Starbucks announced another stage in its leadership shake-up on Tuesday, as CEO Brian Niccol will bring in two more executives who spent time at his former employer Taco Bell while dividing key leadership roles. “As we focus on our ‘Back to Starbucks’ plan, we need a new operating model for our retail team, with clear ownership and accountability and an appropriate scope for ...

Shares of chipmaker Nvidia plunged Monday, for its worst day since the global market sell-off in March 2020 triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. The plunge came amid a global tech stock sell-off over fears about America’s leadership in the AI sector. Those fears were largely sparked by advances claimed by a Chinese artificial intelligence startup. Shares of the chipmaker, one ...

DeepSeek on Monday said it would temporarily limit user registrations “due to large-scale malicious attacks” on its services, though existing users will be able to log in as usual. The Chinese artificial intelligence startup has generated a lot of buzz in recent weeks as a fast-growing rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and other leading AI tools. Earlier on Monday, DeepSeek took ...

When the Trump administration announced a return-to-office mandate this week, it stated Americans “deserve the highest-quality service from people who love our country.” Federal employees like Frank Paulsen say that comment suggests they aren’t hardworking or loyal. Paulsen, 50, is the vice president of the Local 1641 chapter of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a federal workers union. He ...

Adidas plans to cut as many as 500 jobs in a bid to simplify its business, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CNBC on Thursday.  The layoffs will affect employees at Adidas’ headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, and represent nearly 9% of the 5,800 staffers it employs at the location.  The company has not determined how many jobs it will ...

American Express’ affluent cardholders got comfortable spending more freely again late last year, Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC. Spending on AmEx cards jumped 8% year over year in the fourth quarter after slowing from a 7% growth rate early in the year to 6% during the second and third quarters, according to the firm’s earnings presentation. While the year-end pickup was seen ...

Target on Friday said it’s rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion programs — including some that aim to make its workforce and merchandise better reflect its customers. In a memo sent to its employees, the Minneapolis-based retailer said it will end its three-year DEI goals, stop reports to external diversity-focused groups like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and end ...

Universal is hoping the excitement around “Wicked” can hang around — for good. The movie studio faces a unique challenge: promote and release two build-on films just one year apart. Part one of the “Wicked” cinematic project dazzled at the box office, collecting more than $700 million in global ticket sales through Sunday. Not only did it have the highest opening ...

A war of words between Elon Musk and Sam Altman escalated on social media Thursday, as two of the most powerful men in tech sparred over their rival artificial intelligence initiatives.  The latest exchange began after OpenAI, where Altman is CEO, was revealed as a key player in Stargate, the AI infrastructure project President Donald Trump announced this week that is ...

UnitedHealthcare on Thursday tapped company veteran Tim Noel as its new CEO following the targeted killing of its former top executive, Brian Thompson, in Manhattan in December.  Noel was the head of Medicare and retirement at UnitedHealthcare, the largest private health insurer in the U.S. It is the insurance arm of UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s biggest health-care conglomerate based on revenue and its ...