• SpaceX's IPO filing gives investors a look at Elon Musk's long-term space ambitions.
• The company said future markets could include factories on Mars and asteroid mining.
• SpaceX says the markets are early and could become multi-trillion-dollar bets.

SpaceX wants investors to think far beyond rockets and Starlink satellites.

The rocket company's S-1 paperwork, a required step before an initial public offering, lays out a sweeping vision for billionaire Elon Musk's future space empire. Parts of the filing read more like a blueprint for an extraterrestrial economy that could one day include colonies on the moon and Mars, a booming space tourism industry, pharmaceutical manufacturing in Earth's orbit, and asteroid mining using autonomous robots.

The SpaceX IPO is expected to be one of the largest in US history and comes after the company announced its acquisition of xAI, Musk's AI startup, in February. Much of the filing covers SpaceX's finances, key shareholders, and business risks. It also offers a peek at Musk's most sci-fi ambitions for SpaceX.

SpaceX said in the filing that falling launch costs, better satellites, and expanded compute infrastructure could eventually unlock new markets. Much of the sci-fi-like technology SpaceX detailed is "unproven" or does not yet exist, and the company excluded them from its formal market estimates because their timing and scale are uncertain. Still, SpaceX said they could one day represent "multi-trillion-dollar economic opportunities."

Here's a look at the future markets SpaceX hopes to unlock:

Point-to-point travel on Earth

SpaceX said Starship could eventually move people or cargo between most major international destinations in under 30 minutes, and almost anywhere on Earth in less than an hour. The company said that the idea faces major technical, economic, and regulatory hurdles.

Space tourism

Fewer than 30 people visited Earth's orbit in 2025, SpaceX wrote in its filing. The company expects spaceflight to become more accessible over time. That could open a far larger market for private citizens to travel to orbit.

Passenger and cargo transport to the moon and Mars

SpaceX said reusable rockets and deep-space transportation could one day support regular passenger and cargo service to the moon and Mars.

Energy production on the moon and Mars

Potential future settlements on the moon and Mars would need reliable, large-scale energy to support habitats, manufacturing, and science operations. SpaceX pointed to solar power and other advanced energy systems as possible solutions.

Manufacturing on the moon and Mars

SpaceX said future planetary infrastructure could allow the manufacture of goods from materials found on the moon or Mars. That would reduce the need to launch everything from Earth.

In-orbit manufacturing

SpaceX said making products in microgravity could unlock advances in pharmaceuticals, advanced materials, and semiconductors. The company said space-based factories could also use abundant solar power for energy-intensive work.

Asteroid mining

Asteroids contain valuable resources such as platinum-group metals, rare-earth elements, nickel, cobalt, iron, and water. Advances in reusable rockets, robotics, and space processing could eventually make asteroid mining commercially viable, the company said.

• SpaceX warned investors about the risk that Grok could generate "potential nonconsensual or exploitative imagery."
• The company's S-1 paperwork cited investigations into Grok "content representing children in sexualized contexts."
• Elon Musk previously pushed back on claims that Grok created sexualized AI images of minors after public backlash.

Elon Musk bet big on "spicy" AI. Now, it's officially a risk factor.

SpaceX acquired xAI three months before it filed its pre-IPO S-1 paperwork. That brought in-house xAI's social media platform, consumer chatbot — and not-safe-for-work Grok AI features.

In the Wednesday filing, SpaceX said that such features could pose "heightened risks" and "reputational harm" because the Grok NSFW modes are "more irreverent and harsher than our standard offerings."

The filing warned about the possible "generation of potentially explicit content," as well as "potential nonconsensual or exploitative imagery" and content that infringes on intellectual property. Such content could also be viewed as "harmful, harassing, abusive, or discriminatory," the S-1 read.

It's standard practice for companies to flag potential risks to its business in its pre-IPO paperwork, including any ongoing investigations or lawsuits that could have a material impact.

In January, xAI faced backlash after Grok created non-consensual sexualized AI images of women, including minors. The images sparked public condemnations from government officials, policy changes, and lawsuits.

SpaceX referenced these lawsuits in the S-1 filing. The company is subject to "investigations and inquiries" in the US concerning "allegations that our AI products were used to create nonconsensual explicit images or content representing children in sexualized contexts, and similar matters," it read.

"The Company and certain subsidiaries have been named as defendants in multiple lawsuits arising from Grok's image-generation and editing features," the S-1 reads.

SpaceX said it intends to "defend itself vigorously in these actions." Elon Musk has previously pushed back on claims that Grok generated sexualized AI images of minors, stating in January that he was "not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok."

The company made changes to its Grok AI following the backlash, limiting image generation to paying customers.

The company also warned that it may be subject to "additional litigation in the future" surrounding such topics.

The company also framed Grok as "among the fastest-advancing frontier models relative to peers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google."

The SpaceX filing also referenced the Irish Data Protection Commission's inquiry into the AI company.

"This inquiry involves the processing of personal data of European Union data subjects, including children, using generative AI functionality associated with the Grok model within the X platform," the filing read.

XAI also produces a variety of AI companions, like its AI anime character, Ani. In the filing, SpaceX warned about an inquiry from the Federal Trade Commission about how AI companies "have evaluated the safety of their chatbots when acting as companions to children and teens."

While SpaceX had doubled down on Grok's "irreverent" AI offerings, its competitors have shied away. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a push into "erotica for adults" in October; the plans are on hold.

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• SpaceX's S-1 shows that entities controlled by Antonio Gracias own roughly 7.3% of Class A stock ahead of the IPO.
• Based on the $1.5 trillion valuation investors expect SpaceX to achieve, that stake would be worth roughly $90 billion.
• That level of wealth could instantly vault Gracias to the ranks of some of the richest people in the world.

Antonio Gracias, one of Elon Musk's oldest friends and closest business allies, could land a massive multi-billion-dollar windfall from SpaceX's IPO.

The SpaceX S-1 filing shows that Gracias owns more than 500 million shares of SpaceX stock through investment firms affiliated with Valor Equity Partners, the private equity firm he founded. The filing says those holdings represent roughly 7.3% of SpaceX's Class A stock before the IPO.

Based on a conservative estimated $1.5 trillion valuation investors expect SpaceX to achieve in its IPO, those holdings would be worth roughly $91.6 billion.

For someone who has mostly stayed out of the public spotlight, it would mark one of the biggest fortunes ever created by a venture investor.

Gracias' relationship with Musk dates back more than two decades.

The two met through Silicon Valley and PayPal circles in the early 2000s, shortly after Musk sold PayPal to eBay. At the time, Gracias was building Valor Equity Partners, the Chicago-based investment firm he founded in 1995.

Gracias became one of Musk's most trusted confidants and one of the small group of executives and financiers Musk repeatedly leaned on during some of the most difficult moments across Tesla and SpaceX.

When Tesla faced repeated financial crises during the late 2000s, and again during the chaotic Model 3 production ramp, Gracias emerged as one of Musk's strongest defenders inside Tesla's boardroom. He later became deeply involved across multiple Musk companies as the billionaire entrepreneur expanded into rockets, AI, satellites, and infrastructure.

Gracias' loyalty was rewarded handsomely.

Valor became one of the earliest major institutional investors in SpaceX and steadily expanded its position while the company remained private for more than two decades.

The SpaceX filing shows the relationship now extends well beyond stock ownership.

According to the S-1, subsidiaries tied to xAI entered into nearly $20 billion in equipment lease agreements with Valor-affiliated entities for AI infrastructure and computing equipment. Those arrangements already generated hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to Valor-related entities during 2025 and early 2026.

Nosek and Shotwell will also make billions

The filing shows how concentrated SpaceX ownership remains among the rest of Musk's longtime inner circle.

Luke Nosek, another PayPal alumnus and early Musk associate, owns nearly 33 million SpaceX shares through direct holdings and Nosek Capital. At the estimated IPO valuation, his stake would be worth roughly $6 billion.

Nosek worked alongside Musk during the PayPal years before later cofounding Gigafund, the venture firm known for concentrated bets on frontier technologies and Musk-led businesses. He also co-founded VC firm Founders Fund.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, owns roughly 12.6 million SpaceX shares. Her holdings would be worth about $2.3 billion at the estimated IPO valuation.

Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as employee No. 11 and became one of the company's most important executives, helping secure NASA contracts and overseeing the growth of Falcon launches and Starlink into global businesses.

Other directors own smaller but still substantial positions.

Ira Ehrenpreis, the venture capitalist best known for serving on Tesla's board, owns about 1.37 million SpaceX shares. Those holdings would be worth roughly $250 million.

Randy Glein, founder of DFJ Growth, owns about 278,000 shares. His holdings would be worth roughly $50 million.

• SpaceX filed its S-1 on Wednesday, a required step ahead of an IPO.
• The document offers a glimpse into the company's financials.
• Here are the biggest takeaways from the filing.

Elon Musk's SpaceX officially kicked off its march to Wall Street on Wednesday, filing the S-1 paperwork required for its hotly anticipated IPO.

Although the S-1 didn't reveal key figures investors are waiting on — such as SpaceX's estimated stock value and anticipated public share price — it did offer the first close-up look at the financial details and strategies behind Musk's rocket company and AI business, xAI.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the filing.

There's an incentive to build a 'human colony'

Making life "multiplanetary" is at the forefront of SpaceX's mission, and Musk has a massive financial incentive to make it so: 1 billion shares of SpaceX.

The filing shows that, among market-cap milestones, SpaceX will have to establish a "permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants" for Musk to access the package.

Musk will also still have to be employed by SpaceX at the time of this milestone achievement, and the shares would be split into 15 tranches.

Still, it's a highly unusual compensation trigger for an otherwise not normal IPO.

Musk's pay package could be worth up to $737B

Musk could get a hefty payday if he builds interplanetary cities and orbital data centers.

Based on the implied share count in the filing, Musk's two performance awards could be worth roughly $737 billion if fully vested.

That includes about $583 billion from the one-billion share award that vests if SpaceX reaches a $7.5 trillion market cap and establishes a permanent Mars colony. It also includes about $154 billion from a separate award of about 302 million shares tied to orbital data centers that deliver 100 terawatts of compute a year, along with a SpaceX market-cap milestone of about $6.6 trillion.

Anthropic is paying a lot for SpaceX's compute

Anthropic is paying SpaceX $1.25 billion a month through May 2029 for access to the rocket company's compute capacity, the filing showed. That's about $15 billion in revenue coming from Anthropic.

The compute refers to SpaceX's Colossus and Colossus II, massive supercomputers and data centers designed for training AI.

The filing said the agreement for cloud and compute services begins in May 2026.

Musk has massive voting power

Voting rights in stocks mean each share owned gives the shareholder one vote on eligible matters. The S-1 revealed that Musk, who serves as the company's chief executive, Chief Technical Officer, and Chairman of the board, holds 85.1% of the combined voting power on company matters, based on his 5,569,053,075 shares.

Grok's CapEx was higher than Starship's

"For the three months ended March 31, 2026, capital expenditures for our Space segment was $1,052 million, for our Connectivity segment was $1,332 million and for our AI segment was $7,723 million," the S-1 reads.

That means spending on xAI's projects, like Grok, was higher than SpaceX's rocket division's spending, which includes its Super Heavy and Starship rockets.

The numbers were starker in 2025, with the Space segment spending $3,832 million and the AI segment spending $12,727 million, according to the filing.

• SpaceX's contract with Anthropic for compute power is set to bring in $1.25 billion a month.
• Anthropic inked the deal in May to supply more compute for its booming AI business.
• The deal will see Anthropic use both SpaceX's Colossus and Colossus 2 data centers.

One of SpaceX's revenue streams looks very solid: Anthropic has agreed to pay Elon Musk's company $1.25 billion a month through May 2029.

The AI lab announced earlier this month that it would buy compute capacity from SpaceX's Colossus data center in Tennessee to run tools for its growing customer base. SpaceX's S-1, which came out Wednesday and outlines its plans for an initial public offering, says Anthropic will also get compute from its newer Colossus 2 data center.

Anthropic is paying a discounted rate for May and June, the document says, and either side can terminate the agreement with 90 days' notice. If it stands, SpaceX will earn more than $40 billion from Anthropic through the term of the deal.

An Anthropic spokesperson confirmed the $ 1.25 billion per month tally to Business Insider. The company's compute chief, Tom Brown, wrote earlier in May that the Colossus compute would be used for inference—meaning how AI models draw conclusions or create outputs.

SpaceX expects to ink similar deals in the future.

"This structure allows us to monetize unused compute capacity in our infrastructure, while still permitting reallocation of the capacity for our own internal initiatives if needed in the future," the S-1 says.

It wasn't cheap to get enough chips to sell spare compute to Anthropic. SpaceX is burning lots of money on GPUs and cloud services, the S-1 reveals. AI losses from operations ballooned fourfold last year to more than $6 billion, driven by higher cloud costs and GPU depreciation. For the first quarter of this year, the losses more than doubled to almost $2.5 billion.

The cost of these chips is so large that the filing lists "manufacturing our own GPUs" as one of the "substantial capital expenditures" it is planning.

Producing chips would make SpaceX a competitor to Nvidia, which dominates the market for advanced GPUs.

SpaceX is in a similar bind with Google.

SpaceX uses Google Cloud through its subsidiary, Starlink. The two divisions announced a partnership in 2021, during which SpaceX installed Starlink ground stations at Google data centers.

SpaceX has also become a competitor to Google Cloud by selling hundreds of megawatts of compute to Anthropic. That's not to mention SpaceX's ambitious plans to build data centers in space, which Google is in talks to assist with, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The S-1 lists "AI Infrastructure" among SpaceX's markets, estimating that, based on demand for AI compute and current GPU rental rates, the market could be worth $2.4 trillion.

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• SpaceX publicly released its IPO paperwork.
• The rocket company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "SPCX."
• Starlink, the launch business, and orbital AI compute are key components for investors to look at.

SpaceX publicly unveiled its long-awaited IPO paperwork on Wednesday.

Elon Musk's rocket company posted a $4.9 billion loss last year on revenue of $18.7 billion. It plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker "SPCX," according to the S-1 filing, in what is expected to be one of the largest IPOs in US history.

Prior to the filing, we outlined what market experts and investing pros say they should expect and how they should be thinking about the landmark IPO and, in particular, SpaceX's business, its component parts, and big considerations for the future.

What's driving such a high valuation?

A $75 billion capital raise and $2 trillion valuation would make SpaceX's IPO the largest ever, vaulting it past Saudi Aramco, which raised $29.4 billion, and Alibaba, which raised $25 billion.

The pricing of the historic IPO and the company's massive expected valuation have been a sticking point heading into the filing.

The bullish view

ARK Invest, run by famed tech investor Cathie Wood, holds a stake SpaceX, and addressed the company's mega valuation in a note to investors in April. In short, Wood says the valuation is justified if the narrative pieces underpinning the company's future all fit together as expected.

"The valuation reflects a specific set of assumptions about the future, not the present," the firm said. "The valuation reflects not what SpaceX earns today but what investors believe SpaceX will become, which requires understanding the company's individual business segments."

A valuation approaching $2 trillion would mean there likely isn't a good comparison to other stocks trading in the market, with Wood noting that it sees future assumptions as the main driver of the company's monumental expected market cap.

The bearish take

Others aren't as sure.

"The valuation isn't really supported by the fundamentals," David Wagner, Aptus Capital Advisors' head of equity, said, adding that, even in the event that everything goes right in the coming years, SpaceX's potential valuation would be a major outlier among the top companies in the US.

The portfolio manager examined the company's 2040 revenue estimates in the context of a $2 trillion IPO valuation. "Even after baking in 14 years of growth, SpaceX is vastly more expensive than the top 6 most valuable US public companies are today."

"We struggle to get on board with that, no matter the potential behind a company," Wagner noted.

More than a rocket company

Since the upcoming blockbuster IPO's huge valuation is built on excitement for the future, investors wanting to buy SpaceX stock at its debut might wonder what exactly investing in the company now means.

ARK Invest named Starlink and launch services, as well as xAI and orbital compute, as the company's main business segments.

Starlink is "the financial engine"

Starlink is SpaceX's satellite internet business, which ARK Invest described as "the financial engine" of the company.

"ARK's research has long identified Starlink as the fastest-growing telecom network in the world by customer and revenue onboarding, a view that has proven conservative," the firm said.

"The satellite connectivity market opportunity alone could approach $160 billion annually at scale, and Starlink is structurally positioned to capture a disproportionate share," it added.

"Starlink is the revenue layer that makes the entire SpaceX vision viable," Mike Alves, VIDA Vision Fund, another early SpaceX investor, told Business Insider.

"It generates the majority of cash flow today and funds capital-intensive initiatives like Starship and future infrastructure," he said.

The business presents an internet infrastructure that offers the company strategic geopolitical relevance.

Launch services are "the foundation"

The company's launch services segment is likely what you think of when you hear SpaceX.

SpaceX completed 165 orbital launches in 2025 and has deployed roughly 85% of all spacecraft launched to date, according to ARK Invest.

"ARK's research suggests that the company has reduced launch costs by ~95% since 2008—from roughly $15,600 per kilogram to under $1,000 per kilogram via Falcon 9."

They added, "A fully reusable Starship, targeting sub-$100 per kilogram, would represent another order-of-magnitude cost decline and unlock addressable markets that do not yet exist."

The orbital launch business, specifically the reusable rocket component and the competitive moat offered by the company's initial leadership, is a key part of VIDA Vision Fund's Mike Alves' investment thesis for SpaceX.

"At its core, you're buying into Starlink as the primary revenue engine today, layered with optionality across satellite infrastructure, launch, and future space-based systems," he said.

Orbital compute and xAI

Infrastructure in space might be the most theoretical and sci-fi sounding piece of SpaceX's business, but some investing pros believes the potential is there.

SpaceX acquired xAI, Elon Musk's AI company, earlier this year. The xAI merger marked a consolidation of Musk-run companies and SpaceX's AI ambitions.

Orbital compute — aka data centers in space — could be a major growth leg for SpaceX at a time when AI is fueling massive demand for it.

"The xAI merger and orbital compute represent the most forward-looking dimension of the valuation," ARK Invest said, noting that its research suggests that orbital data centers could deliver compute at an approximately 25% lower price than on-Earth alternatives.

Musk has laid out the company's goal of launching 100 gigawatts of AI compute capacity per year starting in three to four years.

Not everyone is convinced. Some analysts have questioned the economics, while OpenAI CEO and Musk rival Sam Altman has called the plan "ridiculous."

• Jeff Bezos has been sporting a beard since September 2025.
• It's been a fixture on red carpets, but it made its business TV debut on Wednesday.
• The Amazon founder appeared on CNBC with the new look, making it officially part of the Bezos Brand.

What do you get a guy who already has a megayacht and multiple houses? Apparently, a beard comb.

If you've seen photos of Jeff Bezos lately — whether at Paris Fashion Week or strolling through Aspen — you might've noticed the Amazon founder trying out a new look. Long gone are the khaki pants and button-up shirts of his past. Now, Bezos is sporting $975 Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses, designer tuxedos, and, most notably to some, a white beard.

The facial hair made its latest appearance on CNBC on Wednesday morning, where Bezos told Andrew Ross Sorkin that he believes low earners should pay zero tax and that software engineers should be "so happy" about AI.

The CNBC appearance also — more importantly for this story — marked the beard's business TV debut. No longer is it just a vacation style or fashion-week accessory; it's officially part of the Bezos Brand.

The billionaire's scruffy look is the latest chapter in his transformation from a bookish businessman to a more relatable and image-conscious public figure.

"This shift to grow his beard really demonstrates an inner desire to repaint and redraw his image," image consultant Joseph Rosenfeld told Business Insider.

Why a beard, and why now?

It was September 2025 — two months after his wedding to Lauren Sánchez Bezos — when 62-year-old Bezos was first photographed with white stubble lining his chin.

Rosenfeld, an image consultant who's worked with high-profile clients for 25 years, said the luxury wedding was likely the turning point in Bezos' look.

"Major lifestyle changes can be a trigger, not in a bad way, for change," he said.

Bezos' beard of choice is subtle. It's inconspicuous and well-groomed. That's likely intentional.

"We could look at Jack Dorsey, who famously grew a beard that, to the length that he did, takes a kind of discipline," Rosenfeld said about the billionaire Twitter cofounder. "His whole thing was about looking prophet-like and anti-corporate."

