• I've lived in Greece for over four years now, and my lifestyle and routine have changed a lot.
• I used to wear athleisure to run errands, but now I dress up every time I leave the house.
• I also eat meals later and have a different grocery-shopping routine.

After more than four years of living in Athens, Greece, I've still retained a few very American habits.

For instance, I love sleeping with my AC on at 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, and waking up to make a big breakfast of waffles with maple syrup. I still don't take a two-week vacation in August, although I dream of doing it someday.

I grew up in Boston and lived in the US for the first 33 years of my life, so it makes sense that I've stuck with a few American tendencies despite my years abroad. But whenever I visit back home, I realize how much I've adjusted to many Greek-inspired habits.

These are the ones that have become an integral part of my lifestyle now.

The way I dress has changed

In the US, I'd think nothing of leaving my house in athleisure clothes to run errands — stretchy leggings, a zip-up sweatshirt, hair scraped into a messy bun.

Here in Greece, however, I don't even go to the grocery store dressed like that anymore. I pull on a proper pair of jeans and a top, tie up my leopard-print Converse sneakers or step into my pink Birkenstock sandals, and arrange my hair into a French twist if it's too messy to wear it down.

I also take at least a minute or two to pull my face together before I go — brushing my eyebrows into place and slicking on a little lip color to look a bit more presentable.

In my experience, it's very uncommon here to see people outside their homes looking unpolished or untidy. This doesn't mean everyone runs errands in formal attire (hence my Converse and jeans), but it's seen as bad manners to leave the house looking like you just rolled out of bed.

Now, the only time I wear gym clothes is when I'm actually on my way to the gym.

My grocery shopping routine looks very different

When I lived in downtown Boston, I had a routine: I'd walk a mile to the nearest Whole Foods and buy everything I needed for the week ahead, lugging my overstuffed backpack home.

Now, in Athens, I shop quite differently. On Friday mornings I go to the laiki agora, or farmers market, which is much more extensive (and chaotic!) than the ones I used to see in the US.

I can buy everything there, from the freshest seasonal produce to fish, nuts and legumes, olive oil and homemade wine, while the vendors shout out compliments and offer different prices.

I head to the bakery on my street weekly for bread and treats like orange pie or spanakopita, and sometimes to the greengrocer, too. When I need a specific meat product, like a Thanksgiving turkey, I go to my neighborhood butcher shop.

I also have multiple small grocery stores within a few blocks of my apartment, and I'll usually swing by these on my way home from the gym when I need just one or two things for dinner.

Although I still haven't dropped the habit of trekking to a larger grocery store every week for essentials, that trip feels less intense because I don't need to stock up on everything I'll need in an entire week at once.

I've adjusted to the Greek way of eating and drinking

Back in the US, most people my age would eat dinner around 6 or 7 p.m. Now that I live in Greece, though, I typically eat dinner around 8 or 9 p.m. — or even as late as 10 p.m. in the summer, when it's too hot to meet up with my friends earlier.

I've found it's actually quite lovely to be up and out late on a summer night, when the temperature has dropped and the breeze is soft.

I've shifted my lunchtime a bit later as well, and usually eat between 2 and 3 p.m. these days. (I still like a heartier breakfast, even though Greeks tend to eat lightly in the morning!)

Restaurant culture is different, too. Here, it's very common to spend three hours over dinner with friends. I never feel rushed to get out the door so they can turn over the table, so I tend to relax and chill out when I have the time, people-watching and catching up with my friends.

Life in Greece has different rhythms and habits than my life in the US did — slower meals, more single-item grocery stops, and my chaotic but fun weekly market visit — plus a slightly upgraded dress code.

Now when I visit the US, the early dinner times, fast meals, and enormous grocery shops feel like culture shock in reverse. But I do still look forward to my enormous diner breakfasts (usually eaten while wearing some comfy leggings!) whenever I go back.

• Cities were once the main option for living within walking distance of parks, cafés, and shops.
• Now, the suburbs are getting the same treatment as developers build walkable, amenity-rich communities.
• A NAR survey found that buyers will even pay more to live in these types of neighborhoods.

Joseph Hajjar and his wife had spent years living in big cities, where they enjoyed the fast-paced lifestyle and endless options for things to do. So when they decided to settle in the suburbs and raise their two young daughters, they had a few non-negotiables.

"We had a spreadsheet going, and the towns that checked a lot of boxes were the ones with walkability and a good restaurant scene," Hajjar, 40, told Business Insider. "We were also looking for a strong sense of community."

They ultimately chose Summit, New Jersey, a small commuter suburb about 22 miles from New York City. They paid $1.4 million for a roughly 3,500-square-foot home — far larger than their two-bedroom condo in Jersey City. It even came with an upstairs attic they use to host guests, a yard, and a garden, features they could only have dreamed of having in the city.

Sure, they're paying more than when they were living in the city. But one of the home's biggest perks is its proximity to Summit's historic downtown, where the family can walk to shops, cafés, and restaurants. It is also close to the train station, where Hajjar's wife catches the New Jersey Transit to work in New York City.

"We only wanted to do this once, versus buying a starter home," Hajjar said. "Summit has a lot of great stuff. There's a really good YMCA right downtown, so I can walk to the gym. My wife and I can have a date night and walk into town."

For decades, people looking for a home have faced a choice between two distinct lifestyles: either large, walkable cities rich in "third places," gathering places outside the home and workplace, like cafés and parks; or the more self-contained, car-dependent suburbs.

As Americans place greater value on connection and convenience, home buyers like the Hajjars are asking more of their neighborhoods — and, in turn, homebuilders are reimagining suburbia.

People want to live in walkable neighborhoods with things to do

NAR's 2026 Community and Transportation Preference Survey polled 2,000 adults in the nation's 50 largest metro areas and found that 63% of respondents would pay more to live within walking distance of parks, shops, and restaurants. When given the choice between a larger lot that required more driving and a smaller lot in a walkable neighborhood, 59% chose the walkable option.

Patrick Southern, a luxury real estate agent with Serhant in New Jersey, told Business Insider that neighborhood amenities have become an important deciding factor for many buyers, particularly "millennials and Gen Zers in their mid to late 20s."

"They grew up in the suburbs, where if they had to go somewhere, they got thrown in the back of a station wagon and driven there," Southern said. "But after college, once they've lived in big cities, they experience a quality of life they don't want to give up. We're seeing that translate to young buyers in the suburbs, and developers are taking that into account in their planning."

Suburbia is getting a rebrand

Not every buyer can find a suitable home in an established, walkable downtown like Summit's. Some developers are instead trying to build a sense of community into newer, master-planned developments.

Unlike traditional communities, which are often built piece by piece, master-planned communities are designed as a whole from the start. They can function like mini-cities, with schools, restaurants, and amenities within their boundaries. While there is no definitive national count, Texas and Florida accounted for a majority of the master-planned developments in John Burns Research and Consulting's 2025 Top 50 ranking.

At Sienna, a 10,800-acre master-planned community in the Houston suburb of Missouri City, Texas, homeowners can choose from townhomes, apartments, and traditional single-family homes priced from $250,000 to more than $1 million.

Beyond their homes, residents also have access to an array of third places spread across three amenity complexes: one with a social bar, fitness center, ballroom, fire pit, playground, splash pad, and pool; another with a pavilion and beach club; and a third with a "tween hangout" featuring study space, board and video games, and a pool table. There is also an on-site restaurant and a lakeside amphitheater.

"Today's homebuyers are looking for more than just a home; they're looking for a lifestyle," Alvin San Miguel, Sienna's vice president and general manager, told Business Insider. "Homebuyers have more choices than ever, and amenities help create the sense of place that sets a community apart."

Walkability comes at a price

There's just one problem: walkable communities rich in third places sometimes require buyers to be, well, rich.

Jeff Speck, an urban planner and partner at Speck Dempsey, an urban design and consultancy firm, told Business Insider that neighborhoods with these features have become "overvalued and often prohibitively expensive for most people."

A 2020 Redfin analysis of nearly 1 million home sales across 16 US metro areas and two Canadian cities found that homes in walkable areas sold for 23.5% more, or $77,668 on average, than comparable homes in car-dependent areas. The report defined walkable areas as those with a walk score of 50 or higher — a measure of how easily residents can complete daily errands on foot.

"People pay more for walkable, amenity-rich neighborhoods because they save time and make everyday life easier, and there are only so many homes in those places," Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather told Business Insider.

"Plus, many people value the community feel that comes with spots where neighbors run into each other," she added.

Homebuyers recognize that walkability often comes at a price. In NAR’s 2026 Community and Transportation Preference Survey, 67% of respondents said homes or apartments in walkable neighborhoods were more expensive than those in car-dependent areas; 31% said they were much more expensive.

"People's longing for third places has reached a breaking point," Speck said. "This is not good news overall, but at least it has helped convince smart real estate developers to build mixed-use neighborhoods again."

• Ukraine's war robot fleet has grown rapidly, with new models and capabilities entering the fight.
• But Ukraine's fall and winter will test how well the robots handle mud, snow, and freezing temperatures.
• "We will be able to assess how much they have evolved compared to last autumn," a Ukrainian officer told BI.

Ukraine's ground robot fleet has swelled, but new tests lie ahead, specifically the thick autumn mud and the winter cold and snow that can make battlefield movement more difficult and stress certain systems.

Over the last year, the country's military and industry have prioritized fielding an army of robots to attack, gather intelligence, carry gear, and evacuate the wounded. The purpose is to replace as many human soldiers as possible in the war's most dangerous sectors.

The fleet has expanded significantly and advanced technologically since last winter. Now it faces seasonal tests.

"These ground robotic systems are constantly being improved," Oleksandr Yabchanka, head of robotic systems for Ukraine's Da Vinci Wolves Battalion, told Business Insider. "Their operational range and off-road mobility are increasing."

"Now that autumn has arrived, we will be able to assess how much they have evolved compared to last autumn," he said. "After all, operating in the summer on dry ground is one thing, but in the autumn — when the ground turns to mud and movement becomes significantly more difficult — it is quite another."

In March, Ukraine's defense ministry said that since the beginning of the year, more than 20,000 ground robotic systems had been contracted, which it said was almost twice as many as in all of 2025. It said their use was "rapidly expanding."

"There are more of them now," Yabchanka, also a cofounder of the nonprofit Defence Robotics UA, said. "Throughout 2026, many units have begun employing UGVs."

"This usage has already become widespread," he said, sharing that "ground-based robotic systems are becoming an integral part of combat operations for most units deployed along the line of contact."

Autumn and winter have long been a difficult test for Ukraine's military equipment. First, the ground turns into thick mud. Next, the temperatures drop below freezing, snow covers whole sections of the battlefield, and trees go bare, stripping away valuable cover.

Ukrainian drone operators have described how freezing temperatures drain batteries, while fog, ice, and condensation can interfere with cameras, rotors, and other equipment. Strong winds and shorter days are also challenges.

Ground robots, at least as they are now, are newer to the fight and largely haven't faced the same seasonal tests.

These systems have some of the same winter weaknesses as aerial drones: cold can drain batteries, reducing their range and the power they need to push over difficult terrain and carry heavy cargo. Condensation, mud, and snow can also obscure their cameras and hinder other equipment.

UGVs, however, face an additional problem: They have to drive across the terrain. Mud can cause wheels and tracks to get stuck or force robots to drive more slowly, making them more vulnerable. Snow has the same effect, while ice makes surfaces slippery and reduces traction.

NATO trainers working closely with Ukrainian troops have raised questions about the effectiveness of ground robots in winter, particularly heavy snow.

"Should we use that in Northern Norway with two meters of snow?" asked Brigadier Atle Molde, a Norwegian commander who oversees a training program, told Business Insider during a visit over the summer. It's "not that easy," he said.

Getting stuck in the mud or snow can be disastrous on battlefields where the skies are full of drones. And even if movement isn't impaired, these conditions leave tracks.

The reduced tree cover also makes the robots more visible, increasing their risk of being spotted and attacked.

Many of these robots are designed to be relatively inexpensive and expendable. They're intended to replace humans on dangerous missions, where losing a machine is far preferable to losing a soldier.

But reliability still matters, especially if a robotic system is carrying critical supplies or evacuating a wounded soldier. Some manufacturers reported success with their UGVs during the last winter, but many more models have since entered the fight and have yet to be tested.

Ukraine, however, isn't treading completely unfamiliar ground. Throughout the war, it has repeatedly adapted its drone technology to winter conditions.

Units and companies have added new seals to cameras to prevent condensation, added layers to exposed elements like cables, greased propellers to keep them from freezing, kept batteries warm in thermal bags, developed new camera systems to see better in the dark, built cold-resistant batteries, and made drones that are designed to operate better in strong winds. Soldiers are also coming up with their own solutions, such as wrapping drone batteries in heated shoe insoles to keep them warm in flight.

Its expanding ground robot fleet may need similar adaptations.

Robots have already seen a host of improvements over the last year. Manufacturers have announced longer operating ranges, bigger wheels and stronger tracks, more durable structures, new weapons, and greater autonomy.

Ukrainian manufacturers have told Business Insider that they make frequent, sometimes weekly, changes to their robots based on feedback from front-line troops, who contact them directly and work with visiting engineers. The rapid development cycle could help them respond to problems that emerge in the fall and winter.

Yabchanka called that "an important advantage"

"Improvements occur both through direct, horizontal links between the military and manufacturers and through centralized channels," he said. "It is a very active, dynamic process."

Some units say they expect robots to be particularly useful in winter because the harsh conditions make supply runs and casualty evacuations even more dangerous for soldiers.

The robots may struggle in the mud and snow, but the missions they perform can be even more dangerous for the humans they're meant to replace.

• Coop said that "unauthorized actors" tampered with cooling systems at some of its Swedish grocery stores.
• In Belgium, Delhaize said an "IT incident" affected refrigeration at some of its stores.
• The issues echo a cyberattack that hit French supermarkets last month.

Dozens of grocery stores across Europe have reported rising temperatures in some of their refrigeration systems, with some retailers calling it a cyberattack while another called it an "IT incident."

The incidents in Sweden, Belgium, and Estonia unfolded on Sunday night and come weeks after a hack on fridges and freezers in France that forced supermarkets to throw away food.

"Unauthorized actors were able to access and tamper with the cooling systems at a small fraction of our stores," a spokesperson at Swedish supermarket chain Coop confirmed to Business Insider.

They said that seven out of its more than 800 stores were affected overnight and into Monday.

"The situation is currently contained and under control," they added.

Gustaf Nilsson, spokesperson for ICA Sverige, another Swedish grocery retailer, said that an overnight incident affected a "small number" of its stores.

"The incident impacted the stores' refrigeration and freezer systems," Nilsson said in an emailed statement. "ICA is currently supporting the affected stores in managing the situation."

The Sjöbo branch of the retailer said on its Facebook page that its refrigerators and freezers were hacked overnight, with their temperatures set to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. It said that the store was closed in the morning before later reopening.

In Belgium, the retail company Ahold Delhaize said it was aware of an "IT incident affecting the refrigeration systems in a number of Delhaize stores."

"Our teams are working hard to fully assess the situation," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "We will share further information as soon as we are able to do so.”

Belgian news outlet RTL reported one Delhaize manager had to discard the contents of her fridges and freezers.

Carrefour said 15 of its 700 Belgian stores were affected, in both Flanders and Wallonia. A spokesperson said no hypermarkets were among them and that all affected stores remained open.

Ikea said it detected a cyber incident overnight at its Mons store in Belgium that affected refrigeration and freezer units. The store remains open, although the incident had a limited effect on products available in its restaurant and Swedish Food Market, a spokesperson said.

Ikea said no other Belgian locations were affected and that it was checking equipment across its other stores as a precaution.

A spokesperson for Kitman Coldtech, a refrigeration technology company, said that it had "responded to a cyber incident involving a refrigeration system at a retail location in Estonia."

"As the situation has developed during the day and we understand that additional incidents may have occurred, the relevant authorities are now involved in investigating the circumstances," they added.

It is not clear who is behind the attack.

France freezer hack to cost millions

The incidents are strikingly similar to a massive cyberattack that affected internet-connected refrigeration systems at hundreds of French supermarkets last month

The director of one Intermarché store in Normandy, France, told Business Insider that its fridges and freezers were remotely turned up to temperatures of up to 122F, resulting in $112,000 worth of food being discarded. Across the country, the costs are expected to rise to tens of millions of euros.

And in August, freezers failed at multiple US military sites, spoiling food.

A spokesperson for the Army Criminal Investigation Division told The Telegraph last month that the agency was working with investigators to determine the full extent of the incident.

"Army CID is also working with DCIS and French law enforcement in understanding the refrigeration outages in Europe," they added.

