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DoorDash CEO Tony Xu: M&A is easy on paper—’very hard to get right in practice’

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Good morning. Automation, AI agents, and M&A are top of mind for the on-demand delivery platform and tech company DoorDash.

During Fortune Brainstorm Tech, which kicked off Monday in Park City, Utah, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu spoke with Fortune’s Jason Del Rey about M&A, noting he has learned the importance of partnering with operating teams that share DoorDash’s values.

“That’s what we found when we met Wolt in 2021—a team with very shared values, which to me is probably the hardest thing to get right in M&A,” Xu said. “M&A is very easy to get right on a sheet of paper; it’s very hard to get right in practice.”

Earlier this year, DoorDash closed the $1.2 billion acquisition of SevenRooms, which helps businesses gain a 360-degree view of their guests with marketing as a service, he said. Also this year, the company acquired ad-tech platform Symbiosys for roughly $175 million. And DoorDash has also agreed to acquire UK-based Deliveroo for about $3.9 billion, expecting to close in Q4 2025, pending regulatory approval.

Automation and AI

DoorDash has been working on autonomous delivery, such as drones and sidewalk robots, since 2017. But there have been challenges, Xu said.

“Candidly, it’s mostly been filled with lots of pain and suffering,” he said, explaining that achieving reliable, scalable autonomous delivery requires excelling across multiple domains: hardware, software, network building, and service quality—few companies master all of these simultaneously.

Xu compared the process to learning a multi-level sport and emphasized that DoorDash is still early in building these broad capabilities. However, he noted that DoorDash is beginning to see commercial progress, with successful tests and pilots in the U.S. (including partnering with Coco Robotics for robot delivery), and drone deliveries with Alphabet’s Wing in Australia, for example. 

DoorDash builds and deploys AI agents, developed both in-house and with partners. Key use cases include customer service, voice ordering, logistics, and merchant support. “We launched an AI agent to help merchants better buy advertisements and promotions,” Xu said.

Founded in 2013, DoorDash debuted on the Fortune 500 last year. “We have three customers: consumers, merchants, and Dashers,” CFO Ravi Inukonda told me in 2024. “When we first started, our goal wasn’t to build a food delivery business. The goal was to build a local commerce business.”

The company has gone beyond food delivery, enabling purchases and delivery from restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies, pet shops, retail stores, and more.

This year, DoorDash climbed 49 spots to No. 394 on the Fortune 500. The company reported its Q2 2025 earnings last month, beating expectations: Revenue was $3.28 billion, up 25% from $2.63 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share were 65 cents, versus 44 cents expected. Total orders increased 20% year-over-year to 761 million.

DoorDash also announced on Monday an exclusive partnership with Waffle House for the rollout of all-night delivery (9 p.m.–8 a.m.). It’s the first delivery service in Waffle House’s decades in business.

The goal is to deliver in under 15 minutes from when the food is ready, to “offer a quality experience,” Xu said.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

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Fortune 500 Power Moves

Yvonne McGill, CFO of Dell Technologies (No. 44), will step down from her role after a career at Dell that spanned nearly 30 years, effective Sept. 9.

 

Dell has named David Kennedy, SVP of Dell Global Business Operations, Finance, to serve as interim CFO, effective Sept. 9. Kennedy is also the former SVP and COO of Dell Global Sales and SVP and CFO of the company’s Client Solutions Group. He has 27 years of experience at Dell.

 

McGill will serve in an advisory capacity through Oct. 31, 2025, as part of the transition period. The company has also initiated a search process to find a permanent successor.

“As I reflect on my 28-plus years with Dell, I am incredibly honored to have worked alongside such a talented global team,” McGill said in a statement. “I am proud of all we have accomplished together and believe that, after such long service with one company, this is the right time for me to embark on my next chapter.”

McGill began the CFO role in August 2023, making her first woman to become finance chief at the company. There will be different times in your career where you’re given “opportunities—or you could call them risks, however you want to see it”—and you should take them because they will help you grow, McGill told CFO Daily in 2023.

Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shiftssee the most recent edition

Big Deal

A new report from the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and North Carolina State University’s Enterprise Risk Management Initiative finds that just 11% of senior finance leaders consider their organization’s risk management process to be a strategic tool that provides competitive advantage. Meanwhile, 64% say it provides no or only minimal advantage.

Additionally, 61% of finance leaders acknowledge that the volume and complexity of risks have changed “mostly” or “extensively” over the past five years.

