightrope between closer ties to China and potential US repercussions as it seeks to supercharge its Vision 2030 plans.

• Netflix's "Dancing for the Devil" tells the story of TikTok dancers involved with a controversial church.
• Pastor Robert Shinn signed the content creators to his management label, 7M Films Inc.
• The company's roster includes Miranda Derrick, James "BDash" Derrick, and Vik White.

Netflix docuseries "Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult" introduces audiences to controversial pastor and talent manager Robert Shinn, whose Shekinah Church has been described as a cult.

The series starts by examining Shinn and his followers of the Los Angeles-based church from the perspective of Melanie Wilking, a dancer who believes that the organization brainwashed her sister, Miranda Derrick.

Derrick joined the church in 2021 and later signed with Shinn's talent management company, 7M Films Inc, which he started that year.

Derrick has maintained that she is not a victim following her family's claims that she cut contact with them after joining the church.

But while Derrick and her husband, James "BDash" Derrick, are still involved with Shekinah, other dancers have left the church.

The Netflix series paints a surprising picture of how content creators can potentially be taken advantage of while trying to build their brands and find success.

In 2022, a 7M representative denied all allegations of coercion in a statement to Business Insider, saying "at no point" has Shinn tried to isolate anybody.

Here are all the TikTok dancers who have been involved with 7M, Shekinah Church, and Shinn.

Melanie Wilking

Wilking spoke at length about her concerns about Shekinah Church in the first episode of the documentary, and said that she attended a few sermons with her sister.

She also recalled being invited last minute to a Sunday service by Shinn's daughter, Kloe Shinn.

Kloe Shinn asked Wilking to cancel her pre-arranged plans so that she could attend the service immediately.

"I just remember thinking, 'No! I'm not doing that.' I've gone to different churches growing up and no one is ever like 'You have to be here, now'" she explained. "After Kloe did that, I made up my mind that I was never going back."

Miranda Derrick

Much of the documentary explores the Wilking family's claims that Shinn and Shekinah Church have brainwashed Derrick. After its release, the dancer called the documentary "one-sided" in a statement on Instagram.

Following the release of the documentary, Melanie Wilking told her followers that she'll always be there for Derrick if she decides to leave the church. That suggests she is still part of the church.

"We believe that one day my sister and the other victims will realize their love for their families and faith was exploited," she said. "When that happens, we will be there for them without judgment."

James "BDash" Derrick

It's unclear when James "BDash" Derrick and Miranda got married, but the couple posted photos of each other in wedding outfits in April 2024 after being together for two years.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Miranda Derrick (@itsmirandaderrick)

//www.instagram.com/embed.js

They continue to make TikTok videos together so, although unconfirmed, it seems likely that Derrick is also still involved with Shekinah Church.

"Dancing for the Devil" features footage from TikTok and YouTube of Derrick's content, but like his wife, he does not personally appear in the documentary.

Aubrey Fisher

Aubrey Fisher started attending services at Shekinah Church shortly before Shinn founded 7M Films in 2021.

In the documentary, he explained that the pastor was impressed that Fisher had a similar number of followers to BDash, and claimed that Shinn started the management company after their conversation.

Fisher left Shekinah and 7M in 2022 between May and July, but it's not clear when he and fellow TikTok dancer Kylie Douglas separated. Fisher continues to make dance videos on Instagram and TikTok, and also produces his own music.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Aubrey Fisher (@_aubreyfisher)

//www.instagram.com/embed.js

Kylie Douglas

In the second episode of the documentary, Douglas claimed that Shinn created a culture of paranoia among his followers. She said that she felt she couldn't even fully share her thoughts with Fisher in case they somehow got back to Shinn.

As detailed in the series, she left the church with Fisher between May and July 2022, because of Shinn's worrying behavior and due to the allegations that Shekinah is a cult.

Douglas continues to work with her own dance company in Los Angeles, The Voltz.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kylie Douglas (@kyliedoug)

//www.instagram.com/embed.js

Nick "RainO" Raiano

Nick "RainO" Raiano joined Shekinah and 7M at the same time as Fisher and BDash in 2021. His parents are a big part of "Dancing for the Devil," and they said that he slowly cut contact with them after he joined the church.

When Raiano started to respond to texts again, his parents suspected that someone else at the church was writing the messages for him.

Since the documentary was released, Raiano has deleted his Instagram and TikTok accounts. His main YouTube channel has also disappeared, although his old account with one video is still available.

Kevin "Konkrete" Davis

Kevin "Konkrete" Davis partnered with BDash in 2018 and they auditioned together on talent shows including "America's Best Dance Crew" and "World of Dance," as seen in the documentary.

He and BDash joined Shekinah in 2021 after they worked with Shinn's son, videographer Isaiah Shinn.

Archive footage in the documentary shows that he left in July 2022 following the reports that Shekinah was a cult. Konkrete regularly makes krump dance videos on TikTok and Instagram, and also makes his own music.

