• Markets are swinging as traders assess reports the Iran war could end soon.
• Progress on a US-Iran peace deal has been unclear and unsteady in recent weeks.
• US stocks are coming out as winners as oil prices tumble and investors jump back into risk assets.

Markets are getting in position for the Iran war to soon end.

A report from Axios early Wednesday said that the US and Iran could are nearings a peace deal.

Markets have been eyeing a possible deal for weeks, though progress on a resolution has been unclear, with the ceasefires that's been in place since early April at times appearing near collapse.

President Donald Trump teased a potential end to the conflict in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, but also threatened to take further military action if Iran rejects the latest proposal.

"Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran," Trump wrote on the social media platform on Wednesday.

Here were the biggest swings in markets on Wednesday as traders looked toward a potential end to the conflict.

Oil prices and energy stocks tank

Oil prices tumbled. Brent crude, the international benchmark, plunged as much as 9% to trade around $97 a barrel, before edging back above $100 . West Texas Intermediate crude also dropped 7% to trade around $94 a barrel.

Energy stocks were among the stock market's big losers, moving in the opposite direction of the broader rally in the stock market. The State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF slid nearly 4% in the early morning.

Notable moves in the sector:

• ConocoPhillips: -4%
• Chevron: -3%
• Exxon Mobil Corp: -3%
• Shell PLC: -2%

US stocks jump

Major indexes rallied, with investors, already pumped up by a strong earnings season, pushing stocks further into record territory. The Dow advanced more than 550 points midmorning, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 was up more than 1%.

The tech sector has climbed in recent weeks amid strong earnings and fresh dealmaking in the semiconductor space. Intel spiked more than 15% this week on a strong earnings beat and reports it was speaking to Apple for a chipmaking deal. AMD and Super Micro also rallied on Wednesday after crushing analyst estimates.

Notable moves in the sector:

• AMD: +14%
• Super Micro: +12%
• Intel: +2%
• Nvidia: +1%

Airline stocks rebound

Sentiment perked up in the travel industry, which has struggled since the start of the Iran war. The US Global Jets ETF jumped 4%. The fund had entered a bear market in March, losing as much as 24% from its peak in early February.

Soaring jet fuel prices are a major overhang for the space, speeding the collapse of Spirit Airlines over the weekend, while other carriers have canceled flights and slashed routes heading into the summer travel season.

Notable moves in the sector:

• United Airlines: +6%
• Delta Air Lines: +5%
• Southwest Airlines: +5%
• JetBlue Airways: +4%

Emerging markets get a boost

Investors continued to pour more money into emerging markets, one area that was expected to outperform at the start of the year, but tanked as conflict escalated in the Middle East.

Emerging economies in Asia have been hit particularly hard by the war, and many countries in the region have implemented some of the strongest energy rationing rules while the Strait of Hormuz has been closed to oil flows.

The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF rose 2% on Wednesday. The fund had fallen as much as 13% from its pre-war peak, but has rallied in recent weeks as hope for a peace deal as grown.

Bond yields sink

Bond yields tumbled as investors hoped that an end to the war could mean inflation won't spiral out of control. The major fear for the market during the war has been that higher oil prices could lift inflation throughout the economy, which could keep interest rates higher-for-longer.

Treasury yields fell across the maturity ladder on Wednesday, with the benchmark 10-year yield pulling back five basis points to trade around 4.3%.

The 30-year government bond yield, which surpassed 5% earlier in the week, slid to 4.94%.

The odds that the Fed will hike rates in 2026, which had become a more prominent tail risk in the last week, cooled to 18% on Wednesday, down from 29% the day before, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

• I've traveled to all 50 states and currently call Colorado home.
• If I only had one day to spend in the state, however, there are a few things I wouldn't miss out on.
• I'd spend the day seeing the breathtaking sights in Aspen, Twin Lakes, Breckenridge, and Boulder.

I've spent the last decade visiting all 50 states solo, and although there's something to love about each one, I ultimately chose to live in Colorado.

From the dramatic landscapes and national parks to Colorado's wine country, the state packs an incredible amount of diversity into its borders. And as a resident of over a decade, I like to think I know all the best places to go.

If I only had one day in Colorado, however, there are a few things I absolutely wouldn't miss. So, I decided to create the perfect, busy summer-day itinerary.

Here's how I'd spend one long — but unforgettable — day in Colorado.

Start the day in Aspen and wake up early to see the Maroon Bells at sunrise.

To start the day, I recommend going to the Maroon Bells — two bell-shaped mountain peaks that rise over 14,000 feet above sea level.

You'll need to make a $10 advance parking reservation before heading to the trailhead, which is located just about 15 minutes from Aspen. Once there, the viewpoint is a short walk away, with other hiking trails available to explore if you have time.

Watching the alpenglow, which is when a reddish glow appears on the summit before sunrise or after sunset, is something I never grow tired of. Plus, the reflection of the peaks in Maroon Lake is a gorgeous sight to take in.

Head into Aspen for breakfast at Swedish Hill Café.

After a bucket-list-worthy morning, it's time to head back into Aspen for breakfast at Swedish Hill Café, a hidden gem on the roof of the Aspen Art Museum. My go-to order is the lavender latte and avocado toast.

While eating, I love taking in the incredible view of the mountains from the rooftop. Plus, if time allows, I recommend heading downstairs to explore the museum — admission is free.

Drive over Independence Pass to Twin Lakes.

If you're visiting Colorado between late May and late October (the dates change slightly each year), I recommend driving Independence Pass from Aspen to Twin Lakes.

When it's open for the season, visitors can take in what I think is some of the most beautiful scenery in the country — towering peaks, alpine tundra, wildflowers, forests, and likely some snow.

There are plenty of places to pull off along the 32-mile stretch of road, including the short but impressive Grottos Trail.

Keep in mind, you'll only want to take on this portion of the trip if you're a confident driver, as there are some steep and narrow sections of the road.

Spend time recreating at Twin Lakes.

On the other side of Independence Pass lies one of my favorite recreation areas — Twin Lakes. The pair of high-elevation glacial-carved lakes is a stunning spot for picnicking, relaxing, and hiking.

Make sure to stop for a self-guided walking tour of the historic Twin Lakes Village, where you can see log cabins, browse the general store, and visit blacksmith shops and an old schoolhouse.

Just keep in mind there's a small day-use fee to access parts of the recreation area.

Next, grab a late lunch in Breckenridge.

After spending time in Twin Lakes, I recommend driving about an hour and a half to Breckenridge, which offers more of the stunning scenery you've come to expect.

The town really shines in the summer months, with great hiking and a quaint downtown full of local shops. I suggest stopping at Ohana for apparel and merchandise, and Mountainkind for goods from local artists and artisans.

When I'm hungry, I usually opt for lunch or happy hour at Aurum or Hearthstone.

End the day in Boulder, watching the sunset over the Flatirons.

From Breckenridge, you'll continue to drive just less than two hours to Boulder for sunset.

Head to Chautauqua Park to watch the sunset over the iconic Flatirons, or downtown to one of the rooftop restaurants like Avanti, Rosetta Hall, or Corrida for a drink and a great view.

After sunset, head to dinner at one of Boulder's many restaurants — like Stella's Cucina, the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, or Cozobi Fonda Fina — and head to one of the downtown hotels for a good night's sleep.

• Universities across the US feature diverse architectural styles, from Gothic to Greek Revival.
• Some schools have fascinating histories that inspired their designs, like Florida's Flagler College.
• Others, like Berry College in Georgia, are surrounded by lush natural landscapes.

It's nearing high school graduation season, and students across the country are preparing to toss their caps and pack their bags for college. For some of America's most fortunate students, study days will soon be filled with views of botanical gardens and glass-and-marble libraries.

Aside from being breeding grounds for US presidents, founders, and world leaders, many elite universities also boast of some of the most extravagant and breathtaking architecture in the United States.

Students travel from around the country and, sometimes, the world to attend these storied institutions, some of which date back centuries.

While choosing a school solely based on its looks might not be the best idea, a college campus's architecture and amenities can certainly shape its atmosphere and student experience.

We listed the most beautiful college campuses in each state, based on published rankings and unique architectural and historical features.

Whether you're a prospective student or not, these buildings — many of which are on the National Register of Historic Places — might offer great sightseeing opportunities.

ALABAMA: Spring Hill College in Mobile

Founded in 1830 by Mobile's first catholic bishop, Michael Portier, this Southern institution — named one of the South's most beautiful campuses by Southern Living — was one of the first Catholic colleges established in the Southeast.

Several of its buildings have been recognized and made part of the National Register of Historic Places.

The 381-acre liberal arts college, enveloped by pink azaleas, features a Greek Revival home that doubles as the commencement venue; an expansive green field at the steps of the library; and the St. Joseph Chapel, where rock legend Jimmy Buffett married his first wife, Margie Washichek, in 1969, according to the college.

Oh, and did we mention there's an 18-hole golf course on campus?

ALASKA: University of Alaska Fairbanks in Fairbanks

This public institution is spread over 2,250 acres, has five community and rural campuses across the state, and is one of the oldest universities in Alaska.

Its in-house museum, the Museum of the North, was designed in 2005 by award-winning architect Joan Soranno. It was part of Architectural Digest's 2018 "most iconic buildings in America" list and has won several national awards since its opening in 2005.

The museum's design was inspired by Alaska's natural surroundings and meant to evoke "images of alpine ridges, glaciers, breakup on the Yukon River and the aurora," according to the University of Alaska.

ARIZONA: University of Arizona in Tucson

Established in 1885, the University of Arizona has since been home to many famous figures, from Kourtney Kardashian and Kristen Wiig to five-time NBA champion Steve Kerr.

Surrounded by the beautiful Santa Catalina mountains, the 380-acre campus features rows of red-bricked halls, towering palm trees lining its walkways, and a nationally recognized public garden that is home to many desert plants.

ARKANSAS: University of Arkansas in Fayetteville

Set in the Ozark foothills of Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas weaves its history into its campus design with red-brick halls and tree-shaded walkways sprawling across the 345-acre campus.

The school's historic core district, which includes 25 of the college's buildings, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Old Main building — which is the oldest and most recognizable structure on campus — was added to the register in 1970.

CALIFORNIA: University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley

Once a 2-acre site in Oakland, UC Berkeley's college grounds have now grown into a sprawling 178-acre campus.

In 1863, upon acquiring a bigger space, college administrators worked with Frederick Law Olmsted, the architect of New York City's Central Park, to design a plan for the new campus. By 1890, as enrollment increased, a competition was held to appoint a new architect, and French architect Emile Bénard won first place.

While Bénard presented his formal Beaux-Arts vision for the new campus, he declined to serve as the supervising architect, and John Galen Howard — who finished fourth — was instead chosen to oversee the project.

Beyond its architectural feats, the university has produced many noteworthy figures, including Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, actor Chris Pine, and "Lizzie McGuire's" Adam Lamberg.

COLORADO: University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder

The University of Colorado Boulder's campus underwent a transformation between 1918 and 1932 when American architect Charles Klauder — whose other notable works include Cornell University, Penn State University, and Princeton University — was hired to revamp the campus, reported Architectural Digest, which named it one of America's most beautiful college campuses.

Klauder added a touch of Tuscan Vernacular Revival style that came to be associated with the college and was also known as the University of Colorado style. The updated campus grounds featured multi-hued sandstone walls and red roofs.

Several other buildings were built in the Collegiate Gothic style in the past, and some traces of this style can still be seen in old buildings across the campus.

In addition to its design marvels, the university is known for its affiliation with several prominent astronauts, such as Kalpana Chawla, Jim Voss, and Scott Carpenter.

CONNECTICUT: Yale University in New Haven

Elements of traditional Collegiate Gothic and modernist styles co-exist on this 261-acre campus. Modern structures, including architect Eero Saarinen's Ingalls Rink and the glass Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, stand out against the classical buildings.

Founded in 1701, Yale University is the third oldest in the country.

Since its inception, it has produced numerous prominent figures, including politicians, such as former US presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to actors Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, and Lupita Nyong'o.

DELAWARE: University of Delaware in Newark

Lush manicured lawns and a mix of red-brick and Collegiate Gothic-style buildings make up much of the University of Delaware.

Established in 1743, the university is home to 21 NCAA Division teams and 40 club sports. It also has a four-floor library — the Morris Library — stretching 6 acres and accommodating over 1,700 students.

Former President Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Biden are both alumni of this university.

FLORIDA: Flagler College in St. Augustine

Flagler College's 47-acre campus — recognized by Southern Living as one of the most beautiful campuses in the South — operates out of the former Spanish Renaissance-style Ponce de León Hotel.

Not only do students get to call a National Historic Landmark their classroom, but they are also only a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

GEORGIA: Berry College in Rome

With its Gothic-style buildings across a 27,000-acre campus nestled within forests and fields and surrounded by mountains, it's easy to confuse Berry College for an English manor in Downton Abbey.

It has been recognized as one of the most beautiful college campuses by publications including Travel & Leisure and Southern Living.

Berry College has doubled as a filming site for movies such as "Remember the Titans" and "Sweet Home Alabama."

HAWAII: University of Hawaii at Mānoa

Located in the picturesque Mānoa Valley, this 320-acre university offers sweeping views of the volcanic rock and easy access to Waikiki Beach. As of fall 2024, more than 20,000 students were enrolled in the college, which is one of the largest and oldest of the 10 University of Hawaii campuses.

IDAHO: University of Idaho in Moscow

Various architectural styles are on display across the University of Idaho's vast campus, including the Collegiate Gothic style visible at the administration building.

Architect John E. Tourtellotte, who also worked on the Idaho State Capitol, helped design the administration building. In its north wing, the building has a U-shaped three-story, Gothic structure, at the entrance of which President Teddy Roosevelt famously gave a speech.

Other notable spaces include a 45-acre arboretum, which is home to over 2,500 different varieties of plants from around the world.

ILLINOIS: Northwestern University in Evanston

Situated by Lake Michigan in Evanston, this 240-acre campus — only a short drive from Chicago — features Victorian-style halls, a Neo-Gothic chapel, and even an observatory, which per the university, was home to what was once the world's largest telescope.

Meghan Markle, author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn, and "Game of Thrones" creator George R.R. Martin are just a few of the famous figures who went to school here.

INDIANA: University of Notre Dame in South Bend

The University of Notre Dame is famous for its football team and theology program, per Condé Nast Traveler, which named it one of the prettiest colleges in the US. However, it's also well-known for its gorgeous architecture and lush quads.

Its glittering golden dome, which features gold leaf, stands tall amid other buildings, while the Neo-Gothic Basilica of the Sacred Heart is a visual delight for visitors and students alike.

IOWA: Iowa State University in Ames

A campus lake, a central lawn, and a 110-foot-tall Campanile bell tower are just some of the beautiful design elements at this 2,000-acre campus.

It's also home to the most Instagrammable public garden, which, at 17 acres, includes a conservatory, a butterfly wing, and Elwood, the world's largest concrete gnome, per the university. He stands 15 feet tall.

KANSAS: Kansas State University in Manhattan

A defining feature of K-State's campus architecture is its extensive use of Cottonwood Limestone across several buildings, such as Anderson Hall — which is also on the National Register of Historic Places — and Dickens Hall.

The university also has over 2,000 acres of green space and its own lake.

KENTUCKY: University of Louisville in Louisville

Established in 1798, the University of Louisville has three campuses: the Belknap Campus, which is almost 345 acres and is known as the main campus; the Health Science Center; and the Shelby Campus.

Belknap Campus, based in Old Louisville, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The main campus is known for its red-bricked buildings and a cast of Auguste Rodin's famous statue, "The Thinker."

LOUISIANA: Tulane University in New Orleans

Tulane University's 110-acre uptown campus, located along St. Charles Avenue, has 89 buildings, each with distinct architectural styles.

Gibson Hall, which was built in the Romanesque Revival style and used limestone for its surface, overlooks the stunning 350-acre Audubon Park.

MAINE: Bowdoin College in Brunswick

Founded in 1794, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, sits about 30 minutes from the Atlantic coast.

The liberal arts college's 207-acre campus reflects classic New England architecture, with historic brick buildings, tree-lined paths, and a central quad that changes its colors with the seasons.

MARYLAND: United States Naval Academy in Annapolis

Situated between the Severn River and downtown Annapolis, this military school has a scenic waterside setting and a variety of Beaux Arts-style buildings spread across its campus.

According to Architectural Digest, the US Naval Academy is also home to the world's largest single dormitory, Bancroft Hall, which resembles the Palace of Versailles.

MASSACHUSETTS: Harvard University in Cambridge

As one of the oldest colleges in the US — it was founded in 1636 — Harvard University has seen several design transformations over the years. It is also home to some historic buildings, such as Massachusetts Hall, which, according to the National Park Service, is one of the oldest surviving Harvard buildings.

Beyond the academics, one of the perks of going to school here is that you get to dine in Annenberg Hall, which looks like Hogwarts' Great Hall, and call several Georgian red-brick buildings your classroom.

MICHIGAN: University of Michigan in Ann Arbor

The University of Michigan has many beautiful buildings across its 3,070-acre campus. One that stands out is the law school library, which features an arched doorway and follows a similar aesthetic to Mason Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus.

MINNESOTA: St. Olaf College in Northfield

Locally known as "The Hill," this 300-acre campus is surrounded by woodlands and prairies.

Twenty of its buildings were designed by Edward Sövik, a well-known American architect, author, and professor on campus. Two St. Olaf College buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

MISSISSIPPI: University of Mississippi in Oxford

Situated in the picturesque college town of Oxford, the University of Mississippi is surrounded by towering oak trees, magnolias, and several storied buildings. The most famous — and also the first academic building on campus — the Lyceum, was built in 1848 by architect William Nichols.

MISSOURI: Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University held a competition to pick a firm to design its new campus when it moved to slightly bigger grounds within St. Louis in 1900, when construction on its hilltop site first began.

A design project inspired by British universities Oxford and Cambridge bagged the first prize, and the firm behind it, Cope & Stewardson, went on to turn their vision into reality — think soaring towers with classical Gothic arches and lush quads.

MONTANA: University of Montana in Missoula

The campus's red-brick clock tower stands tall against the backdrop of Mount Sentinel, which displays a giant letter "M," like the state's version of the Hollywood sign. The building offers just one of the many architectural styles seen across the college campus.

From Academy Award-winning actor J.K. Simmons and women's rights activist Jeannette Rankin to poet James Welch, the University of Montana has been home to several prominent artists before they became famous.

NEBRASKA: Creighton University in Omaha

As reported by Travel & Leisure, which named Creighton University the most beautiful college in Nebraska, elements of old and new design blend harmoniously on this campus, giving the university a distinct character.

NEVADA: University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe

You wouldn't be the first to confuse pictures of wooden cabins on the university's website with those of a luxury hotel chain or a serene forest home. The university's Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences — the said wood cabin — fits in with its natural surroundings while still standing out thanks to its intricate woodwork and masonry.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Dartmouth College in Hanover

Dartmouth is another college where old and new coexist. Within a 5-acre space are two of the institute's oldest buildings, Wentworth and Thornton Halls, built in the 1820s. On the modern front is the Hopkins Center, which was built in 1962 and designed by Wallace Harrison, the same architect who built New York's Lincoln Center and the United Nations building.

Beyond its architectural styles, the college is also well known for its numerous famous alums, including Pulitzer-winning poet Robert Frost, children's author Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss), and historian Annette Gordon-Reed, the first Black writer to win a Pulitzer for history.

NEW JERSEY: Princeton University in Princeton

Princeton is another Ivy League university that provides academic excellence alongside stunning architecture.

The classic Collegiate Gothic style is on display in buildings across the campus, with a few modern exceptions such as Spelman Hall by I.M. Pei, Lewis Library by Frank Gehry, and the Carl Icahn Laboratory by Rafael Viñoly, Architectural Digest reported in its list of the most beautiful colleges in the US.

NEW MEXICO: St. John's College Santa Fe in Santa Fe

St. John's College is a dream destination for anyone who loves the mountains. Given its proximity to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the campus has several hiking trails, and nature is always at your doorstep.

NEW YORK: Colgate University in Hamilton

Nestled in a part of nature that feels untouched, with sprawling hills, a whole forest, and a lake on campus, this upstate New York institution is one of the prettiest places in the state.

Its 575-acre campus has over 2,300 trees and 10-mile walkways that are perfect for unwinding after a long day of studying.

NORTH CAROLINA: Duke University in Durham

Duke University's architecture holds traces of both Gothic stonework and Georgian styles within its West and East campuses. Its 210-foot-tall Duke Chapel — which is frequently booked for weddings — exudes peak Collegiate Gothic style, standing out among the 254 buildings on campus.

Other highlights on campus include the Duke Forest and the Sarah P. Duke Gardens.

Former President Richard Nixon and several former and current CEOs, from Apple's Tim Cook to Etsy's Chad Dickerson, are alums.

NORTH DAKOTA: University of North Dakota in Grand Forks

One of the largest and oldest universities in the state, the University of North Dakota is spread across 521 acres. Several buildings on campus feature the Collegiate Gothic style, which features brick exteriors, stonework, and arched entrances.

OHIO: Kenyon College in Gambier

This liberal arts institution features buildings with historic appeal: stone structures, outdoor art installations, and wooden beams surrounded by natural forests and lush green walkways.

"The Fault in Our Stars" author John Green, Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, and "The West Wing" actor Allison Janney all graduated from Kenyon College before embarking on their careers.

OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma State University in Stillwater

From a pond and open courtyards to brick-lined walkways, Oklahoma State University's 1,489-acre campus has it all.

The architectural details are largely of the Neo-Georgian style, and highlights to visit across campus include the Formal Gardens, the grand staircases, and the Theta Pond.

OREGON: Lewis & Clark College in Portland

Originally known as the Albany Collegiate Institute, this private liberal arts institution relocated to Portland in 1938 and four years later rebranded to Lewis & Clark College after its namesake explorers.

The campus, set amid Douglas firs and rolling hills, exudes an old-school rustic charm. Notable historic buildings include the Frank Manor House, now the office of undergraduate admissions, and the Corbett House, designed by Italian-American architect Pietro Belluschi in 1929.

PENNSYLVANIA: University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia

UPenn incorporates a variety of architectural styles, from Collegiate Gothic to more modernist projects. Several buildings on the 299-acre campus were designed by Cope and Stewardson, a firm famous for its university projects, including Princeton and Washington University in St. Louis.

Here, you're also embedded in nature with plenty of trees peppered across the campus while still having access to the Philly skyline from the university park.

The college has also been home to many future billionaires and artists, including Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, designer Tory Burch, and singer John Legend.

RHODE ISLAND: Salve Regina University in Newport

Built out of the consolidation of seven glorious Gilded Age estates, Salve Regina University's 80-acre campus has many Instagram-worthy sights. The most noteworthy of these is the Ochre Court, which is the second-largest estate in town after the Breakers and serves as the university's admin building.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Furman University in Greenville

The six-story Florentine Bell Tower, Asia Gardens, and numerous fountains throughout campus are just some of the university's highlights.

It also hosts many hiking trails, residences overlooking the lake, and Georgian-style buildings.

SOUTH DAKOTA: Augustana University in Sioux Falls

Tucked away in the scenic city of Sioux Falls, and previously named by Travel & Leisure as the most beautiful college in South Dakota, Augustana impresses with its administration building, cropped quads, and towering trees.

TENNESSEE: Vanderbilt University in Nashville

At Vanderbilt, you're enveloped in nature's arms. The college's campus is a designated national arboretum, home to over 200 species of trees and shrubs.

The campus also features many art sculptures and grand red-bricked facades. But the most iconic building on campus is Kirkland Hall, a 19th-century structure that originally held all the classrooms, a chapel, and a library. It was rebuilt in 1906 following a fire and has been undergoing recent renovations to modernize its features.

TEXAS: Southern Methodist University in Dallas

Founded in 1911, Southern Methodist University is 5 miles north of downtown Dallas and features grand buildings, manicured lawns, and the Meadows Museum, which, according to Southern Living, houses the largest collection of Spanish art outside Spain.

There's also Dallas Hall, the university's first building, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

UTAH: University of Utah in Salt Lake City

The University of Utah's campus is so huge, spread across 1,535 acres and surrounded by the Wasatch Mountain Range, that students use shuttles to get to and from some parts. The views change according to the season, with lush green spaces in spring and summertime and snow-capped mountains in the winter.

VERMONT: Middlebury College in Middlebury

Picture cozy cottages and manors nestled between the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks — these are the scenes at Middlebury College year-round.

On the architectural front, Battell Hall, built in 1955, and the much-older but perfectly symmetrical Painter Hall add further charm to this campus.

VIRGINIA: University of Virginia in Charlottesville

Designed by founding father Thomas Jefferson, the University of Virginia largely features buildings in the Neoclassical style.

Jefferson's home, Monticello, is also part of the campus, as is the Academical Village he designed. Monticello and the Academical Village are jointly designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

WASHINGTON: University of Washington in Seattle

A series of stunning Collegiate Gothic buildings line the University of Washington's Liberal Arts Quadrangle, with cherry blossoms in the spring and snow-capped mountains in winter — it's no wonder this campus is consistently named among the most beautiful in the country.

Some major talents, from academia and technology to arts and entertainment, have come out of this university, including actor Rainn Wilson, USWNT star Hope Solo, and actor Bruce Lee.

WEST VIRGINIA: West Virginia University in Morgantown

West Virginia University's 1,892-acre Morgantown campus is home to three halls that are on the National Register of Historic Places. To get a perfect view of all three, visitors can walk by Woodburn Circle on campus.

The university's alums include actor Cheryl Hines, television presenter and comedian Steve Harvey, and Emmy Award-winning actor Conchata Ferrell from "Two and a Half Men."

WISCONSIN: University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison

The University of Wisconsin-Madison's campus is nestled between two lakes and has an incredibly picturesque setting. On the architectural front, some highlights include Bascom Hall, Music Hall, and Memorial Union.

The university has been home to prominent personalities across industries, including designer Virgil Abloh, former vice president Dick Cheney, and actor Joan Cusack.

WYOMING: University of Wyoming in Laramie

Borrowing from the state's rustic aesthetic, the University of Wyoming exudes an equally tasteful old-school charm.

Highlights include the sandstone Old Main building, one of the first buildings built on this now-almost-2,000-acre campus, and rows of green trees surrounding it.

• In April 2022, I took my first cruise solo on Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas.
• I learned a few key things about solo cruising, such as that it costs extra to travel by yourself.
• There are also plenty of ways to meet people, from ship games to excursions and Facebook groups. 

