• Michael Fiddelke will be Target’s new CEO, starting February 1.
• He joined the company as a finance intern in 2003 and has been with the company ever since.
• He previously worked in merchandising and HR, and has been CFO and COO.

Target’s new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, is the latest intern to rise to the top job.

The retailer announced in August that Fiddelke — currently the chief operating officer — would succeed Brian Cornell on February 1, more than two decades after Fiddelke joined as an intern.

“I’ve been fortunate to serve in a broad range of roles and functions over my 20 years here,” Fiddelke said at the time. “I’ve learned from every one of these experiences, with each giving me a deeper appreciation for the specific ways that Target is special and strategically distinct in a crowded retail landscape.”

Fiddelke, 49, grew up in Iowa, where his first job was waking up before dawn to do chores on the family farm. After graduating from the University of Iowa with a degree in industrial engineering in 1999, he got a job with Deloitte.

He later left his role at the Big Four firm to pursue an MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, during which he joined Target as a finance intern.

He got his first permanent position as an analyst in the financial unit in 2004.

Since then, he’s worked for Target’s merchandising, finance, operations, and human resources. He was chief financial officer from 2019 to 2024, when he became chief operating officer.

In that job, Fiddelke was tasked with overseeing Target’s nearly 2,000 stores throughout the US, including leading its global supply chain network, fulfillment services, network capacity planning, enterprise operations, and delivery services.

In addition to his corporate responsibilities, Fiddelke sits on the boards of the Minnesota Children’s Museum and Shipt, a personal shopping and delivery service owned by Target.

When the company announced its first-quarter results in May, it said Fiddelke would lead a “multi-year Enterprise Acceleration Office” tasked with delivering $2 billion of efficiencies across the company, which has lost out to rivals as more customers have shifted to budget alternatives like Walmart.

Fiddelke said in August that his work with the acceleration office has given him a fresh perspective on where the company is now and how it needs to grow.

Addressing a group of summer interns two months ago, Fiddelke’s advice was, “Be relentlessly curious. Slow down and ask questions. Embrace feedback. And make the most of the moment by making connections at Target and with your fellow interns.”

Fiddelke says his top priority is getting Target ‘back to growth as quickly as possible’

In the quarter following his announcement, Fiddelke has wasted no time setting in motion several key strategies aimed at improving the company’s performance.

Even though he won’t officially assume the role until February 1, when CEO Cornell steps down, Fiddelke led Target’s third-quarter earnings call.

“We’re far from satisfied with our current results, and we won’t be satisfied until we’re operating at our full potential,” he said.

On the call, he said Target will increase its annual capital expenditures from $4 billion to $5 billion to invest in remodeling and refreshing its store fleet, including the biggest changes to its merchandise assortment and floor plans that the company has seen in nearly a decade.

The company also announced a partnership with OpenAI to include a Target shopping app in ChatGPT that will allow shoppers to order multiple items for pickup or delivery using simple conversational language.

In addition, Fiddelke led the testing of a new way for stores in a common geography to fulfill e-commerce orders, which rolls out to 35 more markets this year.

The moves are part of Fiddelke’s three-part strategy to get Target back on track, including a renewed focus on a “style and design North Star,” an elevated and consistent shopping experience, and stronger investments in technology throughout the organization.

Analysts have been skeptical that an internal CEO hire would address Target’s persistent problems, as well as the highly influential role that Cornell could play as executive chairman.

Cornell told the analyst call on Wednesday that he is focused on supporting Fiddelke’s transition.

“While we’re not there yet, I’m confident we’re on the right path, and Michael is the right person to lead the next chapter of Target’s growth,” he said.

• Trump called on Tuesday for ABC to have its broadcast license revoked.
• It came after an ABC reporter asked him a question about the release of the Epstein files.
• The House is set to vote on Tuesday to order the release of the files.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that ABC News should have its broadcast license revoked after one of the network’s reporters asked him about the Jeffrey Epstein files.

“I think the license should be taken away from ABC,” Trump said in the Oval Office, seated beside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “Because your news is so fake, and it’s so wrong.”

He added that Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr should “look at” revoking ABC’s license because the network is “97% negative to Trump” and is “not credible.”

Trump’s comments came after the reporter asked him why he would not order his administration to release the Epstein files, even as he’s called on members of Congress to vote for a bill that would compel his administration to release those same documents.

Earlier, that same reporter had also asked Trump about his family’s business dealings in Saudi Arabia, and had asked the country’s crown prince about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump called the network “fake news” and accused the reporter of trying to embarrass the crown prince.

The Oval Office press conference took place shortly before an expected vote in the House to release the files, which was originally prompted by an effort by Democrats and a small group of Republicans against Trump’s wishes.