Bezos, by comparison, seems more interested in looking refined.

Read between the beard

Rosenfeld said Bezos' image transformation has happened in phases.

First, there was the "geeky, bookish-looking guy," then the more corporate Amazon executive, and later what he described as a "Bond-man tech multi-billionaire." His latest, a more relaxed yet glamorous era, appears to call for a different image.

"It's not just a physical act to grow a beard," Rosenfeld said. "It's a mental and emotional decision. [I think] he's doing some deep thinking about his life, and is perhaps finding some wisdom."

"When you're a mature person, and you grow a beard, there's a maturation happening inside that you want to exact on the outside," he added.

Of course, we still don't know exactly what Bezos is trying to convey. Does he want to look more fashionable or approachable or sexy even?

Bezos hasn't said.

Rosenfeld's theory is that Bezos is simply entering a calmer phase of life. "When you see a person mellowing before your eyes, you get the softer side of a person," he said.

Or, maybe he got tired of shaving. He certainly has plenty of other things to worry about.

Personally, I just want to know what Sánchez Bezos thinks of her husband's look.

• Elon Musk's SpaceX released its S-1 — a key step ahead of its public debut.
• Goldman Sachs is leading the offering, according to the filing.
• Here's a look at the banks advising Musk and the massive fees they stand to gain.

Wall Street's investment banks are prepping for the biggest IPO in history.

Aerospace giant SpaceX is planning to go public this summer, according to its newly released S-1 filing. While the company did not disclose a formal valuation target in the document, prior reports value SpaceX at up to $2 trillion, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world. The S-1 filing shows that the company posted a $4.9 billion loss in 2025 on $18.7 billion of revenue.

For the investment banks anchored to the deal, the stakes are measured in both prestige and a historic payday.

The core of the offering is led by five bookrunners: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase, with Goldman in the lead left position. Morgan Stanley is listed as the stabilization agent, the bank tasked with supporting the stock price after the IPO. In total, 23 firms are named as bookrunners, including Wells Fargo and UBS. SpaceX will trade under the ticker "SPCX" and be listed on both the Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas, the state where the company is headquartered.

This single transaction could account for a significant share of the year's total equity capital markets revenue at the nation's biggest banks. Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida and a leading expert on IPOs, told Business Insider that the sheer scale of the private-sector valuation here is "unprecedented," setting the stage for a public issuance of groundbreaking scale and scope.

In the IPO market, fees for midsize deals have historically clustered around 7%, a figure documented in Ritter's past research that has stayed largely consistent over the years. However, for IPOs of this magnitude, those rates can be compressed significantly as banks jockey for a role on the mandate. But even a hypothetical fee in the conservative range of 1.5% applied to a $75 billion offering would yield a $1.125 billion pool for the underwriters.

A strong year for IPOs

The filing arrives as the window for massive primary issuances has swung wide open after years of subdued activity. During big banks' first-quarter earnings calls in April, leaders from the firms now linked to the SpaceX IPO reported surges in activity.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser noted an "exceptionally strong start" to the year as the bank's ECM fees jumped 64% year-over-year. A lead role in the largest IPO in history marks a significant coup for Fraser's bank, which has been vowing to push ahead of its rivals this year.

Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick spoke about a "record-breaking" quarter where equity net revenues rose 25% on the back of robust IPO volume.

For one star banker with deep-rooted connections to the Musk ecosystem, the deal marks a high-stakes homecoming. In February, after a brief stint at the US Commerce Department, former Morgan Stanley dealmaker Michael Grimes returned to the firm he'd left only a year before, this time with the title of chair of investment banking. Grimes has long been a fixture in the technology sector, having worked on the Tesla IPO in 2010 and later assisting with the acquisition of Twitter in 2022.

Behind closed doors, the heavy lifting is already likely unfolding, Ritter added. "They're probably testing the waters," he said, referring to early discussions between banks and top institutional investor clients ahead of the IPO roadshow, which is set to take off like a rocket the moment the S-1 drops.

• JPMorgan banker Lorna Hajdini sued her former colleague for defamation on Tuesday.
• Hajdini denied allegations made in a viral suit accusing her of sexual assault.
• JPMorgan has stood by Hajdini, who said the ordeal caused "severe emotional distress" in the suit.

Lorna Hajdini, the JPMorgan banker who was accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit that swept the internet, has sued her accuser.

In a suit filed in the New York Supreme Court on Tuesday, Hajdini "categorically and unequivocally" denied the allegations of lurid sexual abuse and racial discrimination made by a former colleague in a lawsuit filed late last month.

Those allegations, according to the filing, were invented and appear to be "part of a broader pattern and scheme in which he has repeatedly advanced knowingly false and deeply offensive accusations for personal gain."

The filing states that the plaintiff's accusations were aimed at ruining Hajdini's reputation and "to extort millions of dollars" from both her and JPMorgan.

The original suit, filed by a John Doe plaintiff, dominated finance meme pages and headlines for weeks, with AI-generated images and videos of Hajdini popping up on social media referencing many of the sexual assault allegations. Hajdini's suit said she and some family members have been "mocked, ridiculed, and harassed" in the aftermath.

Since the accuser first made his accusations internally to JPMorgan last May, Hajdini's life has been "a daily, living nightmare," according to the suit, and she has sought mental health treatment "to manage the severe emotional distress."

In addition to compensation for economic damages, Hajdini is also seeking damages for "emotional distress, personal dignity, humiliation," and "mental anguish," among other things.

"Lorna will let her counterclaims speak for themselves," Hajdini's lawyers said in a statement. JPMorgan has stood behind Hajdini, who joined the bank in 2011, throughout the ordeal.

"We fully support Lorna and her right to defend herself and protect her reputation. As we've said from the outset, we don't believe the allegations against her or the firm have merit," a spokesperson for the bank said in a statement.

A lawyer for the accuser, who filed the original lawsuit anonymously, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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• Vox Media is splitting itself into two and selling half to media heir/investor James Murdoch.
• Murdoch is buying Vox's podcast network, along with Vox.com and New York magazine.
• What does that tell you about the future of Vox Media's other properties — and web publishing in general? I asked Vox CEO Jim Bankoff.

Jim Bankoff spent nearly 20 years building Vox Media. Now he's selling a big chunk of it to James Murdoch, one of Rupert Murdoch's sons, who is acquiring Vox's podcast network — along with New York magazine and Vox.com for a reported $300 million.

I've talked to multiple media operators who were interested in Vox's podcast network — including Versant CEO Mark Lazarus — but not in the rest of the portfolio, which includes sites like The Verge, Eater, and The Dodo.

So what does it mean if podcasting — a business where people talk, and, increasingly, look at a camera — is more appealing than a bunch of text-based websites, many of which you've heard of?

I posed that question to Bankoff, who says I'm wrong — he insists there are lots of people interested in lots of his properties.

But the fundamental answer is that his podcasting business is profitable and fast-growing, and you can't necessarily say that about all of his other assets. You also can't say that about many other formerly high-flying digital publishers, which makes me wonder if this is one of the last big sales the industry will ever see.

By the way, I am deeply conflicted here: I worked for Bankoff for years, and now work with the podcast network he's selling to Murdoch. And if you listen to our entire conversation on my Channels podcast, some of our working relationship will be evident.

The following is an edited excerpt of our chat.

Peter Kafka: My understanding is that you folks talked to multiple buyers who were interested in Vox Media's podcast business, but weren't interested in other parts of the company. And at some point, you added New York magazine and Vox.com to the package, and that's what James Murdoch bought.

What does it tell us about media if the thing most people wanted was a podcast network?

Jim Bankoff: Well, not exactly. Some of that is right, some of it isn't.

We were approached from the outside, originally, about the podcast network. We'd always kind of contemplated that Vox.com was part of that because Vox, so much of what Vox does is podcasting.

"Today Explained" is a very popular podcast.

It's a Top 10 podcast, but there are some other big ones in there, and there's also a massive YouTube channel. I think the majority of its revenue comes from things other than what I'll call text space.

But yes, we got some outside interest. We didn't take it too seriously at first, but then we thought to ourselves, "Wow, this is a different kind of business, a growth business, and maybe it should have, in business speak, its own capital structure, its own ownership structure. Maybe we should think about that."

And we did. The fact that New York magazine came along was initially their idea.

James Murdoch's idea.

Yes. And we walked through the logic of it, and it made particular sense for the kind of company they're creating.

So we got our heads around it, and the process moved kind of quickly at that point. The part that wasn't exactly accurate is I think there's interest in literally every single part of the business. But we're not looking to just break things up for the sake of breaking things up. We don't expect to break things up beyond what we did today.

What I was trying to get at is that it seems like the thing media buyers were most interested in was the podcast network. I'm wondering why you think that appeals to them more than other properties.

I question the premise.

But I grant you that it's an exciting property and there's some obvious reasons. First of all, it's an extraordinarily high-growth property, which makes it attractive — upwards of 40% per year for quite some time.

What's driving that? Audio, video?

All of the above. It taps into what we call the creator economy. Vox Media Podcast Network approaches it in a certain way, though, which I think is about as kind of premium, as thoughtful as you can get. It's a highly curated network that still has scale — No. 6 on the Podtrac rankings.

We're not after scale for scale's sake, but we are after quality scale, and that's what we've achieved. And I think that's part of what made it so interesting to people.

What changes at the properties that aren't getting acquired?

I think they're going to do very well. There's a lot of excitement over there.

Each one of those brands are in really good shape and getting stronger. Like most media brands, they had to go through changes, particularly [ones] brought upon by the changes of Google Search.

But they have gone through that now.

It's a self-sufficient media company?

Absolutely. And having said that, they'll have plenty of options for where to take it from there. Each one of those brands, while getting some benefit from being together, have their own business strategies, have their own audiences. They can go to market together from a sales proposition and get plenty of scale. But they're all in a position to really thrive.

• Emily Pitcher was laid off from her content design job at Meta in 2023.
• After struggling to find another job, she pivoted to indie game development and content creation.
• Pitcher says showing her work before it's ready and learning new skills helped her succeed.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Emily Pitcher, a 26-year-old game developer and content creator based in Los Angeles. It's been edited for length and clarity.

When I was laid off from my job as a content designer at Meta in 2023, all I wanted was to be rehired. It was my identity, and without it, I lacked purpose. But it was a blessing in disguise.

Rejection after rejection in the job market pushed me to pursue entrepreneurship full-time as an indie game developer and content creator. Now I'm partnering with a publisher to launch my game, "Lily's World XD," around the end of the year. I'm working on projects I'm truly passionate about, and I know there are people who would do anything to trade places with me.

If I could go back to when I first got laid off, I'd tell myself things will be OK.

Don't wait for opportunities to come to you

I had a small social media following before my layoff, but I'd never done a brand deal before. After my layoff, I made a spreadsheet of all the brands I'd ever dreamed of working with and went down the list, reaching out to them to partner.

I got my first few brand deals that way, which taught me a lot about the social media landscape, including how to negotiate rates, send invoices, and correspond with brands. Now, social media brand deals are one of the core ways I make money.

You don't have to go with the obvious path

I felt despondent for so long after my layoff. It was hard for me to get out of bed in the mornings. I acted out of fear, not joy.

It was hard seeing news come out so often about more tech layoffs, so the prospect of finding a new Big Tech job felt hopeless. Sure, I had a Big Tech name on my resumé, but so did everyone else who got laid off from one. I wish someone were there to tell me that if there aren't opportunities in front of you, it's possible to create your own.

However, I don't have a mortgage to pay or a family to take care of. I'm very grateful to be in this position, and I don't know if I can tell people it will all be OK just because it worked out for me.

Sharing my experience created more opportunities than I imagined

I posted a video about my layoff on TikTok, and it's crazy because to this day, a lot of people who recognize me in public tell me it's the first video they saw of mine.

Being open and authentic about my situation gave me a bit of a boost and pulled my community and me closer together.

A few months later, I posted a video about how I was still struggling after my layoff. I talked about lacking friends, lacking a purpose, and not knowing what I was supposed to do. I woke up the next day to probably one hundred DMs from people saying they were in a similar situation.

Someone who reached out to me actually became my friend and helped me get into voice acting. It was a field I never thought I'd go into, but now it's another way I make money.

Learn the skill you've been putting off

When I started making "Lily's World XD," I'd never coded in my life. I just always told myself my brain didn't work that way.

It was only after my layoff that I realized that if I wanted to self-start my own projects, I should learn how to program. I had a friend teach me the basics, and I learned the rest from YouTube and online forums.

If I hadn't taken that leap to learn a new skill, I would've never lifted my game up off the ground.

Share what you're working on before it's ready

I think a lot of people, after being laid off from Meta, had dreams of pivoting into entrepreneurship or a passion project, but most I've seen have gone back to corporate.

One reason I was able to pivot is that I got advice from another game developer: Share your project before you think you're ready. When I came up with my game idea, all I had were a couple of mockups and Figma. I hadn't even started my journey of learning how to program. I posted a video showing what I had, and it got a few million views.

It was really validating to me that the idea was appealing to others and gave me motivation to continue. It also allowed people to share their thoughts, which helped inform the direction I took.

Start before you second-guess yourself.

There are people who wish they could be in my position

I put so much of my identity into my job at Meta. Going out in public, saying I worked for this Fortune 500 company, made people take me more seriously and assume I was smart without doing anything to prove it. It gave me a huge boost of confidence.

Losing the thing I thought made me valuable to other people and not having many friends around for support put me in a really dark place. Then I met someone who was still working at Meta, and when I told him I was making video games now, he said he wished he could build projects he was really excited about and not just feel like a cog in the machine.

Hearing those words made me realize I should be proud of myself. Perhaps I've set the foundation for something great.

Do you have a story to share about getting laid off from Meta? If so, please reach out to the reporter at tmartinelli@businessinsider.com.

• The SpaceX IPO filing everyone has been waiting for is officially here.
• The rocket company's S-1 paperwork, which pulls back the curtain on SpaceX's finances, is a required step ahead of an IPO.
• It also offers insight into xAI, Elon Musk's AI startup that SpaceX acquired earlier this year.

Houston, we have the SpaceX filing everyone has been waiting for.

The S-1 paperwork, one of the most hotly anticipated financial filings of the year, gives the public its first look at the inner workings of Elon Musk's rocket company and AI venture xAI.

The filing reveals that SpaceX posted a $4.9 billion loss in 2025 on revenue of $18.7 billion.

The SpaceX IPO is expected to be one of the largest in US history and comes after the Starship maker announced its acquisition of xAI, Musk's AI startup, in February. SpaceX applied to be listed on the Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas stock exchanges under the ticker "SPCX."

The S-1 is a required step for companies looking to go public in the US, giving potential investors a chance to examine SpaceX's finances, key shareholders, overall vision, and the risks facing its business.

Business Insider's reporters are poring over the filing's many pages and will update this story with key details.

SpaceX shoots for the moon

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the mission of reaching and settling Mars.

Since then, the company has pioneered the use of reusable rockets and has become the world's most prolific rocket launcher.

SpaceX has struck deals with NASA to resupply (and eventually deorbit) the ISS, and is set to play a critical role in the agency's efforts to return humanity to the moon.

The Austin-based company also operates a booming telecommunications business through Starlink, which provides global internet coverage through a network of low-orbit satellites.

In recent months, Musk has shifted SpaceX's focus toward building solar-powered orbital data centers, which the billionaire has said will be necessary to train powerful AI models and eventually turn humanity into a multi-planetary civilization.

The company is also collaborating with Tesla to build a sprawling "Terafab" that would manufacture specialist chips for space-based data centers and humanoid robots.

Investors will not just be backing Musk's vision for rockets and satellites. Following the merger with xAI, SpaceX's portfolio includes the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, and the AI chatbot Grok.

Starlink is the company's moneymaker, bringing in $3.26 billion in the first quarter of 2026. In 2025, the business segment brought in $11.39 billion, "primarily driven by Starlink."

The company's Space segment, which encompasses its rocket launch and payload business, brought in $619 million in revenue in the first quarter and $4.09 billion in 2025.

SpaceX's money-losing AI segment brought in $818 million in Q1 revenue and $3.2 billion in 2025 revenue. It lost $1.2 billion in segment adjusted EBITDA last year.

In 2025, capital expenditures for the AI segment were $12.7 billion, more than three times the spending in its space and connectivity segments.

That said, the company believes the AI segment also has the most potential, accounting for most of its $28.5 trillion total addressable market, which the company says is the "largest actionable total addressable market ("TAM") in human history."

The document also lays out the company's sizable risks for public investors to take into account.

Those include US and international investigations and inquiries into the company, particularly around Grok's creation of explicit images of children. And, as the document said, "space is inherently hostile."

Musk's moneymaker

There's the potential for Musk, already the world's richest man, to win big from the company's Mars-shot.

In January, the company approved a compensation plan that would grant its founder 1 billion shares if certain goals were hit, including various market capitalization milestones and the "establishment of a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants."

Musk's 2025 compensation was quite modest in comparison. He earned a base salary of $54,080. The company's president, Gwynne Shotwell, earned $85.8 million in a mix of cash, options, and stock awards.

Musk controls SpaceX, with 85.1% of voting power ahead of the offering.

• Nvidia delivered beats throughout its Q1 FY 2027 earnings report.
• The news was met with a mostly muted response on Wall Street.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hailed the arrival of agentic AI and a future of "billions" of AI agents.

Nvidia delivered a beat on the top and bottom line when it reported its fiscal first-quarter earnings on Wednesday afternoon.

The stock ping-ponged after hours following the results as the company once again excluded China from its guidance for its second quarter. As the call ended, shares were down just over 1%.

Here are the key numbers:

• Revenue: $81.6 billion vs. $79.15 billion estimate
• Adjusted EPS: $1.87 vs. $1.77 estimate
• Data center revenue: $75.2 billion vs. $73.49 billion estimate
• Gross margin: 74.9% vs. 75.1% estimate
• Q2 revenue forecast: $91.0 billion vs estimated $87.2 billion

The $5 trillion chipmaker, the world's largest company by market cap, is closely watched as a larger barometer for the AI industry.

Nvidia announced that it had authorized an additional $80 billion stock buyback and increased its quarterly cash dividend from 1 cent per share to 25 cents per share.

Huang sees huge potential in the agentic age

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave a full-throated defense of his earlier statement that cumulative demand for the company's most advanced chips would reach "at least $1 trillion" through the end of 2027.

"I have every expectation it's going to grow from here for fundamentally good reasons," Huang said during the company's earnings call about his outlook for hyperscalers' spending. "This is the way computing is going to work in the future. And if they don't have the compute, they won't have the revenues. It is very clear."

Huang said that frontier AI model makers like OpenAI and Anthropic are surging in value at unheard-of rates.

"The fact that they can grow within one month, what some of the SaaS companies would have taken a decade to grow, tells you something," he said.

Later, Huang said that the rise of agentic AI will fuel an enormous demand for compute as users deploy large numbers of agents, which, in turn, deploy even more subagents to complete tasks.

"My sense is that the world is going to have billions of agents," he said. "Not today, I mean, we're going to grow into it, but we'll have billions of agents. And those billions of agents will all use tools."

China crunch continues

Nvidia CEO Colette Kress said that the company didn't ship any of its Hopper data center products to China in the quarter, compared to $4.6 billion in the year-ago period.

"While the US government has approved licenses for H200 to be shipped to China-based customers, we have yet to generate any revenue, and we are uncertain whether any imports will be allowed into the country," Kress said during the earnings call.

Huang said in April that Nvidia's market share in China had "dropped to zero." Previously, he estimated that the Chinese AI market alone would be worth $50 billion annually.

After joining President Donald Trump and other CEOs on Trump's state visit to China, Huang said that China's market would open "over time."

Nvidia's run of success is also facing some concerns. Rival chipmakers like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have gained ground in recent months and announced major partnerships with Meta and OpenAI.

Amazon has also signaled that it may start selling its trainium AI chips, which would put it into direct competition with Nvidia. Earlier this week, Google formed a joint venture with Blackstone to sell access to AI compute via its TPU chips.

Nvidia says the Iran war hasn't had a big impact yet

In its regulatory filing, Nvidia said that the Iran war and the broader instability in the Middle East have yet to majorly affect the company.

"Our global supply chain for our networking products, including our Israel operations of approximately 5,900 employees supporting research and development, operations, and sales and marketing, has not been significantly impacted by the conflict in the Middle East," the company wrote in its 10-Q filing.