Cruising solo is no small feat — especially if you've never been on a cruise before.

In April 2022, I went on my first cruise and traveled alone on board Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas, one of the largest cruise ships in the world.

During my seven-night voyage, the ship sailed to Roatán, Honduras; Cozumel and Costa Maya in Mexico; and Royal Caribbean's own private island in the Bahamas.

I learned a few things along the way that I think everyone should know before cruising solo.

I didn't know beforehand that cruise ship cabins typically cost more when you're traveling alone.

Because most cruise ship staterooms are meant to hold at least two people, booking a room by yourself often means still paying higher prices that are equivalent to two people. Some cruise ships offer solo cabins for one person, but mine didn't. 

The listed rates for my ship were per person, not per room, when I booked my cruise. But when switching between one and two guests in my search, the cost per person doubled when I had just one person selected. This is known as the "single supplement," as it helps the cruise line make up for the revenue that would have come from a second passenger.

For $2,000, I got an ocean-view room to myself. It would have cost about half the price per person if I had brought someone with me.

I was seated alone for dinner, but solo cruisers do have the option to sit with other groups for meals.

As part of the price of my cruise, all meals in the main dining room were included, as were many drinks and snacks.

When eating in the ship's main dining room, I was asked if I'd like to sit alone or with other guests. I expected to be added to a group table, but I chose to dine alone in the main dining room. However, I was seated at a table next to another solo cruiser who chatted with me throughout the meal.

It was easier to meet people on the ship than I thought it would be as a solo traveler.

As someone who is typically shy around new people, I was surprised to find that it was really easy to talk to other travelers on the ship.

Couples, families, and other solo cruisers seemed open to chatting and sharing their experiences with me around the pool decks and at various eateries and common spaces.

Cruise ships often have a daily schedule packed with activities such as fitness classes, karaoke parties, and singles meet-ups. Take advantage of them.

From mini-golf tournaments to escape rooms, Wonder of the Seas was full of activities to help guests mingle. My personal favorite was laser tag.

If you're cruising alone, check out activities that will help you meet other cruisers.

While activities on the ship were great for meeting people, I thought joining excursions booked through the cruise line was the best way to socialize with other guests.

At each cruise port, passengers may disembark to spend their time as they wish. They might sightsee independently, take a taxi to a beach, link up with a local tour guide, or join an official cruise-line excursion.

I joined cruise-line excursions at every port and found it was the easiest way to meet people on the ship. With group activities like hiking and plenty of downtime on bus rides to and from the tour locations, I spent the most time socializing during these trips. 

Every cruise has a Facebook group so guests can ask each other questions and stay in touch before and after the trip.

Seasoned cruisers on the ship let me know that every cruise has a Facebook group. I joined on day two, and it made me feel like I was part of a community for the remainder of my trip.

You can find these groups by searching for your ship's name and departure date in the Facebook app. 

This is especially helpful for solo cruisers because it's an easy way to ask questions and plan meet-ups.

But you don't have to socialize if you don't want to.

If you're looking for quiet, relaxing time alone, you can find it on a cruise ship. When I wasn't in the mood to socialize during my trip, I had no trouble finding spots on the outdoor decks to chill by myself. I could have spent the whole trip alone if I'd wanted to, just by staying on the ship.

Either way, it's worth downloading some podcasts or audiobooks to keep you company.

My favorite podcasts were like my travel companions during this trip. If you're taking a cruise solo, I highly recommend bringing a pair of headphones and downloading your favorite podcasts or a new audiobook. I found them especially comforting and enjoyable while taking lonely walks on the pool deck at sunrise.

Check out my article on how I packed for this cruise for more tips on what to bring — and what to leave at home.

• Lauryn Bosstick said strength training transformed her body and life after years of gym frustration.
• She struggled to lose weight after her first child, but she started lifting weights and lost weight.
• Bosstick swears by heavy weights with mobility and stability training for long-term health and fitness.

About six years ago, Lauryn Bosstick was trying everything to improve her health, and nothing seemed to work.

Bosstick, the founder of "The Skinny Confidential," a wellness and beauty brand, said she gained 60 pounds after having her first child and struggled to lose the weight.

"I was so frustrated. I was showing up every day at the gym, and the scale was not moving, and my pants were still tight," she told Business Insider. "I was fed up, and I thought, 'You know what? I'm just going to try weightlifting."

Strength training changed her life, Bosstick said, transforming her body and her health while also boosting her mood and energy. She swears by lifting heavy weights for the best results.

In an interview promoting her partnership with fitness company Pvolve on a new training bundle of equipment and workouts, Bosstick shared four key principles of her fitness routine for burning fat, building muscle, and improving long-term health.

Build muscle with heavy weights

Bosstick said that too many women fall for the myth that heavy weights will make them look like hulking pro bodybuilders.

"Women think that they're going to bulk up from heavy lifting. And I'm living, breathing proof that it is the exact opposite," she said.

Bosstick said it helped her lose weight and improve her body composition — the ratio of muscle mass to fat tissue — by building lean muscle while burning fat.

To build muscle, you need to challenge your body with increasingly heavy weights over time, a principle called progressive overload.

Aim for consistency

Bosstick said she tries to remain dedicated even when her schedule is packed.

"It's a non-negotiable to work out, even when I'm traveling," she said.

For instance, while her typical workout is an hour in the gym, she relies on shorter workouts on the go with limited equipment. Every minute counts when you do a little every day.

"Some people might only have 15 minutes, and that's OK. To me, it's about just getting those little wins in day after day and chipping away," Bosstick said.

Walk for a healthy metabolism

For a lean physique, building muscle is only part of the equation. Bosstick said a key part of her routine is daily walks, often while multitasking.

"I try to get my steps in while I'm on conference calls. I'm spending time with my kids, and we're taking a walk," she said. "I have to be very intentional, and I can't just walk for 10,000 steps without getting something done."

To burn body fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit, burning off more calories with activity than you eat.

Walking is one activity that helps your body burn more energy and counts as light cardio, supporting a healthy heart without putting too much strain on your body.

Train for longevity

Bosstick said her workout routine also prioritizes her long-term health by focusing on fitness elements linked to healthy aging.

"Longevity is incredibly important to me. I think the mobility and the stability are just as important as the strength," Bosstick said.

For instance, she combines movements like dumbbell bicep curls with lower body work using a Pvolve exercise ball to strengthen her hips and inner thighs.

Mobility and stability training help strengthen core muscles and protect joints, preventing injury and strain. That's crucial as we get older.

Bosstick said she loves barbell squats in particular: they strengthen the whole body while also building stability and mobility, all at once, for durable, long-lasting health.

"Strength, mobility, and stability — I get all three, and that is a magic concoction," she said.

• I tried store-brand vanilla ice cream from Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Wegmans, and Costco.
• All the ice creams were tasty, but the 365 vanilla ice cream from Whole Foods was my least favorite.
• My favorite was Costco's Kirkland Signature ice cream, which had a great flavor and price per ounce.

My family consumes a lot of ice cream, as it's one of the best treats for helping us through muggy, warm days in New York City this spring and summer.

However, with practically every supermarket offering its own house brand of ice cream, it's hard to know which to buy.

To find the tastiest option, I compared store-brand vanilla ice cream from Whole Foods, Wegmans, Trader Joe's, and Costco. For consistency's sake, I chose the smallest container and what seemed like the most basic version of vanilla ice cream I could find at each store.

Here's how the vanilla ice cream stacked up, ranked from my least favorite to my top pick. 

The 365 vanilla ice cream from Whole Foods had a distinctive yellow color when I opened it.

When I opened the 365 carton from Whole Foods, the dessert had a distinctive, eggy-yellow color that set it apart from the other ice-cream brands I tried.

The 48-ounce container of ice cream cost me $5.50, or about $0.11 an ounce.

The 365 ice cream was pretty good, but there wasn't anything special about it.

Choosing a last-place ice cream wasn't easy because all four were tasty — I wouldn't regret buying any of the store brands I tried. In fact, my kids proved incapable of ranking them, declaring them all equally delicious.

This vanilla ice cream wasn't bad, but it was a bit on the bland side, with a much less noticeable vanilla flavor than the other three brands I had.

On the bright side, it had a smooth, pleasantly creamy texture.

Wegmans' Madagascar vanilla ice cream came in the smallest container of the four.

According to Wegmans' packaging, this ice cream is made with vanilla from Madagascar, where about 80% of the world's vanilla is grown. However, I was disappointed that I didn't see any noticeable flecks of vanilla bean in this ice cream.

The pint-sized container I bought was the smallest of the options I found, which wasn't necessarily bad. Sometimes, you don't need that much ice cream, and a pint is the right size for one person.

I paid $4.50 for the 16-ounce container. Unsurprisingly, the small portion size meant this ice cream had the highest cost per ounce — $0.28.

Wegmans' ice cream was pretty tasty.

I liked the buttery texture of Wegmans' vanilla ice cream because it reminded me a lot of the premium Häagen-Dazs brand. It had a nice level of sweetness, though it wasn't overwhelming.

There wasn't anything distinctive about the vanilla flavor, which was warm and pleasant but fairly mild. I wouldn't seek this ice cream out again, but I might pick it up if I was shopping at Wegmans and needed a dessert.

Trader Joe's French-vanilla ice cream looked a little less creamy than the others.

Trader Joe's ice cream looked fairly similar to Wegmans' — white and solid, with no visible flecks of vanilla bean.

It seemed a touch less creamy than the other desserts I tried, but I probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't comparing them side by side.

I paid $4.50 for a quart (32 ounces), which seemed reasonably priced and came to about $0.14 an ounce.

Trader Joe's ice cream had a very strong vanilla flavor.

Trader Joe's ice cream had the strongest vanilla flavor out of the four I tried. However, I thought the rich flavor was possibly a touch too reminiscent of straight vanilla extract.

I liked it, but I could imagine it being a bit much for anyone who doesn't especially like the taste of vanilla. This is your best option if you want to taste the distinct flavor of vanilla ice cream buried among hot fudge, whipped cream, and sprinkles.

I shop at Trader Joe's frequently, so I'll likely pick this up again. It's a good size for entertaining and could anchor a make-your-own-sundae station if my kids have a couple of friends over.

The Kirkland Signature super-premium vanilla ice cream came in a large box.

The Kirkland Signature ice cream came in a large box containing two half-gallon cartons at 64 ounces each. If you choose this option, you'll need to be willing to buy a ton of ice cream at once.

When I opened a carton, I noticed this brand shined a little differently in the container and was visibly less icy than the other versions I tried.

The entire box of ice cream cost $14, so $0.11 per ounce just like the 365 carton from Whole Foods. The two were tied for the lowest price per ounce.

The Kirkland Signature ice cream was my winner.

I didn't expect there to be such a clear winner in a taste test of four store-brand vanilla ice creams. However, from the first spoonful of the Kirkland Signature vanilla ice cream, I could tell it was the best of the group. 

It had a nice, familiar vanilla flavor, but its texture set it apart. It was extremely creamy but not too heavy — almost like a soft serve. I talked my wife into taste-testing all four brands the day after I did, and she also identified Kirkland Signature's ice cream as the best. 

If you're planning a summer barbecue and looking for an easy dessert, this is the ice cream I'd recommend.

It would work well independently or in a sundae, and there's definitely enough of it in a container to please a crowd. Whenever freezer space allows, we'll be keeping this ice cream stocked. 

This story was originally published on July 9, 2024, and most recently updated on May 6, 2026.

• Of the 59 movies that have made $1 billion, 32 of them have been released by Disney.
• That's more than half.
• The MCU, Pixar, "Avatar," "Star Wars," and "Pirates of the Caribbean" are all owned by Disney.

Numbers don't lie: Disney is easily the most successful movie studio of all time. Of the 59 films that have made 10 figures at the worldwide box office, 32 of them have been released by Disney.

And, if you include the first "Avatar" and "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace," which were originally released by 20th Century but are now owned by Disney, you get up to 34.

No other studio has a chokehold on mainstream movies like Disney does, and it's not close.

We used Box Office Mojo data to compile this list of every single Disney movie that's made $1 billion (or more). Keep scrolling to see the entire list.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (2006)

Worldwide gross: $1.06 billion

After the first film became a true pop culture phenomenon in 2003, the second installment, "Dead Man's Chest," became the first "Pirates" film to cross a billion dollars … and probably the first film based on a theme park ride to do that, too.

"Alice in Wonderland" (2010)

Worldwide gross: $1.02 billion

The first of the modern Disney live-action remakes, "Alice in Wonderland" was a huge hit for the studio and set us on a path we're still on today; are you ready for the live-action "Moana" later this year?

"Toy Story 3" (2010)

Worldwide gross: $1.06 billion

"Toy Story 3" picks up 11 years after its last installment, 1999's "Toy Story 2," and brings our favorite crew into the 21st century. It's also positively traumatizing. If you ask any millennial how they felt during the trash incinerator scene, be prepared with a box of tissues.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" (2011)

Worldwide gross: $1.04 billion

The third "Pirates" film fell short of seven figures, but the fourth, which was something of a soft reboot, rebounded quite nicely. Unfortunately, its quality leaves something to be desired.

"The Avengers" (2012)

Worldwide gross: $1.52 billion

The first MCU film to cross this threshold, fittingly, was "The Avengers," the culmination of the previous five films and the first big team-up of comic-book heroes.

It was also the first Marvel movie distributed by Disney after it acquired Marvel Studios in 2009 (the first few were split between Paramount and Universal).

"Iron Man 3" (2013)

Worldwide gross: $1.21 billion

The final installment of the "Iron Man" trilogy is also the highest-grossing. We haven't had a stand-alone Tony Stark film in 13 years, but Robert Downey Jr. isn't anywhere close to being done with Marvel. He's taking over as Doctor Doom in the coming "Avengers: Doomsday."

"Frozen" (2013)

Worldwide gross: $1.28 billion

Disney's first non-Pixar billion-dollar grosser was "Frozen," which brought us so many things, including "Let It Go," the icon that is Olaf, and John Travolta calling Idina Menzel "Adele Dazeem" at the Academy Awards.

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015)

Worldwide gross: $1.4 billion

"Age of Ultron" was the second "Avengers" film, and while it wasn't as critically beloved as its predecessor, it was still a box-office smash.

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (2015)

Worldwide gross: $2.07 billion

"The Force Awakens" was the first "Star Wars" film in 10 years, and the first time Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and (briefly) Mark Hamill returned to the franchise in 32 years.

No wonder it smashed box-office records and is still the highest-grossing film domestically, ever. It made over $936 million in the US alone.

It was also the first "Star Wars" film to be released after Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4 billion.

"Zootopia" (2016)

Worldwide gross: $1.02 billion

"Zootopia" was the second Disney animated film to cross this threshold, bolstered by its huge success in China, where it made $236 million.

"Captain America: Civil War" (2016)

Worldwide gross: $1.15 billion

"Captain America: Civil War" has more in common with the "Avengers" films rather than the first two "Captain America" movies. It features a huge ensemble cast and one of the MCU's signature scenes, the airport fight.

"Finding Dory" (2016)

Worldwide gross: $1.02 billion

The sequel to "Finding Nemo" came 13 years after the first film. This allowed an entire generation to grow up watching it and introduced it to a whole new group of kids, a move Disney began with "Toy Story 3" and continues to use today.

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (2016)

Worldwide gross: $1.05 billion

"Rogue One" was the second "Star Wars" film released under Disney and the first to receive the subtitle of "A Star Wars Story," to differentiate it from the main three trilogies.

Against all odds, this movie, which is really just based on a throwaway line about how the Rebels got hold of the plans for the Death Star, rocks.

"Beauty and the Beast" (2017)

Worldwide gross: $1.26 billion

"Beauty and the Beast," which stars Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast, was a huge hit for the House of Mouse and ensured that we'd be watching live-action remakes for years to come.

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" (2017)

Worldwide gross: $1.33 billion

Nothing was ever going to top "The Force Awakens" in terms of box-office success, but "The Last Jedi" grossed over $1.33 billion worldwide, which is nothing to sneeze at … even if the movie proved to be quite polarizing.

"Black Panther" (2018)

Worldwide gross: $1.34 billion

If "Black Panther" had made half of its actual gross, it would've been considered a success. Instead, it blew past any expectations, got Marvel its first (and to date, only) best picture Oscar nomination, and became a true cultural phenomenon.

"Avengers: Infinity War" (2018)

Worldwide gross: $2.05 billion

Just a few months after "Black Panther" took over the world, "Infinity War" picked up the torch and kept running with it, becoming Disney's second two-billion-dollar film.

"Incredibles 2" (2018)

Worldwide gross: $1.24 billion

Much like "Finding Dory," audiences were forced to wait 14 years after "The Incredibles" was released to pick back up with our favorite family of superheroes.

The strategy worked again: "Incredibles 2" made nearly double the original.

"Captain Marvel" (2019)

Worldwide gross: $1.13 billion

The first MCU film to center on a female superhero proved a gigantic success for Disney, as "Captain Marvel" is the second-highest-grossing origin story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, only behind "Black Panther."

"Avengers: Endgame" (2019)

Worldwide gross: $2.79 billion

"Avengers: Endgame" was the culmination of a decade of storytelling and dozens of films — it's no wonder it was the highest-grossing movie of all time for a while.

We actually have a running list for all the records "Endgame" broke — that's how big of a deal it was.

"Aladdin" (2019)

Worldwide gross: $1.05 billion

Right around the time fans had started to bully Paramount into changing the design of Sonic the Hedgehog, a different blue menace was taking up residence in the Uncanny Valley: Will Smith's Genie in the live-action "Aladdin." Despite the criticisms and (many) memes, this movie continued Disney's live-action hot streak.

"The Lion King" (2019)

Worldwide gross: $1.66 billion

Your mileage may vary on whether this counts as a live-action remake, since it's entirely photorealistic animation, but there's no arguing that "The Lion King" was a massive success. It even spawned a prequel, "Mufasa."

"Toy Story 4" (2019)

Worldwide gross: $1.07 billion

After the mega-hit that was "Toy Story 3," it shouldn't come as a surprise that Pixar ran it back again, nine years later.

"Toy Story 4" places our friends in a new kid's house and introduces us to the legend Forky.

"Frozen II" (2019)

Worldwide gross: $1.45 billion

Is it starting to seem like all these billion-dollar grossers are sequels? You're not wrong! "Frozen II," released six years after "Frozen," failed to produce an inescapable earworm like "Let It Go," but still outgrossed its predecessor by nearly $200 million.

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" (2019)

Worldwide gross: $1.07 billion

"The Rise of Skywalker" was the conclusion of the 12-movie, four-decade Skywalker Saga, so it was never going to please everyone.

However, it managed to do something else equally unlikely: It didn't please anyone.

Only a "Star Wars" movie could gross nearly $1.1 billion and still be seen as something of a box-office disappointment.

"Avatar: The Way of Water" (2022)

Worldwide gross: $2.33 billion

The first "Avatar" film was released in 2009 by 20th Century Fox. Thirteen years and one $71 billion acquisition later, "Avatar: The Way of Water" was released by Disney.

"Inside Out 2" (2024)

Worldwide gross: $1.69 billion

"Inside Out 2" was the highest-grossing film of 2024, making nearly twice as much as the first "Inside Out," which was released in 2015.

"Deadpool & Wolverine" (2024)

Worldwide gross: $1.33 billion

Another benefit of Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox was gaining the rights to the X-Men, including everyone's favorite merc with a mouth, Deadpool.

The third "Deadpool" film, which also brought back fan-favorite Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (among many, many other cameos), was the No. 2 film of 2024, the most successful "Deadpool" film, and is still the highest-grossing R-rated film ever.

"Moana 2" (2024)

Worldwide gross: $1.05 billion

"Moana 2" was released eight years after "Moana," and made over $400 million more than the first film.

Even though it started out as a TV show and didn't have the benefit of songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, it still became a hit. We'll see if the live-action "Moana," releasing in July, can keep the streak going.

"Lilo & Stitch" (2025)

Worldwide gross: $1.03 billion

If you're not convinced that live-action "Moana" will be a force to reckon with, look no further than Disney's last live-action remake, "Lilo & Stitch." This movie performed so well that it's getting a live-action sequel, something only bestowed upon "101 Dalmatians," "Maleficent," and "Alice in Wonderland."

"Zootopia 2" (2025)

Worldwide gross: $1.86 billion

Somehow, "Zootopia 2" was an even bigger hit than the first film, once again helped by its monster success in China, where it made $651 million, more than double what the original "Zootopia" grossed there. It's now the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

"Avatar: Fire and Ash" (2025)

Worldwide gross: $1.48 billion

The most recent Disney film to enter this list is the third "Avatar" installment, "Fire and Ash." While it was the No. 3 movie of 2025, it was still seen by some as a disappointment after the higher grosses of the first two.

• Corning stock popped 17% after announcing a new partnership with Nvidia.
• The multiyear agreement will expand optics connectivity for AI infrastructure in the US.
• The partnership will create three new manufacturing plants and 3,000 US jobs.

The move: Corning stock surged after announcing a AI optics infrastructure deal with Nvidia.

The optics company's stock popped as much as 17% to $190.

The stock has gained 117% year to date, with other AI deals with Big Tech players fueling the rise.

Nvidia shares rose 2%.

The chart:

Why: Corning and Nvidia are partnering to expand optical connectivity capacity in the US to advance AI infrastructure.

"Corning will expand U.S. optical connectivity capacity 10x, build three new manufacturing plants, and create more than 3,000 high-paying American jobs," the company said in the press release.

The agreement will expand Corning's US fiber production capacity by more than 50% as AI-driven demand grows and ties the company to the AI chipmaker in a multi-year deal.

Corning announced a longterm agreement with Meta earlier in the year.

Why it matters: The Corning partnership is part of Nvidia's efforts to invest more in US AI infrastructure.

Integrating optics into AI infrastructure provides the high-bandwidth and low-latency the tech needs while limiting data loss across large networks, according to Cisco.

Optics tech is being used to replace copper within AI systems, reducing reliance on the China-dominated copper market.

"AI is driving the largest infrastructure buildout of our time — and a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvigorate American manufacturing and supply chains," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said.

"Together with Corning, we are inventing the future of computing with advanced optical technologies — building the foundation for AI infrastructure where intelligence moves at the speed of light while advancing the proud tradition of Made in America," the Nvidia CEO added.

The chipmaker has doubled down on US investments in Trump's second term. From chip embargoes to smuggling arrests, US-China relations has emerged as a key hurdle in the AI race for tech players.

The Nvidia and Corning partnership helps protect the chipmaker's dominate position while contributing to the US economy and AI market in a way that appeals to the White House's position.

• Uber is spending more on AI — and hiring less.
• The company uses AI agents for about 10% of the code it produces, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said.
• Uber wants employees to "increase their throughput by 20%, 30%, 50%, 100%" using AI, the CEO said.

Uber is getting a big coding assist from agents, and it's hiring less as it leans into AI investment.

Roughly 10% of Uber's code changes are produced by autonomous agents, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on the company's first-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

Human employees still check the code before it gets added to a repository, the CEO added. Even so, he said, it shows the productivity gains that are possible with AI.

Uber has used AI to price ridesharing trips and match drivers with passengers for years, Khosrowshahi said. Now, employees in different areas of the company are using AI tools internally, he said.

"We're seeing uptake of these tools, whether it's our legal team or marketing team or developers," the CEO said. "We think it's creating kind of employees with superpowers."

Uber is increasing its investment in AI and paying for it by hiring less, he added.

Uber reported its first-quarter earnings results on Wednesday, with revenue of $13.2 billion and gross bookings up 25%. The company expects second-quarter EPS to grow between 31% and 38%. Shares of Uber were up about 6% in pre-market trading.

Uber has increased its AI spending after it "underestimated the amount of impact the AI tools could have" in budgeting that it did at the end of 2025, CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy said on Wednesday's call. Praveen Neppalli Naga, the company's chief technology officer, said last month that Uber had already spent all of its 2026 budget for Claude Code.

All that added investment in AI could pay off if Uber's employees become more productive, Khosrowshahi said.

"If every person at this company can increase their throughput by 20%, 30%, 50%, 100%, then I think metering headcount growth and leaning in on AI investment is going to be well worth it," he said.

Do you have a story to share about Uber? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• During a trip to Washington, DC, I spent time in Alexandria, Virginia.
• I quickly fell in love with the charming city and its historic roots.
• From cute shops and restaurants to a buzzy waterfront area, I found so much to do.

Traveling to Washington, DC, had been on my bucket list for a few years, so when my friend who lives there invited me to visit, I immediately started planning my trip.

While looking online for fun things to do nearby, I came across Alexandria, Virginia — a charming city just 30 minutes from the heart of DC.

Located on the Potomac River, this historic city seemed like the perfect place to stop for lunch on my way to the nation's capital. However, my visit turned out to be the highlight of my trip to DC.

I love how Alexandria blends the past and present

One of my favorite things about Alexandria is that the city really seems to do a good job preserving its history while creating new, modern spaces.

For example, the city's Old Town — one of the nation's oldest historic districts — is home to modern restaurants and boutiques that are tucked into centuries-old buildings.

After enjoying a delicious lunch at an Italian restaurant, I explored the shops on King Street, stopping at retailers selling things like jewelry, clothing, home decor, and more.

Another great example of this is the Torpedo Factory Art Center, which was used as a torpedo plant during World War II and now houses several art galleries.

During my trip, I especially loved strolling along Captain's Row, which is Alexandria's oldest cobblestone street. Many of the houses here were built in the 1700s, and admiring the architecture gave me a reason to slow down and really take in the history.

The waterfront was the perfect place for people watching

Another area of Alexandria that really stood out to me was the waterfront, which offered great views of the boats on the Potomac River.

This section of the city felt particularly electric, and I enjoyed people watching on a busy Friday afternoon. Locals and tourists alike seemed to enjoy chatting on benches, walking along the water, and enjoying cocktails at the many restaurants.

I also enjoyed exploring the farmers market

Every Saturday, the city hosts a farmers market in Old Town. It's known as one of the oldest continuously operated farmers markets in the country, and George Washington even sent his produce to be sold there.

In addition to learning about the market's historic roots, visiting was a great way to get a feel for life in the city.

Tables overflowed with produce, artisan breads, cheeses, handmade jewelry, and colorful flowers. While there, I purchased a bar of handcrafted soap, which smelled great.

Overall, visiting Alexandria was a true highlight of my trip to DC

Even after an incredible trip to DC, where I visited places like the White House and the Smithsonian Institution, my time in Alexandria was the highlight of my stay.