 

To strengthen an organization’s risk management, executives and boards must first identify cultural obstacles, according to the report. The respondents cite competing priorities and insufficient resources (both at 41%) as the most common barriers, along with a lack of perceived value in risk management efforts (29%).

 

The findings are based on a survey of 273 CFOs and senior finance leaders at U.S. organizations. 

Going deeper

How Financial Frictions Can Delay Firm Growth” is a new report in Wharton’s business journal. Wharton’s Thomas Winberry explains how financial constraints can delay innovation and long-term growth for firms, as well as the economy. 

Overheard

“AI is only as effective as its inputs, and the interpretation and action steps that follow are only as sound as the skills and contextual understanding of the people involved. In short: reducing human oversight creates breeding grounds for security gaps.”

This is the web version of CFO Daily, a newsletter on the trends and individuals shaping corporate finance. Sign up for free.



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SpaceX to offer insider shares at record-setting $800 billion valuation

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SpaceX is preparing to sell insider shares in a transaction that would value Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker at as much as $800 billion, people familiar with the matter said, reclaiming the title of the world’s most valuable private company. 

The details, discussed by SpaceX’s board of directors on Thursday at its Starbase hub in Texas, could change based on interest from insider sellers and buyers or other factors, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. SpaceX is also exploring a possible initial public offering as soon as late next year, one of the people said. 

Another person briefed on the matter said that the price under discussion for the sale of some employees and investors’ shares is higher than $400 apiece, which would value SpaceX at between $750 billion and $800 billion. The company wouldn’t raise any funds though this planned sale, though a successful offering at such levels would catapult it past the record of $500 billion valuation achieved by OpenAI in October.

Elon Musk on Saturday denied that SpaceX is raising money at a $800 billion valuation without addressing Bloomberg’s reporting on the planned offering of insiders’ shares. 

“SpaceX has been cash flow positive for many years and does periodic stock buybacks twice a year to provide liquidity for employees and investors,” Musk said in a post on his social media platform X. 

The share sale price under discussion would be a substantial increase from the $212 a share set in July, when the company raised money and sold shares at a valuation of $400 billion. The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times earlier reported the $800 billion valuation target.

News of SpaceX’s valuation sent shares of EchoStar Corp., a satellite TV and wireless company, up as much as 18%. Last month, EchoStar had agreed to sell spectrum licenses to SpaceX for $2.6 billion, adding to an earlier agreement to sell about $17 billion in wireless spectrum to Musk’s company.

Subscribe Now: The Business of Space newsletter covers NASA, key industry events and trends.

The world’s most prolific rocket launcher, SpaceX dominates the space industry with its Falcon 9 rocket that lifts satellites and people to orbit.

SpaceX is also the industry leader in providing internet services from low-Earth orbit through Starlink, a system of more than 9,000 satellites that is far ahead of competitors including Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Leo.

Elite Group

SpaceX is among an elite group of companies that have the ability to raise funds at $100 billion-plus valuations while delaying or denying they have any plan to go public. 

An IPO of the company at an $800 billion value would vault SpaceX into another rarefied group — the 20 largest public companies, a few notches below Musk’s Tesla Inc. 

If SpaceX sold 5% of the company at that valuation, it would have to sell $40 billion of stock — making it the biggest IPO of all time, well above Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion listing in 2019. The firm sold just 1.5% of the company in that offering, a much smaller slice than the majority of publicly traded firms make available.

A listing would also subject SpaceX to the volatility of being a public company, versus private firms whose valuations are closely guarded secrets. Space and defense company IPOs have had a mixed reception in 2025. Karman Holdings Inc.’s stock has nearly tripled since its debut, while Firefly Aerospace Inc. and Voyager Technologies Inc. have plunged by double-digit percentages since their debuts.

SpaceX executives have repeatedly floated the idea of spinning off SpaceX’s Starlink business into a separate, publicly traded company — a concept President Gwynne Shotwell first suggested in 2020. 

However, Musk cast doubt on the prospect publicly over the years and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said in 2024 that a Starlink IPO would be something that would take place more likely “in the years to come.”

The Information, citing people familiar with the discussions, separately reported on Friday that SpaceX has told investors and financial institution representatives that it’s aiming for an IPO of the entire company in the second half of next year.

Read More: How to Buy SpaceX: A Guide for the Eager, Pre-IPO

A so-called tender or secondary offering, through which employees and some early shareholders can sell shares, provides investors in closely held companies such as SpaceX a way to generate liquidity.

SpaceX is working to develop its new Starship vehicle, advertised as the most powerful rocket ever developed to loft huge numbers of Starlink satellites as well as carry cargo and people to moon and, eventually, Mars.



