In today’s episode of the OpenAI soap opera: Sam Altman, after his turbulent ouster less than a week ago, is being brought back as CEO, the company posted on X. Greg Brockman, former president and chairman, was also reinstated. Turns out having almost all employees threaten to resign can put a little pressure on a company.

On the tails of a backfired coup, the board responsible for all the drama is being replaced by tentative members, Bret Taylor (former co-CEO of Salesforce) as chair, existing member Adam D’Angelo (Quora CEO), and Larry Summers (former Treasury Secretary).

Where does this leave Microsoft, who had hired Altman and Brockman to lead a team for advanced AI research? Still no word from CEO Satya Nadella who conveniently left out the info from his most recent statement.

But the five day frenzy’s not over yet. In the vague X post, the company said an agreement had been reached “in principle,” with collaborations still taking place to “figure out the details,” like a finalized, reworked board.

Up to nine new directors are in the works, a source close to the matter told Bloomberg, and it’s likely that Altman will be one of them eventually, but is sitting out for now to move the agreement along.

The story is getting a lot of ink: The Verge, Wall Street Journal, Time, Reuters, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, CNBC.

One year after entering the private equity space, Kim K can now say she’s completed her first PE transaction. SkkyPartners, Kardashian’s venture with copartner Jay Sammons, acquired a significant minority stake in Truff, a manufacturer of luxury condiments.

Truff seems like a good fit for the Kardashian brand. The manufacturer, operated by Sauce Ventures LLC, produces a variety of regular condiments — salt, mayonnaise, oil, hot sauce — infused with truffle. Nick Guillien, co-founder of the condiment company, described Truff as “the Dom Perignon of hot sauce.”

A 170g bottle of Truff hot sauce is priced at USD 17.98 (EGP 556.2, for those of you keeping track at home). For comparison, a bottle of hot sauce at the grocery store averages EGP 30. Truff’s best seller pack, containing black truffle hot sauce, white truffle hot sauce, and black truffle oil, sells for USD 74.99 (EGP 2.3k), but retails in Om El Donia for EGP 4.8k.

You might want to revisit how many spoons of sugar go in your tea:El Niño, the warming of surface waters in parts of the Pacific Ocean due to climate change, has caused extreme weather conditions impacting sugar production in Asia. Damaged harvests in India and Thailand, the world’s second and third largest sugar exporters, have seen prices worldwide at their highest since 2011.

It’s affecting some countries more than others. Import-dependent countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, are feeling it a little more. Nigeria, which imports 98% of its raw sugar, has had prices jump 22.7% within a week.

IN OM EL DONIA- The Madbouly government met with sugar packing companies and traders to negotiate new terms for trading of the product last month. This came hot at the heels of the government’s temporary ban on selling sugar to traders in an effort to temper soaring prices.

This is affecting individual consumers, bakeries, and other food manufacturers globally, who are forced to raise their prices to turn a profit, to the chagrin of their customers.

As of October, the price for a kilo of sugar was EGP 40 — double the price subsidized by the government. The sugar export ban was also extended to curb inflation.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization is predicting a loss of 3.5 mn metric tons in production compared to last year, according to AP. Thailand is expecting an additional 15% dip in production, but has imposed price controls on the product for the first time since 2018.

It’s a different story for Brazil. Their better weatherhas translated to a production increase of 20% — but its harvest won’t hit the market before April, and will only plug the leak in supply until late 2024.

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