Nvidia stated that if the "conflict escalates or extends," that view could change.

"It could affect future product development, supply chain, and revenue, and create business uncertainty," the company wrote.

Iran has targeted data centers in the Middle East during the conflict. Amazon said in March that three of its data centers were damaged by drone strikes.

Nvidia stock has gained over 15% since the start of 2026, bouncing back stronger on reignited AI enthusiasm.

• Humanity is standing "on the foothills of the singularity," Demis Hassabis said at I/O on Tuesday.
• The DeepMind CEO's remark stunned the audience. Hassabis shared on Wednesday why he felt that way.
• Building video games late at night with AI convinced Hassabis that humanity is entering a new era.

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis laid out why he thinks the singularity, a major turning point in AI, is near.

The singularity is near because of the rise of powerful AI agents that build things for people, Hassabis said in an interview with Axios cofounder Mike Allen on Wednesday at Google's flagship I/O developer conference. The singularity refers to a hypothetical point when AI outpaces human intelligence and begins improving itself.

As an example, Hassabis said he's been using AI to build mini video games late at night — tasks that would have taken many months in the past.

"This year, with the agentic systems that we're all seeing and using, I think we can start feeling it now," he said.

Hassabis added that he thinks artificial general intelligence, or AGI, when machines are about as intelligent as humans, will arrive as soon as 2030.

Hassabis said the impact of AI is still underestimated, declaring that it will be 100 times as impactful as the Industrial Revolution.

The DeepMind chief doesn't think machines will take over the world, unlike some in Silicon Valley. While AI poses some risks, he said humans will harness the technology to solve many problems, especially in science and healthcare.

"I call myself a cautious optimist," he said.

Hassabis also addressed the singularity on Tuesday at the I/O conference.

"When we look back at this time, I think we will realize that we were standing in the foothills of the singularity," Hassabis said, to gasps in the audience.

• In an email, Meta tied its latest job cuts to a push for efficiency and need to fund investments.
• It was a frank message about why a company was cutting workers in the age of AI.
• In a separate memo to staff, Mark Zuckerberg addressed the emotional toll of the layoffs.

Your layoff may be helping your former employer pay for AI.

That's the thrust of part of the email Meta's leadership sent to affected employees on Wednesday as the tech giant slashed 10% of its workforce.

The message directly tied the cuts to the company's spending priorities: "As previously shared, we have decided to reduce headcount as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we're making."

It's rare for a company to be so direct about how big-ticket investments affect staffing. The company said in January that its capex for the year would range from $115 billion to $135 billion.

While Meta thanked the laid-off workers for their contributions, the explicitness of its reasoning underscores a new level of bluntness, said Jason Schloetzer, professor of business administration at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business.

That line in the email is "cold," he said, and reflects companies' upper hand in the current labor market. As an employer, "you have the ability to be more direct and transactional when workers don't have as many job prospects," said Schloetzer.

Meta didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about the email.

Meta isn't alone in talking up the need for going big on AI. In recent years, execs at Microsoft, Google, Shopify, and Salesforce have variously announced job cuts and reorganizations tied to efficiency, increased automation, and AI investments. Meta stands out, though, for directly attributing its recent layoffs to its spending plans.

'I feel the weight of that'

Meta's layoff message arrives as the tech giant pours tens of billions of dollars into AI infrastructure in a race to build what CEO Mark Zuckerberg described as "personal superintelligence" in a separate companywide memo sent Wednesday.

In that broader note, Zuckerberg addressed the emotional toll of the layoffs. He said he was "spending a lot of time making sure we manage this as well as possible." He also said that he doesn't expect any further companywide layoffs in 2026.

"It's always sad to say goodbye to people who have contributed to our mission and to building this company," Zuckerberg wrote. "I feel the weight of that."

It was an echo of the rhetoric Zuckerberg used during a major layoff round in 2022, when he told employees, "I got this wrong," and said he wanted to "take accountability" for decisions the company had made.

At the same time, Wednesday's all-hands memo addressed the urgency Zuckerberg sees in the AI race: "AI is the most consequential technology of our lifetimes," he wrote. "The companies that lead the way will define the next generation."

Facing a tough job market

The two messages underscored the balancing act increasingly confronting tech executives — one that involves trying to get workers excited about AI while also signaling to investors that companies are making sound bets on the technology.

Gil Luria, an analyst who runs tech research at the financial services firm DA Davidson Companies, said that Meta's approach is better than when companies say AI is making workers so efficient that they need fewer people.

To fund AI infrastructure spending and protect profit margins, Luria said, Zuckerberg made it clear that Meta needed to cut costs somewhere else.

"That somewhere else is head count," Luria said.

For workers getting a pink slip, any rationale may fall on deaf ears, said Ashley Herd, a cohost of the "HR Besties" podcast and a former head of human resources in North America at consulting firm McKinsey.

"No amount of logistical information or tone changes what people are actually reading: 'You're out so we can invest in AI,' " she said. "What no message can fix is the reality that these are real people now navigating one of the hardest job markets in years."

The Western Conference Finals are underway, featuring a high-stakes San Antonio vs. Oklahoma City showdown. We've rounded up everything you need to know about how to watch Spurs vs. Thunder, including live streaming options, a series schedule, odds, venue, and other details.

If you don't feel like scrolling any further, you can live stream the game on NBC via Peacock Premium in the US, Sky Sports in the UK, and the NBA League Pass in most other countries. We'll break down some of your other streaming options below, along with all the details on the rest of the series.

The No. 2 San Antonio Spurs defeated the No. 1 Oklahoma City Thunder 122-115 in a tight first game that went into double overtime. The Thunder, the defending NBA Champions, are looking to go back-to-back this year, but the Spurs are proving to be worthy adversaries in the Western Conference Finals.

How to watch Spurs vs. Thunder in the US

The Spurs vs. Thunder series will air on NBC in the US. This means that cord-cutters can live stream every game through Peacock or a live TV streaming service. Peacock's sports-friendly plans start at $11 a month for Peacock Premium, but you can upgrade to Peacock Premium Plus (ad-free on-demand content and a full NBC live stream) for $17 a month.

If you'd prefer to live stream the games through a service that carries other sports networks (like ESPN, which is showing the Eastern Conference Finals), then one of the best live TV streaming services might be of interest. DirecTV and Sling are two of our favorite options that also carry NBC.

DirecTV offers NBC in its MyNews and MySports genre packs, which cost $40 a month and $65 a month, respectively. New customers can get $20 a month off of MySports during their first two months of service, and all DirecTV plans come with a five-day free trial. NBC is also available in DirecTV's signature packages.

Sling TV offers NBC in its Select and Blue plans. However, local channel availability varies by market, so it's a good idea to see what's available in your ZIP code before signing up. If local channels are in the mix, Select plans start at $25 a month and Blue plans start at $51 a month.

How to watch Spurs vs. Thunder from anywhere

In most countries outside the US and Canada, you can live stream the Playoffs through the NBA League Pass. This includes regions like the UK, which also have broadcast agreements to show select games on TV. League Pass subscription prices vary by region and tier of service, but you can click through to the NBA League Pass purchase page to see costs and availability in your area.

Basketball fans traveling abroad can still keep up with their usual streaming options with the help of a VPN. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are easy-to-use tech tools that let people temporarily alter the virtual location on their electronic devices, such as phones or laptops. This way, their favorite websites and apps work from anywhere, and they don't need to miss out on any games just because they're traveling away from home.

NordVPN is our top pick right now. It's one of the best VPNs on the market, thanks to its fast speeds, massive selection of servers, and 30-day money-back guarantee.

Western Conference Finals schedule

• Game 1: Monday, May 18 at 8:30 p.m. ET
• Game 2: Wednesday, May 20 at 8:30 p.m. ET
• Game 3: Friday, May 22 at 8:30 p.m. ET
• Game 4: Sunday, May 24 at 8 p.m. ET
• Game 5: Tuesday, May 26 at 8:30 p.m. ET (if necessary)
• Game 6: Thursday, May 28 at 8:30 p.m. ET (if necessary)
• Game 7: Saturday, May 30 at 8 p.m. ET (if necessary)

Where will the Spurs vs. Thunder game take place?

The first two games in the Spurs vs. Thunder Western Conference Finals will be held at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. After that, the series will head to the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio for the next two games.

Who is favored to win Game 2 of Spurs vs. Thunder?

Oklahoma City is favored to win the Spurs vs. Thunder match-up. According to DraftKings (at the time of writing), Oklahoma City is a 6.5-point favorite and -238 on the moneyline.

Note: VPN use is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content may constitute a breach of the terms of use for some services. Business Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

• A three-month stay in Spain changed how my family lives day to day.
• I learned to prioritize connection, flexibility, and slower routines.
• Returning to NYC made me rethink hustle culture and over-scheduling.

On our first morning in Spain, my husband opened our hotel window to a courtyard filled with the sounds of silverware gently clinking against plates, quiet, relaxed chatter, and a musician playing guitar below.

No sirens. No horns. No one was rushing. People were sitting down to actually drink a coffee. It was the first time I wondered if everything we'd been doing in New York was wrong.

We'd left Brooklyn because of a realization: you can live in one of the largest cities in the world and still only know one way to move through it.

And it was breaking us.

I had been in New York City for 15 years

After 15 years in New York, I'd been completely rewired. I'd optimized my entire life for NYC's inconveniences: refreshing camp registration at midnight, schlepping strollers up subway stairs, paying to park four blocks away rather than circling for 20 minutes, rushing to wait in line, overcommitting to everything because there's always another class, another event, another opportunity. The scarcity, the urgency that never turns off, it comes with me everywhere.

I enrolled the kids (Violet, 5, Beckett, 2) in Boundless Life, a world schooling program for families, thinking they'd learn the most. New cultures, Spanish practice, expanded horizons, all the things you tell yourself when you're packing up your life into suitcases and your house for renters.

But here's what I didn't expect: when New Yorkers operating on high-cortisol hustle culture meet Spain's unhurried way of life, everyone gets schooled.

We moved to Spain for 3 months

We moved into our apartment for the next three months through peaceful marble streets. My goal: full immersion. Treat this town like home, not a tourist stop.

Dinner the first night was at 9:30 p.m. As I sat to take my first bite, the kids were ready to run. The hostess looked at me and said, "I'll watch them." That offer stopped me in my tracks.

The first three weeks were an exercise in unlearning. I kept trying to create routines, maximize the day, and schedule our way to success. Spain had other plans.

I called a local Pilates studio to ask if they offered 6:30 a.m. classes. I'm pretty sure she laughed. Kids play at playgrounds until 9 p.m. Families have long dinners where no one rushes. Asking for a to-go coffee felt like a sin. When I'd show up late, they'd say "no te preocupes" (no worries) and actually mean it. I was probably never late, just running on Spanish time.

I started making connections

In one of the most unsuspecting places, I had one of the best lessons. Maria José, the local butcher. She only spoke Spanish, and I was intimidated every time I walked in. She was a bit gruff in the beginning, but I kept going back. And slowly, something shifted. She started sharing her recipes — not written down, just verbal instructions in Spanish. No measurements, no Pinterest, just "a little of this and a little bit of that." When we ran into each other on the street, she lit up.

Like at home, I could have chosen the easier path: pre-packaged meat at the supermarket, in and out in five minutes. Instead, I chose the one that required more effort, more vulnerability, more time. And I found something better: a real connection. Not transactional, but rather intentional.

My kids became friends

My kids didn't miss 99% of their toys. We live a life of being over-notified, operating in many realities at once. It's harder than ever to be where your two feet are. I was learning that life is meant to be lived, not rushed through.

The Spanish siesta saved my sanity because it forced me to stop. Our long dinners taught us more about connection than any scheduled activity ever did. Spontaneous beach hangs replaced our color-coded calendar. The most fulfilling days were the ones with no plan at all.

My kids stopped being just siblings. They became best friends. Being brave became our family theme. I watched Violet walk Beckett to his classroom every morning. She cried empathetic tears when he dropped his ice-cream cone. Beckett started asking for her the moment he woke up. We spent more time together in Spain than we ever did in our daily lives in NYC.

I'd been living life like a script — every day already written before it happened. Rinse and repeat. No room for the micro moments, the messy emotions, the beautiful interruptions that make life actually feel alive.

My kids didn't want to go back to New York

When our three-month program ended, neither of my kids wanted to go. "I wish we could live here for four months," Violet told me.

Coming home was reverse culture shock. I came back with a lower tolerance for so much.

We don't have it all figured out, but Spain rewired all of us.

Now we do family dinners every night, no phones, no rushing. Looser weekends with room to breathe. A mental practice of asking: do we actually want this, or does it just feel like a should? Putting less focus on keeping up and more focus on what a bold, beautiful life looks like for us.

Unlearning the hustle means making room. Less stuff, fewer schedules, less performing. More of the connections and moments we were always too busy to notice.

We're already planning our next trip. And, maybe something more permanent. Because once you've felt a life where everyone is thriving, it's hard to unfeel it.

Sometimes you have to leave home to figure out what you want home to feel like.

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• JetBlue Airways is cutting 11 routes to focus on building a stronghold in Fort Lauderdale.
• The hardest hit airports are Manchester, New Hampshire, and Newark, New Jersey.
• The Florida city is especially important as JetBlue navigates rising fuel costs and repeated losses.

JetBlue is doubling down on Florida in the wake of Spirit's collapse — a boon for Sunshine State travelers, but bad news for many customers elsewhere in its network.

The airline confirmed to Business Insider on Wednesday that it's pulling out of 11 routes this summer, including leaving Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in New Hampshire altogether.

Routes from two other New England airports, including Hartford, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island, are also on the chopping block, as well as five routes from New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport.

The reason? To create a stronghold in Fort Lauderdale.

"JetBlue is making targeted schedule adjustments, including ending service on a small number of underperforming routes and redeploying aircraft to support growth in Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport," a spokesperson said.

The company acknowledged this is a "disappointing" decision, but the move will allow JetBlue to "better align flying with customer demand and strengthen our focus city strategy in South Florida."

Many Florida customers will likely welcome JetBlue's growing presence, especially those who used to rely on Spirit for cheap flights until it ceased operations on May 2. Data from the aviation analytics company Cirium shows the carrier has nearly 30,000 more flights scheduled in Fort Lauderdale this year than in 2025.

But JetBlue's aggressive scale-up in Fort Lauderdale also means it has to trim fat elsewhere.

The hardest-hit city is Manchester, about 50 miles from Boston airport and often used as an alternative to the city's busy hub. JetBlue only started flying there about 18 months ago, but will now completely retreat. It already stopped flying to Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers in early May; Orlando service will end July 8.

The airport said in a statement to Business Insider that it is "very disappointed" in JetBlue's decision.

"JetBlue shared that they have a 'strategic imperative to backfill FLL capacity very quickly,' and as a result had to 'make a tough call as to how to best support national connectivity in a time of capacity crisis,'" a spokesperson said.

They added that despite the airport's best efforts to market JetBlue, it wasn't enough to "overcome their ongoing business challenges," particularly the spike in jet fuel prices.

Here are the 11 axed routes:

• Manchester to Orlando
• Manchester to Fort Myers
• Manchester to Fort Lauderdale
• Hartford to Tampa
• Newark to Aruba
• Newark to Cancún, Mexico
• Newark to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
• Newark to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
• Newark to Tampa
• Orlando to San Jose, Costa Rica
• Providence to San Juan, Puerto Rico

The Providence route is a seasonal suspension — as of now, Cirium data shows JetBlue is scheduled to resume service in December, so it's unclear whether this is a permanent cut.

JetBlue said customers affected by the cuts can be rebooked on alternate JetBlue flights or receive a full refund.

Florida is especially important as JetBlue posts consistent losses

The latest shakeup suggests JetBlue is increasingly putting its eggs in the Fort Lauderdale basket after years of network reshuffling and profitability struggles, worsened by its failed 2024 merger with Spirit, a consumer shift toward premium flying, and rising fuel prices tied to the war in Iran.

JetBlue reported revenues of about $9 billion in 2025 with a net loss of about $600 million. It also reported a loss in the first quarter of this year, as well as losses in 2024 and 2023; its last posted yearly profit was in 2019.

Company CEO Joanna Geraghty squashed bankruptcy rumors earlier this month when, during an interview with the public radio station WBUR, she said that Chapter 11 is not on the table for JetBlue.

JetBlue's founder, David Neeleman, who is no longer a part of the company and is now the CEO of the competing carrier Breeze Airways, said in April that JetBlue could file for bankruptcy if its debts, exacerbated by spiking oil prices, become unsustainable.

The financial situation has made Fort Lauderdale that much more important, and JetBlue wasted no time gobbling up the pieces left behind by Spirit. It immediately announced 11 new routes and its intention to cement itself as the airport's leading airline.

Cirium numbers show its growing dominance: JetBlue is operating 6% more flights from the Florida city this month than in April and now holds about 33% of the market share — the largest of any carrier in the airport. That's roughly 11% more than it held in 2025.

The next largest competitor in the city, Delta, has about 12% of the market, by comparison. Southwest, American, and United collectively hold about 25%.

• Nvidia earnings will be a critical update in the market's AI narrative.
• Wall Street expects a beat and raise on all fronts from the AI chipmaker.
• Goldman flags expectations are high, while Citi eyes competition and BofA watches for buybacks.

Investors are bracing for a key update in the stock market's hottest trade.

Nvidia will report fiscal first-quarter earnings results after the closing bell on Wednesday, followed by an earnings call with CEO Jensen Huang and other executives.

Investors are watching for updates on Nvidia's place in the evolving AI race as the stock pulls back from recent record highs. Wednesday's results are expected to be significantly stronger than the earnings print for the same quarter a year ago.

Nvidia's first quarter results in May of 2025 came in as the US restrictions on chip exports to China posed a major headwind for the company.

This time around, Nvidia is releasing earnings just after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joined President Donald Trump and the US delegation for the US-China summit last week.

Huang could provide updates on where the company's business in China stands and the impacts the chipmaker expects from the ongoing US and China relationship.

Wall Street's earnings expectations

Analysts expect Nvidia's first quarter revenue to come in at $79.15 billion, up from the $44.1 billion reported the year prior.

Data center revenue, which drives the majority of the company's revenue, is projected to be $73.49 billion, compared to $39.1 billion recorded a year ago.

Consensus earnings estimates are at $1.78, up from the $0.81 recorded in the year-ago period.

Consensus estimates signal Wall Street expects Nvidia's revenue outlook for the current quarter to be $87.2 billion.

Nvidia stock has gained over 15% since the start of 2026, bouncing back stronger on reignited AI enthusiasm. Shares closed at $220.61 on Tuesday, up about 17% year to date.

Traders are bracing for a big post-earnings stock move.

Options data this week points to a 6.5% swing in Nvidia shares in either direction on Thursday. A move of that magnitude would be equal to a nearly $350 billion swing in Nvidia's market cap, given the company's $5.3 trillion market cap Wednesday.

That would also be a larger move than what Nvidia has historically seen after earnings, with an average 3.16% swing spanning the last four reports, according to historical data from the analytics platform Barchart.

Earnings have been volatile milestones for Nvidia in the past. While the chipmaker has regularly blown down the doors on revenue, investor expectations for the company's performance have climbed higher amid the stock's parabolic rally.

Here's what some of Wall Street's top analysts are watching in Nvidia's earnings print.

The bar is high for earnings-driven stock gains, Goldman says

Expectations are high for Nvidia heading into the earnings print. The AI chipmaker has consistently delivered beat and raise results in recent years, fueling investor expectations and making it all the more difficult for the release to send the stock higher.

Goldman Sachs analysts said that it's not a question of if the chipmaker's sales, earnings, and guidance beats, but the magnitude of the upside relative to expectations.

"We expect a beat-and-raise quarter given positive industry supply and demand datapoints but believe the bar for stock outperformance is relatively high heading into the print," the analysts wrote.

"Although the stock has lagged peers and now trades at a meaningful discount relative to history, we believe the stock's multiple can re-rate if we see evidence of: (1) improving profitability metrics at hyperscalers that supports sustained spending growth; (2) proliferation of agentic AI signaling broader enterprise adoption; (3) more visibility into deployments at non-traditional customers," they outlined.

Goldman Sachs reiterated its buy rating and $250 price target for Nvidia stock.

