Plus: Fracking Hot Rocks Could Revolutionize Clean Energy—If Trump Doesn’t Get In The Way |
Good morning,
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged not to sell his shares in Truth Social’s parent company. But there’s a way for him to do so, and save more than $700 million in the process.Trump refused to divest from his businesses during his first term. But there is a clear path for him to unload his shares that would address ethics concerns, diversify his net worth away from a volatile stock and avoid a massive tax bill: acquiring what’s called a certificate of divestiture. It allows an official to invest the proceeds from the sale into a permitted asset and defer any capital gains taxes owed. The consequences of Trump holding onto his stock are far-reaching—from his ability to appoint the heads of the agencies that regulate the company to the possibility of foreign governments buying ads on the platform.
Let’s get into the headlines, |
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 | | Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images |
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Spirit Airlines, North America’s largest ultra-low-cost carrier, filed for bankruptcy protection after years of losses, several failed mergers and other challenges that have caused its stock price to tumble 92% over the past year. It’s the first major U.S. airline to file for Chapter 11 since American Airlines 13 years ago, but it insists it will be business as usual for travelers in the meantime.
The Justice Department will soon request a federal judge order Google to sell its Chrome web browser, according to Bloomberg, the latest development in an antitrust case against Google after a judge ruled the tech giant illegally maintained a search monopoly. DOJ officials also plan to ask the judge to require that Google license the results and data from Chrome and provide websites with more options to stop their content from being scraped by Google’s artificial intelligence products. |
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| | | Fracking Hot Rocks Could Revolutionize Clean Energy—If Trump Doesn’t Get In The Way |
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| Tim Latimer is on the cusp of what could turn out to be either a breakthrough in the quest for zero-carbon-emitting energy or an expensive pipe dream. As chief executive and cofounder of Houston-based Fervo Energy, he has raised more than $400 million for a plan to liberate practically unlimited geothermal energy (generated from the heat of Earth’s core) from superhot rocks at least 8,000 feet underground by employing the same “fracking” techniques used to extract oil and natural gas from shale rock. Fervo’s investors include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, traditional oil-and-gas producers, Mark Zuckerberg and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate change–focused venture capital fund organized by Bill Gates and backed by a pack of fellow billionaires including Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Ray Dalio and Reid Hoffman. Liberty Energy services, the company run by Chris Wright, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Department of Energy was also an early backer. In October, Latimer received crucial federal permits to scale Fervo’s project in the Escalante Desert near Milford, Utah, where he aims to produce 2,000 megawatts of zero-carbon geothermal power at a cost of “several billion” by 2030. That’s enough for more than 2 million homes. It won’t be cheap—at least not at first. But Latimer hopes to repeat the plummeting cost curve of solar power, which over the last 15 years has gotten 80% cheaper. |
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| Fracked geothermal “is going to be as revolutionary for clean energy as it was for oil and gas,” says Latimer, a 35-year-old alumnus of the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory figures such hot rocks could generate 12% of the United States’ electricity by 2050. |
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Tesla stock surged nearly 6% Monday after a Bloomberg report indicated that President-elect Donald Trump will fast-track regulations for self-driving cars, which could help bring Tesla’s recently unveiled Cybercab to American roads by Musk’s goal of 2026. It would be a major shift while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the safety of Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving programs.
The son of Tennessee nursing home billionaire Forrest Preston is accusing one of his father’s executives of aiding in a plot to steal from his elderly dad, according to a petition filed in a Tennessee court. It’s part of his fight for financial oversight of America’s largest privately owned nursing home chain, Life Care Centers of America. |
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| WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP |
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 | | Illustration by Pete Reynolds for Forbes |
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| Many members of The Forbes 400 have a family office to help them manage their enormous fortunes, but the white-glove service is taking off among those who don’t belong to the billionaire class as well. Family offices are a means to invest, preserve and pass on fortunes—a safety net and status symbol. Deloitte conservatively estimates there will be 3,550 single-family offices in North America in 2025, up 61% from 2019. |
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| As artificial intelligence continues its march into the mainstream, the executives in charge of deploying the technology for business purposes are often Chief Technology Officers. Now in its fifth year, the Forbes CIO Next list recognizes executives in the U.S. across a wide array of sectors: trillion-dollar tech giants like Google and Microsoft, banks and financial services firms like Visa and Capital One, household brands like Coca-Cola and United Airlines, and even government officials from NASA and the city of San Francisco. |
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| President Joe Biden asked Congress for about $100 billion in disaster relief funding, a massive boost after the federal government incurred unexpected expenses responding to hurricane season. The request includes about $40 billion for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which Biden said “will face a shortfall this fiscal year” without the additional funding. President-elect Donald Trump confirmed Monday he is prepared to declare a national emergency and use military assets to deport undocumented migrants after ratcheting up anti-immigration rhetoric during his campaign. Trump has promised to deport all undocumented migrants, though he’s not provided details on how he would carry out his plan. With an estimated 11 million people in the U.S. illegally, he could face significant logistical hurdles.
Trump nominated Fox host and former Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.) as secretary of transportation Monday, lauding his time in Congress and his role as a member of the House Financial Services Committee. Duffy is a co-host of Fox Business’ The Bottom Line and has contributed to Fox News since 2020. |
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| Thanksgiving travel by air, boat and car is expected to hit pre-pandemic levels and break records, AAA said Monday. Lower gas prices could be one factor fueling an increase in car travel this year: |
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79.9 million | The number of people expected to travel more than 50 miles from home between the Tuesday before and Monday after the holiday | |
| About 90% | The share of people traveling by car, compared to just 7.3% by air | |
| $3.07 per gallon | The current national average price of gasoline, compared to $3.26 this time last year |
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| Bitcoin has been making headlines lately after reaching record highs, and if you’re thinking of investing in the cryptocurrency, it’s important to consider several factors. Exchanges like Coinbase or Binance connect to your bank account and follow financial regulations, though it does mean trusting a third-party with your money and personal information. Make sure to have strong security for all your bitcoin-related accounts and check website URLs carefully before logging in. Scammers can create fake exchange sites that look almost identical to the real ones. Bitcoin’s price is also volatile: Never invest more than you can afford to lose. |
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