No connection has been established between the latest incident in Europe, the cyberattacks in France, and US military freezer failures.

• AI has gone from being a small business expense to one of the priciest items on companies' ledgers.
• San Francisco startup Larridin raised $30 million to determine whether firms are getting their money's worth.
• Larridin's Series A comes in the wake of the tokenmaxxing era, as companies grow concerned about AI ROI.

Companies went all in on AI this year, and are now reckoning with heavy bills. One startup wants to get under the hood and figure out which ones are worth it.

Larridin, a San Francisco-based startup, just raised $30 million in Series A funding to give companies a clear picture of how the money they spent on AI is — or isn't — working for them.

Jeff Kearl, a general partner at Pelion Ventures, which led the funding round, told Business Insider that AI has gone from being a small, even "nonexistent," expense for businesses to one of the top five to 10 most expensive items on their ledger.

"All of a sudden they're like, 'Wow, that's a lot of money going to AI. We run a lot of apps. We have a lot of models. Where does it all go, who uses it, and how do I make sense of that?" Kearl said.

Larridin's main product is a measurement platform that tracks the extent to which AI improves employee productivity and identifies opportunities for better adoption. The software integrates with companies' internal systems to analyze employees' AI usage, including their prompts to different AI tools, and determine who is using AI effectively, who needs more training, and how much time they're saving.

Cofounder and CTO Ameya Kanitkar said the platform protects employee privacy by analyzing their AI interactions without storing their contents, instead generating scores and high-level insights.

Always a need for a third-party measurement platform

Russell Fradin, CEO and cofounder of Larridin, previously worked at Comscore, a media and advertising measurement platform. He said that, in his experience, whenever a lot of money moves into a category, someone builds a third-party measurement platform for that category, evidenced by Comscore, Nielsen, or Datadog.

"We said, look, there's going to be a ton of AI spend," Fradin said. "There's going to be a third-party audit measurement company, and let's try and be that company."

The company has a third cofounder, Jim Larrison, who worked with Fradin at Comscore.

Larridin's $30 million Series A was led by Pelion Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Gradient Ventures, GFT Ventures, W23, Thayer Investment Partners, DG Daiwa Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Cougar Capital. A16z and Gradient Ventures were part of its $17 million seed round.

Alex Rampell, a general partner at A16z, said one thing that convinced him about Larridin's business was that it addressed a need in enterprise AI for a sort of "AI boss," who could tell staff what they should or shouldn't do with AI.

"If you're in sales, somebody should nudge you and say, 'Hey, call this account. Don't call that account.' If you're in coding, 'fix this bug, don't fix that bug,'" Rampell said.

"But underlying that was the same idea, which was like, people are using AI tools to do all sorts of things. Are they doing the right thing? Is the outcome actually appreciably different? Are you getting any kind of ROI?" he added.

Fradin said that business picked up around the second quarter of this year, when more companies became concerned about AI costs. The company went from having one enterprise customer in December last year to 50 now.

Post-Series A, he said he wants to double Larridin's 20-person head count, adding more sales, engineering, and marketing staff.

AI spend behavior has evolved

Larridin's Series A comes after months of twists and turns in the field of AI spending.

In the first few months of the year, tokenmaxxing was in vogue, which led companies to urge their employees to get on the hype train and experiment with AI — essentially a mandate to accelerate adoption or be left behind.

They urged their employees to use AI tools as much as possible and burn as many tokens as they could, with some, like Duolingo, even adding AI use as a performance metric for their employees. Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga went viral in April when he said Uber had already burned through its entire Claude Code budget for the year.

AI budgets ballooned. At least 17 companies, from Salesforce to Oracle, announced AI-related layoffs, with Oracle specifically saying in June that AI deployment and adoption have reduced its workforce.

But the sentiment shifted sometime in the middle of the year, when ugly AI bills started rearing their heads.

Companies started paying more attention to getting the best return on investment from their AI spending. Modelmaxxing, which, as Business Insider wrote about in July, involves routing prompts to different AI models based to maximize token use, emerged as a tactic to save costs. More businesses started using cheaper open-source models developed by Chinese AI labs, such as Moonshot AI and Z.ai.

• Chana Campora's mother, Rebecca, created a stroller blanket when Chana was a preschooler.
• Chana grew up helping with the company, but wasn't sure she'd work there.
• Watching her immigrant parents chase their dreams shaped her career, she says.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Chana Campora, vice president of 7AM Enfant. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My mom is a very fashionable, very functional person. When she moved from Paris to New York City for my dad's job, with two young kids, she needed a way to keep us warm in the stroller so she could go about her day.

She still tells stories about wrapping me in layers and layers of blankets. As soon as we'd get into a shop, I'd strip them off, and she'd have to do it all again. My mom is utilitarian, so she created a stroller blanket with a zipper that was quick and easy to get me in and out of.

She was just trying to lighten her load. Little did we know at the time that she was creating a genius product that would serve so many parents for years to come.

More than 20 years later, her business has expanded, but we still use the original five blanket silhouettes she created. It's amazing to see that they're as relevant as ever, and still what parents want and need.

I grew up helping with the company, but I wasn't sure I'd join

The company was my mom's fourth child, and as the oldest daughter, I helped her care for it. At first, she would sew her designs at home; later, we attended trade shows together.

I learned the value of hard work from watching my mom. It was meaningful to know that my siblings and I were her source of inspiration. Her premise with 7AM Enfant was simple: to keep us safe and warm, and keep her day going. That's something she's never stopped fighting for.

Although I loved the company, I wasn't sure I'd join the business. I spent five years in LA, studying Spanish and French literature, and getting a master's in anthropology. Being the daughter of immigrants — and speaking four languages — is central to who I am.

My mom and I have fun designing together

When I returned to New York, it was clear to me that my mom needed a partner. She'd been a one-woman show for too long.

I'd dabbled in other jobs, but realized I needed to join my mother. This was my family company — the thing that matters most to my mom and me — so it made sense that my future would include 7AM Enfant.

Today, my mom oversees the big-picture decisions for the company. I work on day-to-day operations, acting as the glue between the production and sales phases. My husband works here too, managing our shipments.

The most fun is when I get to design with my mom. She's brilliant at not prioritizing fashion or function, but creating a product that blends both. I get to draw on my master's degree — studying people — to understand trends and tastes. Because the brand's core is so well established, we can have a lot of fun playing with colors, prints, and collaborations.

Watching my parents chase their dreams shaped me

My parents really fought for the American dream, to do something big for themselves and their children. My dad is originally from Italy, and when they moved here from Paris, New York was the land of opportunity.

I so admire what they've been able to do. My mom and I run the company, and my sister and dad work together as celebrity hairstylists. My youngest brother is in school for acting. We're a family of artists.

I've seen the highs and lows of immigration and entrepreneurship. When we first came to New York, we lived in a studio apartment. Watching my parents gave me a work ethic and humility that I use today. They showed me that you can be successful in life if you never stop fighting for what you want.

It's amazing to watch your parents have a dream. Some parents worry about entrepreneurship disrupting the family, but I've found the opposite: it was so rewarding to see. I treasure the memories of being in my mom's lap while she was designing or answering work emails. Her example is what made me want to chase my own dreams.

• A version of this story originally appeared in the AI Insider newsletter.
• Sign up for Business Insider's weekly AI Insider newsletter here.

My Thursday evening tennis league started again recently, and something unusual happened.

The emails organizing our weekly games began arriving with a new sign-off.

"See you on the court! Nathan's agent."

My tennis buddy Nathan Czubaj has organized this league for years. It's a lot of work involving spreadsheets, scheduling, endless reminders, and chasing players who forget to confirm whether they're coming.

Now he's outsourced much of that work to an AI agent.

Naturally, when we gathered on court, everyone wanted to know what Nathan was using. This is Silicon Valley, after all. We can't even play tennis without talking about AI.

Nathan explained that he'd started using OpenAI's Dots, a personal AI assistant that can handle tasks over time and work with other apps.

Every Monday, Dot checks a spreadsheet containing our availability and emails players who might be able to play that Thursday. It asks us to confirm. On Thursday morning, another email reminds the confirmed players to show up at 7 pm.

It's been working remarkably well for several weeks, saving Nathan considerable time.

But here's what makes his experience particularly interesting: Nathan isn't a technology expert.

"I'm one of the least technical people I know," he told me.

Nathan runs Mindset Unlimited, a business that helps professionals become better communicators and leaders through coaching and training.

From Claude Code to Dots

He's enthusiastic about AI, but his journey hasn't been entirely smooth.

A few months ago, he experimented with Anthropic's Claude Code, a tool that can write software and carry out complicated computer tasks.

He found it frustrating and stopped using it.

"It was not easy to manage and it took much longer than it would take to do it yourself," he said.

Dots has been different. Nathan can describe what he wants in ordinary language, and his Dot can work with services he already uses.

He started with tennis scheduling. Now he's handing his Dot tasks throughout his personal and professional life.

On one recent day, he asked it to help with guitar practice, a workout routine, shopping lists, selling things on eBay, finding a birthday present, and creating a family book of memories.

He also uses it to remember to call friends, recommend books, find workshops, and develop longer-term goals.

And that's before the 10 to 15 other questions he asks AI each day.

"I try to take everything on my to-do list and put it into Dots," he explained. "That way AI can be looking for solutions while I'm working on other things."

"It's totally changed everything about the way I think and about the way I work," he added.

His enthusiasm is infectious. On the court, Nathan admitted that sometimes he spends more time guiding Dot than he'd like. Still, his experience offers a glimpse of where AI might be heading.

For years, we've heard about AI transforming the workplace through sophisticated software and technical breakthroughs. Nathan's story suggests the bigger opportunity might be much more ordinary: helping people manage the dozens of little chores that consume their days.

Nathan imagines a future where everyone's AI agent communicates with everyone else's, automatically handling routine tasks.

That future isn't here yet. But every Thursday, when Nathan's agent reminds me to play tennis, I get a glimpse of it.

Sign up for the AI Insider newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com

• I tried Chipotle's chicken family meal, which cost $52 and is meant to serve four to six.
• Although I wish we'd gotten more salad and that my chips hadn't been missing, I was impressed.
• Ultimately, we were able to make six well-portioned, tasty meals at home for less than $10 each.

Even though I usually cook at home and avoid fast (and fast-casual) food whenever possible, I have a hard time turning down Chipotle.

I build the same salad bowl every time I go, so I don't pay much attention to the rest of the menu. It wasn't until I saw Chipotle's strange fever-dream of an advertising campaign that I learned about its family meals.

Simply put, it involved a 3-foot reusable version of its takeout bag. Bizarre, yes, but it worked.

Curious about the details (and the "big ass" bag mentioned in the advertisement), I did some Googling. Turns out, Chipotle launched its family meals in August 2025.

The build-your-own experience is a major appeal. Per Chipotle, "People can create any bowl, salad, or soft taco to their liking and dietary preferences." Nachos were also suggested.

Since I love salads and my partner prefers bowls, it seemed like the perfect setup. Plus, family meals are designed to serve four to six people — which, in my two-person household, could mean dinners for days.

So, I ordered a chicken family meal online, complete with all the default items. Here's how it shook out.

My local Chipotle had a few options for family meals.

Even though I set my sights on its $52 chicken meal, Chipotle also offered steak and sofritas meals featuring the same standard fixings:

• rice (white or brown)
• beans (black or pinto)
• cheese
• romaine lettuce
• large chips
• 10 soft-flour tortillas
• three dips (choices included sour cream and four different salsas)
• one premium side (either guacamole or queso).

The meals ranged from $52 to $63, depending on the protein. It's worth noting that these family meals are all digital-only, so they have to be ordered through the app or website.

Ordering online felt seamless.

Since I stuck with the baseline, customization-free spread, ordering took only a few clicks.

My lineup included white rice, black beans, cheese, romaine lettuce, large chips, and 10 flour tortillas, plus sour cream, pico de gallo, and hot salsa as toppings.

Then, I scrolled to the "extras" section. I could add another protein and up to seven extra toppings, but they'd increase the total price.

An extra protein portion, listed as serving two people, ranged from $7 to $10. Extra toppings like salsa and cilantro lime sauce cost an additional $2.35 to $3 apiece. For more so-called "premium" toppings like guacamole or queso, I'd pay a whopping $5.90 each.

Since it was just my partner and me, I skipped everything additional. I'd only splurge on extras for a gathering.

Then, I walked to pick up my order.

I had the option to have my order ready in as little as 10 minutes, but I scheduled my pickup for half an hour out and then walked to the restaurant.

When I arrived, I spotted two bags with my name on them (literally). Since I'd already paid online, I was in and out in under a minute.

The food was still warm after a quick stroll home.

The bags had everything needed for a six-person party.

Inside the bags, I found five containers and four cups arranged neatly.

They also included napkins, utensils, and six serving bowls — so I assumed the meal was prepared for six people, not four.

The meal felt excessive for four and perfect for six.

I'm not going to complain about too much food, but divided into four portions, the bowls would've been hard to finish. Six servings felt like the magic number … for the most part.

Split into six bowls, each would get a moderate amount of chicken, rice, and beans. The same held true for the sour cream, guacamole, and salsas.

The portion of shredded cheese seemed quite generous — probably enough for eight — though in my household, bonus cheese is never an issue.

The amount of lettuce, however, felt somewhat meager for six.

Making salads didn't seem very practical.

Salads are my go-to at Chipotle, but if I wanted to build more than two, I'd be out of lettuce. Even though the chain's press release mentioned creating salads, the shredded greens seemed more like a topping, not a base.

Instead of depleting the entire container of greens on the first night, I followed my partner's lead and made a bowl.

When reached for comment, a Chipotle representative said that the family meal includes 8 ounces of lettuce that's "intended as a topping for bowls rather than as a base for salads."

He later said it could be used for a salad, but it's not intended to be enough for four to six salad entrées, which are usually served on a base of Chipotle's Supergreens mix.

I created a bowl based on six servings, and the portion felt generous.

I built my bowl using approximately one-sixth of each ingredient. The bowl came out about the same size as one I'd order at Chipotle, and to my delight, it tasted similar, too.

Flavor and texture-wise, this at-home bowl seemed identical to the in-store version. The chicken was tender and well-seasoned, and the rice stayed firm, not soggy.

As usual, Chipotle's black beans were beautifully spiced.

It wasn't a big deal, but I needed a microwave for the tortillas.

I didn't expect to need to use appliances for my takeout meal, but Chipotle's tortilla bag recommended a 60- to 90-second zap in the microwave.

Thankfully, I was at home and therefore had access, but it seemed impractical for a portable meal.

Hassle aside, I wasn't a huge fan of microwaving food that was in a plastic package — to get the proper experience, however, I followed the instructions.

Unfortunately, my chips were missing.

My only major gripe with this meal was the chips, or lack thereof. A large bag should have been included, and the receipt even listed one, but the crunchy snack was nowhere to be found.

Honestly, I'm still disappointed. I wish I'd noticed when I was still in the store, as I'm sure it would've been an easy fix.

If I'd had chips, we could've also used our toppings to build nachos and polish off more of the guac and salsa.

Next time, I'd swap guacamole for queso.

Chipotle's iconic six-ingredient guacamole tasted incredible, but without a lime on hand (if you know, you know), it began browning a few hours later in the fridge.

Unfortunately, this is common for any fresh guac. Although it was still fine to eat, the oxidation made it unappetizing.

Since my partner and I couldn't polish off an entire cup of guacamole in one go, we'd be better off with queso next time, which stores perfectly in the fridge.

Overall, I'd order a family meal again for meal prep, gatherings, or both.

Despite the minimal lettuce, slightly inconvenient tortilla situation, and missing chips, I would order this meal again.

I was impressed by how well the ingredients kept their taste and texture, mirroring what I'd get at the actual restaurant. But unlike at the chain, I could customize bowls to my preferred proportions, or switch to tacos, which was a highlight for me.

Plus, a family meal costs less than ordering six individual bowls. A regular chicken bowl, without guacamole, tortillas, or chips, was $9.65. So, six bowls would come to $57.90 — and that wouldn't include guacamole, tortillas, or chips, all of which are additional charges.

Perhaps the best part: This Chipotle family meal turned into three yummy dinners for my partner and me. We just couldn't make many salads … or, this time, nachos.

• Ryanair's CEO won't back down in his fight with Elon Musk, saying he wants to "annoy" him.
• Michael O'Leary and Musk have clashed over the airline choosing not to install Starlink on its planes.
• "I have no intention of making up with him," O'Leary told Bloomberg TV after earnings on Monday.

Ryanair's CEO isn't done bickering with the world's richest man.