Citi's thoughts on the AI chip competition checkup

Nvidia leads the AI chip game and is a huge beneficiary of Big Tech's massive AI spending, but competition within the AI chip landscape is evolving.

Big Tech companies like Alphabet and Amazon are making their own AI chips. While these custom chips and other CPU options aren't as advanced as Nvidia's GPUs they offer an alternative as AI moves from the training to inference stage.

Despite the changing chip space, Citi analysts indicated they expect GPUs to represent most AI accelerators through 2028. Nvidia, along with AMD, are driving that demand.

"We nevertheless still expect NVDA will continue to capture the bulk of AI accelerators investment due to its technology leadership and large installed base," they said.

Citi maintained a buy rating on the stock and a $300 price objective.

BofA says boosting cash returns is a "key" catalyst

Bank of America said that Nvidia stock is trading at a compelling valuation, but that the company boosting cash returns could be the key catalyst to further growth.

If the chipmaker were to boost its cash returns to shareholders it could appeal to dividend and income-focused investors and ignite further upside.

BofA pointed out that Nvidia allocated less than half of its free cash flow to dividends and buybacks from 2022 to 2025, compared to peers that returned around 80% in the same period.

"Boosting shareholder returns could expand ownership, close NVDA's valuation gap and minimize circularity concerns (2H catalyst)," the analysts said.

Nvidia's free cash has been dedicated to investing in the AI ecosystem, raising some worries about circular financing, concerns that BofA noted are unfair in their view.

The chipmaker isn't the only firm prioritizing AI investing over returning cash, with Goldman raising this concern for the broader market.

Bank of America has a $320 price target and a buy rating on Nvidia stock.

Wells Fargo and BofA dismiss margin worries on input cost spikes

Concerns about the sustainability of Nvidia's margins have emerged as the insatiable demand for compute in the training phase shifts to inference. These worries also come as input costs have surged recently.

Wells Fargo analysts explained they're not viewing this as a headwind or a threat to Nvidia's high margins.

"With NVIDIA's ability to largely pass through incremental component costs, we believe the company can maintain a 74%-75% gross margin guide," they said.

Wells Fargo recently lifted its price target to $315 and maintained a buy rating for Nvidia.

Similarly, Bank of America defended Nvidia's ability to maintain its margins.

"Even as Rubin Ultra (with new 'Kyber' rack architecture) comes along in 2H27 and as HBM continues to represent a bigger part of build cost, we flag consensus still models NVDA GM at around ~74% over time, versus current ~75% range," the analysts said.

• Google delayed its Gemini 3.5 Pro AI model, disappointing some developers.
• The smaller Gemini 3.5 Flash model now powers Google's Antigravity AI coding service.
• Feedback from 3.5 Flash will likely be used to enhance Gemini 3.5 Pro, via reinforcement learning.

Google usually saves its biggest product launches for its I/O conference every year. This time, CEO Sundar Pichai held back, and it says a lot about where the company stands in the AI coding race.

During the keynote address, Pichai told the crowd that Google's new flagship Gemini 3.5 Pro AI model wasn't ready yet, drawing groans from the crowd.

I was there, and I've spent the rest of the event coming up with a theory for the apparent delay: Google is holding this new model back for a while to get it even better at AI coding tasks.

Anthropic's Claude Code took the world by storm last year, and OpenAI's Codex has gotten much better recently. These frontier labs are scooping up developer mindshare and generating big revenue by enabling coders to use AI tools with agents to automate and speed up coding tasks.

It's a revolution that's upending Silicon Valley, and Google was probably a bit behind. But not for long.

Instead of releasing 3.5 Pro, Pichai spoke at length and with passion about another new model, the Gemini 3.5 Flash. This is a smaller model that's faster and a lot cheaper, while being only slightly less powerful than the world's current top models.

Google has already made 3.5 Flash the main model powering its Antigravity AI coding service. Starting today, software developers will use this tool to churn out code.

This will generate a mountain of anonymous and highly valuable data. For instance, if an engineer starts a new coding project in Antigravity and suddenly halts the task, it suggests that something in the output from Flash 3.5 wasn't right.

Google can use this feedback data to improve the larger 3.5 Pro model, likely through reinforcement learning—a technique in which a new AI model is refined by rewarding good outputs and punishing bad outcomes.

Signals from running Antigravity on the smaller 3.5 Flash model will likely help with this process in important ways. That's because coding is particularly good at generating clear signals for AI model development. If the code is good, it likely works. If it's bad, it often breaks stuff.

This should give the larger 3.5 Pro model strong clues about which coding outputs worked and which didn't.

"I know you can't wait to get your hands on it," Pichai said onstage. "Give us until next month to get it to you."

So, when this big new model finally lands, I expect it to be a lot better at coding — the hottest application of generative AI right now.

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.

• A New Jersey city has banned new data center developments.
• The decision effectively blocks a proposed data center giant.
• The ban comes amid a backlash against a data center boom in southern New Jersey.

A city at the heart of an AI data center boom in southern New Jersey has voted to ban them.

That means one of the largest data center proposals in the state's history is unlikely to happen.

The Millville Board of Commissioners made the decision during a meeting on Tuesday evening, writing in an ordinance that "data centers are incompatible with the City's land use planning objectives, infrastructure capacity, and community character."

"The Commissioners therefore determine that the construction and operation of data centers within the City would be detrimental to the public health, safety, and welfare," the commissioners said.

The decision brings to a halt the proposed 1.4 gigawatt Millville Energy & Data Center Campus, which would have spanned over 60 acres. A1 Data Center, the company behind the project, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Southern New Jersey has emerged as something of a hub for AI data center construction, in part because of its proximity to major cities like New York and Philadelphia and its access to natural gas and transmission networks.

Several other data centers have been proposed — or are already being built — in the area, including a 300-megawatt data center in neighboring Vineland that would supply compute to Microsoft.

While large data centers have been around for decades, their scale has grown exponentially as AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic seek more compute to power their products.

Many Americans — a majority of whom are unexcited about AI, according to a recent study — are now resisting these massive data centers in their communities. They worry that they could drain their water supply, raise utility bills, cause unwanted noise, raise temperature levels, and impede their quality of life.

In its ordinance on Tuesday, the Millville commissioners cited many of these issues, writing that "large-scale data centers and similar facilities generate significant infrastructure demands."

It also said any jobs created by the project were limited relative to its size. The companies behind data centers have argued that they are good for communities because they create jobs, though many of those jobs are in construction and temporary.

The Climate Revolution Action Network, an environmental nonprofit based in New Jersey, told Business Insider in a statement that it spent months organizing residents to oppose the Millville data center.

"This is a winning coalition and something we need to see more of across the country," one of the group's leaders, Kayleigh Henry, said. "These corporations may have more money than us, but they're no match for people speaking out and making their voices heard."

The Climate Revolution Action Network and other groups are now working to secure a statewide moratorium on data center construction.

This month, a coalition of anti-data center groups asked New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill to impose a moratorium on approving and constructing new data centers that use at least 20 megawatts of power "until regulations or legislation are implemented to protect ratepayers and consumers, maintain electric grid reliability, and minimize environmental impacts."

• Stony Brook University is using AI to improve recycling efficiency and reduce landfill waste.
• AI models help identify non-recyclable waste to prevent contamination in recycling processes.
• Researchers are testing whether AI recycling systems can scale in real-world plants.

A pizza box can feel like a recycling pop quiz. It's cardboard, but there's also the greasy bottom and cheese residue. Should the box go into the blue recycling bin or into the trash?

The wrong decision may seem like a harmless toss, but it can have serious consequences — ones that technologists are hoping artificial intelligence can remedy.

Recycling facilities, or materials recovery facilities, sort and process recyclable materials such as plastic, glass, and paper, which are then sold to manufacturers to create new products.

However, if an unrecyclable item, like the grease-soaked pizza box, gets mixed in with the other valuable materials, the whole batch can be rejected and sent to a landfill. Large landfills threaten the environment and human health, and the US is among the world's largest per-person generators of waste.

At Stony Brook University, researchers are exploring AI as part of the solution by developing an AI-assisted system to analyze and characterize municipal solid waste with far greater speed and scale than traditional methods.

Stony Brook's project reflects a broader national trend, as scientists and engineers across the country increasingly place AI at the center of efforts to streamline recycling programs and build more efficient, effective waste management and sorting systems.

Training AI to sort trash smarter

The Stony Brook project officially kicked off in January 2025. As part of her preliminary work, Ruwen Qin, an associate professor and the project's principal investigator, visited material recovery facilities on Long Island and spoke with staff about the challenges they face and the solutions they are interested in. "Without the collaboration from local facilities, it is impossible to conduct this type of research, because that data is essential for developing artificial intelligence algorithms," she said.

During these site visits, Qin and her team used low-cost cameras, such as GoPros, to capture video and audio. Qin said this data was used to guide the development of the AI model.

Subsequently, the Stony Brook AI model was trained to identify paper, plastics, food waste, and fabrics and automatically estimate their quantities. The work is supported by the Stony Brook University AI Innovation Seed Grant; after receiving the grant, Qin was able to involve graduate students in the research. Qin has also closely collaborated with the university's Waste Data and Analysis Center throughout the initiative.

"A very important task is to sample and sort the waste and try to determine what materials are in the waste stream and what the quantity is," Qin told Business Insider. "As we train the algorithm, we can analyze samples in large quantities more efficiently than a human being."

This process of identifying, separating, and analyzing components of a waste stream is known as characterization. It's time-consuming and detail-oriented work. But Qin said AI can ideally expedite the process. AI models, like the one she's developing, can pinpoint whether something unrecyclable has been mistakenly mixed with other recyclable products and prevent it from being rejected and sent to landfills.

While the project is in its early stages, Qin said her short-term goal is to provide high-quality data to researchers, which she hopes will be used to develop more affordable and accessible open-source models.

Qin added that her team will continue training the model so that it can eventually "identify different waste materials under all conditions." She also hopes to secure additional funding to transfer the technology into real-world applications, such as material recovery facilities.

In the future, Qin said that she's interested in merging AI with robotics: the algorithm could instruct robots on what they can and can't take from the waste stream.

Scaling the tech

AI's recycling algorithms are starting to trickle into the waste management industry. For example, in Colorado, AMP Robotics has developed an AI-robotics system for the factory line. And Greyparrot, a London-based startup, has an AI sorting system used in more than 20 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Aurora del Carmen Munguía-López, an assistant professor at the University of Buffalo who researches recycling solutions, said when it comes to developing AI-sorting systems, there's still work to be done. As pilot projects move from different universities into plant facilities, Munguía-López told Business Insider that part of the challenge is determining whether these algorithms can work at the scale required in professional settings.

While AI's energy-hungry data centers are creating environmental risks, Munguía-López said its overall impact could still be positive if the technology increases recycling rates, reduces reliance on fossil-fuel-based plastic production, and lowers greenhouse gas emissions.

Given the tech's potential to improve recycling and reduce emissions, Qin wants to ensure that Stony Brook's AI model is an intellectual product that anyone can use to their advantage. "We want to make the data, the model, and the technology publicly available to benefit society," she said.

• A Google executive said he'd bet that AI will not lead to mass layoffs.
• SVP James Manyika said AI will eliminate some jobs, create others, and change many more.
• He joins other tech executives pushing back on AI job-loss fears as public skepticism grows.

Will AI crush the jobs economy? James Manyika, a senior Google-Alphabet executive, bets it won't.

On Casey Newton's "Platformer," released on Tuesday, Manyika said he does not buy the most extreme predictions about near-term mass job loss from AI.

Newton asked Manyika about Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, predicting that unemployment is about to spike because of new tech.

"I'll just say: let's take the bet," he replied. "Some of those predictions were made two years ago — that in two years, 50% of jobs would be wiped out. Well, two years is up. Let's take a look. And anybody who makes that prediction for two years from now, I'm willing to take the bet."

Manyika has a deep background in AI research. He has a Ph.D. in AI and robotics from Oxford, co-chaired the UN Secretary-General's AI advisory body, and has served as chairman of the McKinsey Global Institute while studying automation and the future of work. He's now a senior vice president at Google and Alphabet, where he focuses on research, technology, and society.

In 2017, he coauthored a widely cited McKinsey report titled "Jobs lost, jobs gained," which argued that automation would produce a mix of effects on workers: some jobs would decline, some new jobs would be created, and many more existing jobs would change.

Manyika said that the framework is still accurate.

"The research hasn't changed very much," he said. "The debate that people have is, what's the mix of those three things? As opposed to, are these three things going to happen?"

Public skepticism toward AI is growing. In early May, YouGov published a poll finding that seven in 10 Americans believe that AI is advancing "too fast." Gallup also found that seven in 10 Americans opposed local construction of the data centers that fuel AI systems.

Those concerns are showing up in public life: some college graduates have booed commencement speakers who talk about AI, while several data center projects have sparked protests.

Manyika suggested the AI industry has contributed to public anxiety by talking about mass job losses, and said companies also need to show that AI infrastructure will not raise energy costs for communities.

"It doesn't help when we in the AI field talk about wiping out 50% of jobs," he said. "We're probably impacting the possibilities of this technology having extraordinary impact by, quite frankly, scaring everybody — when in fact that fear is unfounded."

He joins a growing number of tech executives pushing back on predictions of mass AI job losses.

Palo Alto Networks' CEO, Nikesh Arora, called concerns that AI is supplanting jobs a "fallacy," while Amazon Web Services' CEO, Matt Garman, said his company is still planning to hire 11,000 software engineering employees this year.

Silicon Valley has gone through a fresh wave of job losses. Layoff-tracking firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that through April, tech companies have announced 85,411 layoffs, a 33% increase from the same period last year.

"That's not to say we shouldn't worry about AI's labor market effects. We should," Manyika said. "I just don't think they've happened yet at the scale anybody's concerned about."

Manyika maintains that AI's largest impact will be on how workers complete their tasks.

"The biggest effect is the jobs-changed part," Manyika added. "The nature of the job itself shifts. This is what happened with bank tellers. This is what happens with radiologists. We still have the category 'bank teller,' but I can guarantee what a bank teller does today is not what a bank teller in 1970 did."

Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Sarah J. Maas announced the release dates for the next two "ACOTAR" novels on "Call Her Daddy."
• The two books will be released on October 27, 2026, and January 12, 2027.
• Maas said the two books will be separate volumes of the sixth "ACOTAR" story.

After five long years of waiting, Sarah J. Maas fans can rejoice — the sixth "A Court of Thorns and Roses" book finally has a release date. Well, it actually has release dates.

On March 4, 2026, the author appeared on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast with Alex Cooper, where she announced the next "ACOTAR" book would be published on October 27, 2026.

The work is eagerly awaited not only by fans but also by Maas' publisher, Bloomsbury. The company's sales fell 10% for the 2025-2026 fiscal year because Maas didn't release a new book, Publishers Weekly reported.

Interestingly, though, Maas said her next novel will be just part one of the sixth "ACOTAR" story, with parts two and three released together in January 2027. Part four will be released separately.

Here's everything we know about "ACOTAR" book six so far.

Warning: Some spoilers for Maas' work ahead.

Maas is releasing book six of 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' in multiple volumes

In July 2025, Mass posted a reel on Instagram revealing that she had finished a first draft of the sixth "ACOTAR" book. In the video, Maas closes a notebook labeled with "ACOTAR 6" and an arrow, shuts a laptop, and pops a bottle of bubbly.

"First drafts DONE," she captioned the post.

Fans quickly flooded her comments with questions about why "draft" was plural and what the arrow next to six meant, but Maas didn't explain further until Cooper asked her about it during her "Call Her Daddy" appearance.

"I will say that that was ACOTAR six with the arrow pointing forward to indicate things going ahead of that," she said. "And it is for the next ACOTAR book, which is coming out on October 27 of this year."

Maas went on to say that she finished the book while writing in Montana over the summer of 2025, but declined to reveal the book's title or which characters from the world of "ACOTAR" will be telling the story. She also didn't share the novel's length, which she said was for a specific reason.

"OK, well, part of why I guess it's tricky to talk about the length of this book is because this book's coming out October 27, and then on January 12, like two months later, I can't do math, whatever that is, the next ACOTAR book will be coming out," Maas said. "So there will be two books within, like, a very short span."

As her fans will know, Maas' books are typically split into parts, separating different sections of the story she is telling. However, when it comes to the sixth "ACOTAR" book, Maas said the individual parts became longer than she anticipated as she started writing, with part one coming in at 400 pages at one point. At first, that seemed like a problem, as the book would be difficult to print if it were too long.

As she continued writing, Maas decided the parts didn't have to live in one physical book.

"I decided I wasn't gonna approach this project from a traditional format of a book," she said. "What if this book was really long? Like, what if it took me more than a thousand pages to tell the story that needed to be told, the arc that I wanted to create from start to finish?"

Maas said the story for "ACOTAR" six was ultimately divided into four parts, though it is still one cohesive story. Part one is the novel that Bloomsbury will publish on October 27, 2026, and parts two and three will be published together as one volume on January 12, 2027. Maas has yet to write or give a publication date for part four, but she said all three volumes would be published "in a very short time."

Although the works will be published individually, Maas told Cooper she still hopes readers treat them as one story once they are all out in the world.

"It's meant to be read ideally as one massive, massive story as opposed to in a trilogy," she said. "It's not a trilogy. Like, arcs aren't wrapped up."

Maas also posted about the new books on her Instagram on Wednesday, sharing a photo of her notebook and two photos of a Montana skyline. She gave more insight into why she decided to publish the parts as separate volumes in her caption.

"I know how long you've waited," she wrote. "I know how much these characters mean to you. And I also know these stories deserve more than speed and deadlines. They deserve my best self. They deserve the right moment."

"When the moment came, what I thought would be one book… very quickly became something else," she added. "The story just kept expanding, and I couldn't wait to share a single part of it any longer!!"

The next 'ACOTAR' has been in the works for years

Although Maas hadn't given detailed information about the sixth "ACOTAR" book before her "Call Her Daddy" appearance, it wasn't a total shock that her next work would bring readers back to Prythian.

In March 2023, Bloomsbury announced that Maas had signed a deal for three more books with the publisher. At the time, she was already under contract for four titles, including "House of Flame and Shadow," the third installment in her "Crescent City" series, published in January 2024.

In September 2023, Maas gave readers their first clue as to what would come next in the six books she had left under her contract, telling Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings during a "Live Talks Los Angeles" appearance that she was "drafting" the next "ACOTAR" book — and having a blast doing it.

"I will say that I've become so focused and obsessed with writing this book," she told Hobbs and Billings. "It's like that feeling of having a crush or when you're first, like, obsessed with someone, and you're just thinking about it nonstop."

Likewise, in a January 2024 interview with Jenna Bush Hager, Maas said her next published work would be the sixth installment of "ACOTAR."

"I'm very, very excited about that one," Maas said of the coming book, though she didn't give any details about it.

The book seems to have transformed since those comments based on Maas' conversation with Cooper.

Clues about the future of 'ACOTAR' in Maas' other works

Maas has been tight-lipped about the contents of her coming work, but the other books in "ACOTAR" and her "Crescent City" series can offer clues.

The most recent book in the "ACOTAR" series, "A Court of Silver Flames," was released in 2021 and focused on Nesta Archeron. The first four books were told from the perspective of Feyre Archeron, while Maas seemed to usher in a new era of the series by writing from her sister's perspective in "ACOSF."

Nesta also appeared in "House of Flame and Shadow," which created a multiverse between "ACOTAR," "Crescent City," and the "Throne of Glass" series. It also offered insight into what might be happening in Prythian at the start of a new "ACOTAR" novel.

In "House of Flame and Shadow," Nesta and Azriel discover the magical prison in Prythian, which lies atop what was once a powerful fae court, alongside Bryce Quinlan, the protagonist from "Crescent City."

They also learn that Rhysand's lineage traces back to the fae who ruled the prison, which would have been the Dusk Court, creating the potential for Rhys to rule two courts.

Nesta also seems to have connections to those long-forgotten fae, as she bears an eight-pointed star tattoo that matches a chamber in the prison and the design on a sword called Gwydion that had been missing from Prythian for centuries. The sword had been with Bryce's family on her planet, Midgard, where it is called the Starsword.

In "HOFAS," Bryce brought the sword to Prythian with her when she sought aid from the fae there, and she ultimately stole Gwydion's twin, a dagger called Truth-Teller, from Azriel. She used the weapons together to bring peace to her planet, but she returned the dagger to Azriel — alongside a magical mask Nesta let her borrow — at the novel's end. In the same scene, she gifted Gwydion to Nesta.

