Fortune’s inaugural 100 Most Powerful People in Business ranking

As my colleague Lee Clifford notes in our inaugural ranking of the 100 Most Powerful People in Business, power is nuanced: hard-won and easily lost, it’s never static. Elon Musk has increased his power with Trump’s victory, while rivals may one day disrupt the dominance of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. We previewed the list last night at our gala dinner for the Fortune Global Forum, which continues with a power-packed agenda today.

I took away a lot from day one. Thanks to those of you who suggested questions as I incorporated them into my panels. I can’t tell you everything that happened yesterday, but my colleagues can as they covered the key discussions, which you can find here.

I don’t know if Target CEO Brian Cornell and PepsiCo Foods North America CEO Steven Williams have structured a partnership between their companies that’s different in form from the rest, but I believe their longstanding mutual respect and trust has given it an added layer of depth. I loved the healthy debate between Columbia professor Abby Joseph Cohen, IBM vice chair and former Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn, and NYSE president Lynn Martin. Qualtrics CEO Zig Serafin and McKinsey senior partner Eric Kutcher convinced me that we are at an inflection point for AI.  

And His Excellency Fahd bin Abdulmohsan Al-Rasheed, who serves as advisor in the General Secretariat of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Council of Ministers, talked about how the seismic transformation of his country is creating new opportunities for his daughter and many other young people in a country where most of the population is under the age of 30.

That’s powerful stuff. So, too, were the frank perspectives of political figures like former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as well as many CEOs and creative leaders like jazz great Wynton Marsalis. You can join us via livestream today. 

More news below.

Diane Brady
diane.brady@fortune.com
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TOP NEWS

Chipotle confirms Boatwright as CEO
Scott Boatwright, Chipotle’s interim CEO since Brian Niccol departed to run Starbucks in August, is now officially running the burrito chain after a search process confirmed him to be the right person for the job. Fortune

A look into Nvidia’s past and future
Can Nvidia CEO and founder Jensen Huang continue the dominant run that’s made his company the most valuable in the world and the center of the AI boom? Fortune’s Jeremy Kahn takes a deep dive into successes of Nvidia’s past and the challenges of its future. Fortune

Khosla makes plea to Elon
In a post on X yesterday, billionaire investor Vinod Khosla urged Elon Musk to “get Trump to do some of the things he said he’d do and not do some of the things he promised to do.” Khosla, who backed Kamala Harris in the election, specifically suggested keeping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. away from the FDA and emphasized environmental protection. Fortune

AROUND THE WATERCOOLER

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman vows to abandon Amsterdam stock exchange over city’s failure ‘to protect tourists’ as antisemitic violence erupts by Ryan Hogg

The great Russian butter robbery—and what it reveals about Putin’s wartime economy by Prarthana Prakash

Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, with whom Trump allegedly shared nuclear secrets, is permanently moving to the U.S. by Sasha Rogelberg

Jerome Powell was prepared to fight for his job in court when Trump mulled firing the Fed chief in 2018, report says by Jason Ma

Mattel was supposed to have a hit with its ‘Wicked’ dolls ahead of the movie premiere. But it backfired by Sydney Lake

This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Joey Abrams.