The Luxury Home Market Confronts Its New Reality: Not Enough Buyers and Sellers
Sales at the high end continue to decline, as homeowners pull back on listing properties and would-be buyers grapple with high interest rates and recession fears
8 min
When Joan Dangerfield, wife of the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, first walked into her Los Angeles home in the early 2000s, she knew immediately that she would buy it. The Art Deco-style estate, perched in the coveted Bird Streets above L.A.’s Sunset Strip, had dramatic views spanning Downtown Los Angeles to the ocean and Catalina Island.
“I stepped 3 feet into the house and I knew it was the place for me,” said Dangerfield, who paid $6.25 million for the property. “It swept me away.”
Roughly two decades later, Dangerfield, 70, is trying to sell the home—and finding that would-be buyers aren’t as eager as she once was. The $17.8 million listing for her property has been active since February and while she has received several full-price offers, they have come with complicated contingencies, such as requiring her to provide seller financing, she said.
“I figured it would sell in a week, but didn’t quite work out that way,” she said of the house, which is comparably priced with other homes in the area. “It was a shock for me to just watch it sit there on the market.”
Luxury sellers across the country are finding themselves in similar circumstances, as the high-end real-estate market faces a perfect storm of rising interest rates, recession fears and population shifts in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sales of luxury homes nationwide, defined as the top 5% of homes based on estimated market value, declined by 24.13% in the three months ended June 30, compared with the same period last year, according to a new report by brokerage Redfin. Inventory of luxury homes was down 2.39% during that same period, while the median sales price for a luxury home was up by 4.55%. In many metros, homeowners appear to have pulled back on listing homes in light of the market shift. New luxury listings were down by 17.08% year-over-year in the three months ended June 30, Redfin’s data shows.
Sales of non luxury homes also fell during the same period, but that drop—19.42%—was smaller than the decline in the luxury market, according to Redfin.
“The luxury market is definitely hurting in terms of transactions,” said Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist. “Even when you compare it to the rest of the market, it’s looking like luxury has really cooled off.”
The report marks the continuation of a market slide that began in earnest last spring, following an unprecedented deal-making frenzy during the pandemic. Redfin’s data shows that sales began to plummet significantly as early as June 2022, as buyers began to grapple with inflation and a volatile stock market. In the first quarter of 2023, luxury sales volume was down by 33.3% year-over-year.
Some of the biggest drops in sales volume over the three months ended June 30 were in markets that seemed unstoppable during the pandemic. The Miami metro area saw the largest drop in activity, for instance, with a 40.14% year-over-year reduction in luxury transaction volume for the three months ended June 30, according to Redfin.
Other metro areas with large drops included Nassau County on New York’s Long Island, where luxury sales volume dropped 39.34% year-over-year, followed by New York City, down 35.98%, Los Angeles, down 36.17%, and Chicago, which was down 34.13%.
Real-estate agents and industry experts said the luxury market’s performance has been uneven. That often comes down to pricing: In areas where sellers have capitulated to the declining market and dropped prices, transaction activity is holding relatively steady. But in markets where sellers are clinging to pandemic-era prices, activity has taken a nosedive.
In the San Francisco area, for instance, where median sales prices for luxury homes were down by 12.73%, there was only a 4.04% drop in transaction volume. “Because the prices have fallen, it’s opened up the opportunity for people who say, ‘I might finally be able to buy,’ ” Fairweather said.
In contrast, in markets like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, prices have remained consistent or even risen slightly from last year, but transaction activity is way down. “There’s less demand, but it’s not enough of a pullback in demand to draw down prices,” Fairweather said.
In Miami, industry insiders say it is lack of supply, not lack of demand, that has caused the drop in activity. That’s thanks in large part to the mass migration to Miami and buying frenzy during Covid. “People who are going to sell have already sold,” Fairweather said, noting that new luxury listings in the Miami area were down by 33.1% year-over-year in the three months ended June 30. “There are definitely people who are moving to Miami who want to buy homes, but there are not necessarily homes for sale.”
Heigo Paartalu is among those buyers frustrated by a lack of inventory properties.
Paartalu, a Cigarette boat dealer and CEO of YachtWay, a digital boat show company, said he and his wife purchased a modern, five-bedroom house on Hibiscus Island, a gated island in Miami Beach, for $6 million in late 2021. The home value shot up 25% after about a year, so they cashed out and sold the house for $7.5 million in early 2023. Now, with a budget of around $10 million, they are looking for a waterfront property in the area without luck. “The inventory is very low and we’re not seeing the prices come down, which is what we were hoping for,” he said. The couple is currently renting in Miami’s Edgewater neighbourhood for $24,000 a month.
Jeff Miller of ONE Sotheby’s International Realty, Paartalu’s broker, said some homeowners aren’t selling because prices have gotten so high they won’t be able to buy something else in the area. Others don’t want to walk away from low mortgage rates. “It’s creating a huge shortage in our supply of available inventory and homes,” he said.
Even with a limited supply of inventory in Miami, Dina Goldentayer of Douglas Elliman said buyers have more leverage than they did last year for things like home inspections and closing credits. “I’m no longer taking the position of, ‘Take it or leave it,’ ” she said. “There are clear shifts that are making it seem like a normal market.”
In Los Angeles, the issues in the luxury market go far beyond an inventory crunch. Real-estate agent Juliette Hohnen of Douglas Elliman estimated that her business is down roughly 50% in that market from this time last year. At the height of the pandemic-fuelled market, she said, she had signed as many as 10 deals in a month. This July, she has only one so far. She chalked up the drop to rising interest rates, an outward migration from Los Angeles to lower-tax states, the introduction of a new mansion tax and more recently, the strike by both the actors’ and writers’ unions. She said she was slated to show an Oscar-winning writer around L.A. homes this month, but he called off his search in favour of renting amid the strikes.
The rising interest rates are keeping inventory low and stymying sales activity, Hohnen said. “Anyone who bought in the last few years has got these crazy low interest rates, usually between two and three percent,” she said. If those buyers sell now, they’ll be incurring rates that are almost double and potentially taking a loss on the sale.
Hohnen said she bought a $2.525 million home in 2021 in the Sag Harbor area of the Hamptons, securing an interest rate of just 1.875% for an adjustable-rate mortgage. Normally, she would buy, renovate and flip, but not this time, she said. “I’m never going to sell that house. I could never afford it if I was buying now. The monthly expenses on a new house would be too high.”
Dangerfield said she didn’t foresee how detrimental the mansion tax would be for her home’s prospects. The new measure, which was implemented April 1, requires sellers to pay 4% on sales of homes priced between $5 million and $10 million, and 5.5% on sales of properties at $10 million or above. “We were flooded with shoppers in March. Then, things just came to a screeching halt. It was such a change in the amount of people coming to view the home that it felt like it wasn’t even on the market,” she said.
One of Dangerfield’s agents, Marcy Roth of the Eklund Gomes team at Douglas Elliman, said the ULA tax “tainted buyer sentiment,” especially when combined with other issues like rising interest rates. “Everything is muddy and offers are complicated,” she said. “There aren’t a lot of quick, clean deals.”
In Chicago, real-estate agent Katherine Malkin of Compass said the city’s downtown area and so-called Gold Coast have been most affected by the slowdown. She said quality of life concerns like crime and an outward migration of some of the city’s businesses has put a damper on sales. Citadel, for instance, the hedge fund headed by billionaire Ken Griffin, recently left the city and moved to Miami. Other businesses that recently relocated their headquarters from Chicago include Boeing.
“You have businesses that are leaving because of the taxes,” Malkin said, noting that some prominent Chicago philanthropists and entrepreneurs have also left the city in the past few years. “They went to Florida, they went to Texas, they went to states that had a much lower tax circumstance. That’s been a difficult thing for people to grasp.”
Some sellers, Malkin said, have been reluctant to lower prices significantly—median luxury sales prices were actually up by more than 6.82% in Chicago in the three months ended June 30—which has been a further drag on sales. “No person of means wants to give their property away when they feel that they’ve invested in it,” she said.
When sellers have capitulated to the market, it has led to activity, Malkin said. She said one of her clients, who public records identify as private-equity executive John Weaver “Jay” Jordan II, recently lowered the price of a roughly 20,000-square-foot townhome in the Gold Coast neighbourhood to $15.75 million from the $18.75 million it listed for in 2020. While the home hasn’t yet sold, the price cut resulted in a new wave of interest, Malkin said. Jordan, who paid $1.8 million for the house in 1996 and remodelled it extensively, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Although luxury median sale prices in the New York metro area are up by 7.69% for the three months ended June 30 compared with the year-earlier period, the slower pace of sales has allowed some opportunistic buyers to ink great deals. Vanessa Lucin of the Corcoran Group recently worked with buyers who paid $6 million for an Upper West Side apartment that was first listed for $7.495 million in June 2022. The roughly 3,383-square-foot apartment has two private balconies and is currently configured as a four bedroom, according to StreetEasy. Lucin said the couple is relocating to New York from California and began searching in January, when the market had slowed from its Covid peak. “There was another offer on the table but it wasn’t going anywhere,” she said.
Daniel Parker, co-head of Compass New Development Marketing Group, said some recent condo closings reflect deals struck during the more robust market in 2021 and 2022. In pockets of the city, such as Billionaires’ Row and Hudson Yards, developers have offered significant discounts. “They are embracing the market we have rather than the market they wish we had,” he said.