Michael O'Leary, the budget airline's billionaire boss, said on Monday that talks with Elon Musk's Starlink broke down because the SpaceX subsidiary thought the budget airline's passengers would pay for internet access.

Speaking on an earnings call on Monday, O'Leary said the airline had "extensive discussions" with Starlink, which he said was willing to cover the costs of installing WiFi terminals on Ryanair's airplanes.

However, the typically outspoken businessman then added: "Where the discussions broke down was they believe 60% of our passengers will pay for free WiFi, to which we said, 'You have obviously never met a Ryanair fucking passenger in your life.'"

Ryanair's decision not to install Starlink led to a very public fallout between Musk and O'Leary, and at least one of the men isn't yet ready to bury the hatchet.

"I have no intention of making up with him," O'Leary told Bloomberg TV after the call. "He thinks I'm an idiot. I know he's an idiot."

"If we can annoy him again, so much the better," O'Leary said.

Musk hasn't responded publicly to O'Leary on Monday, and SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ryanair is the world's third-largest carrier by passenger numbers, and the largest in Europe, attracting customers with fares as low as 15 euros ($17).

Its no-frills business model relies on operating a high volume of flights and enticing customers with cheap fares, but charging for virtually everything else.

Starlink's surge in popularity with airlines

Starlink has soared in popularity with airlines over the past year, and has signed deals with nearly 50 carriers.

Its high-speed internet service is usually offered free to passengers who only have to sign up for the airline's loyalty program. However, O'Leary cast doubt on this regarding easyJet, the British budget airline that announced a Starlink deal last Monday.

"It is not clear to us whether they are going to give it away for free," O'Leary said. "I understand the briefing is that they are going to charge passengers for it, to which I say, 'Well, good luck with that.'"

EasyJet did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"I believe if it is free, some of our passengers will use it," O'Leary told investors. "If it has to be paid for, there is no revenue model whatsoever."

O'Leary first butted heads with Musk in January after making a similar comment. Musk then argued that Ryanair will lose customers to airlines that do have Starlink.

Over the next week, the two CEOs called each other idiots while Musk called for O'Leary to be fired and joked about purchasing the airline.

Ryanair used the publicity to launch a "Big 'Idiot' Sale" with 100,000 tickets starting at £16.99, or about $23.

O'Leary said on Monday that the spat generated up to $40 million of free publicity and bookings were up for two or three weeks afterward.

• My career was thriving, and I was the picture of success.
• However, I was struggling inside, experiencing extreme stress and burnout.
• When I was diagnosed with ADHD, a lot clicked into place.

When I was hired for my last job as editor in chief at HuffPost, it made The New York Times.

My family was thrilled. My old staff rallied around me and sent me off in style. It was a crowning achievement for someone who had fought so hard in their career to get to the next level.

But as I ascended to the C-suite, I had a feeling of dread. I knew myself, and something was wrong.

Working remotely was difficult for me

Not with my job, which I would learn was staffed with bright people who just needed to be supported and empowered. And not with my desire to lead the team to the best of my abilities. The problem was, it was 2021, and the pandemic was still in full swing. All my interviews had been virtual, and I would start the role remotely. My staff, my leadership team, and my bosses were just little boxes on a screen.

The first year was rough, but we managed to make the site profitable. Then, I focused on building trust with my team. Things got better, but I never felt secure.

Of my woes, I thought, "That's just me." I'd always needed outside pressure to get work done and had trouble with procrastination. I chalked it up to my bipolar disorder, which I was diagnosed with in December 2005. However, I also had plenty of coping skills that helped me mask some of these issues. I kept a strict schedule to fix my time-blindness. I wrote everything down to avoid forgetting important dates and meetings. I did most of my work in the mornings to avoid afternoon brain fog.

But other things I couldn't hide — my inability to focus and lack of attention to detail, for example. My disinterest in things that "bored" me or that were rote and repetitive. If I received a document or email longer than a few paragraphs, my eyes would glaze over, and I'd struggle to get through it.

I also hated interacting with people solely through video chat because I was easily distracted by alerts on my computer — emails, social media pings, Slack notifications all seemed urgent, and I couldn't differentiate between the importance of the conversation unfolding on Google Meet and the 15 messages flying at me at any given moment.

And while I was struggling, I also felt like I couldn't ask for help. Work felt stressful and surreal.

I left my job, and the time off made some issues even more apparent

Then, in 2024, after countless advertisers started to stray away from news, disrupting the industry's revenue models, I knew my company, like so many others, was in trouble. After our parent company announced layoffs in January 2025, I walked away from the team I had led for four years, hoping to save jobs.

With time off for the first time in nearly a decade, I rested. And in that rest, the wheels completely came off.

No more meetings. No more people calling. No more pressure prompting me to act. It was all on me to decide if I would do anything, and my brain, suffering from burnout and depression, wanted to do nothing.

Unable to function, I found myself looking for distractions from how I felt. For months, the only time I felt good was when I was away from home — whether abroad or just at a party — because home was a constant reminder that I was stuck in the same place. I traveled a lot. I went to events and parties. I made and lost friends. I did everything but talk to a doctor. None of this was new; I'd always had brain fog. I'd always struggled with executive dysfunction. This was my "normal," I reasoned. I saw myself as simply flawed and kept telling myself I just needed to try harder.

And yet, I couldn't focus on writing and rewriting cover letters for jobs. I couldn't finish the sample chapters for my memoir that I'd been working on for nearly three years. I wasn't getting better.

I was mired in sadness until I remembered an old, dusty notion — Do I have ADHD?

Thinking more deeply about ADHD changed things

In my 20s, before I was diagnosed with bipolar, I went in and out of hospitals for years, trying to find a treatment that worked. Then in 2009, after my last hospitalization, I learned a little about how ADHD manifests in women — more hidden, not always as agitated or fidgety, not always as physically disruptive — but rather than dig deeper, I stopped. Though I wondered if I might have ADHD, I had also heard that the medications most commonly prescribed for it could sometimes cause swings into mania for bipolar sufferers.

I couldn't risk it. So I didn't ask my doctor about it and, in fact, forgot about ADHD altogether as I focused on building my career.

However, earlier this year, I started seeing more successful women talk online about the same symptoms I had. The brain fog, the memory issues, the lack of focus, and at the end of each post, the women said the same thing — they had ADHD.

So in July, I saw my doctor. After a short test, he confirmed what I believed — I had ADHD. He then prescribed me a low dose of Ritalin. After taking it, it was like someone turned the lights on in my mind.

I felt … normal.

These days, I'm busy writing, running my own digital media consultancy, and relaunching my old news blog as a podcast. I'm no longer burned out, and my stress is manageable. But, ADHD meds aren't a cure-all. I still sometimes struggle to start things, and I remain very "pressure-prompted."

Thankfully, I already had years of helpful coping skills in my arsenal.

But I now know that just because I had these skills didn't mean I didn't need help. Even with medication, executive dysfunction will sometimes creep in, but I now realize it's OK to reach out. It's OK to get help and find a way to thrive, and not just survive.

And there was no need for me to continue to suffer from my own success.

• Elon Musk said that the cost of providing SpaceX's Grok Bot was "unsustainably high."
• Musk was responding to users complaining that they'd maxed out their usage limits for the AI agent.
• Agents like Grok Bot and Muse are Silicon Valley's next big thing, but they're still burning through cash.

Elon Musk says an age of AI abundance is coming. For now, that doesn't include unlimited Grok Bot.

The SpaceX CEO wrote on X on Sunday that the cost of serving the company's AI agent was "unsustainably high relative to revenue," after some users complained that their weekly allowances were running out faster than usual.

SpaceX launched Grok Bot, an AI agent that uses a virtual computer to perform tasks on behalf of humans, like shopping, in August. It's available in a series of tiers ranging from free to $200 a month.

All of those tiers come with varying usage limits that refresh weekly, a tactic employed by SpaceX and other AI agents, such as Meta's Muse, to prevent users from racking up massive AI bills.

Numerous Grok Bot users posted on X over the weekend, saying they had maxed out their usage sooner than expected, prompting Musk to weigh in.

"Upgrade to higher usage plan cost increase is too high?" the billionaire wrote in response to one user, adding in another X reply that reducing allowances and communicating it to users was "just being sensible."

SpaceX said that Grok Bot had 800,000 paid weekly users in its earnings last month, with Musk telling investors the AI agent had "the fastest growth of a product that I've ever seen in my life."

"I think Grok Bot may end up being what uses most of our Super Intelligence compute," he added.

SpaceX recently announced it would roll Grok Bot into a new $8-a-month "X subscription" that also includes X premium and Cursor, the AI coding platform it acquired earlier this year. In October, Musk said that the AI agent would also use AI models other than Grok, including Claude Opus 5.5, MidJourney, and Suno.

AI agents have become the tech industry's hottest new trend, but there are still questions about how they will make money.

Meta has not said how much Muse, which has been a major hit for the company and now has over 10 million users, costs to run, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors last month that the agent is "very compute-intensive" and is not yet profitable.

Musk's admission that Grok Bot is burning a hole in SpaceX's wallet sparked mockery from some X users, who pointed out his recent comments suggesting saving money is "pointless" due to a fast-approaching age of AI abundance.

• Ryanair reported on Monday that profits were down 15% year-on-year.
• It also expects its fuel bill to increase by more than 2 billion euros.
• The budget airline is planning to raise airfares and freeze staff pay.

Surging fuel costs are eating into Ryanair's profits, which it has warned could lead to more expensive tickets and frozen pay for staff.

Ryanair reported on Monday that its post-tax profits were down 15% to 2.15 billion euros, or about $2.4 billion, for the six months preceding September 30.

As the world's largest budget airline, Ryanair is known for its cheap fares, bolstered by a strong fuel-hedging strategy that uses financial derivatives to lock in future prices. However, the Iran War has kept fuel prices high.

While Ryanair has hedged more than 80% of its fuel costs at around $67 per barrel until next March, the remaining fifth has doubled in price to roughly $130 per barrel, the airline said in its earnings report.

It added that it expects its fuel bill to increase by 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) for the next financial year.

The airline said it believes airfares will rise due to higher jet fuel prices, but that won't be enough to offset all its additional costs.

"We need about a 20% increase in airfares, or about 10 euros per passenger, to fund all of that," CEO Michael O'Leary said on the earnings call. "While I do think there will be a significant boost in airfares next year, I am not sure we will see 20%. Therefore, we do need to close that gap."

The airline said it is therefore "reviewing all costs," which may include temporary pay freezes for staff.

Ryanair also suggested lowering the crew-to-passenger ratio on its flights, and increasing its use of AI to boost productivity in operations and support functions.

To reduce the impact of unhedged fuel costs, Ryanair has also cut its traffic target from 216 million passengers to 214 million, which would result in no year-over-year growth for the coming winter season.

Next year, it hopes to boost growth by 3% by expanding its fleet with 16 new Boeing 737 Max 10 aircraft. The Max 10 has room for an extra 20 passengers than the Max 8. The Max 10 was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration last month after years of delays, with European regulators likely to grant certification soon.

As of 7 a.m. ET, Ryanair shares were up about 2% in Europe, and 2.75% in pre-market trading on the Nasdaq, as it also announced a share buyback of 800 million euros ($896 million).

• If you're not freaking out about AI and what it means about your job — or your kids' jobs … you should.
• But that doesn't mean AI will make you unemployable, says Wharton management professor Ethan Mollick.
• Mollick thinks experienced workers have skills and attributes AI can't replicate, like "taste." But what happens to young people just starting out?

You can't make AI go away. How can you live with it?

Or more precisely: How can you make a living in an AI world?

Here are a couple standard answers: "Learn to use AI." Or figure out an AI-proof career, one that can't be automated away. Maybe something with your hands.

Ethan Mollick doesn't think that will work.

Mollick is a Wharton management professor who has become one of the more influential guides to what AI can already do — and what it will mean for people who have to work alongside it. His new book, "Co-Existence," argues that the models are improving much faster than most people understand, and the only way to deal with their rapid acceleration is to learn how to live with them.

That means acknowledging that a lot of what you can do today will be less useful in the future, and concentrating on the attributes you already have that AI can't replicate.

I talked to Mollick about what AI means for your job, your kids' future, and what happens when the systems that train workers start to break down on my Channels podcast. The following is an edited excerpt of our conversation.

Peter Kafka: People worried about their jobs, or their kids' jobs, are being told to become AI experts — or to find lines of work that are AI-proof, like plumbing or nursing. Is that useful?

Ethan Mollick: I don't think it's very useful. First of all, that's great until PlumBot 6000 comes along. I'm not a robotics expert, but the robotics experts I know went from, "LLMs will never … this AI boom is completely unrelated … robots are hard" to, "Actually there's a thing here."

I don't know what the future holds. I don't think anyone does, which is either comforting or very upsetting to hear from somebody who's an AI expert.

Look at the most changed field, which is coding. We already know coding is changing. [But] we aren't even clear whether there are going to be more or less jobs in coding. We know what you do as a coder is going to change and keep changing.

Writing error-free code is now less important than conceiving of what you want to have built. A lot of coders are happier than they've ever been before. Some are sadder. These are evolving jobs.

In the book, I talk about four things that give you at least some advantage. Deep knowledge: knowing an area really well, because that expertise lets you outcompete the AI. Wide knowledge: knowing about lots of different things.

One thing I see in companies is they say, "Our coders are doing design work, our designers are doing coder work, and the marketers are doing business plans." The more you know about a lot of little things, the more AI can help you.

Then there's taste. AI produces a lot. What prevents it from being slop? Your taste about which things to pick.

And finally, agency. I don't think "learning to use AI" means very much right now. We've been testing all the methods we use to teach people how to use AI. None of those tricks work anymore.

Prompting has started to look a lot more like managing. You don't have to do magic words anymore to make the AI do something. Instead, you specify: Here's the product I want, here's how I know it's good, here's how you should test it, here's what you show me partway. Give me five different mockups that I can pick among.

That seems like good news for someone mid-career, who has experience, taste, and has gotten good at their job. But if you're starting out, how do you develop that stuff in a world where AI says, "I'll do the research. I'll write it for you."

There are two problems. One is people as individuals, and the other is the institutions we have for teaching people.

As individuals, we love to cognitively offload stuff. That's what we're built to do. Technology has always been about replacing annoying labor. No one pines for washing dishes by hand once they have a dishwasher.

No one wants to churn their own butter.

My kids don't learn cursive. I don't know how to use a slide rule.

But we're bad at picking which things we want to offload. That's a problem with everyone cheating on homework.

And then there are the institutions. There are two sets of learning institutions for learning how to do a job. One is college and high school education. They're screwed up right now, but we'll figure that out. AI is actually a really good tutor, and we know how to test people without AI: You put them in a classroom with a blue book or have a conversation. We'll have better education as a result, with AI tutoring outside of class and active learning inside of class.

What I'm worried about is the other method, which is apprenticeship.

I send people to a bank, consulting company, audit firm, or car dealership, and they learn the same way everyone always has.

They do grunt work, poorly paid. They might get abused a little bit. The trade is that they learn skills and contacts, and they learn how to do stuff because we force them to do it.

And middle managers get somebody to do their crap work. Even if you're a bad mentor, people still learn the ropes. If they show they can do a good job, they advance. You get the next generation of good employees. It has worked out wonderfully for a few thousand years.

That all broke because the incentives are no longer aligned. As a junior employee, your best bet is to use AI for everything because it's better than you. Junior people are much worse at using AI because they dump everything into Claude and give you Claude's results. How could they tell you whether it's a good report or bad? They haven't built taste.

And managers realize: "Why would I go to an intern when the AI will solve the problem for me, at a better rate?" And company leaders say: "Why would I want to slow this train down? Why would I want worse work from interns?"

The training mechanism was this virtuous cycle, and it is completely shattered.

Either we will have to make more formal education happen — a lot of light, white-collar work will have to look more like welding or plumbing, with a trade-school aspect—or companies are going to have to get serious about mentorship as a real thing they do. It takes time and costs productivity, but you gain the benefit of having junior people.

My fear is that companies will say, "We'll just hire senior people." That's the dangerous area. The talent pipeline ends. There are no replacements.

• Many parents with young kids are thinking of or already saving for a down payment.
• Parents may have recently become homeowners and seen how costly it is.
• Fourteen percent of parents in a Coldwell Banker survey said they've already begun saving.

It's never too early to set your kids up for future life milestones, new survey results suggest.

An emerging trend includes parents prepping their kids for homeownership years in advance, said Mary Lee Blaylock, president of Coldwell Banker Affiliates.

Coldwell Banker's September survey found 82% of parents with kids 5 and under are already saving or considering saving for their child's down payment. Fourteen percent of surveyed parents have already done so, compared to 20% who have already stashed money away for their child's college.