"I think that eight-pointed star was tattooed on you for a reason. Take that sword and go figure out why," Bryce told Nesta.

It's possible Maas was setting up a continuation of Nesta's story for her next "ACOTAR" story in the scene, which may see her explore her power and connections to the Starborn fae, as they are called on Midgard.

Elain's role in future 'ACOTAR' books

Maas tied "ACOTAR" and "Crescent City" together primarily through Nesta and Azriel in "House of Flame and Shadow."

Still, Maas might turn to other characters in Prythian in her next "ACOTAR" novel, or she may balance multiple plots given the length of the coming volumes. For instance, Maas told Eva Chen during an appearance on "Live Talks Los Angeles" in February 2021 that she planned to write a book from the third Archeron sister's perspective — Elain.

In "A Court of Silver Flames," Elain had settled into life at the Night Court, refusing to explore her mating bond with Lucien. After breaking ties with Tamlin and the Spring Court, Lucien served as an emissary to the human lands for the Night Court, keeping his distance from Elain because being around her was painful.

Maas also spoke to Cooper about Elain and Lucien's mating bond, indicating that she was eager to explore how it differs from others we see in her works.

"I think Elain's got her own trauma and shit that she's going through right now," she said, adding that Lucien's involvement in bringing Elain to the fae world is a barrier to their relationship.

"So exploring a concept of a free will, what does that look like with a mating bond?" Maas said. "What does that mean? And does nature get it wrong sometimes? Does it get it right sometimes?"

Maas said she was "interested" as a writer to explore what it meant for someone not to desire to be mated, which could mean she wrote about that topic in her coming work.

Elain also seems to have an attraction to Azriel in the text, though Maas juxtaposed their bond with how ill-fitting aspects of life at the Night Court are for Elain during a visit to the Court of Nightmares in "ACOSF." Some fans think Maas set up a storyline for Elain to find a home at a different court, and that Azriel will find love with Nesta's friend Gywn instead of Elain.

Maas also hasn't explored the full potential of Elain's Seer powers in the series, so she will likely write more about her abilities in future "ACOTAR" novels.

• OpenAI offered $2 million in tokens in exchange for equity in the current class of Y Combinator-backed startups.
• Sam Altman wrote on X that he was "excited to see what will happen with tokenmaxxing startups."
• It's another sign of how AI has changed the economics of building a company.

Before some startup founders raise their Series A, they'll be raising AI tokens.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a new offer for Y Combinator's current batch of founders: fork over some equity, and OpenAI will offer up $2 million in API tokens. YC general partner Tyler Bosmeny called it a "mic drop moment."

"I am excited to see what will happen with tokenmaxxing startups, both for how they work internally and the products they can build," Altman wrote on X. "Happy building!"

The pilot program will be available for spring and summer 2026 batches of the Y Combinator startup accelerator, according to a person familiar with the offering.

The person familiar with the offering said that participating startups will sign an uncapped Simple Agreement for Future Equity, or SAFE, agreement. That means OpenAI's eventual ownership stake would be determined in a future financing round, rather than being fixed upfront.

The SAFE will not include a Most Favored Nation, or MFN, provision, the person said. In other words, if a startup later issues another SAFE with better terms, OpenAI would not automatically receive those terms. By contrast, the $375,000 uncapped SAFE in Y Combinator's standard deal does include an MFN provision.

The accelerator's startups often already score steep token discounts. The partners do, too; Ankit Gupta wrote on X that "one of the clutch perks of being a partner at YC is having unlimited budget to spend on tokens."

Not all were fans of the deal. Investor and "All-In" cohost Jason Calacanis told founders to "be careful," warning that OpenAI could one day incorporate a startup's idea into their own product. Y Combinator did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Roshan Kumaraswamy, who founded the YC-backed startup Apten, responded to Calacanis: "The startups are buying openai tokens anyways..."

Altman's deal is a twist on traditional investing — and yet another sign of how AI is changing startup economics.

Tokens are a measurement of computing that help determine bills for AI usage, such as operating an AI coding agent or processing a chatbot conversation. While many new companies are now running with leaner teams, they're racking up high token bills in the process.

Y Combinator incentivized this change. In a recent episode of the accelerator's "Startup School" series, partner Diana Hu advised founders to embrace tokenmaxxing over headcountmaxxing.(Translation: spend your budget on AI tokens, not new employees.)

Altman himself has a long history of funding startups, especially through Y Combinator. He served as the accelerator's president from 2014 to 2019.

Some of Altman's investments came up during his trial with Elon Musk. His stake in Helion Energy, for example, was worth more than $1.6 billion as of the end of 2025.

The Y Combinator deal will run through OpenAI, rather than Altman personally, per his X post.

REI is the go-to destination for outdoor adventure, thanks to its impressive selection of apparel, gear, and accessories from popular brands. The REI Co-op already offers major savings opportunities, but one of the top ways to ensure you're getting the deepest discounts on your next purchase is by applying one of the best REI coupon and promo codes we've tested at checkout.

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Today's best REI coupons and promo codes

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REI usually has some form of sale running on the website at any given time, often across a variety of items. Sometimes this is a general offer on several products, and other times it's a special promo if you buy a certain number of products or bundle purchases together. You can check the "Deals" page of REI's website at any moment to see a full list of their current deals and markdowns. At the time of writing, REI is running the following promotions:

• Follow our Instagram page and WhatsApp channel for more deals and buying guides

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Start by adding coupon-eligible items to your cart. From the "Shopping Cart" page, continue to checkout by logging into your co-op account or continuing as a guest. Once you've entered your contact and shipping information, you can apply a discount code by clicking the "Apply a coupon" dropdown, pasting a code into the "Enter code" text box, and clicking "Apply." From there, enter your payment information and submit your order.

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• Mark Zuckerberg posted a note to Meta staff as the tech giant cuts 10% of its workforce today.
• Zuckerberg said he doesn't expect more "company-wide" layoffs this year amid a major morale hit.
• The billionaire added that some staff appreciate having less bureaucracy and management to navigate.

Mark Zuckerberg is trying to offer Meta employees both reassurance and a reality check. As 10% of staff head for the exits, the CEO said in an internal message that he doesn't expect more company-wide layoffs this year.

In a company-wide note, Meta's CEO expressed his gratitude to everyone leaving the company as part of the tech giant's cuts today. He wrote that it's "always sad to say goodbye" to those who have contributed to Meta.

"I feel the weight of that, and I'm spending a lot of time making sure we manage this as well as possible," his memo, which was first posted by the New York Times, reads.

Zuckerberg tried to assuage concerns that these cuts are only beginning, saying in the note that he doesn't expect any additional "company-wide" layoffs this year.

That opens the door, of course, to more targeted cuts against specific parts of Meta, like its hardware division Reality Labs, which saw layoffs earlier this year.

Meta's HR chief previously said Meta isn't ruling out further layoffs and that she doesn't know what the company's ideal size is.

Meta declined to comment.

In the note, Zuckerberg also doubled down on AI, calling the field highly competitive and saying that while Meta is well-positioned to do well, success is not guaranteed.

He also said that staff have been saying they appreciate taking more ownership and executing their vision "with less bureaucracy and management to navigate," which is in line with Meta's renewed focus on small teams and AI-native "pods."

Read the full memo below:

Hey everyone,

I want to express my gratitude to everyone leaving today for all of the hard work you've put into serving our community.

It's always sad to say goodbye to people who have contributed to our mission and to building this company. I feel the weight of that, and I'm spending a lot of time making sure we manage this as well as possible.

This is the most dynamic I have seen our industry. I'm optimistic about everything we're building to give billions of people the power to express themselves and connect with the people they care about. I'm also optimistic about delivering personal superintelligence to everyone. We've always focused on putting power in people's hands. This is how we believe progress is made in the world. These values are what makes us different, and they are why Meta has been successful.

But success isn't a given. AI is the most consequential technology of our lifetimes. The companies that lead the way will define the next generation.

We're transforming our company to make sure it will always be the best place for talented people to have the greatest impact. People tell us that they appreciate the ability to take greater ownership and execute their vision with less bureaucracy and management to navigate. At the same time, we also want to provide everyone with as much stability as possible. We won't always get this balance right, but I care deeply about this so we'll keep adjusting and work hard to do right by people along the way.

To that end, I want to be clear that we do not expect other company-wide layoffs this year. I also want to acknowledge that we haven't been as clear as we aspire to be in our communication, and that's one area I want to make sure we improve.

I'm confident in what we're all building together. We are one of the few companies positioned to help define the future. Meta has the talent, the infrastructure, the apps and distribution, and the business model. We have a lot of work ahead, but what's on the other side is going to be extraordinary.

Once again, I'm grateful to those leaving today. And I'm grateful to everyone around the company for all of the historic work we will continue doing together.

Mark

• OpenAI is racing toward its blockbuster IPO.
• The AI lab is targeting September for the listing, a person familiar with the matter said.
• Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will steward the company through the process, the person said.

OpenAI is preparing to go public this fall.

The ChatGPT-maker is moving quickly toward an initial public offering and targeting September for the listing, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

OpenAI is working with bankers at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to put together its filings, the person said.

The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI could file its confidential prospectus with regulators as early as Friday.

Employees and investors have been eagerly awaiting the IPO, given OpenAI's meteoric rise over the last three years. A $122 billion funding round in March pushed the company's post-money valuation to $852 billion.

The listing would bring in yet more cash and give longtime stakeholders a chance to liquidate their shares.

Investors also expect SpaceX's IPO this summer, and OpenAI rival Anthropic is eyeing a public listing too.

In filing for an IPO, OpenAI would open its books, giving the public a clearer view of the vast resources it is churning toward the goal of building powerful AI models. The Wall Street Journal reported in April that the AI lab is projecting multi-billion-dollar losses through 2029, including losing $85 billion in 2028.

OpenAI's push toward the listing comes on the heels of a courtroom victory in Oakland, California. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk had tangled the company and its CEO, Sam Altman, in a legal battle over its transition to a for-profit enterprise. On Monday, the jury found that Musk's claims were barred by statutes of limitations. Musk vowed to appeal.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at scouncil@businessinsider.com, or over text, Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 415-757-8198. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. (edited)

• The SEC is working on a framework to allow for 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks.
• Stock tokens would track the price of actual shares, offering more liquidity and faster settlement.
• The idea offers some advantages for traders, but there are risks, market pros say.

A plan in the works from the Securities and Exchange Commission could reshape stock trading in the US.

Bloomberg reported this week that the SEC is gearing up to let investors trade tokenized stocks, issuing an "innovation exemption" for the cryto-like assets that would create a new 24/7 market that's parallel to the existing stock market.

So, what's that mean exactly, and what should investors know?

"An example could be a tokenized version of Apple or Nvidia would be a blockchain-based asset designed to track or represent the underlying stock," Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at Futurum Equities, told Business Insider.

Crypto enthusiasts have said any real-world asset can be tokenized, from real estate to stocks to business loans. The purported advantage is liquidity and immutable proof of ownership backed by the blockchain.

Regarding the SEC's plan, Boloor said that in order for it to be feasible, tokens must be backed by actual shares of a company that are held by a regulated custodian.

He added that such a system would benefit investors by allowing round-the-clock trading and faster settlement, however some skeptics have also emerged.

Michael Burry, the investor famous for betting against the US housing market in 2008, suggested the move would have dire consquences.

"We may be headed full-on to a Snow Crash cyber-punk future with no long-term personal relationships and digital value embedded in all of us directly correlated to the value provided to a society that increasingly devalues humanity," he wrote, referencing the popular cyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson.

Burry didn't go into greater detail about why he sees so much risk in tokenized assets, but Boloor also noted that while 24/7markets may be more convenient for traders, there is the potential for higher volatility and manipulation.

Tokenized trading would also shift the market from regulated exchanges to more lightly regulated crypto platforms.

Last November, The World Federation of Exchanges told the SEC's crypto task force that tokenization could "distort" the market by creating an uneven playing field between stock and crypto exchanges.

Daniel Labovitz, CEO of equity exchange platform Green Impact Exchange, laid out several reasons investors may want to approach tokenized stock trading with caution.

"The tokens may not represent actual ownership of the company, and token holders may not get all of the benefits of a share, like voting [or] dividends," he said. "Another problem is fragmentation: when the same security trades in different markets that aren't connected to each other, the price of the assets can diverge, meaning that some buyers will overpay for their token."

Labovitz added that this isn't the first time the idea of trading blockchain-based tokens to gain stock exposure has been introduced. He recalled that in 2021, FTX offered tokenized versions of popular tech stocks such as Tesla and Apple.

These tokens sometimes traded significantly higher than the price of the underlying stock. They largely vanished in 2022 when the crypto exchange famously declared bankruptcy and ceased operations. Robinhood has also said that it has tokenized some shares of privately held companies, including OpenAI, though the ChatGPT maker warned investors against buying the,

The SEC declined to comment further on the plan.

I've spent more than a decade reviewing audio gear, and year after year, Sony's wireless headphones earn high marks in my tests. If you're a music lover, a frequent flyer, or just hunting for a great pair of cans, the best Sony headphones are almost always worth a look. They consistently nail the things that matter most: rich, detailed sound, comfortable designs you can wear for hours, and some of the most effective active noise cancellation (ANC) available.

Even though they've been out for a few years, the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones are still my top recommendation. They're incredibly versatile over-ear headphones that work just as well at home as on a plane — and they're often on sale, making them an excellent value. But if you want something more budget-friendly, the Sony WH-CH720N headphones are a great choice. Their noise cancellation isn't the best, but their audio quality is a step above most entry-level rivals'.

Every pair of Sony headphones I recommend was tested in real-world environments while I listened to music, streamed movies, and went about my day. I put each model through thorough hands-on testing to figure out which options truly stand out and who they're best for.

Our top picks for the best Sony headphones

Best overall value: WH-1000XM5 - See at Amazon

Best on a budget: WH-CH720N - See at Amazon

Best for noise-canceling: WH-1000XM6 - See at Amazon

Best for bass: ULT Wear - See at Amazon

Best earbuds: WF-1000XM5 - See at Amazon

Best overall value

The WH-1000XM5 aren't Sony's newest wireless headphones, but they remain my top recommendation for most people. These are the brand's flagship headphones from 2022, and though they've been succeeded by the XM6, they're still in stock and frequently discounted.

The XM5 provide good noise cancellation, great audio quality, and a comfortable design — all at a more affordable price than the newer XM6. Of course, there are some areas where the pricier XM6 come out on top, but the cheaper XM5 deliver better value overall.

The XM5's 30 hours of battery life, lightweight design, Bluetooth Multipoint connection, and speak-to-chat feature make them versatile headphones for use at home, at work, on the go, and for extended periods. Though I prefer the wider headband used on the XM6, the XM5 are comfortable to wear for hours on end.

Audio performance is excellent, as you would expect from flagship cans like this, with crisp mids and expansive bass. They work well for listening to music, podcasts, and watching movies. They also support high-resolution audio for those interested in capturing every musical detail.

Sony's newer XM6 headphones do offer slight improvements in sound quality, but I found it hard to notice many meaningful differences when comparing them. However, the XM6's upgraded noise cancellation is more noticeable. Don't get me wrong, the XM5 are still good noise-canceling headphones, but the XM6 are better at blocking out more distractions.

It's also worth noting that the XM5's ear cups can't fold, making them less compact for travel. This is something that the XM6 can do. But given the current cost difference, most people will be satisfied with the more affordable WH-1000XM5.

Read our full Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones review.

Visit our comprehensive guides to the best headphones and best over-ear headphones.

Best on a budget

If you're looking for a decent pair of wireless headphones without spending a fortune, the WH-CH720N are a compelling choice. These midrange headphones cost around $150 (and have dropped to as low as $88) but still offer most of the features that Sony's more expensive models are known for, such as active noise cancellation, long battery life, and a comfortable, lightweight design.

Although the WH-CH720N can't match the ANC performance of the other headphones in this guide, they still provide a decent reduction in distracting noise. I wouldn't recommend these if powerful ANC is a priority, but they're effective enough for casual use. However, keep in mind that this model does not include a carrying case.

Though pricier than some budget headphones from other brands, the WH-CH720N stand out from less expensive offerings with a big jump in sound quality. Going from cheaper earbuds or basic, entry-level on-ear headphones to these feels like a night-and-day difference. I found the mids to be clear, and there's a decent amount of bass to give songs a vibrant tone.

Of course, people craving a deeper, richer sound with improved clarity should consider spending more on one of my other picks in this guide. But, for the money, the CH720N headphones are strong performers. I also like that they use physical buttons for play, pause, and volume adjustment. Sony's other headphones use touch controls, which can be more finicky.

For affordable headphone recommendations from other brands, visit our guide to all the best budget headphones.

Best for noise-canceling

Sony's WH-1000XM6 are the company's latest flagship wireless headphones, delivering its best noise-canceling performance. In fact, they deliver some of the most impressive ANC I've encountered on any headphones.

The XM6 feature adaptive technology that keeps the headphones actively adjusting the frequencies they block as your environment changes. The headphones include a new chip with more power than the XM5, so there are now additional built-in microphones (12 total) filtering out the noise around you.

On the audio front, you can expect the same excellent sound as the XM5, but with a touch more clarity. The XM6 also have a few welcomed design tweaks, like a thicker headband and a revised shape for the power button that helps differentiate it from other functions. The carrying case has also been modified, now featuring a magnetic latch instead of a zipper.

Overall, the XM6 headphones are more refined, with small yet impactful improvements. Unfortunately, the price has also evolved, as the XM6 retail for $460. That's around $100 to $200 more than the XM5 typically sell for.

Given their comparatively high cost, the XM6 headphones are best for those who travel a lot or work in especially distracting environments, and are willing to pay top dollar for premium ANC performance.

Read our full Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones review.

Best for bass

Sony has long employed a bass button on its wireless speakers to give them an extra oomph. The ULT Wear headphones follow that same strategy to give listeners a head-shaking experience.

Pressing the ULT button on the left ear cup activates "deep, low-frequency bass," while pressing it again switches to a second "powerful bass" mode. I can attest that these specially tuned EQ modes add a significant low-end boost to music. If you love your bass with a side of other instruments, then these headphones are for you.

Beyond the headphones' focus on low frequencies, the ULT Wear still provide rich and detailed sound quality overall. Though they're best for bass-heavy songs and action flicks, they're still solid cans for all kinds of music. Plus, they have handy features like Bluetooth Multipoint, which allows them to connect to more than one device at a time.

But as good as the ULT headphones are, they aren't quite as capable as Sony's 1000 series. The audio quality lacks the same level of delicate detail and exceptional clarity. Similarly, ANC performance is good, but it isn't as strong or as encompassing as that of the XM5 and XM6. The headphones' fast charging takes a little longer, too. Three minutes of charging provide 1.5 hours of listening time — the XM5 and XM6 can achieve three hours of listening time with just three minutes of charging.

Best earbuds

If you prefer a pair of earbuds to minimize bulk when on the go, then the WF-1000XM5 are the best Sony headphones for most listeners. They sound exceptional with hard-hitting, punchy bass and clear vocals.

Unlike past WF-1000 earbuds, the XM5 model is slimmed down and should fit better in more people's ears. I had a hard time wearing the older XM4, but these aren't an issue to wear for hours. Even the wireless charging case is petite.

There's a healthy eight hours of battery life (solid for earbuds), and in a pinch, three minutes of charging gets you an hour of listening time. The case can then provide a total of 24 hours.

ANC performance is also good for a pair of earbuds. These are excellent at blocking out distractions on an airplane or in a busy office. In addition to multiple microphones and advanced ANC processing, the WF-1000XM5 come with foam ear tips, which tend to help block even more unwanted sound from creeping in.

That said, it's worth noting that Sony offers a newer version of these buds, the WF-1000XM6. The latest model has even better ANC, which comes closer to matching top rivals from Bose. It also offers improved call quality and a slightly revised shape that may work better in some ears. However, the XM6 cost about $100 more than the XM5.

The XM6 are a worthy pick for people who want the most advanced earbuds Sony offers, but the XM5 are a better overall value. You can learn more in my Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds review.

Visit our guide to all the best earbuds.

What else to consider

In addition to the models recommended above, Sony also offers several other headphones worth considering. Here are a few options that didn't quite make the cut as top picks in this guide.

