• Companies such as Peloton, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, BlackRock, and UPS have trimmed staff this year.
• In some cases, artificial intelligence is reshaping workforces.
• See the list of companies letting workers go in 2025.

The list of companies laying off employees this year is growing.

Layoffs and other workforce reductions have continued in 2025, following two years of significant job cuts in tech, media, finance, manufacturing, retail, and energy.

While the reasons for slimming staff vary, the cost-cutting measures are coming amid technological change. A World Economic Forum survey found that some 41% of companies worldwide expect to reduce their workforces over the next five years because of the rise of artificial intelligence.

Companies such as Oracle, CNN, Dropbox, and Block have previously announced job cuts related to AI. Though Amazon has not announced job cuts this year, CEO Andy Jassy told employees in June that the company will need "fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today" in the coming years as it expands its use of generative AI and agents.

Meanwhile, tech jobs in big data, fintech, and AI are expected to double by 2030, according to the WEF.

Here are the companies with job cuts planned or already underway in 2025 so far, in alphabetical order.

Adidas plans to cut up to 500 jobs in Germany.

Adidas said in January that it would reduce the size of its workforce at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, affecting up to 500 jobs, CNBC reported.

If fully executed, it amounts to a reduction of nearly 9% at the company headquarters, which employs about 5,800 employees, according to the Adidas website.

The news came shortly after the company announced it had outperformed its profit expectations at the end of 2024, touting "better-than-expected" results in the fourth quarter.

An Adidas spokesperson said the company had grown "too complex because of our current operating model."

"To set adidas up for long-term success, we are now starting to look at how we align our operating model with the reality of how we work. This may have an impact on the organizational structure and number of roles based at our HQ in Herzogenaurach."

The company said it is not a cost-cutting measure and could not confirm concrete numbers.

Ally is cutting less than 5% of workers.

The digital-financial-services company Ally is laying off roughly 500 of its 11,000 employees, a spokesperson confirmed to BI.

"As we continue to right-size our company, we made the difficult decision to selectively reduce our workforce in some areas, while continuing to hire in our other areas of our business," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said the company was offering severance, outplacement support, and the opportunity to apply for openings at Ally.

Ally made a similar level of cuts in October 2023, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Automattic, Tumblr's parent, cuts 16% of staff

Automattic, the parent company of Tumblr and WordPress, said in April it is cutting 16% of its staff globally. The company's website said it has nearly 1,500 employees.

Automattic's CEO, Matt Mullenweg, said in a note to employees posted online that the company has reached an "important crossroads."

"While our revenue continues to grow, Automattic operates in a highly competitive market, and technology is evolving at unprecedented levels," the note read.

The company is restructuring to improve its "productivity, profitability, and capacity to invest," it added.

The company said it was offering severance and job placement resources to affected employees.

BlackRock is cutting 1% of its workforce.

BlackRock told employees it was planning to cut about 200 people of its 21,000-strong workforce, Bloomberg reported in January.

The reductions were more than offset by some 3,750 workers who were added last year and another 2,000 expected to be added in 2025.

BlackRock's president, Rob Kapito, and its chief operating officer, Rob Goldstein, said the cuts would help realign the firm's resources with its strategy, Bloomberg reported.

Block to lay off nearly 1,000 workers

Jack Dorsey's fintech company, Block, is laying off nearly 1,000 employees, according to TechCrunch and The Guardian, in its second major workforce reduction in just over a year.

The company, which operates Square, Afterpay, CashApp, and Tidal, is transitioning nearly 200 managers into non-management roles and closing almost 800 open positions, according to an email obtained by TechCrunch.

Dorsey, who co-founded Block in 2009 after previously leading Twitter, announced the layoffs in March in an internal email titled "smaller block."

The restructuring is part of a broader effort to streamline operations, though Block maintains the changes are not driven by financial targets or AI replacements.

Bloomberg is making cuts in an overhaul of its newsroom

Bloomberg is cutting some editorial staff as the company reorganizes its newsroom, according to a memo viewed by BI. The larger strategy aims to have a larger headcount by the end of this year, however.

The newsroom currently employs around 2,700 people, and the changes will merge some smaller teams into larger units, the memo said.

Blue Origin is laying off one-tenth of its workforce

Jeff Bezos's rocket company, Blue Origin, is laying off about 10% of its workforce, a move that could affect more than 1,000 employees.

In a memo sent to staff in February and obtained by Business Insider, David Limp, the CEO of Blue Origin, said the company's priority going forward was "to scale our manufacturing output and launch cadence with speed, decisiveness and efficiency for our customers."

Limp specifically identified roles in engineering, research and development, and management as targets.

"We grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years, and with that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed," Limp wrote. "It also became clear that the makeup of our organization must change to ensure our roles are best aligned with executing these priorities."

The news comes after January's debut launch of the company's partially reusable rocket — New Glenn.

Boeing cut 400 roles from its moon rocket program

Boeing announced on February 8 that it plans to cut 400 roles from its moon rocket program amid delays and rising costs related to NASA's Artemis moon exploration missions.

Artemis 2, a crewed flight to orbit the moon on Boeing's space launch system, has been rescheduled from late 2024 to September 2025. Artemis 3, intended to be the first astronaut moon landing in the program, was delayed from late 2025 and is now planned for September 2026.

"To align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectations, we informed our Space Launch Systems team of the potential for approximately 400 fewer positions by April 2025," a Boeing spokesperson told Business Insider. "We are working with our customer and seeking opportunities to redeploy employees across our company to minimize job losses and retain our talented teammates."

The company will issue 60-day notices of involuntary layoff to impacted employees "in coming weeks," the spokesperson said.

Boeing cut 10% of its workforce last year.

BP slashed 7,700 staff and contractor positions worldwide

BP told Business Insider in January that it planned to cut 4,700 staff and 3,000 contractors, amounting to about 5% of its global workforce.

The cuts were part of a program to "simplify and focus" BP that began last year.

"We are strengthening our competitiveness and building in resilience as we lower our costs, drive performance improvement and play to our distinctive capabilities," the company said.

Bridgewater cut about 90 staff

Bridgewater Associates cut 7% of its staff in January in an effort to stay lean, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

The layoffs at the world's largest hedge fund bring its head count back to where it was in 2023, the person said.

The company's founder, Ray Dalio, said in a 2019 interview that about 30% of new employees were leaving the firm within 18 months.

Bumble said it intends to cut 30% of its workforce.

In a June 23 securities filing, Bumble said it plans to slash 240 roles, about 30% of its workforce. The dating app company said the cuts will result in charges between $13 million and $18 million in its third and fourth quarters.

"We recently made some difficult decisions to adjust our team structure in order to align with our strategic priorities," a Bumble spokesperson said.

They told BI that the decision to lay off over 200 employees wasn't "made lightly."

Burberry says it plans on cutting 1,700 jobs

Burberry announced 1,700 job cuts in May, or about 18% of its global workforce, as part of plans to cut costs by about £100 million ($130 million) by 2027.

It plans to end night shifts at its Yorkshire raincoat factory due to production over-capacity.

The British company sunk to an operating loss of £3 million for the year to the end of March, compared with a £418 million profit for the previous 12 months.

Chevron is slashing up to 20% of its global head count

Oil giant Chevron plans to cull 15% to 20% of its global workforce by the end of 2026, the company said in a statement to Business Insider in February.

Chevron employed 45,600 people as of December 2023, which means the layoff could cut 9,000 jobs.

The move aims to reduce costs and simplify the company's business as it completes its acquisition of oil producer Hess, which is held up in legal limbo. It is expected to save the company $2 billion to $3 billion by the end of 2026, the company said.

