Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
The Federal Reserve left rates how they already were. At yesterday’s meeting, the rates remained unchanged—but you can consult these projections for when they might actually start to come down.
The EU delayed its green rule in a big win for farmers. The protests are working.
China is now the world’s largest car exporter. Say good-bye to the throne, Japan—and it’s all thanks to electric vehicles.
Boeing’s fourth-quarter earnings report was great. But the last month has been so turbulent that CEO David Calhoun ditched a 2024 financial forecast altogether.
Walmart is adding 150 stores in the next five years. That’s big news after a three-year drought in new locations.
The trillion-dollar drug
It’s starting to look a lot like not one, but two pharmaceutical companies will be the first healthcare companies to have a market cap above $1 trillion, where currently only six companies sit. In the entire world. Now Norway’s Novo Nordisk (maker of Ozempic and Wegovy) and US-based Eli Lilly (maker of Zepbound) are both more than halfway there.
Some eye-opening digits:
1%: Share of the billion people living with obesity who have yet to be treated, according to Gemma Game, head of health care sector strategy for Norway’s sovereign wealth fund
31%: Jump in sales reported by Novo Nordisk in 2023
>2 months: Amount of time Zepbound has been on the US market
Elon didn’t get his pay package. Now what?
The Tesla CEO-slash-richest person alive (at time of writing, though you never know) was dealt a major financial blow on Tuesday when a Delaware state court judge voided his $56 billion executive compensation package from Tesla.
What can he do next?
🥺 Appeal: He probably will, but it would be difficult to get the ruling overturned.
🗣️ Negotiate: There are ways to get around it all, but it would be tricky.
Quartz’s Bruce Gil consulted the experts about Elon’s options, and examined what it all means for his net worth.
You can’t spell Peugeot without GPT
Peugeot will be the next car that incorporates ChatGPT into its voice assistant, following in the tire-tracks of Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz.
Use it to access vehicle controls, ask it a navigation question, or just have a little chat! ChatGPT is here to help with sometimes accurate results! Automaker Stellantis said the feature will first be available in France, Britain, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and will be coming to all new Peugeot vehicles, including the new e-3008.
Of course, the more you interact with your car means the more opportunities your car has to interact with data brokers.
More from Quartz
👀 7 billionaires who could overtake Elon Musk as the richest person in the world
📈 Russia is spending so much invading Ukraine that the war is actually good for its economy now
📈 📈 AI enthusiasm is driving Microsoft’s cloud business higher
😣 Point systems used to boost workplace culture miss the point
☕ Starbucks’ CEO says the Israel-Hamas war hurt sales — but keeps his stance vague
📺 Give AI curiosity, and it will watch TV forever
Surprising discoveries
Most TikTokkers are older than you think. According to CEO Shou Chew’s opening statement to US Congress today, the average user is over 30.
Bloody Marys might be able to fight off food poisoning. Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but it does turn out that tomato juice can kill salmonella.
“Bland” influencers are Having A Moment. At least Hailey Bieber, wife of Justin, is pocketing a lot of cash with her very vanilla beauty products.
Humans probably had Neanderthal neighbors. Stone tools discovered by archaeologists in Northern Europe make the case that we overlapped in history with our ape-ier ancestors.
Colleen Hoover makes some extra dough by selling tracksuits on her website. Having the top two bestselling books of 2023 wasn’t enough, apparently. We obsessed over the baroness of bestsellers in this week’s Quartz Weekly Obsession. Get it in your inbox every Wednesday by signing up here!
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, track suits, and tomato juice to [email protected]. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Susan Howson and Gabriela Riccardi.