Wars in Ukraine and Gaza devastated lives and reshaped economies.

The business and tech world was marked by artificial intelligence, changes in leaders and titles, historic trials and strikes, and the economic impacts of war and inflation.

Here are some of the biggest moments of the year in business and tech, as captured by photographers.

Q1: January - March

Amid a record-breaking year for climate disasters, leaders and activists stepped up to take urgent action.

Skiers descend the slopes of the Rohrmoos skiing area covered in artificial snow as grass covers the rest of the hill on either side on January 6, 2023 in Schladming, Austria. Many European ski resorts have been snowless due to the impacts of climate change.




Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images














Police officers carry Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg out of a group of protesters and activists and away from the edge of the Garzweiler II opencast lignite mine on January 17, 2023 in North Rhine-Westphalia, Erkelenz, Germany.




Christoph Reichwein/Picture Alliance via Getty Images

The rise of AI image generators threatened artists, while some found ways to embrace the changes.

A visitor looks at artist Refik Anadol's "Unsupervised" exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in New York. The new AI-generated installation is meant to be a thought-provoking interpretation of the New York City museum's prestigious collection.




AP Photo/John Minchillo

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket became set to change the face of space exploration.

People watch as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from launch pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on February 27, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket is carrying upgraded Starlink V2 Mini satellites to be deployed into a 230-mile-high orbit.




Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in his criminal case over the crash of FTX.

Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, departs from court in New York, US, on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023.




Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty

Silicon Valley Bank imploded, and Wall Street reaped the benefits.

A customer stands outside a shuttered Silicon Valley Bank headquarters on March 10, 2023, in Santa Clara, California.




Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Sam Altman and OpenAI became the rockstars of the tech world.

The senior executives of OpenAI, from left: Mira Murati, chief technology officer; Sam Altman, chief executive; Greg Brockman, president; and Ilya Sutskever, chief scientist, at the company's headquarters in San Francisco on March 13, 2023.




Jim Wilson/The New York Times via Redux Pictures

Unions across major industries fought to exist and secure better rights for workers.

Sam Amato of Buffalo, New York, who is a member of the union and says he was illegally fired from Starbucks after 13 years, becomes emotional during testimony by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, March 29, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington.




AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin



Q2: April - June

Small businesses faced numerous challenges and retailers as a whole suffered thousands of closures.

Espositos, an Italian-American family-run pork store open for 100 years, says goodbye to the neighborhood on their final day in business, April 10, 2023, in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.




Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Chinese tech brands, like TikTok and Lenovo, thrived globally.

People walk by installations advertising Vivo X Fold 2 foldable smartphone and X Flip foldable smartphone at The Bund on April 11, 2023, in Shanghai, China.




Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images

Apple became ready to enter the metaverse.

Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., right, reacts to a customer carrying a Macintosh SE during the opening of the new Apple BKC store in Mumbai, India, on April 18, 2023.




Indranil Aditya/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The farming industry struggled with the climate crisis.

Meredith Ellis looks at cattle with her son on their ranch in Rosston, Texas, April 20, 2023. Ellis has seen how global warming is altering her land. She calls it an "existential crisis," the backdrop to the endless to-do list that comes with regenerative ranching.




David Goldman/AP Photo

US and China, both semiconductor powerhouses, fought to win the chip wars.

An employee is reflected as he holds a 300mm test wafer at the Infineon computer chip factory on April 26, 2023 in Dresden, Germany.




Sean Gallup/Getty Images

After a longstanding financial crisis in Lebanon, some depositors took matters into their own hands and took back their own money trapped in banks.

Protesting depositors burn tires and try to break into a Bank Audi branch in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, May 9, 2023. Depositors for years have protested at the banks, demanding their trapped savings back, as they struggle with an economic crisis that has plunged much of the country's population into poverty.




Hussein Malla/AP Photo

Apple and Meta hoped to make virtual reality more widespread.

Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh tries a virtual reality horse racing simulator as he attends day 1 of the 2023 Royal Windsor Horse Show in Home Park, Windsor Castle on May 11, 2023 in Windsor, England.




Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

The Bank of Japan became an uncertainty factor.

Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda takes part in an interview with a small group of journalists at headquarters in Tokyo on May 25, 2023.




Photo by Richard A. Brooks / AFP via Getty

Nvidia took the lead in the ongoing AI race.

Nvidia president and CEO Jensen Huang enters the stage while waving to the audience at a keynote presentation at Computex 2023 on May 29, 2023 in Taipei, Taiwan.




Photo by Walid Berrazeg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

A new generation entered the workforce.

Shavon Shorter receives her AA degree during Los Angeles Valley Colleges commencement ceremony on Tuesday, June 6, 2023 in Valley Glen and plans to continue studying real estate and business management at CSUN.




Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images

After a decade of economic collapse, Venezuela's economy showed slow signs of growth.

Fisherwomen and men pull in a net of fish off the coast of Chuao, Venezuela, early Wednesday, June 7, 2023. Some women are joining a family tradition of fishing and in other cases launching new careers after losing jobs during Venezuela's economic crisis.




Matias Delacroix/AP Photo



Q3: July - September

Gen Z proved to be creative thinkers, and they may change the office as we know it.

Karla Torres, 18, of Los Angeles, is a finalist in the Stuck At Prom, a duct tape scholarship contest, on Friday, July 7, 2023 in Los Angeles, CA. The contest awards scholarships to high schoolers who make the best prom attire out of Duck Brand Duct tape. Torres will be attending California State University Fullerton pursuing a degree in business marketing starting Aug. 2023.




Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Data centers saw explosive growth.

High-voltage transmission lines provide electricity to data centers in Ashburn in Loudon County, Virginia, on July 16, 2023. The centers house the computer servers and hardware required to support modern internet use, including artificial intelligence. The county is home to the world's largest concentration of data centers.




Ted Shaffrey/AP Photo

The US dodged a recession.

Traders work the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on July 25, 2023, in New York City. Wall Street stocks were mixed early July 25 following a round of generally positive earnings as markets looked ahead to a Federal Reserve interest rate decision.




Photo by Angela Weis/AFP via Getty Images

China may have reached the end of its economic boom, BI's Linette Lopez argued.

Vendors at neighborhood stores wait for customers late into the evening in Beijing on July 27, 2023.




Ng Han Guan/AP Photo

Elon Musk morphed Twitter into X.

Workers install lighting on an "X" sign atop the downtown San Francisco building that housed what was formally known as Twitter, now rebranded X by owner Elon Musk, Friday, July 28, 2023.




Noah Berger/AP Photo

'Barbenheimer' brought people back to the movies.

People take a selfie in front of an "Oppenheimer" movie poster before they attend an advance screening of "Barbie," July 20, 2023, in Los Angeles.




Chris Pizzello/AP Photo

President Joe Biden's economic agenda gained supporters and detractors.

The stage is prepared with "Bidenomics" signs before U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris addresses an event at Sycamore & Oak, a minority-owned retail village that houses other local small businesses on August 4, 2023 in Washington, D.C.




Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

ChatGPT and AI tools caused upheaval at universities.

Professor Darren Keast works on his computer at home in Mill Valley, CA. on August 4, 2023. Professor Keast is worried about one thing: artificial intelligence. When ChatGPT came into existence in November, it triggered a massive upheaval inside universities.




Charles Ommanney for the Washington Post via Getty

Taylor Swift became an economic phenomenon.

Taylor Swift performs during "The Eras Tour," August 7, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Swift dominated popular culture in 2023, going on the first-ever $1 billion tour and getting named Time magazine's Person of the Year.




Chris Pizzello/AP Photo

India made a historic first moon landing.

Schoolchildren celebrate the successful landing of spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 on the moon, in a school in Guwahati, India, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. India has landed a spacecraft near the moon's south pole, an unchartered territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water and precious elements, as the country cements its growing prowess in space and technology.