From the centuries-old rowhouses to the lively waterfront, I truly felt at home in this historic city, and I'm already hoping to return as soon as I can.

It costs about $10,000 a month to care for Richard Johnson, an 85-year-old living in a New Jersey dementia facility for long-term care. It's a price tag his daughter, Rebecca, doesn't think he can sustain.

"It's just brutal," Rebecca, a 56-year-old New Yorker, told Business Insider.

Rebecca anticipates that her dad, who's otherwise healthy, will need care for another 10 years, given their family's history of longevity. She worries that his retirement savings won't last that long.

Initially, after his dementia diagnosis in 2016, Richard was cared for by his wife, a former political science professor. When she died in 2021, Rebecca's twin sister, Rachel Leo, cared for him in her New Jersey home, but as his illness progressed, home care became too much to manage.

Richard was moved into a memory care unit in a New Jersey facility. However, the family soon began encountering problems with it. "Even though we had what seemed to be an extremely fancy facility, they weren't keeping us informed of things that were pretty important," Rebecca said.

She recalled learning from the hospital — not his facility — that her father had fallen and had been taken to the ER. It prompted the family to move Richard to a different facility in New Jersey, which was much less fancy but not much cheaper.

Richard had planned for retirement with a pension in addition to Social Security. "While he was healthy, it was absolutely enough for anything," Rebecca said — but not now.

She said even with Medicaid, the cost would be around $8,000 a month. "So, it just doesn't seem feasible at all," she added.

To help cover expenses, the family liquidated a second home in Canada, where Richard and his late wife spent half the year. Still, it won't cover his expected long-term care costs. So, the family began looking to Mexico to lower costs.

Rebecca first learned about long-term care in Mexico in 2024 while researching retirement locations. "I was really shocked at how cheap it is," she said with a caveat. "Cheap in Mexico is still not easy."

Some American families are facing this same issue as the boomer generation ages. The average annual cost of long-term care is $112,420, according to the Federal Long-Term Insurance Program. Most US adults can't afford this cost, according to the 2022 KFF Survey on the affordability of long-term care and support services. Yet about 69% of people will need some form of long-term care in their lifetime, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Families are desperate to find alternatives, and many, like the Johnsons, are looking to Mexico as a more affordable option. With a lower cost of living, Mexico has long been a popular destination for retirees. Now, those retirees and their families are looking at the country for other solutions.

It comes at a time when Mexico's long-term care industry is growing, with 25.5% of people over 65 relying on it, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

Sofia Toledo-Soto of Sofy Cares, an assisted living facility in the mountain town of San Miguel de Allende, said historically, many Mexicans relied on family members to care for older adults. That's changing as the country faces a rapidly aging population, smaller families, and an increasing number of women entering the workforce.

The US's long-term care problem

In the US, long-term care is not considered medical care.

Long-term care is assistance with everyday tasks to support someone's quality of life, such as physical help with bathing, feeding, and toileting. It also covers tasks like preparing meals, managing finances, and housekeeping. Often, this type of care is needed for the most vulnerable populations, such as older adults and disabled individuals.

Medicare and most private insurance plans don't fully cover long-term care costs. Medicare, for example, only covers short-term stays in care facilities — up to 100 days — and the average covered stay is about 22 days, typically after a hospitalization or injury, according to Medicare.gov. Most health insurance plans have similar limits, leaving many people with a significant coverage gap. Medicaid, the state-run safety net program, is often used to fill that gap, but it doesn't always cover the full cost of care.

US-based assisted living costs increased 10% from 2023 to 2024, rising faster than inflation, according to aging navigators Genworth Financial and CareScout. Costs can vary widely by state, from a low of $190 per day in Texas and Louisiana to over $1,000 per day in Alaska and parts of California, according to the American Council on Aging. These expenses typically do not cover incidentals, such as medications or diapers.

By comparison, the cost of assisted living in Mexico averages $1,000 to $2,000 a month, which works out to roughly $33 to $67 per day, according to the Mexican Relocation Guide. Unlike the US, residential facilities in Mexico charge a flat fee for services regardless of the level of care needed. Still, they also don't cover incidentals.

Many Mexican facilities cater to immigrant families with care and conditions comparable to those in the US. The ratio of residents to caregivers can be smaller in some facilities, and in-house doctors are common. Often, services such as physical therapy and mental healthcare are also on-site.

Some Americans were already moving to Mexico for retirement

In 2022, Anja Helmon was traveling through Mexico with her husband, John, in search of a new home. "During the second week that we were doing that, my sister, Donna Gernert, called and she said I can't do this anymore," Helmon, 56, told Business Insider.

Gernert, 66, was the caregiver for their mother, Gladys Wase, 86, who was living with dementia. In a close call, their mom almost pushed Gernert down the stairs. "We had always talked about moving Mom into a facility, and Donna had never thought that she would need that next step." After the near accident, however, Gernert realized she couldn't care for Wase anymore.

That night, Helmon began searching online to see if elder care was available in Mexico. She found a few articles that mentioned facilities costing around $1,000 a month. Gernert also began searching for locations near her home in Ohio that accepted Medicaid.

In 2021, the average cost of a private room at a nursing home in Ohio was $8,213 a month, according to a Genworth survey. This was too expensive for the family. Gernert also looked into a home caregiver, but the cost was "astronomical," about $16,900 a month for the 24-hour care Wase needed. After reviewing their options, the family agreed to move Wase to Mexico and plan to use an in-home caregiver.

Until Helmon could relocate to Mexico, Wase stayed in an Ohio facility for about $6,000 a month. In October 2022, Helmon and her husband moved to Manzanillo, a city on Mexico's Pacific Coast. Wase joined Helmon in January 2023 and now has around-the-clock care from two caregivers for $37,000 pesos a month or about $2,000 USD.

Most days, a caregiver will take Wase out of the home to exercise classes, dance classes, or to visit her caregiver's family.

Immigration comes with issues

Moving their mother to Mexico wasn't without issue — immigration.

As Helmon's mother was experiencing cognitive decline, she couldn't go to the immigration office and sign the paperwork. "She needed to tell them 'Yes, I want to do this,' and she would need to sign her name," Helmon recalled. "Well, she can't do those things."

Long-term residency is a common concern families face when moving their elders to Mexico for care, according to Gabriela Pellicer of GP Expat Services, a boutique agency that helps foreigners obtain Mexican residency. The typical path starts with applying for a temporary residency at a Mexican consulate in the US. After four years of temporary residency, the family can apply for permanent residency. Still, traveling and waiting in a government office becomes a lot harder when a family member's health or cognition declines.

Despite the very real hurdle that Wase couldn't sign her name, immigration worked with Helmon to allow her mother to use a thumbprint instead. Biometric data, including fingerprints and a photo, is required for residency in Mexico. Immigration also allowed Helmon to handle most of the process without Wase present. "They were really helpful, and she's a temporary resident now," Helmon said.

Sofia of Sofy Cares told Business Insider that many families try to circumvent the residency process illegally. They'll move their loved one to Mexico on a tourist visa and let it expire, with some residents staying in the country until they die.

Seeking elder care in Mexico may reduce the daunting financial burden of caring for loved ones — but only if families are willing to navigate the complex process.

"My biggest fear was that I was making a mistake, that this was not what she wanted," Helmon said, adding that if she were to do this again, she'd speak with her mom about what she would've wanted before her dementia started. Still, Helmon is happy with the family's decision.

"She really is happy," she said of her mom, "which is crazy."

• If you're thinking of taking a road trip this summer, there's a must-see road in every state. 
• Among them, Florida's Oversea Highway offers scenic views of piercing blue waters.
• The Valley of Fire Highway in Nevada travels through the Mojave Desert.

Airfare is on the rise amid the collapse of Spirit Airlines and steep oil prices driven by the war with Iran. Despite US gas prices soaring to a national average of $4.457 per gallon as of May 4, road trips can still offer a more affordable alternative to flying.

The American Automobile Association, or AAA, is expecting record-high numbers of summer road trips in 2026, with over 75% of American adults planning to hit the road for vacation this summer, according to a survey conducted by The Vacationer.

WalletHub named Minnesota the best state for summer road trips in 2026, but all 50 states offer scenic drives.

Take a look at the prettiest road to drive in every state.

ALABAMA: State Road 9

Driving through Talladega National Forest along State Road 9 will give you bucolic views of tree-covered hills and small mountains, Alabama Byways reported. There are also several small side roads off the highway that lead to waterfalls and walking trails.

ALASKA: Alaska Route 3

Denali National Park is known for being home to North America's tallest peak. Driving on Interstate A-3 offers stunning views of the park's mountains, wildlife, and greenery. 

ARIZONA: The Apache Trail

The Apache Trail is one of Arizona's oldest highways. The partially unpaved drive takes you through stunning canyons, desert scenes, and geologic formations just outside of Phoenix. 

A 5-mile section of the road has been closed since 2019 due to damage from a wildfire, AZ Central reported.

ARKANSAS: The Pig Trail Scenic Byway

The Pig Trail Scenic Byway takes you through canopies of greenery in spring and summer and stunning fall foliage in autumn. The road winds its way through the Ozark Mountains and is a favorite among motorcyclists, according to the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism.

CALIFORNIA: The Pacific Coast Highway

The Pacific Coast Highway is one of the most famous drives in the world, and for good reason. The cliffside drive on State Route 1 offers epic vistas and stunning views of the Pacific, and if you take the road long enough, you'll pass the famous redwoods and the Golden Gate Bridge. 

COLORADO: The Trail Ridge Road

The Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park was specifically designed for optimal views — drivers and passengers can enjoy stunning panoramas from every turn.

CONNECTICUT: Route 169

There are several back roads, interstates, and byways that show off Connecticut's incredible autumn colors, but Route 169 might be the best. The small, two-lane road passes through quaint towns and offers stunning views of the state's famous fall foliage.

DELAWARE: Brandywine Valley

Delaware's Brandywine Valley along the I-95 corridor makes for a unique road trip by offering a glimpse into history. The 1777 Battle of the Brandywine took place in its rolling hills when George Washington and his army faced British General William Howe, National Geographic reported. It is also dotted with picture-perfect mansions and gardens.  

FLORIDA: The Overseas Highway

To get to the southernmost point of the continental US, you have to take Florida's Seven Mile Bridge to The Keys. You'll be surrounded by piercing blue water for your entire drive on the Overseas Highway. 

GEORGIA: US 41

The Cohutta-Chattahoochee Scenic Byway travels along several roads, the best of which is US 41. The route takes drivers through Chattahoochee National Forest and offers can't-miss views of the Cohutta Mountains, according to the scenic byway's official website.

HAWAII: Hana Highway

The Hana Highway in Hawaii is another one of America's most iconic roads. The coastal highway takes over 600 twists and turns along the outskirts of Maui, according to Hawaii Guide. You'll see waterfalls, rainforests, and dramatic cliff sides.

IDAHO: Sawtooth Scenic Byway

The Sawtooth Scenic Byway takes cars driving northbound on State Highway 75 into Sun Valley, a region famous for its many resorts and its white-capped mountains, according to the Idaho Department of Commerce.

ILLINOIS: Lake Shore Drive

Chicago traffic may be a bit tedious, but Lake Shore Drive will offer a view like no other. With the big cityscape on one side and the Lake Michigan shoreline on the other, you'll get the best of both worlds. 

INDIANA: Highway 36

Parke County is the covered bridge capital of the world, and takes a lot of pride in its 31 covered bridges, many of which are from the 1800s, according to the Parke County Convention and Visitors Commission. Highway 36 is the perfect road from which to explore this historic infrastructure.

IOWA: Loess Hills, Interstate 29

Iowa's vast plains might seem repetitive, but Loess Hills along Interstate 29 gives drivers a unique look into rural America. The route is dotted with small towns, state forests, and museums, according to a guide published by the Iowa Legislature and Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development.

KANSAS: Interstate 70

Kansas' Castle Rock is an off-road attraction just off the seemingly endless Interstate 70. The small detour offers some much-needed excitement if you're on a cross-state road trip through the plains. 

KENTUCKY: Route 77

One of the best parts of Route 77 in Kentucky is the 900-foot, one-lane Nada Tunnel, according to the travel guide website Hiking in the Smokeys.

LOUISIANA: Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street in New Orleans is one of the most iconic streets in the world. You can easily drive through it during the day, but be wary of party-goers and tourists at night.

MAINE: Park Loop Road

Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park is a 27-mile drive along the coast and through the park, which takes fall foliage to a new level every autumn. 

MARYLAND: Old Frederick Road

The Loys Station bridge is a historic, 90-foot-long covered bridge that you can still drive through, according to the Tourism Council of Frederick County. It's located on Old Frederick Road just south of Route 77.

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Route 6

Massachusetts' Route 6 starts at the very tip of cozy Cape Cod. The road takes drivers through the southern part of the state until it reaches Providence, Rhode Island. 

MICHIGAN: M-77

Taking M-77 into Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore will lead straight to the south shore of Lake Superior. The relaxing drive will provide a bright, colorful scene during the spring and summertime, or a deep cascade of orange and red hues in the fall. 

MINNESOTA: US 10

US 10 in Minnesota takes you through a variety of landscapes. It's part of the Great River Road, which offers stunning views of the Mississippi River before continuing into Minneapolis, where you can see the state's grandest city skyline. 

MISSISSIPPI: Great River Road

For scenic views of the Mississippi River, take the aptly named Great River Road. It'll drive you over, under, and alongside the river until Minnesota if you stay on it long enough. 

MISSOURI: Route 66

The iconic Route 66 makes its way through Missouri and past a quaint town named Devil's Elbow. A rusting bridge named the Devil's Elbow Bridge takes travelers over the Big Piney River and through scenic bluffs, according to the Pulaski County Tourism Bureau.

MONTANA: Beartooth Highway

Beartooth Highway makes its way into Yellowstone National Park, providing picturesque views of the world-famous vistas the park is internationally known for.

NEBRASKA: Highway 61

Highway 61 in Nebraska propels drivers into true American farmland. There's not a lot of action on this drive, but it will give you a good look into the classic Midwest agricultural scene. 

NEVADA: Valley of Fire Highway

The Valley of Fire Highway travels through the Mojave Desert for a little over 10 miles. The fiery red formations are a stunning sight, and several parking areas are available if you want to see them up close, according to Travel Nevada.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Kancamagus Highway

New England's fall foliage is world famous. See it in all its glory on New Hampshire's Kancamagus Highway. 

NEW JERSEY: Palisades Parkway

Located just over Manhattan's George Washington Bridge, the Palisades Parkway features views of New York City's famous skyline and New Jersey's scenic cliffs overlooking the Hudson River.

NEW MEXICO: The High Road To Taos

The High Road to Taos is a scenic, winding drive that runs through several small Pueblo Indian villages, according to New Mexico's Tourism Department. It offers a glimpse into the high desert and the lives of those who live in it.

NEW YORK: Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway

Driving through the Adirondacks is much more relaxing than navigating the crowded streets of the Big Apple. The Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway, also known as State Route 431, shows off the surrounding peaks as you make your way up Whiteface Mountain, according to its official website.

NORTH CAROLINA: Blue Ridge Parkway

Visiting North Carolina without taking a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway would be a huge mistake. The Lynn Cove Viaduct, which wraps around Grandfather Mountain, is easily the best part of the entire drive. 

NORTH DAKOTA: Interstate 94

The endless plains of North Dakota become more dynamic at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where the badlands begin. You can catch a glimpse of them from Interstate 94, or take a detour on one of the side roads. 

OHIO: Buckeye Falls Drive

Sharon Woods may seem like a hotspot for hiking and other outdoor activities, but it also offers a scenic drive in the fall. Cruise down the tree-lined Buckeye Falls Drive for a breathtaking break. 

OKLAHOMA: Highway 49

Highway 49 leads right to the Wichita Mountains. Watch out for free-range buffalo, which are known to crowd the roads here, as well as other wildlife, according to the National Scenic Byway Foundation. 

OREGON: US 101

Similar to California's Pacific Coast Highway, US 101 in Oregon travels along the Pacific coast, and offers over 300 miles of seaside driving and rugged cliffs.

PENNSYLVANIA: US Route 30

US Route 30 will take you straight through several Amish and Mennonite towns and into Lancaster, one of America's oldest Amish communities. Don't be surprised if most of the traffic consists of horse-drawn carriages.

RHODE ISLAND: Ocean Drive

Ocean Drive in Newport will take you through the Ocean Drive Historic District past the many ostentatious homes built here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it was a favorite spot to summer for the wealthy. If your legs need a stretch, take a stroll down Cliff Walk. 

SOUTH CAROLINA: Botany Bay Boulevard

South Carolina's Botany Bay on Edisto Island is one of the most famous roads in the South. Its canopied trees make for a stunningly shaded — and super Instagrammable — drive.

SOUTH DAKOTA: Needles Highway

Needles Highway, or Highway 87, is named for the granite "needles" along its route. But be prepared to take it slow — the road, which is in Custer State Park, includes 14 miles of tunnels and turns, according to the Custer State Park Resort.

TENNESSEE: Tail of the Dragon

The Tail of the Dragon attracts many motorcyclists and driving enthusiasts thanks to the 318 curves that snake along the 11-mile, two-lane road, according to RoadTrippers.

TEXAS: Highway 118

Big Bend National Park, which sits on the border of Mexico, can be seen by driving on Highway 118. You'll travel through a stone tunnel and get epic views of the Chisos Mountains. 

UTAH: US Route 163

US Route 163 is also known as the road to Monument Valley. The highway cuts straight through the center of the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.

VERMONT: Route 100

Route 100 travels nearly the entire length of Vermont and is famous for its fall foliage.

VIRGINIA: Skyline Drive

Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park runs along the ridge of the mountains for 105 miles — pretty much the entire length of the park. Its views are some of the best in the state.

WASHINGTON: Olympic Peninsula Loop Drive

Loop around Olympic National Park, and get breathtaking scenery that ranges from mountains to forests to the ocean, as well as several different ecosystems.

WEST VIRGINIA: New River Gorge Bridge

The New River Gorge Bridge allows cars to continue on US 19 over the New River. The 3,030-foot bridge is the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the US, according to the National Park Service. It offers breathtaking views of the surrounding Appalachian Mountains.

WISCONSIN: US 61

US 61 runs along the Mississippi River offering stunning views of the northern parts of the river. 

There's also the Lake Superior Byway, which runs on Highway 13 and shows off Wisconsin's quaint, northernmost towns and the Lake Superior shoreline they all share.

WYOMING: Beartooth Highway

Wyoming's section of Beartooth Highway runs on US 212 and is dotted with wildlife, mountain views, and scenic plateaus.

• Robotics startup Genesis AI wants to make robots that can operate in any environment.
• The company released videos showing a robot playing the piano, cooking, and harnessing wires.
• CEO Zhou Xian said Genesis combines real-world data with simulation to train its robots.

Manipulation is considered one of the hardest problems in robotics. The ability to grab, move, take apart or put together an object with precision is what would make humanoid robots truly useful in the real world.

A startup backed by VC firm Eclipse and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said it took a big leap to solve it.

Genesis AI, a French startup with an R&D center in Silicon Valley, said on Wednesday that it's getting closer to achieving "human-level capability" in manipulation, showing a robot playing the piano, cracking an egg, and harnessing wires in recorded demonstrations.

One video showed robotic hands keeping up with a piano composition that moves at around a brisk 130 beats per minute. The startup also demonstrated robots cracking an egg with one hand and harnessing wires.

Genesis AI said the demos were executed autonomously — meaning the robots were not teleoperated by a human — and shown at 1x speed.

The demos were not examples of zero-shot execution, meaning the robots still required training for specific tasks, such as playing a particular piece of music. Zhou Xian, CEO of Genesis AI, told Business Insider in an interview that his team of around 60 people taught the robot to play a new song on the piano in one hour.

For the cooking demonstration, Xian said it required a "few hundred trajectories" or recorded examples of relevant tasks that would train the robot to crack an egg or chop a tomato.

He said a 30-second "complex skill" — such as those seen in the cooking demo — requires a few hours of human data, combined with less than half an hour of data from the robot performing the task.

The robot still failed on some subtasks of the cooking demo: While most steps reached roughly 90% to 95% success, Xian said one-handed egg cracking and transferring chopped tomato with a knife were closer to 50% to 60% during filming.

"I think these are probably the most complex tasks ever being performed by a robot in a very human-like way at the efficiency, speed, and performance similar to a human," Xian said, adding that the robot is exhibiting about 60% to 70% of human speed.

Genesis aims to build a general-purpose robot capable of performing a range of tasks across different environments. Unlike model-focused firms such as Physical Intelligence, the startup is developing the entire stack: the AI model, robot hand, training gloves, simulator, and, eventually, the robot itself.

In 10 years, Zhou said, he does not see why a factory robot should be fundamentally different from a home robot.

"I think the beauty of being a full-stack company is when you design the hardware, you know exactly what's needed," Xian said.

Genesis is making a hand that closely resembles the human form. Xian said the startup's robot hand has 20 degrees of freedom and 20 motors directly inside it. That differs from tendon-driven hands, where motors are placed in the forearm and cables, or tendons, move the fingers.

Rather than relying solely on video data and teleoperation, the startup is using a mix of internet data and raw human data collected through proprietary training gloves that capture hand motion and tactile, force-like signals.

Xian said his company is talking with a few industrial partners that could have employees wear the training gloves for data collection while at work. Genesis also uses an in-house simulator to test models trained on real-world data across many virtual environments, which Zhou said lets the company evaluate systems faster than running each test on a physical robot.

The CEO said he's not making the bold claim that manipulation has been solved, but that Genesis' approach is a "critical step" toward pushing robot manipulation to the next level.

"We're indeed an ambitious company," Xian said, "and we're just not happy with the status quo, and we want to push the field forward."

• Construction of Elon Musk's Texas chip factory is projected to cost up to $119 billion.
• The Terafab project aims to supply AI chips for Musk's companies.
• Morgan Stanley analysts had previously estimated the Terafab would cost $45 billion.

SpaceX just shared the estimated construction cost of Elon Musk's ambitious chip factory in Texas — and it's higher than analysts' predictions.

The Terafab project could initially cost $55 billion and rise to $119 billion if additional phases are constructed, according to a public notice posted on the Grimes County website.

Musk announced the joint project between his companies, SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla, in March. His goal is for the Terafab to produce critical AI chips for Tesla's robotaxis and Optimus robot.

"SpaceX proposes construction of a multi-phase, next-generation, vertically integrated semiconductor manufacturing and advanced computing fabrication facility, which would represent a transformative investment in domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity," the Grimes County document states.

The proposed location for the Terafab site is the Gibbons Creek Reservoir in rural Texas, the notice said. The reservoir is about 100 miles from Tesla's HQ in Austin and close to College Station, home of Texas A&M University.

County Commissioners will meet on June 3 to consider approval of a property tax abatement for the project, it added.

The price tag is notably higher than analysts' estimates, which had already raised questions about how SpaceX and Tesla would pay for the moonshot project.

Morgan Stanley analysts estimated in March that a factory capable of producing chips at the scale Musk had previously suggested could cost up to $45 billion.

Analysts have also said that the Terafab project would face challenges outside the capital cost, such as securing specialist technical talent.

Since Musk unveiled Terafab in March, the project has announced US chip giant Intel as a partner and listed job ads for the moonshot, including one role with a base salary of up to $240,000.

It comes as SpaceX is preparing for what's expected to be the largest IPO in history, with its public filings expected to reveal more details about Terafab.

• This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

The most at-risk job these days is the one that's just managing other people.

Managers got a stark reminder of how close they are to the endangered species list on Tuesday. Coinbase announced it's cutting 14% of its staff, roughly 700 employees, and singled out managers.

CEO Brian Armstrong's letter to staff had lots of the tell-tale signs of a 2026 layoff announcement: AI, tiny teams, and adapting to a volatile market. (Next time, just use my Mad Libs for AI-driven layoffs.)

Particularly noticeable in Armstrong's vision for Coinbase was the lack of managers. The concept of a "pure manager" will no longer exist at the crypto giant, he said.

"Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor. Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams," Armstrong said in an email sent to staff.

BI's Sarah E. Needleman and Ana Altchek broke down the great manager massacre taking place in tech.

The push for player-coaches feels like switch pitchers in baseball: good in theory; difficult in reality.

An ambidextrous pitcher is valuable because they can get favorable matchups against both left- and right-handed batters. But MLB has had fewer than 10 switch pitchers in its history. Pat Venditte — the only one in the modern era — topped out as a middle reliever over five seasons.

(Yes, switch hitters are more common, but they're still pretty unique. And their numbers are dwindling.)

Why would something so valuable be so rare? Because it's REALLY hard to be an exceptional pitcher with both arms. What you gain in flexibility, you lose in specialization.

Which gets us back to player-coaches. I understand why Armstrong or Block's Jack Dorsey want everyone to be individual contributors. It's a lot more efficient to have everyone putting points on the board.

But you're likely going to sacrifice a bit of performance to get there. A switch pitcher's fastball isn't quite as good as if they just focused on one arm. That rings true for a player-coach trying to hit their own goals while helping others reach theirs.

AI could be the secret sauce that enables player-coaches to finally reach their full potential on both sides. The tech is proving useful at automating tasks and supercharging workers.

But it also comes with plenty of challenges around adoption. And who's stuck figuring it out? The same middle managers companies seem eager to get rid of.

What do you think? Should managers be able just to manage or do they need to take on other work? Let us know in our survey.

• Oil prices dropped sharply on Wednesday on reports that a US-Iran peace agreement may be close.
• Brent and WTI oil benchmarks both fell more than 8% early in the day after a report from Axios.
• US stocks rose and key bond yields dropped on the prospects of the war winding down.

The price of oil dropped sharply on Wednesday after reports that the US and Iran could be close to agreeing on a deal to end the war.

WTI oil, the US benchmark, was down as much as 10% in early trading, though by around 8:15 a.m., it had pared those losses to trade around 8% lower at $94.32 per barrel.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, was 7% lower at $102.14 at the same time.

Stocks were in rally mode on the news. Index futures were pointing solidly upward, with the Dow on track to open more than 400 points higher and the Nasdaq up more than 1%.

The moves came after Axios reported early on Wednesday morning, citing four anonymous sources, that Washington and Tehran are close to agreeing on a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the conflict, which began at the end of February.

Axios reported that while no deal has been formally signed, major progress could be made toward an agreement in the next 48 hours. Key points of the proposed deal include a gradual reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that has been a focal point for much of the war.