However, there are signs of life. Agents in New York reported a recent pickup in big-ticket deals this summer; in particular, large downtown condos have been the “golden sweet spot” of the market, said luxury real-estate agent Donna Olshan. A string of mega deals downtown over the past few weeks include the $52 million off-market sale of a penthouse at 150 Charles Street, the $50 million off-market sale of penthouse at 151 Wooster Street, and a signed contract for a penthouse asking $52 million at One High Line in Chelsea.
Sylvia Hughes, Lucin’s client, said she and her husband, John Hughes, saw several apartments before making an offer on their new four-bedroom on the Upper West Side. “I think the seller was motivated. This apartment had languished,” she said. By the time they saw it, the original $7.495 million asking price had been reduced to $6.195 million and their offer of $6 million was accepted. “I was beginning to wonder if we should have offered less.”
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To mark its 30th anniversary, Parmigiani Fleurier has unveiled the Carillon Tourbillon, a limited-edition timepiece of just five pieces that combines a tourbillon with a four-note chiming mechanism; inspired by a 19th-century pocket watch restored by the Maison.
Salesforce reported record first-quarter fiscal results, with revenue rising 13% year-on-year to $11.1 billion and strong growth across its AI business. The company’s Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue reached nearly $3.4 billion, prompting Salesforce to raise its full-year revenue outlook as demand for AI-powered enterprise solutions continues to accelerate.
Saudia is set to receive 12 new aircraft throughout 2026 as part of its fleet expansion strategy aimed at boosting capacity, improving efficiency, and strengthening global connectivity. The move supports the airline’s long-term growth plans and Saudi Vision 2030, with Saudia’s fleet expected to reach 161 aircraft by the end of the year.
OMODA & JAECOO is showcasing how AI-powered humanoid robots and autonomous parking technologies could support the UAE’s smart city ambitions. Through its AiMOGA robotics platform and VPD self-parking system, the company is exploring future applications across airports, malls, public services, and urban mobility ecosystems.
3 min
As the UAE continues accelerating its transformation into one of the world’s leading smart city ecosystems, OMODA & JAECOO is highlighting the growing role humanoid robots and AI-powered smart mobility technologies could play in shaping future urban experiences through its AiMOGA intelligent robotics platform and advanced VPD (Valet Parking Driver) technology.
Developed jointly with the AiMOGA team, the company’s humanoid and intelligent service robots are already being deployed across real-world public service environments globally, showcasing how artificial intelligence, robotics, and smart mobility technologies are increasingly converging beyond traditional automotive applications.
The latest demonstrations include the deployment of AiMOGA’s intelligent traffic robot “Wuyou” for real-world street patrol and traffic guidance duties, as well as humanoid robots supporting international sporting events through multilingual interaction, public assistance, and venue guidance services.
OMODA & JAECOO has also demonstrated its advanced VPD (Valet Parking Driver) technology during the Chery International Business Summit in China, showcasing how AI-powered driverless self-parking systems could support future smart mobility ecosystems. The technology enables vehicles to autonomously locate parking spaces, self-park, and return to drivers through intelligent summon functions — offering future convenience for busy urban environments, shopping destinations, hotels, airports, and smart city infrastructure.
OMODA & JAECOO says these technologies represent the next phase of intelligent mobility ecosystems — where AI-powered systems move beyond vehicles and become integrated into future smart city infrastructure.
The initiative aligns closely with the UAE’s broader ambitions around artificial intelligence, smart mobility, and intelligent urban development. Potential future applications could include AI-powered assistance at airports, malls, tourism destinations, public transportation hubs, and major events.
The AiMOGA robots are powered by technologies derived from intelligent automotive systems, including autonomous navigation, environmental perception, multimodal sensing, AI interaction systems, and cloud-connected data platforms.
Humanoid robot “Mornine” is capable of multilingual interaction in 11 languages and can assist with hosting, customer guidance, and public engagement, while quadruped robot “Argos” has demonstrated autonomous navigation and assistance capabilities across complex public environments.
OMODA & JAECOO says the project reflects its wider “Human-Vehicle-Road-Cloud” ecosystem vision, where intelligent technologies used in advanced vehicles can also support broader smart living and public service scenarios.
AiMOGA robots are currently operating in more than 30 countries and regions worldwide and have already been deployed across more than 100 real-world scenarios including showrooms, exhibitions, urban services, and public interaction environments.
The robotics initiative comes as OMODA & JAECOO continues expanding its global footprint following the company’s milestone of surpassing 1 million cumulative global vehicle sales within just three years. In the UAE, the brand has also crossed 5,000 vehicle sales while rapidly strengthening its retail and aftersales presence across the country.
OMODA & JAECOO currently operates multiple showrooms across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, offering an expanding line-up of intelligent and new energy vehicles including the OMODA C5, OMODA C7, JAECOO J7 SHS (Super Hybrid System), and the flagship JAECOO J8 SHS. The company says advanced intelligent technologies including VPD will gradually become available in select future models.
Commenting on the company’s future intelligent ecosystem vision, Shawn Xu, CEO of OMODA & JAECOO Automobile International, said: “Artificial intelligence and robotics are becoming an increasingly important part of future mobility ecosystems. Through AiMOGA and our intelligent driving technologies, we are exploring how smart systems developed for vehicles can also support future urban services, public interaction, and smart city experiences. The UAE is one of the world’s most forward-looking markets in AI and smart mobility, making it an important market for our future ecosystem vision.”
The company believes future smart cities will increasingly rely on AI-powered collaboration between humans, intelligent vehicles, and robotics systems to improve efficiency, convenience, and user experiences.
As Dubai and Abu Dhabi continue investing heavily in AI and future urban technologies, humanoid robotics and intelligent autonomous mobility technologies could emerge as major pillars of future smart city ecosystems across the region.
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Paine Schwartz joins BERO as a new investor as the year-old company seeks to triple sales.
Inditex, the owner of Zara, reported stronger sales growth in May, with revenue rising 11.5% despite higher costs and economic uncertainty linked to tensions in the Middle East. The fashion giant said its diversified supply chain has helped maintain operations, while all of its nearly 480 stores across the region remain open.
2 min
Spanish fashion giant said sales growth picked up last month despite a difficult market environment for apparel companies as the war in the Middle East pushes up raw-material and shipping costs.
The group, home to high-street labels like Zara, Massimo Dutti and Bershka, said Wednesday that sales rose 11.5% on a constant-currency basis in May compared with the prior-year period. That marked an acceleration from the sales increase of just shy of 9% it booked for its first quarter through April 30 to a total of 8.75 billion euros ($10.18 billion).
“We are very pleased with the strong evolution of sales,” finance chief Andres Sanchez Iglesias said during a call.
May’s performance confirms the group’s ability to step up market-share gains at a time when European demand has become more challenged, analysts at Jefferies wrote in a note. “Today investors were looking for reassurance that the group is well set to navigate through the toughening global backdrop which has emerged over the past three months,” they said.
Apparel retailers face the impact of higher costs caused by the war in the Persian Gulf, along with worsened consumer sentiment. Companies are also grappling with the volatility of oil prices, a raw material used in the fashion industry for the production of clothing in synthetic fibers such as polyester and as a lubricant for manufacturing machinery.
“We have been able to rapidly adapt our supply chain to ensure uninterrupted product flow to our stores globally,” Sanchez said. The diversification of Inditex’s operations and supply chains enabled the group to adapt its transportation methods and choose between air, sea, or land transport, depending on the most viable option, he said.
The stock was up 5.4% in European morning trading.
The company said that all of its roughly 480 stores in the Middle East region, which are operated under a franchise, remain open and that it hasn’t seen any major impact from energy-driven price inflation.
For the year through January 2027, Inditex said it continues to anticipate a broadly stable gross margin compared with a year earlier.
The sports-car maker delivered 279,449 cars last year, down from 310,718 in 2024.
Many of the most-important events have slipped from our collective memories. But their impacts live on.
AWS has launched the Agentic Shopping Assistant, a new AI-powered solution that enables retailers to build their own conversational shopping experiences in as little as 60 days. Based on technology developed for Amazon’s AI shopping tools, the platform helps brands deliver personalized product recommendations, strengthen customer engagement, and maintain direct relationships with shoppers in the age of AI-driven commerce.
3 min
As Amazon has continually iterated to create a leading AI shopping assistant, it gave us valuable insights about what capabilities, tools, and features matter most to the over 300 million customer who used it last year. Amazon’s AI shopping assistant drove nearly $12 billion in incremental sales for Amazon last year alone. Last week, Amazon announced Alexa for Shopping, an even more capable next iteration bringing together Rufus and Alexa+.
Today, AWS announces a new AI retail solution that brings learnings and expertise gained from building Alexa for Shopping for the first time to retailers outside Amazon, packaged into the Agentic Shopping Assistant on AWS.
AI-powered shopping assistance, built for the retail industry
The solution provides a technical foundation with architecture guidance, starter code, and support from AWS experts and system integrator partners, allowing them to launch their own conversational shopping experiences in weeks—rather than the years it would take starting from scratch. It is tailored to each retailer’s specific catalog, customer base, and shopping environment. Each deployment is customized to match the retailer’s brand voice and domain expertise.
Why retailers need their own AI shopping presence
Chat agents can surface recommendations based on shoppers’ needs, making it easier for customers to navigate retailers’ catalogs.
As AI agents become the primary interface for shopping decisions, retailers face a critical choice: build their own AI presence or risk becoming dependent on general-purpose answer engines that don’t serve their brand or customers. The business case is compelling: conversational shopping sessions convert at 3.5 times the rate of traditional keyword search.