"Chevron is taking action to simplify our organizational structure, execute faster and more effectively, and position the company for stronger long-term competitiveness," a Chevron spokesperson said in a statement.

The cuts follow a series of layoffs at other oil and gas companies, including BP and natural gas producer EQT.

CNN plans to cut 200 jobs

Cable news giant CNN cut about 200 television-focused roles as part of a digital pivot. The cuts amounted to about 6% of the company's workforce.

In a memo sent to staff on January 23, CNN's CEO Mark Thompson said he aimed to "shift CNN's gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN's future as one of the world's greatest news organizations."

Coty is cutting about 700 jobs

Coty, which sells cosmetics and fragrances under brands such as Kylie Cosmetics, Calvin Klein, and Burberry, is cutting about 700 jobs.

The company said on April 24 it aimed to cut costs by $130 million a year. Sue Nabi, the CEO, said it aimed to build a "stronger, more resilient Coty that is well-positioned for sustainable growth."

CrowdStrike is cutting about 500 jobs

CrowdStrike, the Texas-headquartered cybersecurity firm, is cutting about 500 jobs, or 5% of its global workforce, as part of a strategic plan to "yield greater efficiencies."

It expects the layoffs to cost between $36 million and $53 million.

CrowdStrike is aiming to generate $10 billion in annual recurring revenue.

The company reported worse-than-expected annual results in March, signaling that it was yet to fully recover from a widespread tech outage linked to CrowdStrike in July 2024.

Disney says it's laying off several hundred employees

Disney confirmed to BI on June 2 that it was laying off several hundred employees globally.

Most of the cuts were to roles in marketing for films and TV under the Disney Entertainment division. Other roles affected included employees in publicity, casting, and development, as well as corporate finance.

In March, the company also cut around 200 people from its ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks. In 2024, the company also had several rounds of layoffs.

Shortly after Bob Iger returned to the company as CEO in 2022, he said 7,000 jobs at Disney would be cut as part of a reorganization.

Estée Lauder will cut as many as 7,000 jobs

Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder said in its second-quarter earnings release on February 4 that it will cut between 5,800 and 7,000 jobs as the company restructures over the next two years.

The cuts will focus on "rightsizing" certain teams, and it will look to outsource certain services. The company says it expects annual gross benefits of between $0.8 billion and $1.0 billion before tax.

Geico has axed tens of thousands of workers

Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chair of Insurance Operations Ajit Jain says Geico has reduced its workforce from about 50,000 to about 20,000. Jain revealed the reductions during Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting on May 3 but did not detail over what time frame they took place. Berkshire Hathaway is one of Geico's parent companies.

Warren Buffett's company reported its 2025 first-quarter earnings on during the May 3 meeting, saying Geico earned nearly $2.2 billion in pre-tax underwriting.

GrubHub announced 500 job cuts

Grubhub CEO Howard Migdal announced 500 job cuts on February 28 after selling the company to Wonder Group for $650 million.

With more than 2,200 full time employees, the number of cuts will affect more than 20% of Grubhub's previous workforce.

According to Reuters, Just Eat Takeaway, an Amsterdam-listed company, sold Grubhub at a steep loss compared to the billions it paid a few years prior after grappling with slowing growth and high taxes.

HPE is laying off 2,500 employees

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is cutting 2,500 jobs, or 5% of its employee base, CEO Antonio Neri said on an earnings call on March 6. The cuts are expected take to take place over the next 12 to 18 months.

"Doing so will better align our cost structure to our business mix and long-term strategy," Neri said. The company expects to save $350 million by 2027 because of the reduction.

HPE plummeted about 20% after hours on March 6 after it said business would be affected by recent tariffs, slow server and cloud sales, and "execution issues."

Intel to cut at least 15% of its factory workers

Chipmaker Intel is laying off more than 5,000 employees across four US states, according to a July 16 government filing.

Most of the cuts are happening in California and Oregon, while others are in Texas and Arizona, per updated Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, filings.

Intel began laying off employees in July as part of planned job cuts, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The company told staff on June 14 to expect 15% to 20% of employees in its Foundry division to be laid off this summer, according to a memo reported by The Oregonian. Intel confirmed the authenticity of the memo to BI but declined to comment on its contents.

As of December 2024, Intel employed about 108,900 people. In its annual report, the company told investors that it would reduce its "core Intel workforce" by about 15% in early 2025.

"Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution," an Intel spokesperson told BI.

Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University will cut over 2,000 jobs after losing $800 million in funding from USAID.

"This is a difficult day for our entire community," a spokesperson told BI. "The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally."

The news comes after the Trump administration slashed USAID personnel down from over 10,000 to around 300. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently confirmed that 83% of the agency's programs are now dead.

"We can confirm that the elimination of foreign aid funding has led to the loss of 1,975 positions in 44 countries internationally and 247 in the United States in the affected programs," the Johns Hopkins spokesperson said. "An additional 29 international and 78 domestic employees will be furloughed with a reduced schedule."

The layoffs at Johns Hopkins represent the "largest" in the university's history, CNN reported. They'll primarily affect the schools of medicine and public health, along with the Center for Communication Programs and Jhpiego, a nonprofit with a focus on preventing diseases and bolstering women's health, according to the report.

Kohl's is reducing about 10% of its roles

Department store Kohl's announced on January 28 that it reduced about 10% of its corporate roles to "increase efficiencies" and "improve profitability for the long-term health and benefit of the business," a spokesperson told BI.

"Kohl's reduced approximately 10 percent of the roles that report into its corporate offices," the spokesperson said. "More than half of the total reduction will come from closing open positions while the remainder of the positions were currently held by our associates."

Less than 200 existing employees of the company would be impacted, she added.

This follows the company's announcement on January 9 that it would shutter 27 underperforming stores across 15 states by April.

The retailer has been struggling with declining sales, reporting an 8.8% decline in net sales in the third quarter of 2024.

Its previous CEO, Tom Kingsbury, stepped down on January 15. The company's board appointed Ashley Buchanan, a retail veteran who had held top jobs in The Michaels Companies, Macy's, and Walmart, as the new CEO.

Meta is cutting 5% of its workforce

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff he "decided to raise the bar on performance management" and will act quickly to "move out low-performers," according to an internal memo seen by BI in January.

Those cuts started in February, according to records obtained by BI. Teams overseeing Facebook, the Horizon virtual reality platform, as well as logistics were among the hardest hit.

In April, Meta also laid off an undisclosed number of employees on the Reality Labs virtual reality division.

Previously, the company had laid off more than 21,000 workers since 2022.

Microchip Technology is slashing 2,000 jobs

Microchip Technology is cutting its head count across the company by around 2,000 employees, the semiconductor company said on March 3.

The company estimated that it would incur between $30 million and $40 million in costs, including severance, severance benefits, and other restructuring costs.

The cuts would be communicated to employees in the March quarter and fully implemented by the end of the June quarter.

Last year, Microchip announced it was closing its Tempe, Arizona, facility because of slower-than-anticipated orders. The closure begins in May 2025 and is expected to affect 500 jobs.

Microchip's stock had fallen over 33% in the past year.

Microsoft has made several rounds of cuts this year

Microsoft cut an unspecified number of jobs in January based on employees' performance.

Workers were told that they wouldn't receive severance and that their benefits, such as medical insurance, would stop immediately, BI reported.

The company also laid off some employees in January at divisions including gaming and sales. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to say how many jobs were cut on the affected teams.

In May, the company announced layoffs affecting about 6,000 workers.

Another round of layoffs in July will affect less than 4% of its total workforce, or roughly 9,000 employees, based on its head count of around 220,000.

