Tag: News

• The US government has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to invest up to $150 million in a chip startup.
• xLight is chaired by Pat Gelsinger, who ran Intel until his resignation late last year.
• The deal signals Washington's effort to regain leadership in chipmaking.

The US government is poised to become a shareholder in a semiconductor startup chaired by Pat Gelsinger, who ran Intel until his resignation last year.

The Commerce Department said on Monday that the Trump administration signed a nonbinding letter of intent to invest up to $150 million in xLight, a startup trying to build a more advanced and cost-effective way to manufacture chips.

The investment would come from the CHIPS and Science Act and would be structured as equity, giving the federal government direct ownership in the company.

The deal — a first from the Trump administration's CHIPS Research and Development Office — signals Washington's effort to regain leadership in chipmaking. Most advanced semiconductors are manufactured outside the US, led by TSMC in Taiwan and Samsung in South Korea — areas where China's influence looms large.

Intel warned in July that it may halt development of its next-generation chip, 14A, due to financial reasons. If Intel gives up on 14A, this could be a death blow to US chip manufacturing, Business Insider's Alistair Barr wrote in a July report.

"For far too long, America ceded the frontier of advanced lithography to others. Under President Trump, those days are over," said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Monday's press release.

"This partnership would back a technology that can fundamentally rewrite the limits of chipmaking. Best of all, we would be doing it here at home," Lutnick added.

The Palo Alto-based startup, founded in 2021, is developing free-electron laser technology, "an alternative light source" for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines that power cutting-edge chip production, the press release said.

xLight said on its website that its systems would enhance Dutch firm ASML's machines, "the undisputed global leader in EUV lithography systems." EUV systems are only produced by ASML. xLight's technology will "transform semiconductor fab capabilities and dramatically reduce capital and operating expenses," it added.

Pat Gelsinger, who was pushed out as Intel CEO late last year after the company struggled with weak earnings and fell behind in the AI chip race, became xLight's executive chairman in March. He is also a general partner at Playground Global, the venture firm that led xLight's $40 million Series B round in July.

Gelsinger, who was CEO of Intel from 2021 to 2024, said in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box" in October that Intel "made a set of bad decisions over 15 years" and that technical leadership wasn't "led by technologists for many years."

"We were late on AI as well," he added.

Gelsinger spent decades rising through the ranks at Intel and became one of the most influential voices behind the 2022 CHIPS Act, a landmark manufacturing legislation that reshaped America's chip strategy.

xLight has the potential to "drive the next era of Moore's Law, accelerating fab productivity, while developing a critical domestic capability," said Gelsinger in a Monday press release.

• Texas is investigating Shein, accusing it of selling unsafe products.
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the company's practices go against the MAHA movement.
• "I will not allow cheap, dangerous, foreign goods to flood America and jeopardize our health," he said.

Texas has launched a probe into Shein, accusing it of selling unsafe, toxic products to US consumers.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a Monday news release that his office was investigating the fast-fashion giant for potential violations of Texas law, "related to unethical labor practices and the sale of unsafe consumer products."

Paxton referenced Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" campaign in the release, saying that safe and non-toxic products were a key ingredient in the movement.

"Any company that cuts corners on labor standards or product safety, especially those operating in foreign nations like China, will be held accountable," Paxton said in the release.

Shein is headquartered in Singapore and sources many of its products from China.

"Texans deserve to know that the companies they buy from are ethical, safe, transparent, and not exploiting workers or selling harmful products. I will not allow cheap, dangerous, foreign goods to flood America and jeopardize our health," Paxton said.

The release said that the investigation will also examine Shein's data collection and privacy practices.

Representatives for Shein did not respond to a request for comment about the Texas investigation from Business Insider.

This is the latest setback that Shein is facing in the US, its largest market.

Since the start of President Donald Trump's second term, his administration has cracked down on the de minimis trade loophole, which previously allowed low-cost parcels to enter the country tax-free. Shein said in April that it would raise prices to account for higher operating expenses, a result of changes in trade laws.

Paxton, who is running for Senate in 2026, is not the first government official globally to launch a probe into Shein.

South Korean health officials raised concerns several times last year about Shein's products containing toxic substances above legal limits. In response to the probes, Shein told Singaporean outlet The Straits Times in June 2024 that it had removed the offending products from its catalogue.

In May, the European Commission said it had investigated Shein's practices and found that the company had breached EU law by offering fake discounts, using deceptive product labels, and making misleading sustainability claims.

Shein also came under fire in France in early November for selling childlike sex dolls and illegal weapons on its third-party marketplace in the country, per a Reuters report. France suspended the marketplace shortly after.