Retailers already possess deep vertical knowledge about their products, customers, and categories that no general-purpose AI can match. A specialty retailer knows its offerings better than any intermediary. Restaurant chains understand their menus and customer preferences in ways no platform can replicate, and no one knows their products better than consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands. The Agentic Shopping Assistant on AWS gives retailers the proven technology foundation to act on that knowledge while maintaining direct customer relationships.
How Kate Spade built an AI shopping assistant with AWS
Kate Spade used this solution to create its own conversational shopping experience. On April 13, Tapestry launched the Kate Spade AI Gift Concierge, the first production-ready retail AI assistant built with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, purpose-built for the moment in shopping when emotions run high but confidence runs low: gift buying.
Recognizing that 53% of shoppers report stress during gift purchases, the agent engages shoppers in natural dialogue about occasion, recipient, and style to translate uncertain intent into curated, confident product recommendations. The experience was grounded in how people shop for gifts—informed by real shopper behavior and insights drawn from the questions customers asked Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping and the answers that drove successful outcomes. The result is an interaction model that feels less like search and more like talking to someone who knows the brand and knows how to give a great gift.
Built on the Haiku 4.5 model with Amazon Bedrock providing observability, authentication, and evaluations, the team moved directly into production and completed roughly 2.5 months of rigorous testing before becoming customer-facing. As Yang Lu, chief information and digital officer at Tapestry, shared at launch: “We are excited about the possibilities agentic commerce can bring to our customers. AWS brought the recipe, but together we built the customization our consumers needed.”
What’s included: AWS services, architecture, and deployment timeline
An AI-powered style advisor recommends products through natural conversation—the kind of experience validated by more than 300 million Alexa for Shopping customers.
The Agentic Shopping Assistant on AWS is built on AWS services such as Amazon Bedrock, AgentCore, and OpenSearch, validated through billions of real shopping interactions on Amazon.com. Amazon serves as “Customer Zero” for AWS, meaning every component has been tested in one of the world’s most demanding retail environments.
However, each brand’s deployment is customized to match their specific catalog, customer base, shopping environment, and brand voice. Retailers get the Retailers get a technical foundation refined through years of powering AI shopping on Amazon.com, while keeping their competitive advantages from proprietary customer insights, domain knowledge, and brand relationships. Instead of launching and operationalizing from scratch, retailers can deploy this proven solution in roughly 60 days with hands-on guidance from the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center team.
How retailers can get started
Retailers can’t afford to wait to build conversational shopping capabilities as customer expectations shift. The Agentic Shopping Assistant on AWS provides the proven foundation, and retailers bring the domain expertise that makes their shopping experience unique.
Two coming 2027 models – the first of the “Neue Klasse” cars coming to the U.S. early next year – have been revealed.
Following the successful launch of its Palais Collection, MAISON de SABRÉ has unveiled a new modular handbag system offering more than 720 styling combinations.
To mark its 30th anniversary, Parmigiani Fleurier has unveiled the Carillon Tourbillon, a limited-edition timepiece of just five pieces that combines a tourbillon with a four-note chiming mechanism; inspired by a 19th-century pocket watch restored by the Maison.
7 min
THE MAISON’S SOUND SIGNATURE
For its 30th anniversary, Parmigiani Fleurier unveils a creation that does more than mark a milestone. It reveals an essential part of its history, its culture, and its singular way of conceiving haute horlogerie.
With the Carillon Tourbillon, the Maison opens one of its most intimate realms: that of sounding time. A place where restoration, mechanical memory, and attentive dialogue with materials and contemporary invention converge.
This atelier piece, limited to five examples, is born of a conviction that has accompanied Parmigiani Fleurier since its origins: before creating, one must understand. Understand historic objects, their architecture, their energy, their inner logic. Understand what time has deposited within them, then transform that knowledge into a contemporary expression.
Inspired by an early nineteenth-century Perrin Frères pocket watch, from the Sandoz Collection, restored in the ateliers of Parmigiani Fleurier in 2000, the Carillon Tourbillon does not reproduce a form from the past. It carries forward an intelligence: that of sound, gesture, balance and horological construction.
Entirely conceived, developed, constructed, assembled and finished within the Maison, it bears the vision of Michel Parmigiani and the savoir-faire of the watchmakers, constructors, artisans and finishers of the Manufacture.
The Carillon Tourbillon is more than an anniversary piece. It is a way for Parmigiani Fleurier to reveal to the world what lies at the founding of its haute horlogerie: a creation born of restoration, nourished by transmission, constructed from within, and guided by an intimate pursuit of mechanical and aesthetic harmony.
PERRIN FRÈRES : FROM RESTORATION TO RESONANCE
At the origin of the Carillon Tourbillon lies a seminal piece: a pocket watch signed Perrin Frères, made in Neuchâtel in the early nineteenth century, from the Sandoz Collection, and restored in the workshops of Parmigiani Fleurier in 2000.
This historic masterpiece was not approached as a model to reproduce, but as a living object to understand. It carried within it a knowledge of sound, energy, balance and mechanical architecture, extending even to the serpentine presence of its gongs, an immediately recognisable formal signature that the Carillon Tourbillon reinterprets within a contemporary construction.
This lineage illuminates one of Parmigiani Fleurier’s deepest convictions: history is never a static archive. It is a source of creation.
UNDERSTANDING AS THE FIRST ACT OF CREATION
Understanding before drawing. Restoring before inventing. Listening to the inner logic of objects before proposing a new expression.
A restorer before becoming a creator, Michel Parmigiani shaped his perspective through close contact with historic timepieces, automata, clocks and chiming mechanisms.
From this practice emerged a singular way of thinking about watchmaking from within: through the hand, through memory, through the mechanical intelligence of objects.
The Carillon Tourbillon emerges directly from this lineage: that of a Maison that learned to create by first learning to understand. It expresses a vision of haute horlogerie in which complexity is never an effect, but a necessary architecture.
Michel Parmigiani remained closely involved throughout its development, working alongside the watchmakers and constructors, guiding, refining and transmitting a vision of mechanics as an architecture that is legible, enduring and profoundly mastered.
This piece does not merely bear the signature of the Maison. It is the expression of its most intimate culture.
FROM TOWER TO WRIST: THE INTIMACY OF SOUNDING TIME
From medieval bell towers to the great chiming watches, the carillon belongs to a singular history: that of time made audible.
Once, it gave rhythm to the life of the city. Reimagined within the intimate space of a timepiece, it becomes a personal experience. The tradition of the carillon reminds us that sound is never a mere effect: it carries memory, gesture, continuity.
In the Carillon Tourbillon, this culture of sound leaves the public realm to inhabit the space of the wrist. Time no longer imposes itself. It reveals itself, on demand, through the vibration of a miniature architecture.
The Carillon Tourbillon is unmistakably a Parmigiani Fleurier creation of today. Its language neither looks to the past with nostalgia nor seeks demonstrative effect. It expresses its modernity through the clarity of its construction and through its relationship with volume, transparency and light.
The redesigned white gold case, the vertical gadroons inspired by the classical columns so dear to Michel Parmigiani, the glass box sapphire crystal, the visible hammers on the dial side and the hand-hammered Morning Blue dial; the aesthetic signature of the thirtieth anniversary places the piece firmly within a contemporary expression. One of its most recognisable gestures lies in its four serpentine gongs. Directly inspired by the Perrin Frères pocket watch restored by Parmigiani Fleurier, their long undulating curves embrace the architecture of the Carillon Tourbillon, giving it its visual identity, structuring space and marking the reading of the hours.
Here, acoustics become form.
Between silver and azure, the Morning Blue dial enters into dialogue with this architecture without ever dominating it. Its deliberately restrained proportions free the space required for the presence of the hammers and the unfolding of the gongs.
Here, mechanics do not add themselves to form: they structure it.
Yet within this contemporary presence remains a profound memory: that of gesture, of sound, of restored objects, and of the watchmakers who conceived of time as a living material.
The Carillon Tourbillon embodies a rare tension: a contemporary creation, shaped by the intelligence of the past
VIRTUOSITY HELD IN RESERVE
The piece also expresses a distinctly Parmigiani Fleurier philosophy of visibility.
The tourbillon and the power-reserve indicator are positioned on the reverse of the watch, where the movement opens fully to the eye. On the dial side, the reading remains clear, balanced, almost silent.
Virtuosity does not seek immediate effect. It reveals itself through depth, through observation, through use, through time spent with the object.
This restraint does not diminish the chiming complication. It stages it with precision.
On the dial side, the hammers are visible in both their function and in their mechanical choreography. They reveal the very instant in which time is about to become sound.
Around them, the serpentine gongs envelop the piece like memory turned into architecture. Their presence introduces an almost musical tension between silence and release, between anticipation and vibration.
A CALIBRE TUNED FOR RESONANCE
The calibre is a true demonstration of craftsmanship, composed of 456 components meticulously assembled by hand. Its construction is based on a highly sophisticated mechanical architecture built around two superimposed barrels, ensuring the transmission of power through the gear train and guaranteeing an exceptional 12-day power reserve, a rarity in a timepiece incorporating a chiming complication.
The third barrel, dedicated to the striking mechanism, is automatically rewound when the striking slide is activated, and only when the minute repeater is engaged.
The construction of the calibre has also been conceived to make the mechanics fully legible in motion. The components related to the striking mechanism are positioned on the case back side, offering the eye a view of the mechanism unfolding at the very moment when it transforms time into sound. The open architecture reveals the inner logic of the complication: the circulation of energy, the cadence of the hammers, the vibration of the gongs.