A few hours after Axios' report, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the strait could soon open, but only if Iran "agrees to give what has been agreed to."

"Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran," he wrote.

"If they don't agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP."

Oil costs have skyrocketed worldwide since the US and Israel attacked Iran in late February. Iran retaliated by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean and serves as a key shipping channel for oil and liquefied natural gas produced in the Gulf.

Prices have been highly volatile in recent months, swinging sharply on signs of escalations and de-escalations in the conflict. The surging price of oil since the war began has led to knock-on effects, such as a spike in gas prices at the pump and big increases in plane ticket prices due to a jump in aviation fuel costs.

• Over the years, my husband and I have wondered when to let our kids have more freedom.
• I'm not sure how old they should be before they start having sleepovers or riding bikes alone.
• My perspective shifted after we moved in with my parents, and I'm ready to let go more.

A few years ago, when our son was 8, one of his mates asked if he could go bike riding around the neighborhood with him. This particular kid is a strong mountain bike rider and has always been mature for his age, so his parents trusted his judgment when he was out riding alone.

In some ways, our son is also mature. He can help take care of his two little sisters, order a meal himself, and ask an adult a question with confidence. But when it comes to understanding road rules and being aware of hazards like reversing cars, he's easily distracted.

It was too soon to let our son do certain things

As much as I wanted to be the cool mum and say, "Yes, of course you can go riding together," I just didn't think our son was ready. After talking to my husband about it later, he agreed it was too soon.

I remember the child's mum, one of my close friends, asking when our son might be able to go riding with her boy. I felt a tad ridiculous saying, "Ah, maybe when he's 10." It felt so far away.

Next came the sleepover question from my son's friends. When would he be allowed to stay the night? I wanted to say, "Never!" but I also didn't want to be a grinch and have him miss out on making fun memories with friends. We ended up letting him go to a sleepover for the first time last year, and he loved it.

It's one of those big decisions as a parent. At what point do you let your kids go? When do you give them that freedom and trust that everything you've taught them up until that point is enough to keep them safe?

For a long time, for my husband and me, the benefit of giving our son freedom and independence didn't outweigh the risk of him being injured or hurt. We just wanted to protect our son at all costs, whether that's the right approach or not.

Moving in with my parents changed my perspective

Funnily enough, something shifted when we moved in with my parents earlier this year. We relocated from country Victoria, in Australia, to the Gold Coast, and moved in with my folks.

A few weeks ago, my mum was looking after my son, who turns 11 this month, as well as my daughter and niece, both 7, while I worked. When she got home, I asked them how their afternoon was.

Mum explained that she'd dropped our son and my niece at the library while she took my daughter to gymnastics. I almost choked on my apple.

"Who was looking after them, mum?" I asked. She looked confused. "He was," she said, pointing at my son and smiling.

Internally, I could feel my blood starting to boil. I wanted to scream, "But how could you leave them alone there?" Mum could tell I was upset, so she tried to explain her reasoning.

"Darling, he's almost 11 years old," she said. "He'll be a teenager in two years. He's quite capable of watching his younger cousin for an hour."

Giving my son more freedom has helped me feel more confident, too

After I calmed down, I realized my mum was right. She had, after all, raised four children successfully and taught us how to be independent, capable young people. It was time to let go.

And so, we've started giving our son a bit more freedom. When he walks to a friend's house alone, I can feel that familiar old rush of anxiety, but I try to tell myself he's got this. The more independence we give him, the more my confidence grows, too.

I'm also increasingly letting him work through challenges by himself. In the past, I used to try to solve every issue, heal every hurt, but I now realize I may have been doing him a disservice. He needs to build resilience and learn to problem-solve on his own.

The other day our son came home from school and was complaining about something that had happened with another child. My first instinct was to offer to consult the kid's parent about it, but mum pulled me up. "I reckon you can sort that out on your own," she told my son, giving me a wink. "I believe in you."

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, me too," I said.

• Berkshire Hathaway is using AI to help customers, localize products, and use labor more efficiently.
• Business Insider spoke to the CEOs of four subsidiaries about how they're using the red-hot tech.
• Warren Buffett stepped down as Berkshire's CEO on New Year's Day, making way for Greg Abel.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is harnessing AI to parse customer feedback, take drive-thru orders, localize toys, and free workers from administrative tasks.

Business Insider spoke to the CEOs of four Berkshire subsidiaries — Dairy Queen, Jazwares, Brooks Running, and See's Candies — about their embrace of AI at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha last weekend.

"We don't want to use AI just to say we're using AI," Dairy Queen CEO Troy Bader said, echoing Greg Abel, who succeeded Buffett as Berkshire's CEO at the start of this year.

Abel said during a Q&A at the annual meeting that Berkshire was "not going to do AI for the sake of AI." Instead, he championed a "narrow AI" strategy where humans still make decisions, there are safeguards in place, such as repeating prompts, and the focus is on generating value for Berkshire's businesses.

AI is among the hottest topics in the business world as companies are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into developing the tech, laying off supposedly obsolete workers, and scrambling to find ways it can be used to gain an edge on the competition.

Bader said Dairy Queen recently used AI to analyze 100,000 pieces of fan feedback, and it was able to "quickly decipher" the common themes and trends.

He also noted the fast-food chain, known for its Blizzard desserts, recently expanded testing of AI-enhanced voice ordering in its drive-thrus to 50 more restaurants.

Bader said that if AI can take orders accurately, that frees up the person who was taking them previously to focus on other aspects of the customer experience, such as speed, quality, and hospitality.

"It's not about displacing labor for us," he said. "It's about the most efficient utilization of labor."

David Neustein, the CEO of Jazwares, told Business Insider the Squishmallows maker has applied AI to everything from forecasting and production to supply-chain logistics and how it runs its warehouse facilities.

Neustein said the toymaker is constantly researching trends, and now it can deploy AI agents to analyze different demographics around the world and help the company decide which products to "develop and put on a shelf in a certain territory."

"There's a BNSF AI train, and I think everyone needs to get on this one," he quipped, nodding to another Berkshire subsidiary, BNSF Railway.

Brooks CEO Dan Sheridan told Business Insider the sports-equipment company has seen a lot of progress with AI in its finance, marketing, and back-office divisions.

He said the "beauty is we're taking all those resources and applying them to more demand creation, more salespeople, more activity in front of the house."

See's CEO Pat Egan said the confectioner, which Buffett has called his "dream business," hasn't yet found that AI "changes a lot directly" for its core business.

Still, Egan said he has "little doubt" that AI will play a more important role in the future, from driving efficiencies to boosting marketing.

"But we're really at the front end of it," he said.

• Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said that he believes "people managers" will become redundant in the AI age.
• He joins the growing chorus of tech executives sounding the alarm on these roles.
• On Tuesday, Coinbase said it would cut all "pure manager" roles at the firm.

Airbnb's CEO says "people managers" will soon become a thing of the past.

Speaking about the impact of AI on the "Invest Like The Best" podcast on Tuesday, CEO Brian Chesky said, "I don't think people managers will have any value in the future."

"People who have lots of recurring one-on-ones are not going to survive," Chesky added. "That kind of leadership style is not going to work. You need to have context."

Chesky joins a growing chorus of tech execs who say the role of "pure managers" is redundant in the age of AI — employees who solely manage people as part of their job. As more companies announce layoffs and cite AI as a key factor, Chesky's words are another sign that middle management is an increasingly vulnerable place to be.

Airbnb last made sweeping layoffs during the pandemic in May 2020. A spokesperson for the company said it has not announced any planned layoffs. It is due to report first-quarter earnings on Thursday.

'Pure managers' are out

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on Tuesday that there will be no more "pure managers" at the company, as the company announced a 14% staff cut. "We are flattening our org structure to 5 layers max below CEO/COO," he wrote in a memo to employees.

In March, Block's chief, Jack Dorsey, wrote in a blog post with Sequoia partner Roelof Botha that "there is no need for a permanent middle management layer" after the company made sweeping layoffs earlier this year. Meanwhile, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has touted the value of flattening teams for years.

Chesky said managers must now be involved in the nitty-gritty of their company's work if they want to survive the AI age.

"You don't manage the people, you manage the work," Chesky said. If you're a lawyer, "you have to actually read the case law, and you have to get involved."

As Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong put it, in the era of AI, managers should become more like "player-coaches" who get their hands dirty alongside their teams.

• A version of this post appears in the CMO Insider newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's weekly marketing newsletter here.

Americans are drinking less alcohol than they have in decades, and beer is feeling the hit.

The FIFA World Cup 2026 is a huge opportunity to get Americans chugging again.

Molson Coors North America CMO Sofia Colucci told me the company is making its largest media investment in a live sporting event in the last decade — despite not being an official World Cup sponsor.

Mediaocean, a platform that manages ads across TV and digital, said the beer category is spending 20 times as much on advertising for this year's tournament versus Qatar 2022.

Hosted across the US, Canada, and Mexico, this summer's tournament is on home turf, with more games than ever before, and finally in a time zone that's conducive to cracking a cold one while watching the action with friends.

"If beer sales don't recover during the World Cup, then you would be pretty concerned about the beer industry," Rabobank beverages analyst Bourcard Nesin told me.

Molson Coors has 90 national spots planned across its Miller Lite, Topo Chico Hard, and Coors Light brands. "The Coooors Call" is the standout ad — and reminds me of Budweiser's iconic "Whassup" commercial.

"In a time like this, it's actually that much more important to bring the creativity and the unexpectedness," Colucci said.

Molson Coors will be advertising in a crowded market. The World Advertising Research Centre predicts the World Cup will drive a $10.5 billion surge in global ad spend. At a time when bigger brewers like the official sponsor, AB InBev, will be flexing their heavyweight marketing budgets, local activations are key to Molson Coors' World Cup playbook. (AB InBev on Tuesday reported its first quarterly return to organic volume growth in three years, which included a 1.2% lift in beer volume versus the year-ago quarter.)

On-the-ground tactics include partnering with Uber to sponsor branded shuttles in New York City and to display in-car and in-app ads. Molson Coors is also hosting parties in markets like Chicago with Chelsea Football Club, and tapping influencers such as the hosts of the soccer podcast "Unfiltered."

"We really see this as an opportunity to reach both our core drinkers as well as newer legal-age Gen Z drinkers alike," Colucci said.

Why soccer and beer go hand-in-hand

About half of soccer fans typically buy beer when attending matches, according to the research company Mintel. That's a higher rate than the overall sports fan average, including among the major US sports that beer advertisers tend to focus on.

Beyond the stadiums, separate data from the research company Fifty5Blue found that US adults interested in the World Cup are more than four times more likely than the average American adult to watch live broadcasts of soccer games in a bar or other venue.

Soccer fans also over-index on what marketers refer to as the "shoulder hours," Mintel senior analyst Gabe Sanchez said. Sixty-five percent of soccer fans go out pre-kickoff, and 75% do so after the final whistle. That's significantly higher than fans of football, basketball, baseball, or hockey, Sanchez said.

Mediaocean said spending on local TV buys has spiked, as World Cup advertisers look to target in-person fans and viewing parties in host cities. The cost for local spots in host cities are 50% higher than non-host cities, Mediaocean said. Meanwhile, there's been a big uptick in Spanish-language local spot buys and those from Mexican beer brands, per Mediaocean.

Non-alcoholic beverages play a role, too

The rise of the sober-curious gives beer brands a new opportunity in the non-alcoholic category, Sanchez said. And Gen Z's habits aren't uniform: 49% of this age group say they're drinking more, while 44% want to reduce their alcohol consumption.

From Molson Coors to Heineken's recent "Fans Have More Friends" campaign and Budweiser's "Let It Pour," beer marketers are leaning into the drink's power as a social connector — and highlighting their non-alcoholic options.

The World Cup winners among beer marketers will be the brands that "understand that beer's future with younger consumers isn't about drinking more, it's about belonging more," Sanchez said.

This points to a challenge for beer marketers that's bigger than changing consumer tastes.

Earlier this year, Molson Coors CEO Rahul Goyal wrote an op-ed about how the entire beverage industry is tackling an "occasion problem." Put simply: People are hanging out together less often. The loneliness epidemic is a buzzkill for beer sales.

The World Cup is the "biggest opportunity" for beer marketers to catch people during a summer of socializing, Rabobank's Nesin said.

"It's a Super Bowl that lasts an entire month," he added. "It will certainly lead to an increase in sales. It's just a question of: Will it meet the very high expectations they set up for themselves?"

• Yahoo is making its Scout AI engine a top priority this year.
• It's a late entrant to the space and hopes to differentiate by prominently displaying sourcing.
• Yahoo is launching an ad campaign this week centered on kids asking their parents tons of questions.

Yahoo's Scout is a latecomer to the AI search party — but its creators have a vision for how it can stand out.

The Scout launch is one of the 31-year-old internet-media company's "top priorities" this year, as it hopes to inspire a cohort of new and existing users to think of Yahoo as a trusted source of information, CMO Josh Line told Business Insider.

Launched in beta in January, Scout is built on Anthropic's Claude and Microsoft's "Grounding with Bing" search tool. It draws its answers from the open web and the Yahoo portfolio, which includes 500 million user profiles, mail, news, finance, and its publisher partners. It's also embedded into products like mail and finance.

Line said Scout's standout feature, which differentiates it from the likes of OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, is that it prominently displays the sources from which it derived its answers. (Those platforms also display sources to varying degrees depending on the query and model.)

"We know very clearly from our consumer research that trust is the top need in the space," Line said. "Many people who are using answer engines regularly recognize that there are hallucinations and that they don't always know where the information is coming from."

Yahoo is kicking off its first ad campaign for Scout this week, which will run on Instagram and TikTok, the company exclusively told CMO Insider. Timed for Mother's Day, the ad is based on the insight that parents field dozens of questions a day from their kids — from "How did the internet get on the computers?" to "How does the Tooth Fairy find me?" Harkening back to the brand's past, the montage ends with children performing the signature Yahoo yodel.

Line said more marketing activity is planned for later in the year.

Since coming under new ownership and management after its sale to the private equity giant Apollo in 2021, Yahoo has been undergoing a multi-year turnaround designed to reinvigorate the collection of legacy internet sites for a new generation.

Line, who joined Yahoo in March 2025, has been shaking up the brand's marketing with a playbook that connects the company's product updates to modern culture. To introduce a new AI-powered planner feature in Yahoo Mail, for example, the company teamed up with Cardi B for a campaign tapping into what it called FOMSI, or Fear of Missing Something Important. Line said the "Cardi B Busy" spot was Yahoo's most-viewed, engaged-with, liked, and commented-on ad of all time and helped drive Yahoo Mail up the app-store rankings.

Debra Aho Williamson, chief analyst at Sonata Insights, which specializes in the AI-advertising economy, said it's unlikely Scout will help Yahoo gain a significant number of users, but that it could keep existing users engaged.

"That can still be extremely valuable, because it opens up new advertising opportunities," Williamson said.

"Scout is an example of what I think we'll see a lot more of in the future: Generative AI features and experiences that are embedded into the everyday activities consumers already do," Williamson added.

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• Klarna's CMO built an AI version of himself for team members to vent at during a tough period.
• David Sandström said it helped keep real-life meetings on track and forward-focused.
• Sandström described how Klarna is leaning into AI and why he wants to hire "marketing engineers."

When Klarna CMO David Sandström had to navigate his organization through a rough period of budget cuts, he didn't hold a town hall to smooth the internal friction. He created an AI version of himself to take the heat instead.

Speaking on a recent webinar hosted by the AI company ElevenLabs, Sandström described his digital replica as an internal "venting machine."

He said he told his team, "I believe that people are probably quite pissed with me, and I would like to give them a way of expressing that without having to send me angry Slack messages."

The AI version of Sandström was programmed to always be friendly, ask for forgiveness, and take the blame, he said.

"I just didn't want to hear the whining in the meetings anymore. So I said, call this number, get it out of the system. When we then meet, we focus on the future," Sandström said.

The AI-Sandström inspired Klarna to build a chatbot version of the company's CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, that customers can call to share feedback. It's trained on his many podcast appearances.

"That was, to some extent, a PR stunt but also a gold mine of feedback and ideas from customers," Sandström said.

Klarna isn't the only high-profile tech organization experimenting with AI avatars. LinkedIn cofounder and veteran Silicon Valley investor Reid Hoffman created a "deepfake twin" trained on decades-worth of his content and designed to act and sound like him. The AI Foundation has also created digital clones of figures such as Deepak Chopra and Richard Branson.

Swedish fintech Klarna was an early pioneer in using AI to root out inefficiencies in areas like marketing and customer service, and to take on some of the work previously done by human employees. Siemiatkowski touched a nerve in 2024 when he said AI let his in-house marketing team do more at "half the size."

It hasn't all been smooth sailing, though. The following year, the fintech company redeployed workers to customer support roles after acknowledging that its earlier cost-cutting in that department had gone too far.

Sandström said there are still areas where AI fails, and human intervention is required.

For example, Sandström said the company built a Meta account that creates content based on what it knows about Klarna's products and can autonomously spend its own budget. When using a template designed to make content that could go viral, the creative engine can sometimes go "incident-level crazy," Sandström said.

Advertisers told Business Insider last year that Meta's generative AI tools had sometimes gone rogue, conjuring up bizarre ads even after they had switched off some AI-related settings. Meta said at the time that it offered advertisers the opportunity to review AI-generated ads and that it was continuously improving its products.

Seeking 'marketing engineers'

Sandström's marketing department, which he calls a "marketing factory," is all-in on AI.

It's worked with Databricks to move all of its data out of scattered silos, such as Salesforce and Google Sheets, into a centralized location where non-engineers can query it. Elsewhere, it's experimenting with AI-generated synthetic audiences to test how different consumer segments might react to an ad campaign or to changes in its user experience.

Klarna grew its revenue by 38% to $1 billion in the quarter that ended December 2025. Klarna's stock is trading down around 50% year to date, however. The company posted a net loss in the fourth quarter, as it continued to expand beyond its "buy now, pay later" roots into more traditional lending products that carry higher expenses and credit risks.

During the webinar, Sandström said he now looks to hire "marketing engineers" — people who understand marketing but also the tech that powers it. The balance of skills he looks for still favors people with traditional marketing backgrounds.

Sandström said it's easier to train marketers in the "small amount of engineering needed" than to teach an engineer the "touch, taste, and tactile" skills needed for marketing.

Sandström said he's not in the camp that believes AI will wipe out junior-level jobs. He's more worried about the "middle-aged generalist."

"I'm very interested to find the people with the right traits and mindset rather than the right experience," Sandström said.

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• Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are taking a growing chunk of influencer marketing budgets.
• Ad spend to boost creator posts is expected to eventually surpass influencer content budgets, per EMARKETER.
• The shift comes as organic views on influencer posts become harder to come by.

The way advertisers spend money on influencer marketing is heading toward a tipping point.

For the past few years, most of the spending by brands has gone toward paying influencers to post about their products on social media. Marketers have spent a smaller amount with social platforms to boost those posts.

The pendulum is swinging toward boosting, though, according to EMARKETER, a sibling company of Business Insider. The firm forecasts the two forms of spending will be roughly even in the US next year at $14.2 billion. It also projects that in 2028, brands will spend $16.1 billion to amplify creator content on social media (excluding YouTube), surpassing their spending with creators to produce sponsored content ($15.71 billion).

That means more money going to TikTok and Instagram ads and relatively fewer dollars entering creators' pockets.

"It speaks to the often-unspoken-about and very-felt performance problem in influencer marketing," said James Nord, founder of the influencer-marketing firm Fohr. "The content generally is not performing as well as it should for how much it's costing, and so increasingly brands are forced to use paid [boosting] to extract ROI and value out of their influencer content."

The free-lunch era of social is over

The shift comes at a moment of flux in the social media industry.

While apps like TikTok previously offered influencers and brands regular opportunities to go viral for free, it's now become much harder to get organic views as algorithms become hyper-personalized. Getting attention often requires paid amplification.

Joe Perello, CEO of Props, a performance-based creator marketing agency, said the formula of brands paying influencers for endorsements worked until platforms — starting with Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram — began to choke off organic reach for sponsored content.

"That was the beginning of the erosion of finding influencers based on their followers," he said. "There's no free lunch."

Nord added that there's "no reason to go work with a big influencer if you can get the same reach and performance from a smaller one whose content you're boosting."

Perello's firm works with brands like AAA to line up creators who produce stories and videos relevant to the brand. The brand promotes creators' posts on social media to drive viewers to take an action, such as visiting the brand's website.

Perello said the brand can see how well the posts perform through data, including the cost to acquire a new customer. He said this approach is increasingly being adopted by brands that are less established in performance marketing, including consumer packaged goods and regional banks.

For influencers who want to preserve their edge with brands, the key is to show they can still drive views on their own accounts with some consistency.

"We encourage them to figure out what's working in their feeds and do more of that," Nord said.

The bottom line for creators

How does the shift affect creators' bottom lines?

Industry insiders said some of the increased social-media ad spend often trickles down to creators through a separate fee.

Anders Bill, CPO at the influencer-marketing platform Superfiliate, said a common approach is for brands to pay creators a fixed amount on top of the content budget. He said creators can negotiate for a bigger cut, though.

"I don't see a lot of creators talking about it, and I think it's a big opportunity," Bill said.

It's true that most of this social network ad spending is going to platforms, not creators, though.

Still, Reza Izad, co-CEO of the management firm Underscore Talent, doesn't see this as a negative because brands still need content to promote. EMARKETER's forecast indicates that spending on sponsored content will also continue to grow, though at a slower pace than spending on amplification.

"If the content is part of the media mix, they have to spend money on content," Izad said.

With the influencer category growing overall, it may not be a winner-take-all proposition.

"The increase in paid amplification is not a decrease in spending directly to creators but instead bringing more dollars into creator marketing from less effective channels," said Scott Sutton, CEO of the influencer-marketing firm Later.

Strong creative assets are still important in a world where more spending goes toward paid amplification, according to Olivia Cripps, global paid media director at the influencer firm Billion Dollar Boy.

That said, the platforms are flexing their muscle by making it harder for brand content to spread organically.

Tyler Chou, a creator-focused lawyer and advocate, said the shift shows why it's important for influencers to develop revenue streams less reliant on major platforms. She's encouraging clients to build their own apps, for example.

"There's more and more that realize that these platforms are taking a lot of our revenue," she said.

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• Disney topped Wall Street's estimates in its latest quarter.
• New CEO Josh D'Amaro laid out the three pillars of his growth strategy in a shareholder letter.
• D'Amaro has faced several unexpected challenges since replacing Bob Iger.

Josh D'Amaro's Disney just exceeded expectations after a hectic few weeks.

Disney's revenue grew 7% to $25.2 billion in its quarter ending March 28, the company said on Wednesday morning, above the $24.87 billion estimate from analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Adjusted earnings per share rose 8% to $1.57 per share compared to Wall Street's consensus estimate of $1.51 per share.

Shares rose over 4% in pre-market trading.

D'Amaro, who took over for longtime CEO Bob Iger in mid-March, wrote in a letter to shareholders — also signed by CFO Hugh Johnston — that the company is "executing aligned to a long-term strategy built on three pillars."

Here are the pillars:

1. Investing in IP and creativity that breaks through, builds connections, and endures
2. Reaching more consumers in more seamless, engaging ways around the world
3. Using advanced technologies to power our storytelling and increase monetization and returns

"We are strengthening streaming through continued investment in the creative storytelling that defines us and in product and technology innovation, while advancing ESPN's direct-to-consumer future, and delivering on our bold growth plans at Disney Experiences," D'Amaro wrote.

Entertainment revenue rose 10% to $11.72 billion in the quarter, topping analysts' estimates for $11.4 billion, thanks to 14% growth from subscriptions and affiliate fees.

D'Amaro put a heavy emphasis on streaming in the letter and said the company's goal is to make Disney+ "more engaging, more personalized, and more central to how fans experience our brands."

Disney+ is becoming the digital centerpiece of the Mouse House, where viewers are "not just a subscriber — they're in a relationship with the company," D'Amaro said on the earnings call. The CEO said this strategy doesn't mean ditching partnerships, including with Fortnite creator Epic Games.

Revenue for the experiences division that D'Amaro used to run — which includes parks, cruises, and products — climbed 7% and slightly exceeded the expected figure of about $9.4 billion.

The sports segment, anchored by ESPN and its revamped app, saw revenue tick up 2%, to just above the $4.59 billion estimate.

Disney's stock is up 8.7% from its late-March low but is down about 45% in the last five years and has barely budged in the last decade.

D'Amaro's honeymoon didn't last long

It's been an eventful few weeks at the Mouse House.

Less than a month after D'Amaro took the top job, Disney announced a major round of layoffs. The mid-April reorg hit marketing teams especially hard. Laid-off employees were given severance pay based on their level and tenure, Business Insider reported.

The Mouse House is also contending with the FCC, which ordered an unusual early renewal of ABC's broadcast licenses — days after late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about Melania Trump that provoked the anger of the first lady and President Trump.

Another curveball came when OpenAI canceled its Disney deal, which would have put AI-generated videos on Disney+ and given employees access to the enterprise version of ChatGPT. Disney ended up putting short-form vertical clips on its flagship streamer anyway, as have rivals Paramount+, Peacock, and Netflix.

"We continue to explore potential commercial opportunities with OpenAI and others," D'Amaro wrote in the letter.

And in D'Amaro's first week as CEO, the company shelved the debut of one of its biggest shows, "The Bachelorette," after a controversy around star Taylor Frankie Paul.

Embracing AI and tech

The Mouse House has been encouraging employees to use AI and has created an "AI Adoption Dashboard," Business Insider reported. Some staffers are using chatbots tens of thousands of times per month, and some who don't use AI have gotten check-in messages from their higher-ups.

AI is likely to be a key part of the "advanced technologies" D'Amaro referenced that can help drive the company's "storytelling and increase monetization and returns."

Within streaming, D'Amaro said Disney is investing in content, tech, and marketing, adding that the company has "a robust product pipeline aimed at increasing engagement and frequency of use."

Disney has also shaken up its streaming commerce and data teams after the departure of Ajay Arora, formerly the SVP of product management and engineering, Business Insider reported.

Another change is Disney's recent decision to cut stock-based compensation for some tech staffers, Business Insider reported.

• As if the Great Flattening wasn't enough, managers are being tasked with driving the AI revolution.
• Recent scoops from Business Insider show how managers are trying to get workers to actually use AI.
• They're flagging low usage, creating dashboards, and offering up practical ideas for using the tech.