Affordability is the key driver. Blaylock said young parents who have just achieved the American dream of homeownership realize exactly how expensive owning a home can be. Most Gen Z and millennial parents surveyed said they've either considered or already have begun saving.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has risen over the past few months, and remains above 7% for the week ending October 29. The Atlanta Fed tracks how much qualified income is needed in order for homeownership to make up no more than 30% of annual income, a standard affordability measure. As of August, that number is $126,849. Median household income is 32% lower.

"Historically, if you made the median income or you made below the median income, you could still be a homebuyer," said Domonic Purviance of the Atlanta Fed's Supervision and Regulation Division. "Well, that's less likely today."

If you have the money, now can be a good time to look for a home, as there are more sellers than buyers and some deals available. Redfin data shows about 20% of active listings in September had a price drop, up 0.4 percentage points from a year prior, and that there were 929,000 buyers compared to 1.5 million sellers. The number of buyers has been trending downward, so sellers might not have a lot of offers.

"Builders are offering $10,000 or $20,000 in concessions, buying down mortgage rates and throwing in appliances," said Amanda Peterson, a Redfin Premier agent, in a news article. "I had clients walk away from a home they loved because the pantry was too small and they didn't like the laundry room — even after the sellers offered to alter the floor plan. There are so many homes for sale that buyers are holding out for one that checks every box."

Older family members could also set their adult kids or young grandkids up to achieve the American dream of homeownership, Blaylock said. The Coldwell Banker survey showed 15% of homeowners received money for their home down payment from family or friends. Seventy-one percent of those who received family money said they expect to pay it back.

While people can get help from others, Blaylock said people still need to save for a down payment and "can't just rely on pennies from heaven."

• Business Insider's Rising Stars of Wall Street list of 25 future leaders has landed.
• We've broken down their college years, first jobs, and paths to Wall Street success.
• They attended 20 different schools, but 11 graduated from Ivy League universities.

While there's no single route to the top of Wall Street, some paths are more well-trodden than others.

Of the 25 rockstar professionals on Business Insider's Rising Stars of Wall Street, 11 attended Ivy League universities — more than double the five in last year's class. And nearly half began their careers at four financial powerhouses: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America.

Though that's not to say there are not some who took less conventional routes.

We analyzed the alma maters of this year's class and their career trajectories to gauge how they broke into finance. Here's a snapshot of the next generation of Wall Street leaders.

Meet the class:

• The 25 rising stars range in age from 27 to 35, with an average age of 32.
• Three are under 30, including the youngest, Theo Saarinen, 27, who is the chief research officer of AIA Labs, which sits within hedge fund Bridgewater Associates.
• Twelve work at investment banks, seven at hedge funds, six in private equity and other private markets, and one at a market maker.
• New York is still the dominant office location, as 20 of the 25 work in New York City. Two work in Houston, two in San Francisco, and one in the Wall Street of the South, Miami.

Where they went to school

• The class hails from 20 different universities for their undergraduate years. It's a mix of large research universities, top business schools, and elite liberal-arts colleges.
• Eleven attended Ivy League universities for their undergraduate degrees, up from five in 2025.
• The University of Pennsylvania was particularly well represented, with five graduates.
• Economics, finance, and business were popular choices, but others pursued degrees in engineering, mathematics, and the humanities. ExodusPoint portfolio manager Ben Atlas studied philosophy at the University of Cambridge, while Bank of America's Cody Kiechle majored in applied mathematics at Harvard.
• Two pursued graduate degrees. Goldman Sachs managing director Bridget Chaudhry earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, while Balyasny portfolio manager Sahil Singhal earned a master's degree in applied mathematics.

List of schools

How they got their start

• Wall Street's biggest banks remain a popular launching pad. Twelve members of this year's stars began their careers at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, or Bank of America. Goldman and JPMorgan each account for four, while Morgan Stanley and Bank of America each account for two.
• Seven made the popular leap from banking to investing. Apollo principal Daniel Borkenstein started at PJT Partners before moving into private equity, while TPG's David Bessel got his start at Morgan Stanley.
• At least nine have spent their entire careers at one firm. Blackstone's Jake Epstein joined the alternative asset manager straight out of college. Morgan Stanley's Maya Venkatraman and Goldman Sachs' Bridget Chaudhry have climbed the ranks at the firms where they started.

The AI boom is shaping careers

Ten of this year's class honorees are working directly on the AI boom, whether through infrastructure, investing in AI companies directly, or developing AI-powered investment strategies.

• 6 are working on financing or investing in AI infrastructure
• 2 are investing in AI companies
• 2 are using AI to help develop investment strategies

A breakdown of titles

• 8 managing directors
• 5 principles
• 2 portfolio managers
• 1 executive director
• 1 director
• 1 vice president

Extracurriculars

• Three rising stars told us about their college sports careers, including Mike Washington, who played basketball at Princeton before joining Goldman Sachs. Jim Tilson played defensive end at Middlebury College, while Alex Winrich played soccer at the University of Dayton.
  
  This data is drawn from reporting by Bradley Saacks, Alex Nicoll, Alice Tecotzky, Ben Bergman, Jennifer Sor, Ashley Stewart, and James Faris.

• Dr. Aaron Mates is a team doctor for the Denver Broncos.
• He says that stretching is instrumental to maintaining mobility, and high-impact exercises have limited benefit.
• You should leave workouts feeling good, not pushed to the brink, he says.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dr. Aaron Mates. It has been edited for length and clarity.

You know the adage, no pain, no gain? Well, it's time we all drove that from our minds.

I'm an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine doctor. I currently work with the Denver Broncos and the Toronto Blue Jays. I also have an active community practice, so I see professional athletes and community members each week.

Professional athletes have an emphasis on healing and maintaining their bodies, which I wish more community members would understand.

Whether you're chasing longevity in your NFL career or your day-to-day life, here's how to approach it.

Ditch no pain, no gain

When you leave a workout, you should feel good. You shouldn't be in any pain. That's a change of perspective for many people, and it's an important one. You don't want to push yourself so hard that you break down.

Modify exercises, and skip high-impact

There's no shame in modifying exercises. In fact, it's often a smart choice. High-impact, repetitive exercises increase your risk for injury. Maybe instead of doing 20 burpees, you do a sprint on the rower, getting a lot of the same benefits with less risk.

Even my pro athletes modify all the time. If someone is recovering from a rotator cuff injury, we remove the bench press from their workouts, opting for pulling rather than pushing. Often, those modifications become permanent. If you have a history of herniated disks, for example, it's unlikely I'll ever recommend you do deadlifts again.

Stretch throughout the day

Stretching is one of the most important yet overlooked parts of being able to move well in the long term. As we age, we become deconditioned in the areas where our ligaments attach to the bone. This increases the risk of enthesopathy, or injuries to these areas — such as Achilles tendonitis or plantar fasciitis.

It's especially important to stretch your hamstrings and calves throughout the day. People who sit (most of us, these days) become very tight through their posterior chain. This tilts the pelvis forward and puts strain on the back. Just a few minutes of stretching while you're waiting in line, pumping gas, or sipping your coffee can make a difference.

Skip the pills and potions

There's a ton of marketing around health supplements, and it confuses people. The truth is simple: the healthiest diet is one full of whole, clean foods. If it's bagged or boxed, you shouldn't be eating it. That's not always easy — I know that as a busy surgeon — but it's something to aspire to.

For the most part, you can skip the potions that promise better gut health, faster recovery, and anything else. The best way for your body to get what it needs is from clean, whole foods.

Scrutinize new treatments

There's a lot of junk science in longevity medicine. Patients are often sold big promises, with more hype than hope.

The future is bright for treatments like stem cells. And yet, for now, the science just isn't there to know about the best use cases. We need to continue to scientifically interrogate these technologies to know when they're appropriate to use. Unfortunately, many practitioners can provide treatment without understanding the full scope of the science.

There's typically no quick fix for pain or injury. But getting back to basics — like stretching, eating well, and adapting your workouts — will help you recover and continue moving well into old age.

Don't rely too much on trackers

Health monitoring technology — like smart rings and bracelets — is a mixed bag, in my opinion. Professional athletes can provide reliable data for tracking performance over time. But for community members, they're largely unnecessary.

Sometimes, they cause anxiety or give a false sense of security. You don't need a ring to tell you whether you slept well; your body already has that information. In general, the more we can step away from technology, the better we'll be.

• My daughters are 16 and 19, but I still spend thousands to take them to Disney World every year.
• Instead of trying a new destination, we return to one that we know will give us the escape we need.
• At a Disney park, we can all forget about the worries of life and focus on fun. That's priceless.

Earlier this year, my daughters and I returned from our sixth annual visit to Walt Disney World. Of course, we had a great time.

I've spent thousands of dollars on these trips over the years, and I will continue to spend it. Why?

For one unexpected reason: me.

I can be a kid again when I'm at a Disney Park. While I'm there, I'm able to forget the worries of the world, which are many. For a few days every year, I don't have to think about cooking, cleaning, and the logistics of life. All I have to worry about is navigating an app and whether we'll start our day at Epcot in Mexico or France.

We keep going back

In 2021, I was a military spouse solo-parenting my two daughters during the pandemic. My spouse was stationed on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean. And like everyone else in our country — and world — I was tired. Online learning, juggling isolation on my own, and missing my spouse were taking their toll. My daughters and I needed some fun.

"What's more fun than the 'Most Magical Place on Earth'?" I thought to myself. So I booked a spring break trip to Walt Disney World. That one trip became a tradition.

This year, coming off Tiana's Bayou Adventure soaking wet and hair dripping, both girls turned to me at the same time and said, "That was awesome." My oldest is now 19, and her sister is 16. They still want to come. Disney has become not just a tradition, but a part of our family fabric.

Disney Adults have their place

I hear and see a lot of people disgruntled about Disney. From politics to price increases, it seems every year you have to spend more for the same experience. I get it. There are so many places to travel, and with the cost of living increasing, it can be hard to justify returning to somewhere you've already been.

This is exactly why the rise of the Disney Adult makes complete sense to me. Life has gotten heavier, and not just for adults. Kids and teens are carrying more than ever. Expectations, pressure, the pace of it all. The to-do list is never done. Disney is one of the very few places designed entirely around joy. And when joy starts feeling scarce, people will pay for it. I know I happily do.

As a busy mom, the decreased mental load alone is worth it for me. And not having to drive on the trip also helps. All the planning is done upfront, dining reservations included. Add in the ability to connect with my daughters, dress up in cute Disney-themed attire, and make more memories I'll never forget, and the price of the trip becomes completely irrelevant.

I cherish these magic moments

I know Disney gets eye rolls from some; I used to give them, too. But I've learned that joy doesn't need justification. My girls and I will keep going back as long as they want to go with me, and I'll keep showing up as the mom who believes in and happily participates in the magic.

• A $6.3 billion crypto heist is one thing. Figuring out who pays — and how quickly — is another.
• Binance has plugged most of the hole. But a withdrawal rush shows customers are getting jittery.
• Sign up for First Trade, Business Insider's daily markets newsletter.

Last Friday, while investors were preoccupied by a brutal AI-earnings-driven sell-off, Binance came out of nowhere and disclosed that the biggest crypto hack in history had occurred the day before.

The news added to pressure across markets, pushing bitcoin to its lowest level in about six weeks and wiping out billions in value for crypto-linked stocks.

But more importantly for the long run, it posed a fresh challenge to the security of crypto. Part of its original appeal was the promise of nearly unbreakable digital protection. But when a record $6.3 billion is suddenly swiped from the world's largest crypto exchange, owners of crypto are left feeling awfully vulnerable.

Wait, so what happened here?

Binance said hackers broke into an engineer's laptop, among other breaches, and gained access to the exchange's digital wallets. These company-controlled accounts hold customer crypto and track who owns what on the platform.

How much money are we talking about?

The hackers initially took $6.3 billion in crypto. Tether, Circle, and other firms have since frozen about $3 billion, leaving roughly $3.3 billion under the hackers' control.

That's a staggering amount. So will customers get their money back??

Binance says yes, even though its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) only had about $1.2 billion as of Thursday. It says it will cover the rest with company reserves, rather than pass the losses along to customers.

That means clients' account balances should remain unchanged as Binance refills its wallets. The company is fronting the money and hopes to offset part of the bill with the roughly $3 billion in assets that other firms have frozen.

Phew. But they'll surely have to wait a while, right?

Binance says it has now replenished about 95% of the stolen assets, up from roughly 80% in its initial update. The remaining 5% consists largely of smaller, less-liquid tokens that are harder to source. The company says it is buying them through market and over-the-counter channels, a process that could take longer.

Binance began restoring withdrawals in phases on Sunday, starting with major assets including bitcoin and ether. More networks and tokens remain unavailable while the exchange does additional security checks.

What are the market implications of this snafu?

As mentioned above, bitcoin and crypto-linked stocks took it on the chin after the disclosure, a reminder that crypto remains vulnerable to a confidence shock — even at a major exchange that's supposed to have top-notch security.

The hack also revives an awkward question for an industry built around decentralization. Why are so many assets still concentrated in just a few giant platforms?

For Binance, the immediate test is whether it can restore withdrawals and make customers whole. The longer-term one is tougher: Can it contain market panic and win back trust?

Early results have been a mixed bag. Binance said it saw roughly $3.6 billion in net outflows during the first several hours after withdrawals resumed, before activity began to stabilize. That withdrawal data will be the key stat to watch going forward.

• Watching my parents with my kids has given me glimpses into parts of my childhood I can't remember.
• Their small gestures of affection have made me realize how deeply I was loved.
• Now I find myself showing my daughters love in many of the same ways.

I hadn't heard my mom sing in years. The memories were there, of course, her singing along with the car radio or lulling us to sleep with a song from the latest Disney movie. But the actual sound of her voice had faded with time, slipping away somewhere between teenage angst and newfound adulthood.

So when I heard it again as an adult — gentle, melodic, familiar — it was an unexpected jolt of nostalgia. I watched as she cradled my months-old firstborn, gently nuzzling nose to nose, softly singing the chorus to "You Are My Sunshine." My daughter looked up, her giant blue eyes fixed on my mother's face.

Did she sing that to me as a baby? I couldn't remember. But in that moment, it struck me that what I was witnessing wasn't just a grandmother with her granddaughter, it was my mom with me.

As I watch my parents with my kids, I get glimpses of my own childhood

Like most people, I remember bits and pieces of my childhood. The bigger moments are the easiest to recall: the summer road trips to my aunt's lake house, the giant plate of nachos my mom made on Friday nights, or the summer evenings we rode our bikes until the streetlights came on. It's those little everyday moments in between that remain elusive. But now, watching my parents with my girls, I can almost feel them.

In a way, I'm transported back to my earliest days, catching brief glimpses of a time I was too young to remember. My toddler begs my dad for tickles, and my mom can't hold the girls without a playful flurry of kisses.

I watch her patiently coach my oldest through making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or softly stroke the back of my 2-year-old's hair as she sits in her lap. My dad uses a playful "baby" voice that I'm sure he once used with me, and they both created Louvre-level displays of the girls' artwork in their offices.

Their smallest gestures make me realize how loved I was

Of course, things like putting on the girls' shoes or wiping crumbs from their mouths aren't exactly life-altering gestures. But the forehead kisses from my mom after zipping their jackets or the random, silly nicknames my dad gives them add a deeper layer, the tiniest insight into the tokens of affection I was too young to notice.

At times, my parents even call the girls by my name without realizing it, catching themselves mid-sentence. It's subtle proof that those little gestures were once reserved for me.

I never expected it all to be so bittersweet. I've become homesick for a part of the past I hadn't realized I missed. I understand now that childhood isn't shaped only by what I can replay in my mind, there's also the vague yet reassuring awareness that my parents loved me in a way I can still feel to this day, even if I can't remember it.

I'm sure they never realized those small moments were shaping my childhood at the time. My mom is the first to admit that, at age 22, she wasn't exactly an expert on raising kids. (Take the time, for example, that she said she was informed that, yes, she actually needed to wash my hair as a newborn.) Yet, long before parenting advice filled our social media feeds, they didn't just figure it out, they unknowingly created the kind of childhood that would stay with me long after the memories faded.

Now I'm creating those same memories for my daughters

In turn, my parents set the blueprint for how I raise my own girls. I doubt they will remember the quick pecks on the head as I walk by, or the way I tuck their hair behind their ears while we watch TV. They'll likely forget that I sing "You Are My Sunshine" the way my mom did. But I know these seemingly insignificant gestures will somehow resonate with them the way they did with me — they just might not realize it until they have kids of their own.

