United Airlines At Los Angeles International Airport

(Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

United Airlines lands a record profit to close out 2024

The company said it flew a record 174 million passengers last year.

1/21/25 5:00PM

United is cashing in on flyers who want premium experiences, capping a banner 2024 with a blowout fourth quarter.

In its report after the closing bell Tuesday, United Airlines reported a $985 million profit, a record for the fourth quarter and a 64% surge from a year earlier. Adjusted earnings of $3.26 a share came in far ahead of analysts’ estimates of $3.04.

Shares jumped 3.4% after-hours as the airline also forecast its first-quarter profit much higher than Wall Street was expecting.

For the year, United said its annual passenger revenue climbed about 6% from 2023 after flying a record 174 million customers. It spent about 7% less on fuel over the year.

Analysts see clear skies ahead for United and its largest rivals, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. Keeping profits at cruising altitude: a continued rebound in business travel and customers’ appetite for premium seating. Delta, for its part, said it expects 2025 to be its best financial year in its history.

Like its rivals, United has been trying to win flyers over with loyalty-program benefits and premium experiences. The airline will install larger, 4K seatback screens this year, and Delta will join the trend next year. Earlier this month, United said it’s moving up its Starlink-powered in-flight Wi-Fi rollout. (It also changed its mind and said free Wi-Fi is only for loyalty members.) United reported solid loyalty-program revenue growth in Q4, up 12% year over year.

United shares have nearly tripled in value over the past 12 months, up more than 185% in the period as of market close today.

Tom Jones2h

OpenAI’s ARR reached over $20 billion in 2025, CFO says

Sam Altman’s $500 billion artificial intelligence behemoth hit a major financial milestone in 2025, according to a new blog post over the weekend from the company’s CFO, Sarah Friar, as the company confirmed it had hit a $20 billion+ annual revenue run rate at the end of last year.

Elsewhere in the blog post, Friar spent time addressing the company’s shifting goals, referencing plans to “close the distance between where intelligence is advancing and how individuals, companies, and countries actually adopt and use it.” As has become customary in the AI company press release genre, the CFO was also keen to tout the unending growth of the business, writing:

Both our Weekly Active User (WAU) and Daily Active User (DAU) figures continue to produce all-time highs. This growth is driven by a flywheel across compute, frontier research, products, and monetization.
Compute grew 3X year over year or 9.5X from 2023 to 2025: 0.2 GW in 2023, 0.6 GW in 2024, and ~1.9 GW in 2025.

And, perhaps most importantly for current backers and those keeping an eye on the private company before its rumored mega IPO:

Revenue followed the same curve growing 3X year over year, or 10X from 2023 to 2025: $2B ARR in 2023, $6B in 2024, and $20B+ in 2025. This is never-before-seen growth at such scale.

That latest figure has certainly set tongues in the tech world wagging, just as the company announced it would begin rolling out ads to free and ChatGPT Go users. It also puts the chatbot giant a fair way ahead of competitors like Anthropic, the company behind Claude.

OpenAI Anthropic ARR race — Sherwood News

A business that scales with the value of intelligence

Both our Weekly Active User (WAU) and Daily Active User (DAU) figures continue to produce all-time highs. This growth is driven by a flywheel across compute, frontier research, products, and monetization.
Compute grew 3X year over year or 9.5X from 2023 to 2025: 0.2 GW in 2023, 0.6 GW in 2024, and ~1.9 GW in 2025.

And, perhaps most importantly for current backers and those keeping an eye on the private company before its rumored mega IPO:

Revenue followed the same curve growing 3X year over year, or 10X from 2023 to 2025: $2B ARR in 2023, $6B in 2024, and $20B+ in 2025. This is never-before-seen growth at such scale.

Washington, DC, looks set to get America’s second Sphere

Revenue for the Las Vegas version of the big orb has soared, but the Sphere is still a money pit.

Claire Yubin Oh23h

Max Knoblauch

1/16/26

Opponents of the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal take fight to Europe

Europe is the latest frontier of the ongoing tug-of-war for the “Friends” back catalog.

Paramount Skydance To Reportedly Make Bid For Warner Bros. Discovery

Max Knoblauch1/15/26

Ford reportedly in talks to buy hybrid vehicle batteries from Chinese auto giant BYD

Detroit’s Ford and China’s BYD are said to be in ongoing talks to partner on an agreement that would see Ford buy hybrid vehicle batteries from BYD, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal.

The report comes just days after President Trump toured a Ford factory in Michigan and implied openness to Chinese automakers coming to the US.

“If they want to come in and build a plant... that’s great, I love that,” Trump said on January 13. “Let China come in, let Japan come in.”

Last week, China’s Geely Automobile Holdings said it expects to make an announcement about expanding into the US within the next three years. Chinese carmakers currently face huge tariffs and software restrictions, effectively barring their vehicles from the US.

Ford has doubled down on hybrid vehicles amid high EV costs and the end of federal EV tax credits. The automaker is currently building a battery plant in Michigan where it plans to use tech from Chinese battery maker CATL.

Exclusive | Ford, China’s BYD in Talks for Hybrid-Vehicle Batteries After EV Market Flames Out

“If they want to come in and build a plant... that’s great, I love that,” Trump said on January 13. “Let China come in, let Japan come in.”

Still life of Ozempic and Wegovy with weight scale.

Lawsuit alleges Lilly, Novo locked up telehealth to kill compounded GLP-1s

Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar estimated that around 1.5 million US patients are using compounded versions of the company’s drugs.

J. Edward Moreno1/15/26