The European Commission said on Wednesday that it had sent a request to Shein to provide evidence that it would not expose minors to inappropriate content and that it would prevent the circulation of illegal products.

A Shein spokesperson told Politico that the company had received the request and was "working to promptly address it."

• Serena Williams says the sacrifices she made in her younger years meant she could prioritize being a mom now.
• "I put in the hard work, like we all are doing, but I did it a little bit earlier," she said.
• The tennis legend and venture capitalist says she tries to be home "29 nights a month."

Serena Williams, 44, says her early-career hustle is the reason she can devote so much of her time to being a mom today.

"I feel fortunate that I've had a career and that I don't have to do what most people do. I'm very lucky. I put in the hard work, like we all are doing, but I did it a little bit earlier. So, I think that's really working in my favor. And [now I can] just put my kids first," Williams told Net-A-Porter in an interview published on Monday.

Williams began playing tennis as a child and turned professional in 1995, at the age of 15. She went on to win 23 Grand Slam titles before retiring from the sport in 2022.

The tennis legend met her husband, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, in 2015. They married in 2017 and have two daughters, Olympia and Adira.

"With Olympia, I didn't leave her until she was five! That may have been a little extreme. And it's not recommended!" Williams said. "But I've just always wanted to be a mom."

Despite a packed schedule that includes running her VC firm Serena Ventures, Williams says she always makes time for her family.

"I want to be around my family. I'm cooking every night that I'm home. I'm home 29 nights a month… Sometimes I'll fly to New York, do what I need to do, fly back and be home in time for dinner," she said.

In April 2022, Williams told Business Insider that she found it hard not to devote all of her free time to her kids.

"Mom guilt is real. I always feel so guilty when I'm doing something on my own," she said. "I don't know if I'm a good mom, and I don't know if my method works, but I'm very hands-on with my daughter, and it was the same with our parents. So I've set really good boundaries, but then after work, I'm going right to my daughter. And that's amazing and good, but now it's like, 'Okay, what happens to Serena?'" she said.

Speaking to Byrdie in 2024, the tennis star said that her kids bring her the most joy in life.

"I can't say that a Wimbledon trophy holds a candle to volunteering at my kid's school," Williams said.

• Shopify experienced an outage on Cyber Monday, disrupting merchant transactions.
• The outage mainly affected business login and point-of-sale systems.
• Shopify powers over 10% of US e-commerce, and its stock fell 5.8% on Monday.

It was a tough day for one of the nation's largest transaction platforms to experience instability.

Shopify suffered an outage on Cyber Monday, freezing some merchants out of their accounts and point-of-sale systems during one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

The financial impact is still unclear. A spokesperson directed Business Insider to the company's status page.

Many small business owners posted on social media to tell shoppers that their shipping labels could not be generated and that they may experience issues during checkout.

Outage tracker Downdetector showed a spike of roughly 4,000 problem reports at 11 a.m. ET, with thousands more pouring in around 1:15 p.m. ET.

The Canadian e-commerce transaction giant said early afternoon on its status page that some sellers were "experiencing issues" with Shopify admin, Point of Sales, Mobile, and Shopify Support.

By mid-afternoon, Shopify reported that services were recovering after engineers fixed an issue with the company's login authentication flow, though pockets of disruption remained.

"We are seeing signs of recovery for admin and POS login issues now," Shopify said in a 2:31 p.m. ET update, adding that teams were still monitoring the situation.

By 3:38 p.m. ET, Shopify said in its most recent status update that its Help Center is still "experiencing longer than normal wait times."

As of 9 p.m. ET, Point of Sale, API & Mobile, and Support are still considered to have "degraded performance."

Shopify powers more than 10% of US e-commerce sales. The company's President, Harley Finkelstein, said in a press release on Saturday that the platform processed $6.2 billion in gross merchandise volume on Black Friday, up 25% year over year, led by cosmetics, activewear, fitness, and nutrition.

Shopify's stock closed 5.8% down on Monday.

• Costco filed a lawsuit to recover tariff payments imposed by the Trump administration.
• The retailer challenged tariffs enacted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
• Costco is seeking a full refund of duties paid.

Costco is suing the government to recover tariff money.

The wholesale retailer has filed a lawsuit against the United States, the US Customs and Border Protection agency, and Rodney S. Scott, the Commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection.

The suit asks the US Court of International Trade to strike down tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump by executive order under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

In a complaint submitted Friday, November 28, the retailer said it is seeking a "full refund" of duties it paid after Trump used the emergency-powers law to levy what he described as "reciprocal" tariffs.