Sony Linkbuds Fit - See at Amazon
These earbuds are built for fitness. They use a wingtip design that keeps them secure during workouts and runs while remaining flexible enough to avoid putting too much pressure on your ears. They're particularly good for bike riders, as they fit well under a helmet and feature a transparency mode that lets you stay aware of your surroundings. These are a good option for active use, but Sony's other headphones deliver better performance and value for everyday users.

Sony 1000X The Collexion - See at Amazon
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Sony's 1000X series, the brand has launched a new premium over-ear model: 1000X The Collexion. This new tier is a step up from the WH-1000XM6 and features leather and metal materials, with an emphasis on comfort. It also features a new unidirectional 30mm driver and internal optimizations for improved sound quality. However, ANC capabilities are the same as those of the XM6, and the listed battery life is slightly shorter at up to 24 hours. They're also pricey at $650, which is even more expensive than the Apple AirPods Max 2. We haven't tested the Collexion headphones yet, but we'll update our guide once we've had a chance to take a listen.

How we test Sony headphones

I tested the best Sony headphones using several key metrics designed to evaluate audio quality, ANC, comfort, and extra features. Each pair of headphones was worn in various environments, including at home, on a plane, and in cafés. I wanted to see how they would handle noise in real-world places and if they travel well in my bag. I listened to a wide range of content, including music, videos, and audiobooks.

To evaluate ANC performance, I also played simulated sounds of everyday annoyances, such as a vacuum cleaner and traffic, through speakers while wearing the headphones to hear how well each blocked different noises.

I also connected the headphones to several devices to assess their performance while playing music from different sources, including a smartphone and a desktop computer. In addition to comparing the best Sony headphones against each other, I also pitted them against popular headphones from Bose, Sonos, Soundcore, and other companies to gauge where Sony's offerings stand in terms of overall value and performance within the headphones market.

Meet the expert behind this guide:

Tyler Hayes, contributing reporter: I've been writing about consumer tech since 2013 and covering headphones for Business Insider's Reviews team since 2019. When I recommend a pair of Sony headphones in this guide, it's because I've put them through the wringer at home, on trips, and in busy areas to see how they actually sound day to day. I even pipe in vacuum cleaners and revving engines to test noise canceling and compare them head-to-head with other brands to see how Sony stacks up.

Learn more about the Reviews team at Business Insider.

Sony headphones FAQs

Do Sony headphones have good noise cancellation?

Yes, but Sony's pricier headphones use more advanced noise-canceling technology than its cheaper options. For example, the ULT Wear headphones use dual noise sensor tech, while the more expensive XM5 and XM6 use additional multi-noise sensors. The XM5 headphones have eight microphones, while the XM6 feature 12 microphones to listen for and filter out surrounding noise.

While all of the best Sony headphones with ANC will dampen the drone of crowds and distant distractions, the pricer options can block out a wider range of noises. The 1000 series also blocks stronger, closer bursts of noise better.

For more recommendations outside the Sony brand, check out our guide to all of the best noise-canceling headphones.

Should you buy Sony over-ear headphones or earbuds?

It depends on how and where you plan to use them. Sony over-ear headphones are usually the better choice for long listening sessions, critical listening, and noise cancellation, since they offer bigger drivers, longer battery life, and a more comfortable fit. Models like the WH-1000XM5 are especially popular for flights, commuting, and working from home.

Sony earbuds, on the other hand, are more compact and portable, making them a better fit for workouts, daily errands, and people who prefer a lighter design. Premium options like the WF-1000XM5 still deliver good sound quality and active noise cancellation in a smaller package.

Can Sony headphones be used for gaming?

All the Sony headphones recommended in this guide can technically be used for gaming, but wireless connectivity will only work if your console or PC supports Bluetooth. It's also key to remember that Bluetooth technology can introduce delays, which isn't ideal for competitive multiplayer gaming. For that reason, gaming headsets typically use 2.4GHz wireless rather than Bluetooth to reduce latency.

Generally, the Sony headphones recommended here are not optimized for gaming. That said, Sony does have a line of headsets called INZONE that are built specifically for gaming, and those models do support 2.4GHz connections.

What is Sony 360 Reality Audio?

Sony 360 Reality Audio is an immersive audio format designed to make music sound more three-dimensional. Instead of traditional left-and-right stereo sound, tracks are mixed into a spatial audio environment that places different sounds around you for a more lifelike listening experience. The format is similar to Dolby Atmos.

You can listen to 360 Reality Audio tracks on any pair of headphones, but certain Sony models include features designed to optimize playback. Music mastered in Sony 360 Reality Audio is available on streaming services like Amazon Music Unlimited. While not every song supports 360 Reality Audio, compatible tracks can create a more immersive listening experience, especially for live recordings and detailed productions.

How does Sony compare to other headphone brands?

Sony's wireless headphones rank well in performance and comfort. I've spent significant time with competing models from Bose, Sonos, Apple, Master & Dynamic, and others, and am confident in saying that Sony's options stack up well.

At the top end, the differences between competing headphones tend to be minimal, with distinctions primarily centered on design, extra features, and subtle details. However, if your primary focus is ANC strength, Sony is among the top brands we recommend, and its offerings are second only to the best Bose headphones.

What other Sony products do we recommend?

In addition to headphones, Sony makes several other impressive tech products. Most notably, the brand's top TVs consistently ace our team's picture-quality tests. The company also offers a range of high-quality soundbars and speakers.

You can learn more in our guides to the best Sony TVs and best surround sound systems.

Update: After searching the internet for Paramount Plus coupons, we haven't been able to find any active discounts at this time. We'll keep scouring the web for new promo codes and discounts, so keep checking this page for relevant updates. If you're still thinking of subscribing to Paramount Plus today, you can keep reading to explore savings on annual plans, or head back to checkout.

While Paramount Plus might have simply started as a means to stream buzzy CBS shows on demand, the app has become one of the best streaming services on the market, thanks to its impressive selection of originals, sports programming, and (in the Premium tier) Showtime series. The streaming service is already one of the more budget-friendly apps on the market, but using one of the best Paramount Plus coupon and promo codes can help you save even more on a subscription.

Paramount Plus carries the full slate of popular CBS shows, from franchise favorites like "NCIS" and "Criminal Minds" to newer series such as "Boston Blue" and "Ghosts." Most notably, the service gets the new episodes of "Survivor" and "Marshals" the day after they air on linear TV (or live, depending on which tier you're subscribed to). But the service carries much more than CBS faves, including popular original series like "Dutton Ranch" and award-winning films such as "No Country for Old Men." The streamer also offers an ever-growing line-up of live sports, including UFC events and NFL on CBS games.

By upgrading to a Paramount Plus Premium plan, you gain access to a live stream of your local CBS station. This tier also unlocks Showtime titles, including popular ongoing series such as "Yellowjackets" and "Dexter: Resurrection," among others. For a deeper look into everything that Paramount Plus has to offer, you can check out our Paramount Plus guide and in-depth Paramount Plus review.

Even with the most recent price hike, Paramount Plus remains one of the most affordable streaming services available. The ad-supported plan is one of the most competitively priced apps, given the sheer volume of quality content for just $9 a month compared to competitors. That said, a promo code is a great way to help make a Paramount Plus subscription even cheaper at checkout. These codes are pretty rare, but we're always on the lookout for new ones. To help make saving easy, we've rounded up the best active discounts below.

Today's best Paramount Plus coupon codes

Previous Paramount Plus promo codes

Are there any other Paramount Plus sales running at the moment?

There are no active sales running at Paramount Plus right now. The most recent limited-time deal discounted the first two months of service on both Essential and Premium plans down to $2.99 a month. This deal concluded on March 31, 2026, and prices have since returned to their standard rates. We occasionally see other deals on monthly or annual plans throughout the year, especially around Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Opting for an annual plan remains a great, evergreen way to save on the streaming service. You can save money each year compared to what you'd pay after 12 months of a month-to-month subscription. An annual subscription is also a great way to temporarily avoid any upcoming price hikes. Check out the savings breakdown below:

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How to use Paramount Plus coupons and promo codes

Using a Paramount Plus coupon code is a simple process. Like other streaming services, Paramount Plus requires you to create an account to enroll in a plan. If you're on the sign-up page, choose a plan and create an account using your name, email, ZIP code, and a new password. From there, you'll be taken to a checkout page where you can apply a coupon code by clicking "Have a coupon code?" to paste in a promo code.

Can you stack Paramount Plus coupon codes?

Paramount Plus coupon codes cannot be stacked to work together. The system only allows for one promo to be applied at a time. However, we don't often see more than one active coupon code available at a time, so this shouldn't be a frequent problem

Paramount Plus coupons: frequently asked questions

Does Paramount Plus offer discounts for teachers, students, or the military?

Paramount Plus offers verified service members 50% off any plan for life. Students currently enrolled in an accredited institution can get 50% off any plan. Verified teachers, faculty, and staff members can get 50% off any plan.

If you fall into the education category, be sure to check our roundups for the best student discounts and the best teacher discounts you can score year-round.

Which Paramount Plus plans can I choose from?

Paramount Plus has two main tiers of service, which are available as either monthly or annual plans. The base tier, Paramount Plus Essential, costs $8.99 a month or $89.99 a year. Essential includes ad-supported access to most of the streamer's catalog (except for Showtime) and select live events.

Paramount Plus Premium, previously known as Paramount Plus with Showtime, offers a little extra. Premium costs $13.99 a month or $139.99 a year and includes ad-free access to the streamer's entire catalog (including Showtime programming). Users can also live stream their local CBS station, so you can watch CBS shows and sports live as they air.

Both plans are solid options, and deciding which one is right for you ultimately comes down to personal taste and budget. If you're only interested in UFC or catching a CBS show on demand with ads, Essential will do the trick. However, if you're tired of ads, want to watch CBS live, or are interested in a broader catalog of prestige programming, you'll probably want to upgrade to Premium.

Does Paramount Plus offer a free trial?

Paramount Plus no longer offers a free trial to new customers. The streaming service previously had a seven-day trial period, but the offer was removed in early 2026.

Is Paramount Plus available outside the United States?

Yes, Paramount Plus is available in select countries outside the United States, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Austria, and more. You can explore a full list of countries with access to Paramount Plus on the streamer's global landing page. Libraries sometimes vary by location. For example, "Yellowstone" is available on several international versions of Paramount Plus, but it's not included in US subscriptions.

Where can I watch Paramount Plus?

The Paramount Plus app is available across a massive selection of devices, including iOS and Android mobile devices, Roku, Apple TV, Fire TVs and tablets, Samsung TV, Google TV, LG TV, and Chromecast, among others. Notably, it's also available on Apple Vision Pro, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox. You can find a full list of supported devices (along with supported models and operating systems) on the Paramount Plus website.

What's coming soon to Paramount Plus?

Like most streaming services, Paramount Plus constantly updates its library to bring you more content. This month, Paramount Plus users will get access to hit originals and specials, shows, popular movies, new live sporting events, and more. See their website for a full list of what's coming to Paramount Plus this month.

"RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" Season 11, "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars: Untucked" Season 8, Tyler Perry's "Zatima" Season 4, "Dutton Ranch," "SkyMed" Season 4, and "Criminal Minds: Evolution" Season 19 are among the new programming hitting Paramount Plus in May 2026.

Which live sports events are available on Paramount Plus?

While the best way to watch the most live sports on Paramount Plus is through a Premium subscription, the Essential tier also includes select sports live streaming. Essential plans come with NFL on CBS games and UEFA Champions League matches. Paramount Plus also acquired UFC broadcast rights beginning in 2026, and fans can watch all events with either tier of service.

If you opt for a Premium plan, you'll unlock CBS live streaming. This will allow you to catch major sporting events broadcast on the network, including the Masters Tournament and certain March Madness games. CBS also carries select NWSL, WNBA, and college football games, among other events.

Check out more great streaming sales in our guide to the best streaming deals and our roundup of the best Peacock promo codes.

• The World Bank Group collected data on birth rates for every country.
• Countries in Africa saw the highest birth rates, while European and Asian countries saw the lowest.
• The US ranked 135th worldwide in births per 1,000 people.

Roughly 60 years after the post-WWII baby boom ended, the global birth rate is less than half what it was in the 1960s, the World Bank Group reported.

But not every country reports similar birth rates.

The World Bank Group gathered crude birth rate data in 2024 — that is, the number of live births per 1,000 people in a year — as well as the total fertility rate, which measures the average number of births per woman.

Business Insider identified the 10 countries with the highest crude birth rates, and the 10 places with the lowest, as well as the total fertility rate for each. For our list, we didn't include territories or autonomous regions such as Hong Kong.

The US had a birth rate of 10.6 births per 1,000 people, making it the 135th-ranked country in the world. It also had an average of 1.6 births per woman in 2024. This is below the global birth rate of 16 births per 1,000 people, and the global fertility rate of 2.2 births per woman.

Amid declining birth rates, Americans are waiting longer to have children due to financial reasons, and many want more kids than they currently have, Business Insider previously reported.

Birth rates are falling at different rates worldwide, with higher-income countries generally seeing lower birth rates, yet most countries share a downward trend since the 1960s.

Countries in Africa consistently reported the highest birth rates, accounting for nine of the top 10 countries. Of the top 10 countries, eight reported a prevalence of contraceptives for married women of just 20% or lower, per the World Bank Group.

In countries with the lowest birth rates, economic issues are likely factors. The Associated Press cited "bleak job prospects" and high-cost of living among factors for low birth rates in Japan, which its former prime minister called a "silent emergency."

The World Bank Group used data from the UN Population Division and the UN Statistical Division, as well as data from national statistics offices.

See the 10 places with the highest birth rates in the world, followed by the 10 with the lowest.

1. The Central African Republic had a birth rate of 46.2 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in the Central African Republic is about 6 births per woman.

2. Chad had a birth rate of 43.3 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Chad is about 6 births per woman.

3. Somalia had a birth rate of 42.3 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Somalia is about 6 births per woman.

4. Niger had a birth rate of 41.4 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Niger is about 5.9 births per woman.

5. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had a birth rate of 40.9 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is about 6 births per woman.

6. Mali had a birth rate of 39.5 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Mali is about 5.5 births per woman.

7. Angola had a birth rate of 37.2 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Angola is about 5 births per woman.

8. Mozambique had a birth rate of 37 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Mozambique is about 4.7 births per woman.

9. Afghanistan had a birth rate of 35 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Afghanistan is about 4.8 births per woman.

10th highest. Tanzania had a birth rate of 34.8 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Tanzania is about 4.5 births per woman.

10th lowest. China had a birth rate of 6.8 births per 1,000 people, one of the lowest in the world.

The fertility rate in China is about 1 birth per woman.

9 (tie). Greece had a birth rate of 6.6 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Greece is about 1.2 births per woman.

9 (tie). Lithuania also had a birth rate of 6.6 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Lithuania is about 1.1 births per woman.

7. Spain had a birth rate of 6.5 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Spain is about 1.1 births per woman.

6. Italy had a birth rate of 6.3 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Italy is about 1.2 births per woman.

5. Taiwan had a birth rate of 5.8 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

Taiwan is not included as a separate country in the World Bank data. The US and many other governments do not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, though it has its own government, military, economy, and statistical agencies.

Separate figures reported by Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior and cited by China's Xinhua News Agency show Taiwan had a crude birth rate of 5.8 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

In 2024, Taiwan recorded 134,856 newborns, out of a total population of about 23.4 million.

4. Japan had a birth rate of 5.7 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Japan is about 1.1 births per woman.

3. Ukraine had a birth rate of 5.5 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Ukraine is about 1 birth per woman.

2. South Korea had a birth rate of 4.7 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in South Korea is about 0.7 births per woman.

1. San Marino had a birth rate of 4.2 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in San Marino is about 1.2 births per woman.

The best meal kits don't just save you a trip to the grocery store; they solve the much more annoying problem of figuring out what to cook when you're tired, busy, or staring into the fridge at 6 pm pretending shredded cheese is a dinner plan.

After testing dozens of meal kits and prepared meal delivery services over several years, we've found that the right service for you depends on how you eat. Some kits are better for learning new recipes and cooking more at home, while others are designed for nights when chopping an onion feels ambitious. Some services are much better at handling dietary restrictions, portion sizes, and subscription flexibility than others.

Meal kits still cost more than buying groceries yourself, ranging from $8 to $20 per serving, depending on the plan. Still, for many people, they can be cheaper, healthier, and a lot less wasteful than relying on takeout several nights a week.

Learn more about how Insider Reviews tests and researches kitchen products.

The best meal kits at a glance

How we tested meal kits and meal delivery services

We've tested dozens of meal kits over several years, evaluating them for ingredient quality, recipe clarity, prep time accuracy, dietary flexibility, packaging and delivery, and overall value. For prepared meals, we tested 56 meals from eight different brands to compare flavor, texture, portion sizes, and reheating performance.

Best meal kit service for overall quality and flexibility

One of the original meal kits that set off the craze, Blue Apron still feels like the service for people who genuinely enjoy cooking, not just assembling pre-portioned ingredients as quickly as possible. In our testing, its recipes were consistently more thoughtful and flavorful than most competitors', with restaurant-style touches that felt a little more interesting than the usual weeknight dinner rotation. Plus, Blue Apron lets customers order meals à la carte without committing to a subscription, which removes a lot of the pressure that comes with trying a meal kit for the first time.

The recipes require actual cooking, but not in an overwhelming way. Most meals took around 30 to 45 minutes during testing, and the instructions were among the clearest we tried. Deliveries also arrived reliably, with fresh produce and neatly packed ingredients, and fewer quality-control issues than we encountered with some competing services.

Blue Apron can get expensive once you start adding premium meals and shipping fees, so it's not the cheapest option on this list. Still, if you want the best balance of recipe quality, flexibility, and overall cooking experience, it remains the service we'd recommend to most people first.

Best meal kit service for quick dinners

The meal kit we recommend to anyone who wants to cook at home more often, but realistically has about 30 minutes to get dinner on the table (and limited patience) is HelloFresh. Of all the services we tested, it had the most accurate prep-time estimates, and most meals came together in the promised 20 to 30 minutes. That sounds like a small thing until you've tested enough meal kits that claim "quick prep" and somehow still find you sauteeing onions at 8:15 pm.

The recipes lean simpler than Blue Apron's, but that's the appeal. Meals are approachable, satisfying, and manageable. One of our favorite recipes during testing, the Tuscan Shrimp and Orzo, took less than half an hour to make but still tasted balanced and flavorful. We also like that HelloFresh makes dietary preferences easier to navigate than some competitors do. Vegetarian users can filter menus, and the service offers enough add-ons, snacks, and pantry staples to cover several weeknight meals.

If there is a downside, some recipes can start to feel competitive after a while, especially if you gravitate toward the quickest meals on the menu. Still, for busy households, beginner cooks, or anyone trying to break a takeout habit without dramatically changing their routine, HelloFresh remains one of the easiest meal kits to stick with long term.

Read our full HelloFresh review. 

Best meal delivery service for prepared meals

The clear winner in our testing of prepared meal delivery services is Factor. The company understands something many of its competitors don't — foods that taste good fresh don't always taste good after six minutes in a microwave. After trying 56 pre-made meals, Factor consistently delivered the best texture, strongest flavor, and most satisfying portions, especially for high-protein meals.

The menu leans heavily toward protein-forward, lower-carb meals, with options for keto, calorie-cutting, vegetarian, and vegan diets. Factor's meals arrive fresh and should be eaten within about a week, which makes a noticeable difference. Creamed spinach stayed creamy, shrimp didn't develop a rubbery texture, and rich sauces reheated without separating. You can freeze the meals, though we found some side dishes (we're looking at you, cauliflower mash) lose texture after thawing.

We also appreciate how easy it was to store and rotate through Factor's meals during busy weeks. New menu options are added regularly, and the meals feel designed for people who are trying to eat better without having to cook. It's one of the more expensive meal services we tested, but it's also one of the few that consistently tastes like how real chefs cook them.

Check out our full Factor meal delivery review.

Best organic meal kit for special diets

The meal kit for people who read ingredient labels, care about where their meat comes from, and don't want "healthy" dinners to feel like a punishment is Sunbasket. The service uses mostly organic produce, responsibly-raised proteins, and some of the freshest ingredients we received during testing. Its sauces were also easily the best of any meal kit we tried, which honestly surprised us, because healthy meal kits often overcorrect into bland territory.

