Norwegian Cruise Line rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in celebration of the fifth anniversary of its IPO. Frank Del Rio, President & CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line, was with us to share which milestones stand out to him the most.
Del Rio highlights the consistent growth in the company. One milestone that he is most proud of is Norwegian’s acquisition of Prestige Holdings, which he founded. Revenue for the company jumped 11% since last year and doubled since the IPO. He says Norwegian is a story of organic growth and he sees it continuing.
China has been a tough market to crack for many U.S. companies, but not for Norwegian. Del Rio says the company found success by thinking about what the Chinse consumer wants. He says they love to shop for luxury brands, so the company built the ship with 60% more retail space. Additionally, Norwegian capitalized on gaming by putting 3 casinos on board. On top of that, he says Chinese consumers aren't big sunbathers, so the company deemphasized the pool deck.
President Donald Trump is talking up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum. While Trump has seized on similar announcements to show that his presidency is boosting the economy, there were already expectations of a massive buildout of data centers and electricity plants needed for the development of AI.
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