Citigroup has tapped Shobhit Varshney, a longtime IBM executive, as its new head of AI, the latest sign of how Wall Street is racing to bring artificial intelligence deeper into banking. Varshney comes from IBM, where he was the head of data and artificial intelligence for the technology pioneer's consulting business. At Citi, he will report to Anand Selva, the bank's chief operating officer; and will work closely with the firm's chief technology officer, David Griffiths, to scale AI across the company, ac ...

One of Big Tech's last remaining RTO holdouts is officially sending employees back to the office. Microsoft is mandating employees work from offices at least three days a week, according to an internal email the company sent to staff on Tuesday.The mandate will happen in three phases beginning on February 23, 2026 with Seattle-area employees who live within 50 miles of a Microsoft office. It will then expand to other US offices and eventually internationally, according to the email from Microsoft HR chief ...

Today's the day for the event that Apple says will leave us in "awe."The tech giant is expected to make some big product announcements during its "awe dropping" event in Cupertino, including the new iPhone 17 line-up. The fall event is Apple's biggest day of the year as Tim Cook and other executives make their annual sales pitch for why customers should upgrade to the latest phone. Although Apple has kept its plans for today hush-hush, analysts and tech industry insiders say they're expecting a new slimm ...

When Brian Niccol joined Starbucks on September 9, 2024, he had a tall order ahead of him.Niccol, a retail veteran who led successful turnarounds at Taco Bell and Chipotle, joined the Seattle-based coffee chain at a low point in its business. Customers complained about long wait times, a buggy app, and understaffed stores that struggled to consistently deliver quality products. In July, the company reported six straight quarters of declining sales from Q2 in 2024 through Q3 of 2025.Upon taking the helm, ...

Japan's tariff negotiator said the US tariffs on Japanese goods will go down. Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's minister of economic revitalization, who has been steering trade talks with the US, made the announcement via an X post on Tuesday.In his post, Akazawa said that on Tuesday, September 16, the tariffs imposed by the US on Japan will be revised. He added that tariffs on automobiles and automotive parts from Japan will also be reduced. This is the latest development in negotiations between the US and Japan, ...

With every major private markets firm, and many smaller ones, racing to offer their products to wealthy retail investors, it's easy to forget that this was once anathema for the industry. Just ten years ago, most money invested in the private markets came from institutional investors, and the only way for regular people to get exposure was to be lucky enough to have a pension. Doug Ostrover, the co-CEO of Blue Owl and co-founder of GSO, now Blackstone Credit, is one of the private markets industry's privat ...

NBCUniversal is the latest major media company to call its employees back into the office. The company told employees on Monday that starting on January 5, 2026, NBCU's hybrid employees would be required to work in person at least four days a week. Workers would still have the option to work remotely on Fridays."We are better when we are together," said Adam Miller, NBCUniversal's chief operating officer, in a memo viewed by Business Insider. "As we have all experienced, in-person work and collaboration sp ...

Netflix, it's time to deepen your embrace of romance. That's one takeaway from a new report that crunched the numbers on how many viewing hours Netflix gets from different genres versus how much money it spends on them.The report by media veteran Hernan Lopez, founder of research firm Owl & Co., shows that Netflix gets the most bang for its buck from genres including romance, comedy, and kids and family. The report is based on Netflix's engagement reports and data from Ampere Analysis. Those three categor ...

There's more bad news for Tesla. Elon Musk's carmaker accounted for 38% of total EV sales in the US last month, according to data from research company Cox Automotive shared with Reuters. This is the first time since October 2017 that it has dropped below 40%, the report notes.Representatives for Cox Automotive and Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. According to Cox's report, Tesla once held more than 80% of the US EV market, but it has faced some challenges ...

BYD has set its sights on Tesla's European backyard. The Chinese EV maker announced on Monday that it would nearly triple the number of sales and service locations in Germany, the home of Tesla's European gigafactory, by the end of 2026.The German expansion comes as part of a larger European push that will see the number of BYD stores on the continent double to more than 2,000 next year, executives said in a press conference at the IAA Mobility summit in Munich. BYD, China's biggest automaker, has bet hea ...