Morgan Stanley plans cuts for the end of March

Morgan Stanley is set to initiate a round of layoffs beginning at the end of March. The firm is eyeing cuts to about 2% to 3% of its global workforce, which would equate to between 1,600 to 2,400 jobs, according to a person familiar with the matter who confirmed the reductions to BI.

The firm's cuts are driven by several imperatives, the person said, pointing to considerations like operational efficiency, evolving business priorities, and individual employees' performance. The person said the cuts are not related to broader market conditions, such as the recent slowdown in mergers and acquisitions that's arrested momentum on Wall Street.

Some MS staffers will be excluded from the cuts, however — namely, the bank's battalion of financial advisors — though some who assist them, such as administrative personnel in its wealth-management unit, could be affected by the layoffs, the person added.

Nextdoor is slashing 12% of its staff

Neighborhood social networking company Nextdoor is cutting 12% of its staff, or 67 jobs, it said on August 7 in its second-quarter earnings report. The move is part of CEO Nirav Tolia's plan to achieve profitability and reorganize the struggling company.

The layoffs are expected to reduce operating expenses by about $30 million, it said in the earnings report.

The company reported a net loss of $15 million, compared to $43 million year-over-year.

Nissan says it will cut 20,000 jobs by 2027

Japanese car giant Nissan is cutting 20,000 jobs by 2027 and reducing the number of factories it operates from 17 to 10 as it struggles with a dire financial situation.

The job losses include the 9,000 layoffs announced late last year, and come as the automaker faces headwinds from US tariffs on imported vehicles and collapsing sales in China.

Nissan reported a net loss of 671 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the 2024 financial year, and said it would not issue an operating profit forecast for 2025 because of tariff uncertainty.

Oracle is reportedly cutting jobs from its cloud division.

Oracle is cutting jobs in its cloud unit, Bloomberg reported. The cuts come as the company works to curb costs amid spending on AI infrastructure.

Sources familiar with the cuts told Bloomberg that some of the cuts were related to performance issues.

Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Panasonic is cutting 10,000 jobs

Panasonic, the Japanese-headquartered multinational electronics manufacturer, plans to cut 10,000 jobs this financial year, which ends in March 2026. The cuts will affect 5,000 roles in Japan and 5,000 overseas.

In a statement on May 9, the company said it planned to "thoroughly review operational efficiency … mainly in sales and indirect departments, and reevaluate the numbers of organisations and personnel actually needed."

"Through these measures, the company will optimize our personnel on a global scale," the statement added.

Paramount is cutting 3.5% of its US workforce

Paramount told employees it would be laying off 3.5% of US-based staff based in the US, per a memo reported by CNBC on June 10, citing industry-wide declines and a challenging macroeconomic environment.

The move comes after the media company cut 15% of jobs last year to cut costs. Paramount had 18,600 employees at the end of 2024.

It is awaiting regulatory approval of its merger with Skydance Media.

Peloton is looking for $100 million in run-rate savings by next year

Peloton said in its August earnings report that it would cut its global headcount as part of an effort to find $100 million in run-rate cost savings by the end of the next fiscal year.

"As of today, we will have actioned about roughly half of the run rate savings through the reductions in our workforce and we expect to achieve the remainder throughout the balance of the year," CFO Elizabeth Coddington told investors on the earnings call.

The company employed about 2,900 people last year, and approximately 6% of the workforce will be affected by the reductions, Reuters reported.

Porsche is cutting 3,900 jobs over the next few years

Porsche said on March 12 that it plans to cut 3,900 jobs in the coming years.

About 2,000 of the reductions will come with the expiration of fixed-term contractor positions, the German automaker said. The company will make the other 1,900 reductions by 2029 through natural attrition and limiting hiring, it said.

Porsche said it also plans to discuss more potential changes with labor leaders in the second half of the year. "This will also make Porsche even more efficient in the medium and long term," the company said.

PwC is laying off approximately 2% of its US workforce

The Big Four accounting firm said it's cutting roughly 1,500 jobs in the US because its low attrition rates mean not enough people are leaving by choice.

PwC's layoffs began on May 5 and mostly affect the firm's audit and tax lines, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

"This was a difficult decision, and we made it with care, thoughtfulness, and a deep awareness of its impact on our people, appreciating that historically low levels of attrition over consecutive years have made it necessary to take this step," a PwC spokesperson said.

Salesforce is cutting more than 1,000 jobs

Bloomberg reported in February that Salesforce, a cloud-based customer management software company, will slash more than 1,000 jobs from its nearly 73,000-strong workforce.

Affected employees will be eligible to apply to open internal roles, the outlet reported. The company is hiring salespeople focused on the company's new AI-powered products.

The cuts come despite Salesforce reporting a strong financial performance during its third-quarter earnings in December.

Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment.

Scale AI is cutting 14% of its workforce

On July 16, Scale AI laid off about 200 full-time employees and 500 contractors, according to the company.

The 200 full-time cuts make up 14% of the data labeling startup's 1,400-person workforce.

The company is restructuring its generative AI group, according to an email from Scale's interim CEO, Jason Droege, obtained by Business Insider.

The cuts follow Meta's $14 billion investment in Scale AI in June as part of a blockbuster deal. The deal included the hiring of Scale's ex-CEO, Alexandr Wang, and the purchase of equity in almost half of the startup.

Sonos cuts about 200 jobs

Sonos, a California-based audio equipment company, said in a February 5 release that it's cutting about 200 roles.

The announcement came nearly a month after Sonos CEO Patrick Spence stepped down following a disastrous app rollout. Interim CEO Tom Conrad said in the statement that the layoffs were part of an effort to create a "simpler organization."

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan announced in February that the company is laying off 15% of its corporate staff, or about 1,750 employees.

He said affected workers will keep their pay, benefits, and bonuses through late April, when the separations will take effect.

The company told investors the cuts would save about $210 million this year and $300 million in 2026.

The move comes as Southwest tries to cut costs amid profitability problems. Jordan said this is the first significant layoff the company has had in its 53-year history.

An activist hedge fund took a stake in Southwest in June and has since helped restructure its board and change its business model to keep up with a changing industry. For example, it plans to end its long-standing open-seating policy to generate more seating revenue.

In recent months, the company has also reduced flight crew positions in Atlanta to cut costs.

Starbucks is laying off 1,100 corporate staff

Starbucks planned to notify 1,100 corporate employees that they had been laid off on February 25.

CEO Brian Niccol said in a memo that the layoffs will make Starbucks "operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration."

The layoffs won't affect employees at Starbucks stores, the company said.

Niccol told employees that layoffs were on the way in a separate memo in January. The company is trying to improve results after sales slid last year.

Stripe laid off 300 employees

Payments platform Stripe laid off 300 employees, primarily in product, engineering, and operations, according to a January 20 memo obtained by BI.

Chief people officer Rob McIntosh said in the memo that the company still planned on growing its head count to about 10,000 employees by the end of the year.

UPS is cutting 20,000 jobs

UPS announced on April 29 that it plans to cut 20,000 jobs this year — about 4% of its global workforce — as part of a shift toward automation and a strategic reduction in business with Amazon.

"With our action, we will emerge as an even stronger, more nimble UPS," the company's CEO, Carol Tomé, said in a statement.

The move follows a sharp 16% drop in Amazon package volume in Q4 and is part of a plan to halve its Amazon business by mid-2026. UPS will also close 73 US buildings by June and automate 400 facilities to reduce labor dependency.

The Teamsters union have said they would fight any layoffs affecting its members.

The Washington Post cut 4% of its non-newsroom workforce

The Washington Post eliminated fewer than 100 employees in an effort to cut costs, Reuters reported in January.

A spokesperson told the news agency that the cuts wouldn't affect the newsroom: "The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are."

