Tag: News

• Citadel, Millennium, Point72, and more all made money in November.
• Big-name funds battled a choppy equities market, though stocks bounced in the second half of the month.
• Many hedge funds outperformed the modest 0.1% gain in November by the S&P 500 index.

Hedge funds' biggest names had a solid November despite an early-month sell-off of hot tech stocks.

Citadel, Balyasny, and Point72 made money in the month, people close to the managers told Business Insider.

Miami-based Citadel, run by billionaire Ken Griffin, was up 1.4% in its flagship Wellington fund. The fund has made 8.3% for the year. The manager's Tactical Trading fund, which combines the firm's quant and flesh-and-blood stockpickers, is up 16.3% in 2025 after 2.6% gain last month.

The $30 billion Balyasny continued its strong year with a 2.5% gain in November. The manager is now up 15.3% in 2025. ExodusPoint pushed its year-to-date returns to 15.6% with a 1.2% bump in November. Billionaire Steve Cohen's Point72 is up 15% in 2025, following a 1.4% gain last month.

Millennium eked out gains of 0.5% over the month, bringing its year-to-date returns to 8.3%.

These firms and many other multistrategy managers outperformed the S&P 500 last month; the index gained just 0.1% thanks to an early-month sell-off of tech stocks that was partially reversed by strong earnings from chipmaker Nvidia and solid iPhone sales by Apple.

The index for the year has still made more than 16% in 2025, which is greater than many funds' year-to-date gains.

The firms below declined to comment. More performance figures will be added to the table and the article as they are learned.

(Editor's note: This story was originally published on December 1 at 2.32 pm. New figures have been added to the table below as they have been learned.)

• Amazon is making a big push into ultrafast delivery, now testing in Seattle and Philadelphia.
• The company said customers can choose from thousands of items for delivery in under 30 minutes.
• While Amazon's e-commerce business is bigger, it's still catching up with Walmart in terms of speed.

Amazon orders keep getting faster.

The e-commerce juggernaut said Monday that it is making a big push into ultrafast fulfillment with new 30-minute delivery tests in Seattle and Philadelphia.

Through the new service, dubbed Amazon Now, customers can choose from thousands of essentials, such as diapers, milk, pet food, electronics, and more, delivered right to their doorstep in under half an hour.

In the Seattle test, Amazon workers pick and bag items at its warehouse, which are then handed off to Amazon Flex drivers who are expected to collect orders and get going within two minutes, tech news site GeekWire reported last week, citing Amazon's permit application filings in Seattle.

While Amazon is the biggest player in e-commerce in terms of sheer volume, the company is still catching up with retail giant Walmart in terms of speed.

Powered by its fleet of more than 4,600 stores in the US, Walmart is within a three-hour delivery reach of roughly 95% of American households.

The company also said more than a third of shoppers pay an additional fee to have their orders delivered in less than an hour, and it routinely fulfills orders in a matter of minutes.

For example, Walmart said its fastest delivery on Black Friday was a Shark Steam & Scrub Mop to a shopper in Utah.

Of course, Amazon hasn't been sitting still.

In June, the company began adding 4,000 "smaller" communities to its same-day fulfillment service by stocking more everyday essentials at strategically located delivery stations around the US.

As for the question of whether US retailers will start promising 15-minute delivery (or even shorter), supply chain consultant Ralph Asher previously told Business Insider the laws of physics and finance could prove to be real constraints.

For example, Asher modeled a 30-minute delivery concept for Minneapolis and found that four fulfillment stations were needed to serve the metro area. Getting fulfillment down to 15 minutes required a whopping 31 centers, each of which would have to be stocked with sufficient inventory to meet demand.

"You need more and more expensive equipment to do it, you need more and more inventory, you need more and more real estate, you need more and more drivers willing to drop everything at a moment's notice to do delivery," he said.

"There's just probably not as much of a market for anything under 30 minutes," he added.

• K&W Cafeteria has closed all of its locations after nearly nine decades in business.
• The cafeteria-style Southern comfort food restaurant chain faced declining sales.
• K&W Cafeteria previously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020, but emerged a year later.

K&W Cafeteria, an 88-year-old Southern comfort food chain, abruptly shut down all nine of its restaurants across North Carolina and Virginia this week, leaving hundreds of employees out of work and loyal patrons devastated.

The cafeteria-style eatery, known for its affordable, homestyle meals of fried chicken, baked spaghetti, and chocolate cream pie, announced its permanent closure in a Facebook post on Monday.