The mechanism incorporates a regulating flywheel, ensuring a constant flow of energy and a perfectly regular cadence. This essential component provides a fluid chime, without acceleration or slowing, for an acoustic experience mastered from the first strike to the last.
In the Carillon Tourbillon, the movement is therefore not only a motor. It becomes an instrument. It measures, it stores, it releases, it regulates, it gives sound to time.
A MELODY IN FOUR NOTES
The four gongs compose a complete and nuanced chime: one low-pitched gong for the hours one high-pitched gong for the minutes two additional gongs, each with its own note, for the quarters
Together, they create a four-note melody – distinctive, harmonious and immediately recognisable.
The striking mechanism is equipped with an integrated regulating flywheel, ensuring a constant flow of energy and a perfectly regular cadence.
This essential component guarantees a fluid chime, free from acceleration or slowing, for an acoustic experience that remains controlled from the first strike to the last.
A CASE BUILT FOR RESONANCE
The white gold case extends the lineage of the Armoriale, with its vertical gadroons inspired by the classical columns so dear to Michel Parmigiani.
This choice continues an acoustic sensibility deeply rooted in his approach to haute horlogerie: in a chiming timepiece, the case does more than house the movement; it contributes to the transmission of sound — its density, clarity and resonance.
White gold offers here a controlled resonance, in harmony with the spirit of the Carillon Tourbillon.
Reimagining this architecture to accommodate a dial, a tourbillon and a carillon striking mechanism transforms the aesthetic language of the Armoriale into a complete horological construction.
Integrated into the case band, the striking slide calls for a gesture that is simple, direct and almost ceremonial.
MADE FOR TRANSMISSION
Produced in only five examples, the Carillon Tourbillon belongs to a different temporality from that of novelty.
Its rarity is not a launch statement. It is the natural consequence of a creation that demands time, hands, attentive listening and an almost confidential mastery.
This piece is conceived for transmission, for collections that look beyond the instant, for those who recognise in a horological creation not only an achievement but a culture.
With the Carillon Tourbillon, Parmigiani Fleurier does more than celebrate thirty years of existence. The Maison reveals one of the deeper sources of its creative philosophy: a vision of haute horlogerie born of restoration, nourished by transmission, constructed from within, and capable of transforming complication into culture.
Thirty years after its founding, Parmigiani Fleurier’s voice in time continues to resonate.
THE SERPENTINE SIGNATURE
The four serpentine gongs constitute one of the most recognisable signatures of the Carillon Tourbillon. Visible beneath the glass box sapphire crystal, they trace long undulating curves that envelop the piece and give the acoustic architecture its singular presence.
This form derives directly from an element observed on the Perrin Frères pocket watch restored by Parmigiani Fleurier. Reinterpreted within a contemporary creation, it becomes more than a historical recollection: it becomes a principle of construction, at once acoustic, aesthetic and spatial.
The serpentine curves accompany the reading of the hours and inscribe sound within the very form of the watch. They lend the chiming mechanism a fluid, almost organic presence, perceptible even in silence.
Here, the gong is not merely an acoustic component. It becomes sign, structure and memory.
MAKING RESONANCE VISIBLE
The movement, too, becomes a field of expression.
Its components are adorned with the mezzo vibrato decoration, a language previously explored by Parmigiani Fleurier on the dial of the Armoriale, the Maison’s emblematic Objet d’Art and now transposed into the very heart of the movement.
Executed entirely by hand by the engravers, surface after surface, this slow and demanding work brings the material to life.
Here, the gesture leaves the surface of the dial to enter the mechanical architecture itself. It acts as a visual resonance of the chiming mechanism: what the carillon makes heard, the mezzo vibrato makes visible.
MORNING BLUE, HAMMERED INTO LIGHT
The Morning Blue dial, crafted in hand-hammered white gold, extends this dialogue between material, light and vibration.
Between silver and azure, the Morning Blue tone engages with the metal without ever concealing it.
This hammered texture forms one of the defining aesthetic signatures of Parmigiani Fleurier’s thirtieth anniversary, in continuity with the Toric Anniversary creations.
It expresses a shared idea of the hand: a living gesture, never standardised, through which each surface carries its own subtle variation.
Paine Schwartz joins BERO as a new investor as the year-old company seeks to triple sales.
New research suggests that bonuses make employees feel more like a mere cog in a wheel.
Salesforce reported record first-quarter fiscal results, with revenue rising 13% year-on-year to $11.1 billion and strong growth across its AI business. The company’s Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue reached nearly $3.4 billion, prompting Salesforce to raise its full-year revenue outlook as demand for AI-powered enterprise solutions continues to accelerate.
3 minSalesforce (NYSE: CRM), the world’s #1 AI CRM, today announced results for its first quarter fiscal 2027 ended April 30, 2026.
First Quarter Financial Highlights
- Current remaining performance obligation of $33.6 billion, up 14% year-over-year (“Y/Y”) and 13% in constant currency (“CC”)
- Remaining performance obligation of $67.9 billion, up 11% Y/Y
- First quarter subscription & support revenue of $10.6 billion, up 14% Y/Y and 12% in CC, including $428 million Informatica contribution
- First quarter revenue of $11.1 billion, up 13% Y/Y and 12% in CC, including $444 million Informatica contribution
- First quarter GAAP operating margin of 21.1% and non-GAAP operating margin of 34.8%
- First quarter GAAP diluted net income per share of $2.42, up 52% Y/Y and non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $3.88, up 50% Y/Y
- First quarter operating cash flow of $6.7 billion, up 3% Y/Y, and free cash flow of $6.6 billion, up 4% Y/Y
- Returned $27.5 billion to shareholders, including $27.1 billion in share repurchases and $365 million in dividends
- Entered into $25 billion accelerated share repurchase (“ASR”), with upfront share delivery of 103 million shares representing approximately 80% of total shares expected to be repurchased, with final settlement expected in Q3 FY27
“This was an outstanding quarter for Salesforce — record revenue, record deals, and cash flow,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “Agentic AI is the biggest growth opportunity for our customers, and for Salesforce. We’re the #1 Agentic CRM, with Agentforce now powering every Customer 360 application and helping tens of thousands of businesses across every industry transform into Agentic Enterprises. With more than $1 billion in Agentforce ARR, $3.4 billion in combined AI and data ARR, and 3.8 billion Agentic Work Units delivered for our customers, Salesforce has never been more essential.”
“We remain confident in delivering organic revenue acceleration in the second half of FY27, driven by growth in Sales, Service, Slack, Agentforce, and Data 360,” said Robin Washington, President and Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Salesforce. “We are executing against our profitable growth framework and remain on track to deliver on our FY30 targets while maximizing shareholder value.”
Salesforce Company Highlights
- Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue (“ARR”) reaches nearly $3.4 billion, up over 200% Y/Y, including $1.1 billion Informatica Cloud ARR and $1.2 billion Agentforce ARR, up 205% Y/Y
- 3.8 billion Agentic Work Units (“AWUs”) delivered to date across Agentforce and Slack, growing 111% quarter-over-quarter (“Q/Q”)
- Bookings from Agentforce One Edition and Agentforce for Apps, premium SKUs anchored in Sales and Service including the value from Agentic capabilities, grew nearly 60% Y/Y
- Processed more than 28.6 trillion tokens to date, up 152% Q/Q
- More than 50% of Agentforce and Data 360 bookings came from existing customers in Q1
- In Q1, Data 360 ingested 52 trillion records, up 136% Y/Y, including 35 trillion via Zero Copy, up 277% Y/Y, and processed 12 terabytes of unstructured data
- Processed nearly 1 trillion API calls across Core products in Q1
- Slack Model Context Protocol (“MCP”) surpassed 1 million active users within six weeks of launch
- Public Sector Industry Cloud ARR surpasses $2 billion, up 23% Y/Y in Q1, with Public Sector AWUs up nearly 400% Q/Q
Guidance
- Initiates second quarter FY27 revenue guidance of $11.27 billion to $11.35 billion, up 10% – 11% Y/Y and 10% in CC, including slightly above 4pts Informatica contribution
- Raises midpoint of full year FY27 revenue guidance, now expects full year FY27 revenue of $45.9 billion to $46.2 billion, up 11% Y/Y and 10% – 11% in CC, including approximately 3pts Informatica contribution
- Maintains full year FY27 subscription & support revenue growth guidance of slightly under 12% Y/Y and approximately 11% in CC, including approximately 3pts Informatica contribution
- Updates full year FY27 GAAP operating margin guidance of 20.6%, and maintains non-GAAP operating margin guidance of 34.3%
- Updates full year FY27 operating cash flow growth guidance and free cash flow growth guidance to approximately 4% – 5% Y/Y to reflect the impact of the $25 billion debt issuance for the ASR
Salesforce’s guidance includes GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures.
Two coming 2027 models – the first of the “Neue Klasse” cars coming to the U.S. early next year – have been revealed.
Parts for iPhones to cost more owing to surging demand from AI companies.
Saudia is set to receive 12 new aircraft throughout 2026 as part of its fleet expansion strategy aimed at boosting capacity, improving efficiency, and strengthening global connectivity. The move supports the airline’s long-term growth plans and Saudi Vision 2030, with Saudia’s fleet expected to reach 161 aircraft by the end of the year.
2 minSaudia, the national flag carrier of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, continues its fleet expansion through ongoing planned deliveries of 12 new aircraft throughout 2026, reinforcing its long-term transformation strategy focused on growth, operational efficiency, and enhanced global connectivity.