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National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day and Juneteenth while adding Trump’s birthday

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The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on President Donald Trump’s birthday next year — which also happens to be Flag Day — but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.

The new list of free admission days for Americans is the latest example of the Trump administration downplaying America’s civil rights history while also promoting the president’s image, name and legacy.

Last year, the list of free days included Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth — which is June 19 — but not June 14, Trump’s birthday.

The new free-admission policy takes effect Jan. 1 and was one of several changes announced by the Park Service late last month, including higher admission fees for international visitors.

The other days of free park admission in 2026 are Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, Veterans Day, President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27) and the anniversary of the creation of the Park Service (Aug. 25).

Eliminating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Americans were emancipated, removes two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights holidays.

Some civil rights leaders voiced opposition to the change after news about it began spreading over the weekend.

“The raw & rank racism here stinks to high heaven,” Harvard Kennedy School professor Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP, wrote on social media about the new policy.

Kristen Brengel, a spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association, said that while presidential administrations have tweaked the free days in the past, the elimination of Martin Luther King Jr. Day is particularly concerning. For one, the day has become a popular day of service for community groups that use the free day to perform volunteer projects at parks.

That will now be much more expensive, said Brengel, whose organization is a nonprofit that advocates for the park system.

“Not only does it recognize an American hero, it’s also a day when people go into parks to clean them up,” Brengel said. “Martin Luther King Jr. deserves a day of recognition … For some reason, Black history has repeatedly been targeted by this administration, and it shouldn’t be.”

Some Democratic lawmakers also weighed in to object to the new policy.

“The President didn’t just add his own birthday to the list, he removed both of these holidays that mark Black Americans’ struggle for civil rights and freedom,” said Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. “Our country deserves better.”

A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not immediately respond to questions on Saturday seeking information about the reasons behind the changes.

Since taking office, Trump has sought to eliminate programs seen as promoting diversity across the federal government, actions that have erased or downplayed America’s history of racism as well as the civil rights victories of Black Americans.

Self-promotion is an old habit of the president’s and one he has continued in his second term. He unsuccessfully put himself forwardfor the Nobel Peace Prize, renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself, sought to put his name on the planned NFL stadium in the nation’s capital and had a new children’s savings program named after him.

Some Republican lawmakers have suggested putting his visage on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill.



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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says Europe has a ‘real problem’

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon called out slow bureaucracy in Europe in a warning that a “weak” continent poses a major economic risk to the US.

“Europe has a real problem,” Dimon said Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “They do some wonderful things on their safety nets. But they’ve driven business out, they’ve driven investment out, they’ve driven innovation out. It’s kind of coming back.”

While he praised some European leaders who he said were aware of the issues, he cautioned politics is “really hard.” 

Dimon, leader of the biggest US bank, has long said that the risk of a fragmented Europe is among the major challenges facing the world. In his letter to shareholders released earlier this year, he said that Europe has “some serious issues to fix.”

On Saturday, he praised the creation of the euro and Europe’s push for peace. But he warned that a reduction in military efforts and challenges trying to reach agreement within the European Union are threatening the continent.

“If they fragment, then you can say that America first will not be around anymore,” Dimon said. “It will hurt us more than anybody else because they are a major ally in every single way, including common values, which are really important.”

He said the US should help.

“We need a long-term strategy to help them become strong,” Dimon said. “A weak Europe is bad for us.”

The administration of President Donald Trump issued a new national security strategy that directed US interests toward the Western Hemisphere and protection of the homeland while dismissing Europe as a continent headed toward “civilizational erasure.”

Read More: Trump’s National Security Strategy Veers Inward in Telling Shift

JPMorgan has been ramping up its push to spur more investments in the national defense sector. In October, the bank announced that it would funnel $1.5 trillion into industries that bolster US economic security and resiliency over the next 10 years — as much as $500 billion more than what it would’ve provided anyway. 

Dimon said in the statement that it’s “painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing.”

Investment banker Jay Horine oversees the effort, which Dimon called “100% commercial.” It will focus on four areas: supply chain and advanced manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence and resilience; and frontier and strategic technologies. 

The bank will also invest as much as $10 billion of its own capital to help certain companies expand, innovate or accelerate strategic manufacturing.

Separately on Saturday, Dimon praised Trump for finding ways to roll back bureaucracy in the government.

“There is no question that this administration is trying to bring an axe to some of the bureaucracy that held back America,” Dimon said. “That is a good thing and we can do it and still keep the world safe, for safe food and safe banks and all the stuff like that.”



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