Brooo

MARKETS

• Fed: “It's safe, yeah, it's safe. I mean, sure, why not?" That’s President Trump talking to Fox News about Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s job.
• Markets: 😴

ENVIRONMENT

Bezos Leads a Green Wave

This one’s for those of you who take your reusable mugs everywhere, have read the latest IPCC report, and never forget to bring bags to the grocery store.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos rolled out plans to go Packers-green

He’s calling it the “Climate Pledge.” Bezos wants Amazon (+0.22%) to get 80% of its energy from renewable sources by 2024.

• He also called on other companies to join Amazon in going carbon neutral by 2040, a decade ahead of the goals set by the Paris agreement.

You know what they say about the best laid plans

They involve electric vehicles. Amazon will order 100,000 electric trucks from EV startup Rivian as part of the climate plan.

• The deal is the largest-ever order of electric delivery vehicles, according to the company.
• Bezos said Rivian's trucks will hit the road getting you Malcolm Gladwell’s latest starting in 2021.

These two have history. Amazon led Rivian’s $700 million investment round in February.

Zoom out: Bezos is facing pressure from the rank and file to do more on climate change. Over 1,500 employees plan to walk out today for the Global Climate Strike.

Next, a Danish company will bring GE’s ginormous wind turbines to U.S. waters

Another superlative: These spinners are the world's tallest and most powerful wind turbines.

• The 12-megawatt turbines are almost as tall as the Chrysler Building and will turn wind into laptop juice from just off the coast of Maryland and New Jersey.

...and could Delta fuel planes with twigs?

The airline poured $2 million into a study on the feasibility of a biofuel facility in Washington State. It hopes to finish the research by next year and start delivery of jet fuel made from forest debris by late 2023.

STARTUP

Super Stripe Bros

Brothers Patrick and John Collison stopped saying “but he started it!” long ago. Stripe, the fintech company the two co-founded in 2010, is now worth $35 billion.

With this latest funding round of $250 million, Patrick (CEO) and John (president) now run the third most valuable startup in the U.S., ahead of giants like Airbnb and Palantir.

Stripe’s core business is its payment processing service. When you use your credit card to book a room on Airbnb or buy a handbag on The RealReal, you’re using Stripe’s technology.

But you don’t become worth $35 billion by staying in your lane, which is why Stripe has expanded into other corners of fintech, including lending and a corporate credit card. Now, everyone from PayPal to Square to unicorn Brex is a competitor.

Zoom out: Your company’s vendors like to say they’re invested in your success, but Stripe really means it. The company’s impressive growth is directly tied to the success of its e-commerce customers and internet commerce more broadly.

STARTUP

Fine, Airbnb, You Can Have a Story Too

Puppy eyes get us every time.

And so do plans to go public. Yesterday, Airbnb announced its “intention to become a publicly-traded company” in 2020. It's reportedly considering an unconventional direct listing.

Some stats:

• Airbnb was last valued at $31 billion.
• This week, Airbnb revealed Q2 revenue was over $1 billion.
• It also has 7 million listings in more than 100,000 cities globally. Somehow, they all seem to have the same Nespresso machine...

Like Stripe, Airbnb has diversified beyond its core business. In 2016, it started offering travelers “Experiences.” And it’s acquired or invested in companies as wide-ranging as HotelTonight and travel site Atlas Obscura.

Zoom out: The IPO market has been rough this year, turning some startup all-stars (Uber and Lyft) into role players and others (WeWork) into benchwarmers.

MARKETING

If You Hit Area 52 You’ve Gone Too Far

Grab your alien bayonet, we’re rushing Area 51. Matty Roberts’s viral Facebook event called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” designated September 20 as the day of days.

• Roberts created the event in June as a joke, but its RSVP tally has swelled to 2.1 million. Thousands of people might actually show up in middle-of-nowhere Nevada this weekend.
• The owner of a cafe and motel in the tiny town of Alamo, NV, told the AP, “It’s happening. We already have people from all over the world.”

What Area 51 is: Operated by the U.S. Air Force and located 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, it’s a chunk of Nevada about the size of Connecticut...and also the site of the U.S.’ overhead surveillance operations. What goes on there is tippity-top-secret, which has made it subject to alien theories.

What the Area 51 storming is...to brands: An opportunity the size of Nevada. Bud Light released limited-edition items like a $100 Bud Light/Area 51 bomber jacket that you cannot buy here because it sold out. And Arby's sent a food truck on a cross-country road trip to Area 51 base camp.

Bottom line: In 2019, no trend is too weird or online to be PR stunt-ified.

QUIZ

I Got 99 Problems but a Quiz Ain't One

Subscribes to the Brew’s new podcast Business Casual on Google. Subscribes to Business Casual on Apple. Subscribes to Business Casual on Spotify. It’s the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz.

1. Fill in the blanks: Oil prices shot up Monday after _____ struck the world’s biggest crude oil processing facility in ________.

2. Some tech companies have already released their fall hardware lineups while others are just weeks away. Can you match the product to the company?

• Products: A dual-screen device codenamed “Centaurus”; Pixel 4 phone; Portal; Fire TV
• Companies: Amazon; Google; Microsoft; Facebook

3. Comcast unveiled the name for NBCUniversal’s streaming service Tuesday. What is it?

4. This week, the Fed injected more than $100 billion into the U.S. financial system to stabilize the “repo” market on Wall St. What does repo stand for in this context?

1. Repossession
2. Repurchase agreements
3. Reports
4. Released possums

5. I was born in Israel. One of my early businesses was a collapsible heel for women’s shoes. I reportedly have the personal goal of becoming the world’s first trillionaire. Who am I?

Answers: 1) Drones, Saudi Arabia 2) Centaurus (Microsoft), Pixel 4 (Google), Portal (Facebook), Fire TV (Amazon) 3) Peacock 4) b. Repurchase agreements 5. WeWork CEO Adam Neumann

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Walmart CEO Doug McMillon will replace JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon as chairman of Business Roundtable, a powerful group of U.S. chief executives.
• iOS 13, Apple’s (-0.81%) latest mobile operating system, has officially arrived.
• The CDC announced 530 people, mostly young men, have fallen ill with a mysterious vaping-related sickness. Eight have died.
• Mark Zuckerberg tried to repair Facebook's (+1.06%) reputation when he met with U.S. lawmakers yesterday.
• Walgreens (+0.29%) is teaming up with Google affiliate Wing to test super-speedy drone deliveries.

BREAKROOM

Friday Puzzle
Merriam-Webster added more than 530 new words to the dictionary for September 2019. We’ll give you the category and description, you guess the word (FYI, some of the answers are two words).

1. Politics and law: an alleged secret governmental network operating extralegally
2. Abbreviations and portmanteaus: fabulous quality, state, or nature
3. Business and finance: a persistent or recurring problem (as with a product or service) that frequently inconveniences or annoys customers
4. Games and sports: a climb in which a rock climber uses no artificial aids for support and has no rope or other safety equipment for protection in case of a fall

Breakroom Answers