Wayfair laid off 340 tech employees

Wayfair announced in an SEC filing on March 7 that it would eliminate its Austin Technology Development Center and lay off around 340 tech workers.

The reorg comes as the technology team has accomplished "significant modernization and replatforming milestones," the company said in the filing. Wayfair said it plans to refocus resources and streamline operations to promote its "next phase of growth."

"With the foundation of this transformation now in place, our technology needs have shifted," the company said.

Wayfair expects to take on $33 to $38 million in costs as a result of the reorganization, consisting of severance, cash employee-related costs, benefits, and transitional costs.

Workday cut more than 8% of its workforce

Workday, the human-resources software company, said in February that it is cutting 8.5% of its workforce, or around 1,750 employees. The layoffs came as the company focuses more on artificial intelligence.

In a note to employees, CEO Carl Eschenbach said that Workday will focus on hiring in areas related to artificial intelligence and work to expand its global presence.

"The environment we're operating in today demands a new approach, particularly given our size and scale," Eschenbach wrote. He said that affected employees will get at least 12 weeks of pay.

Is your company conducting layoffs? Got a tip?

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• Endex, the first AI agent tool for Microsoft Excel, raises $14 million led by OpenAI's startup fund.
• Endex said the tool would be capable of hour-long tasks and "change how financial analysts do work."
• It is unclear whether this tool is welcomed by Microsoft, both an investor and competitor to OpenAI.

OpenAI just helped fund an AI tool that could reduce your stress when staring at a huge spreadsheet.

A venture fund launched by OpenAI to invest in early-stage tech companies has led a $14 million funding round for Endex, a startup that said it has created an AI agent that will exist in Microsoft Excel and help you process data, handle financial tasks, and write memos.

"Finance professionals don't just need search results; they need structured thinking and deep analysis," said Tarun Amasa, CEO of Endex and recipient of the Thiel Fellowship, in a statement. "We envision a future where every firm has access to teams of digital analysts, seamlessly augmenting time-intensive workflows."

Based on OpenAI's blog post, Endex is powered by OpenAI's reasoning models.

In a video that Amasa posted on X to announce Endex's product launch on Wednesday, a screen displaying the word "Microsoft Excel" was replaced after a screen glitch to display "Endex," followed by a brief demonstration of how the AI agent works by Amasa.

In the following posts, Amasa also said his team has spent a large portion of last year in OpenAI's San Francisco office and has offered to send limited early invites to users who comment beneath the posts.

Microsoft and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the AI agent would impact the Excel product.

The two companies have both competed and collaborated over the years.

Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019 and is considered one of the company's biggest backers. In exchange, Microsoft has access to OpenAI's intellectual property and the right to resell it to customers through Azure's OpenAI service and by building its own products with the technology, including its AI assistant, Copilot.

But as OpenAI builds its own service products like ChatGPT Enterprise and developer tools, it has also started to compete directly with its long-time investor. In 2024, Microsoft began to list OpenAI as a competitor in its annual report.

"What excites me most about this collaboration is our shared vision for vertical-specific AI," said Amasa. "Our work goes beyond APIs — it's about building the agent-user interfaces that will change how financial analysts do work."

• Household debt rose to $18.39 trillion, and delinquency remained "elevated," the New York Fed said.
• Credit card balances hit $1.21 trillion, with rising student loan debt and mortgages.
• Economic signals are mixed, with a strong stock market and spending, but weakening job growth.

The stock market and consumer spending may be up, but so is household debt.

A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows total household debt has risen to $18.39 trillion when adjusted for inflation — that figure is about $1.05 trillion less than the all-time peak in the last quarter of 2008. Around 4.4% of household debt is at some stage of delinquency, a percentage that the bank's researchers called "elevated."

Credit card balances have also risen to match last year's all-time high, to a collective of $1.21 trillion, up 2.3% from the previous quarter.

"This quarter's flow of household debt into serious delinquency was mixed across debt types, with credit card and auto loans holding steady, student loans continuing to rise, and mortgages edging up slightly," Joelle Scally, Economic Policy Advisor at the New York Fed, said in a statement.

The report comes as the economy is giving mixed signals, with the full impact of the Trump administration's tariffs remaining to be seen. While the stock market continues to be strong and consumer spending saw a 0.3% increase in June, employment is weakening, and inflation is inching up.

Reports from other financial research agencies also show rising debt and potential financial distress in certain sectors of borrowers.

A WalletHub report on Tuesday shows household debt increased by $28 billion during the second quarter of 2025, which was nearly six times the increase in the same period in 2024.

A separate Q2 report by Equifax also detailed that while delinquency rates haven't spiked overall, strain is beginning to show in borrowers with less-than-ideal credit scores as they take up a growing share of bank loans. Compared to May 2021, when pandemic stimulus and a pause on student loan payments freed up funds for "subprime borrowers" to finance their bank cards, the share of bank loans that those with lower credit scores are responsible for has seen a 50.9% increase.

"At the surface level, our second quarter data showed that consumers are continuing to spend and avoid delinquency," wrote Tom O'Neill, Market Pulse Advisor at Equifax, in the report. "However, there's a growing K-shaped split in the consumer landscape, with subprime borrowers falling behind."

• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts not wearing smart glasses will become a "cognitive disadvantage."
• Zuckerberg sees glasses as the "ideal form factor" for AI.
• Meta has been ramping up its glasses business by partnering with Ray-Ban and Oakley.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks smart glasses are the future.

During Meta's second-quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg doubled down on the idea that smart glasses will soon become the main way people interact with AI and replace other devices as "primary computing devices."

"I continue to think that glasses are basically going to be the ideal form factor for AI," he told investors on Wednesday's call, adding that wearables with cameras, microphones, and displays will unlock new levels of utility.

"I think in the future, if you don't have glasses that have AI or some way to interact with AI, I think you'd probably be at a pretty significant cognitive disadvantage compared to other people," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg's bullish sentiments on AI wearables echo his letter earlier in the day, which predicted the rise of "personal superintelligence."

"Personal superintelligence that knows us deeply, understands our goals, and can help us achieve them will be by far the most useful," wrote Zuckerberg in the letter published on Meta's blog.

Meta has been ramping up its wearables business with its Ray-Ban smart glasses and a recent partnership with Oakley. The devices let users stream music, take photos, record video, and ask Meta's chatbot about what they're seeing.

Sales have been "accelerating," according to the earnings report, and helped drive a revenue increase of nearly 5% for the Reality Labs division.

Meta has also been investing billions in acquiring AI talent, often from competing companies with jaw-dropping offers. Zuckerberg invested $15 billion in Scale AI to bring its CEO, Alexandr Wang, into the fold and lured at least four employees from OpenAI, one of whom is a co-creator of ChatGPT.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• I asked ChatGPT's study mode to help me decide if I would buy my first car.
• Study Mode is meant to guide thinking instead of giving users an answer.
• I was surprised that AI helped me examine my feelings and resist the pressure of car ownership.

For months, I've been paralyzed with indecision every time I walk past a car dealership.

It all started earlier this summer when my partner bought his first car — a five-year-old black Ford Fusion — ahead of a move to Indiana for his Ph.D. program.

Since then, we've both been using the car we named Raven, and I've become used to picking up groceries with ease and leaving home 10 minutes before a dinner party starts. But with him leaving in three weeks and taking Raven along for the ride, I've become overwhelmed with confusion every time I ask myself: Should I buy a car?

So I asked ChatGPT.

And not just any ChatGPT: I chose Study Mode, a new iteration that appeared this week in the toolbar as a book icon. OpenAI says it "helps you work through problems step by step instead of just getting an answer." It can also quiz its users and prompt them to explain their reasoning.