The president reversed his position on the vote over the weekend after initially trying to quash the effort, and on Monday, he told reporters that he would sign the bill if it passes the Senate and reaches his desk.

Spokespeople for the Walt Disney Company, the parent company of ABC News, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has previously called for the network to have its license revoked, and Carr faced criticism for appearing to pressure the network to take comedian Jimmy Kimmel off the air following comments he made about Charlie Kirk.

• The Department of Education is moving more of its work to other federal agencies.
• It’s a big step toward fulfilling Trump’s goal of dismantling the department.
• Officially closing the federal agency would still require congressional approval.

President Donald Trump’s administration is taking a major step toward fulfilling its goal of dismantling the Department of Education.

On Tuesday, the Department of Education announced that it has entered into six agreements to move programs to other federal agencies.

The announcement includes a partnership with the Department of Labor to take on elementary and secondary education programs and institution-level higher education grants; a partnership with the Department of Interior to take on Indian education programs; a partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services to take on childcare programs and foreign medical accreditation programs; and a partnership with the State Department to oversee international education programs.

A senior Department of Education official told reporters on a Tuesday press call that oversight over those programs will remain in the Department of Education, and that the department has broad authority to contract with other federal agencies to carry out services.

The official added that employees working on the affected programs have the option to transfer to the partnering agency to continue their work.

“The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” Linda McMahon, Trump’s education secretary, said in a statement. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”

These actions represent a major escalation in carrying out Trump’s goal to close the Department of Education. In March, Trump signed an executive order calling on McMahon to eliminate the department. McMahon has repeatedly said that her goal is to be the last education secretary, which she said could be accomplished by transferring the department’s responsibilities to other federal agencies and ensuring states can make decisions about their students’ education.

Still, she has acknowledged that eliminating an agency cannot be done without congressional approval. While previous GOP presidential administrations have supported eliminating the department, the idea has not gained sufficient support from Congress. Some Republican lawmakers have been supportive this time around, though; Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate education committee, introduced a bill to shut down the agency.

The Department of Education has already started outsourcing some of its work. It moved its career, technical, and adult education grants to the Department of Labor, saying in a September press release that the Labor Department will serve as a “centralized hub” for federal workforce programs while remaining under the Education Department’s oversight.

McMahon said during a September conversation hosted by The Federalist Society, a conservative legal advocacy group, that “what we’re trying to do is to show how we can move different parts of the Department of Education to show that they can be more efficiently operating in other agencies.”

Trump and McMahon have also suggested moving the student-loan portfolio to another federal agency, but specific plans on that transition have yet to be announced.

It’s not just outsourcing; the Supreme Court in July gave the department the green light to move forward with its plan to terminate over 1,300 of the agency’s employees.

McMahon wrote in a recent opinion piece that the government shutdown provided further evidence that the Department of Education is not necessary.

“The 43-day shutdown, which came smack in the middle of the fall semester, showed every family how unnecessary the federal education bureaucracy is to their children’s education,” she wrote. “Students kept going to class. Teachers continued to get paid. There were no disruptions in sports seasons or bus routes.”

Still, education policy experts and teachers have raised concerns about the future of education in the US without a centralized agency to manage it. Heather Stambaugh, a high school social studies teacher, previously told Business Insider that gutting the agency could put funding at risk.

“It feels a bit like we’re being thrown into a chaos loop,” Stambaugh said.

• Nvidia will report Q3 earnings after the closing bell on November 18.
• The AI leader has been under pressure as investors question the strength of the AI trade.
• But Wall Street analysts are optimistic that Nvidia’s AI-fueled growth is poised to continue

Nvidia will be the last of the Magnificent Seven companies to report earnings for the third quarter, delivering results after the bell on Wednesday. To say the stakes are high would be an understatement.

Investors are highly anxious heading into the report as the broader AI trade has come under pressure in the last month. The chip titan’s stock is still up 37% year-to-date, but it has fallen by about 5% in the last five days.

Its decline has led the broader tech sector lower, and investors are increasingly questioning whether the premium valuations commanded by top AI names are justified.

The implications of Nvidia’s coming earnings report are significant, not just for Nvidia but for many of its tech peers. Valuations, concerns about returns on AI capex, and the overall demand picture for expensive GPUs are top of mind for investors. Meanwhile, SoftBank and Thiel Macro, the hedge fund of Peter Thiel, have sold off their entire Nvidia stakes recently, while “The Big Short” investor Michal Burry has revealed he’s betting against it.

Wall Street analysts, however, seem more bullish than their buyside peers. The mood heading into the report is bullish, and banks expect Nvidia to continue dominating the AI hardware trade in the coming quarters.