The complaint cited a previous lawsuit, VOS Selections, Inc. vs. Trump, filed against the Trump administration, for which the US Supreme Court heard arguments in early November.

"This separate action is necessary, however, because even if the IEEPA duties and underlying executive orders are held unlawful by the Supreme Court, importers that have paid IEEPA duties, including Plaintiff, are not guaranteed a refund for those unlawfully collected tariffs in the absence of their own judgment and judicial relief," the complaint reads.

Costco, the White House, and the US Customs and Border Protection agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

• Peak TV was great, and Kevin Reilly had a great seat during the Peak TV era.
• Reilly steered programming at networks including NBC, Fox, and FX during the boom, which was fueled first by cable, and then by competition from streaming.
• That era is over, and it's not coming back, Reilly says. Which helps explain why he's in AI now.

TV is an endangered species. People aren't watching it, and don't want to pay for it. And the companies that own TV networks are trying to find someone — anyone — to buy them.

But not that long ago, lots of us were reveling in the "Peak TV" era — a time when inventive TV programming was plentiful and, crucially, popular. A time when you could watch "The Sopranos" on HBO, "Friday Night Lights" on NBC, and "The Shield" on FX.

This was also a time when Kevin Reilly had great jobs in TV, where he steered programming at networks including NBC, FX, Fox, and Turner — and had his hands on all the shows I just mentioned. That run ended in 2000, when Reilly was re-orged out of what was then called WarnerMedia.

Today, Reilly is in AI, of course: He recently became CEO of Kartel, a startup that's supposed to help big brands use the tech.

But in a recent episode of my Channels podcast, I talked to him about life during TV's latest (and possibly last) golden age — and whether he thinks it will ever come back. (Spoiler: There's a reason he's in AI now.)

You can read an edited excerpt from our conversation below, and listen to the whole thing here.

Peter Kafka: You got to be a TV executive in what we now call the Peak TV era. What was that like?

Kevin Reilly: When I got to network television, there were still these rules, like "the good guy always wins" and "people don't want to watch depressing things on television."

And then cable, when I went to FX, that was really one of the most fun chapters of my career because it was the very early days of basic cable. All of a sudden, we started doing "The Shield" and "Nip/Tuck" and doing these things that the press had labeled "HBO for basic cable."

Prior to this, basic cable was mostly infomercials and reruns.

Kevin Reilly: I was sitting there talking to great creators, and I was telling them we were HBO for basic cable. And on the monitor above my head was "Cops" running 24 hours a day, keeping the lights on.

I was like, "Don't look at the monitor."

But all of a sudden, we were able to do stuff that really wasn't fit for broadcast by being very particular and being a little bit more forward.

Around the same time, streaming popped up, and Netflix debuted "House of Cards" in 2013 as an explicitly HBO-style show. There was a lot of fascination with streaming but also dismissiveness: Jeff Bewkes, who was running Time Warner at the time, famously dissed Netflix as "the Albanian army." Did you believe that back then?

I think Jeff is an extraordinary leader, and I loved working for him. At the time, though, I think he had to do what he needed to do.

You don't think he was really dismissive of Netflix? It was just something he had to say?

I think at that point, throughout the entire business, everyone was dismissive of Netflix. "We're picking these guys' pockets. They're gonna go out of business. We're selling them all the stuff that we can't sell. They're idiots."

But at the same time, Netflix was all anybody was talking about, all day long. I remember flying to Detroit to talk to a big [advertising] client for one of our series. It was going to be a $50 million, $60 million transaction. And all they were talking about was Netflix.

They were buying advertising, and then telling me how all their kids are only watching things on their phones all day long. And I was like, "Isn't this ironic that you, an advertiser, are talking about a non-advertising-based service and how your kids don't watch TV anymore?"

What did you think?

I thought they would experiment and do stuff, but maybe not at scale. I mean, they don't have the system for that, and it's really hard. Well, first of all, they did what we did (at FX) — they took a page out of the HBO handbook: Fire the money cannon and say, "Hey, we'll just dream. Bring us in your dreams. Do what you wanna do."

Your last job in TV was at what was then called WarnerMedia, which had been purchased by AT&T, and there were a bunch of different justifications for that deal, but the real one turned out to be "maybe Wall Street will give us a Netflix stock multiple," which never happened. Did you think that combination was going to work?

I mean, the product itself works and has been a success. But to take the entirety of Time Warner, and then it was going to be a one-product system that we would single-handedly launch and build an ad play around it, and all of a sudden compete with Google and Netflix …

I don't know that even Wall Street ever bought that narrative, no matter how hard we sold it.