After the documentary's release, he told his followers that he "appreciates all the support."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @konkrete_

//www.instagram.com/embed.js

Kailea Gray

Kailea Gray joined Shekinah with her then-boyfriend, Konkrete, and left the church with him in July 2022 following the allegations.

In the documentary, Konkrete claimed they were asked to sign NDAs after going to church, which they were shocked by.

The pair have since gotten married, according to their Instagram accounts, and they make content together.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kailea Gray (@kaileafilms)

//www.instagram.com/embed.js

Vik White

Ukrainian-born Vik White is mentioned in "Dancing for the Devil" as a member of Shekinah, but it isn't clear whether he also distanced himself from family and friends because of the church.

In 2024, he had a minor role alongside Nicholas Galitzine as Simon, a member of the August Moon boyband, in Amazon's "The Idea of You."

He continues to make content with the Derricks on TikTok and Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vik White (@itsslavik)

//www.instagram.com/embed.js

Ceasare "Tighteyex" Willis

Ceasare "Tighteyex" Willis is signed with 7M, but isn't featured in "Dancing for the Devil." On June 7, he made a YouTube video about his work, where he also alluded to the documentary by promising to provide "real context" about the "stories that you hear."

Although he didn't mention anyone in particular, the video included footage from Konkrete's livestream where he was discussing Tighteyex.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-j7l_7DATQ?si=Yl_mjtFf8DEHJyi6&w=560&h=315]

Later in the video, Tighteyex cryptically said that people he knows are lying about him, seemingly referring to Konkrete.

He added: "If you are being slandered or people are talking about you or lying on you, it comes from people that you know.

Kendra "KO" Willis

Kendra "KO" Willis is another dancer signed to 7M. She's married to Tighteyex. It's unclear whether the couple attends Shekinah Church, but she made a subtle dig at "Dancing for the Devil" on Instagram when promoting her own documentary.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kendra “KO” Willis (@mizzk.o)

//www.instagram.com/embed.js

She posted a clip from "The Kendra Oyesanya Willis Story" on May 30, and captioned it: "Because I love real & true documentaries."

Her husband also joined in and commented: "Finally a true documentary."

• Disney is once again donating to politicians — just months after ending its feud with Ron DeSantis.
• The Florida theme park is even donating to Republicans who voted for the state's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill.
• Disney executives' opposition of the bill sparked a yearslong conflict with DeSantis.  

Since ending its feud with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Disney has wasted no time donating to Republicans again.

The Walt Disney Co. gave more than $87,000 worth of in-kind donations to political committees, including Republican lawmakers, in the months of April and May, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

That's an about-face for the House of Mouse, which had paused political donations as it brawled with DeSantis.

The yearslong feud first started in 2022 when Disney executives publicly opposed DeSantis' bill — which has since been signed into law — that restricts discussions of gender and sexual orientation in classrooms.

Critics called the legislation the "Don't Say Gay" bill.

In response to their opposition, DeSantis grabbed control of the board that oversees Disney World's special tax district, renaming it the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and replacing all of its board members with his own.

Disney, in turn, sued, arguing it was being politically targeted; DeSantis' board sued right back.

But the legal back-and-forth ended in March when DeSantis' hand-picked board agreed to settle the lawsuit brought by Disney.

Now, ironically, Disney is providing benefits to Republican lawmakers who voted in favor of the so-called "Don't Say Gay," bill, the Sentinel reported.

That includes an in-kind donation worth more than $16,000 to Florida Farmers and Ranchers United, a group associated with Republican Rep. Josie Tomkow, campaign finance records show. Tomkow voted for the bill officially called the Parental Rights in Education Act.

Disney also gave around $10,000 each to two committees affiliated with Republican state Sen. Jason Brodeur and Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters, campaign finance records show. Both state lawmakers also supported the controversial bill.

Though Disney has resumed in-kind donations, Florida Democratic Senator Geraldine Thompson has said Disney headquarters has not yet approved monetary donations, the Sentinel reported.

• The fashion industry may soon face new legislation that requires sustainability transparency.
• Cloud computing could allow fashion companies to share data and reduce production waste.
• This article is part of "Build IT," a series about digital-tech trends disrupting industries.

Across the fashion industry, companies are steeling themselves for the potential passage of the EU Green Claims Directive, which could happen as early as next year.

The directive would require brands making sustainability claims to back them up with evidence and to label products accordingly. The GCD would have global implications, as it would extend to all businesses advertising to EU consumers.

The GCD still faces multiple hurdles, but if passed, it would force long-overdue change in the industry. Under the directive, consumers should be able to visit a website or scan a QR code to see proof of a garment's fabric composition or how it was created.

But before that can happen, brands need to be able to source and share sustainability data internally and with retail partners. Cloud computing could be key to doing this in a detailed and efficient way.