The menus are especially good for people with dietary restrictions, and you can sort meals by paleo, diabetes-friendly, gluten-free, vegetarian, dairy-free, and more without having to decode tiny menu flags. Sunbasket also cuts down on prep work in some smart ways, with ingredients like pre-chopped squash and ready-to-cook cauliflower rice, which make weeknight cooking feel significantly less work.

Sunbasket is pricier than some competitors, but if ingredient quality and flexibility matter more to you than the absolute lowest cost per serving, it's worth the upgrade.

Best meal delivery service for variety

With one of the broadest menus of any meal kit we tested, Home Chef is especially good for households where everyone wants something different. One person can order a carb-heavy pasta, another can pick something protein-forward, and somehow both arrive in the same box. The service isn't built around strict dietary lifestyles, but for flexible eaters who get bored easily, the flexibility is hard to beat.

The ordering process is also refreshingly straightforward. Swapping proteins, skipping weeks, and filtering recipes by cook time or meal type all felt intuitive during testing. And while Home Chef doesn't lean heavily into extras or wellness branding, it delivers consistently good meals. Sometimes you just want dinner.

One thing we particularly liked: the menu includes both traditional meal kits and faster, oven-ready or microwavable options, including some meals sold at Kroger stores.

Read our full Home Chef review.

Best vegan meal delivery service

Proving that plant-based meal kits don't have to feel limiting, Purple Carrot is our top pick for the best vegan meal kit service. The recipes were some of the most creative we tested, with bold sauces, interesting textures, and filling meals that made eating less meat feel surprisingly easy. Even as non-vegans, we found ourselves bookmarking recipes to make again later.

Purple Carrot is an especially good option for anyone trying to transition toward (or stick to) a more plant-based diet because the meals feel approachable without being boring. Just know that some recipes are more involved than others and may require additional appliances like a blender or food processor, which can mean more cleanup at the end of the night.

*Above prices were verified at the time of publication

What to look for in a meal kit delivery service

Meal kits vs. prepared meals: Already prepared meals save the most prep time because you just heat them up and enjoy. However, meal kits give you more flexibility in what ingredients you choose to include. Plus, the meals tend to taste better as they are freshly cooked, so you have a better chance of getting a delicious meal sight unseen. We found that the reheated texture and taste varied widely. If you're not sure what type is right for your needs, consider a service that provides both.

Pricing: Most of the services we looked at cost about $10 per serving, plus or minus $3. You can usually save a few dollars by ordering more meals each week or by signing up for a long-term contract. Also, you can often find discounts and promo codes when trying out a new service. 

Dietary needs: Many services have menus that cater to common dietary needs, but it's not always a robust selection. If you eat a vegan, gluten-free, low-sugar, keto, or other diet, look for a service that has plenty of weekly menu items that will meet your needs. Purple Carrot and Sunbasket are geared specifically for dietary restrictions.

Flexibility: You want to be able to change your meal plan as you travel or your needs change. Look for a service that lets you pause for a week or two and adjust the number of meals you receive. During a particularly busy week, you might not have time to cook even from a kit, so consider your schedule and how willing the service is to accommodate.

How we test meal delivery kits

Whenever we tested a new service, our first priority was that the meals tasted good. Any service that didn't pass our taste test was not included in this guide. The rest of our criteria evaluated how easy it was to prepare and customize the services, as well as the menu variety. 

Ease of preparation: Meal kits are intended to make cooking at home easier, so we noted which brands have recipes that require more work to prepare. We considered whether recipes require kitchen tools beyond basic pots and utensils, whether the kit provides whole or prepped ingredients, and how much time passes from start to finish.

Menu variety: If you're going to order from one of these services regularly, you'll want a variety of options. We noted which services had rotating menus or frequently added new meals and if there were multiple portion sizes available. 

Delivery: We looked for services that delivered to a large geographical area, as well as how easy it was to skip, pause, or change scheduled deliveries.   

Customization: People have different mealtime needs and wants, so we evaluated the customization of each meal kit. We looked at available add-ons, like wine or side dishes, and whether you could curate your box of meals or if there were pre-made bundles. 

Dietary restrictions: We looked for meal kits that can be enjoyed by most people, regardless of dietary restrictions. Below, we listed each of our top picks and the dietary options they offer.

Meal kit delivery service FAQs

Are meal kit delivery services worth it?

Generally, meal kit delivery services are worth the price if you don't want to deal with the hassle of finding recipes, making a shopping list, and heading to the grocery store to grab the right ingredients. We think they're especially worth it for busy people, those trying to reduce their food waste, or folks who are always looking to try a new recipe.

What are the cons of meal kit delivery?

The biggest con of meal kit delivery is that they're expensive. But with grocery costs increasing, you might not actually be saving much money buying ingredients yourself.

Also, meal kit packaging is substantial, bulky, and not always made with eco-friendly materials. And there are limited options available, which poses a problem for picky eaters or those with dietary restrictions.

Finally, even the most basic meal kits still require cooking effort and preparation time. It's not difficult to find excellent pre-made meals, though.

What are the different types of meal kit delivery services?

Typically, meal kits contain ingredients and a recipe, with various levels of preparation required. Depending on the service, this could look like pre-cut ingredients that you cook and season, or a box full of fresh meats and veggies that you chop and prepare yourself.

Freshly prepared meals arrive fully ready to eat, so you just need to pop them in the microwave or oven to enjoy. A few brands even offer frozen meals.

• I went to my first PGA Championship in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
• I was surprised by the amount of walking, the free drinks, and how fashionable the attendees were.
• I wasn't a huge golf fan, but now I'm sold. I should've listened to my brother sooner.

Did I have attending the PGA Championship on my bingo card for 2026? Absolutely not. Was it one of the best sporting events I've ever attended? Also yes.

Now, let me back up. I consider myself to be an all-around sports girl. I've been to the Super Bowl, the All-Star Game, the US Open, and countless MLB and soccer games throughout my lifetime. But me and golf? Still a learning curve there.

I'd grown up watching Tiger Woods like most millennials, but that was the extent of my golf knowledge. Honestly, the sport and the culture felt out of reach.

Still, my brother has spent years trying to get me interested in golf, so we trekked together to Aronimink Golf Club, the private country club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where the PGA Championship is held annually. I had a Championship+ general admission ticket; those prices ranged from $199 to $299, depending on the day of the tournament.

And as it turns out, I should have listened to him sooner. I'm officially sold on the game of golf (somewhat).

Getting into Aronimink Golf Club is easier than you think.

Unlike the Masters, getting into the PGA Championship doesn't require winning a lottery or knowing the right people.

Tickets go on sale to the public, and while championship rounds sell out fast, I nabbed a general admission ticket for last Thursday, the first day of the championship, which retails for about $199.

Still, if that's too steep, practice-round passes are also a genuinely affordable way in. At $79, which includes food and non-alcoholic drinks, it's also one of the better deals in major championship golf, and you still get to watch Tour pros prepare up close.

Imagine my surprise that it was just that affordable.

The food is free, and there's plenty of it.

One of the bigger surprises of the day was how seamless it was to get food. It's a long day, and you have to stay nourished.

Championship+ ticket holders eat for free, and there are markets set up throughout the grounds serving burgers, chicken sandwiches, sausages, and an array of snacks. It's nothing to write home about, but it was decent and free. The lines also moved efficiently.

If you have access to a hospitality area like Club Magenta (more on that below), you'll also find complimentary cocktails.

You will walk. A lot.

Aronimink Golf Club is expansive. There are 18 holes spread across a course. I surely got my steps in that day.

I was glad I wore comfortable tennis shoes instead of focusing on fashion.

The day I was there, it was also mildly chilly, which was a bit unusual for spring in Pennsylvania, but I will take that over the beating sun any day.

The hospitality suites are a world of their own.

I scored access to a hospitality suite, which can cost up to over $1,200 on the resale market, thanks to being a T-Mobile customer.

Club Magenta, T-Mobile's fan hospitality area at the 15th green, is for fans like me who don't have loads of cash to drop on a one-day suite. T-Mobile customers got in free just by showing their app at the door. I could also bring up to two guests.

Inside, there were complimentary cocktails, comfortable lounge seating, meet-and-greets with players and athletes, and an unobstructed view of championship play.

For a first-timer who spent the earlier part of the day covering miles of ground, it was the perfect place to take a breather. And they were giving out free lawn chairs, which I luckily snagged!

Dress the part. Trust me.

I showed up in green athletic pants and a polo top, which felt appropriate enough for my first time. But after a full day of watching people walk the grounds, I'm already planning my look for next year.

Skirt sets, coordinated sets, and elevated athleisure were everywhere, definitely making for some great Instagrammable moments.

I've already got my eye on a Malbon golf skirt set for next year. Consider this my formal notice that I am taking the outfit as seriously as the sport from here on out.

Yes, you should go, even if you don't follow golf.

I went to the PGA Championship knowing next to nothing about golf, and dare I say, I'm completely converted. I've since taken my first golf lesson. And while I'm not going to say I'm going to be the next Tiger Woods, I'm also not not saying that.

What I will say is that the PGA Championship was one of the most genuinely fun days I've had at a sporting event.

If you've been sitting on the fence about going because golf always felt like it wasn't for you, that's exactly why you should go. The sport is more accessible than it's ever been, the experience delivers on every level, and, at the very least, you walk away with a new hobby.

• Stocks popped and oil prices slid after Trump signaled an end to the war in Iran is near.
• "We're in the final stages of Iran," Trump said to reporters on Wednesday.
• Bond yields, which touched their highest levels since 2007 on Tuesday, edged lower.

Investors cheered on Wednesday after President Donald Trump said the US is in the "final stages" of the Iran war.

The news sparked shift in the market on Wednesday afternoon. US stocks jumped into the green, oil prices tumbled, and bond yields pulled back.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq led stock gains, but all three major indexes ended Wednesday's session more than 1% higher.

Here's where major indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET closing bell:

• S&P 500: 7,432.89, up 1.08%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 50,009.35, up 1.31% (+645.47 points)

Nasdaq Composite: 26,270.36, up 1.55%

Iran war-driven inflation fears and high oil prices have helped send bond yields to their highest levels since 2007 and have threatened the stock market's latest rally to record highs.

"We're in the final stages of Iran. We'll see what happens. Either have a deal or we're going to do some things that are a little bit nasty, but hopefully that won't happen," Trump told a group of reporters on Wednesday.

The comment was enough to move markets, but the president reiterated that further attacks aren't off the table.

"We're going to give this one shot. I'm in no hurry," Trump said, adding, "Ideally I'd like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot. We can do it either way."

Brent oil was down 5.5% to $104.84, while WTI oil fell under $100 dropping roughly 5.25% to $98.65.

Bond yields fell on the news with a potential end of the war offering some relief to investors' inflation fears.

The 10-year US Treasury yield fell eight
basis points to 4.58%, while the 30-year bond yield dropped 6 basis points to 5.12%.

This isn't the first time that Trump's Iran war announcements have fueled market moves. The president has boosted markets before with comments on the war's progress and the potential for a peace deal.

• Fewer Americans are planning summer vacations, according to a Deloitte survey.
• But those who are still traveling expect to spend 17% more.
• Plus, more people plan to work during their main trip this summer.

Fewer Americans are planning summer vacations this year as travel costs have risen, according to a new Deloitte report published Tuesday.

Only 45% plan to take a summer vacation involving paid lodging this year, the lowest number in six years, according to Deloitte's survey of 4,000 Americans.

About a third of those who aren't traveling said they cannot afford a vacation, and that travel had become too expensive.

But those who are still taking trips appear determined to splurge.

Travelers are putting aside higher budgets for vacations. On average, they expect to spend about $4,050 on their longest summer trip, up 17% from last year, according to Deloitte's survey.

"Amid pricing pressures, those who are packing their bags this summer intend to spend, indicating that many are putting a premium on experiences," Kate Ferrara, Deloitte's US transportation, hospitality, and services sector leader, said in the report.

However, not everyone will be switching off entirely. Deloitte found that about 34% of those surveyed plan to work during their longest summer trip, up from about 23% last year. Millennials are the most likely to do so, with 57% saying they plan to work on vacation.

Travelers are also increasingly willing to pay for comfort upgrades.

Deloitte found that more consumers planned to purchase premium airline seats, upgraded tickets, and better hotel locations compared with last year.

International travel demand also appeared to strengthen among travelers who are still vacationing. About 32% of surveyed travelers planning to fly said they intended to take an international flight this summer, up from 27% a year ago.

Younger travelers are playing an outsized role in shaping travel trends. Millennials now account for nearly a third of travelers, Deloitte said, while Gen Z and millennials both expect to take more trips this summer than they did last year.

The survey also highlighted the growing role of artificial intelligence in travel planning. About 25% of travelers said they planned to use generative AI tools to help organize trips, up from 15% last year.

• Meta has begun sending layoff emails to roughly 10% of its workforce.
• The cuts are expected to eliminate around 8,000 roles, including managerial positions.
• Meta is also shifting more than 7,000 employees to AI initiatives.

The day that Meta employees have dreaded for a month is here.

Emails have been going out to roughly 10% of Meta's 78,000 employees, notifying them that they are being laid off. The notifications are being sent in three waves at 4 a.m. local time on May 20 across different regions, according to a memo that Meta HR chief Janelle Gale sent to an employee resource group on Monday.

The layoffs are expected to eliminate around 8,000 roles. Employees working in Meta's Integrity, cybersecurity, and content design teams are among those impacted so far, according to two sources and public posts.

Meta, in an email to laid-off staff, said the reduction in head count was part of a "continued effort to run the company more efficiently" and to help it offset its other investments.

US employees will receive a severance package including 16 weeks — or four months — in base pay, plus two weeks for every year of continuous employment, according to an internal document seen by Business Insider.

They'll also get 18 months of healthcare coverage for themselves and their families — triple the previous amount — as Business Insider previously reported.

Impacted employees outside the US will receive similar packages that vary by country.

Fintech company Block recently gave recently laid-off employees 20 weeks of salary plus one additional week per year of tenure and six months of healthcare. Amazon gave staff three months of full pay and healthcare benefits, plus an additional severance package.

In the Monday memo, HR chief Gale added that managerial positions would be cut across the company to create flatter organizational structures.

"We're now at the stage where many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership," she wrote.

Employees in the US were instructed to work from home on Wednesday, according to an internal message viewed by Business Insider.

Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Employees in limbo

Meta also plans to move more than 7,000 people to work on new initiatives around AI. Gale told staff that leaders across the company will announce organizational changes alongside the layoffs. Meta is spending billions in the AI race and in April forecast its 2026 capital expenditures to range from $125 billion to $145 billion.

At an internal meeting last month, Gale said morale had taken a hit due to the looming layoffs, and that the tech giant was doing its best to make a "shitty" situation "the best version possible," adding that COBRA coverage had been tripled.

Since Meta first announced the coming layoffs on April 23, employees have been working in a state of limbo, unsure of their fate at the company.

Business Insider found seven Meta staffers posting on the tech worker platform Blind who said they wished they would be laid off. "I'm praying for the axe," one post read.

"A lot of people are stressed or want to be laid off," read another, who added that employee morale had never felt this low. "I am [hoping to get laid off] too," another poster wrote.

The staffers also cited Meta's generous severance. Because of the package, one worker wrote on Blind that they'd actually wished that the cuts had happened sooner.

"if I am laid off, awesome," they wrote.

Meta leaders told staff they are not ruling out further job cuts beyond this Wednesday's 10% round, Business Insider previously reported.

• Iluka Cindi Greentree wanted a bag with features including insulation and charging ports.
• She designed one after seeing a TikTok video, then realized she had a business opportunity.
• This year, her company has been having five-figure months consistently and she quit her job.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Iluka Cindi Greentree, founder of Hustle and Grace. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Two years ago, I was working as a leader for a domestic and family violence crisis line near my home in Australia. The work involved a lot of travel, in the car and on planes, and I hated how I had to carry so many ugly bags to bring my lunch, laptop, makeup, and everything else I needed on the road. I'd looked for better options, but always felt like I was choosing between style and practicality.

In September 2024, I saw a video about designing your own bag. I spent about $350 on a custom tote that had all the features I wanted: internal charging ports, an insulated section for my lunch, and an easy-clean makeup bag.

When the bag arrived, it wasn't perfect. But it was better than what I'd been using. I wasn't discouraged; instead, I was determined to get a product that really worked. I went back to the site and designed five more options.

A business coach to help me succeed

Soon, my friends and colleagues were asking me about the bags. A few of my friends still use my prototypes to this day. My girlfriends and husband were really proud of me for thinking outside the box, and they reminded me that this idea could be something more than a bag for my personal use.

I'm not shy about entrepreneurship. I used to own three hair salons. My dad was a big entrepreneur, but every time he found financial success, he lost it. He didn't know how to manage businesses or money. I didn't want to repeat that cycle.

As I began thinking seriously about launching a bag company, I signed up for a business coaching course. It helped me with everything from marketing to how to use AI to streamline tasks. That was March 2025, and since then, I've been all guns blazing. In September of last year, I officially launched my company, Hustle and Grace.

The business grew quickly, despite hiccups

Although I invested in coaching, the learning curve was still steep. Launching right before Black Friday wasn't a good idea. That's a time when big businesses are spending thousands on advertising. As a little guy, you're not going to be seen.

We made it through that, however. Sales climbed in December and January. By February, we did more than $15,000 in sales, but then there was another hiccup. Our manufacturing in China slowed substantially due to holidays around the Lunar New Year. I sold out of the bags and couldn't fulfill orders, which led to a dip in sales in March. Today, I preorder bags to try to avoid running out.

Earlier this year, I realized that working my day job was holding me back. I've been preparing to make the leap into entrepreneurship full-time by saving up. Now, I'm able to grow the company while living and working on my own schedule. Being able to jump in the pool mid-afternoon or go out to lunch is wonderful.

I'm showing my daughters they can be entrepreneurs, too

Seeing our sales climb this year has been rewarding. But I've been even more validated by the attention Hustle and Grace has received from business organizations in Australia. These are important to me, personally, and I believe they show our customers that I'm really working for this brand to be great, for them.

My next goals are to start wholesale and break into the US market. Once again, I'm working with a coach — mentors have always been important to me, and I'm willing to spend money on mentorship as I grow the company.

My dad's experience made me wary of entrepreneurship. I'm Aboriginal — Australia's First Nations people — and growing up, I didn't see any examples of successful female entrepreneurs from my culture.

I want to break that cycle for my daughters. Working on my own business has been so fulfilling, not only financially, but emotionally. I want my daughters to know they can have any career they set their minds to.

• Adm. Brad Cooper said CENTCOM needs more weapons for deeply buried targets.
• He said US adversaries are increasingly moving key assets underground.
• The US first used GBU-57 bunker busters in combat against Iran last year.

The top US commander overseeing forces in the Middle East says he needs more weapons for striking hardened targets buried deep underground.

The US used its largest conventional bunker-buster bombs against Iranian nuclear facilities last year, underscoring a challenge military leaders say is only growing: adversaries are increasingly putting key military sites, weapons, and command infrastructure underground to shield them from attack.

At a US House Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Adm. Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, told lawmakers he had a wishlist of weapons and capabilities he wants more of.

"I'd put three things: more electronic warfare, keep counter-UAS [Uncrewed Aerial Systems] on the leading edge," because tactics are changing very quickly, he said, "and we need to invest more in hard and deeply buried targets," specifically the weapons and other capabilities for finding and striking underground sites.

"Everybody is going underground," he said.

Iran has buried many of its most prized military assets, including nuclear sites, underground to protect them from missile strikes. Last year, the US launched Operation Midnight Hammer, a strike operation against three Iranian nuclear facilities. US forces conducted three massive attacks on Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, and in the process, American bombers dropped the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-buster bomb for the first time in combat.

Fourteen GBU-57s in total were released during the strikes on Iranian facilities. These bombs are among the heaviest and most powerful non-nuclear bombs in the US arsenal. Each munition weighs roughly 30,000 pounds and can only be carried by the US Air Force's B-2 Spirit bomber. The B-2 can carry two internally; the B-2's successor, the B-21 Raider, is expected to carry only one.

The GBU-57 is designed to penetrate deep into the ground, up to 200 feet, before exploding, though the depth depends on the strength of the material, such as reinforced concrete, that it's hitting. The US also has smaller bunker busters it can use, but these don't dig as deep or carry as large an explosive as the GBU-57.

