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☆ Google's most cutting-edge moonshot lab is refocusing on actually making money
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I'm Matt Weinberger, deputy editor of Insider's tech analysis team, filling in for my colleague Diamond Naga Siu for the next few days. It's yet another sign that the tech industry is very different than it was even a year ago. A moonshot in the foot for Google: Insider's Hugh Langley reports that Google's X Development is scaling back from its pioneering, famously envelope-pushing roots as a tech research lab. Instead, it'll focus on initiatives that actually make money for Google and its parent company Alphabet. Read Insider's in-depth review of the newest model of the iPad Pro, released in late 2022.

☆ Inside the 'Fly Fleet': billionaire Google founder Sergey Brin's growing flotilla of megayachts, boats, and jet skis
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Rob Price | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In a quiet harbor in California's Redwood City, 30 miles south of San Francisco, there often sits a gleaming 40-meter yacht flying the flag of the Marshall Islands. Along with Butterfly, which often docks in Redwood City, California, Brin maintains a growing flotilla of yachts, jet skis, and skiffs. To maintain the fleet, Brin employs a 50-person team around the globe, led by the master mariner Mike Gregory. InsiderMany of Brin's smaller water-sports toys — as well as Page's — have been supplied by Kai Concepts, a startup that builds high-tech aquatic vehicles, including foilboards and a kite-propelled boat. While he spends much of his time at his collection of tropical islands around the world, he has sold his superyacht Senses and downsized to an assortment of smaller vessels.

☆ Crumbling tech stocks and recession fears have cratered the fortunes of the wealthiest Americans including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images; Arif Hudaverdi Yaman/Getty Images; KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/Getty Images; Mike Cohen/Getty Images; Yuqing Liu/Business Insider1. Besides the fallen crypto king, many of these shrinking fortunes can be chalked up to this year's bloodbath in the tech stocks. How has Elon Musk's involvement with Twitter impacted your outlook for Tesla stock? Tesla stock price on December, 29, 2022 Markets Insider10. Tesla stock climbed Wednesday as dip-buyers poured into the EV maker.

☆ Meet the Indian industrialist worth almost as much as Elon Musk after getting $42 billion richer this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Gautam Adani is worth $119 billion, just $13 billion less than Elon Musk, per Bloomberg. The Indian industrialist is now worth $119 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Adani is founder and chairman of the Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate with businesses spanning energy, mining, ports, and airports. Arnault is worth $162 billion and Musk about $132 billion. The Adani Group comprises seven listed companies that have 23,000 staff and are worth $166 billion, though that is down from $242 billion in August.

☆ Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the 6 other richest Americans have suffered a nearly $400 billion wealth wipeout this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The eight richest Americans have seen close to $400 billion erased from their fortunes this year. Elon Musk's net worth has shrunk by $140 billion, while Jeff Bezos' wealth has slid by $86 billion. Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' wealth has fallen by $86 billion, while Alphabet cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have seen their fortunes shrink by a combined $91 billion. The upshot is that the eight richest Americans have seen an estimated $386 billion erased from their combined fortunes. That figure rivals JPMorgan's market capitalization, and comfortably exceeds the market value of Tesla ($345 billion), Nvidia ($352 billion), and all but a handful of America's biggest companies.

☆ America’s richest lost $660 billion collectively in 2022 — Elon Musk lost the most
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Cheyenne Devon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Globally, the world's billionaires lost nearly $2 trillion, combined, in 2022, according to Forbes. Jeff BezosTitle: Founder and chair, AmazonEstimated 2022 losses: -$80 billionNet worth: $106.8 billion as of Dec. 272. Mark ZuckerbergTitle: Co-founder, Meta Platforms (Facebook's parent company)Estimated 2022 losses: -$78 billionNet worth: $42.7 billion as of Dec. 273. Larry PageTitle: Co-founder and board member, GoogleEstimated 2022 losses: -$40 billionNet worth: $76.8 billion as of Dec. 274. Phil KnightTitle: Chair, NikeEstimated 2022 losses: -$18.3 billionNet worth: $45.2 billion as of Dec. 275.