As middle managers' ranks dwindle, their mandate is increasing.

Their latest project: Getting you on board with AI.

Companies are under increasing pressure to prove that AI is boosting efficiency. During a smattering of high-profile layoffs this year, CEOs have boasted that AI enabled the cuts.

Most recently, Coinbase said Tuesday it was cutting 14% of its staff, citing both AI and a desire to trim management layers.

In recent weeks, Business Insider has exclusively written about how companies, including Disney and JPMorgan, are tracking and incentivizing corporate employees' AI use. These two companies, in particular, show how managers are working to drive day-to-day adoption.

It's a sign that the pressure to show results from hefty AI investments is shifting — from C-suite memos and all-hands talking points to individual manager check-ins and, ultimately, performance reviews. Those managers in the middle are digging in, flagging low usage, creating dashboards, and offering up practical ideas for employing the technology.

For managers already straining under do-more-with-less marching orders, it's one more thing on their plates.

'It's become more urgent'

A software engineer at JPMorgan says he has a good relationship with his manager. Lately, their conversations have turned to AI, he told Business Insider.

In daily standups and weekly team meetings, the worker's manager reminds him and his colleagues that now that they have access to AI tools, "we need to start showing better outcomes," he said, referring to what he's hearing from his manager.

"It's become more urgent," the engineer said. He added that his manager has made comments in meetings about not wanting to be the "last-place team" in AI use.

Companies have spent the past few years rolling out AI tools, urging employees to experiment and, at times, mandating their use. Yet many firms have run into a familiar problem: Giving workers access to AI doesn't mean they'll use it, or do so in ways that boost productivity.

Consulting firm McKinsey reported in April that while companies are investing more in AI, "sustained impact on performance is elusive."

That's where managers come in.

"Managers play a really critical role," said Julie Bedard, a managing director at Boston Consulting Group who focuses on talent strategy and AI.

A year ago, many firms' AI approach amounted to, "Let's do something," said Kathy Gersch, CEO of the change-management firm Kotter.

After rolling out AI to everyone, some leaders concluded, "'Well, nothing's happening,' or, 'Not enough is happening,'" she said. "Now it's getting pushed further in the organization."

Expect an email from your boss

One way bosses are nudging workers is by making it clear they're tracking AI use. At Disney, the company is letting some on its tech team view an "AI Adoption Dashboard" that shows token use for the AI tools Cursor and Claude, Business Insider previously reported.

It's not the only way the company is examining who's going all in on AI. One Disney manager wrote to a software engineer that he'd been reviewing a team's use of the technology to see "how people are using the AI tools we've invested in," according to a message viewed by Business Insider.

The manager wrote that the person had used the AI tool once in the prior 30 days and asked the engineer to explain, by a certain date, why the worker hadn't used AI more.

The manager asked for details on which AI tools the person had access to, how they had been using them, what had made it "hard to get started," and what would make it easier for the worker to "use them more regularly."

"Your honest feedback will help me understand where to focus — whether that's better training, clearer guidance, or just removing friction," the manager wrote.

Another engineer at the company described a bottom-up approach in which engineers generate ideas. Yet the directive from above is clear: "No handwritten code," this person told Business Insider.

It appears to be working. "I haven't written any code in months," the engineer said.

Managers under pressure

The AI push comes as companies are rethinking managers' roles. The Great Flattening has driven the elimination of layers of management focused primarily on oversight — what Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly derided as "managers managing managers."

While leaders have floated a future in which managers manage AI, the more immediate future involves managers managing people who manage AI. Early on, many organizations relied on simplistic tracking measures, such as whether employees logged in to a tool. Yet those metrics didn't necessarily translate into meaningful productivity gains, BCG's Bedard said.

Managers are facing questions of "How do you roll out this tool to get the work done even better, and faster, and more effectively?" said Kotter.

At JPMorgan, the engineer said this push has changed how he works. He now delegates lower-level tasks to AI tools.

• A growing chorus of economists led by Torsten Slok is making the case for AI creating job growth.
• The Apollo chief economist argues that lower labor costs can actually increase demand and add jobs.
• Still, companies continue to cite AI as a reason for staff layoffs.

Since AI first emerged as a transformational force, one of the main worries has been the impact on employment. In an imagined dystopian future, the machines have taken over large swaths of jobs and left a large workforce void in their wake.

But that outlook has been increasingly challenged by those arguing the opposite: AI will help certain industries grow, offering more employment opportunities, as well as higher pay.

Torsten Slok, the chief economist at Apollo Global Management, has been one of the loudest voices in the "AI is additive" camp. In fact, he's penned five different blog posts on the subject in the past week alone.

At the center of Slok's view is the so-called Jevons paradox, under which declining labor costs cause the addressable market of work to expand. That, in turn, leads to an increase in the number of firms and workers in a field.

Slok cites the radiology industry as a perfect example of the paradox in action. A decade ago, AI was supposed to wipe out the field. Instead, radiologists now make more than $500,000 a year, and their employment continues to grow, Slok says.

"Reading scans is a task, not a job, and when the task gets cheaper, demand for the job grows," he wrote in a blog post.

Just yesterday Slok rolled out a new piece of supporting evidence — this time a historical comparison to the early-2000s era when China joined the World Trade Organization.

Slok recalls that the move was expected to be similarly disruptive to US employment. The only difference is that the "China shock" threatened manufacturing jobs, while AI is seen as more of a headwind to white-collar professions.

What ended up happening? Unemployment stayed low. Productivity gains created more new jobs than were replaced. The nightmare scenario didn't play out. Slok sees the US following the same playbook now.

While Slok's line of thinking is all well and good, it hasn't stopped companies from laying off employees and blaming AI in the process. So what gives?

First, a key caveat of Slok's must be considered. In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday, he conceded that AI will disproportionately impact companies in the software and programming industries. He compared it to "very regional-specific" disruptions felt in US manufacturing after the early-2000s China shock.

Wouldn't you know it, software companies — Salesforce, Atlassian, and IBM to name a few — have been well-represented among those announcing AI-driven layoffs. But under Slok's logic, these displaced jobs will be more than offset by newly created ones in AI-adjacent areas.

Second, it's entirely possible that underperforming companies are throwing AI under the bus. It's become a convenient scapegoat for firms looking to escape accountability for operational shortcomings.

In most cases, the line between new AI-driven efficiencies and corporate mismanagement is blurry. But if Slok is to be believed, it'll become clearer over time, for better or worse.

• The SEC has proposed allowing companies to report earnings twice a year instead of quarterly.
• It would be a sea change for public firms, and one top exec agrees with the move.
• The CEO of Morningstar told Business Insider that he sees clear benefits to less frequent reporting.

Quarterly earnings season could soon be a thing of the past, and there's one chief executive who's onboard with the idea.

Kunal Kapoor, the CEO of Morningstar, thinks the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal to reduce reporting requirements to twice a year has clear benefits.

He speaks at least partly from experience. The investment research company reports earnings on a quarterly basis, but has never held a call with investors.

On Morningstar's website, the firm says its approach to earnings is meant to ensure all investors are treated and communicated with equally, "without special treatment for large shareholders or research analysts."

Kapoor cited the benefits of the flexibility afforded to firms in Europe, which already has optional quarterly reporting. He also points to countries such as Australia, which has implemented a similar system, though firms there are required to release information with a material impact to shareholders immediately.

Morningstar's approach to investor relations was in place from the start, and Kapoor said that founder Joe Mansueto took inspiration from Warren Buffett. The legendary investor and former Berkshire Hathaway CEO is known for his democratized approach to communications, addressing investors through shareholder letters and at big events like the firm's investor day in Omaha, Nebraska.

Proponents of less frequent reporting say that the quarterly schedule encourages short-term mindsets among executives, with CEOs continuously aiming to please shareholders by beating the current quarter's guidance rather than focusing on running their business.

Kapoor told Business Insider that he thinks if the SEC's proposal is ultimately implemented, the US would do well to take some inspiration from countries that have already adopted similar reporting requirements.

"I think we need to clarify thresholds and provide safe harbors for interim disclosures so companies can share what's appropriate in that sense," he stated, adding that the SEC should also set higher standards for disclosure of other information with investors.

Kapoor added that he also thinks the SEC should discourage companies from giving certain forward guidance metrics like earnings per share, which he thinks promotes myopic behavior by executives.

But, perhaps the biggest benefit would be for companies that aren't yet publicly traded, as the the move to a lower reporting cadence would lower a major cost and regulatory requirement. According to Kapoor, more firms could end up being drawn to go public if the SEC's proposal is adopted.

"I think all of this adds up to lower cost for companies being public, which should encourage more companies to want to go public," he said.

The SEC is taking public comment on its proposal for 60 days.

• Pokémon and Target released a 65-item collection to high demand.
• One reseller made over $6,000 by selling 19 pullovers since the release.
• Pokémon-themed display cutouts from Target have also been listed for resale on eBay for $700.

Pokémon's latest 30th anniversary drop with Target flew off the shelves, and resellers are cashing in.

The franchise collaborated with Target on a limited-edition drop of about 65 items, which were released in stores on Saturday and online on Sunday. Much of the collection of apparel, accessories, and food — including special edition Pop-Tarts — quickly sold out, and some items are reselling on sites like eBay for well above retail. Some are listed for hundreds more.

It's a sign of how massive the Pokémon craze has become. It skyrocketed to the world's No. 1 toy property in 2025 and generated $2.5 billion in US sales, according to market research firm Circana. More than a trading card game, many collectors of all ages see it as an investment opportunity.

Reseller Jack Thomas, 25, said his connection to Pokémon is mostly business. He keeps his ear to the ground about limited-edition drops of collectibles in the hopes of gaining a profit by reselling the items. Thomas told Business Insider that he didn't expect this one to pop off as it has, but the limited quantities available made the items harder to get.

"The demand was just crazy," Thomas said.

He said his local Target limited the number of pullovers each shopper could buy. He arrived at the store about an hour before opening, and about 30 other people were in line.

"The good stuff didn't last long," Thomas said.

He has since made bank by reselling a blue pullover that originally retailed for around $130. He managed to get his hands on 20 of the tops with the help of some friends and has sold 19 so far for about $300 a piece.

His $3,000 investment has made him over $6,000 in a matter of days, and he credits FOMO, or the fear of missing out, as a reason for the wild interest in the drop.

Resellers on eBay have also listed a $3.99 box of Pop-Tarts featuring Pikachu for $17. Tumbler cups that sold for $10 at Target are $17 or more on eBay.

The products themselves aren't the only hot commodities. On the Target subreddit, users posted bare shelves where Pokémon-themed display cutouts — not officially for sale — once hung. Business Insider found at least one listing of a display for sale on eBay for $700 on Tuesday.

Target has another release of about 40 more Pokémon items planned for June 6.

If you want to get your hands on Pikachu Pop-Tarts, act fast or pay the price.

• As layoffs persist and companies lean into "tiny teams," the manager role is being redefined.
• Companies like Coinbase and Block want managers to act as "player-coaches."
• Should managers only manage? Or also do their own work? Take our survey below.

The pressure is on for managers in the era of AI-driven layoffs.

In a letter to staff on Tuesday announcing cuts, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that the company will have "no pure managers."

"Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor. Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams," Armstrong wrote.

The concept of managers taking on the role of "player-coaches" has been gaining traction, especially as companies lean into AI. Meta has begun rebranding some managers as "org leads," while Block has embraced the "player-coach" terminology.

Meanwhile, managers are responsible for an increasing number of reports. Gallup data published in January revealed that the average number of reports per manager has increased from 10.9 in 2024 to 12.1 in 2025.

We want to hear what you think. Should managers take on individual contributor work, or only focus on overseeing teams? Take the survey below:

• Ukrainian pilots receiving basic flight training in the UK are learning to fly without GPS.
• The idea is to prepare the pilots, who will eventually fly F-16s, for Russian electronic warfare.
• Signal jamming dominates the battlefield, interfering with aircraft, drones, and other weapons.

Ukrainian pilots in the early stages of fighter jet training are learning to fly without full GPS navigation — a combat skill taking on greater urgency as they prepare for heavy Russian electronic warfare on the battlefield.

The pilots are part of a training pipeline for the American-made F-16 Fighting Falcon, but they're confronting the realities of electronic warfare from the very start. Even during a monthslong course in the UK focused on English and basic flight skills, they learn to operate without reliable GPS.

One of the Ukrainian trainee pilots, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, told Business Insider at their graduation event last week that learning to fly at low altitudes without relying entirely on GPS is "really important."

Western pilots learn these skills as a backup plan, but for Ukraine, it's an immediate necessity. Russian forces on the front lines are jamming navigation systems, so Ukrainian fighter pilots have to use maps or ground features for guidance, the trainee said.

They said the Ukrainians received instruction during the UK course, led by the Royal Air Force, on operating under heavy electronic warfare conditions and how to use notable terrain features, such as rivers and mountains, for guidance during training sorties.

Electronic warfare dominates the battlefield in Ukraine, with both sides jamming signals and disrupting navigation, communications, and weapons guidance systems.

The electronic warfare challenge has led to combat innovations, such as the development of jamming-resistant drones controlled by fiber-optic cables, as well as tactical changes for ground troops and airmen.

GPS jamming in particular has caused problems beyond the battlefield in Ukraine, especially in Eastern Europe, where NATO countries around the Baltic Sea have accused Russia of electronic interference that has disrupted comms in the air and at sea.

More than 50 Ukrainians have completed the RAF course, during which they get English-language and basic flight instruction at a UK base before progressing to more advanced fast-jet training in another country. Eventually, they'll move to the American-made F-16.

Wing Cdr. Tom, the chief flying instructor for the UK training program, who could only be identified by his rank and first name for security reasons, said the Ukrainian pilots are "enthusiastic about learning new styles and techniques."

The F-16 is among the most advanced jets Ukraine operates. Kyiv received its first batch in 2024, with a coalition of NATO allies pledging dozens to help modernize the country's aging Soviet-era arsenal of older Sukhois and MiGs.

Ukraine has used its F-16s primarily for air defense — intercepting Russian missiles and drones during mass bombardments — and to conduct long-range precision strikes.

The UK began taking cohorts of future F-16 pilots roughly three years ago. RAF Air Chief Marshal Harvey Smyth told Business Insider at last week's event that while the training at this stage is focused on the basics of flying, the Ukrainians still get a taste of what it's like to operate fast jets and fighter pilot tactics.

"This is about building the foundation from where they'll go further," said Smyth, Britain's Chief of the Air Staff.

RAF Flight Lt. Dayle, the elementary flying instructor, told Business Insider that the Ukrainian pilots demonstrated solid aircraft handling in the first 10 training sorties.

By the end of the course, they could take off in formation, split up, enter low-level flight, and execute simulated target runs, the instructor said. "The difference that you can see from the beginning to the end of the course is huge."

A second Ukrainian trainee pilot told Business Insider they feel more confident facing the front lines back home due to the training they received in the UK, and are eager to eventually fly real combat missions in the F-16.

"We've been prepared for this, like, four years," the pilot said.

• There's a macro shift that's taken place for the first time in 65 years, Stifel said.
• Tech inflation is rising faster than wages for the first time in decades.
• "We believe the economy is shifting into an Inflationary Boom," the Stifel analysts wrote.

An inflation warning that hasn't been seen in over half a century is making its latest appearance.

Strategists at Stifel see an under-the-radar sign that US inflation pointing higher, which is the fact that tech prices are accelerating faster than the wage growth. It's a signal the economy hasn't seen in about 65 years.

The trend is one sign the US is headed for another burst of inflation, the firm wrote in a client note last week.

"Overall, the US economy appears to be rotating into a 'Run Hot' regime,' the strategists said. "While this environment is typically bullish for nominal and real GDP, the current mix favors investment over consumption, pressuring the consumer alongside an ongoing energy shock."

Personal consumption expenditures — the Fed's preferred measure of inflation — for information processing equipment grew at a 8% yearly pace in the first quarter of 2026, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

That compares to the 3.5% yearly pace at which average hourly wages grew in the private sector in March, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The acceleration in tech prices has largely been due to the AI boom, Stifel said, referring to how growing demand for AI hardware has helped raise memory prices and GPU prices.

In a note to clients this week, analysts at Goldman Sachs also flagged the inflationary potential of AI, pointing to the spike in hardware prices, software firms upcharging for AI tools, and the surge in power demand from data centers, which is feeding energy inflation.

"We believe the economy is shifting into an Inflationary Boom."

Stifel said it sees "little near-term relief" to the price increases, given continued enthusiasm for AI despite physical constraints. It also said tech-led inflation has implications for stocks, and signs of excess in the market can be seen in the "near parabolic move within the AI hardware trade."

Concerns about inflation have reached fever pitch in recent weeks as oil prices have climbed, with a peace deal with Iran still nowhere in sight. Fears that higher oil prices could stoke inflation in other areas of the economy have been top of mind. The pace of inflation accelerated to a 3.3% yearly pace in March, its highest level in two years.

• GameStop is hiring a "private project manager" for CEO Ryan Cohen to handle personal home remodels or relocations.
• Other recent job listings include a home assistant to book travel (commercial or private) and an executive project manager.
• GameStop told Business Insider that Cohen would pay for all three roles out of pocket.

Wanted: A disciplined operator to handle "personal and household" matters for GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen.

A recent GameStop job listing seeks a private project manager to "plan and execute personal and household projects for a senior executive," which Business Insider confirmed refers to Cohen.

The role includes a section on "Renovations, Relocations & Property Projects." The GameStop employee will oversee Cohen's property improvements and assist him with moving between properties. They will also coordinate with designers, architects, and the Home Owner and Condo Owner Associations. Other tasks include managing vendors, budgets, and planning events.

The roll requires "24/7 responsiveness to urgent needs and timeline shifts." No salary expectation is listed.

It's one of three job listings posted on April 30 to GameStop's careers page that would help Cohen manage his day-to-day.

The second is for a "personal assistant and household operations coordinator." This individual will manage Cohen's personal life, including booking family travel — on commercial or private airlines — and running errands. The third is for an "executive and personal project manager."

The roles are based in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area, where Cohen is based.

When reached for comment, GameStop said that Cohen would pay for all three of the roles "out of pocket."

"I pay my personal assistant out of my own pocket which by the way is unlike most CEO's," Cohen said in a statement to Business Insider.

GameStop and its CEO are back in the headlines after its unsolicited proposal to acquire the much larger eBay. Cohen appeared on CNBC for an awkward, combative interview. Meme stock traders cheered Cohen on.

While Cohen says he plans to pay personally, the positions are listed through GameStop's job board.

Anthony Capozzolo, a former federal prosecutor and current partner at Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss, said that the listings were "symptomatic of how high-level executives now get treated in the corporate world."

"Everything is their business life," Capozzolo said.

Capozzolo said it was "odd" that the job listings don't make clear the positions are funded by Cohen.

"It looks like the company is hiring this person," Capozzolo said. "Normally he would do this himself. Why is the company getting involved?"

When Stoltmann Law securities attorney Andrew Stoltmann first saw the job listings, he said that they were likely to raise eyebrows.

"You don't see this all that often, but if it's fully disclosed, then there probably isn't much of an issue," Stoltmann said. "But, I can promise you, this would make shareholders pretty uncomfortable."

When Stoltmann later learned that Cohen said he would pay for the positions out of pocket, he said it was likely "kosher" and "not much of an issue."

"It's still pretty surprising to see the company soliciting candidates," Stoltmann said.

• Ukraine is showing the West its focus on "perfect" weapons is flawed.
• A drone radar firm says ready-now solutions beat perfect ones later.
• Officials say weapons must be affordable, available, and adaptable — not flawless.

Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion is showing weapons makers and militaries that the goal isn't perfect weaponry — it's having systems that are ready and working at scale.

The war has generated a host of lessons for Western allies, including the US, one being that a focus on perfection can leave stockpiles too limited and too slow to reach the battlefield.

Among the growing number of defense companies recognizing this shift is Robin Radar, a Dutch company that makes drone-detection radar systems used by Ukraine and US allies in the Middle East. Kristian Brost, general manager for Robin Radar USA, told Business Insider that an imperfect answer "right now, sometimes, is better than a perfect solution later."

He said there is "a lot we can learn" from Ukraine, which is "in a spot where sometimes they need duct tape and rubber bands." And, he continued, "I think that's in itself a lesson: Use what works, use what is cheap."

He said that while the exquisite weaponry the US loves to build shouldn't disappear, "we've got to get real and just get stuff that works and get it into hands, get people trained, because something even at 80% is better than nothing."

The counter-drone space, where Robin Radar is, is one of the main areas where allies are trying to copy Ukraine's approach, focusing on cheaper, scalable systems.

The US and its allies, for instance, are increasingly interested in Ukrainian-style interceptor drones to counter drones instead of relying on expensive air-defense missiles.

It's a key area where companies should not wait for perfection, Brost said. "Especially when it comes to arguably one of the biggest gaps in US defense right now. We got to get gear out there, even if it's not perfect, because we too can learn."

The company is still making advanced weaponry and wants high performance, but it also wants systems that are more affordable, scalable, and adaptable than traditional Western gear.

Brost said some Western weapons are "phenomenal, but will they stand the test of time? Are they adaptable?"

His comments have been echoed by Western officials and defense companies working in Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said last year that the alliance has been too slow to innovate and "one of the problems here we have is that the better is the enemy of good: It has to be perfect."

"But it doesn't have to be perfect."

He said the alliance must learn from Ukraine's approach. Ukraine will move forward with equipment that can be ranked as a "six to seven," out of 10, but NATO militaries insist that they reach "nine or 10." Peace affords that luxury, but alliance leadership has cautioned that peace is increasingly under threat.

"Speed is of the essence, not perfection," Rutte said, adding that the alliance needs to focus on speed and sufficient quality together.

The CEO of Origin Robotics, a Latvian drone maker that has products in Ukraine, previously told Business Insider that Ukrainian soldiers don't care how advanced the technology is — they want systems that work and that they can get in quantity.

"They need something that simply works," Agris Kipurs said.

"They really don't care about the type of technology that is enabling that capability. They couldn't care less if it's an AI model, if it's a computer vision algorithm, or if it's just a skillful pilot flying it and doing it purely manually."

He said that some of the incentives for Western companies are wrong, and they often prioritize gear that is more advanced or more flashy over what is immediately practical.

It's not that his company is making the most basic gear, either, and it uses tech like AI. But it focuses on simpler, more affordable systems than traditional weapons like missiles.

Kuldar Väärsi, the CEO of Estonian robotics company Milrem Robotics, which has products used by Ukraine, told BI that the war has shown the company that "simplicity" is key to making weapons faster and more affordably.

"The more complex technology is, the more problems it can create," he said. In war, reliable weaponry is what's needed.

Ukraine's defense industry has presented similar warnings. Serhiy Goncharov, the CEO of the National Association of Ukrainian Defense Industries, which represents about 100 Ukrainian companies, previously told Business Insider that in a long war, the West's focus on having smaller numbers of advanced equipment isn't the right approach. It needs mass quantities of "good enough" weapons.

Ukraine's rapidly growing defense industry works differently from much of the West. It is made up of a host of companies, many of which are small operations making products that are rapidly upgraded, sometimes in hours or days, close to the battlefield with direct soldier input.

It means companies can start with a simpler design that they constantly update with soldier feedback. NATO says it needs to learn from the way Ukraine does that.

Europe is worried that Russia will attack elsewhere on the continent and spark a wider war, and officials across Europe argue NATO must rethink how it procures and develops weapons.

Key among the realizations is that Western militaries need masses of cheap weaponry and that they need to move away from a focus on smaller numbers of highly advanced systems.

NATO officials have raised this issue, including Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, who previously told Business Insider that "one of the lessons" from Ukraine is that the West needs large quantities of cheap weaponry.

It's not that the West would not still need the cutting-edge weapons it is so good at making. But in a long, large-scale war, those systems can run out and take time to replace.

Oleg Fedoryshyn, director of R&D at Ukrainian robotic systems maker DevDroid, told Business Insider that in an intense, long war, the West could drain its stocks of advanced and expensive armored vehicles, forcing a shift to systems like ground robots — less capable in some ways but far cheaper and faster to build.

• Stripe posted a job listing for a "Forward Deployed AI Accelerator" on its marketing team.
• The employee will help Stripe's marketers fully embrace AI by embedding with them.
• The position is a new job of the AI era, and capitalizes on the "forward deployed" model popularized by Palantir.

Stripe just coined a new job title for the AI age.

The payments processing company is now hiring for a "Forward Deployed AI Accelerator" on its marketing team. The individual will embed within the workforce, teaching marketers to make "AI the default mode."

"Marketers are already achieving remarkable results," the job listing reads. "The FDA team exists to take what's working and systematically scale it across the entire marketing organization."

The FDA will work with 20 marketers and has two metrics of success: the workflows that they've "permanently transformed," and the number of colleagues who start a task with an AI tool.

The role pays between $132,000 and $198,000. It requires five years of experience, demonstrated experience with AI, and a "track record of coaching, teaching, or enabling others."

Stripe did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The "forward deployed" model involves employees embedding within companies or teams to integrate new technology. It was popularized by Palantir — and has a strong track record of spawning startup founders.

The "forward deployed" model involves employees embedding within outside companies or teams to integrate new technology. (Stripe's approach here is a bit different, bringing that approach in-house to its own teams). It was popularized by Palantir — and has a strong track record of spawning startup founders.

Northslope Technologies founder Bill Ward worked at Palantir. His startup brings the "forward deployed" model to AI, similar to what Stripe is doing.

"AI has made it possible to build mission-specific software at a price point and speed that didn't exist five years ago," Ward wrote to Business Insider. "The only way to build lasting, sticky AI products in this new enterprise software paradigm is the Forward Deployed Engineering model."

AI commentators have debated the net employment effect of AI. The technology will almost certainly impact some jobs — maybe a whole load of them, if you believe Dario Amodei — but will also create new ones.

The "prompt engineer" was considered one of those jobs created in 2023. Companies hired employees to strategize how best to prompt AI chatbots. One year later, that job seemed less promising than expected.

These AI coaches could be another job created. Some see it as an act of destruction, though; Andrew Yeung wrote on X that the FDA would "work with marketers until they automate their jobs."

Either way, Stripe's FDA will have to be all-in for AI.

"We're looking for people who have already lived the transformation they'll be driving for others," the job posting reads. "You've used AI to fundamentally change how you work — not as a novelty, but as your default operating mode."