The continued fleet expansion strengthens Saudia’s position as a leading global airline by increasing operational capacity, improving network flexibility, and supporting the development of new international destinations while enhancing the overall guest experience.
This growth reflects Saudia’s strategic commitment to fleet modernization in line with global aviation standards and evolving guest expectations. Through the integration of next-generation aircraft and advanced cabin products, Saudia continues to enhance its role in connecting the world to the Kingdom.
Following the introduction of Saudia’s first Airbus A321XLR, the Airbus A321neo further enhances the airline’s narrow-body capabilities. The aircraft features 20 Business Class seats and 168 Guest Class seats, with upgraded cabin design aimed at improving comfort, efficiency, and onboard experience.
The aircraft are equipped with high-speed inflight connectivity and improved seating, supporting both guest experience and operational performance.
His Excellency Engr. Ibrahim Al-Omar, Director General of Saudia Group, said: “Saudia’s fleet expansion strategy reflects a disciplined approach to building the capacity, efficiency, and readiness needed for the airline’s next phase of growth. In a highly competitive aviation sector, modernizing and growing the fleet must be guided by clear market insight, network requirements, and alignment with national priorities under Saudi Vision 2030. This level of planning also extends to operational readiness, ensuring that each new aircraft entering service is supported by the required operational and maintenance capabilities”.
He added: “Preparing the workforce for fleet expansion is just as important as preparing the aircraft themselves. Saudia has already graduated new cohorts of pilots, cabin crew, and maintenance specialists through training programs aligned with the highest international aviation standards, ensuring operational readiness as new aircraft continue to join the fleet. With Saudia’s fleet expected to reach 161 aircraft by the end of the year, additional cohorts are currently undergoing training to support future deliveries. This reflects Saudia’s continued commitment to developing national talent and strengthening local content capabilities”.
Saudia’s ongoing fleet expansion supports the Kingdom’s aviation and tourism ambitions under Saudi Vision 2030 by increasing global connectivity, enabling tourism growth, and strengthening Saudi Arabia’s position as a global aviation hub.
New research suggests that bonuses make employees feel more like a mere cog in a wheel.
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
The global smartphone market is facing its sharpest decline on record, with shipments expected to fall 14% in 2026, according to IDC. While Android devices could see a 20% drop, Apple is outperforming rivals thanks to stronger supply chain positioning and growing anticipation around its upcoming AI-powered iPhone updates.
2 min
Smartphone Slump. The smartphone has run into tough times. Sales of everyone’s favorite device could see the largest decline on record this year, according to market tracker IDC.
Worldwide smartphone shipments are expected to decline 14% in 2026 to 1.09 billion units, according to IDC. That’s down from IDC’s February forecast of a 12.9% decline and would mark the steepest annual contraction in smartphone history, the research firm said.
There’s one potential ray of light: While the industry outlook might be getting worse, estimates for Apple, AAPL +0.82%, iPhone sales are actually improving.
IDC now expects iPhone shipments to decline 5.2% this year, better than the previous forecast for an 8.1% decline. Handsets powered by Android, by contrast, could see a 20% year-over-year shipment drop, according to IDC.
The expected decline in smartphone shipments is being driven in part by the elevated cost of memory, a critical component in the buildout of artificial intelligence data centers. There’s a global shortage of most components used to power AI, like memory, as demand far outpaces supply. That’s led to soaring costs, a boon for memory makers like Micron Technology and a headwind for phone makers.
In recent months, other factors have emerged that are challenging smartphone sales.
“The U.S.-Iran war has added a fresh layer of cost pressure for smartphone OEMs, driven by rising oil prices and transportation costs,” Nabila Popal, IDC senior research director, wrote in the firm’s latest report. Combined with higher memory costs, these pressures are leading to vendors reducing shipments, raising prices, and concentrating on pushing out higher priced phone tiers, Popal added.
“That’s elevating smartphone [average selling prices] to a record $550, up $100 from last year,” she said.
Apple was better prepared than peers for the global chip shortage, according to IDC.
“Apple has done three things that few of its competitors have managed: it secured memory supply early, it built a portfolio strong enough to drive a remarkable turnaround in China, and it positioned the iPhone 17 to capture demand exactly when consumers in developed markets are extending replacement cycles and trading up,” Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for worldwide client devices at IDC, wrote.
Analysts expect Apple to show off highly anticipated AI updates at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off on June 8. Apple is also expected to launch an expensive foldable iPhone this year. Strong demand for high performing AI and a physical redesign of the iPhone could bring in new customers and lead existing ones to update their current devices.
Apple shares have risen 15% this year. The stock was up 0.7% Wednesday afternoon, on pace to close at a record.
Paine Schwartz joins BERO as a new investor as the year-old company seeks to triple sales.
Americans now think they need at least $1.25 million for retirement, a 20% increase from a year ago, according to a survey by Northwestern Mutual
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has unveiled five exclusive Black Badge Cullinan commissions created in collaboration with renowned artist Cyril Kongo, transforming each motor car into a one-of-one contemporary artwork. The collection features hand-painted interiors, bespoke Starlight Headliners inspired by the “Kongoverse,” and striking exterior details that reflect the bold and expressive spirit of Black Badge.
6 min
“Creativity and imagination are the forces that define Rolls-Royce, shaping motor cars that are as individual as their owners. Our Private Offices, where clients co-create the most complex Bespoke commissions, directly reflect this belief. It was conversations within these spaces where the desire for bold contemporary art was identified among a uniquely daring and likeminded group of Rolls-Royce collectors. To bring this idea to life, we collaborated with Cyril Kongo, whose expressive, uncompromising style resonated perfectly with the spirit of Black Badge. What followed was an unprecedented collaboration, with Kongo working with and among our Bespoke Collective of designers, craftspeople and engineers to bring these extraordinary motor cars to life. Five unique Black Badge Cullinan Private Commissions are the result, each a unique work of art in its own right ,and represents the complete fusion of two unmistakable creative worlds”, Domagoj Dukec, Director of Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
“When I first saw Black Badge Cullinan, I felt compelled to create my own interpretation of the universe it belonged to – what I call ‘The Kongoverse’. It is a place of fantasy, mathematical formulas, symbols, pyramids, atoms and imagined planets. Rolls-Royce welcomed these ideas and gave them form – that’s what made it special. It was a conversation, using my visual language and Rolls-Royce’s way of making, with the motor car itself as the canvas. To bring that to life in collaboration with the brand’s artisans has been an extraordinary experience,” Cyril Kongo, Artist.
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars presents Black Badge Cullinan by Cyril Kongo; five exuberant Private Commissions featuring veneer and leather interior surfaces individually hand-painted by world-renowned multi-disciplinary artist, Cyril Kongo. All five motor cars share the same creative theme, but each features a unique expression of Kongo’s work. This project has been curated through the marque’s Private Offices in New York, Seoul, and the original Private Office at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood.
Black Badge Cullinan is a powerful canvas for Kongo’s work. As the darker, more subversive alter-ego of Rolls-Royce, Black Badge is the most daring expression of the brand. This mirrors the intensity of Kongo’s art, which appears on the Starlight Headliner, picnic tables, fascia, and Waterfall between the rear seats.
Using the interior surfaces of Black Badge Cullinan, Kongo brought ‘The Kongoverse’ – the artist’s aesthetic universe conceived for the collaboration with Rolls-Royce – to life within the motor car. This unique expression is shaped by destiny, imagination, and the power of individuality: themes that became central to Kongo during this landmark project.
An Unprecedented Collaboration
“What made this collaboration so special was the constant conversation between my universe and Rolls-Royce’s. Every idea was treated with care and curiosity. I was fully immersed in the brand’s creative studio,” Cyril Kongo, Artist.
To bring his vision to life, Rolls-Royce embraced Kongo as a member of the marque’s Bespoke Collective of designers, engineers and artisans. Though the marque has a rich heritage of collaborating with leading creatives, this project represents an unprecedented depth of co-creation. From the outset, Kongo was embedded within the Bespoke Collective, working alongside the Rolls-Royce teams at the Home of Rolls-Royce. He was involved in every stage of the project’s conception, design and realisation, with a dedicated space created for him, where Kongo painted each element by hand.
“The way we worked together with Cyril Kongo was unprecedented. Six months before production began, we brought him to the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood and immersed him in our world, meeting our specialists and craftspeople, sharing our tools and techniques, and placing our full paint palette at his disposal. When we came to co-create the motor cars, we set up dedicated workspaces within our Bespoke facilities, where Cyril and our specialists worked hand-in-hand, integrating his artistic language into each element. The collaboration fostered a continuous exchange of ideas and a shared spirit of curiosity and creative confidence. This fully embedded, in-house approach gave Cyril the freedom to explore his vision in the moment, true to the spontaneous nature of his art,” Phil Fabre de la Grange, Head of Bespoke, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
Vivid Worlds: Adventures in the Kongoverse
“My art reflects the infinite power of imagination – picturing worlds that do not exist, but which could. To bring this vision to life with a Rolls-Royce was unforgettable,” Cyril Kongo, Artist.
Each motor car shares the same interior color treatment: a Black foundation with vivid bursts of color. For the first time, the interior is divided into four distinct zones, each defined by a contrasting colorway: Phoenix Red for the driver’s seat, Turchese for the front passenger’s seat, and Forge Yellow and Mandarin for the rear. These colors are expressed through stitching, piping, seat inserts and the ‘RR’ monograms on the headrests, as well as the lambswool carpets. From this shared palette, Kongo hand-painted five individual interior artworks, transforming each motor car into a true one-of-one collector’s piece.
