Hi! Offboarded: Pinterest just fired 2 engineers after they wrote custom scripts tracking who'd been affected by the company's recently announced job cuts… perhaps taking the total layoff round to 702 from the planned 700 or so. Today we're exploring: |
- Big, big box: Walmart just became the first traditional retailer to hit a $1 trillion market cap.
- Chips are down: PepsiCo is cutting snack prices on the back of customer complaints.
- Just browsing: Firefox will let users turn off AI features.
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Walmart joins the trillion-dollar club, becoming only the third non-tech American firm to do so |
Walmart's market capitalization crossed the $1 trillion mark for the first time on Tuesday, making it the first traditional retailer to reach the milestone — and joining a club dominated by big tech. |
So far, only 11 US companies have ever reached the four-comma club. Tech behemoths such as Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, and Alphabet crossed the threshold years ago and have since raced far beyond it, now competing in the $4 trillion+ range. Nevertheless, it's still a remarkable achievement for the 63-year-old retail giant, which joins just two other non-tech firms to have ever reached $1 trillion — Berkshire Hathaway and Eli Lilly, though the latter has since slipped back below the milestone. |
After very little growth from 2000 to 2010, Walmart's stock has been on a pretty relentless run for much of the last decade — a rally that has recently accelerated, rising roughly 15% year-to-date and about 28% over the past year, far outperforming the S&P 500 and pulling ahead of major retail rivals like Amazon, Costco, and Target. The rally reflects Walmart's recent success in pulling in both price-sensitive shoppers and higher-income consumers, a thriving high-margin advertising business, and the expansion of its e-commerce business and same-day delivery, which now reaches 95% of US households. Recent AI partnerships with Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT, along with the stock's addition to the Nasdaq-100 Index, have only helped improve investor sentiment. The milestone comes amid a leadership transition, with John Furner taking over as CEO on February 1, succeeding longtime veteran Doug McMillon. Walmart is set to report fourth-quarter earnings later this month. |
PepsiCo is cutting snack prices across the US with consumers "feeling the strain" |
Inflation-weary snack fans who struggle to resist picking up a pack of Lay's, Doritos, or Flamin' Hot Cheetos might find the next walk down the aisles marginally less painful, after PepsiCo announced it'd be cutting prices across a range of its snacks on Tuesday. The snack and beverage behemoth has been inundated with email and phone complaints about rising snack prices from cash-strapped consumers of late, per exclusive reporting from the WSJ. If retailers follow PepsiCo's price cut recommendations, US customers could see lower prices on shelves starting this week, according to the company, which topped Q4 estimates yesterday. Although the business' execs said rising snack prices have come alongside broader inflation and soaring production costs, there's no escaping the fact that food products have ballooned into the most lucrative part of the North American Pepsi business by some stretch. |
In recent years, the revenue split between the PepsiCo Foods North America division — previously separated as the Frito-Lay and Quaker Foods segments — and its Beverages North America division has gotten a little closer, with an almost exact 50/50 split in each of the last 4 years. Growing more disparate, however, is the share of profit between the two: last year, the Foods division posted $6.2 billion worth of operating profit on $27.5 billion in sales, while Beverages returned just $1.1 billion on $28.2 billion worth of revenues. |
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AI Won't Replace Your Workforce. But a Bad AI Strategy Could Replace You. |
Despite the hype, less than 1% of layoffs in 2025 were attributable to productivity gains from AI, while net job growth from AI is expected to grow by 2028. The real risk? 50% of GenAI projects are abandoned, and 49% of leaders fail to demonstrate AI value. With 200,000+ in-depth client conversations on AI, 6,000+ AI-related written insights and 1,000+ use case analyses, Gartner is an indispensable resource in navigating everything AI. Gartner helps C-Level leaders — from marketing, HR and finance, to supply chain, sales and legal — find real ROI. And, AI is always front and center at Gartner conferences. |
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Firefox will soon let users block AI features in its browser |
When the Mozilla Foundation launched Firefox back in 2004, its mission was to provide the online world with a secure, open-source alternative to the web's then-dominant browser, Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Cut to a little over 2 decades later, and Firefox is still trying to set itself apart in the crowded browser landscape. On Monday, Mozilla announced in a blog post that a new "AI control" update to Firefox will enable users to toggle individual AI features on and off, such as translations, enhanced tab grouping, and its built-in AI chatbot. |
The preference settings will be available on Firefox 148, which launches on February 24, and will allow users to "block current and future generative AI features" and "review and manage" these at their discretion. The pivot towards opting in for AI comes at a time when other leading browsers are increasingly building the tech into their products as the default. |
Last week, Google unveiled plans to embed more Gemini-powered AI features, including image generator tool Nano Banana, into Chrome — the biggest web browser today by some way, commanding an almost monopolistic ~71% share of the market, per Statcounter figures. Microsoft is betting on an experimental AI-powered Copilot Mode in its Edge browser, while Apple's Safari, the second-biggest web browser by market share at 15%, has also recently outlined plans to offer AI-powered searches. Before this announcement, even Firefox itself had spent the past year trying to draw consumers with newfangled AI tools, like its "shake to summarize" iPhone feature. Rather than fighting a losing battle against tech giants like Google, maybe Mozilla now thinks that appealing to the cohort that wants less to do with artificial intelligence might help it to win back at least some search engine purists. |
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- Rome-ing charges: Tourists must now pay €2 ($2.36) to get a good view of the Trevi Fountain, one of the Italian capital's most popular hotspots that attracts 10 million+ people a year.
- America's "hire less, fire less" mode remains in full swing, with private companies adding just 22,000 jobs in January — less than half the 45,000 consensus forecast.
- Bitcoin dropped to its lowest level since November 6, 2024, the day after President Trump was elected, briefly dipping below the $74,000 mark yesterday.
- Top dog: Penny, a 4-year-old Doberman pinscher, beat more than 3,000 other dogs to win Best in Show at the 150th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
- Despite the companies' reported differences over the last few days, Nvidia is now said to be planning to pour $20 billion into OpenAI.
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| - Our World in Data explores the most common religious affiliations around the world.
- Breaking down: Mapping the changing cost of car insurance across the US.
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Off the charts: KPop Demon Hunters fans will be delighted to learn that LEGO just announced a new collaboration with the Netflix hit — but which franchise has dominated the brickmaker's licensed sets for decades? [Answer below]. |
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