I did not have high hopes, having witnessed many disastrous ChatGPT-generated essays that friends in academia have had to grade. Still, the Study Mode asked me enough well-rounded questions to help me make the unexpected decision to remain car-free.

What I knew before turning to ChatGPT

I live in a co-housing community with a garage to store and charge cars. I also happen to live downtown in a Bay Area city, two blocks away from a Chinatown, where I can find just about any food I need.

Still, having a car would mean not having to frequently turn to Instacart because shopping often overwhelms me. It would mean being able to access our regional park full of redwoods, where there is no cell signal and no chance to Uber back home.

I prefer EVs because they emit less, and I like the peace of mind of knowing that the price of oil, which fluctuates with geopolitics, won't affect my budget as much.

Most of my friends own cars and started sending me their hot takes. I started watching Instagram reels on car recommendations, until they had fully taken over my "For You" page.

Based on those criteria, I found options like a used Nissan Leaf and a pre-owned Tesla.

A used 2017 Nissan Leaf would only have between 50 and 80 miles of range per charge, but it could cost as little as $7,000, not including taxes. Teslas are a more expensive option, but they do have decent range and technologies that compensate for my lack of skills, plus many people are looking to sell.

In my head, I felt like I spent plenty on rides and deliveries to match the convenience a car could provide.

Fortunately, ChatGPT Study Mode explained to me that not only was I wrong, but there was so much more to consider.

Study Mode asked me surprising questions and taught me new concepts

Study Mode started by asking me what level of studies I'm at, to which I explained that I have already gone through grad school, but have other pressing life problems.

I then gave a general description of my circumstances and asked whether I should buy a car.

The AI commended me for making a "thoughtful, not impulsive" decision and explained the concept of being "car poor," meaning buying a fancier car than necessary or having monthly payments cut into other life expenses.

Since I mentioned grocery deliveries and Uber trips, Study Mode then prompted me to think about how many times I use these services a week. I get grocery deliveries about three times a month, plus about two Uber trips and two takeout deliveries a week.

Study Mode crunched the numbers for me. The conveniences I see as indulgences actually cost me around $3,000 a year, but a car would cost me between $6,000 and $8,000 a year, not including the down payment I would need to buy the car.

"Are the extra ~$3,000 — $4,000 per year worth the added freedom and independence? Do you feel anxious or limited without a car?" Study Mode asked.

In bullet points, it asked me about factors I hadn't really thought about before, such as whether I like to go out often, if I enjoy driving, and if I have family who lives far away. It also asked me if I wanted to see a cost breakdown of whether it would be worth it to live further from downtown to lower housing costs, and own a car instead.

As an introvert with no family in this country who mostly spends her weekends with her cat and her next craft project, an answer was beginning to emerge.

But I pushed Study Mode further by asking about the benefits of an EV and if it would actually save me money. The AI gave me a cost breakdown that compared a Chevy Bolt to a fully gas-powered Toyota Corolla, and while the former obviously emits less, it gives me only a marginal amount of savings.

Based on my own investigation, the cost difference between the two cars appears accurate, but the AI vastly undercounts the cost of insuring both types of vehicles by more than 50%. A quote on Geico for a 2022 Chevy Bolt and a Toyota Corolla made the same year would both amount to more than $450 a month in premiums.

As alternatives to an EV, the AI asked me to consider if carpooling with friends and renting cars when I truly need them would be better options for my wallet and for the environment.

It also said buying a three-year-old car is optimal because that is when depreciation slows down and before maintenance costs start to rise.

Study Mode said the bottom line was that if I really, really, still wanted a car, it would suggest a 2022 Chevy Bolt.

Still, I think I'll pass, because to answer one of the AI's previous questions: no, I don't enjoy driving. I will save myself the fear of freeways and the panic of not being able to parallel park, and continue my car-free life.

My next question to ChatGPT will be what kind of bike I should get.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Meta hires Shengjia Zhao, ChatGPT co-creator, as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Labs.
• Mark Zuckerberg is on a multibillion-dollar AI spending spree, which includes poaching talent.
• Other tech CEO have mixed opinions about Zuckerberg's recruitment approach.

Meta just escalated the AI talent war with OpenAI.

Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT and former lead scientist at OpenAI, is joining Meta as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Labs.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Zhao's appointment on Friday in a social media post, and called him a "pioneer" in the field who has already driven several major AI breakthroughs.

Zhao previously helped build GPT-4 and led synthetic data efforts at OpenAI. According to the post, Zhao will now work directly with Zuckerberg and Meta's newly appointed chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, the founder and CEO of Scale AI.

The new hire comes during Zuckerberg's multibillion-dollar AI spending spree, including a $15 billion investment in Scale AI and the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs, a new division focused on foundational models and next-gen research.

In addition to Zhao, the company has lured away the three researchers who built OpenAI's Zurich office — Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai — all of whom previously also worked at Google's DeepMind. The Superintelligence Labs team is now comprised of a lineup of names previously seen with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

But the war for AI talent is far from over.

Databricks VP Naveen Rao likened the competition to "looking for LeBron James," estimating that fewer than 1,000 people worldwide can build frontier AI models.

Companies without the cash for massive pay packages are turning to hackathons and computing power as incentives. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said a Meta researcher he tried to poach told him to ask again when the company has "10,000 H100s."

AI tech workers have previously told Business Insider that Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has been emailing prospects directly and even hosting AI researchers at his home, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has made personal calls to potential hires.

Tech company executives have mixed feelings about Meta's poaching efforts.

"Meta right now are not at the frontier, maybe they'll they'll manage to get back on there," said Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, on an episode of the "Lex Fridman Podcast," which aired on Friday.

"It's probably rational what they're doing from their perspective because they're behind and they need to do something," Hassabis added.

During a July 18 episode of the podcast "Uncapped with Jack Altman," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman criticised some of Meta's "giant offers" to his company's employees, and called the strategy "crazy."

"The degree to which they're focusing on money and not the work and not the mission," said Sam Altman. "I don't think that's going to set up a great culture."

Meta and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

• Astronomer released a humorous promo video featuring Gwyneth Paltrow after leadership changes.
• Two former executives were involved in a now-infamous kiss-cam incident at a Coldplay concert.
• Paltrow promoted Astronomer's data and AI products and an upcoming conference.

Astronomer is taking the Coldplay incident and running with it.

After former CEO Andy Byron and head of HR Kristin Cabot resigned following the now-infamous "kiss-cam" style Coldplay concert footage, the company responded with a humorous video of its own, featuring Coldplay frontman Chris Martin's ex-wife, Gwyneth Paltrow.

In the brand-new video, Paltrow said she had been hired on a "very temporary basis" to represent the "more than 300 employees" at Astronomer, and to answer some very common questions.

Then, instead of addressing what Astronomer likely got the most attention for, Paltrow proceeded by promoting its latest data and AI products — all with a straight face.

After another video header that seems to ask how Astronomer's social media team is holding up, Paltrow went on to say there is still room available in the company's Beyond Analytics data conference in September.

"Thank you for your interest in Astronomer," the award-winning actor said as the video ended.

Astronomer became an internet sensation mid-July when Byron and Cabot, who were both company executives at the time, were embracing in a "kiss-cam" crowd footage at a Coldplay concert just outside of Boston.

The pair appeared horrified and immediately hid from he camera after being spotlighted on the big screen, prompting Coldplay lead singer Martin to say that they are either "having an affair or just very shy."

The video has since gone viral and generated countless internet memes. The company's board promptly launched an investigation into the incident, and Byron and Cabot both resigned from Astronomer within the week. Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy has since stepped up as interim CEO while the company searches for a more permanent replacement.

As for Paltrow and Martin, the pair famously dubbed their split "conscious uncoupling" in March 2014 and finalized their divorce in 2016 after 13 years of marriage.

