OpenAI’s “12 Days of Shipmas,” which wrapped up on Friday, brought a sense of levity to end the year. The marketing blitz served as a way for the high-profile and controversial AI startup to show it can release an extensive roster of new features and tools while also having some fun.

But when the calendar turns, the company faces some serious challenges. Most notably, there’s co-founder Elon Musk, who now runs rival startup xAI, and is in the midst of a heated legal battle with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that could have a big impact on the company’s future.

The threat Musk poses to OpenAI is even more significant considering the hefty amount of influence the world’s richest person is poised to assume as part of the incoming Trump administration.

In recent months, Musk has sued Microsoft-backed OpenAI and asked a court to stop the company from converting to a for-profit corporation from a nonprofit. In posts on X, he described that effort as a “total scam” and claimed that “OpenAI is evil.” At The New York Times’ DealBook Summit earlier this month, Altman said he views xAI as a “fierce competitor.”

The pressure on OpenAI is tied in large part to its $157 billion valuation, achieved in the two years since the company launched its viral chatbot, ChatGPT, and kicked off the boom in generative AI. OpenAI closed its latest $6.6 billion round in October, gearing up to aggressively compete with xAI as well as Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Anthropic in a market that’s predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade.

Alongside the drama swirling around OpenAI and Altman, the Shipmas shtick served as a way for the company to shift the focus to its technology and generate buzz for its products.

The most significant release over the 12 days was the public launch of Sora, OpenAI’s much-hyped video-generation tool, on Dec. 9.

Using Sora, which OpenAI first announced in February, is relatively simple: A user types out a desired scene, and the engine will return a high-definition video clip. Sora can also create clips inspired by still images and extend existing videos or fill in missing frames. While other AI video tools are available, Sora has been by far the most anticipated because of the power of OpenAI’s large language models.

On Wednesday, OpenAI gave users a new way to talk to its viral chatbot: 1-800-CHATGPT. Those in the U.S. can dial the number (1-800-242-8478) for 15 minutes free per month, OpenAI said, and WhatsApp users globally can message the chatbot at the same number.

Other announcements included the full release of OpenAI’s new o1 AI model focused on reasoning, a demo of video and screen-sharing options in ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode, the ability to organize work into “Projects” within ChatGPT, a wider rollout of ChatGPT Search and new developer tools. The company also used the marketing push to talk about its integration with Apple for the iPhone, iPad and macOS.

OpenAI closed out its 12-day run of releases on Friday by announcing its newest frontier model, o3, as well as o3 mini. On a livestream, Altman said the company would not publicly launch the models Friday but would make them immediately available for public safety testing.

The company launched o1 in September, and in skipping straight to o3, Altman said he’s continuing “the grand tradition of OpenAI being really, truly bad at names.”

The campaign was celebrated in some corners for the company’s ability to make a strong year-end push, and criticized by others as significantly more hype than substance. Either way, OpenAI is well aware that competition is heating up — and quickly.

One of its chief rivals, Amazon-backed Anthropic, was founded by early OpenAI researchers and has been attracting top talent. In May, OpenAI safety leader Jan Leike left OpenAI for Anthropic, and in August, OpenAI co-founder John Schulman announced he was leaving to join the rival startup. They were part of a wave of departures that culminated in September, when three top leaders, most notably technology chief Mira Murati, announced their exits on the same day.

A recent report by Anthropic investor Menlo Ventures found that OpenAI ceded market share this year in enterprise AI, declining from 50% to 34%, while Anthropic doubled its market share from 12% to 24%. The results came from a survey of 600 enterprise IT decision-makers from companies with 50 or more employees, according to the report.

One key area where the two companies appear poised to go head-to-head is in defense, as AI companies walk back earlier bans on military use of their products and enter into partnerships with big players in the industry and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The day before OpenAI’s Shipmas event began, the company announced a partnership with Anduril, allowing the defense tech provider to deploy advanced AI systems for “national security missions.” Last month, Anthropic and defense software vendor Palantir announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services to “provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies access” to Anthropic’s AI systems.

The primary battle, though, is still for users. Altman said publicly earlier this month that OpenAI now has 300 million weekly active users. Over the next year, the company is reportedly targeting 1 billion.