Starlight Headliner: The Kongoverse, written in stars
A hand-painted Starlight Headliner – a roof lining creating the impression of a serene night sky within the motor car with 1,344 fiber-optic ‘stars’ – is the focal point of each Black Badge Cullinan by Cyril Kongo. In each artwork, Kongo introduces imagined planets and constellations alongside references to quantum physics – a subject that has fascinated him since sharing a studio with his brother, who is a physicist. Equations and formulae are embedded within his compositions, symbolizing the infinite potential of the imagination: a theme echoed in the infinity symbol, which codifies all Rolls-Royce Black Badge motor cars.
To realize his vision, Interior Surface Centre craftspeople prepared more than 70 paint colors, giving Kongo complete creative freedom to bring his artwork to life. Each composition was applied using a combination of sponges, airbrushes and brush tools.
After painting the Starlight Headliner, Kongo worked closely with Bespoke engineers to define the precise placement and color of all ‘stars’. Each ‘star’ was counted and individually marked by the artist before being painstakingly hand-punched and placed by the marque’s artisans. Each Starlight Headliner features various combinations of Blue, Phoenix Red, Forge Yellow, Cobalto Blue, Twickenham Green or Lime Green illuminations and eight Shooting Stars, including a final ‘star’ that spans the entire length of the ceiling – a Rolls-Royce first.
As a final, hidden detail, Kongo’s signature ‘tag’ motif is painted on the leather lining inside the sun visor and inside the luggage compartment lid. This hallmark design is also faithfully recreated in fine embroidery on the door leather.
Hand-painted interior surfaces: a continuous composition
“We talked about how to make the piece groove, how to keep the rhythm inside the motor car. For me, painting is like jazz. You move, but everything stays connected,” Cyril Kongo, Artist.
Each Black Badge Cullinan by Cyril Kongo features a Bespoke woodset individually hand-painted by the artist, extending across the fascia, center console, rear console, Picnic Tables and the Waterfall between the rear seats. Together, these elements form a single, continuous composition within the motor car.
Ahead of Kongo’s arrival, the Interior Surface Centre prepared each of the 19 veneered pieces by painting them in black and mounting them on specially created fixtures within the marque’s paint laboratory. Working directly onto these surfaces, Kongo applied his signature Kongoverse designs using airbrushes of varying sizes to achieve different levels of detail.
To enhance and protect the artworks, Rolls-Royce artisans applied ten layers of lacquer to each surface. Each piece was then sanded and polished to a brilliant finish, ensuring the depth and durability expected of a Rolls-Royce interior.
Bespoke Exterior: A Powerful Canvas
“I want people to discover this artwork step by step. The more you explore, the more you see. The exterior should only hint at the universe inside,” Cyril Kongo, Artist.
Each Black Badge Cullinan by Cyril Kongo motor car is presented in a rich Blue Crystal Over Black finish: the deep black paint is further elevated with a lacquer infused with blue particles that shimmer in sunlight, allowing the surface to appear almost blue in certain light. In a Rolls-Royce first, each features a Gradient Coachline: Phoenix Red transitions to Forge Yellow along the left side, Mandarin fades into Turchese along the right, with Kongo’s distinctive ‘tag’ symbol incorporated as a Bespoke motif within both. In another Rolls-Royce first, behind each 23-inch Part Polished Black Badge alloy wheel is a different coloured brake calliper: Phoenix Red, Turchese, Forge Yellow and Mandarin – colours selected to match the Coachline and the vivid colour accents in the interior.
The Phoenix Red ‘tag’ graphic used in the exterior Coachline is carried through to the Bespoke Illuminated Treadplates and the black Bespoke umbrellas concealed in the doors, where it appears as a subtle motif on the canopy.
Curated by Private Offices: The Power of Connection
The Black Badge Cullinan by Cyril Kongo project has been curated by Rolls-Royce Private Offices in Seoul, New York, and the original at Goodwood. Private Offices are creative hubs, available by invitation only, which serve as extensions of the Home of Rolls-Royce and further elevate the experience of commissioning a Bespoke Rolls-Royce motor car.
Each Private Office has a dedicated Rolls-Royce team based permanently in the region. Their deeply personal relationships with clients give them a unique insight into the cultural cues, passions, and interests of local collectors. It is through this lens that the Cyril Kongo collaboration took shape as both an artistic statement and a reflection of contemporary collector culture.
All five Black Badge Cullinan by Cyril Kongo motor cars are allocated to collectors worldwide.
Two coming 2027 models – the first of the “Neue Klasse” cars coming to the U.S. early next year – have been revealed.
Interior designer Thomas Hamel on where it goes wrong in so many homes.
AI chatbots are becoming more personalized through memory features, but experts warn that outdated or misunderstood information can quietly influence future responses, raising concerns around privacy, bias, and emotional reinforcement.
5 min
Brian Del Rosario, a software engineer and part-time city-council member in a small town in Utah, uses AI chatbots for everything from meal planning to managing his schedule. In some of those conversations, he revealed he had a spouse and three children.
Then, after he and his wife separated, Del Rosario had to mention it to the chatbot so it wouldn’t include his wife when planning a future trip. But once he did, the chatbot latched onto the divorce.
When he asked for help managing his schedule, it suggested he might be stretching himself thin because of the divorce. When he vented about a frustrating day at work, it tied his stress back to the divorce.
He says he told the chatbot, “I wasn’t trying to have you opine about my divorce at every chance.” The chatbot, says Del Rosario, “wouldn’t let go of it.”
One of the best things about chatbots is that they have a long memory, learning more about you from one conversation to the next. The result is a smarter assistant that knows your writing style, remembers your dietary restrictions or picks up a project where you left off.
But that great memory also carries some drawbacks. It can get stuck on misunderstood or outdated information. It can feel invasive. And it can make it harder to turn a new page in your life.
In other words, you may be over it, but your chatbot isn’t.
Forever facts
Since ChatGPT introduced memory in early 2024, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft’s Copilot have all added their own versions. Their approaches differ, but the basic idea is the same: The chatbot remembers what you have told it and uses that to shape future responses. Google’s Personal Intelligence feature can even pull from a user’s Gmail, Photos and YouTube activity.
One problem: It may be remembering things that aren’t about you at all. For instance, a health question asked on behalf of a child or parent can be mistaken for your own. Ask about symptoms of ADHD for your child, and weeks later when you ask for productivity advice, the chatbot may tailor its suggestions around attention difficulties it thinks you have.
Google, an Alphabet unit, acknowledged a version of this problem in a blog post about its Personal Intelligence feature, describing a hypothetical case where the system saw hundreds of photos of a user at a golf course and assumed he loved the sport, when really he was just there for his son. (In the hypothetical, the user had to tell the chatbot he doesn’t like golf.)
Google says it has introduced a feature that lets users keep personalization on but block specific information from resurfacing in conversations with the chatbot. OpenAI, meanwhile, says it has shipped an update for Plus and Pro users that improves how memory finds and retrieves details. Microsoft says that users can update or delete specific memories (or everything, if they choose). They can also turn personalization and memory off entirely at any time. Anthropic declined to comment.
In a shared account, common enough between partners or in small businesses, the risks multiply. One person uses the chatbot to polish a résumé. Later, when someone else on the account asks an unrelated question, the chatbot might reference that person’s recent career move or suggest next steps for a job search as part of the answer.
Memories can also go stale. Say you told the chatbot you were training for a marathon six months ago. Since then you tore your ACL, but you never mentioned that. Now every meal plan and fitness suggestion is calibrated for someone who’s highly active. You’re following advice built for a version of you that no longer exists.
A real downer
Del Rosario experienced something similar. He had mentioned he was trying to lose weight, and the chatbot started bringing up that fact everywhere, including when he was looking for restaurant recommendations while out of town.
“It was like, ‘Thanks for being the buzzkill about my vacation,’ ” he says. “I wasn’t actually planning to stick to my diet on this trip.”
Similarly, Mike Taylor, a tech consultant for media and software company Every in Hoboken, N.J., once mentioned to a chatbot that he was a British expat. Subsequently, he says, the chatbot recommended a “proper pint” at a local bar, a tip he didn’t find useful. “I’m here for American dive bars, not the British ones,” he says. “That’s why I moved here.”
Taylor has turned his AI chatbot memory off, so that he knows exactly what’s shaping how it responds to him. “The LLM [large language model] doesn’t know who you are, and therefore it won’t bias the results you get,” he says.
Indeed, AI memory can shape results in ways that can be hard to detect. Joshua Joseph, the chief AI scientist at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center, compared the effect to a social-media feed and the way a few posts you linger on can quietly reshape everything you see afterward.
Say you mention you’re stressed about money in a conversation about something else entirely. Weeks later, you ask the chatbot for career advice, and it steers you toward higher-paying jobs rather than roles that might be a better fit, because it “knows” you’re financially anxious. You would never know why the advice felt off, because the chatbot hasn’t flagged which memories it is drawing on.
“It definitely steers, it definitely impacts results,” Joseph says. “And we don’t really know how much.” He keeps memory turned off on his own chatbot accounts.
A chatbot that remembers everything can also make it harder for people to move on from their own past. Lucy Osler, a philosophy lecturer at the University of Exeter who studies how artificial intelligence shapes cognition, says chatbots use facts to construct a narrative about who you are, and feed that narrative back to you as though it were fact. If you tell your chatbot you’re feeling insecure and anxious, that becomes how it sees you, and may keep reminding you of that even if you’ve moved on.