Astronomer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Do you work at Astronomer and want to talk about the impact of all the attention on the company? Email the author at [email protected].

• The Federal Reserve defended its $2.5 billion renovation amid political pressure.
• The renovation costs rose from $1.9 billion in 2017 due to material and labor costs.
• President Donald Trump's criticism of the project came amid speculation that he would fire Jerome Powell.

The Trump administration is criticizing the Federal Reserve's renovation project amid a feud with the independent institution over interest rates.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell defended the bank's $2.5 billion headquarters renovation budget in a letter Thursday, in response to accusations from a top Trump administration official who alleged mismanagement and potential legal violations.

"While periodic work has been done to keep these buildings occupiable, neither building has seen a comprehensive renovation since they were first constructed," Powell wrote of the Federal Reserve's Washington, DC headquarters built in the 1930s.

"The Board has made a small number of design changes to scale back or eliminate certain elements and has added no new elements," Powell added. "These changes were intended to simplify construction and reduce the likelihood of further delays and cost increases."

The cost of the major renovation project became a talking point for the Trump administration when the original $1.9 billion price tag in 2017 ballooned to $2.5 billion by 2023.

A 2023 Fed budget document attributed the cost to "significant increases in raw materials… higher labor costs, and changes in construction schedule expectations which lengthen use of leased space."

The renovation design, which includes an update to the historic Marriner S. Eccles Building, has seen a range of cost cutting changes in comparison to the original plan approved by the National Capital Planning Commission.

According to Powell's congressional testimony in June, "roof terrace gardens," "water features," and "new marble" have been scrapped to reduce costs, but updates like asbestos removal and overhauling outdated electrical and fire safety systems are essential for safety and compliance.

On July 10, Russell Vought, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under former President Donald Trump, posted a sharply worded letter on social media.

The letter accuses Powell of overseeing an "ostentatious overhaul" of the Fed's buildings and of breaking oversight laws. The letter also questions whether the renovation includes a VIP elevator and marble accessories, luxury features which Powell said in his response are not part of the plan.

"The President is extremely troubled by your management of the Federal Reserve System," Vought wrote, adding that Powell had seven business days to respond.

The president himself also criticised the renovation project early this week.

"When you spend $2.5 billion on, really, a renovation, I think it's really disgraceful," Trump told reporters during a press appearance.

Trump added that Powell's actions were "sort of" grounds for dismissal but later said he was "highly unlikely" to fire Powell, unless it was for "fraud."

Earlier that day, reports surfaced that Trump was considering firing Powell, which caused a swing in the stock market.

Powell, whose term is not over until May 2026 and cannot be removed without cause, has been at odds with Trump over monetary policy and has not lowered interest rates. While the president wishes to see lower borrowing costs, the Federal Reserve is concerned about bringing inflation down to the target of 2%.

• Victor Schwartz's business VOS Selections is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Trump's tariffs.
• Schwartz thought imported specialty wines were his edge in the business until tariffs hit.
• Despite a stressful year so far, Schwartz says the positive response he got is energizing.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Victor Schwartz, owner of VOS Selections, a wine importing company based in New York. His business is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's use of emergency powers to impose tariffs. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

Suing the government was not part of my business plan, and we have taken a big hit from the tariffs, yet in a strange way, it's been incredibly energizing to be involved a this case that could help so many.

I founded my business about 39 years ago as an importer and distributor of fine wines, spirits, and sakes. We have 19 people in the company, including me and my daughter.

I started my business in France, and we work with very small producers for cutting-edge products. The idea was to bring in things you don't find everywhere, and I thought that was really going to be my edge in the business, until the tariffs hit.

I knew I was sticking my neck out as the lead plaintiff of the case, which goes further than just throwing my hat in the ring, but I still decided that I needed to do this.

Tariffs made an already tough business even harder

There hasn't been enough information on just how complicated this process is.

The prelude to the tariffs is already bad. In our first quarter, we were down 16% compared to last year. Restaurants and retailers we work with are complaining heavily, cutting back products either in anticipation of tariffs or because consumers are not buying.

Then the main tariffs hit in April. My daughter and I spent two full days looking through every product in our book to determine what the tariff impact was going to be, which products we needed to drop, and how much tariffs we could afford to eat. As we all know, all the numbers changed in a few days, and it just keeps happening.

Keep in mind that alcohol is a heavily regulated business. Under regulations in the state of New York, for example, we have to post prices by the fifth of the month prior to the month of sale. Combine that with the time it takes for products to cross oceans and get through customs, this means we have to think about May pricing in March.

We're in that position of having to make firm decisions about what our pricing is going to be under very uncertain situations. As a small business with more than 600 mostly imported products from 350 producers, that just became impossible.

By now in June, the contraction I have feared is playing out. We go back to a good customer and say, "Hey, you've been using this product, but now we have to bring more of it in. Are you interested in this product at the new price?" Most of the time, they say "no." It's not like they're going to buy a domestic product. They're just going to buy another imported product that is less expensive.

Also, the customs are not going to release our container unless we pay them upfront. A 10% tariff means 10% less of our cash flow, and that means being much tighter on our inventory, reducing and stopping some orders where we could, and not moving forward on new projects.

As we run out of more products and have to raise prices on new imports, it's only going to get worse as we get into August and September.

I stepped up because bigger players won't

Retaliation was something I had to take into account when I decided to become the lead plaintiff.

One of the big motivating factors for me to step up is that the big guys in business were not getting involved. The big guys who have the money and power are cowering or defending their own self-interest.

The administration could come after me in many different ways to harm my business. Because this is a heavily regulated industry, we have to work with the government all the time. We deal with the TTB, the FDA, and Customs and Border Protection.

There have always been glitches here and there, but now whenever there is a glitch, I always think in the back of my mind, "Is this a real glitch or is this somebody coming after me?" So far, there is nothing. But I did have to consider potential consequences. If I hadn't been in this industry for 40 years, I may have made a different decision.

About 99% of the contacts I have gotten are positive, and this has really made me feel energized. It really blows me away that people have taken the time to write me cards and letters — not just "thank yous" but long letters too.

It seems that I have really struck a chord. I guess most lawsuits, in a certain sense, are just you looking out for yourself. But with my case, I just feel like we are trying to do something that's going to help a lot of people, and that is very empowering.

• President Donald Trump may have other routes to impose tariffs if the court strikes down his current duties.
• A pause on Trump's use of the IEEPA to impose tariffs has been halted by an appeals court.
• International trade experts say other ways to hike tariffs may be limiting and time-consuming.

President Donald Trump has four more swings at implementing his tariffs — even if courts strike down his use of the IEEPA.

Experts in international trade told Business Insider that Trump could take four different routes to imposing trade barriers without Congress. All four are doable, though significantly more complicated, and are unlikely policies he could change at will overnight.

"Now we're over a hundred days into the tariffs, and tariffs are a very top-of-the-agenda item," Drew DeLong, lead in geopolitical dynamics practice at Kearney, a global strategy and management consulting firm, told BI.

"There are a number of motivations underneath tariffs, and whether his current tariffs stay, he will find ways to continue to amplify pressure on trading partners," DeLong added.

After small businesses sued Trump and his various trade officials over tariffs, the US Court of International Trade ruled unanimously on May 28 that he doesn't have the authority to levy sweeping tariffs using the IEEPA — a 1970s law typically used for economic sanctions during national emergencies.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit resumed the tariffs a day later, but their fate remains uncertain.

"That decision, if it is favorable to Trump, would still go to the Supreme Court for review," said Kent Jones, Professor Emeritus of international economics at Babson College. "Many conservative judges, even Trump appointees, have tended to view Trump's use of IEEAP as overstepping the limits of delegating tariff-making power from Congress to the President."