The restaurant chain thanked customers for their support and added, "We are truly sorry to bring this chapter to an end, but profoundly thankful for the love you've shown us for nearly nine decades."

No explanation was offered for K&W's sudden closure. Just last month, the chain was hawking a $30 gift card and a free pie for holiday season shoppers.

K&W did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider on Tuesday, but told FOX8 WGHP in a statement that "like many restaurant companies across the country, we have struggled to navigate an extremely challenging operating environment."

Data from foodservice industry research firm Technomic's Ignite database showed that K&W's sales fell 10% year over year in 2024, and its 2025 sales were predicted to be even more grim.

The chain's abrupt closure comes as the restaurant industry has been under pressure due to rising food and labor costs, as well as tightening consumer budgets.

A bankruptcy filing for K&W in 2020

The restaurant chain began as the Carolinian Coffee Shop in the North Carolina city of Winston-Salem before its original investors — T.K. Knight and his brothers-in-law, Thomas, Kenneth, and William Wilson — renamed it K&W, using their initials, in 1937.

In 1941, the late Grady Allred Sr., who worked at the Carolinian Coffee Shop, became the sole owner of K&W and ultimately expanded the business to 16 locations across the Carolinas and Virginia.

By 2020, the Allred family had grown the restaurant to 28 outposts, however, the business, like many others, was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

K&W shuttered several restaurants at the time and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2020, saying in court papers that it had just over $30 million in assets and $22.1 million in liabilities.

The chain emerged from bankruptcy a year later after a reorganization.

While there are no current bankruptcy filings under the K&W name, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence shows that 2025 corporate bankruptcies are on track to hit levels not seen in 15 years, since 2010. Personal bankruptcies are also on the rise, according to data from the Administrative Office of the US Courts.

In 2022, K&W was acquired by Falcon Holdings, a Texas-based company that also owns the Piccadilly restaurant chain.

By the end of its reign, K&W was operating eight locations in North Carolina and one in Virginia. A former employee told WFMY News 2 that more than 300 K&W workers were left jobless.

Following K&W's closure announcement, customers flooded the comments section to share their sadness, reminisce about their memories, and even beg for recipes.

"Can you at least give us the baked spaghetti recipe???" one post read.

• Luigi Mangione, charged with fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare's CEO, was in a NY court on Tuesday.
• Prosecutors played police bodycam video as Mangione challenged his arrest.
• The video showed the moments before Mangioni's arrest following a manhunt that riveted the nation.

The suspect is nervous as he's frisked in a corner of a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. His hands shake.

There's fibbing on both sides: The suspect says he's a "homeless" guy named "Mark." The cops say it's just an ID check.

And through it all, surreally, Christmas carols play on the restaurant sound system — with one cop whistling along to keep things calm as they try to verify his identity.

Dramatic police bodycam video of Luigi Mangione, screened for the first time Tuesday in a New York City courtroom, shows the 28-year-old's December arrest in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as it has never been seen before.

"Stand up for us — put your hands on top of your head," Altoona Police Officer Joseph Detwiler can be heard telling Mangione twice in the video, which is not being released to the public and could only be seen in court.

"You seem nervous right now," the officer says next, as Mangione stands up and is patted down at 9:50 on a Monday morning — five days after Thompson's murder on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk.

When the officer asks, "Why are you nervous?" Mangione, his hands atop his head, gives no answer.

"Sit down. Sit down," the officer tells him.

The video was played throughout most of Tuesday morning and into the afternoon — the second day of an evidence-suppression hearing in state court in Manhattan. It was narrated from the witness stand by Detwiler, who, with his partner, was the first officer on the scene.

As they rolled up to the McDonald's in their patrol car, Detwiler was thinking the job would be a waste of time, he testified.

"I did not believe it was going to be the person that they said it was," Detwiler said Tuesday, during questioning by the lead state prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann.

The 911 call had come in from a very skeptical restaurant manager. She's called police reluctantly, according to Monday's testimony, after customers insisted the guy sitting back by the men's room — his face obscured by a hat and medical mask — looked like "the CEO shooter" in the news.

The dispatcher was skeptical too, listing the call as "Priority: Low."

And on the way to the McDonald's, Detwiler saw a text from his supervisor, Lt. Tom Hanley: "If you get the New York City shooter, I'll buy you a hoagie."