That level of growth will likely require a pricey marketing push and fast-tracked feature launches, as the company advances in its two-year timeline for transitioning from a nonprofit into a fully for-profit company. Earlier this month, OpenAI announced it had hired its first chief marketing officer, nabbing Kate Rouch from crypto company Coinbase.

Then there’s the increasingly complicated relationship with Microsoft, OpenAI’s lead investor and key cloud provider. While both companies continue to tout the value of their close partnership, there are increasing signs of tension.

Following Altman’s abrupt but short-lived ouster from OpenAI late last year, reports surfaced that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was not briefed beforehand. After Altman was quickly reinstated, OpenAI gave Microsoft a non-voting board seat. Microsoft relinquished the position in July.

In March, Nadella brought on Mustafa Suleyman, who had co-founded AI research company DeepMind and sold it to Google in 2014. Suleyman, later co-founded and led startup Inflection AI, and was effectively acquihired by Microsoft.

In its annual report published in July, Microsoft named OpenAI as a competitor, adding the company to a roster that for years has included megacap peers Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta. And in October, OpenAI debuted a search feature within ChatGPT that positions it to better compete with search engines like Google and Microsoft’s Bing.

But the thorniest issue heading into the new year likely involves Musk, who has been a fixture at President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida since the election.

Trump has said in the past that he would repeal President Joe Biden’s AI executive order, issued in October 2023, which introduced new safety assessments, equity and civil rights guidance and research on AI’s impact on the labor market.

Musk is set to to lead the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is expected to function as an advisory office, alongside onetime Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. His new role could give Musk, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX and owns social media company X, influence over federal agencies’ budgets, staffing and regulations in ways that favor his companies.

“Starting to feel like The @DOGE has real potential,” Musk posted on X last month.

OpenAI did not provide a comment for the story, and Musk didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Love Starbucks holiday drinks? This week, you may not get them.

Starbucks Workers United announced baristas will strike starting Friday in three key markets — Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago. 

The union said the move is in response to the coffee chain’s “failure to bring viable economic proposals to the bargaining table” and “to resolve hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practice charges.”

The union, which started organizing in 2021, represents 525 union stores and over 10,500 union workers, according to its website. Starbucks has nearly 10,000 company-owned U.S. stores, The Associated Press reports.

“Since February, Starbucks has repeatedly pledged publicly that they intended to reach contracts by the end of the year — but they’ve yet to present workers with a serious economic proposal,” the group wrote on X. “This week, less than two weeks before their end-of-year deadline, Starbucks proposed no immediate wage increase for union baristas, and a guarantee of only 1.5% wage increases in future years.”

The group said baristas starting Friday morning will embark on five days of escalating strikes that could spread to other cities through Christmas Eve “unless Starbucks honors our commitment to work towards a foundational framework.”

Starbucks, which is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, told NBC News there has been “no significant impact” to its store operations. 

“We are aware of disruption at a small handful of stores, but the overwhelming majority of our US stores remain open and serving customers as normal,” the company said.

In a Tuesday press release the union said it and Starbucks had announced a path forward earlier this year and have advanced dozens of tentative agreements at the table, but “Starbucks has yet to bring a comprehensive economic package to the bargaining table.”

“Starbucks can’t get back on track as a company until it finalizes a fair contract that invests in its workforce. Right now, I’m making $16.50 an hour. Meanwhile, Brian Niccol’s compensation package is worth $57,000 an hour,” Silvia Baldwin, a Philadelphia barista and bargaining delegate, said in a statement referring to Starbucks’ CEO.

“The company just announced I’m only getting a 2.5% raise next year, $0.40 an hour, which is hardly anything. It’s one Starbucks drink per week. Starbucks needs to invest in the baristas who make Starbucks run,” she added.

A Starbucks spokesperson said Workers United delegates “prematurely ended our bargaining session this week.”

Starbucks argued that it offers a “competitive average pay of over $18 per hour, and best-in-class benefits” such as health care, college tuition, paid family leave, and company stock grants.

“Workers United proposals call for an immediate increase in the minimum wage of hourly partners by 64%, and by 77% over the life of a three-year year contract. This is not sustainable,” the company said.

Starbucks said it is ready to continue negotiations.

It comes as the Teamsters union announced Thursday strikes at several Amazon delivery facilities, amid the peak holiday delivery rush.