Here are four things the Trump administration could do next to keep trade barriers up without Congress.

Section 122

DeLong said Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, also known as the Balance of Payments Act, could be the White House's first choice if it wants to "continue the pressure immediately" on trading partners.

The act's official language allows it to be applied only if there are "large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits," otherwise known as trade deficits.

"Section 122 is probably going to be a top pick," Robert Shapiro, an attorney of international trade at Thompson Coburn LLP, told BI. "That gives Trump some vehicle, but it's a limited 15% for 150 days, and then he has to go to Congress."

"That would open the door for Congress to pass a whole bunch of trade actions, but the administration obviously didn't want to go through that first," Shapiro added.

Section 232

Section 232 under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 allows the White House to raise duties on imports it deems a threat to national security.

A recent probe into critical mineral imports, for example, argued that the US is overly dependent on foreign sources for materials essential to defense, infrastructure, and innovation.

DeLong said that at the moment, there are at least eight ongoing Section 232 investigations, including those involving copper, timber, and semiconductors. He said the recent June 3 tariff hike on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% is also being done under section 232.

Jones said, however, that each section 232 tariff requires a formal investigation, and the sectors it could be applied to are limited.

"The problem with section 232 is that it requires a separate action for each industrial category of goods against which tariffs can be imposed," said Jones. "The perceived advantage of the IEEPA was that it allowed broad tariff coverage across the board to all industries."

Section 301

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 gives the US Trade Representative — now Jamieson Greer — broad authority to investigate whether other countries are violating existing trade agreements or hurting American businesses.

DeLong said that the first Trump administration leaned heavily on the provision to impose tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods and aircraft from the European Union.

But section 301 would require a formal investigation and even a public comment period.

"The problem with sec. 301, however, is that it requires a separate determination of specific foreign unfair or discriminatory trade practices, country by country," said Jones.

"The IEEPA, again, seemed to give the President more flexibility in declaring an emergency against all global imports into the US without the need to document specific foreign practices," Jones added.

Section 338

DeLong said Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 could theoretically allow any US president to impose up to a 50% tariff on countries that discriminate against the US. However, he said this would be a very uncommon approach that could again bring the tariff argument into uncharted territories.

"That has not been used — and I don't think I'm understating this —in decades, or ever," said DeLong of section 338. "That would be relatively new."

• Elon Musk predicted Trump's tariffs will trigger a recession later this year.
• Musk's comment comes amid a growing public fallout with the president.
• Wall Street has expressed similar concerns over Trump's tariffs.

Elon Musk predicted Donald Trump's tariffs will send the economy into recession, one of many verbal barbs the tech billionaire threw at the president on Thursday as their relationship collapsed into acrimony.

"The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year," Musk wrote on X while reposting another tweet that called Trump's tariffs "super stupid."

The morning began with Trump saying he was disappointed by Musk's opposition to his "One Big Beautiful Bill" during a press appearance to welcome the German Chancellor to the White House.

The feud intensified when Musk called out Trump's "ingratitude," and suggested establishing a new political party. The SpaceX cofounder also proposed decommissioning the company's Dragon spacecraft after Trump threatened to cut his government contracts, although Musk backed off that idea pretty quickly on X.

Fractures between the two emerged after Musk left his role recently at the White House. On Tuesday, Musk blasted the Republicans' tax-and-spending-cut bill, which Trump helped to shepherd through the House, calling it "pork-filled'" and a "disgusting abomination."

Musk isn't alone in criticizing the potential fiscal impact of this legislation. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated it could increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over a decade.

Other experts also agree with Musk that Trump's tariffs could have a negative impact on the US economy.

JPMorgan predicted a 60% chance of a US recession after Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on April 2. The bank adjusted the possibility down to below 50% recently after Trump paused most of his highest tariffs.

In a March interview with Fox News, Trump had also declined to rule out the possibility of a recession.

"I hate to predict things like that," said Trump.

"There is a period of transition," he added, "because what we're doing is very big. We're bringing back wealth to America. That's a big thing, and there are always periods of, it takes a little time, it takes a little time."

• Elon Musk and Donald Trump's friendship unraveled publicly over a tax bill dispute.
• Musk criticized Trump's tax bill, calling it the 'Big Ugly Spending Bill.'
• Here's how their recently fragile friendship fractured on Thursday, minute-by-minute.

Twenty-five minutes of live TV, more than a dozen posts on X, and three posts on Truth Social over the period of five hours (and counting) — that's how the already fractured friendship of Elon Musk and President Donald Trump publicly unraveled on Thursday.

The first signs of trouble began when Musk showed opposition to Trump's spending bill, the "One Big Beautiful Bill," though he never explicitly targeted Trump.

"Shame on those who voted for it," Musk tweeted on Tuesday, referring to Congress members who voted for Trump's tax cut bill.

Trump, for his part, had stayed uncharacteristically mum about Musk's criticism of the bill.

But that all changed on Thursday morning.

Here is a minute-by-minute breakdown of how the relationship between two of the most powerful men on the planet devolved.

11:20 a.m. ET

Musk began digging up Trump's old posts on what was then Twitter about the deficit, including one from January of 2013.

11:46 a.m. ET

Musk unearthed another old X post by Trump from back in July 2012, presumably as a swipe at the new Republican tax bill that many economists and the congressional Budget Office said would increase the country's deficits.

12 p.m. ET

Trump responded to Musk's attacks for the first time when answering press questions during a White House event to welcome German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

"And you know Elon's upset because we took the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles," said Trump. "And they're having a hard time, the electric vehicles. And they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy. Elon knew this from the beginning; he knew it from a long time ago."

12:07 p.m. ET

Trump's comments about Musk continued at the press appearance.

"He knew every aspect of this bill — better than almost anybody —and he never had a problem until right after he left," said Trump. "He said the most beautiful things about me. He hasn't said bad things about me personally, but I'm sure that'll be next. But I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot."

"People leave my administration, and they love us, and then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it, and some of them actually become hostile," Trump continued.

"I don't know what it is. It's sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it, but we have it with others, too. They leave and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour's gone. The whole world is different, and they become hostile," he added.

12:25 p.m. ET

Musk began a whirlwind of tweets soon after, responding in near real time to what Trump said during the press appearance.

"False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!" Musk posed on X.

12:46 p.m. ET

Musk then began a series of tweets directed at the president beyond the bill, including saying that without him, Republicans would have lost.

1:57 p.m. ET

Musk polls his X followers about creating a new political party "that actually represents the 80% in the middle." Mark Cuban quoted the post with three checkmarks.

2:23 p.m. ET

Musk gives Trump's bill — known on paper as the "One Big Beautiful Bill" — a new name: "Big Ugly Spending Bill."

2:37 p.m. ET

Trump responds to Musk with two consecutive posts on his own social media platform, Truth Social.

"Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!" Trump wrote.

"The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!" the president continued.

2:48 p.m. ET

Musk responds to Trump's posts on Truth Social, calling them "such an obvious lie."

2:49 p.m. ET

A minute later, Musk appeared to dare Trump to cancel government contracts with his companies.

3:10 p.m. ET

Musk makes another accusation.

4:06 p.m. ET

Trump posts on Truth Social again to defend his tax bill.

"I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress," Trump wrote.

"It's a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given. If this Bill doesn't pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that. I didn't create this mess, I'm just here to FIX IT," Trump added.

4:09 p.m. ET

Musk says SpaceX will decommission its Dragon spacecraft "immediately."

SpaceX's Dragon spaceships transport NASA astronauts and supplies to and from the International Space Station. Prior to partnering with SpaceX, the agency depended on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for crewed missions.

