This is Nick. This is Jack. We started writing an intro to today’s newsletter about the sugar shortage affecting Halloween candy. But there’s bigger news to cover: Over the weekend, Israel was infiltrated by Hamas militants in a surprise attack. Over 1,100 Israelis and Palestinians are believed to have been killed. Israeli Yetis, we’re thinking of you today. You can get more information here.

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1) The Michelin Man Is Giving out Room Keys

Michelin is expanding from 1) manufacturing tires and 2) making restaurants impossible to get into. Its next big thing? Rating hotels. Like its stars for restaurants, Michelin’s new “keys” for luxe hotels are about to make booking your Presidents’ Day getaway an Olympic-level sport.

Because Michelin is the authority on taste. Here’s wild the 140-year-old story:

• 🛞 1889, France: The Michelin bros start selling tires, envisioning a motorized future (there were fewer than 3,000 cars in their country at the time).

• 💡 Light bulb moment: Michelin realized more miles driven = more tires sold. So it debuted the Michelin guide to help travelers find the best stops along their (hopefully long) road trips.

• 🕵️ Going all-in: The tire co ultimately hired hundreds of full-time undercover reviewers, who each test 600 restaurants/year these days.

• 😋 Today: Michelin is the world’s Chief Taste Officer—it rates over 40,000 establishments and has sold north of 30M guides.

• ⭐⭐⭐: Only 143 restaurants have 3 Michelin stars. Average cost for a meal at one? $357.

The Takeaway →

After 100 years, the Michelin guide is still one of the greatest marketing stories to date. It costs an estimated $18M a year for Michelin to pay for all the caviar its restaurant inspectors are eating (talk about a work expense). But one study suggests that the Michelin Guide’s entry into a new country increases its tire sales there by 3%. And that’s even better than complimentary bread.

2) Exxon Mobil Could Make Its Biggest Acquisition Since...Exxon-Mobil

Exxon Mobil is in talks to drop $60B to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources—this would be one of the biggest oil deals since Exxon got together with Mobil in 1998.

• These numbers are simply huge. Should a deal go through…an Exxon Mobil + Pioneer combo would more than double Exxon's production of oil and gas from the important (and lucrative) Permian Basin—which is the largest oilfield in the US.

• 🌎 Exxon Mobil would produce more oil than every OPEC country except Saudi Arabia (yes, that includes Iraq, Iran, and the UAE). This new Exxon would rank as the #5 oil producing country (sidenote: Exxon is a company).

The Takeaway →

Exxon is marketing green but betting on black. We went to Exxon’s website, where the company proudly says it’s doing the work to “accelerate society’s path to net zero” by investing in cleaner energy. And last year, the company did pledge $17B over 5 years toward lower-emissions investments. But proof is in the acquisition price—Exxon’s bid for Pioneer is almost 4x the size of its squeaky clean green commitment.

3) Meta Adds Snoop Dog to the Chat

Meta just rolled out a cast of AI chatbots based on celebs. Snoop Doggy Dogg (or Dungeon Slayer) has entered the group chat.

Backing up: At a Meta event last month, Zuck unveiled a bunch of new Phil of the Future headwear—like virtual reality goggles and AI-enabled Ray-Bans that let you hang with a virtual AI buddy. But the problem: We haven’t really wanted to chill with Siri so far.

Meta’s solution: If your AI chatbot looked, talked, and acted like Kendall Jenner, you’d want to be BFFs. So Zuck paid a slew of celebs and influencers up to $5M each to use their likeness in an AI avatar. There are about two dozen characters to choose from, like Tom Brady (aka Bru) or Paris Hilton (aka Amber).

• 🥽 Imagine: You’re rockin’ Meta’s bug-eyed goggles and you ask Zach (the brotherly jokester who looks an awful lot like MrBeast) for a funny Halloween costume. He says Barbenheimer, and you love him for it.

The Takeaway →

When it comes to AI, fortune favors the huge. Historically, cutting-edge tech has been dominated by startups, since disruption is done best away from the status quo (see: Netflix winning streaming, not Disney). But for AI, it’s been way harder for small fish to compete in a really expensive pond. That’s why AI’s biggest spenders are 3 of America’s biggest companies: Meta, Microsoft, and Google—they’ve got the cash, and they’re hoping we’ll have the interest.

👢 Crocs does cowboy boots now—its CEO said we’re not interested in “high-priced, uncomfortable, fashion-centric” shoes anymore.

🚕 A self-driving robo-taxi from Cruise ran over a person…who sadly had already been hit by a car.

🏠 Home purchase applications have fallen to their lowest level since 1995. The reason: Mortgage rates just climbed even higher, to 7.49% on average.

🍔 McDonald’s & Wendy’s just won the false advertising lawsuit alleging that their food didn’t look as appetizing IRL as it did in ads.

🧑‍💻 Founding a business is still on trend post-pandemic—466K new business applications were filed in August, up 19% from pre-Pandemic levels.

🙌 The UAW won’t expand strikes at Detroit’s Big 3 automakers. There’s no agreement yet, but EV battery plant workers scored a pivotal concession from General Motors on Friday.

🕸️ Spiders are falling from the sky in San Fran. If you see white webbing around the Bay Area, it may not have come from Spirit Halloween…

Correction from the Friday edition: We mentioned that Qatar is a dictatorship. It’s not. It’s a constitutional monarchy. We should have said non-democracy.

And one more thing. We’re on Halloween candy watch (never too early). What candy will you absolutely be stealing from the little one’s stash?

—Nick & Jack