• On TV, there's football, and then there's everything else.
• The ratings gap between NFL games and everything else gets bigger and bigger every year.
• So at some point, does it make sense for TV programmers to pay for anything that isn't an NFL game?

Do you watch TV?

Then the odds are very, very high that you're watching the NFL. Television networks still show things that aren't NFL games, but NFL games are the most popular things on TV, by a very wide margin.

This isn't news: Periodically, a news event reminds us of the NFL's dominance of the TV landscape — like the deal Disney's ESPN cut with the league last year, done in large part to secure a few more NFL games.

And every year we see a new report telling us that NFL games are the most widely viewed programming on TV — in 2025, 83 of the top 100 programs were NFL games; that's up from 72 in 2024.

But it's always good to get a reminder. This one comes from the NFL itself, via a presentation it made to the Federal Communications Commission last month. It underlines that, when it comes to broadcast TV, there are NFL games — which are now averaging close to 20 million viewers — and everything else. (Non-sports TV averages around 3 million viewers during prime time.)

The viewership counts include anything aired by a broadcast network — like ABC or CBS, whether on rabbit ears, cable, or YouTube TV.

Yes, this is the NFL's framing. It's meant to push back against criticisms from FCC head Brendan Carr and others, who complain that the league is abandoning free broadcast TV by selling too many games to streamers like Netflix and Amazon. But it's still accurate, using numbers from Nielsen.

It is also a reminder that for some broadcasters — mostly Paramount's CBS and the Murdochs' Fox — delivering NFL games to viewers is the primary reason they still exist.

And that prompts some observers — like LightShed analyst Rich Greenfield — to wonder whether the networks should be spending money on anything that isn't NFL games.

"The obvious question is why broadcast networks bother investing in general entertainment programming, from scripted television series to unscripted/reality TV to morning shows and late night shows," he wrote in a recent note.

We're not there yet. But an early indicator to watch will be what Paramount does with its late-night slot, still occupied by Stephen Colbert, but soon to be replaced, in the near-term, by two syndicated shows from media entrepreneur Byron Allen (you may recall that Allen said he wanted to buy Paramount a few years ago). Allen will be renting the late-night slots from CBS, meaning that instead of spending money to fill that airtime, Paramount will be making money.

That's a drastic way to approach an NFL-or-nothing reality. But we might see more of it.

• Coinbase is cutting 14% of its workforce, aiming to become leaner and faster.
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wants to eliminate "pure managers" and embrace AI.
• We used AI to imagine the daily life of a future Coinbase manager.

Coinbase is blowing up the traditional manager role.

In a Tuesday memo, CEO Brian Armstrong outlined a sweeping overhaul: cutting 14% of its staff, eliminating "pure managers," and embracing "one person teams." Going forward, managers will oversee more than 15 direct reports and also direct fleets of AI agents.

I fed Armstrong's memo into ChatGPT and asked it to imagine a day in the life of this new kind of Coinbase manager. The result is a funny, and at times unsettling, glimpse of the future he's describing.

Here's how ChatGPT responded to my prompt:

8:41 a.m.

I log in. There are no emails.

My dashboard opens automatically — 15 tiles, one for each of my "direct reports." None of them are human.

They've already started working.

Overnight, my payments agent flagged a spike in failed stablecoin transactions in Southeast Asia. My compliance agent drafted three possible responses. My product agent shipped a minor UI tweak to address the issue in the app. It's already live to 5% of users.

I skim summaries. Each one is a paragraph, max. No meetings, no Slack threads, no back-and-forth.

I approve two decisions. Decline one. Ask for a simulation on the third.

Total time: four minutes.

9:10 a.m.

In 2024, this would have required looping in payments, product, and compliance — and probably a meeting.

Now, I don't know anyone in those teams. I'm not sure they exist as teams.

The system routes everything.

There's no "coordination tax," at least not the kind we used to complain about. No waiting for another team to reply. No calendar Tetris.

But there's a different kind of friction: deciding when to trust what I'm seeing.

Each agent shows confidence levels, sources, and alternative paths. It's fast — but it's also opaque. I spend more time second-guessing than I expected.

10:30 a.m.

I check in on one of my human reports — one of the few I still have.

She's technically a designer. Also a PM. Also writes production code.

Her team is just… her.

She's been working with three agents to prototype a new feature for tokenized assets. She walks me through it in 12 minutes. No slides. It's already built.

In the old Coinbase, this would've been a quarter-long roadmap item.

I ask what she needs.

"Nothing," she says. "Maybe approval to scale."

12:15 p.m.

Lunch is the same. The conversations aren't.

We don't talk about projects as much anymore. We talk about prompts. About which agents are reliable, which ones hallucinate under pressure, which ones cut corners.

Someone jokes that managing people was easier.

No one disagrees.

2:00 p.m.

A risk alert hits my dashboard — high priority.

The compliance agent recommends freezing a set of transactions tied to a new prediction market. The growth agent argues it's a false positive and warns of user backlash. The legal agent outlines exposure scenarios in three jurisdictions.

They've already debated each other. I'm reading the transcript.

I make the call.

There's no meeting, no consensus-building, no escalation chain. Just me.

The decision goes live in seconds.

4:45 p.m.

I review my "team performance."

Each agent is scored: output, accuracy, speed, cost efficiency.

So am I.

My rating depends on how well I allocate work between them, when I override them, and how often I'm wrong.

I realize I haven't given feedback to a human all day.

6:10 p.m.

Before logging off, I get a prompt:

"Recommended org optimization: reduce human oversight on payments workflows by 12%."

I hover over the button.

Approve.

Business Insider readers: What do you think of this imagined reality? Plausible or not? Tell us in the comments.

The best premium robot vacuums and mops will take frequent house cleaning off your schedule. They're helpful without being intrusive or distracting. The Roborock Saros 20 is one of the latest entries to this space. As Roborock's 2026 flagship level offering, this slim,feature-packed robot capable of going under couches but over big thresholds thanks to a lifting chassis that raises its body over three inches and incorporates AI features to create personalized cleaning plans.

I've tested several Roborock cleaning assistants over the last five years, and each time they've gotten noticeably better. This year, however, the Saros 20 is more of the same instead of growing by leaps and bounds over the Saros 10R. Specifically, our targeted cleaning tests left something to be desired, even if it can be meticulous with smaller messes or more routine cleaning.

Retailing for $1,600, I don't think the Saros 20 is a great value at full price, but it does still have some attractive qualities that make it worth considering when it goes on sale. You won't find many vacuums and mops that are this thin, quiet, and sleek that can also lift themselves over thick rugs or room-dividing thresholds — potentially a preview of more capable climbing bots.

Design and first impressions

If you were to put the last few Roborock Saros robots next to each other, it might be hard for most people to pick out the new Saros 20 from the lineup. They're different, but only slightly. The newest one remains thin and unassuming, much like its predecessor, the Saros 10R.

Despite some changes on paper, such as increased suction power and improved vision, this year's Saros 20 is very iterative in practice compared to last year's model. That includes its similarly sized dock and robot, as well as its circular mopping pads and spit roller brush design.

The good news is that, like the other recent Roborock units, the Saros 20 feels well-built and sturdy. I also prefer its matte-finish dock to the shinier Saros 10R and the mirror-like finish of the Saros Z70. The dock size is average for a premium robot vacuum and mop. If you're looking for a smaller one, the Eufy C20 will fit in more places but offers less functionality.

Setup and app experience

There used to be more differentiation among the mobile apps of companies making robot vacuums. Now, they're all very similar. Roborock's app is among the most polished, but familiar enough that if you're switching from Ecovacs, Dreame, or Eufy, you won't be lost.

Out of the box, the app handles software updates and won't let you do much until it runs an initial mapping of your home. That part was fast and seamless.

In the app, the company simplifies its entire cleaning experience down to what looks like a play button in a music app. Roborock puts this button front and center, which activates SmartPlan 3.0. This AI setting determines which rooms and areas to clean and how intensively to clean them.

Vacuuming performance

I've noticed more robot vacuums and mops are beginning to implement more AI features to determine the best cleaning routines. So, for my cleaning tests, I let the Saros 20 use its "AI Smart Plan" to set its suction level and route planning. Not only did I want to see how most people would experience the robot, but I was also curious about how well it would clean in those situations.

Hard Floors

None of my tests using the Saros 20 to vacuum up about 20 grams of flour, rice, or crushed cereal on hardwood floors were particularly impressive during a Smart Plan pass. The rice grains scattered easily from some of the brush movements. So, even though it could pull up the rice grains, it didn't handle lots of them all over the floor. Trying to vacuum up a significant amount of flour left visible smears behind. The cereal test fared best on AI mode, even with whole and crushed Cheerios.

Since I was disappointed with these initial passes, I had the robot return to the area and told it to use Max suction on the "Deep" route, which has a tighter cleaning path. The robot performed much better at cleaning the test area with the customized settings I manually selected.

Carpets and rugs

Similarly, the Saros 20 did a mediocre job when I had it target the same cereal, flour, and rice messes on a short-pile rug. Once I ran it again on Max suction with a tighter route, it did much better. The robot automatically adjusts suction power based on the detected surface. Carpets get more power to help with the embedded dirt.

Like most robot vacuums, even with the suction level turned up to the Max suction of 36,000Pa (a significant boost from the Saros 10R's 20,000 Pa), it is still not as effective as using a stick vac. It couldn't remove the flour from my rug like my cordless Dyson V8 did.

Hair handling

My house has two women and a non-shedding dog (so take that as the context here), but there weren't many strands wrapped around the brush roller after a month of use. In an attempt to make sure the vacuum had plenty of chance to pick up hair, I took some from a hairbrush, and the Saros 20 picked it up without an issue or tangling in the brushroll. This is a similar performance to the previous 10R.

Mopping performance

The mopping performance of the Saros 20 is perfectly fine. It cleans small messes well and will wash over hard surfaces well enough to buff out water spots and other daily wear.

Putting the Saros 20 up to larger messes with 20 grams of those spilled food items was less impressive. It makes me think that robots with two spinning mop pads will begin to fade compared to newer single roller mopping designs , like the Dyson Spot+Scrub AI or even Roborock's take, as seen on the Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow or Narwal Flow 2.

I used jelly, Sprite, and maple syrup in the test area and let them settle a bit. The Saros 20 removed nearly all visible traces of the messes on its first pass. However, after a little time, it became clear that the floor was sticky, even in areas that hadn't had the spills.

The two circular spinning pads don't have the opportunity to be refreshed with clean water during a mopping job, unlike roller designs. So even though the sticky messes were removed, some tackiness could be felt after the fact.

The good news is that the Saros 20 base station can wash the pads with hot water up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit to remove sticky substances. This is a necessary feature to prevent residual effects in future cleanings.

Navigation and obstacle avoidance

One of the Saros 20's advertised highlights is its StarSight 2.0 navigation and object-avoidance system. The first part is mapping, and the second is identifying which items it should go around, of which it claims to be able to identify 300 objects.

On the first run through my house, the robot captured a precise floor plan. The rooms had accurate lengths and details, which allowed me to easily add a couple of no-go zones. I didn't have to re-divide rooms or make any changes to the map other than add my own labels, such as "kitchen," "living room," and "family room."

The actual object avoidance ran into some problems. I placed different shapes, sizes, and colors of faux poop on my kitchen floor, and the Saros 20 ran into both during its targeted test. It did avoid one of the pieces initially, but ultimately would have smeared both if they hadn't been rubber.

While the Saros 20 is suitable for pet owners in a lot of ways because of the great tangle-free brush, what I saw in my tests would make me hesitant to have it run in homes where the pets aren't potty-trained.

In another test, it avoided a USB cable without issue. It identified it as an object, paused in its approach, then cleaned around it. The company advertises that it can identify 300 or more objects. Over a couple of weeks, the robot seemed to improve, but it was never perfect.

Beyond random objects in the middle of the floor, the Saros 20 was very good at navigating furniture, never bumping it more than a light touch.

Where the Saros 20 is improving is in climbing over uneven thresholds. the lips of rugs, or thresholds, or a fireplace lip. I saw its lifting chassis kick in occasionally when the lip of a rug wasn't lying flat, and I can see it navigating most rug styles without getting caught. It was able to climb up onto the lip of my fireplace, too.

Dock and maintenance

When using the AI Smart Plan to handle most jobs, I found I didn't need to replenish the dock's clean water reservoir as often as when I manually set the water level. It did a good job of making the most of its resources.

Both the clean and dirty water buckets pull up from the top and are easy enough to carry. They feel the same as the Saros 10R, and they remain fine. After trying multiple water buckets from various companies, I haven't found any that I'm absolutely delighted with. The reservoirs work fine. The dirt collection tray is easy to pull out and rinse. But all these elements do require maintenance. I got my Saros 20 and its dock to look like it went through battle after several weeks of dedicated testing.

Some companies state how long the mop drying will take, but Roborock offers three options: Eco, Standard, and Deep. For the most part, the low hum of the drying didn't bother me. If I ever got tired of the low hum of the mop drying, it was easy enough to stop in the app. Even doing this a few times, only about an hour into the process, the pads haven't smelled.

Battery life and noise

The Saros 20 has an advertised runtime of up to 180 minutes. In my use, I found this to be pretty accurate, if not a little understated.

Using the Smart Plan, the Saros 20 could clean my entire ~650-square-foot downstairs without stopping to recharge. That includes vacuuming the rugs first without the mopping pads, then returning to the station to reattach the mopping pads to clean the hardwood floor portion. After about 350 square feet cleaned, the unit had run for 69 minutes with 65% of the battery remaining. Battery life will vary depending on suction level and other factors, but the runtime shouldn't be a problem for most moderately sized homes.

Cleaning the mop pads and emptying the robot's debris bin are when the most noise occurs. The self-empty period is over 70 decibels from a few feet away. Thankfully, that only lasts a few seconds. However, it will likely wake a sleeping baby or dog.

Even on the Max vacuum setting, the Saros 20 wasn't overly loud while running. The noise settles into a hum that's generally easy to ignore. The unit moves smoothly and doesn't have a lot of creaking sounds, as the Shark PowerDetect does.

Cons to consider

While the default "AI Smart Plan" cleaning mode works fine for a thought-free cleaning experience, it often left behind visible debris from big messes, requiring a second pass on higher suction or more thorough settings. The default setting should get better over time because the company advertises it learns — and I did see that — but that can be frustrating until it does.

The Saros 20 successfully avoided objects like a USB cable, shoes, and socks, but it ran over simulated pet waste in two out of three tests — even though it flagged it in the app. Puppy and kitty owners should be the most concerned in this area.

The spinning mopping pads on the Saros 20 showed their limits, not quite able to remove sticky residue from my hardwood floors, even though they did remove the actual food particles. As these cleaning robots evolve, it looks like the ones with a single roller mop brush work better because they can be cleaned with fresh water during their mopping jobs.

I tried several of these products. Ones like the Narwal Flow, Dyson Spot+Scrub AI, and Mova Z60 Ultra have all done well for mopping. There is less residue from these units. I haven't tried the Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 yet to comment on its performance, but if you're intent on staying in the Roborock family, that one uses a single rolling mop brush.

Saros 20 vs Saros 10R

I spent over six months with the Roborock 10R and found it to be excellent at general cleaning. It ran on a regular, frequent schedule and encountered few problems with that routine. While I haven't used the Saros 20 for as long, it does provide a similar experience for maintenance cleaning. But where this robot tends to become overwhelmed is in big, extensive messes or spills. You're better off reaching for a stick vac for larger messes; it's quicker too.

The Saros 10R also has a FlexiArm Riser Side Brush that extends farther than the side brush on the Saros 20, but in practice, it's hard to say the newer model has suffered significantly from not having that extra side extension.

Ultimately, the Saros 10R is still a very solid cleaning robot. If you bought it new, I don't see any compelling reason to upgrade to the Saros 20. However, if you want the latest and greatest, the Saros 20 is a very suitable model.

The bottom line

The Roborock Saros 20 is a solid robot cleaning assistant, but with a few quirks and a higher retail price than most people can justify. It's great for casual, day-to-day cleaning because it's thin and nimble. It can scoot around, picking up frequently left crumbs and giving hard surfaces a fresh wipe-down without getting in the way. It can manage most routine upkeep with minimal interference.

However, it still isn't fully capable of using AI to self-determine the best ways to clean all the time. It improved at object avoidance over time and with more data, but it still tripped over the fake pet mess, which is truly unfortunate.

You can use the Saros 20 in all kinds of homes, but people with complex floor plans, tall thresholds, uneven flooring, or lots of furniture will likely get the most satisfaction from this device. It really is nimble.

• AI is transforming software-as-a-service, just as SaaS disrupted traditional software companies.
• Infrastructure companies like Twilio can thrive as AI transforms call centers and communication.
• AI-native SaaS firms face challenges, though companies like Navan have been successful so far.

The famous VC Marc Andreessen once said that software would eat the world. Now, AI is coming for software, and a lot of today's biggest SaaS companies may not survive the meal.

Out of the top 20 software companies in 2000, less than half of them survived the cloud era, says Pat Walravens, analyst at Citizens. AI could weed out top SaaS companies in the same way, he says. Walravens predicts that two-thirds of these companies will not emerge from the AI era alive.

What AI is doing to software-as-a-service (SaaS), or cloud software, is similar to what SaaS did to older software companies years ago, Walravens said.

Some of the top software companies in the early 2000s, such as Sun Microsystems, Computer Associates, PeopleSoft, and Siebel Systems, have since been acquired and lost relevance as cloud software companies took over the industry.

"No one went bankrupt," Walravens said. "Eventually, they got acquired or got rolled into something else."

Which SaaS companies will win or lose?

Walravens says software can be sorted into two categories: infrastructure and applications.

Infrastructure includes back-end tasks like data management and communications.

"Generally speaking, the infrastructure names are going to have a better time of it," Walravens said.

He pointed to cloud communications companies Twilio, whose stock soared last week after reporting its fastest growth rate in three years, and Bandwidth. That's because companies are rushing to replace their call centers with AI.

"AI makes software easier to build and replace, but it makes the underlying infrastructure more essential," Bandwidth CEO David Morken told Business Insider in a statement. "This is because the 'intelligence' of an AI agent is only as good as its connection to the real world."

Likewise, Twilio's chief product officer, Inbal Shani, told Business Insider that the company "has always operated at the infrastructure layer, and that is becoming more critical as AI moves into real customer interactions every day."

It's harder for application companies to survive in the AI era, Walravens said. Application companies sell software or apps that perform specific tasks for companies, such as payroll processing, task tracking, or IT support ticket management.

Application-based software companies, including SAP, Workday, ServiceNow, Atlassian, and Adobe, have seen their stock prices decline sharply over the past year (though Atlassian's stock saw a boost since reporting earnings last week).

Walravens said that these companies have parts of their business that can be disrupted by AI, while others are AI-native. The question is whether the AI-native parts can offset the losses on other parts of the business.

"They all have a dynamic where there is some part of the business, which is a leaky bucket," Walravens said.

The companies that could remain unscathed by the AI era have likely been adopting AI for years before the SaaSpocolypse, Walravens added. For example, he said Navan has been disrupting SAP's Concur travel booking software and travel agencies because it has been "very AI-forward from the beginning."

"The old corporate travel tools are basically dinosaurs — they haven't changed much since the '90s," Michael Sindicich, president of Navan, told Business Insider in a statement. "They're still clunky, offline, and built on outdated software. Navan is a fundamentally different offering because we built our product with AI from day one, which means we can deliver superior value and experiences for both travelers and finance teams."

A litmus test for SaaS

There's a quick, easy litmus test investors can apply, Walravens said. If companies see their revenue growing faster organically, then it's a good sign that their AI strategy is working.

Two other tests are its business model and the ease with which a company's products can be recreated. Walravens said that a consumption-based pricing model will generally work better than a seat-based model, which is how SaaS companies typically charge for their products.

And if your company's product can be easily vibe-coded with Claude, OpenAI, or Cursor's coding tools, "you're in a really bad spot," Walravens said. He said that's why companies like Asana and HubSpot are under so much pressure.

"There are so many ways you can vibe code a decent, simple solution," Walravens said.

An Asana spokesperson said that "AI makes our operating system more foundational, not less. We're the layer that gives agents the context to act with strategic intent, the controls to do it safely, and the multiplayer collaboration needed to work across enterprise teams."

They added that customers like Morningstar have achieved over $600,000 in efficiency gains using Asana.

"AI is making it easier to build software, and HubSpot is embracing that shift," HubSpot's chief product and technology officer, Duncan Lennox, said to BI in a statement.

Something more complicated, like a supply chain application, will be harder to vibe code.

Customers still have a lot of trust in many of these large SaaS companies and rely heavily on them, especially since they store lots of sensitive company data.

"If these enterprises can get the AI solutions they want from an existing vendor, they're going to use the existing vendor," Walravens said. "There's less risk."

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• See how your state's gas prices compare to others with our interactive map.
• Gas prices have climbed since late February. The US average jumped from $2.98 to over $4 a gallon.
• Even as the US leads global oil production, prices remain tied to volatile international markets.

How do gas prices in your state stack up against the rest of the country? Business Insider created an interactive map so you can find out.

Gas prices have been climbing steadily since late February.

The national average was $2.98 a gallon on February 27, according to AAA, and surged over $4 by March 31 — where it has remained since.

So far, states on the West Coast have been hit the hardest by rising gas prices. California's average first topped $6 a gallon on April 30.

Some central states like Oklahoma and Kansas have consistently posted the lowest averages during the recent spike.

The differences are stark — but prices have risen dramatically in every state.

Analysts say several factors are driving the increase. Blockades by the US and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz — a key global oil transit route that carries an estimated 20% of the world's oil — have raised global supply concerns.

Spring typically brings a switch to a more expensive summer fuel blend, and recent American Midwest refinery outages have also tightened supply in the Great Lakes region.

Those pressures are pushing prices higher even as the US remains the world's largest oil producer, in part because oil is traded globally.

"The same oil we rely on can be moved anywhere in the world, and we're seeing exports at record levels," Patrick De Haan, a fuel market expert at GasBuddy, told Business Insider. "This is capitalism. When you put your house on the market, you're not like 'Yay, I'm going to take the cheapest bid.'"

The supply and geopolitical pressures could keep prices elevated for months — though there's still significant uncertainty. De Haan said there's a "huge range" of potential summer gasoline prices, with a national average of anywhere from $3.50 to $5.50 a gallon.

In April, Andreessen Horowitz — a venture capital firm that is also a media maverick — announced its latest investment: a news company called Monitoring the Situation, or MTS. Billed as "the first timeline-native news network that's always on," it promised a 24/7 firehose of "what's happening RIGHT NOW," broadcast live to the scrolling masses on X.

The announcement came just weeks after OpenAI acquired the popular tech podcast TBPN for a reported nine figures, and a year after Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, acquired the tech podcast network Turpentine, both apparent efforts to shape the narrative about the tech industry. Silicon Valley has been idea-laundering through its own media for years — Airbnb, Casper, and Uber at one point all had their own magazines; Robinhood acquired a popular newsletter that offers financial news for young investors; Stripe issues a quarterly magazine for software engineers; and many founders, investors, and techno-literate have their own podcasts, Substacks, and YouTube shows to broadcast their takes. But MTS appeared to be the first of its kind to try to do this round the clock, building a full-stack media engine to compete with a news network. I decided to spend a week watching news exclusively from MTS.

My experiment got off to a bad start when I discovered that the "always on" network was, in fact, off. I had tried to tune in one morning around 7am, but there was nothing to watch. "We're off air right now," read a message on mts.now. "Next show TBA." Without a broadcast schedule to go on, I was left to monitor the situation of Monitoring the Situation. Later, I discovered that the "future of news" is available only during the workday on Pacific Standard Time, exactly the opposite of "prime time."

While I waited, I revisited the stream from the first day of programming, from April 20. The show started with a sizzle reel over a "Severance"-like score that mashed up images of computers and currency with video clips of Elon Musk shaking hands with Jensen Huang, Donald Trump shaking hands with Xi Jinping, and the moon landing. Andreessen Horowitz had promised MTS would feature "the main characters of the moment," and it was clear that hosts Theo Jaffee and Sofia Puccini took this to mean themselves. They spent the opening 15 minutes of MTS's debut show scrolling through posts on X about MTS — the digital equivalent of a news anchor reading his own fan mail on air.

The debut episode included interviews with Marc Andreessen and Balaji Srinivasan, a former partner at a16z, who each pontificated about the past and future of the media. (Andreessen: Projects like MTS could recreate the "randomonium" of early CNN. Srinivasan: The "New York Times" was as bad as the Chinese Communist Party.) It would be a stretch to call either of these segments interviews, or even conversations. Srinivasan spoke almost completely uninterrupted for two hours while the hosts sat on screen silently, interjecting only a few times with a softball question.

If this was MTS's style, it was less like CNN and more like a Twitch stream. One of the core components of the show is the screen share, where the hosts show what they're looking at on their laptops. At one point, Jaffee appeared onscreen to announce the news that Tim Cook would step down as the CEO of Apple. He did this by reading aloud from Apple's press release, putting Cook's Wikipedia page on screen, and then reading aloud from that.

There is a circular, self-dealing aspect to much of the coverage on MTS. In the week that I watched, guests included several current and former partners at Andreessen Horowitz, the founders of at least five startups that Andreessen Horowitz has invested in, and Marc Andreessen himself. One of the hosts, Puccini, is a recipient of a16z's recently launched New Media Fellowship, an eight-week program designed to train the next generation to perform "timeline takeovers." (It has been described as a "Thiel fellowship for the terminally online.") The show also broadcasts on X, a platform that a16z invested $400 million in when Elon Musk acquired it in 2022, and MTS debuted on the world's richest man's most sacred holiday, 4/20.

In one sense, this is a masterpiece of vertical integration. Rodney Benson, a media researcher at New York University, and the author of "How Media Ownership Matters", describes MTS as an "amenity" for Andreessen Horowitz. "You can use that media to diffuse ideas or promote your other business interests. And you don't really care if you're making money from it," he says. On the other hand, if the point was to shift the narrative about the tech industry and the people in it, Benson wasn't sure how MTS would be able to do that. "It's mostly the industry talking to itself."

Some of the best segments on MTS came from excellent bookings, such as a conversation between the journalist Taylor Lorenz and Srinivasan, the former a16z partner. It was an unlikely pairing (the two had a highly publicized online feud in 2020) that produced a surprisingly friendly conversation, where the two seemed to share a number of viewpoints about online privacy. Still, for a segment that had the trappings of a UFC fight — the chyron billed their debate as "Wikipedia vs. Grokipedia" — it somehow lacked the energy to sustain its rom-com length of 90 minutes.