☆ Goldman Sachs has plans for deep headcount cuts in the new year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But first, the Goldman cuts go deep. Goldman's bankers and others on Wall Street still enjoy pay packages that are beyond that of most American workers. Some portion of Goldman's cuts are being made with an eye to 2023 and 2024, suggesting that the firm's leaders don't expect a return to go-go days anytime soon. Click here to read more about the cuts set to hit Goldman Sachs. Private-equity firm Advent announced plans to acquire satellite maker Maxar Technologies for $6.4 billion in a deal that included Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley.

You can get the latest on that and much more from our finance newsletter, 10 Things on Wall Street. It's a snappy weekday read with the biggest stories on the Street, plus the latest on hot-spot restaurants, industry parties, and so much more. On the agenda today:Up first: Senior real-estate correspondent Daniel Geiger is giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the recent turmoil at Compass. With home sales dipping amid rising interest rates, Compass has cut workers and bled cash. In June, it laid off about 450 corporate staff, and in October, it let go of about half its 1,500-person tech team.

☆ Here's what Citi's global energy expert Ed Morse has to say about oil markets, Russia, and the 'stunning change' that's washed over the American oil market.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Phil Rosen: What will energy markets look like in 2023, and what's your oil price forecast? How has Russia's role in energy markets changed since it invaded Ukraine? So we had companies — even before governments got involved — saying they were not going to import Russian oil and gas. How has the US's role changed in global energy markets this year? EM: Energy markets have been very concerned about it, but their concern is slowing.

☆ Netflix has lost its golden touch. Here's why the streamer is so boring now.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Finance has long ranked employees, but it's been out of fashion in tech for nearly a decade. Netflix once made an explicit choice to invest in underrepresented communities, Paris Marx writes. Shows like "Orange is the New Black" and "GLOW" gave spotlights to women, queer people, people of color, and non-Americans. But, according to Marx, the company stopped prioritizing stories from underrepresented communities, and new players were throwing their hats into the streaming wars. Now, Marx writes that Netflix is filled with bland shows, half-assed reality TV, and hopelessly derivative movies.

Page purchased Hans Lollik and its smaller neighboring island, Little Hans Lollik, in 2014 for $23 million. The Hans Lollik Islands in the US Virgin Islands were bought by Larry Page in 2014 cdwheatley/Getty ImagesPage purchased the islands from Liberty Bankers Life Insurance Company using a limited-liability company called Virgin Island Properties LLC. Page's intentions for the Hans Lollik islands are unclear, but the larger island of the two may have personal significance for the Google cofounder. In the deposition, Osborne hinted that Larry proposed to his wife, the research scientist Lucinda Southworth, on Hans Lollik. Page expands to the South PacificIn 2020, Page added another island to his portfolio: the heart-shaped Tavarua island in Fiji's Mamanuca archipelago.

☆ Junior bankers sound off: From how much sleep they get to what kind of company they want to work for next, first-year investment banking analysts spill the beans
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Junior bankers hold an interesting position on Wall Street. While these young investment bankers are often the butt of the joke — something something Murray Hill something something Patagonia vests — they also represent a key piece of the dealmaking machine. That's why I always find surveys of junior bankers so fascinating. Emmalyse examined 10 different slides from the poll, which was conducted by recruiting firm Odyssey Search Partners, that show what junior bankers like, and don't like, about their jobs. Click here to learn more about what junior bankers love, and hate, about their jobs.

