 Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin | Image: Getty Images Ken Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel is relocating from Chicago to Miami, becoming the third major company in the last two months to announce it is leaving the state of Illinois. In a letter to employees, Griffin said he and his family had moved to Miami, describing the city as a growing metropolis that embodies the American dream. Griffin didn’t explicitly cite crime as the reason for leaving Chicago but has previously shared concerns about the rising crime rate in the city. More: - Griffin founded Citadel in Chicago in 1990; the firm employs more than 1,000 people in the city.
- Citadel has offices throughout the U.S, Asia, and Europe. It has an operational headquarters in Manhattan, New York.
- Citadel is one of the most successful hedge funds with about $51B in assets.
- Griffin has donated more than $600M to organizations in Chicago and has contributed to infrastructure projects in the city.
- Last year, he won the $43.2M auction of the first-edition copy of the U.S. Constitution.
- Last month, Boeing announced it will move its headquarters from Chicago to Washington, D.C.
- Earlier this month, Caterpillar announced it was moving its headquarters from Chicago to Dallas.
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The FDA has banned all the sale of all Juul Labs e-cigarette products in the U.S. and has ordered retailers to remove Juul products from their stores. The FDA said Juul had not submitted sufficient evidence that its devices were safe. The FDA has been reviewing U.S. vaping products for the last two years, weighing their popularity with young people against their potential benefit as less harmful alternatives for adult cigarette smokers. More: - Juul said it disagreed with the FDA’s findings and intends to seek a stay of the order through the agency’s appeals process or in court.
- Juul accounts for about a third of all e-cigarette sales in the U.S.
- Opponents of the FDA’s ban warn that the decision could hurt efforts to get more adults to quit smoking or switch away from traditional cigarettes.
- As of 2020, about 12.5% of U.S. adults, or 30.8 million people, were cigarette smokers.
- According to Altria Group, there are 21 million adult e-cigarette users in the U.S. as of March 2022.
- Altria Group, formerly Philip Morris Companies, owns a 35% stake in Juul Labs.
- Altria shares fell less than a percent in after-market trading. It closed at $42.51, up ~2.4%.
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 Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub |Image: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg/Getty Images Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway invested another $529M in Occidental Petroleum, buying 9.6 million shares. The transaction makes Berkshire Occidental’s largest shareholder with a 16% stake in the oil company. Buffett said he saw an analyst’s presentation on the company and was impressed with Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub’s plans, which include paying down debt, buying back shares, and paying dividends to shareholders. More: - In February, Berkshire began buying shares in Occidental, building a 14% stake in the company over two weeks.
- The oil company has benefited from the increase in oil prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Occidental shares are up over 80% YTD compared to the S&P 500 and Dow, which are down ~21% and 16%, respectively.
- It closed at $56.09 on Thursday, up ~0.6%.
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 McDonald's is making changes to its franchise award policy in hopes of attracting more diverse candidates. The fast-food giant will start evaluating every potential new operator equally starting in 2023. In the past, McDonald's has given preferential treatment to spouses and children of current franchisees. More: - McDonald's also said it would separate the process it uses to renew a 20-year franchise agreement from assessing whether the franchisee can operate additional restaurants.
- McDonald's has about 13,000 franchised locations in the U.S. About 1,750 locations were sold last year.
- Last month, McDonald's exited its Russian business due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, selling its 850 Russian restaurants to Siberian businessman Alexander Govor.
- Russia and Ukraine accounted for about 9% of McDonald's total revenue.
- In December, the company pledged to recruit more diverse franchisees and committed $250M over five years to help those candidates finance a franchise.
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Cisco Systems and Nike announced they will exit their Russia businesses, joining a growing list of U.S. companies who have left the country following its invasion of Ukraine. In March, Cisco and Nike suspended their respective business operations in Russia and Belarus due to war. Cisco has offered to relocate its employees in those countries to other locations. More: - More companies are expected to leave Russia in the coming weeks ahead of a new Russian law that would allow Moscow to appoint administrators over companies owned by foreigners in “unfriendly” countries.
- Earlier this month, IBM began shutting down its Russia business, and Microsoft said it was making substantial cuts to its Russia business.
- Nike rival Adidas suspended its operations in Russia in March.
- Since the Russia-Ukraine war began in late February, over 1,000 companies have either cut, suspended, or completely exited the Russian market.
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Intel said the construction of its new leading-edge semiconductor factory in Ohio could be delayed or scaled back in scope due to delays in receiving funding from Congress under the CHIPS Act. In January, Intel announced plans for the facility, which would be the most significant expansion of U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing. More: - The cost of the plant was estimated at $100B, and Intel has committed an initial $20B investment to the project.
- Due to the ongoing global chip shortage, the U.S. government had promised $52B in subsidies from the CHIPS Act to fund U.S.-based semiconductor chip manufacturing and research.
- The CHIPS Act was passed by the Senate last summer but has not been signed into law.
- The legislation has been stalled as lawmakers try to resolve the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.
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- EU leaders agreed to make Ukraine and Moldova candidates to join the union. The leaders set out several conditions related to rule of law, corruption, and judiciary that Ukraine must meet to progress to the next stage of accession negotiations.
- Football star Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a deal with crypto exchange Binance, becoming the latest celebrity to partner with a digital asset firm. Ronaldo will work with Binance to create a collection of NFTs that would be sold exclusively by the exchange.
- The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that New York’s requirement for an individual to show “proper cause” to carry a concealed gun in public was unconstitutional.
- Norway’s central bank raised the country’s interest rate by 0.50% on Thursday, bringing the benchmark rate to 1.25%. This is the first time in almost 20 years the country has raised its interest rate.
- Federal agents visited the Virginia home of Jeffrey Clark, a former top DOJ official who was part of a plan to overturn the results of the 2020 elections.
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 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie is a Researcher at Inside. Her interests include finance, tech, and startups. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending music festivals, and traveling. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or through email at vanessa@inside.com |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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