Comcast and Paramount are bidding for WBD. Netflix is bidding, too. There's going to be some kind of consolidation no matter what. Do you think that when all of this gets done that there's a future for traditional television, or do you think it becomes, in the end, a subset of a bigger tech platform?

I'd love to be able to just give you the knee-jerk answer, "Of course, there'll always be traditional television." I think unfortunately, everybody waited too long to figure out how we were going to prop it up.

So will it have a very long tail on it, like radio? The heyday of radio went away and we still have radio. I believe it will be around in some fashion. And as some of these assets get shed or reinvented — yeah, they might end up having a little bit more life in some ways than we thought they did.

And radio became podcasts…

Exactly. So there's always new expressions of it.

But retooling traditional businesses, especially while you've got to pull the profit out from underneath, is really difficult.

Correction: December 1, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated one of the companies bidding for WBD: They are Paramount and Comcast, along with Netflix.

• The TSA announced a $45 fee for travelers without acceptable ID at airport security checkpoints.
• The alternative identity verification system, TSA Confirm.ID is set to be implemented on February 1.
• It's unclear how TSA Confirm.ID will work, but it's intended as an option for flyers without a REAL ID.

The Transportation Security Administration has taken a page from the budget airline playbook.

The agency said Monday it is implementing a new alternative identity verification system, TSA Confirm.ID, that would charge travelers $45 at security checkpoints if they show up without a REAL ID or another acceptable government-issued ID, such as a passport or permanent resident card.

The new fee option is set to begin on February 1. The TSA said the fee would cover a 10-day travel period. Details about how the fee and identity verification would work were not yet available. The TSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"TSA urges all travelers who do not have a REAL ID to pay the fee online before traveling," according to a press release about TSA Confirm.ID and the new fee. "For passengers who arrive at the airport without paying the fee, information about how to pay for the TSA Confirm.ID option will be available at marked locations at or near the checkpoint in most airports. Travelers who undergo TSA Confirm.ID processing at an airport should expect delays."

The TSA had previously proposed an $18 fee that would cover the costs for a biometric kiosk system designed to verify a traveler's identity more quickly than the current manual process.

Under that proposal, the TSA said the new technology would be less time and resource-intensive than the current process when a flyer lacks these IDs, which involves providing personal information or answering detailed questions to match flyers to government databases.

"This notice serves as a next step in the process in REAL ID compliance, which was signed into law more than 20 years ago," a TSA spokesperson previously told Business Insider about the $18 fee proposal.

Congress passed the REAL ID Act of 2005 in response to the 9/11 attacks, but it just rolled out in 2025.

In May, the TSA began requiring travelers to present a REAL ID or another government-approved identification to pass through airport security checkpoints.

The TSA says 94% of flyers already use REAL ID or another acceptable form of identification.

The agency is encouraging travelers who do not have a REAL ID to schedule an appointment with their local DMV to update their ID as soon as possible. A REAL ID card shows a star inside a circle in the upper right corner.

John Giannandrea, senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy at Apple, is stepping down from his role, the company announced Monday.

Amar Subramanya, an AI researcher who most recently served as a corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, is now Apple's vice president of AI, the company said. Prior to his time at Microsoft, Subramanya was at Google.

Giannandrea will serve as an advisor before retiring in the spring.

This story is breaking. Check back for updates.

• Movies like "Pulp Fiction," "The Wolf of Wall Street," and "Mean Girls" are coming to Netflix in December.
• So are new releases like "Wake Up Dead Man" and "Jay Kelly."
• A four-part docuseries on Sean "Diddy" Combs also hits Netflix in December.

This month on Netflix, some hotly anticipated original movies are hitting the streamer, including the latest installment in the "Knives Out" franchise, "Wake Up Dead Man," and the drama "Jay Kelly," starring Adam Sandler and George Clooney.

Classic movies like "The Wolf of Wall Street," "Mean Girls," and "Pulp Fiction," are also available. Keep reading for the 10 best movies coming to Netflix in December.

"Pulp Fiction" (December 1)

Quentin Tarantino's foul-mouthed, ultra-violent landmark work brought 1990s indie film to new heights and led to countless copycats.

"Pulp Fiction" features thrilling vignettes filled with unique characters and storylines, including a boxer (Bruce Willis) determined to get a family heirloom, a couple (Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer) holding up a diner, and the outlandish day of two hitmen (John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson).

"Stripes" (December 1)

This comedy classic stars Bill Murray and Harold Ramis as two slackers who join the Army. But instead of shaping up, their antics lead to lots of laughs.

