OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Berkshire Hathaway is buying Occidental Petroleum’s chemical division for $9.7 billion in what may be one of the last big deals of Warren Buffett. Buffett wasn’t mentioned anywhere in materials released by Berkshire Hathaway on Thursday, seemingly signaling the passing of the torch to Greg Abel. Berkshire’s cash pile has been…… MORE
OpenAI could now be the world’s most valuable startup, ahead of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and TikTok parent company ByteDance, after a secondary stock sale designed to retain employees at the ChatGPT maker. Current and former OpenAI employees sold $6.6 billion in shares to a group of investors, pushing the privately held artificial intelligence company’s valuation…… MORE
NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla reported a surprise increase in sales in the third quarter as the electric car maker likely benefited from a rush by consumers to take advantage of a $7,500 credit before it expired on Sept. 30. The company reported Thursday that sales in the three months through September rose 7% compared…… MORE
VALHALLA, New York (AP) — Pepsi has a new challenge: Keeping products like Gatorade and Cheetos vivid and colorful without the artificial dyes that U.S. consumers are increasingly rejecting. PepsiCo announced in April that it would accelerate a planned shift to natural colors in its foods and beverages. Right now, around 40% of the company’s…… MORE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage ticked up for the second straight week following a string of declines that had brought down home borrowing costs to the lowest level in nearly a year. The average long-term mortgage rate rose this week to 6.34% from 6.3% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie…… MORE