Wall Street estimates that Nvidia will report about $55 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $1.25 for the third quarter. Revenue in its key data center unit is expected to be about $49 billion.

Here’s what analysts are saying ahead of the highly anticipated report.

Bank of America

Bank of America still sees Nvidia as undervalued relative to its dominance of AI hardware. Analyst Vivek Arya reaffirmed a buy rating and updated the bank’s forecast to reflect that his team has updated its per-share estimates for the coming fiscal year to $4.56, $7.02, and $9.15 per share.

While Arya notes that Nvidia may flick at a complicated macro outlook in the earnings call, he expects the micro outlook to remain solid. Additionally, his team is optimistic that Nvidia’s product pipeline, the Blackwell, Blackwell Ultra, and Vera Rubin chips, will help drive growth in 2026.

“NVDA valuation remains compelling at 27x/21x PE our CY26/27E, essentially a market multiple for the leading franchise in the fastest growth cycle globally trading ~0.6x CY27 PEG on ~40% EPS growth vs. SPX ~2x. Our $275 PO is now based on 30x CY27E vs. 44x CY26E as we extend model forward.”

The bank maintains a bullish price target of $270, implying a gain of about 50%.

UBS

UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri predicts that Nvidia’s revenue will come in slightly above Wall Street estimates at $56 billion. His team predicts Nvidia’s calendar EPS will reach $7.75 per share in 2026 and could go as high as $9.50 per share in 2027.

Arcuri noted that while some investors have expressed concern regarding Nvidia’s gross margins, UBS is confident that the company can keep margins high, forecasting 73.5% for Q3 and 75% for Q4.

“A big focus of the call will clearly be how quickly all of this AI infrastructure can be installed and any customer concentration risks that may develop.”

The analyst urged investors to “stay the course” with Nvidia stock, maintaining a price target of $230, 28% higher than current levels.

DA Davidson

In DA Davidson’s Nvidia earnings preview, analyst Gill Luria made it clear that his team doesn’t think AI demand is set to slow in the coming year.

He said that despite negative speculation and jitters around valuations, the firm believes Nvidia will maintain its dominance, even if competition rises and trade tensions with China persist.

“We would point towards recent guidance given by management during NVIDIA GTC D.C. that has Blackwell/Rubin generations amounting to $500B of revenue off of 20M GPUs sold with 30% of that already being shipped,” Luria stated.

Davidson has a $250 price target for Nvidia, valuing the stock at 42 times estimated 2026 earnings and implying a jump of about 39%.

CFRA Research

CFRA Research also expects Nvidia to beat estimates and point to more progress to come in 2026.

In its earnings preview, CFRA forecasts 18% year-over-year growth and 18% quarterly acceleration, the highest since early 2024. It maintains that Nvidia will need to post revenue of $61 billion and EPS of $1.42 for the January quarter, which its analysts think is achievable.

“We believe consensus long-term projections remain reasonable, while NVDA’s valuation at about 22x CY 27 basis is enticing given growth prospects and management’s blue sky TAM vision of $3T-$4T by decade’s end,” stated equity analyst Angelo Zino.

CFRA reiterates its strong buy rating for Nvidia and maintains its bullish $270 price target.

Deepwater Asset Management

Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, says Wall Street might actually be underestimating Nvidia’s strength. He’s bullish on the chip company, despite recent downbeat sentiment from investors.

In his Nvidia earnings preview, Munster noted that he believed some Wall Street analysts are not properly accounting for CEO Jensen Huang’s positive projections for its 2026 product lineup, and are not factoring in his most recent comments on soaring demand and a surge in orders for its GPUs. Jensen Huang said at the company’s recent GTC conference that Nvidia had booked $500 billion of orders in 2025 and 2026.

“Jensen gave a Blackwell and Rubin revenue target that suggested there is more than 10% upside through the end of CY26. I expect CY26 revenue forecasts to increase from the current 39% outlook to 45%,” Munster said.

• Meta wins antitrust lawsuit as judge rules the FTC failed to prove monopoly claims.
• The FTC alleged Meta’s Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions harmed social networking competition.
• The judge cited the evolving market and competition from TikTok in the decision.

Mark Zuckerberg has one less problem to worry about.

A federal judge dealt a blow to the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, ruling against the agency in a blockbuster antitrust lawsuit against Meta.

US District Judge James Boasberg ruled that the FTC failed to prove Meta formed a monopoly through its purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp.

The ruling means that Meta will not be forced to divest from the two social media apps, as FTC lawyers had requested.

“The Court ultimately concludes that the agency has not carried its burden: Meta holds no monopoly in the relevant market,” Boasberg wrote. “Judgment must therefore be entered in its favor.”