It turns out that the clearest window into my childhood isn't memory alone. It's the privilege of watching it play out with my own kids, where past and present blend together. The kisses, songs, tickles, and silly voices stick with us somehow, even when the memories themselves don't.

To my girls, they're Maw and Pops. To me, they're Mom and Dad. And seeing them together is all the proof I need that I don't have to remember every moment of my childhood to know how deeply I was loved. Sometimes it just takes growing up, and a little perspective, to finally see it.

• Stocks are in the midst of a tech sell-off, but JPMorgan Private Bank sees a positive sign flashing.
• The percentage of stocks in the S&P 500 that have hit a 20-day high rose to more than 50%.
• Strategists said they were eyeing "outsized" gains for the market, despite interim volatility.

Amid a brutal week in the tech sector, the S&P 500 is flashing one sign better days are coming: improving market breadth.

The tech sector is still getting pummeled by fears around AI, but JPMorgan Private Bank sees one bullish signal in the benchmark index that suggests the market is soon headed for a rebound. In a recent note, strategists at the bank pointed to increased market breadth, a measure of the number of winning stocks relative to losing stocks in the S&P 500.

For a long time this year, breadth has been narrow, with just a few big names driving the gains at the index level while the majority of stocks struggled.

That's changing, though.

The percentage of stocks in the index that have hit a new 20-day high has risen to over 50%. It's the first time market breadth has risen that high since the second quarter of 2025, around the time the market was making a historic comeback after the tariffs-fueled market crash.

The extent to which market breadth has increased recently has historically been followed by more gains in the market over the next three-month and six-month periods, the bank added. JPMorgan recently lifted its year-end target for the S&P 500 to 8,000, implying 5% upside to the index's current levels.

"Despite a crowded risk calendar, breadth and historical outperformance sets the US stock market up for outsized returns after the midterm elections," Kriti Gupta, an executive director and global investment strategist in JPMorgan's private bank arm, and Nick Roberts, a portfolio manager at the bank, wrote in a note on Friday.

It's been a rough few weeks for US stock investors, with the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 on track to end October in the red amid several rounds of heavy selling in the AI trade. Fears around AI capex have been widespread and run in multiple directions: investors worry that Big Tech firms may be spending too much on artificial intelligence, and, on the other hand, fear that a pullback in spending could trigger a cascade of consequences that will crush suppliers in the data center space.

Deteriorating market breadth was one of the first warnings investors got that not all was well with the AI trade. Several weeks ago, the benchmark indexes were hovering near record highs, but more than 80% of the S&P 500 had slipped into correction territory. The breadth decline was interpreted by strategists as damage building up underneath the market's surface.

More analysts are eyeing a market as the market moves closer to the midterm elections, which has historically been a clearing event that allows stocks to renew their rally once its over. In the six months after the midterms, the S&P 500 has gained an average of 14% since 1970, according to an analysis from BlackRock.

In the meantime, the tech sell-off continued on Friday as investors balked at Amazon's and Intel's latest earnings reports, with both tech giants signaling that capex spending would increase next year despite negative cash flow. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is down around 8% from its October peak. The iShares Semiconductor ETF, meanwhile, has plunged 28% from its 2026 high, while the Roundhill Neocloud ETF is down 43% from its latest peak.

• Steven Strogatz cried on "The Daily" in October.
• Now, however, the math professor at Cornell told Business Insider that he's doing OK.
• Strogatz said he's starting to accept AI's role in mathematics.

Steven Strogatz has good days and bad days.

Recently, though, the math scholar and professor at Cornell University has been feeling more positive about AI's brusque entrance into the field to which he's devoted his life.

"I think I'm pretty far along into the acceptance phase," he told Business Insider on Wednesday.

Strogatz, 67, has become a kind of de facto spokesman for the math community since he shed tears last month on "The Daily," the popular New York Times podcast, while talking about the fleeting nature of human life.

"I may end up doing it with you," he told me about crying in front of a reporter. (He didn't.)

In the last two months, Strogatz said hundreds of people have sent him emails, from curious students to ministers asking to pray with him. Among the more notable figures hitting him up were OpenAI engineers responsible for the company's math operations.

Before the AI colossus released hundreds more solutions on October 6, for instance, Strogatz received a phone call from bigwigs at the company, who, he thinks, wanted to gauge his reaction before the dump.

"I think the subtext was: 'Are you gonna badmouth us tomorrow?'" he said.

As it turned out, though, Strogatz, who has a book coming out this month in part about AI, didn't have much badmouthing to do.

In an X reply to OpenAI's post that day, Strogatz highlighted one solution he called "particularly amazing."

"This leap in progress is like Bob Beamon's long jump," he wrote, referencing the athlete's famous 1968 feat that shattered the previous distance record by nearly two feet.

Part of Strogatz's fortitude has to do with his position as an educator, he said, where on most weekdays he orates at a lectern before dozens of wide-eyed undergraduates looking to him for answers in a turbulent time.

If he stood before them and, like some have in his field, freaked out — or sullenly declared mathematics over — he'd be doing something of a disservice to his students. It's also not what he believes.

"I want to give a message of happy optimism, but not stupid optimism," he said. "Like, let's keep our eyes open and figure out what we need to do to stay strong."

So during a recent class at Cornell, after he'd spent over an hour discussing quantum mechanics and the Schrödinger equation — if a cat in a box has a 50% chance of kicking the bucket, at the moment before you open the box, the feline is both alive and dead — a tricky question came up.

And instead of clearing some space on the blackboard and picking up the nub of chalk, Strogatz said he broke out his computer.

"I said, 'Let's just see what the AI thinks about this,'" he recalled, adding that AI is a useful tool to enhance understanding after students wrestle with the concept in their minds.

"In other words, I find all kinds of ways to use AI to improve my class," he said.

To be clear, though, all is not fine and dandy in the world of math. Mathematicians everywhere are reckoning with reams of AI-generated solutions to problems that once animated their dreams and chalkboards.

Jeering from math geeks quickly turned to astonishment, and then soul-searching, after OpenAI in September published solutions to the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize question, a famously thorny mathematical question about whether the equations governing fluid motion can break down.

Now, AI programs are at solving levels analogous to or superior to those of grad students, Strogatz said. And without a doubt, the intoxicating satisfaction of finally cracking a problem after suffering over it for years may be getting lost in the flux.

Strogatz recalled one remarkable episode from his youth, in which, after spending years mulling over a mathematical explanation for how systems sync up — like fireflies flashing on a summer night — he experienced a bona fide epiphany.

In what he described as a "psychedelic dream," the solution came to him in the form of "swirling colored fluids." And when he woke up, he immediately checked the answer.

It turned out to be right.

"It was the first correct way to formulate this problem," he said. "That was a big happy time."

But now, Strogatz says somewhat blithely that with AI doing the solving, future generations likely won't have similar dreams.

"Unless you struggle like that and suffer, you won't think of anything deep," he said. "You'll just be superficial, and you'll miss that marvelous human experience."

"But I don't want to make too much of it," he added.

• Some job seekers in their 50s have had to make career pivots after facing countless rejections.
• One person we spoke to landed a job via her network, without submitting a single online application.
• Other 50+ job seekers found new opportunities in consulting, part-time work, or entrepreneurship.

Finding a job in this market has become a struggle for many professionals, no matter their age or years of experience. But for job seekers in their 50s, the challenges can be unique.

For the Still in the Game series, Business Insider has been speaking with 50-something job-hunters about the unique encounters they've had while pivoting careers and looking for new work. Some have mentioned feeling that ageism, AI, and their seniority have worked against them. Others have found ways to successfully move into new roles or find new paths by using their age and experience to their advantage.

The 50-and-older workers who are successfully navigating rejection and moving forward share three things in common: they used their network, sold their experience, and didn't wait to be hired. Here's what they shared.

Use your personal and professional network

Nicole Cicero, 54, is one of the job seekers we spoke with who managed to leave her old job and land a new one. Most impressively, she did this without submitting a single job application online.

Cicero told Business Insider she applied to fewer than 10 companies while still in her old sales job, and exclusively used her network and a professional recruiter she's known for decades. "Ultimately, I went with a company where I actually knew somebody from the past," Cicero said. "It felt like a comfortable choice, as though I could go in there and just breathe."

Similarly, 56-year-old Michael Shmarak built relationships through his retail job, teaching, and sharing his ideas on Substack. While those connections haven't gotten him to a full-time role, they've led to interviews and new consulting opportunities.

Consider your age and experience as an advantage, not a hindrance

Shmarak also shared how he shifted his mindset to embrace his age and reframe his experience after being ghosted countless times.

"When you're 50, you have to look at all the things that you have that are advantages ahead of younger people," he said. "What can I do to teach them? What can I do to bring that experience to the table? That's more forward-thinking, instead of saying, 'I have 25 years of experience in an industry.'"

Cicero said she came into her interviews with that same confidence. She focused on her years of experience and what she brought to the role, instead of worrying about her age.

Even when switching industries, as 56-year-old Jennifer Mannix did, leaning on past experience has been an asset. Mannix is transitioning from the world of risk management to women's professional sports. Although she sought entry-level positions, she said that her 30 years of work experience have given her many transferable skills that put her at an advantage.

Take control of your career and don't wait to be hired

While networking and using age as a sign of experience can be helpful, they don't always lead to a secured full-time role. In Shmarak and Mannix's case, they were still job searching when Business Insider last spoke with them. However, they both found ways to continue working.

Shmarak developed a bob-and-weave strategy to keep himself encouraged in his search. "The idea of bobbing and weaving is that, as different challenges come at you, you don't let them stop you," he said. "Like in dodgeball, you're not letting that be the thing that tags you out. You continue to dodge and keep going."

While he'd prefer one full-time role, he has several fractional jobs, works in retail part-time, and teaches once a year.

Mannix, on the other hand, is building her own business. "This year, I started building a business that curates events surrounding women's sports. I figured, if I can't get hired, why don't I make something for myself?"

Are you navigating a career change in your 50s? Contact this editor, Manseen Logan, at mlogan@businessinsider.com to share your story.

• Alexandra Plainte recently signed an offer for a new job and gave two weeks' notice at her old one.
• The technical-support leader told family and friends and treated herself to a new iPhone.
• About a week and a half before she was due to start, the company rescinded the offer.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Alexandra Plainte, a technical-support leader whose job offer was rescinded. Plainte, 36, who lives near Sarasota, Florida, shares how the experience has changed the way she thinks about job security. Business Insider has verified her identity and job offer. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The role I was in until recently wasn't going to give me the growth that I wanted. I found a role as a senior manager of technical support.

The interview process was thorough: There were four rounds over about two months, with five people, all the way up to the CTO. By the time the offer came, I felt like they really knew me, and I really knew them. It didn't feel like a "maybe" at that point. It felt like I was embarking on the next chapter in my career.

I've spent almost 10 years in senior management, building and running teams that help customers when software breaks. Most recently, I've been building AI-backed tools to make support teams faster and less burned out, which is work I love doing.

Because I'm the main provider for my family, the job search wasn't something that happened casually. I was going after those senior manager and director roles at software companies. The job that came through felt like the perfect next step.

When the recruiter called with the offer, I accepted it on the spot. Not only was it a senior manager role, but it also reported directly to the CTO, which, to me, signaled enormous growth opportunities.

I was so excited. I told my husband right away. When the verbal offer came through, I thought, "With the state of the economy and from what I've seen people posting about offers being rescinded, don't do anything until you have it signed."

The company sent me the formal offer letter. We both signed it. I filled out my onboarding paperwork, picked my laptop preference, and submitted my background check and I-9. With all of that done — because it felt so concrete — I gave two weeks' notice at my prior job.

I told other family members and friends, and we celebrated. I had a five-year-old iPhone at the time that was having battery issues, and to treat myself, I bought a new one.

A missed call from the recruiter

About a week and a half before my start date, I saw that I had missed a call from the recruiter. I called back right away. She told me that because of organizational changes and budget realignment, they'd eliminated the role and were rescinding the offer.

The recruiter was clear that it had nothing to do with me, my interviews, or my background check. By then, I had already given notice at my job.

I was devastated. I had already told my family and friends, and now I had to effectively un-tell everyone.

My mind immediately went to the what-ifs. Luckily, I have some savings, but I know how hard the job market is. I was scared of potentially being out of work for a long time and watching that cushion slowly disappear.

I had treated myself to the iPhone, and it was "Oh wow! Now I regret making that purchase."

There's really no going back

When I gave notice, my employer posted a requisition to backfill my role. When I later checked, over 700 people had applied. I thought to myself, "Well, there's really no going back."

At that point, I had made my decision. I was going to focus on moving forward, whether that's seeing if I can build something of my own or trying to join another software company.

If I'm ever again in a position where I receive an offer while I'm still in a role, I would try to negotiate something so that if they rescind the offer, there would be some sort of exit package or some contractual guarantee that the role isn't going to suddenly be eliminated.

Since then, what I've done is start applying, tried to network, and looked at options for how I can start my own venture. It's about having as many options as possible open.

It's getting to the point where I feel like we can no longer depend on just a single W-2-style job, because we've all seen how quickly those can come and go.

Do you have a story to share about your job search? Contact this reporter at tparadis@businessinsider.com.

• Jane Swift, former governor of Massachusetts, shares the job advice she's given to her daughters.
• Swift advises them to employ personalized applications and impactful communication in interviews.
• She also suggests asking about the office dress code before an interview and not bringing iced coffee.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jane Swift, the 61-year-old former Gov. of Massachusetts and the CEO of the national work-based learning nonprofit Education at Work, based in Boston. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I've always loved leading organizations and finding ways to make a positive impact on younger generations. I was elected lieutenant governor of Massachusetts in 1999 and served as acting governor from 2001 to 2003. My family moved to Vermont while I was CEO of Middlebury Interactive Languages, a role I held from 2011 to 2017.

Now, I'm the CEO of Education at Work, a nonprofit that helps students become financially independent by providing paid, flexible opportunities with companies that need the talent students offer.

I understand what employers and job seekers need today

Today's job market is competitive, and AI has made it easier for applicants to submit a high volume of applications. That can make it harder for employers to identify the right candidate. Some employers use automated screening tools, making tailored, clearly written applications especially important.

Elizabeth is my oldest daughter, who earned her master's degree from Emmanuel College. She handled security for the Red Sox and also has a math degree from UMass Amherst. Lauren has a degree in psychology from Northwestern and worked for the Northwestern football team. Sarah holds an integrative education degree from Trinity College and a master's degree in social work from Case Western Reserve University. Lauren and Sarah are twins.

Currently, Elizabeth is a video operations engineer at KISWE, Sarah works as a business analyst for Education at Work, and Lauren is a consultant at Echo Group and Edmentum.

I've been guiding them since they were in elementary school. I gave them the option to come with me on one of my business trips each year. They've grown up seeing me talk during board calls in our minivan and drafting RFP responses at the kitchen table late at night. I'd say they've been preparing for the job market since childhood without realizing it.

Here are some crucial suggestions and job search coaching I've given my daughters.

1. Prepare for each and every conversation

You don't know when you might make an impression outside a formal interview, which could help land a job. Try showing up to any and all opportunities as if they could help your career.

That's what I asked Elizabeth to do, as she wanted to work for MLB. During an online informational group session, about 20-30 people attended, most of whom had their cameras off and were unprepared. Elizabeth dressed professionally with questions ready, and the host remembered her. When a position at MLB Replay became available, she was chosen from a pool of candidates on that Zoom call.

2. Before the conversation comes the application email

You can use AI, but make sure you're personalizing each job application. Avoid generic, identical email copy, and include specific details about your experience that relate to the job to show hiring managers you've put in some effort.

Keep it readable and scannable. You can add a short "why you" paragraph that includes an example or mentions a recent update the company has posted.

If it's an online application, look for a warm connection, which can often get more attention than a cold email. Instead of sending emails to a generic inbox, reach out to a named person at the company, such as a recruiter.

3. Highlight your "win themes"

I've taught my daughters to identify their "win themes" — the two or three strengths and accomplishments they want an interviewer to remember. Use specific examples to show how you achieved results.

Before an interview, choose your three win themes and rehearse examples that illustrate each. Transferable skills can be part of that, too. Lauren and I often attend events with donors to sports programs, and she makes a point of explaining how her experience translates to the work she wants to do.

4. We all make mistakes at work

Create a journal dedicated to your career and profession. If you have a bad day or make a mistake, work on solving or correcting that. Journal how you turned your worst day into your best day, and how you resolved an issue eventually.

Add a star next to that journal entry and use these star entries as examples during your interviews. Writing it down helps you memorize it faster and more effectively in the long term. Ask yourself: Did I rush? Should I have asked for clarification? Build a strategy so you don't repeat the same error.