Cloud computing is gaining traction

Cloud computing offers on-demand services, from storage to software, over the internet. It's been billed as a major cost-cutting measure for companies because they can pay for the services they need, rather than rely on in-house servers. It's also a way to streamline processes by collecting data into one easily accessible hub.

The cloud-computing industry is growing rapidly, and analysts predict it could more than double in value between now and 2029. And the fashion industry has gradually been waking up to the potential of cloud computing. In recent years, heavyweights like Mulberry and Net-a-Porter have begun working with Eon, a cloud-powered tech company that specializes in Digital IDs, QR-code labels that can be scanned for detailed information, product authentication, and customer-focused extras, such as suggestions on how to style the looks. Meanwhile, DressX, which allows users to "wear" digital garments in photos and videos, uses Google Cloud.

Still, there's been little focus on cloud computing when it comes to sustainability data. Bharati Rathore, a management lecturer at the University of South Wales, is one expert who's spreading the word. In her report, "Fashion Transformation 4.0: Beyond Digitalization & Marketing in Fashion Industry," she said that the fashion industry must embrace new technologies in order to survive.

Rathore said cloud computing is a way to "store and manage large volumes of data efficiently — everything from customer preferences and purchasing behavior to inventory levels and supply chain details." She added that it offered a central place for data sharing, making it easier for workers around the world — design teams and retail managers, for example — to stay up-to-date with each other.

If harnessed properly, cloud computing is one of a handful of digital tools that could "revolutionize the way we design, produce, and consume fashion," Rathore said in her report.

Moving toward transparency

It's no secret that the fashion industry has historically shied away from transparency. This is slowly changing, thanks partly to companies like Fashion Cloud, an insights platform that works with over 700 fashion brands and 25,000 retailers.

Using cloud computing, Fashion Cloud collects data and insights, and then makes them easily accessible for all parties — from website designers, who upload and describe products onto brand websites, to retail managers, who handle shop-floor operations. The company works with brands from the mass-market online retailer Zalando, which averages around 50 million customers per quarter, to Studio Anneloes, a Dutch design house that features a "footprint" tab on every product that indicates its environmental impact.

"Fashion is a terribly old-fashioned industry," Alies ter Kuile, the cofounder of Fashion Cloud, said. "Every retailer has their own process, so nothing is standardized. What we do is ensure retailers are getting key product and sustainability data from brands, and we help brands on that journey, too."

The GCD is intended to be a crack down on greenwashing and vague, hard-to-substantiate claims of "eco-friendly" clothes, but it's a huge hurdle for brands accustomed to opacity. According to ter Kuile, only 50 of the brands that Fashion Cloud works with "share sustainability data in an automated way." Meanwhile, she added, "another 350 have the sustainability data, but they can't share it yet."

Communication is a core issue when it comes to letting customers know exactly where their clothes come from. "Brands and retailers are asking for the same information," ter Kuile said, referring to where the clothes were made and how many units have been sold. "But they're currently doing that in different spreadsheets. We're trying to automate these processes."

Simplicity is key, too. Ter Kuile said the average age of fashion buyers — retail reps who decide which pieces are stocked in department stores and online shops — is between 50 and 60. "Typically, the people using our tools are people who don't like software, so everything needs to be intuitive," she added. "You can't have five different brands with five passwords — forget about it! The process has to be the same, and it has to be simple."

Benefits for clothing retailers

Cloud computing also provides key benefits for retailers. "For fashion retailers, quick, data-driven decisions are essential for inventory management, store expansion, and market adaptation," Alan Holcroft, the UK manager of Cegid, a cloud-computing business, told Business Insider. Cegid supports over 85,000 retailers, including the French fashion retailer Cotélac.

Easy access to buying data means retailers are more likely to purchase only what they can realistically sell. For example, if a dress has moved only 10 units in one location in a month, it's wildly unrealistic to buy 500 and expect them to be sold. With cloud computing, retailers can avoid overbuying stock — a key driver of fashion's textile-waste problem. (It's no secret that brands would sometimes rather set fire to unsold stock than discount their prices.)

None of this is to say that cloud computing is inherently sustainable. Steven Gonzalez Monserrate, a cloud anthropologist, said in a 2022 research report that data storage has a "greater carbon footprint than the airline industry." Cloud computing is reliant on data centers, which require energy-intensive air conditioning to prevent servers from overheating. These centers also require irrigation, sometimes guzzling up water resources needed by local communities.

There are still many fashion brands that seem ill-equipped to address the GCD's requirements. Ter Kuile said part of the problem is that too many conversations in the fashion industry focus on abstractions rather than action.

Data-sharing through cloud computing — while by no means perfect — is a practical step that allows information to be tracked at every level of product creation and, crucially, shared with customers who need it.

"We don't need inspiration to be more sustainable and transparent," ter Kuile said. "We need processes that enable us to actually do it."