After the Operation Midnight Hammer strikes against Iran, the Air Force began work on a successor to the GBU-57, awarding a contract to New Mexico-based research and engineering firm Applied Research Associates to build a prototype "air-to-ground Next Generation Penetrator weapon system." Boeing, which made the GBU-57, will design and develop the new bomb's tail kit.

While the contract amount and specifications are unknown, the Air Force has requested that the NGP not exceed 22,000 pounds, deliver blast and fragmentation effects, and be highly accurate with a navigation system capable of operating in GPS-denied environments.

During the hearing, Cooper also defended Operation Epic Fury, the US military operation against Iran, pointing to successes in degrading Iran's missile, drone, and naval capabilities, as well as its defense industrial base.

House members questioned Cooper on the military objectives of the operation, as well as the aftermath, including the fragile ceasefire and closure of the Strait of Hormuz that has been ongoing for over a month now.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said that he had been "an hour away" from ordering new strikes on Iran but stopped because of progress in negotiations. On Wednesday, Tehran threatened to ignite a conflict "beyond the region" if the US and Israel decide to resume attacks.

• Meta is telling thousands of employees their jobs are being eliminated.
• An email to impacted employees said the layoffs were to offset other investments Meta is making.
• 8,000 roles are expected to be axed. The email lays out how the layoffs will work.

Meta told thousands of employees on Wednesday that their jobs are being cut to offset the company's other investments, according to an email obtained by Business Insider.

Emails sent to affected employees said the reduction in head count was part of a "continued effort to run the company more efficiently" and thanked them for their contributions to Meta.

It also gives guidance on severance, visas, and access to company systems.

Notifications began going out to roughly 10% of Meta's 78,000 employees on Wednesday, notifying them that they are being laid off.

Meta also plans to move more than 7,000 people to work on new initiatives around AI.

Meta declined to comment.

Read the email that Meta sent to laid-off staff:

As previously shared, we have decided to reduce headcount as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we're making. Unfortunately, your role has been eliminated as part of today's reorganization. Before sharing additional details, we want to thank you for all you've contributed to Meta. We appreciate the important role you've played in the company's journey.

We understand you will have questions as you process this news. Please read below to learn more. We also encourage you to view the Alumni Portal (Meta.com/alumni), which you can access within an hour of losing system access and has additional information and resources to assist you. More information about the Alumni Portal is below.

Non-working notice period

From today through [redacted] (your "Termination Date"), you are in a "non-working notice period." During this time, your internal access will be removed and you do not need to do any additional work for Meta.

You will continue to accrue PTO until your Termination Date, and your remaining PTO will be paid out in your final paycheck at the end of this period. During the notice period, you will be paid "Notice Pay," which you will see on your payslips and is the same amount as your salary.

Leave of absence (if applicable): Your employment will end on your Termination Date that was communicated to you. Any leaves of absence will end on your Termination Date. Please note that to the extent applicable, you may still continue to receive disability benefits after your separation date if your disability meets the disability plan requirements.

Your benefits and compensation will continue through your Termination Date.

You will continue to receive your full salary and benefits through your Termination Date, as well as any RSU grants that have vested on or before your Termination Date as provided in the Equity Incentive Plan. To support you in your job search, you will also have access to three complimentary months of external job search assistance through Lee Hecht Harrison ("LHH"), as further detailed in the enclosed LHH Outplacement Services flyer.

Severance details

Attached is a non-signable version of a Separation Agreement with full details of your individual package (do not sign this version). A signable Separation Agreement will be sent to your personal email address from [redacted] later today with full details of your individual package. You must sign your Separation Agreement to receive your severance payout.

If you do not receive an electronic signable Separation Agreement by the end of the day tomorrow on your personal email, please check your spam folder. If you still haven't received the agreement, please submit a case via the Alumni Portal. (Note: If you apply for and accept a different position at Meta no later than one week prior to your Termination Date, you will remain a Meta employee and therefore this Separation Agreement will be void and you would not be eligible for severance under the terms of the Severance Plan.)

As a Regular Employee (FTE), you're eligible for the following severance offer:

• Severance payment of 16 weeks plus two weeks for every year of completed services, minus your notice period. Please see the cover sheet of the attached Separation Agreement for more details on this calculation.
• Payment of COBRA (health insurance) premiums for you and your family (if they are dependents on your current plan) for 18 months.

Immigration (if applicable)

We know this is especially difficult for those whose visa and work authorization is sponsored by Meta. The Alumni Portal has general immigration guidance to help address your immediate questions. The guidance also contains the contact information for your assigned law firm. You can also open a case via the Alumni Portal if you have specific questions about your case.

System access and office information

Since you have entered a paid non-working notice period, your badge has been deactivated and your access to internal Meta systems will be removed this morning. If you are already in the office, we ask that you please gather any personal items at your desk and head home. If you have personal items that need to be retrieved, instructions are available on the Alumni Portal.

Getting more information

We know this is a lot to process, so we've compiled resources about pay, benefits and other considerations for you in the Alumni Portal. You can access the Alumni Portal within an hour of losing system access today as mentioned above. You will need your employee ID, which is provided at the top of this email, to access the site.

Finally, we want to say again that we're grateful for your contributions. Your impact at Meta has been an important part of our story.

Sincerely,

Meta Leadership

• The pain of high oil prices could catch up with the economy by summertime, Julian Emanuel says.
• High gas prices headed toward July 4 could cause consumers to pull back on spending.
• Elevated oil and gas prices around Memorial Day could also weigh on the S&P 500, Emanuel said.

With the Iran war approaching the end of its third month, the US economy is likely to start to feel the effects more acutely by early summer, a top strategist says.

Julian Emanuel, the senior managing director in Evercore ISI's equity, derivatives & quantitative strategy group, said he believes the US economy could tip into a recession by July 4, assuming that oil prices remain elevated.

Should crude remain at or above the range of $93 to $98 a barrel, that gives the US a little more than a month before the damage from the war could finally boil over into the wider economy, he estimated, speaking to CNBC this week.

Americans may start to be more cognizant of how oil is still trading in the triple-digits on Independence Day, Emanuel said, referring to how gas prices are a prominent talking point around the holiday as summer driving season picks up.

"You stay there for three or four months — and we're giving the economy the benefit of the doubt, like everyone around the table here is — that gets you to the Fourth of July," he said of the timeline for seeing the economic impact of the war. "That's when it starts to bite," he added, suggesting Americans could start pulling back on spending on other areas.

The fear that higher oil and gas prices could eventually hit US consumers has been at the heart of the economic anxiety surrounding the Iran war. Retail spending held solid in April, but consumers are already under more pressure at the pump. The national average price for a gallon of regular gas clocked in at $4.55, well-above the $3.17 average one year ago, according to AAA data.

Meanwhile, consumer and producer price indexes have risen to multiyear highs in the last month.

Emanuel said his team is also eyeing broader consequences from higher oil prices for the stock market. Though Evercore's base case is that the S&P 500 will end the year at 7,750, implying 4% upside from current levels, Emanuel said that there is a risk that the index could drop to 6,780 in the near-term, implying 8% downside.

Nearer on the horizon is Memorial Day, another holiday during which gas prices are in the cultural zeitgeist. The long weekend coming up will serve as another test for markets. Should Americans' anxieties about fuel costs increase around the coming holiday, the could help spark send a technical correction in the S&P 500 that sends the index lower by 10%, he speculated.

Should optimism return later in the year, Emanuel said he potentially saw the index ripping to 9,000, overshooting the firm's year-end target.

"But the oil issue is the sticking point. And the outcome is very, very unknown," he added.

The economic and market outlook has soured in the US as the Iran war has dragged on. Stocks are being propped up by strong earnings and a slew of dealmaking in the tech and semiconductor sectors, but concerns about inflation are slowly building, with investors dumping stocks in certain sectors alongside government bonds in the last week.

• I live in the United States, and my long-term partner lives a few hours away in Canada.
• We visit each other often, but don't plan to live together anytime soon, mostly because of our kids.
• Living apart has helped keep our relationship fresh and the gratitude high.

My partner, Andrew, and I live in different countries. We're deeply committed to one another and run an online business together, but we're in no rush to move to the same place.

Every month, I take a two-hour flight from Chicago to Winnipeg, Canada, and make my way through customs right into his waiting arms. Two weeks after that, he does the same in reverse, heading south to me in Chicago.

People are often surprised to learn we don't have plans to move to the same place anytime soon, but this arrangement allows us to prioritize our families and has the added benefit of keeping our relationship fresh.

Living apart allows us to prioritize our children

This relationship is our second-chance romance.

We've been dating for two years, but we've been friends and colleagues for nearly a decade, having met at a financial bloggers conference. We both have children from previous marriages, kids who are deeply rooted in their communities, schools, activities, and friends.

From the beginning, we've always said that our kids come first. Making sure our children have steady, loving parents who live in the same city as them has been our priority.

We know that one day, once the children grow older, go to college, and start families of their own, there will be plenty of time for us to savor our relationship (and perhaps grieve) in a quiet, empty nest that we will share.

There are a lot of other perks of our long-distance setup

One unexpected benefit of living apart is that we don't get caught up in arguments over chores or other household duties.

Since we both run our own homes and are solo parents when we're not together, we're used to cleaning, cooking, and managing other important to-dos on our own. So, when Andrew visits Chicago and takes out the trash or brings my car to the shop, I feel an immeasurable sense of gratitude.

I know it's easy to take these small tasks for granted in long-term relationships. For us, though, we're so happy to have another adult helping out that we can't say "thank you" enough.

We also put a lot of effort and care into hosting each other. Andrew always has fresh berries in his fridge for me; I stock up on his favorite cookies that he can't find in Canada.

I'm very grateful that we still go out of our way to make sure we truly care for each other when we visit, and that our homes always feel like warm, inviting places for each other.

It helps that we work remotely and stay frugal

When we tell people how much we travel back and forth from Canada and the United States, the most common response we get is, "Wow, that sounds expensive," and it is. However, we make it work by living frugally in other aspects of our lives.

We both live in small spaces and drive practical, fully paid-off cars. We shop secondhand for just about everything we own (and even document our finds on a joint Instagram account).

Running our business together, which includes our social media accounts, a podcast, and coaching services, also gives us the flexibility to work from any location.

We each have a desk in each other's homes, and Andrew is always improving my tech stack. He's added different chargers and monitors to my workspace there, so it's easy for me to transition to working in Canada when I visit.

Our long-term, long-distance relationship has taught us how to be present

Our schedules don't always run smoothly. Sometimes we have travel delays or have to skip a week together because of a child's important game or performance. It's given us the gift of perspective and helped us cherish the time we have together.

Although we enjoy dreaming of a future when we can see each other every day, we also know we'll look back on these years fondly. We've talked about spending summers in Canada and winters somewhere warmer once the kids are grown.

For now, I'm grateful the distance has taught me that missing the person I love can be a profound gift in many ways, and I have enough perspective to realize we're living a good life together right now.

• Two Russian fighter jets intercepted a Royal Air Force spy plane over the Black Sea last month.
• Britain said Wednesday that the Russian jets flew within meters of the RAF aircraft's nose.
• Russian aircraft have a history of dangerous maneuvers around NATO planes.

Russian fighter jets intercepted a Royal Air Force spy aircraft over the Black Sea last month, coming within mere meters of the plane. The close encounter affected the aircraft's internal systems, Britain's defense ministry revealed Wednesday.

The intercept marked the most dangerous Russian aircraft maneuver near an RAF Rivet Joint in years.

The unarmed Rivet Joint, a signals intelligence and surveillance aircraft, was flying in international airspace during a routine mission when a Russian Sukhoi Su-35 flew close enough to the spy plane to trigger its emergency systems and disable the autopilot.

Video footage from the Rivet Joint's flight deck appears to show the plane passing through the wake of the Russian aircraft, which could have disrupted its internal systems.

Separately, Britain's defense ministry revealed that a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 made six passes in front of the Rivet Joint and got within six meters of its nose at one point. Both Russian jets appear to be armed with missile loadouts in the video.

UK Defense Secretary John Healey described the Black Sea interception as "another example of dangerous and unacceptable" behavior by Russian pilots.

"These actions create a serious risk of accidents and potential escalation," Healey said in a statement. "I would like to pay tribute to the outstanding professionalism and bravery of the RAF crew who continued with their mission despite these dangerous actions."

The airliner-sized RC-135V/W Rivet Joint is a surveillance aircraft built by the American aerospace giant Boeing. The aircraft, introduced in the early 1960s and operated only by the US and UK, specializes in signals, communications, and electronic intelligence collection.

Britain's defense ministry said that the incident "was the most dangerous Russian action against a UK Rivet Joint since 2022, when a Russian plane fired a missile over the Black Sea."

Britain initially assessed that the 2022 incident was a malfunction on the Russian side, though later reports indicated it was deliberately launched.

Russian jets have been involved in numerous close-range intercepts and harassment incidents with NATO aircraft in recent years, in some cases causing damage and losses, triggering frustration among US officials.

In March 2023, for instance, a Russian jet clipped the propeller of a US military MQ-9 Reaper drone above the Black Sea, forcing its American operators to bring the aircraft down.

Then, in July 2023, Russian jets harassed several US Reaper drones above Syria, making maneuvers such as flying close passes, dropping parachute flares, and engaging afterburners near the drones. One aircraft sustained propeller damage during one of the incidents.

That month, a Russian fighter jet also forced French warplanes to maneuver to avoid what was described at the time as a "non-professional interaction."

The latest Black Sea incident involving the RAF Rivet Joint comes amid an uptick in Russian military activity around Eastern Europe, Britain's defense ministry said.

• Inflation worries are driving bond yields higher as investors reassess the impact of the Iran war.
• The 30-year bond yield hit it's highest level since 2007 this week.
• Macquaire strategists say Fed officials need to act now to calm markets.

Inflation fears driven by the ongoing Iran war and high oil prices are taking over Wall Street sending US Treasury bond yields to the highest level seen in 19 years, just before the Great Financial Crisis.

The Federal Reserve needs to strike a hawkish tone before the June 16-17 policy meeting to calm surging bond yields, Macquaire strategists said as yields near historic highs.

"Even if the Fed moves to signal that it will adopt a neutral bias in June, it may not be enough to stabilize inflation expectations and long-term UST yields," the strategists said.

The 10-year US Treasury hit 4.65%, the highest level in a more than a year and above the closely watched threshold of 4.5% flagged by Morgan Stanley CIO Michael Wilson as an indicator for a downturn in equities.

The 30-year bond yield hit its highest point since 2007. And it's not just Treasurys. In international markets, Japan's 30-year bond has risen to its highest level ever recorded.

"For the Fed to quell inflation concerns, its rhetoric must become more hawkish than what's already reflected in the (slightly) upward sloping USD OIS forward curve, which is now barely projecting one rate hike in 2026," Macquaire said.

The 2-year Treasury bond yield, which is sensitive to Fed policy, has been trading above the effective federal fund rate since March 10.

Less than a month out from the Fed's June meeting, the market sees the most likely outcome is that the Fed raises rates before year-end, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

The second most probable outcome is that the Fed rate ends 2026 where it started with no moves in either direction.

The odds of a rate cut by the end of they year sat just above 1%, marking a stark shift from the start of 2026 when investors expected two to three rate cuts this year.

The Fed will announce its next interest rate decision on June 17 with the new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh at the helm. Macquaire says the central bank can't afford to wait until then for its hawkish shift.

"An opportunity to change the Fed's rhetoric decidedly toward 'hawkish' will come with the Fed speeches today and through June 6," the strategists wrote.

"To convince bond traders that the Fed is 'serious', the 'hawkish' lead may have to come from the voting 'doves' - e.g., Chris Waller and Anna Paulson," they added.

Paulson, who is the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, said it's "healthy" that investors are considering rates holding steady or even rising.

Macquaire said that if hawkishness is not sufficiently conveyed by central bankers, "traders may conclude that the Fed is falling behind further, and a new jump in US inflation risk premiums - and a new steepening of the yield curve - may ensue."

• Jeff Bezos supported Mayor Zohran Mamdani's proposed pied-à-terre tax.
• Bezos, who lives in Florida and owns properties in New York, would be affected by the tax himself.
• He criticized Mamdani for singling out Citadel chief Ken Griffin's penthouse.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani's proposed tax on luxury second homes has an unlikely defender: Jeff Bezos.

The Amazon founder compared the pied-à-terre tax — which has been criticized by other prominent businesspeople — to a tourist tax in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.

"Taxes on out-of-towners are very popular taxes. That's why there are hotel taxes," Bezos said.

"There are limits. If you raise the hotel taxes too much, the tourists stop coming," he added. "So you have to be judicious, but I think that the pied-à-terre tax is a fine thing for New York to do."

The pied-à-terre tax would apply to New York City properties valued at more than $5 million that are not occupied as a primary residence. The tax would affect owners whose primary residence is outside the city.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul originally proposed the tax, which was later backed by Mamdani.

Bezos, who has several New York properties within his real estate portfolio but whose main residence is in Florida, would be affected by the tax.

The tax, which requires legislative approval, has been criticized by President Donald Trump and other prominent businesspeople, including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.

In a video posted online, Mamdani pointed to billionaire Citadel CEO Ken Griffin's $238 million penthouse, purchased in 2019, as an example of the kind of property that would be subject to the tax.

Griffin's deputy at Citadel said in a memo to staff that the company might rethink a $6 billion redevelopment project for one of its midtown offices after Mamdani's "shameful" comments.

Although he described the pied-à-terre tax as a "fine thing," Bezos defended Griffin.

"Ken Griffin isn't a villain. He hasn't hurt anybody. He's not hurting New York. In fact, quite the opposite," Bezos said in the interview.

"That piece of it isn't right, and there was no reason to do that," he added, referring to the singling out of Griffin's property.

• When my daughter chose an out-of-state college, I thought I had factored all of the college costs.
• I didn't think about how much money I would spend visiting her multiple times a year.
• Sometimes, these trips cost me over $1,5000, so I'm trying to travel smarter.

When my daughter applied for college, all of her choices were out of state. She accepted admission to her top choice school, UCLA, which, fortunately, was only two states away rather than across the country. We were all thrilled.

Before she left for school, I thought I understood all the costs for her first year: tuition, housing, meal plan, incidentals, flights home for winter and spring break. We thought we covered everything.

What I didn't factor in was visiting her for things like parent and family weekend. That's when I learned that the cost of college included more than what you pay for school.

Whenever I travel to visit my daughter, it gets expensive — fast

I visit my daughter in Los Angeles frequently throughout the school year, including during parents' weekend.

The costs for parents' weekend didn't come all at once, which made it seem reasonable at first. I booked the flights months in advance, then found an Airbnb, purchased the home football game tickets a few weeks later, and finally rented a car.

Then there were the little costs during the trip: meals out, parking fees on and around campus, and a trip to Target for dorm-room snacks and supplies. I also couldn't pass up the swag. I'll never understand why a sweatshirt costs so much, but the pro-mom trick I learned is to get your school gear at the nearest Target or during special event sales.

When I finally added up the expenses, I was like, "Oh!" I easily paid over $1,500 for a single trip to visit my daughter.

But these trips are priceless to me

When your child is going to school out of state, you miss out on everyday moments. While there's always FaceTime and texting, what calms the heart is to lay eyes on your kid, to hug them, to meet their friends, and to see the spaces they're in day after day.

Getting to know the campus so that when my daughter says, "I went to the café for lunch," or mentions a particular restaurant, I can visualize where she is throughout the day. When she talks about a particular class in a building, I can better understand where she spends her time. It's part of staying connected from afar, and it shows me that she's thriving out in the world.

For me, you can't put a price tag on connecting with your child.

Still, the costs were a surprise. The prices will be different for every family because of distance and visit frequency. These numbers will vary, and over time, those trips can add up to several thousand extra dollars a year. It's not part of the official price tag, but for many families, it's very real.

I'm making changes for future visits

After the first two trips, I began to plan ahead, look for deals, maximize miles and points redemptions, and be more intentional about trip timing, which allowed me to budget better.

So far this year, I've visited three times. She's come home four times. My fourth and final visit will be for move-out weekend.

As she moves into her later years, these home visits will become fewer as internships and projects take up more of her time. My visits to see her a few times a year will mean more to me than she may ever know, and the price will be worth it.

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