Detwiler kept the patrol car's sirens silent as he and his partner, Patrolman Tyler Frye, rolled into the parking lot.

Once inside, the two approached Mangione's table, interrupting a meal of a breakfast sandwich and a hash brown.

They knew this was the guy the manager had called about, Detwiler testified. There was only one person in the restaurant wearing a mask.

"Yeah, we don't wear masks," in Altoona, Detwiler explained in his testimony. "We have antibodies."

"Can you pull your mask down?" the video showed Detwiler asking, while Mangione watched from the defense table, dressed in a dark suit and open-necked off-white dress shirt.

Then the footage played in court showed the moment Mangione complied, showing his full face, and everything changed.

As "Jingle Bell Rock" played on the McDonald's speakers, the five-day manhunt that had captivated the country — involving hundreds of law enforcement personnel in New York City and beyond — had ended.

"I knew it was him immediately," Detwiler testified.

It didn't help that Mangione appeared "nervous," as the officer described it on the stand, explaining, "I saw his fingers shaking a little bit."

Defense lawyers are challenging the evidence and statements police took from Mangione in the 30-minute period when he was questioned and arrested in that McDonald's.

By the time Mangione was cuffed and led out — with "Holly Jolly Christmas" playing on the restaurant sound system — some 10 cops had gathered in the restaurant.

They included the lieutenant who'd promised Detwiler a hoagie.

"I'm 100 percent sure that it's him," Detwiler testified he told the arriving lieutenant. "He was surprised," Detwiler testified.

Prosecutors are trying to show that stopping, questioning, and searching the belongings of Mangione was proper, given the officers' knowledge from the news media of the Thompson shooting suspect's appearance and dangerousness.

Defense lawyers are arguing that Mangione was improperly questioned before he was read his Miranda rights, and they want the judge to rule that any statements he made can't be used against him at trial.

On Tuesday, Detwiler described asking limited questions focused on Mangione's identification and potential imminent dangerousness, not the facts of the case itself.

"Mark," Mangione told police at first, when asked his name, according to the video. "Homeless," he said, when asked his address.

"Did you ever mention the shooting in New York City?" Seidemann asked. "No," Detwiler answered.

"Did you ever pull out your gun?"

"No," the cop answered again.

Mangione's lengthy hearing has so far featured testimony by five law enforcement and civilian witnesses involved in the manhunt and the Pennsylvania arrest. It is scheduled to continue Thursday and Friday — and possibly into next week.

New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro has not said when he will decide if any evidence must be barred from an eventual trial. Judges have yet to set trial dates for Mangione's federal and state murder trials.

• Instagram chief Adam Mosseri announced the company would reduce recurring meetings in his latest memo.
• The memo encourages biweekly one-on-ones and suggests that employees decline unnecessary meetings.
• Many leaders are rethinking meeting culture to improve efficiency.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri's latest memo didn't just cover RTO. It also tackled something that employees and leaders alike love to hate: the recurring meeting.

The memo, titled "Building a Winning Culture in 2026," said that recurring meetings will be canceled every six months and only re-added if "absolutely necessary." He also encouraged making recurring one-on-ones biweekly "by default" and said employees should decline meetings that interfere with "focus blocks."

"We all spend too much time in meetings that are not effective, and it's slowing us down," Mosseri wrote.

Mosseri's crackdown on meetings echoes a growing chorus of executives frustrated by bureaucratic sluggishness. As AI tools introduce a new era of workplace efficiency and competition ramps up, leaders are rethinking culture from the ground up — trimming layers, streamlining processes, and doubling down on speed and efficiency.

Leaders are rejecting meeting-heavy workplaces

Many CEOs and billionaires have long held strong opinions on meetings. Jeff Bezos has favored "messy" meetings, while Airbnb's Brian Chesky and Nvidia's Jensen Huang prefer to eliminate one-on-ones altogether.

Others view the practice as a distraction from real work. Elon Musk has argued large meetings should be eliminated or kept "very short," and billionaire investor (and lover of emails) Mark Cuban has similarly said meetings derail his productivity.

"I try to only do meetings if I have to come to a conclusion or there's no other way — same with phone calls," Cuban said in 2023. "It kills so much time."

The debate over meetings has only grown louder as efficiency takes center stage across corporate America. In Jamie Dimon's 2024 annual letter to shareholders, the JPMorgan CEO said he wants to "kill meetings" because it slows work down.