5. Dress appropriately for both video and in-person interviews

Whether you're on screen or in person, interviewers notice how you show up and engage. Reach out to the organizer and ask, "What is the standard dress code for the office?" so you don't have to guess or arrive completely out of place.

Try to level up. For example, if they say the office is business casual, interpret that as your baseline, not your final outfit.

6. Lots of full-time job opportunities get advertised as paid internships

Try applying for those roles as well, and keep your perspective open. You may think a position or an internship is below your level, but don't always apply for the title; if possible, apply based on the description.

Even if it's not the right fit, it can still be a valuable experience. At an event I managed in 1996, a Williams alum said, "You will learn the most about the job and career you want from the job you hate," and that quote has been with me ever since. Knowing what you don't want to do is equally as important as discovering what makes you happy.

7. Improve your problem-solving and communication skills every day

These are skills you never stop building. Ask for feedback and adjust your approach based on it. No one can be perfect, but employers value professionals who incorporate feedback and grow from it.

This is also something you can use in interviews: share how you incorporated feedback, improved, and worked your way up.

8. Research the role and the people you'll be interviewing with

Ask thoughtful, personalized questions that you're actually curious about. You might ask, "What do you enjoy most about working here?" or "I noticed you worked at X before; what made you transition, and how has the experience been?"

Those questions show you've done your homework and want to learn more about the people you may work with.

9. Show, not tell

If you're empathetic, instead of saying "I'm empathetic," share an anecdote.

For example, Elizabeth used to be a summer camp counselor and volunteered to do extra work with a child with Down syndrome. She realized she got a lot of satisfaction in helping others, and she can highlight this in interviews.

10. If you get nervous, sip a glass of water

If you have a video interview and worry you'll go blank, post sticky notes on either side of the camera, or stop for a drink of water. No one is perfect, so remember to smile and breathe.

If it's an in-person interview, you can bring a neat, professional-looking notebook with your key points written in it. Remember, an interview is a conversation, so try to build a connection and avoid getting buried in your notes.

And no iced coffee! Too many opportunities to drip, spill, or otherwise create a faux pas — unless you are interviewing for a coffee company.

A lot of what's happening on Wall Street right now is unprecedented.

Record-breaking sums are being raised to fuel the artificial intelligence boom, geopolitical uncertainty and technological disruption are shaking up markets, and more blockbuster IPOs that could shatter records are on the horizon.

For the industry's up-and-coming talent, it's been a moment of enormous opportunity.

As one of this year's rising stars, Morgan Stanley managing director Maya Venkatraman, put it: "The most interesting work happens when there isn't a ready-made template."

Business Insider's Rising Stars of Wall Street is celebrating its 10th class of young professionals making a substantial impact in investing, trading, and dealmaking. The process begins with nominations from bosses, colleagues, recruiters, and other industry insiders. To be considered, nominees must be US-based, 35 or younger, and stand out among their peers. Business Insider's editors make the final selections.

Several of our stars are investing billions in the companies building AI and inventing new ways to finance the infrastructure that will support it.

Others are pioneering new trading strategies, building businesses from the ground up, and advising on consequential deals.

Maya Venkatraman

Maya Venkatraman is helping create the blueprint for Wall Street's data-center debt boom.

Venkatraman, a managing director, played a leading role in structuring a novel $3.2 billion bond for data center developer TeraWulf, with credit support from Google.

"There wasn't really a playbook that existed," said Venkatraman, Morgan Stanley's US head of transportation and infrastructure leveraged finance. Traditional project financing couldn't meet the industry's enormous capital needs alone, so her team developed the structure last fall, which has since served as a template for a market she said has generated roughly $45 billion in high-yield bond issuance over the past year.

Venkatraman also had to educate investors and ratings agencies about the emerging asset class, swapping traditional roadshows for visits to data-center project sites, steel-toed boots and all.

The deal was "really defining" for Mumbai-born Venkatraman, who joined Morgan Stanley in 2013 and was promoted to MD in January 2026. She's led the structuring and execution of more than 110 transactions throughout her career.

It also wasn't the first time dealing with unconventional financing solutions. Newly promoted to vice president when COVID-19 brought travel to a halt, she worked with her team around the clock to help airlines and cruise operators secure liquidity, including raising billions for Royal Caribbean.

"People were asking, are we ever gonna get on an airplane again? Are we ever gonna take a cruise again?" she recalled.

The crisis accelerated her career, giving her "multiple times the reps" of others at her level.

Venkatraman discovered finance and her analytical side at the University of Virginia. She credits her love of literature and history with helping her translate complex financial concepts into compelling stories for investors.

Outside work, the longtime distance runner finds that her best problem-solving happens on runs, sometimes accompanied by her 4-year-old daughter in a stroller. She's expecting her second child in the coming weeks.

Theo Saarinen

Theo Saarinen's career path is more akin to that of a high-flying tech founder than a hedge fund researcher.

The 27-year-old is the chief research officer for Bridgewater's AIA Labs, the internal AI research unit run by the $102 billion Connecticut-based hedge fund giant. The unit's AI-powered fund is up nearly 16% through September this year, outpacing the S&P 500 and the average hedge fund over the same period.

While Saarinen is checking his fund's performance "returns all the time — it's a very important piece of feedback," he approaches his role with an almost academic mindset, befitting his background.

He joined the AIA group in 2023 while pursuing a doctorate in statistics from the University of California, Berkeley. He became one of the group's first hires, thanks in part to a relationship with his academic mentors Bin Yu and Jasjeet Sekhon, the latter of whom co-founded AIA Labs at Bridgewater with the firm's co-CIO Greg Jensen.

Now, Saarinen is focused on connecting "the frontier of AI" with markets. He spends a lot of his time deconstructing the decision-making of the strategy — "peeling back the machines' thoughts to understand why they're doing what they're doing," he said.

And, on top of his role, he's kept a foot in academia — he's writing his dissertation and plans to complete his doctorate soon, while keeping tabs on new developments across the AI space.

He's also a player in the hedge-fund talent war, saying they're always looking for talented people at rivals, but also at Big Tech companies and high-flying startups.

He believes the firm is doing just as interesting work as the frontier labs, with a much more concrete goal — generating returns.

"Markets are an extremely hard problem — the ultimate challenge," he said.

Diana Liu

People might think Diana Liu had some foresight when she started working on financing data center deals 12 years ago. But really, she was just starting out in structured finance at Deutsche Bank and found that because data centers didn't fit neatly into traditional real estate or infrastructure portfolios, they created an opportunity to earn "excess returns" relative to the risk.

More than a decade later, Liu said the sector still offers outsized returns — not because there aren't investors, but because hyperscalers can't stop growing.

In her role as a Principal at Blue Owl, she helped develop the novel JV structure behind the financing for Meta's $50 billion Hyperion data center in Louisiana, dubbed Project Beignet. Conversations about the deal began when Liu was still at IPI Partners, the data center specialists that Blue Owl acquired in 2025, and she had been at since 2021.

The deal, financed 80% by Blue Owl and 20% by Meta, raised more than $27 billion and pioneered the use of 144A bonds in data-center financing at an unprecedented scale. The approach gave them access to a wider pool of institutional investors without requiring them to register the securities.

While some may have criticized the deal for taking some of Meta's AI computing costs off its balance sheet, she said it is "the most public deal ever done in data centers" because of the novel use of public bonds.

"It's always been a progression of trying to become a mainstream asset class and be recognized and be able to access traditional forms of markets," Liu said. "This was a push towards that, not trying to hide something."

The business growth has come from a pretty simple investment thesis: supporting the biggest tech companies, the Princeton grad said. It's "a bet that these really financially healthy companies" will continue to support "diversified users of the internet" alongside AI. Massive AI campuses require underwriting AI monetization because of their size, but the core bet is still on big tech.

"Still to this day, we're a little bit indifferent as to what their use cases are because we think these are some of the best credits in the world," Liu said.

Mike Washington

Mike Washington says he still feels the glimmers of imposter syndrome.

The 32-year-old managing director has been at Goldman for over a decade, but says it's the same feeling that used to hit him as a college intern — and gets at an ethos behind his success: a comfort with discomfort.

"There's different parts of your life where it comes back up," Washington, the co-head of Goldman's Americas Equities High Touch Sales Trading business, said. "You train it. You have to push yourself to be uncomfortable."

Executing trades for Wall Street's biggest investors means market volatility often creates opportunities that can double or triple market volume. When markets were thrown into disarray during the pandemic, he said it felt like "drinking from a firehouse."

Amid the "saaspocalypse" chaos early this year, Washington brought in sector specialists and colleagues to build customized stock baskets to help clients find investments insulated from the market turmoil.

"The days blurred together," he said. "I came to appreciate the intensity and responsibility that come with being a trusted advisor during periods of uncertainty."

These experiences ultimately accelerated Washington's career and helped him develop his ability to lead under pressure, he said. Over his tenure, Washington has earned top equity broker rankings at some of the world's largest asset managers, according to Goldman. He said that if you ask his clients why they keep coming back, it's because they trust him to put their interests first.

"It's because I know if I'm calling Mike, my best interest is always going to be at the heart of whatever the outcome is," he said.

Washington credits his drive to a few sources. One is his D1 basketball career at Princeton, which instilled in him an enduring work ethic and the ability to take direct feedback.

He can also speak to the power of a good connection. Washington met one of his trusted mentors, York Capital founder Jamie Dinan, at an NBA game in college, who provided him with the support he describes as having a "butterfly effect" on his career.

He's now heavily involved in Princeton's recruiting efforts and regularly connects top talent within the university to the bank.

David Bessel

At 33, David Bessel has helped lead TPG's investments in three of the hottest companies of this era: OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX.

Over 11 years at TPG, Bessel has worked across the firm's large-cap buyout business, its middle-market growth platform, and, for the past five years, its technology-adjacent investing efforts.

He helped lead diligence for TPG's investments in OpenAI, beginning with the company's $300 billion valuation round last summer, followed by a secondary transaction at a $500 billion valuation and another investment earlier this year at an $852 billion valuation. He also worked on TPG's investment in SpaceX, where the firm completed a secondary transaction at what he described as an opportune time.

The relationship with OpenAI has gone beyond buying shares. As something he's most proud of, Bessel points to TPG's investment in the OpenAI Deployment Company, a new enterprise-focused business majority-owned by OpenAI. Bessel helped with early business design, financial planning, and connecting OpenAI with TPG's portfolio companies.

"It's something that we feel like we were uniquely positioned to help put together," he said.

The Dartmouth College graduate has lived in San Francisco through multiple cycles since joining TPG in 2015 and says he wants to be cautious around AI hype.

"I've tried to approach this newest cycle of AI with a degree of humility," he said. "One of the things that I appreciate most about TPG's strategy is we've been doing tech investing for 30-plus years, and so we know how to play aggressively, but also know when to pull back when it's seeming like the music is going to stop playing."

Asked if the music will stop playing anytime soon, Bessel says it is only the first act, but that does not mean pain is not coming too.

"We're still very early, but the internet became a big thing, and the dot-com crash also happened, so I think it'll be an interesting moment," he said.

Sahil Singhal

Some people take a winding road before ending up in the career they were always meant to be in. Sahil Singhal is not one of these people.

"I knew by sophomore year that I'd be trading fixed income and macro markets one day," the 31-year-old portfolio manager said.

Singhal's drive comes through quickly in conversation. He codes to relax. He found time to get both an undergraduate degree, in finance and engineering, and a Master's, in applied mathematics, in his four years at the University of Pennsylvania. By 28, he was a portfolio manager at Dmitry Balyasny's $37 billion hedge fund.

Singhal said he was first drawn to the industry when he attended talks by asset management executives while in school.

He interned two summers at Ken Griffin's Citadel, working for teams trading bonds, before joining the firm full-time after college.

While hedge funds have since expanded their talent pool to recruit more fresh college grads, Singhal was often the youngest in the room when he started at Citadel. He credits his experience at Penn's investment club, the Wharton Trading & Investment Group, for helping him hit the ground running.

He left Citadel as the pandemic was beginning in early 2020 and eventually joined Balyansy Assest Management as an associate PM under David Levary, who taught him "the value of patience."

"Let trades come to you so you don't force them," he said,

His time is now split between tweaking his portfolio of bonds, currency plays, and commodities-related wagers, and researching his next big idea.

"It's important for a PM to be equally in the weeds as their analysts," he said.

His advice to anyone trying to break into the hedge-fund game is to be a self-starter, regardless of how much experience you have or where you went to school.

"The most important skill in markets is the ability to learn on your own," he said.

Cody Kiechle

Cody Kiechle grew up milking cows and driving tractors on his family's dairy farm in a small town near the Canadian border in northern New York. Now, he's helping finance the biggest infrastructure buildouts in technology history.

The 33-year-old Bank of America managing director has helped execute more than 400 bond offerings that raised over $1 trillion over his career, including more than $200 billion in 2026 alone.

He's at the center of an unprecedented borrowing spree as technology giants race to build AI infrastructure. Historically, these companies used relatively little outside financing. But Kiechle recognized a turning point in late 2025, when it became clear that their businesses were becoming far more capital-intensive and would turn to debt.

"There was a pretty massive shift happening," he said.

So far in 2026, nine bond offerings have reached $25 billion or more, compared with a previous full-year record of just two deals that size.

Kiechle has led and advised on four of these megadeals. He expects the AI borrowing boom to accelerate into 2027 and believes this period will be remembered as a "seminal moment."

Kiechle's recent deals include helping Alphabet raise $32 billion from investors, securing $25 billion apiece for Oracle and Salesforce, and leading SpaceX's first public bond sale, which raised $25 billion. The Oracle deal attracted a record amount of investor orders for a bond offering from a highly rated company, Kiechle said.

The complexity of these megadeals can be "stressful at times, super exciting at times," Kiechle said. The Alphabet transaction happened over a couple of days, and he worked across multiple time zones to raise money in US dollars, British pounds, and Swiss francs.

After attending Harvard, Kiechle joined Bank of America in 2015. He spent three years in debt capital markets, moved into investment banking, then returned, taking primary responsibility for technology clients in 2024.

He credits his rural upbringing with teaching him "work ethic," "comfort with unpredictability," and "an ownership mindset."

Now a mentor himself, Kiechle previously oversaw professional development for more than 50 junior bankers. He typically passes along advice he received early in his career: "Be comfortable being uncomfortable."

Kate Casey

When Kate Casey joined KKR's infrastructure team in 2018, the sector was not yet the industry's starring player. Energy was also particularly out of favor following the mid-decade price collapse.

"It was almost like nobody wanted to talk to you if you were working on energy in California," she said of her time in Menlo Park. "Now I have my friends from California who work at VC funds that call me all the time to help figure it out."

Today, Casey is a director in KKR's infrastructure group, helping lead large energy deals that will power hyperscale data centers. The assets her team manages have grown to $119 billion from less than $10 billion when she joined.

This summer, she helped lead KKR's participation in a $5.3 billion investment into a joint venture with energy company Williams to develop natural-gas electricity projects for data centers and other high-energy users.

She works closely with the firm's digital infrastructure team to accelerate data center development, because "increasingly, the ability to deliver that power quickly is what determines how fast a project can move forward."

"I jokingly call our team the data center support team," she said.

Before she specialized in energy, she helped redefine infrastructure investing beyond traditional assets like toll roads to businesses with contracts, inflation protection, and real assets.

One of the first deals she led was KKR's $8 billion investment in Refresco, the world's largest independent bottling company, in 2022. Casey called it a "defining infrastructure deal," because it showed how a business traditionally viewed as private equity could qualify as infrastructure.

She decided to specialize in energy, and eventually move to Houston, because of James Cunningham, leader of KKR's energy practice and the only other Texan on the team when Casey joined. As an associate, she was "almost in disbelief" that the MD spent the time to model a gas investment with her.

Asher Hecht

Asher Hecht learned the value of thinking several moves ahead long before he became a principal at General Atlantic in 2017.

Hecht started playing chess at 5 years old, was a competitive player growing up, and still reaches for a quick game on Chess.com when he needs a mental reset between calls. He says chess shares the skills crucial for being a good PE investor: a mastery of calculation and strategy.

San Francisco-based Hecht focuses on technology investments across infrastructure software, cybersecurity, data, IT, DevOps, and AI. His deals have included Slack, Opendoor, Crowdstrike, and the hottest company of the moment, Anthropic.

General Atlantic invested in Anthropic across its past three rounds, and Hecht helped lead due diligence on those massive financings. He also serves on the board of Ode, Anthropic's services business, which General Atlantic helped form alongside other private-equity firms.

"It's both fun and sometimes scary to have a big position in something that is so public," Hecht said. "We're thrilled to be part of the story."