Party City on Friday announced it will close all of its stores and has initiated corporate layoffs effective immediately, according to a CNN report.

CEO Barry Litwin told corporate employees in a meeting viewed by CNN that Party City has to “commence a winddown process immediately,” and that Friday would be their last day of work for the company.

“That is without question the most difficult message that I’ve ever had to deliver,” Litwin said at the meeting, according to the report.

CNN reported the company’s closure was due to ongoing financial challenges at the party supply retailer, which less than two years ago filed for bankruptcy protection over its inability to pay off $1.7 billion in debt.

The New Jersey-based chain exited bankruptcy in September 2023 through a plan that included transitioning into a privately held company and canceling nearly $1 billion in debt. A majority of its 800 U.S. stores were able to stay open as it emerged from bankruptcy.

Litwin was named CEO in August and said at the time he saw “many opportunities to strengthen our financial performance and build a leading end-to-end celebration experience for consumers,” according to a press release. 

Prior to his appointment, he was the CEO of Global Industrial Company, a distribution leader in industrial products.

Competition in the party goods and costume space has grown in recent years, including Spirit Halloween’s continued rise within and outside of the spooky season. The holiday costume chain announced in October that it would open 10 new “Spirit Christmas” stores, with some of the stores being converted from existing Spirit Halloween locations.

Online retailers have also added pressure to Party City’s operation, even as the company began to offer items on Amazon in 2018.

Representatives for Party City did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on CNN’s report or potential story closures. Read the full CNN report here.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suing America’s three largest banks, accusing the institutions of failing to protect customers from fraud on Zelle, the payment platform they co-own.

According to the suit, which also targets Early Warning Services LLC, Zelle’s official operator, Zelle users have lost more than $870 million over the network’s seven-year existence due to these alleged failures.

“The nation’s largest banks felt threatened by competing payment apps, so they rushed to put out Zelle,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra in a statement. “By their failing to put in place proper safeguards, Zelle became a gold mine for fraudsters, while often leaving victims to fend for themselves.”

Among the charges:

The CFPB’s suit seeks to change the platform’s operations, as well as obtain a civil money penalty, that would be paid into the CFPB’s victims relief fund.

A spokesperson for Zelle called the suit misguided and politically motivated.

“The CFPB’s attacks on Zelle are legally and factually flawed, and the timing of this lawsuit appears to be driven by political factors unrelated to Zelle,’ Jane Khodos, Zelle spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. ‘Zelle leads the fight against scams and fraud and has industry-leading reimbursement policies that go above and beyond the law.’

In a follow-up statement, a Zelle spokesperson called the magnitude of CFPB’s claims about customer losses due to fraud ‘misleading,’ adding that ‘many reported fraud claims are not found to involve actual fraud after investigation.’

A JPMorgan spokesperson echoed those sentiments, calling it ‘a last ditch effort in pursuit of their political agenda.’

‘The CFPB is now overreaching its authority by making banks accountable for criminals, even including romance scammers,’ the bank said. ‘It’s a stunning demonstration of regulation by enforcement, skirting the required rulemaking process. Rather than going after criminals, the CFPB is jeopardizing the value and free nature of Zelle, a trusted payments service beloved by our customers.’

A Bank of America spokesperson highlighted the importance of Zelle to everyday users.

‘We strongly disagree with the CFPB’s effort to impose huge new costs on the 2,200 banks and credit unions that offer the free Zelle service to clients,’ said William Halldin in an emailed statement. ’23 million Bank of America clients have embraced Zelle, regularly using it to send money to friends, family and people they trust.’ 

Via email, a Wells Fargo spokesperson declined to comment.

Launched in 2017, Zelle allows users to send and receive money electronically. The platform has previously come in for criticism by Senate Democrats: Most recently, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, found customers had disputed over $372 million in scams and fraud in 2023 — with nearly three-quarters of the claimed losses never reimbursed by the banks.”

In its statement regarding the CFPB suit, Early Warning said reports of scams and fraud had decreased by nearly 50% in 2023, resulting in 99.95% of payments being sent without a report of scams and fraud.

The CFPB has announced a number of measures this month designed to protect consumers amid threats to its continued existence from the incoming second Trump administration.