"The Wolf of Wall Street" (December 1)

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese team up for this entertaining biopic on the rise and fall of Wall Street trader and financial criminal Jordan Belfort. Jonah Hill delivers a hilarious performance as Belfort's best friend, while the movie marks Margot Robbie's breakout performance as Belfort's wife.

"Sean Combs: The Reckoning" (December 2)

This four-part docuseries executive-produced by 50 Cent dissects the life and career of Sean "Diddy" Combs. It also chronicles the fall of the hip-hop icon and features never-before-seen footage of Diddy in the days before his arrest.

"Mean Girls" (December 4)

Lindsay Lohan plays a new girl in high school who must learn to navigate different social cliques in this 2004 classic. The movie also launched the careers of costars Rachel McAdams (who also starred in "The Notebook" that same year) and Amanda Seyfried. The 2024 musical version is also available.

"Jay Kelly" (December 5)

Noah Baumbach's latest movie stars George Clooney as a famous actor who reflects on his life and career with his manager (Adam Sandler) as they travel through Europe.

"Babylon" (December 7)

Damien Chazelle's ambitious look at old Hollywood chronicles the biz in the 1920s and the stars who lost it all with the advent of the talkies. Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt star.

"Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery" (December 12)

Rian Johnson's latest tale in the "Knives Out" franchise features private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) trying to uncover the murder of a priest (Josh Brolin). The all-star cast includes Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Thomas Haden Church, and Jeffrey Wright.

"Goodbye June" (December 24)

Kate Winslet's directorial debucenters around four siblings whose lives change when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season. The movie stars Winslet, Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough, and Helen Mirren.

"Sleeping with Other People" (December 31)

In one of the best rom-coms you've never seen, Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis play two people with major commitment issues who try to stay in the friend zone but end up falling for each other.

• I spent two days in Naples, Florida, for the first time in October.
• I was surprised by the city's extensive canals and waterfront mansions.
• I didn't expect the local airport to be so luxurious, and I was amazed by the crystal-blue waters.

When the temperatures dropped below 50 degrees Fahrenheit this October in New York, I was jonesing for one last taste of summer.

So I headed to the southern part of Florida, where the sun beams down on white-sand beaches and crystal-blue waters.

During my five-day trip, I spent two nights in Naples, a city known for its luxury lifestyle. In just 48 hours, I was surprised six times.

From the airplane window, the canals running through Naples, Florida, reminded me of Europe.

I took a private plane from West Palm Beach to Naples. The coastal view from above amazed me, but the most surprising part was inland.

Hundreds of miles of canals run through Naples and the surrounding areas. It reminded me of trips I've taken to European cities like Venice, Italy, and Amsterdam.

I landed at the most luxurious airport I've ever seen.

If I'd flown commercial, I never would have seen Naples Municipal Airport. Used for private jets and charter flights, the general aviation airport has no gates or TSA checkpoints. I spotted signs of luxury the moment I exited the plane. The exterior was thoughtfully landscaped, and I noticed a valet stand by the entrance.

I thought the inside looked more like a high-end airport lounge than a terminal. Whimsical light fixtures dangled from the ceiling, there were couches in lieu of chairs, and the bathroom had a midcentury modern look.

I didn't expect to find two Ritz-Carlton hotels within a five-mile radius.

I spent both nights in Naples at the Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburón, which is primarily a golf resort. But before my arrival, I had no idea that there was a Ritz-Carlton beach resort five miles west on the coast (called the Ritz-Carlton, Naples).

Even more surprising, I had access to both hotels throughout my stay.

It felt like a bonus to be able to experience the various amenities at each hotel. At the Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburón, I floated through the lazy river by the pool. At the Ritz-Carlton, Naples, I lounged on the beach.

I assumed Naples would have waterfront homes, but I was shocked by the sheer volume of mansions lining the shores and canals.

During a boat tour of Naples, I got stellar views of these estates that backed up into the water.

Architectural styles ranged from coastal cottage and British West Indies to contemporary and Mediterranean revival.

Unlike New York, the downtown area was right next to the beach.

We have ocean beaches in New York on the coastlines of the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn — a trek from the bustling streets of downtown Manhattan.

So when I was walking down Fifth Avenue in Naples, past the strips of shops and restaurants, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the street led straight to the ocean.

The ocean water was so strikingly blue.

Standing in the sand and facing the water, the ocean looked noticeably clearer and bluer than it does in New York. When I ran into the waves and ducked my head beneath the surface, I felt as if I were somewhere in the Caribbean.