4:26 p.m. ET

Musk says that Trump's tariffs will "cause a recession in the second half of this year."

Some economists have also predicted that Trump's tariffs would hurt the economy, and Trump himself declined to rule out the chances of a recession back in March.

JPMorgan had predicted a 60% chance of a US recession after Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on April 2. The bank adjusted the possibility down to below 50% recently after Trump paused most of his highest tariffs.

4:43 p.m. ET

Musk retweeted what appears to be a video of Trump partying with Epstein from the 1990s, doubling down on his earlier statement about the Epstein files.

"This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Business Insider in a statement. "The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again."

Representatives for Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

A walkback

Musk took a softer tone later on Thursday night.

Some five hours after his post about decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft, he walked back the decision in a response to an X user.

"This is a shame this back and forth. You are both better than this. Cool off and take a step back for a couple days," X user Fab25june wrote on the platform.

"Good advice. Ok, we won't decommission Dragon," Musk wrote at 9:20 p.m.

In a separate exchange on X, billionaire investor Bill Ackman encouraged Musk and Trump to make up.

"I support @realDonaldTrump and @elonmusk and they should make peace for the benefit of our great country. We are much stronger together than apart," Ackman wrote.

"You're not wrong," Musk responded at 9:27 p.m.

• Wells Fargo said in a report that President Donald Trump's tariffs won't bring manufacturing back.
• High labor costs and a lack of workers would make building more factories an "uphill battle."
• US manufacturing needs $2.9 trillion in investment to reach 1979 employment levels.

President Donald Trump's push to revive American manufacturing through tariffs may face some hurdles.

Despite some high-profile commitments, including Nvidia's plans for a US-based supercomputer plant and Apple's pledge to invest $500 billion domestically, a new report from Wells Fargo economists predicts that bringing back offshored manufacturing jobs will be an "uphill battle."

"An aim of tariffs is to spur a durable rebound in US manufacturing employment," Wells Fargo analysts wrote in the report. "However, a meaningful increase in factory jobs does not appear likely in the foreseeable future, in our view."

The report attributes the potentially low factory job growth to high labor costs, a lack of suitable workers to fill vacant positions, and a subdued population growth from lower fertility rates and slower immigration.

"Higher prices and policy uncertainty may weigh on firms' ability and willingness to expand payrolls," the analysts added.

The tariffs are part of Trump's broader economic agenda to revive American manufacturing as a pathway toward middle-class prosperity. The tariffs are meant to hike the costs of imports to incentivize companies to make goods domestically.

"Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country," Trump said while announcing tariffs on April 2. "And ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers."

Some tariffs imposed on April 2 have been temporarily paused or greatly reduced, including tariffs on China. The 10% across-the-board tariff remains, as do some specific tariffs on Mexico and Canada, plus 30% in duties on China. Duties at their current level are still the highest they have been since the 1940s.

"In order for manufacturing employment to return to its historic peak, we estimate at a minimum $2.9 trillion in net new capital investment is required," Wells Fargo analysts wrote. "Assuming businesses are willing and able to invest such ample sums, questions over staffing remain."

The Wall Street bank says that US manufacturing employment currently stands at 12.8 million, down from its 1979 peak of 19.5 million. To get back to that mark, the US would need to add roughly 6.7 million jobs. Wells Fargo added that the figure is nearly the same as the entire pool of unemployed Americans, which in April was 7.2 million, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"Population aging, negative perceptions, and skill mismatches also underpin workforce concerns," Wells Fargo analysts wrote. "New jobs will require different skills than those previously lost."

In 2024, Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC said it delayed the opening of its Arizona chip factory due to a shortage of skilled workers. A report released in April 2024 by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute also found that nearly half of the 3.8 million new manufacturing jobs anticipated by 2033 could remain unfilled due to skill gaps and other population factors.

"Tariffs must be high enough to make the cost of domestic production competitive in the US market, and they also must be kept in place long enough for producers to bring on additional workers and expand capacity," the report concluded. "If the economic or political costs are deemed too high, the current administration could quickly dial-back prevailing duties further."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

• A business owner is labeling tariff costs as a separate line on the price tag of his electric bikes.
• Businesses, large and small, are hoping to retain consumer trust by showing how much tariffs increase prices.
• Business experts say consumer awareness of tariffs could spell trouble for Trump's polling rates.

When Jared Fisher found out his major supplier of electric bikes was raising its prices by 10%, he had a choice to make: eat the cost or pass it along to his customers.

"If you cut 10% into a bicycle margin, then you might as well get ready to have your exit strategy for your business because you're not going to be able to operate," Fisher, who owns several bike shops in Nevada and Utah, told Business Insider. "There's no way."

Instead, Fisher decided to be transparent with his customers about why prices were rising on some of his products. He added a new line item directly to the price tags on bikes hanging in his shops. On one bike he sells for $7,999, the price tag now shows an additional $300 "Government Tariff Charge."

"I have no problem labeling where this tax is coming from on my products," he said. "People need to know that so I have a fighting chance on my end."

On April 2, President Donald Trump imposed a 10% baseline tariff on all imports into the US, as well as additional tariffs on dozens of trading partners. Though some of the higher tariffs — with the exception of those on China and some on Mexico and Canada — are on pause, the sweeping 10% tariffs are still in place. And prices are starting to go up.

From brick-and-mortar retailers to online small businesses, many have told Business Insider that the tariffs are forcing them to pass the cost to consumers, and it's not because they want to.

To make matters worse for smaller operations, they do not have the same bargaining power with suppliers or cash flow as larger retailers like Walmart. Suppliers in some manufacturing hubs like China are also seeing ever-shrinking margins to help absorb the tariff shock.

"Small businesses are basically in danger of going out of business because of these high tariffs," Peter Cohan, associate professor of management at Babson College and a venture capitalist, told BI, "And they're trying to preserve the trust of their customers by being very transparent about why they're raising the prices."

"Maybe they're going to lose customers because of the higher rates, but at least being transparent will help reduce the damage," Cohan added.

Larger businesses may also have considered such transparency measures. After reports that Amazon is going to start displaying how much tariffs are contributing to the price of goods on its platform, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the idea a "hostile and political act." The e-commerce giant denied that it planned to display the cost of tariffs, saying its low-price section, Haul, had considered it for some items but then jettisoned the idea.

Chinese fast-fashion giants Shein and Temu — most affected by the 145% tariffs on China and the canceled de minimus exemptions — posted identical customer notices on their websites, saying that that there will be "price adjustments" because their "operating expenses have gone up" under "recent changes in global trade rules and tariffs."

At the end of April, Temu started adding "import charges" at checkout, which can double the price of the item. By May, Temu's main website appeared to have blocked US customers from seeing products shipped from China, and the site is filled with products marked "local" to signify they are at a warehouse in the US.

"Displaying tariff costs directly on product pages can offer strategic advantages for platforms like Temu and Shein," Nasim Mousavi, assistant professor at Georgia State University Robinson College of Business, told BI. "By itemizing tariffs, these platforms frame price increases as the result of external policy rather than their own pricing decisions."

"This transparency can enhance customer trust, reinforce a value-oriented brand image, and foster the perception that the platform is advocating on behalf of the consumer," Mousavi added.

According to a survey of 1,850 US adult citizens conducted between May 2 and 5 by the Economist and YouGov, 75% of those surveyed think that Trump's tariffs will increase their prices, and 61% would like businesses to display how much of a purchase price goes toward paying tariffs.

"The obvious reason why the White House wouldn't want businesses to show tariff costs is because it makes it obvious how much their policy is costing consumers," said Cohan. "It's going to drive down the poll ratings because consumers will be extremely aware of how much more they're paying and who's causing them to pay it."