Anupam Nath/AP Photo/

The rise of weight-loss drugs, like Ozempic, set off ripples that could impact the future of the stock market.

Ashley Dunham preps for her weekly dosage of Ozempic on August 25, 2023 in Jacksonville, Florida.




Malcom Jackson for The Washington Post via Getty Images

The world set renewable energy records in 2023.

The "Blue Supermoon", the second full moon of a calendar month, rises over Osorio's wind farm in Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, on August 30, 2023.




Silvio Avila/AFP via Getty Images

The United Auto Workers went on strike.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain is interviewed, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023, in Detroit.




Carlos Osorio/AP Photo

CEO Linda Yaccarino tried to transform X.

CEO Linda Yaccarino speaks onstage during Vox Media's 2023 Code Conference at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel on September 27, 2023 in Dana Point, California.




Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft delivered the largest-ever asteroid sample to Earth.

In this photo provided by NASA, Mari Montoya, left, and Curtis Calva use tools to collect asteroid particles from the base of a canister on Sept. 27, 2023, at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The Osiris-Rex spacecraft delivered a batch of rubble collected from the asteroid Bennu.




NASA via AP



Q4: October - December

SAG-AFTRA and WGA ended a historic strike.

Striking SAG-AFTRA members picket as WGA (Writers Guild of America) members march in solidarity outside Paramount Studios on October 02, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.




Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Claudia Goldin became the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics.

Claudia Goldin speaks to a reporter on the phone in her home in Cambridge, Mass. after learning that she received the Nobel Prize in Economics Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.




Josh Reynolds/AP Photo

Birkenstock went public with a poor opening on the New York Stock Exchange.

Birkenstock CEO Oliver Reichert rings the New York Stock Exchange opening bell, prior to his company's IPO, October 11, 2023.




Richard Drew/AP Photo

Trump faced a fraud trial that found that he inflated his worth by billions of dollars.

Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom during his civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court on October 18, 2023 in New York City.




John Taggart-Pool/Getty Images

China invested in green energy and led the world in EV production.

Electrical workers from a local power supply company under the State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd patrol a 220 kV transmission line at the Taklamakan Desert on October 25, 2023 in Qiemo County, Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.




Ma Yuan/VCG via Getty Images

Wars in Gaza and Ukraine caused widespread devastation and threatened the global economy.

Ido Gilad, 17, drops off a bag of pomegranates he picked while volunteering on a farm in Ashkelon, Israel, October 27, 2023. The Israel-Hamas war has plunged Israel's agricultural heartlands into crisis.




Maya Alleruzzo/AP Photo

Elon Musk ended the year $100 billion richer.

Elon Musk is silhoutted as he listens to a speaker during the UK Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, in central England, on November 1, 2023.




Photo by Toby Melville/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Layoffs across industries put some diversity efforts at risk.

Jesseca Dupart, Nneka Onuorah, Angelica Ross, Lawrence "Miss Lawrence" Washington, and Dr. Jon Paul Higgins speak onstage during "How Businesses Can Support The Black LGBTQ+ Community" at the 2023 ForbesBLK Summit on November 6, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia.




Paras Griffin/WireImage via Getty

After stocks soared in 2023, investors hope the market will continue to rally in the new year.

People walk past the New York Stock Exchange, December 11, 2023, in New York. Stocks drifted higher in afternoon trading Monday on Wall Street ahead of the Federal Reserve's last meeting of the year.




Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo

The Federal Reserve cut rates next year, which may cause home prices to pick up speed.

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference about the Federal Reserve's monetary policy at the Federal Reserve, December 13, 2023, in Washington, D.C.




Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Pitcher Shohei Ohtani made a $700 million deal with the Dodgers.

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, center, speaks during a baseball news conference at Dodger Stadium, December 14, 2023, in Los Angeles. This offseason, the Dodgers committed $1.18 billion to players including Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for 2024 and beyond.




Ashley Landis/AP Photo