The FTC’s lawsuit, filed in 2020, alleged Meta’s ownership of Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook meant the company illegally dominated the “personal social networking services” market — a subset of social media apps that allow users to share content with friends and family. Government lawyers argued the company’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp in 2014 were part of Meta’s “buy or bury” strategy to maintain market dominance.

Meta maintained that the market was too ill-defined and that the company faces intense competition from apps like TikTok and YouTube.

Boasberg agreed with Meta.

“The Court’s two Opinions on motions to dismiss did not even mention the word ‘TikTok,'” Boasberg wrote. “Today, that app holds center stage as Meta’s fiercest rival.”

Boasberg pointed to a 2021 Meta outage, India’s TikTok ban, and a half-day TikTok shutdown in the US just before a potential nationwide ban in January as real-world tests showing users moving easily among TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. That behavior, he wrote, undercut the FTC’s core argument that Meta operates in a distinct “personal social networking” market.

“Whether or not Meta enjoyed monopoly power in the past, though, the agency must show that it continues to hold such power now,” he wrote. “The Court’s verdict today determines that the FTC has not done so.”

The FTC’s case first began at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term and forged ahead under former President Joe Biden.

The landmark antitrust trial, held this Spring, saw hours of testimony from Zuckerberg. While on the stand in the Washington, DC federal courtroom, he said Facebook had greatly evolved since he launched the platform more than 20 years ago and that its main purpose wasn’t really to connect with friends anymore.

“The Court’s decision today recognizes that Meta faces fierce competition,” a Meta spokesperson said following the ruling. “Our products are beneficial for people and businesses and exemplify American innovation and economic growth.”

• Internal documents show how Meta’s new Vibes AI video feed is performing across its biggest markets.
• The data reveals which countries are driving early growth and where usage is slipping.
• The documents also detail how people use Vibes, from prompting the AI to scrolling through videos.

Meta’s new Vibes AI feed has about 2 million daily active users as of November 9 and grew about 1% from the previous week, according to internal data viewed by Business Insider.

The numbers, which haven’t been reported before, offer an early look at how many people open the dedicated AI video feed each day.

Vibes, which Meta added to the Meta AI app in late September, just days before OpenAI debuted rival Sora, lets people create and scroll through AI-generated videos.

For comparison — and because few companies publicly break out daily active users for individual products — Meta recently said its Threads app, which launched in July 2023, has 150 million daily active users.

There are no publicly released daily active user figures for Instagram, Facebook, or OpenAI’s new Sora app this year.

Some external estimates help illustrate the broader landscape. Data provided by digital intelligence firm Similarweb to Business Insider shows that Sora, which was accessible only by invitation for most of October, had an average of roughly 110,000 daily active users that month. That number jumped to roughly 673,000 in November after OpenAI temporarily opened it up to the general public.

Meta’s wider ecosystem of apps, measured through its “family daily active people” metric, reached 3.54 billion users in September 2025, the company revealed in its latest earnings report.

Meta declined to comment. Sources familiar with Vibes told Business Insider that Vibes usage has continued to grow.

The internal data about Vibes obtained by Business Insider breaks down how people use the feed, showing where the feature is growing, where it’s lagging, and what kinds of engagement Meta tracks inside the feed.

Most of Vibes’ growth in early November came from India and Brazil, according to the documents. In India, one of Meta’s largest markets outside the US, daily active users reached 704,000, representing a 22% increase from the previous week. In Brazil, the number of daily active users reached 114,000, representing a 13% increase from the previous week.

In Europe, Vibes launched on November 6 and has pulled in 23,000 daily active users since then. The strongest uptake came from France, Italy, and Spain, with each country contributing between 4,000 and 5,000 daily active users.

Usage declined in parts of Southeast Asia. The Philippines saw the largest drop among major countries, with daily active users falling about 9% as a burst of viral videos tapered off, according to the documents. Thailand experienced a similar decline, with daily active users decreasing by about 7% compared to the previous week.

The documents show that people use Vibes differently depending on whether they’re new or returning users. New users often try both parts of the feature — scrolling through the feed and prompting the AI — while returning users tend to rely more on prompting. About 52% of returning users prompted the AI, compared to roughly 30% who scrolled through videos, according to the data.

The documents also describe how engagement varies depending on how people arrive at Vibes. About 40% of daily users opened the feed after the app directed them toward it, and this group tended to interact less, with only 38% going on to prompt the AI or scroll through videos. Even so, around 60% returned the following week, and those who did engage were more likely to return, according to the data.

Since its launch, some critics have said much of Vibes is filled with “AI slop,” including a wave of politically charged clips, many of them centered on President Donald Trump.

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