“That might confirm certain self-narratives I have about myself and make them sound more real,” Osler says. “They can box you in.”
Negative patterns
Being reminded you were anxious months after the fact can be upsetting. But it can also do real harm. Chatbots are designed to be agreeable, to build on your version of reality rather than question it. Osler says this makes chatbots capable of reinforcing delusional thinking.
This concern has led the Electronic Privacy Information Center to draft legislation around chatbot safety for teenagers, a population particularly vulnerable to the sycophantic tendencies of these tools. A key provision calls for wiping memory between sessions, specifically to prevent chatbots from building on harmful mental states over time.
Del Rosario eventually came up with his own approach. After the divorce kept leaking into unrelated conversations, he started dedicating separate chatbots to separate parts of his life and using anonymous mode for anything sensitive.
He still values it when it works, like when it knows his children need car seats on a road trip, or when it reminds him he has a lot on his plate. His mom died two years ago, and between that, the divorce, the children and work, the chatbot is sometimes the only thing that gets the full picture.
“It feels good to be seen, even if it is by an AI chatbot,” he says.
Major AI assistants let users turn off memory entirely, and each offers some way to view, edit or delete what’s been stored. But many users don’t know about these newer capabilities, or never check these settings. Here are some tips for making sure the memory feature works to your advantage:
Learn what your chatbot knows about you. Go to your settings—in ChatGPT it is under Personalization, in Claude and Gemini it is in the memory section—and review what’s there and delete if necessary.
Use temporary chats for anything sensitive. Or just don’t tell it anything sensitive. The controls—and names—for temporary chat can differ from app to app, but there is often a button at the top of the page.
Try turning memory off entirely to see how it changes your results. You might find you prefer the trade-off.
Treat it like a social-media profile. It is worth checking in and updating on occasionally, because it is shaping what you see whether you look at it or not.
Many of the most-important events have slipped from our collective memories. But their impacts live on.
Following the devastation of recent flooding, experts are urging government intervention to drive the cessation of building in areas at risk.
Saudi Arabia’s GACA has issued the first operational permit for drone-based delivery of medicines and medical supplies during the 2026 Hajj season in Makkah’s holy sites. The move reflects the Kingdom’s push to adopt advanced technologies in serving pilgrims while improving the speed and efficiency of medical and logistics operations under Saudi Vision 2030.
< 1 min
The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has issued the first operational permit for limited drone-based delivery of medicines and medical logistics to Terra Drone Arabia within the holy sites in Makkah during the 2026 Hajj season.
This reflects the authority’s commitment to adopting advanced technologies in the service of pilgrims.
The permit supports GACA’s efforts to advance the aviation sector, localize innovative solutions, and improve operational efficiency and response speed for medical and logistics services under the highest safety and quality standards.
The move builds on pilot operations conducted during last year’s Hajj, paving the way for the first permit of its kind, supporting Saudi Vision 2030 and the Aviation Program’s objectives.
The sports-car maker delivered 279,449 cars last year, down from 310,718 in 2024.
Towell Auto Group has introduced the legendary 212 off-road SUV brand to Oman, launching the Adventurer and flagship Navigator models built for rugged terrain, desert driving, and extreme 4×4 performance. Designed with authentic body-on-frame engineering and advanced off-road technologies, the 212 range brings over six decades of off-road heritage to Oman’s adventure-driven market.
3 min
Towell Auto Group officially introduced the legendary 212 4×4 SUV brand to Oman, bringing with it a heritage of true off-road capability engineered for enthusiasts who demand far more than conventional urban SUVs.
Purpose-built to conquer Oman’s diverse landscapes, from towering mountains and rugged wadis to deep desert terrain and rocky trails, the 212 arrives as a serious body-on-frame off-road SUV designed for adventure-seekers who value uncompromising capability, durability and adventure. The launch introduces two distinct models to Oman — the 212 Adventurer and the flagship 212 Navigator, both engineered to deliver robust 4×4 performance with advanced off-road technologies and inspiring mechanical engineering.
Sharing her thoughts at the launch, Ms. Abeer Riyadh Sultan, Executive Manager, MD’s Office, Towell Group, said, “The 212 represents authentic off-road engineering at its core. With its military-inspired heritage, advanced 4×4 technologies and exceptional capability, the 212 is purpose-built for Oman’s adventurous driving culture. We are proud to introduce a vehicle that delivers true off-road performance without compromise. We are confident that the true off-road enthusiasts will thoroughly enjoy every driving experience.”
Speaking at the occasion was Mr. Bruce, Sales director – Middle East Market, 212. He said, “The history of Beijing Auto Works and the 212 brand goes back to 1961, when the original 212 became one of the most recognized off-road vehicles built for durability, strength, and capability. Today, that legacy continues with a modern generation of vehicles designed for both adventure and everyday driving. Oman is a very important market for us. Its diverse landscapes, outdoor culture, and passion for exploration make it the perfect environment for the 212. Together with Towell Auto Group, we are excited to bring this iconic brand to the country and begin a strong long-term journey in the market.
Trusted and Validated by Oman Automobile Association (OAA)
Further strengthening the 212’s credentials in Oman is the trust certification awarded by the Oman Automobile Association (OAA) following extensive evaluation and testing conducted in specialised local conditions. This recognition highlights the vehicle’s proven ability to perform confidently across Oman’s demanding terrains while reinforcing the brand’s focus on engineering durability, reliability and true off-road capability.
Built for Oman’s True 4×4 Enthusiasts
At a time when many SUVs focus heavily on urban comfort and lifestyle styling, the 212 remains firmly rooted in authentic off-road engineering. Built on a body-on-frame ladder chassis using 99% high-strength steel, the 212 is designed to tackle extreme terrain with confidence and precision. Both the Adventurer and Navigator feature front, centre and rear differential locks, rigid axle suspension systems, multiple terrain drive modes and exceptional wading capability, features typically reserved for high-end dedicated off-road vehicles. Whether navigating steep mountain trails, crossing wadis or taking on Oman’s vast desert landscapes, the 212 has been developed to deliver dependable performance where it matters most.
A Legacy of Legendary Capability
Founded in 1958, Beijing Automobile Works (BAW) is one of China’s oldest and most respected automotive manufacturers. The iconic 212 was first introduced in 1961 and quickly earned a reputation for rugged reliability across military, government and civilian applications operating in some of the world’s harshest environments. Over more than six decades, the 212 has continuously evolved while remaining true to its original purpose, delivering dependable, go-anywhere capability backed by durable engineering and modern technology.
212 Adventurer
The 212 Adventurer combines rugged engineering with advanced off-road performance. It features a ground clearance of 235 mm, approach and departure angles of 40.3° and 35.5°, a wading depth of 659 mm and an impressive climbing capability of up to 80%. Powered by a 2.0L turbocharged engine producing 170 kW and 390 Nm of torque, the Adventurer is paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission and 10 selectable drive modes including Sand, Rock, Mud and Wade modes for demanding terrain conditions: 212 Adventurer prices starting from RO 11,999 (Excluding VAT)
Flagship 212 Navigator
The flagship 212 Navigator further elevates capability with a commanding 252 mm ground clearance, approach and departure angles of 42.1° and 38.3° and an extraordinary wading depth of 910 mm. Alongside its advanced 4×4 systems and triple differential locks, the Navigator is equipped with purpose-built accessories including a snorkel, cattle bar and trailer square mouth as standard, reinforcing its readiness for extreme off-road exploration.
Experience the Legendary 212 in Oman
The 212 range is now available in Oman through Towell Auto Group. Customers are invited to visit the 212 showroom in Al Hail to explore the Adventurer and Navigator models and experience their true off-road capability through a test drive.
Two coming 2027 models – the first of the “Neue Klasse” cars coming to the U.S. early next year – have been revealed.
JetBrains has launched its open agent system across MENA, introducing JetBrains Air, Junie CLI, and JetBrains Central to help organizations scale AI adoption with stronger governance, cost visibility, and developer-focused infrastructure. The platform is designed to support autonomous coding agents through secure, open, and LLM-agnostic workflows built for enterprise-scale software development.
3 min
As organizations accelerate AI adoption, software teams are rapidly shifting from simple AI assistants to autonomous coding agents. Without the right infrastructure, this transition often results in fragmented workflows, unmanaged spending, governance gaps, and code that lacks deep project context. To address these challenges, JetBrains, the creator of intelligent software development tools trusted by over 15 million users, today announces the official MENA launch of its open agent system. JetBrains is bringing JetBrains Air, Junie CLI, and JetBrains Central to the region’s tech hubs to help organizations move beyond AI hype and achieve real adoption at scale. By providing a developer-grade cockpit combined with an organization-grade control plane, JetBrains is positioning itself as the default platform for this new era of agentic software development.
JetBrains Air: The dedicated environment for parallel AI work
JetBrains Air is the Agentic Development Environment (ADE), designed to improve developer and team productivity through structured agentic workflows, collaboration, and task automation.
- Multi-agent orchestration: Developers can delegate tasks to different agents in the same tool – such as Claude Agent, Codex, Gemini CLI , and Junie CLI – running them concurrently within a single, unified workspace.
- Isolated execution: To ensure safety, agents run in isolated Docker containers and Git worktrees. Air optimizes how developers guide and review agent output, keeping reviews grounded in the full codebase context.
- Open and agent-agnostic: Built on the open Agent Client Protocol (ACP), Air provides the infrastructure for developers and teams to integrate their preferred agents. With a full ACP Registry coming soon, Air is ensuring a future-proof environment and the flexibility teams need to scale without the constraints of vendor lock-in.
