Fortune

Gen Z is turning social media influence into real economic opportunity for local businesses, and big brands are moving to accelerate that shift. American Express is expanding creator partnerships and rolling out a national grants program to help small businesses capture young shoppers’ attention and wallets this holiday season. Small businesses are entering the peak shopping period navigating inflation, softer confidence, and shifting consumer habits, pushing many to seek new digital demand channels to stay resilient heading into year-end. With Small Business Saturday falling on Nov. 29, the stakes are high for local merchants to convert holiday traffic into sustained growth rather than a one-weekend bump. “Small business owners are navigating an environment where customer expectations and behaviors are changing quickly…And many of the small businesses we surveyed said some of the challenges they see are rising labor costs and building cash reserves to manage unexpected events,” Elizabeth Rutledge, chief marketing officer of American Express told Fortune. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eJZC9xWb

Federal authorities arrested four men for shipping contraband Nvidia chips, which are critical components for artificial intelligence companies. The men allegedly created an elaborate smuggling network that saw the chips shipped from Alabama through Malaysia and Thailand, and eventually to recipients in China, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday. The accused men failed to obtain such permission as they allegedly sought to evade export controls that restrict the shipment of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs). Read more: https://lnkd.in/eyhvuMpW

“If you should care about something else, and if you want something else, you should just not be here. It’s as simple as that.” The CEO of a crypto startup cofounded by Sam Altman thinks his company’s mission is so important that employees should care about their work and nothing else. Tools for Humanity CEO Alex Blania reportedly said during a staff meeting in January that any employee who thought differently had no place at the company. “We will neither fail, nor will we be an average outcome, and that’s what we want and that’s all I care about every day and all you should care about every day, and nothing else should matter,” he said in a recording reviewed by Business Insider. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eVQEGR74

In recent years, the relatively tiny ultrahigh-end segment of the all-inclusive sector has rocketed from tourism’s bottom-dweller to luxe travel industry darling. Quercus’s version includes no all-you-can-eat buffets or spa vouchers. Instead, the biodynamic farm offers a private woodfired sauna, horse-training lessons, and kayaking and fishing on the Flint River. Meanwhile, the big brands are salivating like cartoon coyotes. Marriott will add six new luxury all-inclusives between 2026 and 2029 in Mexico, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Brazil. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eJcfTRqR

“You want to own what I call the picks and shovels of AI,” Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies Hong Kong, said at the #FortuneInnovation Forum. It’s companies like Nvidia, those producing semiconductors and building data centers, that have made real profits from the AI boom, he added. “But it’s completely unclear to me who’s going to monetize and make money out of all this capex [capital expenditure],” Wood continued. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ezYViCmf

“There are signals that GLP-1s could be the first true longevity drug,” Alex Zhavoronkov, the founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, said at the #Fortune Innovation Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Top scientists from both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have suggested that GLP-1s could have broader effects than just tackling obesity and diabetes. “They found that the regular intake of this drug may reduce the incidence of many age-related diseases, including some CNS (central nervous system) disorders, liver disease, and kidney disease,” Zhavoronkov said. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gDN4JBsN

“We’re not thinking big enough,” Asia Partners co-founder Nicholas Nash said at the #FortuneInnovation Forum. “If Southeast Asian talent can be attached to companies that can scale beyond 40, 50 or 100 billion [dollars’ worth] of market cap, they will stay,” he added. The only way to get to that level, Nash argued, is consolidation. “Not one of our countries in ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] is big enough to produce a multibillion-dollar company,” he said, noting that fewer than 10 companies in Southeast Asia had a market value worth just 1% of Nvidia’s $4.6 trillion. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eyTnQGWZ

Will doctors be the next profession at risk from AI automation? “Clinicians are not going to be replaced by technology, but those who don’t use it will be replaced by those who do,” Zubin Daruwalla, who oversees clinical innovation at Singapore’s National University Hospital (NUH), said at the #FortuneInnovation Forum. Yingying Gong, founder of Yidu Tech Inc., was more optimistic about how AI and doctors will interact. China has an aging population, with around 300 million people over the age of 60. Hence, doctors have a heavy workload, seeing between 30 to 100 patients each day. Yidu Tech developed an AI copilot to assist doctors in their medical work. “We didn’t have to do much explaining,” Gong said, noting that doctors “very much welcomed” the help. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eittMPwp

If you had put your $1,000 into Berkshire Hathaway stock 60 years ago, you would now have a truly incredible $59,681,063. As astonishing as the numbers are, another facet of Warren Buffett’s career is at least as remarkable. Through it all, he has happily, exuberantly told the world exactly how he does it. He holds no investing secrets. Buffett bought his first stock when he was 11 years old, and he will retire at age 95. So here we offer 84 years of investment wisdom, condensed and explained—Buffett’s five top rules of investing. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gwyA4NXi

“I think we’re coming into an era of what we would like to call the re-globalization of regional hubs.” “Historically, we’ve been dominated by one major capital market, i.e., the U.S. and Wall Street,” Vikram Lokur, chief executive officer (Singapore) for Morgan Stanley Investment Management, said at the #FortuneInnovation Forum. Hong Kong, for example, has seen a surge of dual listings over the past year, both from companies listed in mainland China hoping to tap international capital, and U.S.-listed Chinese companies that want access to mainland Chinese investors. Read more: https://lnkd.in/e5NNrenU