Earlier this year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said he wants to bring back in-person collaboration, while also limiting the "pre-meeting for the pre-meeting for the decision." The tech giant recently cut 14,000 workers in a push to revive a scrappier, startup-like culture.

Reversing the pro-meeting trend

Benjamin Laker, a leadership professor at the Henley Business School who has researched effective meeting structures, told Business Insider that in the post-pandemic era, there was a "huge acceleration" of meetings, both in frequency and volume.

Laker said that psychological factors, like heightened loneliness and anxiety during the pandemic, contributed to this rise in meetings, as they offered a way to regain a sense of connection.

Petri Lehtonen, CEO of the meeting analytics platform Flowtrace, told Business Insider that the company's data indicates that 50% to 70% of total meeting hours in large companies come from recurring slots, and many companies find those standing meetings don't always have a clear purpose. The crackdown on meetings isn't just a cultural trend, but "a structural correction," Lehtonen said.

That's why executives like Mosseri may be re-examining the habit, he said. Lehtonen said that as collaboration becomes increasingly asynchronous, due to AI-generated summary tools, companies are shifting from thinking of "meetings by default" to "meetings as escalation tools."

Restoring balance

In the aftermath of the pandemic, some companies have taken more radical approaches to reducing meetings.

In 2023, Shopify's bosses introduced a plug-in to track the dollar amount spent during meetings, a move the COO said at the time was aimed at reducing meetings so employees could actually "get shit done."

Others, like Salesforce, took a less extreme approach. The company tried a no-meetings week in 2021 to give employees a break from the disruptions, and ended up implementing three more no-meetings weeks. Other companies like Citi, gave meeting-free Fridays.

In a yearlong survey of 76 companies published in MIT's Sloan Management Review in 2022, Laker wrote that productivity was 71% higher when meetings were reduced by 40%. However, Laker said that the advantages of no-meeting periods began to plateau after meetings were reduced by 60%, and diminished beyond that.

Laker said the best way to keep meetings effective is to set clear boundaries, such as a maximum number of attendees, a 24-hour notice period before the meeting, an agenda, and a set timeframe.

"As long as you have meeting hygiene, you don't have to eliminate meetings altogether," Laker said.

• A Charles Koch-backed group is supporting an effort to "reignite the American spirit" around the US's 250th birthday.
• The "Be the People" initiative has signed up top marketers and other notables, including Mark Cuban.
• Organizers are pitching it as apolitical, as critics say the official America250 celebrations could take on a partisan tone.

An emerging initiative to "reignite the American spirit," set to launch around the country's 250th birthday, is getting a funding boost from the billionaire and conservative megadonor Charles Koch, Business Insider has learned.

The new effort, which has the tagline "Be the People," has enlisted a number of marketing heavy hitters in addition to its support from Stand Together, a philanthropic endeavor founded by Koch in 2003. It's led by Andrew Essex, the founding chief executive of creative agency Droga5 and a longtime media and ad executive.

The organizers described the "Be the People" initiative to potential supporters as an apolitical effort to unite America, three people briefed on the plans in recent weeks told Business Insider. The initiative is a separate effort from America250, the official celebration that is being planned by a bipartisan commission, with involvement from President Donald Trump.

A leaked "Be the People" presentation document dated October and seen by Business Insider lists six prominent marketers as advisors: John Hayes, formerly of American Express; Jim Stengel, formerly of Procter & Gamble; Mike Jackson, ex General Motors; Tariq Hassan, a vet of McDonald's; Jill Baskin, ex Hershey; and Remi Kent, formerly of Progressive.

It cites data showing people are politically divided and also ready for change. It calls for a $250 million promotional campaign — an amount similar in scale to a blockbuster movie push — encouraging people to volunteer and give to causes like combating hunger. The campaign would also create a platform where people could find charitable organizations based on their interests, the pitch document says.

The document emphasizes that the initiative is working to create a "brand safe, apolitical" coalition. It says it's in conversations with around two dozen blue-chip companies and organizations, including Starbucks, JPMorgan Chase, and Habitat for Humanity, to lend support.

"We the People" also wants to enlist popular cultural figures to help amplify its mission. The document lists around 80 bold-face names spanning industries and disciplines, including Oprah Winfrey, Fox News' Bret Baier, happiness expert Arthur Brooks, and billionaire investor Mark Cuban. It's unclear from the document who has signed on and who is seen as a potential supporter. Cuban and Brooks confirmed they're involved. Reps for Winfrey and Baier said they weren't aware of the initiative.

