đ Microsoft grilled on Russian hacks
Good morning, Quartz readers!
Hereâs what you need to know
Tesla shareholders approved Elon Muskâs $46 billion pay package. Musk also provided updates on Teslaâs self-driving fleet and its Optimus robot at yesterdayâs shareholder meeting.
Microsoft accepted that its cybersecurity failed during Russian and Chinese hacks. Its president Brad Smith was drilled by lawmakers yesterday about its failures to prevent the breaches.
Wells Fargo fired more than a dozen employees who werenât really working. The workers had been accused of using keyboard simulation that made it seem like they were actively online.
Disney and Ron DeSantis made up â and it only cost $17 billion. The Florida governorâs tourism board agreed to a 15-year expansion agreement with Disney World.
Bank of America said Boeing is too big to fail. The plane-making industryâs duopoly will save it, analysts said. Meanwhile, the chief administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration said yesterday that the agency didnât do enough to regulate Boeing.
OpenAIâs revenue is skyrocketing
Sam Altman had a stat to share with all of OpenAIâs staff this week: In less than a year, OpenAI has more than tripled its annualized revenue.
Annualized revenue is an estimate for a companyâs revenue for the year using partial data â you get to it by multiplying the past monthâs revenue by 12. For OpenAI, that figure was $1 billion in August 2023, and has catapulted to $3.4 billion as of this month.
OpenAI is by far the most valuable AI startup in the world (Anthropic and Mistral AI donât even come close to its massive $80 billion valuation), but the company isnât without its troubles. Quartzâs Laura Bratton has the latest.
Quotable: When lightning strikes in the salad dressing aisle
âWhen I came back with the team, I said, âWhat if we developed a ranch flavored Dorito?â... We didnât find this idea by going up and down the snack aisle, we went to a totally different category.â â Former Yum! Brands CEO and Cool Ranch Doritos inventor David Novak, telling Quartz how the beloved chip flavor got its start during a trip to a Texas supermarket in 1984.
On that trip, Novak and his team searched for the biggest food trends outside of the snack aisle, and zoned in on a ranch display. But not all of Novakâs ideas have landed â there was, of course, Crystal Pepsi.
Friday markets haiku
Stock splits and AI â
Itâs just a sign of the times.
Broadcom, time to shine.
Quartzâs Vinamrata Chaturvedi reported on the networking chipmakerâs new market high.
More from Quartz
đ€ Apple isnât even paying OpenAI to put ChatGPT on iPhonesâŠ
đŹ ⊠and could its new ChatGPT partnership expose Apple to legal risks?
đ Californiaâs minimum wage hike has pushed fast food prices up
đ” Tesla canât duck Europeâs new tariffs on Chinese EVs
⥠Car dealers and Big Oil are suing the Biden administration over EVs
đȘ Joe Biden may accept crypto donations, following Donald Trump
Surprising discoveries
Ozempic for cats and dogs is coming. Regulators approved the medication for canines way back in 2007 â but human guilt was an unforeseen barrier to its acceptance.
Taylor Swiftâs fandom can change airline strategy. Qantas in Australia would never fly the worldâs largest jet domestically⊠unless of course Swifties had to get to a concert.
Zapping through the cosmos is on scientistsâ minds. Some are looking into how to make interstellar travel a reality.
Mosquitoes are being dropped in Maui to help save birds. The modified insects wonât be able to reproduce, and could curb instances of avian malaria that are devastating populations of endangered birds.
A medical drill on the International Space Station was accidentally aired and it freaked people out. NASA confirmed there was no emergency.
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, interstellar routes, and Maui bird well wishes to [email protected]. Todayâs Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.