But, across the country, affordable housing is becoming increasingly rare to find. That is until they discovered a Civil Rights era approach that helps promote home ownership, particularly among minority groups, who are disproportionately impacted by the affordable housing crisis. This year they joined the Beverly-Vermont CLT, one of at least five in Los Angeles and more than 200 nationwide. While CLTs are a solution, Ventura admits there are — and should be — other affordable housing options to adequately address the crisis. However, efforts to transform them into affordable housing in some neighborhoods have proven controversial among existing homeowners.

☆ Inside Sergey Brin's Busy Social Schedule: Parties, Festivals, Burning Man
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Rob Price | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In late August this year, Sergey Brin headed to Burning Man. The 49-year-old tech titan traveled to the festival in style, island-hopping across the Pacific Ocean in a modified seaplane. Brin has been spotted more than once at house parties at NeoGenesis, a coliving space for entrepreneurs in the Bay Area. As for the bigger psychedelic party, when Burning Man reopened in August after its pandemic hiatus, Brin stayed at First Camp, a VIP community frequented by festival organizers and their friends. Rob Price is a correspondent at Insider, writing features and investigations about the technology industry.

☆ Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin gave $438 million to charities through their foundations last year. Here's where the tech gurus' huge donations went.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Rob Price | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

In 2021, Google's cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, collectively gave away nearly half a billion dollars from their philanthropic foundations. 2 moguls, 2 different approaches to charitiesBrin's personal foundation, the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, disbursed roughly $250 million in both 2020 and 2021. The Sergey Brin Family Foundation lists three key officers. Brin's and Page's philanthropic donations, while extensive, represent a fraction of their net worths. Brin donates directly to the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, while Page's contributions to the Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation are routed through a limited-liability company named Florida LLC.

☆ US lawmakers want answers on FTX's collapse. Sam Bankman-Fried may not have them.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But first, we are going to hear more from Sam Bankman-Fried this week, even if you think we've already heard quite enough from him. Sam Bankman-Fried testifies during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on December 8, 2021 in Washington, DC. Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who said he once considered himself a "model CEO," tweeted last week that he would testify before tomorrow's House Financial Services committee hearing focused on his firm's blowup. FTX's new CEO, John J. Ray III, who oversaw the bankruptcy of Enron, will testify in the first part of the hearing. A private lunch with the billionaire is on the table if you're willing to pony up the cash.

☆ Larry Page, Sergey Brin Post-Google Lives: Investments, Yachts, Islands
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Hugh Langley | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +33 min

Even before their retirement from Google, Page and Brin relied heavily on their respective family offices to bring order to their worlds. The Bay Area headquarters of Koop, Larry Page's family office, is nondescript and gives little indication of the billionaire's empire. Insider; Marianne Ayala/Insider Show less Bayshore Global Management, Sergey Brin's family office, is based in Palo Alto and has a bit more of a public face. Insider; Marianne Ayala/Insider Show lessThe difference in styles holds true for Brin's family office, Bayshore Global Management. The CEO of Page's family office is Wayne Osborne, a former elder in the Presbyterian Church who attended Princeton Theological Seminary.

☆ The 5 best leadership books I read this year — and what they taught me about running a company
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( David Siegel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

For a roadmap for effective, kind leadership and smart decision-making, he shares 5 book recommendations. Publishing a leadership book gave me a newfound perspective on the genre. Here are the top five leadership books I read in 2022 and why I found each one particularly enriching. After reading The Promise of a Pencil, I learned how seemingly small acts can make a world of difference in communities. For anyone considering executive coaching or looking to find a coach, this book is a must-read.

☆ Here are the 7 richest people in the world who haven’t signed the Giving Pledge—Jeff Bezos is No. 3
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

But Bezos, whose recent announcement followed years of criticism over his relative lack of philanthropic giving, isn't the only billionaire who hasn't signed the pledge. Arnault has not signed the Giving Pledge, nor has he commented on the pledge publicly. Jeff Bezos: $116 billion net worthBezos has donated more than $2.4 billion in his lifetime, according to a Forbes estimate. But the billionaire has skirted questions about the Giving Pledge for years, especially after his ex-wife, Scott, signed it shortly after their 2019 divorce. Sergey Brin: $84.9 billion net worthLike fellow Google co-founder Page, Sergey Brin has not signed the Giving Pledge.

