Morning Brew Daily
OpenAI Drops $6.5B To Kill the iPhone? & Tariffs and Boycotts Hurt Target
Thu, 22 May 2025
Episode 588: Neal and Toby have more on why Jony Ive is teaming up with Sam Altman as OpenAI buys the ex-Apple designer for $6.5 billion Then, Target struggles with tariffs and backlash from customers. Also, Universal is taking on Disney in the parks arena with their brand new Epic Universe theme park. Meanwhile, Neal shares his favorite numbers on the stealthy wealthy, safe college majors, and the semicolon. Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Visit endthecampaign.com for more Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here: https://www.swap.fm/l/mbd-note Watch Morning Brew Daily Here: https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow 00:00 - Worst Bitcoin Transaction Ever 03:40 - OpenAI Gets Jony Ives 08:05 - Target Woes 12:00 - Universal Epic Universe Opens 17:45 - Neal’s Numbers 25:00 - Headlines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What major acquisition did OpenAI announce?
So, yeah, he knows that he doesn't want that soundbite escaping that we are raising prices.
Central Florida is about to turn into a battleground, pitting Mario, Harry Potter, and Dragon Trainers on one side versus Mickey, Elsa, and the Guardians of the Galaxy on the other.
That's because this morning, Universal is cutting the ribbon on the fourth park of its Orlando portfolio with the opening of Epic Universe, the first major theme park to open in Florida in over 25 years and the biggest threat yet to Disney World's dominance in the region.
Epic Universe cost parent company Comcast over $7 billion and took eight years to build, but early reviews say it's epic enough to live up to its name and price tag.
The park itself consists of five mini-parks, one entrance area called Celestial Park, which splits off into four others, a park devoted to Harry Potter, another to characters from Nintendo games, another based on the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, and finally, Dark Universe, in which you'll find classic monsters like Frankenstein.
Why is Universal making such a colossal investment in a new theme park? For one, roller coasters and highly caloric foods are maybe the one area of the media world that's not being eaten by TikTok and YouTube. Two, the company really thinks it can swipe some market share from Disney in Orlando, where it's been the leading player since Walt first opened Magic Kingdom in 1971.
Toby, you think Mario and Harry have enough firepower to draw people away from Disney's machine, or is it just too small of a world after all?
I do think that they have the firepower because early reviews have been, apparently it's just absolutely amazing. One influencer told Business Insider recently that this is exactly what themed parks should be and could be in the 21st century. Another travel agent said that it's spot on gorgeous with theming that's literal perfection.
So these are people literally heaping praise on this new park because it is the most modern park we've seen thus far. But here's the big question. Is it going to hurt Disney? And the one person who doesn't really think it's going to hurt Disney is Disney's parks chief, Josh DeMauro. He said he's not really shaking in his boot.
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