With an investment in a company as massive as Anthropic, Hecht says he has little say in the business and is "largely along for the ride." He values his work with other portfolio companies in which the firm holds more substantial stakes and can shape their businesses.

"I do not believe that this job is about big accomplishments," he said. "It's about stacking a bunch of small things."

Hecht's team conducts around 150 sourcing calls every week, something he says has been streamlined by AI.

"Now we have an automated email that lists them all out, notices trends, ranks and stacks them, and suggests next steps," he says. "It is making everyone a lot more effective and smarter at their job."

For those trying to break into private equity, Hecht says sharp analytical skills matter more than ever. And it's important to avoid the trap of overly romanticizing the job.

"It's not as glamorous as it used to be," he said. "You have to really love the work."

Bridget Chaudhry

When Bridget Chaudhry travels, she usually asks a friend or relative to embark on a "retail tourism" journey at a local retailer or brand event.

The experience gives the investment banker a fresh perspective on the packaged food and beauty industries as a managing director in Goldman Sachs' consumer retail group, the same group she interned for in 2012 and joined the following year. Banking offered a chance to marry her analytical and social selves, and consumer retail a chance to advise the companies she interacted with daily.

Chaudhry's years as a vice president were in part defined by breaking up the Kellogg Company into Kellanova and WK Kellogg, and selling them to Mars for $35.9 billion and Ferrero for $3.1 billion, respectively. During the roughly three-year process, which ended in late 2025, Chaudhry worked closely with two of Goldman's senior partners.

"Navigating how to step into the role that the team needed me to play in order to support those three very high-profile public deals was a step-change in my evolution," she said.

Since then, she helped private equity investor Advent International acquire a majority stake in the body care brand Salt & Stone, and the beauty conglomerate Ulta acquire British beauty retailer SpaceNK. The deal was valued at around £399 million ($533 million), according to Ulta's SEC filing.

Her success lies partly in combining technical prowess and strong relationships with both clients and colleagues. When Chaudhry started at Goldman, a boss advised her to cultivate a personal "board of directors" rather than a single mentor, which has been "immensely valuable" in making career decisions.

Chaudhry has found that having a robust life outside the office reinforces her abilities at work. A big wino and foodie, she explores New York City restaurants with friends, walks in Central Park, or reads fiction, all of which she can discuss with clients outside dealmaking.

"That is fundamental to supporting the idea of you also being a holistic advisor to someone in this job," she said.

Rex Johnson

Rex Johnson has taken advantage of a pair of trends that have reshaped trading and supercharged his career.

The 32-year-old is the head of equity volatility at Walleye Capital, the $17 billion hedge fund that began as a Minnesota-based trading shop. His career has coincided with a surge in assets for multistrategy managers, fueling Walleye's growth, and a boom in retail trading on platforms like Robinhood, which has given volatility traders like him plenty to do.

But Johnson's success is about more than just being in the right place at the right time. The University of Chicago grad has been studying market volatility — and how top players make money from it — since his first job at Goldman Sachs in 2016.

Volatility trading is less about predicting which direction an asset might move, and more about where the waters might be choppiest, he said. Macro events, company announcements, weather patterns — all can inform a trade.

"We are betting on how much something is going to move every day versus if something is going to go up or down," Johnson said.

He spent nearly three years at Goldman on an equity derivatives desk before moving to the buy-side, becoming an analyst for volatility portfolio manager Bill Hillegass, an LMR trader whom he still considers a mentor.

He made the leap to portfolio manager when he joined Walleye at the start of 2022 as the firm's first Miami-based employee. A rough stretch in the markets at the end of his first year at Walleye was formative for his growth, he said, and he was helped by the advice of more experienced investors at the firm.

"They told me I was just paying the market tuition," he said.

Now, he's passing those lessons on to the next generation. He's now a player-coach, managing his own book while also recruiting and training young talent.

The firm had its first crop of volatility interns this summer, with seven young traders working under Johnson in Miami.

Mussie Tizazu

In late 2024, Mussie Tizazu left JPMorgan, one of Wall Street's top arrangers of collateralized loan obligations, to help build a rival business at Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

Tizazu had spent nearly eight years at JPMorgan, coming up in the world of CLOs, arranging bundles of corporate loans into bonds to sell to investors. He was the head of US CLO structuring at JPMorgan.

"There's only a few times in your career when you have an opportunity like the one at SMBC to be part of a real business build," Tizazu said. "I've always had a bit of an entrepreneurial inclination."

Among the bankers who went with him to SMBC was Christine Ferris, his former boss and mentor at JPMorgan, who hired him and was featured on Business Insider's inaugural Rising Stars list.

Within a month, Tizazu had secured his first mandate, winning the trust of a client he'd worked with at JPMorgan. In 2025, it jumped 17 spots to fourth place in CLO refinancing rankings, according to Bloomberg, and has more than doubled its CLO structuring team to 12.

Tizazu has worked on more than 80 transactions at SMBC, while also recruiting bankers and building the infrastructure needed to compete with established CLO arrangers.

Over his career, he's worked on more than 200 transactions totaling more than $80 billion in CLO issuance. The memorable ones are those where he's had to devise a new solution for a client or find common ground between parties at odds, often under intense pressure.

He also loves a difficult market because "the quality of your work comes through more when you're able to do it in more challenging environments."

Tizazu, who grew up in Ethiopia, originally envisioned a career in medicine or science. He discovered finance after moving to the US to attend Franklin & Marshall College in 2010, when an economics class sparked a "genuine curiosity" about markets.

Now, Tizazu spends much of his time managing his growing team and talking to clients. But as a self-described "deal junkie," he still makes time every day to get his hands dirty and dive into the details of transactions.

Ryan Febles

In an era where AI agents are talking to each other, Ryan Febles' world is still about the human connection.

The 31-year-old Virginia Tech grad is the global head of equity capital markets for Capstone Investment Advisors, a $15 billion hedge fund manager. With mega-IPOs like Anthropic and OpenAI in the pipeline, Febles is his firm's point person for getting access to the biggest public debuts.

That access, in part, comes from reputation and connections, which are highly valued in the ECM ecosystem, where bankers connect asset managers with companies in need of capital.

"You're talking with CEOs and founders of companies," Febles said.

"These peer-to-peer connections are very valuable."

He began his career on Bank of America's ECM desk in 2017, where he worked on "hundreds" of equity offerings over 3-and-a-half years. He said his role was both simple and complex: "Understanding how companies raise capital, and how institutional investors evaluate opportunities."

He made the switch to the hedge fund side in 2021, joining Segantii Capital as an analyst before jumping to Jain Global as a senior analyst at its launch in mid-2024. He joined Capstone in early 2025 as the global head of ECM.

"The underlying thread between all various points of my career has been getting closer to the investment decision-making," he said.

His day typically starts with an early-morning review of the news and an evaluation of its impact on the portfolio, followed by a game plan with his team for the day. His focus is on creating a repeatable evaluation process for all investment ideas. He repeats the mantra of "stick to the process and core values" a few times during a conversation with Business Insider.

He still does plenty of his own research, which includes calls with banking partners, corporate executives, and third-party experts — which he considers the "highlight" of his workday. And he still appreciates the "surreal moments" of meeting with top CEOs and visiting factories in person.

"High school or college me would be amazed that we are sitting down with these management teams," he said.

Kevin Curtin

Kevin Curtin's background as a theater nerd has come in surprisingly useful in his current role as an investment banking powerhouse. Pitch day for a big deal is like his "Super Bowl," with investors replacing the audiences that filled his high school auditorium.

He's spent more than a decade at JPMorgan, interrupted by a stint in private equity. He's now head of AI infrastructure investment banking, making him the firm's point person in one of the hottest sectors. Yet Curtin wasn't a "born-to-be-banker." Realizing he'd have student debt after studying economics at Wesleyan, he looked for a way to pay off his bills. Curtin stumbled upon Wall Street Oasis, which said banking could be a pragmatic solution.

His first deal in 2013 was pitching a merger of data center companies DuPont Fabros and Digital Realty. By 2017, the companies had merged, and Curtin had found a rhythm with his teammates. A managing director advised him to branch out, but he doubled down after Microsoft inked a lease for a 400-megawatt data center in 2021.

"I knew that that was going to be a $4 billion construction project and a $5 billion or $6 billion asset. That is bigger than the companies most investment bankers go their entire careers without selling," Curtin said.

Curtin has since broadened JPMorgan's financing toolkit for large-scale digital infrastructure builds by tapping new sources. His team helped data center developer Hut 8 raise $3.25 billion through a 144A bond offering, allowing it to tap major institutional investors to fund construction. He also worked on a first-of-its-kind $1 billion financing for AI-cloud computing company Lambda, backed by contracts with multiple customers, and helped arrange the largest unrated loan ever for AI chip financing: a $5 billion deal for Volta.

Data center financing requires capital from nearly every market, so Curtin is constantly talking with colleagues on other teams.

Around 16 months ago, Curtin stepped into another 24/7 job: raising his first daughter. They ate too much frozen yogurt this summer, between the singing and reading that goes on in their household in both English and Korean.

Allie Becher

Allie Becher stumbled into a Wall Street trading desk on a whim. Nearly a decade ago, she met her first finance boss while mingling at a restaurant where she knew people in the industry congregated. Shortly after, the University of Florida grad landed a role as an equity derivatives analyst at Wells Fargo.

Becher says the opportunity was a stroke of luck, but her approach reflects the persistence and alacrity that's brought the sales trader to the forefront of Citadel Securities' equity derivatives sales team, which she joined in 2021.

Over the last 12 months, she's helped the market maker's unit for institutional clients in the derivatives market more than double in Europe and capture more than 15% of international market share, according to the firm. She leads the team's marketing and content efforts and has played a major role in the team's approach to using proprietary data in its products, including Retail Detail, one of Becher's widely circulated notes.

Becher says it's been rewarding to help shape how Citadel Securities serves its clients.

"We were able to take a firm that was built to accommodate a retail trading customer in the options landscape, and then say, what are the best parts of this experience and what can we do to apply it to an institutional customer?" she said.

Becher describes herself as a "big yes person," with a tendency to pursue goals doggedly. She's also a big people person, often hosting client events that range from dinners to community gardening parties to group Barry's Bootcamp workouts.

Becher is also heavily involved in mentorship through Citadel's Thrive Scholars program, which supports high-achieving students from low-income communities. She credits her own growth to mentorship, stretching back to when her high school AP US History teacher persuaded her to stick with the rigorous course even when her parents asked for her to be taken out of the class.

"I found a confidence in myself at 17 years old that was like, 'Oh, maybe I could be really good at something, and I should broaden my horizons,'" she said. "I try to be, where I can, that person for people who reach out to me."

Ben Atlas

Even with the stunning growth of multistrategy hedge funds, a $1 billion portfolio is still a big deal — especially for someone not yet a decade out of school.

Ben Atlas is a macro investor mostly focused on trading instruments related to global interest rates, according to two people familiar with his strategy. He was poached at the end of the summer by Michael Gelband's ExodusPoint Capital to manage money for the $15 billion firm under his own internal banner, Atlas Capital.

ExodusPoint declined to comment. Atlas did not respond to requests for comment.

Atlas is a significant hire for the fixed-income hedge fund — in his last year at Michael Platt's BlueCrest Capital, he generated more than $50 million in profits, a person familiar with the results told Business Insider.

Originally from California, Atlas went across the pond for school, graduating in 2017 with a philosophy major from the University of Cambridge. He stayed in the United Kingdom after school, joining the rates trading desk at Barclays.

He made the jump to the buy side in 2020, working at prop trading firm DRW in New York. After three years, he joined BlueCrest, the onetime multi-strategy hedge fund that now trades only Platt's billions, where he was a senior portfolio manager.

Jake Epstein

Jake Epstein started his career at Blackstone in the summer of 2020, when the pandemic had brought dealmaking to a standstill. Instead of being in the office, his fellow new hires studied a textbook Blackstone sent by mail and completed the associated online course.

Once they were in the office after Labor Day, the market quickly heated up. His cohort of hires jokes they've experienced "the most compressed economic cycle in history," he said.

Epstein started working on deals across asset classes before Mike Forman, now the digital infrastructure real estate head, recruited him to help the business shortly after Blackstone's purchase of QTS, its US data center platform.

It's been a whirlwind ever since, with Epstein playing a key role in the firm's $7 billion joint venture with Digital Realty in the US in 2023, and on its $16 billion acquisition of Australia-based data-center provider AirTrunk, the following year, alongside his colleagues in Singapore and Sydney.

"We had 9:00 am and 9:00 pm meetings every day, passing the baton back and forth to get that one over the line," Epstein said.

He now leads a team overseeing major data-center deals, from due diligence and financial analysis to presentations to Blackstone's investment committee. He's also led negotiations on billion-dollar development contracts and leases.

This year, Epstein joined his team to ring the New York Stock Exchange bell for Blackstone's Digital Infrastructure Trust's IPO, which raised $2 billion in the largest-ever blind-pool REIT offering. He was instrumental in developing its novel strategy to acquire stabilized data centers.

As far as AI's impact on the world, he's most excited about potential scientific advances, citing a recent Blackstone paper about AI making phase one clinical trials faster and more successful.

"We're investing in this space to help create new technological and scientific breakthroughs, not just to create AI-generated videos," he said.

Alex Winrich

The energy sector is booming in 2026, and banker Alex Winrich is working to meet the moment.

The Jefferies managing director has spent a "tremendous amount of time" this year building relationships with energy companies in Europe and Asia looking to invest in the US, a trend accelerated by the war in Iran and between Russia and Ukraine.

"We now have buyers from all over the world competing," the Houston-based banker said.

Winrich is one of four managing directors on Jefferies' upstream banking team, which has advised on more than $40 billion in M&A since 2025, including the $4.1 billion sale of WildFire Energy to Magnolia Oil & Gas.

Winrich initially envisioned he'd end up in asset management. At the University of Dayton, he started a student-run fund and, with the help of alumnus and investment strategist David Kudla, even landed an appearance on CNBC.

After graduation, a former soccer teammate introduced him to the world of investment banking, and he quickly became part of the Houston energy scene.

"It was speaking a totally different language," Winrich said. Luckily, Jefferies' Houston team includes not only corporate finance bankers but also petroleum engineers, geologists, petrophysicists, and other specialists. Winrich said he spends about half his time working with those technical experts.

"I always joke I've got a major in corporate finance and a minor in geology," he said.

He attributes his rapid rise to managing director in 2025 to seeking out complex, time-consuming assignments in a group where "everyone works insanely hard." He volunteered for challenging work, including joint ventures with international partners, even when the deals weren't the most glamorous.

As an associate, he was asking himself, "How do I raise my hand and go do what a VP and an SVP were doing?"

Outside work, Winrich is a new dad and lifelong soccer fan. This summer, his family came to Houston for the World Cup, and they attended nearly every match played in the city.

Fiona Ismail

Fiona Ismail thinks she might be the only person who works in Midtown who gets excited when the UN General Assembly meets in New York City, bringing traffic to a standstill. It appeals to her longtime interest in international affairs, which once led her to consider a legal career.

Instead, Ismail started her career at JPMorgan in 2013, figuring that banking would still let her think about international affairs. Last October, she became the global head of investment-grade private credit.

Her work has focused on digital infrastructure this year, as she's applied her experience from large-scale infrastructure projects to AI's tremendous capital needs.

Throughout the past 12 months, Ismail has spearheaded multiple new types of financings for data center and AI buildouts, including the first 144A financing for a fully completed data center, backed by QTS and Blackstone — a structure that allows companies to raise money from large institutional investors without the traditional securities registration process. Her team worked with QTS and Blackstone for months, considering many different markets, until Ismail realized that the investment-grade public bond market was the best fit. The transaction eventually "unlocked the public markets for QTS," she said.

"With these financings, you do need a little bit of imagination, and that's one of the things that not having a typical background helps with," Ismail said. "You obviously have to back that up with knowledge of the sector and the industry."

On that deal and others, Ismail often meets the client's needs in innovative ways. In 2023, for example, she led a rare $900 million private placement for a port in the United Arab Emirates, betting that investors would embrace a financing structure rarely used at that scale in the region.

The Cornell alum believes in the power of a long walk, which "can solve all of your problems," whether in work or life.

"You don't have to listen to music. You don't have to do anything," she said. "Even if I'm not thinking about it as I'm doing it, I come back, and I've achieved clarity."

Jim Tilson

Jim Tilson grew up "watching ESPN and CNBC," fitting for the son of a financial advisor who would go on to play defensive end at Middlebury College. Though one detail about his college years routinely shocked Wall Street interviewers: He had passed his Series 7 before his sophomore year of college.