"The effort aims to support sustained civic engagement that begins with America's 250th anniversary and extends well beyond it, and is intended to complement the many other efforts around the anniversary," a spokesperson for Stand Together said in a statement. The rep said Stand Together is one of several funders helping build a coalition of leaders and partners, and declined to name the others. They said the presentation deck is an early aspirational concept, with the activities and coalition still taking shape.

The "Be the People" pitch comes ahead of the official US birthday celebration, America250, which was similarly pitched as nonpartisan. The Wall Street Journal and other outlets have reported that Trump had been placing his allies and operatives in charge of much of the planning. America250 has faced criticism from lawmakers, including Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-NJ, who sits on the commission to plan the America250 celebration, as well as historians such as presidential biographer and frequent Trump critic Jonathan Alter, that Trump is making the official celebration about himself, as The Atlantic and other outlets have reported.

An America250 spokesperson said its celebration is a bipartisan effort to involve all Americans through "values-based programming, the largest bicameral, bipartisan congressional caucus in history, and historic public-private partnerships."

Koch and his brother David, who died in 2019, have been powerful forces in Republican politics and the modern conservative movement. The Kochs have sometimes been at odds with Trump, going back to his first term. Their political network endorsed Nikki Haley in the 2024 campaign, and in April, the Charles Koch-funded New Civil Liberties Alliance sued Trump over import tariffs. Trump successfully moved to have the case transferred to the US Court of International Trade, which is overseeing similar cases. The case is ongoing.

• The 2025 Gotham Awards took place in New York City on Monday.
• Celebrities like Tessa Thompson and Jacob Elordi wore stylish outfits to the awards ceremony.
• Other stars, including Rihanna and Zoey Deutch, wore looks that missed the mark.

It's the most wonderful time of the year, and no, I don't mean the holidays. Awards season is officially upon us.

On Monday, the Gotham Film and Media Institute hosted its annual Gotham Awards, which celebrate independent films, at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

Stars from some of the biggest movies of the year gathered in lower Manhattan dressed to the nines for the unofficial start to the race for the Academy Awards.

While some celebrities nailed their red carpet looks, others wore outfits that fell flat. Here were some of the best and worst looks of the night.

"Sentimental Value" star Renate Reinsve arrived in an eye-catching, architectural gown.

Reinsve chose a red satin dress for the Gotham Awards.

The gown's high neckline was accented by an oversized bow that sat at the back of her neck, which Reinsve highlighted by wearing her hair in a sleek updo. The bodice of the gown formed a point at her waist, creating cutouts on either side of her torso.

The skirt ruched slightly at the waist before flowing to the floor in a column style. Chic and structured, the gown was one of the best on the red carpet.

Rihanna's pink look from Balenciaga had potential, but it didn't quite work.

The pink gown featured an off-the-shoulder neckline that formed short sleeves, revealing black gloves that covered nearly all of Rihanna's arms.

The bodice bubbled out to her upper thigh, where it formed a dropped-waist skirt and flowed into a dramatic train. A pink and black necklace and a pink headpiece, which coordinated with the dress, tied the look together.

Elements of Rihanna's outfit were strong, such as the color scheme and neckline, but overall, the look just had too much going on. The outfit could have been stronger if the dress had a simpler silhouette and Rihanna had opted not to wear a hat.

Jacob Elordi's textured coat made his simple suit pop.

Elordi attended the Gotham Awards in a charcoal suit with a patterned green tie.

The suit was nice, but Elordi made the look truly stylish by wearing a gray, knee-length coat atop it. The subtle texture and longer length of the garment brought dimension to Elordi's classic suit.

The floral appliqué on Li Jun Li's white gown was stunning.

Li, who played Grace Chow in "Sinners," arrived at the Gotham Awards in a cream gown.

Much of the bodice of Li's dress was sheer, with three-dimensional floral appliqués covering the top and a line down the center. The line of flowers led to the low-waisted skirt, which was also slightly see-through and gathered in the center in pleats before flowing out into a train.

With delicate silver jewelry, Li's look felt fresh and effortless.

Zoey Deutch's feathered gown may have worked better in a different color.

Deutch arrived at the Gotham Awards in a short-sleeved, yellow dress from Prada. The entire dress was covered in feathers, from the scooped neckline to the floor-length skirt.