- Workflow coherence: Air moves agentic work out of isolated chat tools and into a purpose-built, agent-native remote infrastructure. This provides a professional environment where agents have the compute and context needed to execute complex tasks without taxing local resources.
Junie CLI: The high-integrity, LLM-agnostic coding agent
Junie CLI is a standalone autonomous agent that delivers JetBrains’ signature “deep project understanding” beyond the IDE into terminals and automation workflows.
- Deep code-aware context: Leveraging 26 years of IDE expertise, Junie CLI provides agents with structured context – including symbols, navigation, and Git history – enabling reliable, production-grade behavior.
- LLM-agnostic by design: Through a “Bring Your Own Key” (BYOK) model, Junie supports all top-performing models, including Gemini, Claude, and GPT. This ensures organizations maintain full flexibility and control over their data and model choices.
- High-integrity, low-cost execution: By grounding work in codebase reality rather than prompt-based guesses, Junie stops “shadow tech debt” before it reaches production. This precision makes Junie cost-efficient by design; it delivers the same high-quality output as top-tier models but at up to 4x lower cost (based on SWE-rebench results), ensuring real ROI at scale.
JetBrains Central: The organizational-grade control plane
JetBrains Central (part of the JetBrains Cloud Platform) enables AI adoption at the organizational level by solving “AI era” problems of fragmented governance and unclear ROI.
- Governance and security: Provides a single governance layer to manage how agents interact with sensitive intellectual property, ensuring compliance and security across the team.
- Cost visibility: Offers a unified view of token consumption and AI spending, moving away from seat-based pricing to help finance and IT leads manage infrastructure costs.
- Secure execution: Acts as the execution plane that connects agents to the actual systems where software is built – repos, CI/CD, and knowledge bases – rather than isolated, unmanaged sandboxes
The JetBrains strategy: Openness, integrity, and ROI
Real AI adoption is currently blocked by governance concerns and fragmented tooling,” says Nadia Rinsky, Head of GTM in MENA at JetBrains. “Our strategy in MENA is built on the principle of earned adoption – providing tools that have a clear ROI for both the developer and the organization. By combining openness with deep integrity, we enable teams to adopt agents incrementally without being forced into proprietary silos.”
The sports-car maker delivered 279,449 cars last year, down from 310,718 in 2024.
Aramex has partnered with Netzero to launch a smart tree initiative across Riyadh and Jeddah Industrial Cities, supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and Saudi Green Initiative through AI-tracked afforestation and long-term sustainability efforts.
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Aramex, a leading global provider of comprehensive logistics and transportation solutions, has announced a partnership with Netzero, a Saudi-developed smart afforestation platform, to plant trees across the Riyadh and Jeddah Industrial Cities.
The smart tree sustainability initiative is a key step in Aramex’s ESG efforts, reinforcing its national and global environmental responsibilities, while directly contributing to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative.
Speaking about the partnership, Abdulaziz Abdullah Al-Nowaiser, General Manager of Aramex in KSA, said: “Sustainability is not a peripheral commitment at Aramex – it sits at the centre of how we operate across every market we serve. In Saudi Arabia, we have a responsibility to contribute meaningfully to the country’s environmental ambitions, and this partnership with Netzero allows us to do exactly that. What makes this initiative stand apart is the rigour behind it: every tree is digitally tracked and independently verified, giving our customers, partners and regulators transparent, real-time evidence of the impact we are delivering. We are proud to be planting a green space in the industrial communities where we work every day.”
Reflecting on the partnership, Dr. Mohammed Alshaikh, Co-Founder of Netzero, said: “At Netzero, we believe that true sustainability is not achieved simply by planting trees, but by building a deeper connection between people and nature, and transforming environmental impact into tangible value that communities can truly experience. Through technology and innovation, we work to turn every tree into a measurable impact that supports sustainability goals, empowers communities, and contributes to building a more balanced and sustainable future for generations to come.”
The initiative will see Neem and Poinciana trees planted in targeted urban and industrial zones selected for their resilience under desert conditions. Both species are well-suited to high-temperature, low-rainfall environments and have been chosen for their capacity to enhance soil quality, provide shade and improve air quality in areas with dense operational activity.
By selecting species proven to support urban biodiversity and reduce ambient temperatures, the initiative is designed to deliver measurable benefits to the communities and ecosystems surrounding both industrial cities.
Founded in 2019 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Netzero has built its afforestation platform around Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies that digitize the full lifecycle of a tree, from planting and maintenance to carbon-sequestration estimation. Its Nabatik system creates a smart tree database that gives corporate partners continuous, auditable records of their afforestation activities.
The partnership also aligns with Saudi Arabia’s national environmental agenda. The Saudi Green Initiative has set a target of planting ten billion trees across the Kingdom, with corporate initiatives forming a key pillar of that effort.
Moreover, Netzero platform digitally logs, tracks and verifies each tree through locally developed AI and machine-learning tools, giving Aramex real-time visibility of its environmental impact and ensuring independent verification of carbon-offset data. The data generated will inform broader ESG reporting and identify further sustainability opportunities across its KSA operations. The initiative is part of Aramex’s broader efforts to address environmental concerns and combat climate change and aims to achieve Carbon-Neutrality by 2030 and Net-Zero emissions by 2050 across its global operations.
Following the successful launch of its Palais Collection, MAISON de SABRÉ has unveiled a new modular handbag system offering more than 720 styling combinations.
Bahrain Tourism & Exhibitions Authority has launched a new campaign aimed at strengthening the Kingdom’s position as a preferred GCC tourism destination, spotlighting a packed calendar of entertainment, cultural, sports, and family-focused experiences.
2 min
The Bahrain Tourism & Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) launched a new campaign aimed at reinforcing the Kingdom’s position as a preferred GCC tourism destination. The promotion highlights a packed calendar of entertainment, cultural, sports, and family-focused experiences taking place across the Kingdom.
The campaign coincides with a diverse lineup of events being hosted in the country, including live concerts and theatrical productions in collaboration with Beyon Al Dana Amphitheatre. These will be held alongside festivals and entertainment activations such as the third edition of the Bahrain Summer Festival at Exhibition World Bahrain. Visitors can also enjoy family attractions, sports events, and shopping festivals across major malls and other tourist centers, creating a well-rounded tourism experience that combines entertainment, culture, and shopping in a single travel destination.
Ms. Sara Ahmed Buhiji, BTEA Chief Executive Officer said: “This initiative reflects the BTEA’s continued efforts to strengthen Bahrain’s position as a preferred destination for GCC families and other visitors by offering a unique tourism experience that brings together entertainment, culture, sports, shopping, dining, and family activities. It showcases the Kingdom as a destination that is easy to reach and rich in experiences, making it an ideal choice for weekend getaways and short holidays.”
She added that the program accompanying the campaign includes a variety of attractions catering to different interests and age groups, while reflecting the authentic Gulf hospitality that Bahrain is known for.
Buhiji added: “We look forward to welcoming GCC visitors to a vibrant season of events where families and friends can get together in a lively, enjoyable, and safe atmosphere, and in a country with an advanced tourism infrastructure that offers visitors a seamless and comfortable experience.”
The campaign will also feature travel packages and hotel offers developed in collaboration with hospitality and tourism sector partners, in addition to shopping promotions and diverse entertainment options, further enhancing the visitor experience and catering to GCC travelers seeking a nearby destination that combines familiarity with fresh and memorable attractions.
Paine Schwartz joins BERO as a new investor as the year-old company seeks to triple sales.
Starbucks is laying off 300 U.S. corporate employees and shutting down several regional offices as CEO Brian Niccol pushes forward with a broader turnaround strategy aimed at cutting $2 billion in costs by 2028. The latest restructuring impacts roles across technology, marketing, finance, and R&D, while retail staff remain unaffected. The coffee giant will retain key offices in Seattle, New York, Toronto, Coral Gables, and its upcoming Nashville hub, as it continues streamlining operations and reshaping its corporate structure.
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Starbucks SBUX 0.98%increase; green up pointing triangle is laying off 300 U.S. workers and closing several regional corporate offices in the latest move by Chief Executive Brian Niccol to turn the coffee chain around.
The company said Friday that chain leaders had been tasked with finding additional reductions beyond thousands of previous layoffs to streamline operations, lower costs and create a more sustainable business.
The details
Starbucks said the 300 U.S. corporate roles are based in Seattle along with remote positions scattered around the country. They are in a variety of fields, including technology, marketing, finance, and research and development. Retail staff aren’t affected.
The company said it is closing regional corporate offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Burbank, Calif. It will maintain North American regional offices in New York, Toronto and Coral Gables, Fla., along with its Seattle headquarters and a new Nashville, Tenn., corporate hub. It is reviewing its international corporate offices for possible cuts.
The context
Starbucks is aiming to cut $2 billion in costs by the end of its 2028 fiscal year, helping balance out hundreds of millions of dollars in investment in cafe operations. The company is offering some executives stock bonuses valued at $6 million for helping to reach the goals.
Last year Starbucks laid off roughly 2,000 corporate employees in two rounds of reductions and eliminated hundreds of open positions. The chain closed hundreds of U.S. stores last year.
This year Starbucks said it would open a new $100 million corporate office in Nashville set to house 2,000 workers. The company is moving technology and supply-chain positions from Seattle to the new hub, while also creating new openings there.
Parts for iPhones to cost more owing to surging demand from AI companies.