"I feel like they haven't really figured out how to keep the show lively," says Eric Newcomer, who writes a popular Substack about the tech industry. Newcomer, who has written a fair bit about Andreessen Horowitz's past forays into the media, told me he tuned into MTS to watch Lorenz duke it out with Srinivasan, and enjoyed the conversation. But overall, he noted that MTS hadn't perfected the art of clipping the show into short, punchy bits, leaving viewers to sit through exceedingly long segments "which are often, sadly, somewhat boring."

Some of the charm of MTS comes from a lack of polish: audio glitches, ticker tape displaying outdated information, the hosts' constant deployment of Gen Z slang, or minutes of dead silence between segments. The hosts — there are about 5 on any given day — can be likeable in their candor, even though most are not trained journalists, and some have only just graduated college. Jaffee, who begins the show each morning, is 21, young enough to still have his SAT score displayed on his LinkedIn profile (1590, attaboy). But these very same qualities, which can make the viewer feel like they're sitting in on a private conversation between friends, can also make MTS feel amateurish. Many parts of the show feel like Twitter for the illiterate: You are simply watching someone else scroll through their timeline and read the headlines out loud. Often, this is indeed the extent of "news" on MTS. One segment, reviewing the latest in the trial between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, involved the host screen-sharing and narrating updates from The New York Times' liveblog of the trial (hopefully Srinivasan wasn't watching).

Running a media outfit is hard work — something Andreessen Horowitz learned five years ago when it launched its own tech publication, Future. Margit Wennmachers, an operating partner at the firm, told Business Insider at the time: "It's for participants rather than observers." Future shut down after just 18 months. "They knew they wanted to own the media, and they knew they had a lot of friends that they could get, but they didn't know the core story format or how they were going to operationalize running the thing," says Newcomer. "It turns out, that's actually pretty hard."

MTS could face similar challenges. Even its own guests have pointed this out: In an interview segment last week, the crypto entrepreneur Jason Yanowitz told the hosts, "Media is a pretty shitty business. No offense. I think MTS is going to be great." The show does arrive at a time when trust in institutional media is at an all-time low (a Gallup poll found that just 28 percent of Americans had "a fair amount" of trust in the media, the lowest number it has ever recorded), and while trust in individuals and influencers is on the rise. More than 40 percent of young adults get their news from TikTok. We are in the era of "going direct."

More than 280,000 people tuned into MTS on its first day on air. (A network like CNN, by comparison, had about 900,000 viewers during primetime in April. TBPN's best day had around 130,000 simultaneous viewers.) Since then, fewer people seem to be tuning in; on May 1, X shows that about 8,400 people watched the MTS livestream. It's not an embarrassing number for a brand-new show, but it's likely that most if not all of these people are already friends or fans of the Andreessen Horowitz worldview. If projects like MTS really are just the tech industry talking to itself, then it's unclear what they achieve. An echo chamber of their own ideas? A place to answer their own questions? More than anything, the growing ecosystem of tech media — including MTS, TBPN, Pirate Wires, as well as podcasts like "The Marc and Ben Show," "The Lex Fridman Podcast," or "All In" — gives techies a place to evangelize without interruption.

A week of gorging on MTS left me feeling like AI is an infinite frontier, American dynamism is the only moral imperative, and there is no world beyond the tech world. When I finally closed the tab and opened The New York Timeson Friday evening, the rest of the world rushed back into view. It was May Day. There were protests in the streets for workers rights, a war authorization feud in Congress, a federal ruling on abortion pills. I had missed it all inside the dreamworld of MTS.

Arielle Pardes is a reporter in San Francisco covering the business and culture of technology.

• Zelenskyy published new footage on Tuesday of Ukraine's Flamingo missiles taking off in combat.
• They were used to strike a military-industrial complex deep inside Russia.
• Footage of the attacks showed large explosions and fires in the Russian city of Cheboksary.

Ukraine has published new clips of its homegrown FP-5 Flamingo missiles launching into battle, saying they flew some 930 miles to reach a military manufacturing complex deep inside Russia.

The videos, posted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, provide some of the clearest footage yet of the missiles taking off from the ground.

The clips appear to show the Flamingos igniting their jet engines for an initial burst of acceleration, rising quickly into the sky before gently arcing into a forward trajectory.

Their manufacturer, the Ukrainian firm Fire Point, has said that the 40-foot missiles have a maximum range of 1,860 miles and can carry a 1,150-kg warhead at speeds of up to 560 mph.

Zelenskyy said in his post that the missiles shown on Tuesday had "covered a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers," making it one of their longest announced combat flights.

Zelenskyy added that a major target for the strike operation was a military-industrial complex in Cheboksary, a Russian city about 600 miles from Ukraine's northern border.

"The plant supplied navigation elements for the Russian Navy, missile industry, aviation, and armored vehicles," the Ukrainian president wrote.

Russian Telegram news channels and military bloggers reported on Tuesday that the VNIIR-Progress complex in Cheboksary had come under Ukrainian attack on Monday. Several videos and photos posted by these channels appeared to show large explosions in the city.

One clip showed flames and debris covering the main entrance of the ABS Electro building, an enterprise in the industrial complex that builds satellite guidance systems for Russian weapons, submarines, and drones.

Another photo, first geolocated by the Russian Telegram channel ASTRA to a small strip mall about 800 yards away, showed black smoke rising from a large fire in the complex's general direction. Business Insider was unable to verify when these clips or photos were taken.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in a Tuesday assessment that footage on social media indicated six Flamingo missiles had struck the VNIIR-Progress plant.

A long-range fixed-wing drone was also filmed crashing into what appears to be a residential building.

Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti reported that two people were killed and another 32 were injured in a "massive attack" in the region.

The VNIIR-Progress plant previously came under attack from Ukrainian drones in February, June, July, and November 2025, with regional head Oleg Nikolaev saying the June strike temporarily halted production.

Locally designed and produced, Ukraine's Flamingo missiles have taken the spotlight in the country for providing Kyiv with a long-range attack option that can threaten Russia's military-industrial base. The West has plenty of such weapons, but has so far refrained from giving them to Ukraine for strikes on Russian soil.

Apart from the Flamingo, Ukraine has more commonly relied on slower one-way attack drones, such as the fixed-wing Liutyi, to hit facilities deeper inside Russia. While cheaper and more numerous, they're easier for air defenses to intercept.

Zelenskyy said last year that Ukraine was planning to manufacture seven Flamingos per day.

• OpenAI let ChatGPT plan a launch party to celebrate the release of its latest model, 5.5.
• ChatGPT wanted the event to be held on May 5 at 5:55 pm, with its human creators delivering a toast.
• Pics from attendees show an Apple Store-like experience.

OpenAI's invitation to GPT-5.5's launch party said the vibe would be intimate: a "low-key" gathering with CEO Sam Altman, drinks, swag, and a few hundred developers celebrating the company's latest AI model at its San Francisco headquarters.

Instead, it became one of the hottest tickets in tech, with more than 8,000 people scrambling to get into a party that Altman says ChatGPT itself helped plan.

While it remains unclear how many applicants were ultimately offered access to the exclusive event, those who were accepted were quick to tout their status on social media. However, the rejects still got a party favor: OpenAI offered upgraded Codex rate limits to everyone who requested a ticket, granting additional free access to its coding agent.

Inside, photos posted by attendees show the vibe was somewhere between a developer meetup, a Hollywood premiere, and a very expensive social experiment.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

An invite felt like a golden ticket

It looked like an Apple store opening

Everyone wanted a photo with sama

People wore goblin ears

Swag included nerdy socks

Someone bought a Sama Lisa?

And he was asked to sign it

• The CEO of Hinge and Tinder said traditional dating apps intimidate Gen Zers.
• He said they are "highly structured," and Gen Z don't want dating to "feel like a job interview."
• Match Group is trying to get users to meet in real life, through physical dating events.

The man behind Hinge and Tinder said Gen Z doesn't want dating to feel like "a job interview."

In a Tuesday earnings call, an investor asked Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff about the rise of offline dating activities, such as run clubs and book clubs, and how they affect online dating.

The dating apps executive answered that Gen Z "desperately wants to connect" and meet new people.

"They just want to do it in a low-pressure, low-stakes way that doesn't feel like a job interview," Rascoff said.

He added that traditional dating apps are "highly structured and can be intimidating to a user under 30." The rise of these offline dating events shows that Gen Z is seeking easy ways to find their significant others, he said.

To align its apps with the offline dating trend, Match Group has introduced several features that encourage users to go on dates or meet in person.

It is rolling out a "Direct to Date" function on Hinge that prompts users to go on dates immediately after matching, cutting out small talk. Rascoff said that in the testing stage of "Direct to Date," users are "defaulting to familiar low effort date ideas like dinner, drinks, and walks."

And in March, Tinder launched dating events where users could meet in person, starting with meet-ups in Los Angeles. It's also trying to help users connect organically, with new features like "music mode" and "astrology mode," to get users to share similar interests.

"We are embracing this trend of meeting people IRL at different, in different modalities rather than hiding from it," Rascoff said.

Match Group has a large portfolio of dating apps, including Tinder, Hinge, and OkCupid. The group reported first-quarter revenue of $864 million, up 4% compared to the same period last year. Its stock price is up about 24% in the past year.

However, its biggest player, Tinder, is seeing its user base shrink. Rascoff said on the earnings call that Tinder's monthly active users in March were down 7% compared to the same period last year. Traditional dating apps are losing favor with younger users, who are experiencing swipe fatigue.

• Samsung Electronics has topped $1 trillion as South Korea's AI-fueled stock rally hit a fever pitch.
• The Kospi is the world's best-performing major stock market in 2026.
• Investors are pouring into Korean chip stocks as the global AI boom accelerates.

South Korea's blistering stock-market rally has just produced the world's latest $1 trillion company.

On Wednesday, Samsung Electronics closed 14.4% higher, pushing its market valuation pas $1 trillion as the South Korean chip giant rides the artificial-intelligence boom.

Samsung Electronics' stock has more than doubled this year in a stunning rally that makes it only the second Asian company — after Taiwanese chip titan TSMC — to join the $1 trillion club.

The broader South Korean market also rallied sharply, buoyed by gains in Samsung and rival SK Hynix, whose shares jumped 10.6%. SK Hynix stock has also more than doubled this year.

The surge sent South Korea's benchmark Kospi index closing 6.5% higher, smashing through the 7,000 level. Investors are piling into AI-linked stocks amid improving global risk sentiment, after President Donald Trump expressed optimism about a potential deal over the war in Iran.

The Kospi is up about 75% this year, making it the best-performing major stock market globally in 2026. By comparison, the S&P 500 has gained about 6% this year, while the Nasdaq Composite is up 9%.

The explosive gains — the Kospi has tripled since the start of 2025 — mark a dramatic reversal for a market long weighed down by the so-called "Korea discount."

Seoul has spent years trying to reverse that reputation through market reforms aimed at improving corporate governance and boosting shareholder returns.

Those efforts have coincided with a global AI spending frenzy that has drawn billions of dollars into Korean equities from both domestic retail traders and foreign investors.

"The AI infrastructure cycle is increasingly dominant, with 80% of the growth concentrated in semiconductor exporters, particularly from South Korea," equity strategists at Swiss private bank Lombard Odier wrote.

Supply bottlenecks for such chips are supporting pricing power, they added.

Samsung Electronics has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of that boom, reporting a 750% surge in first-quarter operating profit to a record high.

Samsung Electronics now joins a small group of companies valued at more than $1 trillion, including Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Saudi Aramco.

Still, South Korea's market has been volatile amid geopolitical uncertainty this year, even as the AI-driven rally powers ahead.

Samsung Electronics is also facing the risk of union strikes later this month over bonus disputes.

• Companies such as Meta, Amazon, and Coinbase have said they're trimming staff this year.
• Many firms have cited the rise of AI as a reason they need fewer staff.
• See the list of companies letting workers go in 2026.

More than two dozen companies have laid off employees so far in 2026, continuing the trend of significant workforce reductions across a broad range of industries, including tech, media, finance, and retail.

Some, including Block and Coinbase, have cited the impact of artificial intelligence as a key reason for the layoffs.

Target, meanwhile, is shifting resources from its supply chain into stores as part of the new CEO's turnaround strategy to improve the shopping experience and return to growth.

More than 100 other companies, from Amazon to Nike to Verizon, have filed legally mandated WARN notices about job cuts to come in 2026, according to WARN Tracker. Some of the cuts are part of previously announced reductions.

The moves come as artificial intelligence, public policy, and broader economic conditions are driving sweeping changes in the business landscape.

A World Economic Forum survey last year found that some 41% of companies worldwide expected to reduce their workforces in the next five years because of the rise of artificial intelligence. The survey also found that jobs in big data, fintech, and AI are expected to double by 2030.

Last year, Business Insider tracked layoffs at around 65 major companies, such as Amazon, Meta, Paramount, and Starbucks. In 2026, we'll continue to track additional job cuts based on company announcements, WARN notices, and our own reporting.

Here are the companies with job cuts underway in 2026, listed in alphabetical order.

Amazon is laying off thousands of employees

Amazon said in January that it is eliminating around 16,000 corporate roles globally.

This marks its second round of mass layoffs since October, when the tech and retail giant shed 14,000 roles.

Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology, described the move in a company memo as part of broader efforts to cut back on bureaucracy inside the company.

Angi is cutting 350 jobs

Angi, the popular contractor listing site once known as Angie's List, said in January that it was cutting around 350 jobs "to reduce operating expenses and optimize the organizational structure in support of long-term growth." The company also said it's making the cuts "in light of AI-driven efficiency improvements."

In a January 7 SEC filing, Angi said that the cuts would save between $70 million and $80 million in annual spending. The layoffs will cost the company between $22 million and $30 million, according to the filing.

Atlassian is cutting 1,600 employees

Atlassian, the enterprise software company and maker of Confluence, said on March 11 that it will be cutting about 10% of its workforce as it invests in AI to reshape its organization.

CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes said in a statement that about 1,600 employees will be affected by the cuts.

"We fundamentally believe people and AI create the best outcomes. Our approach is not 'AI replaces people,'" Cannon-Brookes said. "But it would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn't change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas. It does."

The company expects to incur $225 million and $236 million in restructuring charges, according to an SEC filing.

Citi's job cuts continue this year

Citi will cut more jobs this year as part of its plan to reduce its workforce by 10%, or 20,000 employees.

In a statement on January 13, the bank said that it will continue to reduce head count in 2026.

"These changes reflect adjustments we're making to ensure our staffing levels, locations and expertise align with current business needs," a spokesperson for Citi said.

The plan was detailed in the company's January 2024 earnings report and could save the bank as much as $2.5 billion.

Coinbase is cutting 14% of staff

The CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, said in a letter to staff on May 5 that 14% of its staff would be cut, largely because of AI.

"AI is changing how we work. Over the past year, I've watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks," wrote. "The pace of what's possible with a small, focused team has changed dramatically, and it's accelerating every day."

Armstrong said this would mean fewer layers and faster decisions in the company. No pure managers, he said — all leaders will now be required to get stuck in and "get their hands dirty."

"AI is bringing a profound shift in how companies operate, and we're reshaping Coinbase to lead in this new era," he added.

Crypto.com laid off 12% of its workforce

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said in March that the company laid off 12% of its workforce, including "roles that do not adapt in our new world."

"Companies that move immediately and pair the best AI tools with top-performers will achieve a level of scale and precision that was previously impossible," Marszalek wrote in a post on X. "This is where we must go."

Dell cut 10% of its workforce

Dell cut its workforce by 10% for the third year in a row, the company said in its annual filing with the SEC.

As of January 31, 2026, the company had 97,000 employees, down 11,000 from the same time last year. The decline includes both layoffs and attrition, Business Insider reported.

eBay is expected to lay off 6% of its employees

eBay is set to eliminate about 800 jobs globally, making up 6% of its workforce. The company told Business Insider that it's taking steps to better align with its strategic priorities.

"We are grateful for the contributions of the employees impacted and are committed to supporting them with care and respect," a company spokesperson said in a statement.

Epic Games is cutting 20% of its workforce

Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, said in March that it would lay off more than 1,000 people — about 20% of its workforce — as engagement with the game declined.

CEO Tim Sweeney said in a memo that the layoffs "aren't related to AI."

"To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can," Sweeney said.

Estée Lauder is deepening its cuts, now to as many as 10,000 roles

Estée Lauder said in its May earnings report that it will deepen its previously announced cuts, which are now expected to affect up to 10,000 jobs.

More than two-thirds of the reductions are in cashier and demonstration roles at lower-performing retail and department stores.

Expedia laid off some employees

Expedia confirmed to Business Insider that it had laid off some employees on January 26 and had also posted new job openings. It's unclear how many of its workers were affected by the cuts.

"We are eliminating roles as well as opening some new roles as we remain disciplined about assessing the skills we need for the future," an Expedia Group spokesperson said in a statement. "We are also simplifying our structure and reducing organizational layers to move faster and with more accountability. These are not easy decisions, and we are grateful for the contributions of our colleagues who are impacted."

Freshworks is cutting 11% of staff

The San Mateo, California-based software company said in its early May earnings report that it would cut 11% of its staff in the second quarter. The company had about 4,500 employees at the end of 2025.

The cuts aim "to streamline the Company's organizational efforts and product development process" and increase AI across the company, according to the filing.

On an earnings call, CEO Dennis Woodside said about half the company's code comes from AI.

"Like many other software companies, that is definitely changing how we build products, how fast we can build products, and the amount of people that we need to build products," he said.

The company's stock slumped 35% from May 2025 to May 2026.

GoPro is laying off 145 employees

On April 7, GoPro said it would lay off about 145 employees as it tries to cut operating costs and restructure operations.

The layoffs make up 23% of its global headcount of 631 employees, the camera maker said in a regulatory filing.

The cuts will start in the second quarter of the year and will largely be completed by the end of 2026. The restructuring is expected to result in a charge of $11.5 million to $15 million.

The company cut about 15% of its staff in August 2024 to cut costs.

Heineken has a multi-year plan to reduce its workforce

Heineken is cutting 5,000 to 6,000 roles over the next two years to boost productivity and bring down costs, according to its latest full-year earnings report.

The company told Business Insider that the divisions and regions where the layoffs are due to take place are yet to be confirmed.

Heineken said in its 2025 report that it faced "subdued consumer sentiment" in the Americas, alongside a "challenging year" for brewers in Europe.

Kenvue cuts 3.5% of workforce

Consumer healthcare brand Kenvue, which produces Tylenol, plans to cut 3.5% of its staff. Kenvue had about 22,000 employees globally, per its latest annual report.

The company wrote in a mid-February SEC filing that its board aimed to reduce complexity and drive operational efficiencies.

The company's layoffs and restructuring efforts are expected to cost $250 million in 2026, per the filing.

Lululemon laid off 100 part-time employees at its customer service center

The athleisure giant said it laid off 100 part-time employees to "strengthen the business." The affected roles are in the company's North American contact center.

"After careful consideration, we have made the decision to transition our North America GEC to a full-time employee staffing model. As a result, approximately 100 part-time positions in our GEC have been impacted," a Lululemon spokesperson said.

Meta lays off workers at Reality Labs and other divisions

Meta began laying off employees across multiple teams on March 25, including Reality Labs, Facebook, recruiting, sales, and global operations.

The cuts come as the company ramps up spending on AI infrastructure and talent, alongside broader cost-cutting efforts. Meta said the changes are part of ongoing restructuring to better align teams with company goals, while exploring other roles for affected employees where possible.

Meta first began preparing to slash jobs within its Reality Labs division, the unit responsible for Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse ambitions, in January, three people familiar with the matter told Business Insider at the time.

Two employees said that teams working on virtual reality headsets and Horizon Worlds, the company's VR social network, would be disproportionately affected.

Meta has shifted away from virtual reality in recent years in favor of spending hundreds of billions of dollars on beefing up its AI capabilities.

Nike laid off workers in two rounds

Nike is cutting roughly 1,400 jobs, mostly from tech, as part of a broader push to streamline operations and revive growth.

In a memo to staff on April 23 obtained by Business Insider, Chief Operating Officer Venkatesh Alagirisamy said the layoffs are tied to the company's "win now" turnaround plan, which focuses on improving culture, product, marketing, marketplace strategy, and in-person retail. He described the effort as entering its "final stretch."

This is Nike's second layoff in 2026. Nike said on January 26 that it planned to lay off 775 employees across Tennessee and Mississippi, citing efforts to "streamline" its distribution center operations.

"We are sharpening our supply chain footprint, accelerating the use of advanced technology and automation, and investing in the skills our teams need for the future," Nike said in a statement to Business Insider.

Oracle is making cuts across regions

Oracle started laying off employees on March 31. The cuts appear to affect employees worldwide.

The company employed around 162,000 full-time employees as of May 2025, according to its most recent 10-K filing.

"After careful consideration of Oracle's current business needs, we have made the decision to eliminate your role as part of a broader organizational change. As a result, today is your last working day," the company said in an email to affected employees.

Papa Johns is restructuring

Papa Johns said it is laying off 7% of its corporate staff amid a broader restructuring.

The pizza chain said it will also close 300 locations in North America through 2027, starting with 200 this year.

"Optimizing our restaurant portfolio and strategically closing underperforming restaurants are among the most impactful actions we can take to improve restaurant profitability and fleet health," Papa Johns CFO Ravi Thanawala said during the company's fourth quarter earnings call on February 26.

Pinterest is expected to lay off 15% of its workforce

Pinterest announced a global restructuring plan that includes layoffs affecting less than 15% of its workforce, according to a January securities filing. The cuts come with reductions in office space.

"We are making organizational changes to further deliver on our AI-forward strategy, which includes hiring AI-proficient talent," a Pinterest spokesperson said.

"As a result, we've made the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our team members. We are grateful for their service and supporting them with separation packages and benefits," they added.

Saks laid off 16% of its corporate staff, among other job cuts

Saks Global, the beleaguered parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman, conducted several rounds of layoffs as it closed stores and trimmed its corporate staff

In April, the company cut about 16% of its corporate staff, representing less than 4% of its total workforce.

"Following the strategic actions we've taken to secure long-term financial stability, sharpen our focus on luxury and full-price selling, optimize our operational footprint, and exit non-core businesses, we are right-sizing our corporate organization to align with our go-forward strategy," a Saks spokesperson told Business Insider.

The cuts followed Saks's closure of dozens of stores and fulfillment centers in the first quarter, resulting in layoffs.

Saks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January.

T-Mobile cut some jobs

T-Mobile cut some staff in early 2026, though the scope of the layoffs is unclear. Some workers posted on LinkedIn saying they'd been affected by the changes in January.

"As the next step in our evolution, we're making some changes while continuing to hire to ensure we have the right focus, structure, and momentum to keep changing the industry through innovation and our long-standing focus on customers," T-Mobile told Business Insider in a statement.

Tailwind cut 3 of its 4 engineers

Tailwind, a popular web tool, said it cut three of its four engineers in January, citing an AI-driven decline in revenue.

"75% of the people on our engineering team lost their jobs here yesterday because of the brutal impact AI has had on our business," CEO Adam Wathan wrote in a GitHub comment on January 6 that made waves in the tech community.

Target is cutting 500 roles from its distribution and regional offices

Target confirmed to Business Insider in February that it would cut 100 district office roles and 400 supply chain positions. It plans to invest instead in additional labor hours at stores to improve the shopping experience and return to growth.

The store improvement effort is a signature priority of the retailer's new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, who started on February 1.

In November, Fiddelke said the company intends to invest an additional $1 billion in capital expenditures for 2026, an increase of 25% from 2025.

UPS said it will eliminate 30,000 jobs

UPS CEO Brian Dykes told analysts during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call that the company plans to reduce its operational workforce by 30,000 in 2026.

"This will be accomplished through attrition, and we expect to offer a second voluntary separation program for full-time drivers," Dykes said.

He told analysts that the company has identified 24 buildings for closure in the first half of 2026 and will continue to evaluate additional buildings for closure.

WiseTech is cutting 30% of its workforce

Logistics software maker Wisetech is cutting 2,000 jobs, or 30% of its staff, citing AI-driven efficiency gains.

In a conference call on February 25, CEO Zubin Appoo embraced AI and said that it means more productivity, in less time, and from fewer employees. The Sydney-based company employed about 7,000 people, according to its annual report released in October.

"I am prepared to say this clearly: the era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over," Appoo said. AI is "unlocking levels of efficiency gains across WiseTech that were previously out of reach."

Workday is cutting jobs

Workday is cutting about 400 jobs, and said on February 4 that the move will help the enterprise software company redirect resources toward priority areas.

The layoffs will primarily affect customer-facing roles that are "non-revenue generating," Workday said in a regulatory filing.

The cuts represent roughly 2% of its workforce and are expected to result in about $135 million in charges in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended in January.

Workday announced a larger round of layoffs about a year ago, citing the need to invest more heavily in strategic areas such as AI. The company reported about 20,600 employees as of late October.

Is your company conducting layoffs? Got a tip?

• After a yearlong trip with her husband, Maria Laposata realized that she hated two-week vacations.
• She found that returning from shorter trips left her feeling worse than when she left.
• She and her husband opted for a monthlong working trip instead — their first was to France.

For the past three years, I have nursed a growing hatred for the standard two-week vacation.

In 2023, I took an adult gap year with my husband, Nick. After a year filled with safaris in East Africa, learning to haggle in Morocco, and island hopping in Southeast Asia, we returned home to LA and feverishly rebuilt our lives.

I made reluctant peace with the fact that our future travel ambitions would have to fit into neat two-week sprints by obsessively planning.

Our first vacation after coming home

The itinerary was simple. We'd start by visiting two Greek islands: Syros, where we'd join a multi-day cooking school, and Paros, where we'd lounge around on the beach. Then we'd fly to Malta to explore historical sites before closing out the trip with a weekend layover in Dublin, one of our favorite places in the world.

At first, the trip seemed like a success. Our hard-earned travel skills were well-utilized. We breezed through the airport with one backpack each.

Syros, our first stop, was pleasantly calm — filled with pottery stores I loved to peruse. The cooking school was intimate and involved — ideal for experienced cooks like us.

But when cooking school was over, a few days into our trip, the two-week clock began to nag at me, instilling pressure to make the most of any free time.