Google employees are increasingly concerned that layoffs will hit their company, as rivals including Amazon and Meta slash more than 20,000 jobs. From the end of 2018 to earlier this year, the company added almost 100,000 full-time staff, nearly doubling the workforce. "There's a lot of people openly nervous," another Google employee said, while noting that Googlers have been posting internal memes to express their anxiety. "Performance plans are the next step if folks don't respond to the check-ins," a person familiar with the changes said. 'Google execs will want to cut people'Widespread layoffs at Google would be unprecedented.

☆ Alphabet must cut headcount and trim costs, activist investor TCI says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

TCI's stake represents 0.27% of outstanding Alphabet shares, according to Factset data, a position that the hedge fund has steadily accumulated since 2017. TCI noted that headcount has "increased at an annual rate of 20% since 2017," the year that TCI first disclosed their Alphabet position. TCI argued for an increase in share buybacks and the establishment of an EBIT margin target for Google Services. Significantly, TCI argued that Google's "Other Bets" category – their Moonshot division – demanded immediate attention, singling out self-driving vertical Waymo as a unit that failed to justify "its excessive investment." Alphabet shares are down more than 30% year-to-date.

☆ A video captured the moment 2 US fighter jets collided at a Texas airshow, leaving 6 people dead
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Marielle Descalsota | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Two military planes collided during an airshow in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday. On Sunday, the Allied Pilots Association identified Len Root as Barker's copilot in the B-17 aircraft. The historic military B-17 aircraft named "Texas Raiders" flies over Barksdale A.F.B., La., on May 8, 2021. On Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022, the plane collided with another during the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas air show. A historic military plane crashes after colliding with another plane during an airshow at Dallas Executive Airport in Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022.

☆ US tech billionaires made a record $59 billion after Thursday's market rally, granting respite from a very bad year for tech stocks
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

US tech billionaires made a record $59 billion after Thursday's market rally, per Bloomberg. Thanks to this, 32 tech billionaires collectively added $59 billion to their net worth on Thursday, per Bloomberg, as much of the billionaires' fortunes is tied to their share holdings in listed tech companies. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos came in at pole-position, netting the biggest one-day jump in net worth, as his fortune soared by $10.5 billion to $119.6 billion. About 80% of Bezos's net worth is derived from his stake in Amazon, per Bloomberg. Despite the one-day rally, tech stocks have been in a funk this year.

☆ Self-driving cars were supposed to take over the road. What happened?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Matt Mcfarland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Caitlin O'Hara/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesGeneral Motors bought a self-driving company in 2016. Big talk, smaller resultsUrmson, while leading Google’s self-driving car project before founding Aurora, talked of his preteen son never needing to get a driver’s license. A self-driving car, without a steering wheel or pedals, would have to be able to drive itself in literally every situation possible. “It’s really, really hard,” Waymo’s then-CEO John Krafcik said in 2018 of self-driving technology. Companies developing lidar, widely seen as a key component for self-driving vehicles, as well as self-driving companies, have seen their stocks plummet recently.

☆ Elon Musk owning Twitter should give everyone pause
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Seth Fiegerman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Elon Musk, the mercurial billionaire, had agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion the month before only to begin raising doubts about the deal soon after. Now, Musk joins the list of rich, white men who single-handedly control social platforms that collectively reach and shape the lives of billions of people around the world. And Musk, who will reportedly have “absolute control over Twitter” according to a shareholders’ agreement, promises to be uniquely disruptive. To those in the first camp, Musk serving as the sole decider at Twitter may be cause for celebration. Elon Musk is a conglomerate, and each arm of his empire potentially gives him more leverage, real or imagined, in advocating for the others.

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