Although feathers can be fun, the sheer volume of them on this gown seemed to swallow Deutch. Plus, the bright color combined with the pattern was unfortunately reminiscent of Big Bird, which didn't seem to be what Deutch was going for.

The dress may have been more successful in a different color that made the feathers feel less over-the-top.

Ruffled detailing made Tessa Thompson's gown stand out.

Schiaparelli designed Thompson's silver dress. It had a one-shoulder neckline, with layers of fabric creating large ruffles on the shoulder. The fitted bodice flared slightly at her waist to create a small peplum, contrasting with the sheath skirt.

Silver accessories, including playful cuffed earrings, completed the chic outfit.

Hilaria Baldwin's floral minidress wasn't a great choice for the event.

Baldwin shared on Instagram that she bought the Zimmermann dress she wore to the Gotham Awards after seeing it in the shop's window the day before the event. The floral minidress was certainly pretty, with spaghetti straps, a corset bodice, and a layered skirt.

However, it looked out of place on the December red carpet, which was full of full-length gowns. Additionally, Baldwin's accessories also seemed disjointed, particularly between her funky, sparkly heels and her more classic pearl jewelry.

Zimmermann makes a version of the same dress with a longer pencil skirt, which may have worked better for the Gotham Awards, especially if Baldwin had stuck to one aesthetic for her accessories.

Chase Infiniti's Louis Vuitton gown was sleek and stylish.

Infiniti's velvet Louis Vuitton gown — custom-designed for the "One Battle After Another" star — had a high neckline, pointed shoulders, and long sleeves.

Round cutouts on either side of the bodice broke up the gown, while the skirt hugged her figure before transitioning into a subtle train. She wore sparkly jewelry with the sophisticated gown.

Teyana Taylor's top and skirt looked a bit disjointed together.

A voluminous skirt was the star of Taylor's Chanel ensemble. Belted at the waist, it was adorned with red and white feathers and had a high-low hemline that created a dramatic train. The hemline also showed off Taylor's white and black shoes.

The skirt was fabulous, but it would have made more of a statement with a different top, as Taylor wore it with a silky, cream-colored T-shirt. A fitted top or a shirt with a more interesting neckline would have worked better.

Elle Fanning elevated her white gown with statement jewelry.

Fanning kept her outfit simple but beautiful for the Gotham Awards, wearing a white Ralph Lauren dress.

The gown's halter neckline dipped to her waist and had an open back, while the chiffon skirt, which was slightly sheer, flowed to the floor.

Cartier jewelry, including a statement choker and bracelet, added a glitzy edge to Fanning's ensemble.

There was too much color contrast in Alexander Skarsgård's suit.

Skarsgård's custom Valentino suit, designed by Alessandro Michele, featured a black shirt, black trousers, a cream tie, and a shiny pink jacket.

The pink jacket was fun on the red carpet, but there were too many different colors in Skarsgård's look to make the jacket really stand out. If he had worn a pink tie or opted for a white shirt, the colors may have worked better together.

Riley Keough popped in red at the Gotham Awards.

The bodice of Keough's Chanel gown was red with a subtle ruched pattern. The high neckline and long sleeves were trimmed with black ruffles, complementing the dropped-waist skirt, which was made of tiered black, red, and white fabric.

She paired the gown with open-toed black shoes, silver hoops, and loose waves in her hair, creating a look that was funky and stylish.

• Videos of what appear to be the inside of JPMorgan's new headquarters are popping up on TikTok.
• They show a gym with floor-to-ceiling windows, indoor plants, and a Super Bowl ring.
• One video shows beer foam with an image of the building and a store in the building with 270 merch.

You don't need to be a JPMorgan employee to see inside the bank's new soaring Manhattan headquarters. You just need to open TikTok.

As the bank's employees begin to populate the 60-story, $3 billion skyscraper at 270 Park Avenue, a select few are uploading videos of what appear to be the interior of the tower, which boasts a food court with 19 restaurants, a gym, and biometric scanning.

One of the most detailed videos was posted in late November and takes viewers through art installations, restaurants, and the lobby with a perpetually waving flag. Art includes sculptures, posters, and paintings, according to the video.

The TikToker dines at Morgan's, the building's pub, and sips a beer whose foam features an image of 270 Park itself. A page of the menu shows $14 cocktails, like a hot toddy and a martini.

There's even a store inside the building, according to the video, with everything from candlesticks to trendy olive oil to skincare; a sign in the store references Chase's small business partnerships. Shoppers can also choose from branded merchandise, including 270 Park coffee beans and JPM apparel.