Each subsequent activity that didn't fill my soul felt like an incrementally larger catastrophe. Snorkeling in barren, over-fished waters was a waste of an afternoon. Beach days marred by clouds and chilly water were a disaster. And eating at a slew of disappointing restaurants in Malta was the tragedy of the century.

Returning home after vacation

When our plane home touched down in LA, I was filled with dread. The thought of opening my work laptop the next day was already taunting me. Worse, I realized that feeling of dread was familiar. I'd felt this way coming home from virtually every vacation I'd taken before. I'd always accepted it as a given.

I'd accepted that a vacation could leave me feeling worse than when I'd left. But what was the point of that?

There had to be something we could do to change this dynamic. This became a recurring late-night conversation between my husband and me. "Setting aside our adult gap year, did we ever take a trip where we came back happier than we left?" I asked him one night.

"Yeah, Alaska," Nick said without hesitation. The answer didn't surprise me; he's an outdoorsman. "But that wasn't really a vacation."

Years earlier, we'd spent a month in Alaska during the summer. We were working remotely, but it didn't feel like work. We used a long weekend to explore huge stretches of the state — camping beside a glacier on the Kenai Peninsula with no one else around, watching grizzly bears in Denali National Park, and listening to audiobooks together on long drives back to Anchorage.

Working during the trip wasn't always convenient, but the slight time difference gave me more uninterrupted time to focus. And with the sun setting so late, our evenings felt expansive. We hiked local trails, tried many must-visit restaurants, and wandered through art galleries around Anchorage.

Having something to look forward to each night made it easier for me to log off at a reasonable hour — something I struggled with at home. Best of all, staying plugged into daily life meant I didn't dread returning.

That's when it hit me: We should do it again.

A monthlong working holiday instead

I pitched the idea to Nick — skip a typical two-week vacation so that we could explore more deeply without the pressure to maximize every moment. We'd still take time off, but spread it out. He was in.

In January of this year, we put the idea to the test and spent a month in the South of France. Nick got the arrangement approved at work without issue. I had since launched my own boutique travel company, Travelries, and dutifully approved my own working arrangement.

While working, we fell into a rhythm

In Nice, we woke up to the smell of fresh baguettes, shopped for groceries at picturesque local markets, and once a week picked a new seaside town in the French Riviera to visit for dinner.

On weekends, we took the train to other regions — bopping between villages in Provence, Monaco, and the Italian Riviera, admiring the glittering coastal views along the way.

We never felt rushed, but by the end of the month, we'd visited more than 20 towns. We wrapped the trip with a long weekend in Paris, where I'd once studied abroad and now got to play tourist.

This time, the trip home didn't come with the usual dread. We were sad to leave Nice, but we felt full. And instead of bracing for reality, I was already thinking about where we'd go next.

• OpenAI's compute costs have surged to $50 billion in 2026 from $30 million in 2017, Brockman said.
• Brockman said Musk sought a big win for OpenAI before considering any for-profit ventures.
• Musk demanded 51% of OpenAI but faced resistance from founders, leading to heated confrontations.

Greg Brockman's second day of testimony revealed many insights into Elon Musk's interactions with OpenAI's founders.

Brockman, OpenAI's president, returned to the witness stand on Tuesday, seeking to add "context" to journal entries about how it would be "morally bankrupt" to "steal" the OpenAI nonprofit from Musk.

Musk is seeking more than $100 billion in damages from OpenAI in the high-stakes trial, where he said the company deceived him and that its founders, including Brockman, unjustly enriched themselves.

Here are the key revelations from Brockman's latest testimony.

Musk wanted a big win for OpenAI before entertaining a for-profit

In a bid to compete, Musk told the OpenAI team they needed a big win, Brockman told the jury. "Once we have a big result, then and only then can we entertain the for-profit," Brockman said Musk told them.

Brockman says the team finally got their win in 2017 when an OpenAI bot defeated a top player in the video game Dota 2 on an international stage.

Twenty thousand people watched the win, which Musk crowed about on Twitter, before it was renamed X.

Celebrating at Musk's haunted mansion with Amber Heard

After the big win, the OpenAI team was invited to Musk's "haunted mansion" in San Francisco to discuss the company's next steps, Brockman said. In his email, Musk warned of "party carnage" from the night before.

"There was confetti and cups and the whole thing all around," Brockman said of the scene.

Actor Amber Heard, Musk's girlfriend at the time, was also there.

"I remember Amber served some nice whiskey," Brockman said. "Elon asked her to be part of the conversation. She didn't really want to," he said, adding, "But we had a conversation about the for-profit, and it was a very celebratory moment."

Musk said he deserved more because he had more money

Musk wanted a controlling, 51% equity stake in OpenAI and to be its CEO, Brockman told the jury.

"He said he deserved more because he had started the most multi-billion-dollar companies in history, that he had zero failures," Brockman testified.

"Look, you guys are great," Brockman said, quoting Musk. "But I can start another AI company tomorrow, like in one tweet."

This was something the rest of the founders — Brockman, Sutskever, and Altman — objected to.

The breakup fight with Musk

After that, things went downhill. The founders agreed to structural changes to the company, but they fought over the details, Brockman said.

Brockman recalled a meeting in August 2017 where they told Musk they would each be getting founding shares. If Musk wanted additional shares, he could pay the market price.

"Then the conversation turned to equity, and something really changed," said Brockman of how Musk reacted. "Something just shifted in him. It was like, you could just sense it. And he was angry."

"He just sat quiet for several minutes, just thinking," Brockman added. "And he said, 'I decline.'"

Brockman said later in the testimony that he thought Musk was going to "physically attack him" and that Musk "stormed around the table."

Musk said he wanted to compete with the "wolves" at Google

Around the time Musk resigned from the board, he met with OpenAI's employees, Brockman said. Brockman said Musk told the team at the 2018 meeting that he was resigning because OpenAI would require "billions of dollars per year" and "the only path" he saw to make it work was to have Tesla run it.

Musk told the group that in pursuing artificial intelligence at Tesla, "he would not work on safety," Brockman said. "He said the most important thing would be to catch up to DeepMind," Brockman said, speaking of Google's AI lab.

"If the sheep are dictating safety and the wolves are not, there would be no purpose," Brockman recalled Musk saying.

OpenAI's compute costs have skyrocketed

OpenAI expects to spend about $50 billion on computing power in 2026, Brockman said when addressing the amount of funding OpenAI would need to stay competitive.

According to Reuters, Brockman said that the ChatGPT maker's computing costs have surged from roughly $30 million in 2017 to tens of billions of dollars this year.

"We went down the list of the Forbes 500, the wealthiest people in America, and tried to find people excited about AI," said Brockman as he detailed the difficulty of OpenAI's fundraising efforts back when it was still a nonprofit.

• 0G Labs is cutting about 25% of its staff as it embraces AI agents, a leaked email shows.
• Staff should be using AI every day to achieve "20x" their previous output, its CEO told staff.
• 0G Labs was last valued at $2 billion, while its crypto token's price is down over 80% since launch.

Startups may be the next ones hit by a wave of AI-driven layoffs.

0G Labs, a San Francisco startup that builds blockchains for AI agents, says it's cutting a quarter of its staff because its agents are so good at doing human jobs.

0G Labs announced the decision last week in an email from its CEO, Michael Heinrich, that was viewed by Business Insider.

Heinrich said the company is becoming "a leaner, faster AI-native company" and is now focused on scaling up AI rather than head count.

"Every day, we talk about a world where AI agents handle the work humans shouldn't have to do," his email reads. "It's time to operate that way ourselves."

Heinrich's email added that staff should use AI every day to achieve "20x" their previous output, while human judgment remains "essential."

0G Labs said in a statement that while decisions surrounding layoffs are "never easy," the efficiencies it has seen from AI agents are real.

"As a company building AI infrastructure, we believe in running on the same technology we provide to others," a spokesperson said.

0G Labs had said it raised about $350 million in funding and hit a valuation of $2 billion as of last year. It was featured at the time in a Business Insider article about AI unicorns with tiny teams, which said the company had about 40 staff.

The startup's crypto token, $0G, is down in price by over 80% since it launched last year, according to CoinMarketCap. 0G Labs didn't comment on whether this affected its decision to cut staff.

AI-driven layoffs have hit the tech industry hard after the technology advanced by leaps and bounds over the holidays, in what some dubbed "Claude Christmas," a reference to Anthropic's chatbot.

In February, fintech company Block cut nearly half its entire workforce due to AI, while Coinbase announced Tuesday that it's letting go of 14% of its employees due to AI as well.

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Long gone are the days of needing a cable box or clunky satellite dish to watch live TV. Now, the best live TV streaming services can give you access to all your favorite channels without the hassles, lofty fees, and long-term contracts that are traditionally found in cable packages. All you need is an internet connection and a smart TV, computer, or smartphone to begin watching.

With so many solid options on the market, it can be hard to figure out exactly which service is the right one for your household's needs. To help make selecting one a bit easier, we've spent hours testing out the best live TV streaming services and highlighted our four top picks. Whether you've recently cut the cord and you're seeking out a true cable replacement or you're just looking for a way to keep up with a few notable networks without breaking the bank, there's something for everyone.

DirecTV earns our highest recommendation, as it offers both a wide range of more affordable genre packs and true cable alternatives with unrivaled channel line-ups in its pricier signature packages. Philo is a great lifestyle and entertainment-centric service if you're more budget-minded. The entry-level live TV streamer is missing local channels and major sports networks, but it's only $25 a month, so you can always supplement any gaps with other services. International sports fanatics will find lots to love in Fubo, which offers a staggering number of channels for $74 a month, but lacks Warner Bros. programming and a few other key networks. Sling is an easy middle ground, offering a concise yet mighty selection of essential channels, including ESPN.

Below, you can find our researched roundup of the best live TV streaming services for different needs. Though channel selection and price vary from app to app, these cord-cutting services all offer plenty of popular networks to watch. If you're stuck deciding between two options, our Sling vs. Fubo and Sling vs. Philo guides might be able to help you out.

Our top picks for the best live TV streaming services

Best overall

DirecTV, the streaming counterpart to the cable provider of the same name, is as close as it gets to cable in the world of streaming. The app has month-to-month options like the other live TV streaming packages in this guide (as well as an optional long-term plan if you're looking to save some money). Subscribers can watch unlimited streams on their home network and up to three streams while away from home.

The live TV streaming service carries pretty much everything you'd find in a basic cable package, with no random blackouts (like the lack of Warner Bros. networks on Fubo or local channels on Sling). Plus, you can add on pretty much any cable channel (or bundle in a popular streaming service like HBO Max and Paramount+ with Showtime) — for a price.

That being said, the streaming service can get a bit expensive in its signature packages. The base Entertainment tier starts at $90/month, which is similar to alternatives like Hulu + Live TV and Fubo. Things get pricey with the other options, like the Choice tier (which has everything that Entertainment offers, plus specialty sports networks), the Ultimate tier (which carries everything in Choice, plus more sports and movie channels), and the Premier tier (which offers everything we've mentioned so far, in addition to extra channels and bonus streaming subscription access).

Most of these signature plans also tack on regional sports fees (which can reach up to $18 a month) and/or the $10 a month Gemini lease fee. The signature plans all include ESPN Unlimited, and (if you get a Gemini device) the ad-supported Disney Plus and Hulu bundle. The Premier option also unlocks STARZ, Paramount Plus Premium (with Showtime), HBO Max, and Cinemax.

The service also recently started offering cheaper genre packs, which bundle together a select number of popular channels pegged to specific genres so subscribers can cherry-pick what they're interested in and not have to pay for anything extra. The packs range in price from $20 a month to $65 a month, catering to genres such as Entertainment, Sports, Kids, and News, as well as a Spanish-language package. MyEntertainment comes with access to ad-supported Disney Plus, Hulu, and HBO Max, while MySports includes ESPN Unlimited.

Check out our DirecTV review or explore all plans on the DirecTV website.

Best budget plan

If your main concern is price, live TV streaming doesn't get much better than Philo. For only $25 a month, you get over 70 channels and unlimited one-year DVR storage. In exchange for such a low cost, Philo falls short in a few areas, but it's still an incredible value. 

The Philo channel catalog is limited but does include quality content for the right viewer. You can find great lifestyle channels like Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, Lifetime, and TLC, and you get Nickelodeon for your little ones. General entertainment options are also solid with stations like AMC, Paramount Network, and Comedy Central. However, if you're looking for robust news, local stations, or sports coverage, you'll have to look elsewhere since Philo doesn't include networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN, TNT, or ESPN. 

The Philo app is available on select smart TVs, most streaming devices, and smartphones. But, unlike other live TV services, it's not available on gaming consoles. While its display isn't that memorable, and it lacks thumbnail images for programs in the TV guide, the interface gets points for being sleek and uncomplicated. The service's 80,000+ on-demand titles are also easy to search.

If you're looking for a little extra bang for your buck, you can get the Bundle+ plan. This tier includes all of the same 70+ channels, along with ad-supported access to the AMC+ library (normally $8 a month), HBO Max (normally $11 a month), and Discovery+ (normally $6 month). Bundle+ is only $8 a month more than Essential, which offers some decent savings considering that the trio of external streaming services would add up to $25 every month if you subscribed to each app separately. Subscribers will need to activate and use the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming extras within their respective apps.

Philo cuts some corners, but it does so to keep costs low for viewers, making it the best live TV streaming service for shoppers on a tight budget, even after price hikes. The service launched in 2017 for $16 a month, and its modest price increases have come with genuine improvements to the app and its offerings. The streaming service previously reached $33 a month on its lone paid plan, but the streamer recently introduced the cheaper $25 a month Essential plan without any of the external streaming services bundled in. Overall, we suggest browsing the Philo channel lineup if you're looking for a cheap cable alternative. You might be surprised by how many popular networks you can get for only $25.

Check out our Philo guide or head to the Philo website for more information.

Best for the essentials

Sling is the best live TV streaming service for viewers who just want the essentials without any extra bells and whistles. Though its main plans aren't quite as cheap as Philo's, Sling TV includes some key networks that Philo lacks. The live TV service now also offers some more budget-friendly, flexible options.

Sling Orange targets the sporty family, while Sling Blue targets news and entertainment viewers. Of the two, Blue offers more all-purpose genre variety, while Orange's greatest selling point is ESPN. Though pricing varies slightly depending on where you live, each plan starts at $46 a month, making Sling one of the most affordable options on the market. In regions with local network coverage, Sling Blue costs $51 a month.

Sling recently introduced two brand-new, pared-down plans, Select and Essentials. Select and Essentials carry a small handful of networks found in the Blue and Orange tiers, respectively. Essentials costs $20 a month, while Select ranges from $20 to $25 a month depending on your local channel availability. Sling Orange is also newly available in short-term passes, including one-day ($5), weekend ($10), and weeklong ($15) options. Additionally, all six of Sling's plans come with a savings opportunity when you prepay for three months of service.

Both main plans feature the same base lineup of 26 channels, including popular networks like AMC, CNN, Food Network, HGTV, and Cartoon Network. In addition to that core selection, Orange and Blue each offer exclusive channels geared toward a specific kind of viewer. Orange includes exclusives like ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, Disney Channel, Freeform, and Motor Trend. In fact, it's the cheapest monthly way to live stream ESPN. Meanwhile, Blue comes with channels like NFL Network, FX, Discovery, and TLC, along with local networks like ABC, NBC, and Fox in select cities. 

If you're interested in getting both lineups, you can combine the two plans with the Sling Orange + Blue package for a starting price of $61 a month (plus a bit more with local channels). At that price, however, we think you're better off paying a bit more to get the extra perks and additional channels that come with a DirecTV or Fubo membership. There's also an option to get a Sling Essentials + Select combo package, starting at $35 a month.

Check out our Sling TV review, round-up of Sling TV channels, and guide to Sling Orange vs. Blue. You can see what's available in your area by visiting the Sling website.

Best for sports fans

Fubo's strongest selling point is its huge library of available channels: At least 150 with its entry-level Pro plan alone, and more included with each tier up. (The exact number of channels varies slightly depending on your location, but base plans can get over 200 channels in select areas.) Fubo now also comes with unlimited DVR recording storage, and it stands out for letting subscribers watch up to 10 simultaneous screens at once on one account, albeit for a higher starting price than most competitors.

Fubo is mostly geared toward sports fans, especially those who want to watch regional channels and international leagues, but be ready to pay for extras. With Fubo Pro, the base plan, you get sports stations like ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network, beIN Sports, PFL, Speedvision, Bleav Sports, FS1, FS2, Sportsnews, SEC Network, Motortrend, and more. Other services also offer some of these networks, but Fubo stands out further with specific add-on bundles for MLB, NBA, and international sports. These start at an additional $7 a month.

But once you start tacking on add-ons, Fubo can become expensive. If you go with the base plan at $74 a month, then opt for Sports Plus ($11 a month) and MLB.TV ($30 a month), you're already at a hefty $115 monthly cost. Plans with regional sports networks also have additional regional sports fees, which get added to your monthly bill and are not typically shown until you begin the sign-up process. Fubo briefly offered an Essential plan for the same price as Pro, which functioned the same as Pro but without regional sports coverage and the associated fees, but the service has since nixed the plan. That makes Fubo one of the more expensive live TV streaming services.

The streamer recently introduced a new Sports + News plan. The pared-down package starts at $56 a month and includes key local networks (other than NBC) and sports channels like ESPN, FS1, and the Tennis Channel, among others (totaling to a little under 30 channels). Sports + News also unlocks access to ESPN Unlimited, which is also the case for the Pro and Elite plans.

While Fubo has tons of specialized sports networks, regional stations, and international options, it's important to note that it is missing some key channels, including TNT and TBS, which broadcast MLB and Unrivaled games. Other Warner Bros. networks (like CNN and HGTV) are also missing, in addition to the AMC channel. More recently, Fubo has lost NBCUniversal channels while the two companies try to reach a new content distribution agreement. Still, if you're looking for a sports-friendly service with rare and regional channels (or obscure international options), this is the way to go.

Check out our Fubo TV guide or explore subscription options directly on the Fubo website.

How we test live TV streaming services

To find the best live TV streaming services, we tested several contenders and narrowed our picks down to the top five. We evaluated multiple key factors when testing each service, including overall value, number of channels, quality of channels, extra features, and user-friendliness.

• Overall value: Live TV streaming services are much more expensive than your average on-demand streaming service, meaning it's even more important to ensure you're getting what you want from your choice. We didn't let a high price tag eliminate a competitor from the running, but if a service was unnecessarily expensive or pricier than comparable services, we noted that.

• Number of channels: If you're searching for a cable replacement, you definitely don't want to make huge cuts to your viewing library when making the switch. To measure this, we compared the number of channels each plan offers for each service. Total channels are only part of the equation, however, as having hundreds of networks is meaningless if they're not worth watching.

• Quality of channels: It doesn't matter if you have thousands of channels if you don't want to watch them, so we ensured that our top picks for the best live TV streaming service had content you'd actually tune in to. That means looking for popular channels from household names across various genres, including news, sports, family, drama, and lifestyle programs.
• Extra features: With so many live TV options to choose from, providers often set themselves apart by offering additional perks with their services. We considered this when testing, since the right features can add a ton of value to your subscription plan. Key features we focused on include user profile support, DVR capabilities, 4K streaming, simultaneous streams, on-demand offerings, and included external streaming services. Some of the services also include access to other streaming apps.
• User-friendliness: It may be hard to believe, but streaming was once supposed to make your life easier, so we've kept that in mind when testing these services. If you're signing on to spend upward of $25 a month (and often much more) on an app, it shouldn't be difficult to use. Keeping that in mind, we evaluated the interface, TV guide, and overall ease of navigation when trying out these services.

We take all these factors, and more, into account when evaluating streaming services. We've rigorously tested all four of the live TV services recommended in this guide across a variety of different devices in our own homes. You can learn more about our process in our how we test streaming services explainer, which breaks down our methodology.

What to look for in a live TV streaming service

There are a few key pros that all of the best live TV streaming services share, but in the end, the best platform for you will depend on your particular needs. Even before starting to shop, we recommend identifying what content you actually care about watching. Do you really need to pay for hundreds of channels if you only really care about a few of them? Here are some questions we recommend asking yourself before committing to a subscription.

• Does the service include a handful of channels for each genre you plan to watch?
• Does it cater to the kids in your household?
• Does it offer enough simultaneous screens for the number of viewers you have?
• Do you need on-demand streaming included?
• Do you need regional sports networks? (And if not, is there a way to make sure you're not paying extra for them?)
• Does it have the right number of DVR hours or the ability to purchase more?
• Does it include access to any external streaming services that you'd like to use?
• Can you watch this service on your existing household devices (smart TVs, consoles, etc.)?

We know that there's a lot to choose from, so we tried to make the decision process a bit easier by narrowing it down to four of the best live TV streaming services we've tried. Now, it's up to you to figure out which is right for your needs. Fortunately, half of the options we've recommended offer free trials to give new customers the chance to sample the goods before committing to a subscription. Some services also have introductory promos that might shave a few dollars off your first month of service.

Live TV streaming service FAQs

What is live TV streaming?

Designed to replace pricey cable and satellite TV, the best live TV streaming services eliminate the need for finicky, company-owned hardware and allow you to watch your favorite live channels with just an internet connection and a smart TV, phone, or streaming device. It's a must-have for cord-cutters who want to catch their favorite programs as they come out, as well as breaking news and sports games. 

How do you stream live TV?

Live TV streaming is easy since all you need is an internet connection and a computer, smart TV, smartphone, tablet, or eligible gaming console. You can just download the service's app or open its website in a browser, log in, and start streaming.

If you're looking for a new streaming stick, box, or display, check out our guides to the best TVs and best streaming devices. There's something for every budget and streaming need.

Is live TV streaming cheaper than cable?

Live TV streaming services are often more affordable than cable services. Traditional pay-TV providers like Dish, Verizon, and Xfinity offer starting prices that cost more than most of our streaming picks. For cable plans that offer more than the bare minimum, you'll often find costs climb past the $100 mark. 

Not only are they more expensive, but cable plans often tack on extra fees to use their required boxes and DVR equipment, and some can lock you into lengthy contracts to claim certain promos. Cable also offers far fewer features, like smaller DVR storage, no personal accounts, and fewer compatible devices to watch on.

In general, it's safe to say that live TV streaming services give you more bang for your buck. However, it is important to keep in mind that the best live TV streaming services can still get pricey once you start adding on extra channel packages and some upgraded features.

Do live TV streaming services include local channels?

Most, but not all, of our picks for the best live TV streaming services include access to local networks like ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS. Local networks are included with all signature DirecTV and Fubo plans, although local availability varies in genre packs and Spanish-language plans. Fubo is also currently missing NBC due to an ongoing dispute. Meanwhile, only select Sling TV plans include access to FOX, NBC, and ABC in certain areas. Sling doesn't offer CBS in any markets. Finally, Philo does not include any local networks with its service.

If your streaming service doesn't offer local stations, we recommend considering a digital antenna as a cheap solution. As long as your area has good reception, a digital antenna can provide free access to local channels without the need for any kind of paid subscription. Check out our guide to the best indoor TV antennas to see our top recommendations. It's worth noting that Sling will send subscribers an HD antenna if they prepay for three months of Sling.

Do regular streaming services allow for live streaming?

Standard streaming services (such as Netflix, HBO Max, and Hulu) are best known for their on-demand content, and we don't typically recommend these for true live TV cable replacements. However, these services have increasingly begun to invest in live TV options, typically offering select live games or one specific live channel.

For example, Paramount Plus offers CBS live streaming in its Premium tier, while Peacock has NBC live streaming in its Premium Plus tier. FOX One live streams everything from FOX networks, including the flagship channel, FS1, and FS2. ESPN Unlimited live streams everything that is broadcast across Disney-owned sports networks, such as ESPN, ESPN on ABC, ESPN2, the ACC Network, the SEC Network, and more.

• Nonprofit Citizens for Constitutional Integrity released a batch of emails from federal workers.
• The emails were responding to Elon Musk's directive to send five bullet points on daily accomplishments.
• Some workers expressed frustration with the task, while others detailed the minutiae of their days.

A little over a year ago, the Elon Musk-guided Department of Government Efficiency asked federal workers to explain their jobs. A new document dump offers a peek into their answers.

Back in February 2025, DOGE asked federal workers to send five bullet points answering one simple question: "What did you do last week?" Musk said ahead of formally announcing the emails that "failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

Now, we know how workers in the Office of Personnel Management responded, thanks to a document release of around 200 replies to that request in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from activist nonprofit Citizens for Constitutional Integrity.

Some federal workers took the emails as an opportunity to express their frustration with the assignment. One worker said that the federal workforce is "already undermanned and should not be wasting our time with these trivia political stunts."

"If you do not have anything that is positive, then please do not waste my time with these emails," the worker said. "I am here to serve the people and not anyone else who has nothing better to do then to cause chaos. As far as firing me, I am already retiring so it is a moot point."

And while another worker took the time to write out legitimate tasks in the bullets, they also wrote: "I understand that there is a mission to accomplish and that soft skills may not always be a priority, but to what end will efforts to humiliate federal employees—including those of us who agree that change is necessary—serve?"

Others detailed the minutiae of their days. One worker broke down their schedule by hourly and thirty-minute chunks, including their lunch breaks. Another employee said, "Believe it, I check my email every 5 minutes, yes I do." A worker in HR described their role in coordinating restructuring programs in the wake of the Deferred Resignation program and creating plans to terminate the Presidential Management Fellows program.

Most emails, however, were simple breakdowns of the work employees accomplished that week; some were brief, others more in-depth about their roles.

The emails only skim the surface of what workers across the government sent. Citizens for Constitutional Integrity told Business Insider that they estimated there were about 2.9 million outstanding emails from their request, which covered the entire federal government, including about 3,000 more from OPM. Currently, a judge has ordered OPM to produce around 250 of its emails monthly.

Shortly after the email directive was introduced, some federal agencies told their employees they were not required to respond. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, said in an email to employees in May 2025 that it would "pause" the requirement while continuing with other types of performance monitoring. The Internal Revenue Service took a similar approach, saying that the agency's supervisors would observe employee performance regularly.

DOGE's efforts have since been wound down, and Musk stepped back from the role in April 2025. Its cuts, however, have had a lasting impact. While some agencies have rehired staff who were cut, many are still out of work, and others have voluntarily resigned and have not returned. Business Insider previously spoke to former federal workers who described how the cuts upended their lives. Rachel Brittin, a former employee at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was fired, reinstated, and then fired again. She said it "was more than a career setback — it was emotionally exhausting and deeply disorienting."

OPM did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.