The tower features a lounge-type space with an electric fireplace, coffee table books, and a monitor.

One now-deleted video uploaded on October 7 documented an apparent employee's morning in the building — she spun through the revolving doors before 6 am, scanned her hand to enter the lobby, and walked up shallow stone steps below an American flag.

The video took viewers inside the locker room and gym, with rows of cardio machines, a turf area for stretching, and floor-to-ceiling windows.

Shampoo and body wash line the shower, according to the video seen by Business Insider, and the office space itself has massive windows and indoor plants.

Another offers views from inside all-white elevators and the gym as the sun rises over Midtown. By 7:15 am, the TikToker is typing at her desk.

One other TikTok purportedly showing the 1,388-foot-tall headquarters features indoor plants, escalators, abstract wall art, and even an indoor rendering of what appears to be the exterior of 270 Park Avenue.

The video shows JPMorgan-emblazoned golf clubs signed by Rory McIlroy and a Patriots Super Bowl ring, which is also featured in another TikTok. A representative for JPMorgan Chase did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider or confirm the presence of the clubs and ring.

Yet it's far from all play and no work inside the new headquarters — a post on X from Michael Dell shows rows of Dell monitors from what appears to be a trading floor.

Some outside the bank are posting about the shiny skyscraper, too, like the TikToker who uploaded a video about using their lunch break to gaze at the building from the street. Another set footage of the exterior against the "Succession" theme music.

The internet seems hungry for more 270 intel.

"Can you do more content like this?" one commenter pleaded, with another asking, "Can you show us more!"

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at atecotzky@insider.com or Signal at alicetecotzky.05. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Michael and Susan Dell are investing $6.25 billion into "Trump accounts."
• Trump accounts are also set to receive a $1,000 grant from the federal government.
• For Dell, a $1,000 investment helped launch his computer company from his dorm room in 1984, now worth $90.6 billion.

Michael and Susan Dell are pledging to invest billions of dollars into "Trump accounts," which will also receive a $1,000 seed from the federal government.

For Dell, $1,000 has a special resonance.

It's the same amount of money that he initially invested in his company, Dell Technologies, as a student at the University of Texas in 1984. Today, the entrepreneur is the 11th wealthiest person in the world, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, with a net worth of $148 billion as of December 1.

In his 2021 book, "Play Nice but Win," Dell marvels at the early success of his business despite its relatively modest initial investment.

"Our sales were growing by the week, as was our ragtag band of mercenaries and buccaneers. On the face of it, it made no sense," Dell wrote. "Here I was, twenty years old, a college dropout with a capital base of $1,000, saying: 'Hey, who wants to come work in this company?'"

Dell launched the company in 1984 as PC's Limited. It became one of the fastest growing companies in the country, raking in more than $6 million in sales in its first year of business. The company was renamed to Dell Computer Corp. a few years later in 1987, and went public in 1988, raising $30 million.

Today, Dell Technologies has a market cap of $90.6 billion.

In 1999, Dell revisited his old dorm room and was photographed in it.

Of course, $1,000 isn't quite what it used to be: That amount in 1984 is the equivalent of nearly $3,200 today, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics's Inflation Calculator.

"Trump accounts" are guided by the idea that a modest initial investment can grow over time and serve as a way for younger Americans to grow wealth.

"It enables every newborn child in America to experience the enormous benefits of compounded growth, and to accumulate significant resources with the passage of time," Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, an early proponent of the idea, told Business Insider in May. "It creates a generation of new capitalists."

The Dells are pledging a total of $6.25 billion in charitable contributions to Trump accounts.

In addition to the $1,000 from the government, the Dells will pay $250 into the accounts of children who are 10 years or younger, born before January 1, 2025, and who live in zip codes where the median income is $150,000 or less.

Dell has also said that his company will match the $1,000 contribution from the federal government for Dell employees.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly declared a "code red."
• Google once did the same amid the rise of ChatGPT.
• While Altman once quipped that he tried not to spend much time thinking about competitors, those days appear to be over.

Two "code red" alerts — the first from a veteran tech giant worried about a buzzy AI upstart, the second from the AI upstart after the tech giant gained ground.

What a difference three years can make.

News of a recent Sam Altman memo to OpenAI employees, first reported by The Information, is reverberating around the tech world and highlighting the competitive heat it's facing as Google narrows the gap in the AI race.

On Monday, Altman reportedly told OpenAI employees in an internal Slack memo that he was issuing a "code red" and that the company would be putting more resources into ChatGPT and delaying other products as a result.

Altman's memo illustrates just how much the AI race has changed. In 2022, Google's management issued its own "code red" in the wake of ChatGPT's launch, a moment that illustrated in sharp relief just how far behind the search giant was in the AI race despite financing the breakthrough research that paved the way for AI's development.

Three years later, it's clear that OpenAI's throne is under threat. Here are some of the pressure points it's facing as Google nips at its heels.

Google is catching up

The elephant in the OpenAI room is Google's Gemini 3 AI model, which debuted to widespread praise.

The model's capabilities demonstrated that Google is no longer far behind in the AI race. It's not just OpenAI that's unnerved, either. Nvidia, the world's most valuable company by market cap, recently found itself defending its AI chips after a report about Google's own chip progress.

The search giant said in November that Gemini had more than 650 million monthly active users, a large increase from the 450 million such users it reported in July. In comparison, OpenAI has said nearly 800 million weekly active users.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently said that he was ditching ChatGPT in favor of Gemini 3 because of Gemini's "insane" improvement.

"Holy shit," Benioff wrote on X last month. "I've used ChatGPT every day for 3 years. Just spent 2 hours on Gemini 3. I'm not going back. The leap is insane — reasoning, speed, images, video… everything is sharper and faster. It feels like the world just changed, again."

Last month, Google launched "Nano Banana Pro," its AI image generator, showcasing hyper-realistic images that users quickly used to imagine tech CEOs hanging out together or pretend famous Thanksgiving dinner table guests.

Altman's "code red," according to The Information's report, specifically mentions Gemini 3 and teases a coming OpenAI model that it says tested "ahead" of Google's flagship model, as well as mentions prioritizing OpenAI's Imagegen image generation model for ChatGPT users.

Google's advertising cash cow can fund its AI — while OpenAI faces a $1.4 trillion bill

The AI game is an expensive one, and Google has the advantage of being a cash-generating advertising juggernaut.

Sure, Google plans to spend between $91 billion and $93 billion this year on cap ex, much of which is going toward AI costs. But it also brought in $100 billion in revenue in just the last quarter alone — $74.18 billion of which came from its advertising business.

And unlike OpenAI, Google can leverage its massive size for a full-stack advantage, allowing it to control AI development from research to chip manufacturing to its in-house cloud, which hosts everything.

Meanwhile, some on Wall Street have raised concerns about OpenAI's mounting AI spending commitments, which tally at least $1.4 trillion over the next eight years. In response, Altman has said OpenAI is on track to bring in $20 billion in revenue this year, and expects its annualized revenue to grow to hundreds of billions in the coming years.

But OpenAI is still figuring out its own ads business — the launch of which could be delayed by Altman's "code red," according to The Information.

OpenAI has a head start — but Google has a platform advantage

OpenAI hasn't squandered its head start, and it's landed some major wins this year.

In recent months, OpenAI has made significant plays into other industries, including social media with Sora, its TikTok-esque AI video generation app. In a direct shot at Google Chrome, OpenAI also launched Atlas, its own web browser.

And it sounds like OpenAI has more up its sleeve as it battles the bottleneck of lining up enough compute and energy to power its developments.

OpenAI executives have said compute constraints are holding back other initiatives, like making ChatGPT Pulse, a personalized update feature within the chatbot for Pro users, available to everyone. Last week, Bill Peebles, OpenAI's head of Sora, announced that free users would face significant cuts in the number of videos they could generate per day.

ChatGPT also remains synonymous with AI — not unlike Google and online search. That will likely help continue to drive app downloads and usage and could also stave off Google's attempts to convince users to switch to Gemini or Google's other AI-infused products.

But humans are creatures of habit, and many already use a Google product or service everyday — a platform advantage that the tech giant is already utilizing to siphon away ChatGPT users.

Silicon Valley's history is built on startup disrupting the status quo.

Now, with OpenAI (smartly) looking over its shoulder, we get to watch the AI race heat up as Google, a former startup, gets its AI legs and hits its stride.

For OpenAI, it's a reminder that tech giants can put up quite a fight when facing the prospect of being disrupted — and sometimes, can turn the tables.

"I try not to think about competitors too much," Altman said last May before critiquing Google's aesthetic.

It sounds like those days are gone.