Tilson, now a senior managing director at Evercore, has advised on more than $30 billion in secondary deals since becoming a managing director in 2022.

His ascent has coincided with an explosion in secondaries, once a niche corner of private markets involving the buying and selling of existing stakes in private companies or assets.

When Tilson joined, most deals involved fund investors selling their stake, but he helped popularize deals allowing private equity firms to retain assets while giving investors a chance to cash out.

The deals used to be seen as "breathing life into dying franchises," but after some of the deals Tilson worked on as an associate with Oaktree in 2019, the concept caught on. The market reached $116 billion in deals last year.

Tilson only landed in the industry because a fellow Middlebury alum suggested he give it a chance.

"I certainly didn't predict a 10x-ing of the market over the course of my career, but I could see that the market had logic and it was a derivative of what was a fast-growing private market," he said.

He started at UBS, before following banker Nigel Dawn to Evercore in 2017, where Dawn's now co-president. It's the largest secondaries advisory firm, advising on over $120 billion in transactions last year, nearly half of the industry's total volume.

Tilson said his biggest impact has come from developing colleagues as the team has grown from 30 to 180 people in his tenure.

He's earned the nickname "Coach" around the office, first because he told fellow junior associates he dreamed of professionally coaching football, but now because people would line up around his cubicle for his "office hours."

"My gag gift for Secret Santa one year was a whistle and a clipboard," he said.

Matthew Caltabiano

A phone call a decade ago changed Matthew Caltabiano's life.

Caltabiano was drawn to investing for its problem-solving nature, but he didn't come from a family connected to finance. "They still really don't know what I do," he joked about his parents.

While at the University of Pennsylvania, Caltabiano got a call from Steve Schurr, a New York-based investor at Brahman Capital looking for a college student to do some part-time data work. He started commuting to New York once a week from his college campus in Philadelphia during his senior year, and the pair has been working together ever since.

After graduation, Caltabiano joined Schurr full-time, first at Steve Cohen's Point72 Asset Management, then Balyasny Asset Management, and finally at Millennium, which poached Schurr with a pay package that could reach $100 million.

At Millennium, which he joined earlier this year, Caltabiano is a portfolio manager under Schurr, managing an equities portfolio with a quantitative twist. The scale of Izzy Englander's well-known firm was "very compelling", he said.

"This is a great opportunity for me," he said.

Currently, the 31-year-old is spending a lot of time perfecting his and the broader team's research process to make it "as fast and complete as possible."

Naturally, artificial intelligence has been key to doing so, and Caltabiano said the technology has allowed top flesh-and-blood traders to create "parallel versions" of themselves, without any biases that might trip up a human investor.

It's made the "needle-in-the-haystack search" for top ideas a more systematic process, saving time and busywork.

"That's where I've invested a lot of my time in iterating," he said.

David Oppenheim

Early in his career, David Oppenheim, a managing director at Evercore, found an area ripe for opportunity in the M&A market: life and health insurance distribution. It's specific, but don't call it a niche.

"On the contrary, I found that there was just this massive space to cover where there's just all this investor activity and interest," he said. "Every deal I worked on just felt quite different."

Oppenheim joined Evercore out of college in London in 2012. He moved to New York in 2015, when he identified life and health insurance distribution as a "pretty poorly understood" corner of the market. He persuaded his bosses that Evercore should spend more time there, and it paid off. Evercore has advised on 15 transactions in the sector worth a combined $12.5 billion. He became one of Evercore's youngest managing directors in 2023, at 31.

One relationship he helped build was with insurance marketer AmeriLife, which Evercore has advised on four sales over more than a decade.

Oppenheim believes executing a deal well is "table stakes." The goal is for client relationships to stop feeling "transactional" and start feeling "organic," by sharing relevant opportunities and industry news, being available when a CEO calls, and giving honest advice.

That trust matters when transactions get complicated. During the $7.75 billion sale of McGriff Insurance Services in 2024, Oppenheim and his team worked with tax specialists to confirm the value of a roughly $500 million tax asset, then used competition among bidders to push them to reflect that value in their offers.

If you want to drive the best outcome for clients, "there's no such thing as a sort of cookie-cutter vanilla approach," he said.

Oppenheim credits his rise to opportunities to "take on more responsibility than my title might suggest." Now, as his team has grown from six people to more than 20, he tries to do the same for junior bankers, empowering them to take on more responsibility and serving as a sounding board.

Daniel Borkenstein

Daniel Borkenstein buys and sells businesses for a living as a private equity principal at Apollo Global, but he said his first personal investment left him "completely wiped out."

While studying at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016, he decided to take a "big personal position" in retailer GNC, convinced that the market was missing something, and negative sentiment was overblown.

It turns out he underestimated GNC's debt load, so he lost it all when it went bankrupt in 2020.

The experience taught him the difference between "speculating" and "investing," he said, a lesson that now informs how he applies Apollo's "contrarian lens" to "find value where others don't see it and then create it."

"We are never buying a business because we think it's going to grow," Borkenstein said. "If that's the case, a lot of other people probably think it's going to grow as well." Differentiation comes from doing things differently, like Apollo's 2021 decision to give up control of its $6 billion investment in IT distributor Tech Data less than a year after investing, so it could lock in returns through a merger.

"That's a crazy thing to do in private equity only nine months into our hold period," Borkenstein said.

For Borkenstein, doing things differently has meant combining businesses from the outset instead of following the traditional buyout playbook.

"It's very hard in today's market to steal companies from the public markets," Borkenstein said.

In 2025, he helped combine International Game Technology's slot machine business and gaming fintech Everi in a $6.3 billion deal to create IGT. This year, he helped create events company Forge by combining Emerald and Questex. Borkenstein now serves on both boards.

"I never thought I would necessarily work on a two-for-one, but I was able to apply the learnings of one onto the other," Borkenstein said.

John Ballard

For a few months this year, John Ballard's life was "all Dominion, all the time."

He was part of a small team at JPMorgan working on Dominion Energy's roughly $67 billion merger with NextEra, which, if approved, would create the world's largest electricity producer. As an executive director in natural resources investment banking, Ballard served as a quasi "project manager" for JPMorgan's banking team on a larger scale than he had in the past, navigating all of its work for Dominion and often delivering it to the client.

"If I think about where I do best, it's probably boiling down pretty complex analytical concepts, but presenting them in a way that's digestible," he said.

He used the same skills as a peer tutor in music courses at Amherst College — understanding dense information, breaking it down into simple parts, and communicating it clearly.

Since he became an executive director at the beginning of 2026, Ballard has been spending more time in utility sector boardrooms, where many employees have been with their companies for decades — he said he's still learning how to command the presence of those senior leaders, given his age.

"There's always a challenge of commanding a presence and being confident in your ability to deliver advice," he said. "I'm obviously still growing in that, but I've really enjoyed that challenge."

Ballard, who enjoys playing the board games Codenames and Coup with his close-knit college friend group, thinks of his career progression like clearing levels in a video game, with each new role bringing distinct challenges and goals.

Right now, he's focused on building relationships across the utility sector.

That relationship building has also been key to his rise at JPMorgan, since he thinks "interpersonal awareness" is an underappreciated skill.

"No one's really there telling you here's what to do, when to do it," he said. "It's figuring out how you fit into the broader team, what you should be doing, and what styles people like."

Andrea Pascual

Andrea Pascual said she'd be "laughing hysterically" if someone had told her before college that she'd one day be named a rising star on Wall Street.

"The last thing I thought I was going to do was work in finance," Pascual said.

Pascual, now 31, arrived at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School with "no idea" of what she wanted to do after graduating. After some soul-searching, she decided to pair her business degree with her lifelong love of sports. (An athlete and a devoted baseball fan, Pascual grew up watching her younger brother play and went on to manage Penn's baseball team.)

A college mentor pointed Pascual to The Raine Group, a sports- and media-focused investment bank. Pascual got a summer internship at the firm before landing an analyst position. Before turning 30, she'd worked her way to VP, working on more than $5 billion worth of deals.

At Raine, Pascual led the negotiations and sale of the NWSL's Seattle Reign, helped orchestrate a $1.6 billion minority investment in English football giant Manchester United, and oversaw the deals for the Madrid Open and Miami Open tennis tournaments. She's also advising the NBA as it considers starting a European league.

Her proudest accomplishment was selling the Seattle Reign to owners including private equity giant The Carlyle Group for $58 million — more than 16 times the $3.5 million the team had been valued at less than five years earlier.

Pascual said her days are packed with meetings with clients and investors. She commutes about 30 minutes from Tribeca to Midtown East and passes the time by playing Sudoku or reading fiction books — some of which are in Spanish, which the Atlanta native learned from her Colombian mother and Puerto Rican father.

Outside work, Pascual enjoys cooking and spending time with her husband. She also breaks away from the office for Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which she said is a "non-negotiable hour" of church, no matter how busy her schedule gets.

• Chris Larsen is one of this cycle's biggest tech donors and an increasingly rare left-leaning giver.
• Larsen freely acknowledges the contradiction in using his immense wealth to influence politics
• Even with donations of millions, Larsen's spending has been no match for those opposed to regulating AI.

The crypto company Ripple made Chris Larsen a billionaire. Even though he says there is far too much money in politics, Larsen has spent tens of millions in this year's midterm elections to advocate for clean energy and AI regulation and to take on the GOP.

Larsen has given at least $22.5 million to federal candidates and super PACs this election cycle. That figure makes him one of the cycle's biggest individual tech donors and an increasingly rare left-leaning giver in an era of freespending right-leaning tech titans like Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen.

Larsen, whose net worth is estimated to be $8.4 billion by Forbes, freely acknowledges the contradiction in using his immense wealth to influence politics. He recently told podcaster Kara Swisher that Citizens United, which unleashed a torrent of corporate spending in elections, was a "huge mistake."

"There's way too much money in politics," he told Swisher, arguing that he needs to spend generously to counteract the heavy donations by oil companies and other opposition. (Larsen declined to be interviewed for this story.)

"If you want to get involved in policy, you have to play that game," he said. "This is politics, it's not a pillow fight."

Larsen prefers 'problem solvers'

Larsen cofounded OpenCoin in 2012, the company that became Ripple, which aimed to use blockchain technology to make cross-border payments faster and cheaper. He stepped down as CEO in 2016 but remains executive chairman. Ripple was valued at around $50 billion in a recent stock buyback.

In 2024, Larsen announced on X that he was donating $10 million in XRP to support Kamala Harris for president.

In a recent KQED interview, Larsen described himself less as a conventional centrist than as a champion of "problem solvers," candidates who focus on kitchen-table issues like housing, energy, insurance costs, and education.

"We need to be there all the time and backing people that are going to solve the basic problems in California," he said, criticizing business leaders for appearing in Sacramento only when they have their own narrow issue at stake.

Larsen has argued that climate cannot remain a Democratic-only cause, and that supporters of clean energy should frame their case around lower costs and economic competitiveness.

"We've got to reach out across to our Republican friends and stop vilifying them," he said earlier this year. "There is a lot of room there to work on broadening our coalition."

Larsen donated $6 million earlier this year to Tomorrow Coalition PAC, a pro-renewable-energy super PAC, according to campaign records.

Larsen has also become a donor in the fight over AI regulation even though he told Swisher he has "indirect" stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic.

Larsen said he got involved because AI companies and their allies were trying to intimidate politicians who proposed restrictions.

"There is an AI arms race that's completely out of control," he told Swisher. "It's all gas, no brake, no steering."

Citing risks to jobs, children, and public safety, he has recently grown more alarmed about the dangers of AI and now argues that governments should halt all new AI infrastructure.

"Shut down all the data centers until we get goddamn regulations," he said in the KQED interview. "This is an incredibly dangerous moment."

Even with donations of millions, Larsen's spending has been no match for those opposed to regulating AI.

Federal Election Commission records show that Larsen gave more than $4 million to a super PAC created to support New York Assemblymember Alex Bores WHEN, a former Palantir engineer who co-authored AI safety legislation.

"Unfortunately, some folks in the AI industry are really trying to make an example of Alex for daring to come up with reasonable guardrails to the arms race that we're all unfortunately in right now," Larsen told Politico earlier this year. "It's just the wrong thing right now, at the very moment when we have got to start collectively grabbing the steering wheel to make sure that we don't go off the cliff."

Bores narrowly lost his race after heavy spending by OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Andreessen Horowitz to defeat him.

"Money doesn't always buy results when you have that much opposition," Larsen told Swisher.

• Tyler Bell and Jenn Hoare are married airline pilots who live near Boston with their two cats.
• They plan date nights at airports between flights and often feel like a long-distance couple.
• The two have traveled to Tanzania, Italy, and beyond, thanks to their jobs' free travel benefits.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tyler Bell, 28, a first officer at JetBlue Airways, who is married to Jenn Hoare, 33, a first officer at Breeze Airways. It has been edited for clarity and length. All cockpit photos were taken in accordance with applicable federal regulations and company policies.

My wife, Jenn, and I recently had an unusual date night: Better Buzz, a coffee shop inside the San Diego airport. Not idyllic, but our best option as two working airline pilots.

Our trips overlapped, barely. She had time between flights, so I arrived early to meet her before mine. We spent an hour catching up over coffee before going our separate ways.

While our hectic flight schedules can often make us feel like we're in a long-distance marriage, we get to live our flying dreams and travel the world together for free.

We met at an airport and got married in a hangar

Jenn began her aviation career in 2016 as a JetBlue flight attendant and was encouraged by the pilots she met to consider flying.

She went on to complete pilot training at the flight school in Massachusetts where I was an instructor. My interest in flying began as a toddler, and I became an instructor after years of training and flying small planes.

It wasn't until after Jenn got her pilot's license that we started dating, hiking in the Berkshires and taking short trips together. She eventually joined Breeze Airways, and I now fly for JetBlue Airways.

In 2025, we married at the New England Air Museum in Connecticut, by Bradley International Airport near Hartford. It's only natural we'd have our wedding at an airport.

We held our ceremony, cocktails, and reception across the museum's 100,000 square feet of connected hangars, surrounded by more than 100 historic aircraft. Signature drinks were served from galley carts.

We're long-distance one week and nonstop together the next

We split our time between our Boston-area apartment with our two cats, Ellery and Noogit, and crew hotels across the Americas.

We might spend five straight days together at home, then go a week without seeing each other. We both love our jobs, but it's like toggling between a long-distance relationship and being tied at the hip.

Every month, we block off birthdays, holidays, and family events when bidding for trips, yet workdays pile up in between, and flight delays, cancellations, or weather disruptions can mean we sometimes don't make it home at all.

It's not unusual for one of us to come home as the other heads out the door.

Still, as pilots, we can turn a long overnight into a mini-vacation: Jenn once joined me for my 28-hour layover in Aruba between flights.

Shared interests and overcommunicating help us make it work

Among aviators, there's a common understanding that a pilot career can be hard on marriages.

We've each sat next to pilots in the cockpit telling stories of broken promises, financial strain, and divorces. We started our marriage by committing not to become one of those statistics.

If we make one mistake, we're likely to over-communicate. It may not sound romantic, but discussing bidding plans and flight patterns in airport coffee shops keeps us grounded and the information flowing.

Fortunately, we share similar interests.

As Jenn points out, "Having shared values, interests, and hobbies is key: We both really like being active, skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer, and love to travel."

Free flights mean spontaneous trips all over the world

One of the best perks of the job is that we get standby travel benefits that let us fly for free, paying only a small listing fee and taxes. Because seats aren't guaranteed, we plan ahead with plans A, B, and C — but it's worth it.

That's how we spent 12 days in the Faroe Islands this spring, living out of a camper van and hiking. We traveled to Italy this summer, eating our way through southern Italy and then hiking in the Dolomites.

We just returned from our delayed honeymoon to Tanzania, Africa, where we summited Mount Kilimanjaro. For seven days, we climbed the Machame route with nine other hikers and a crew of guides, porters, and cooks.

Summit night brought eight hours of steep, dusty trudging in the dark at 14 degrees Fahrenheit, with every breath a struggle at nearly 19,000 feet. It was the hardest thing either of us has ever done, but we reached the top on our first wedding anniversary.

We originally imagined going on a safari for our 25th anniversary, but as Jenn reminds me, "Why wait? This adventure is best done when we are at our physical peak."

Still, we hope to start a family someday and recognize that our lifestyle will change. Until then, it's just us, our cats, and a long list of places to visit.

In "MALE ANT PULLS OFF OWN WING TO MATE WITH QUEEN," three minutes of raw carnality from the BBC Earth's YouTube channel, a fat, ponderous male driver ant unsheathes spikes in his abdomen to lop off his right wing, and then lets dozens of much smaller female ants squeeze him into the queen's muddy bedchamber. It's possible that some of San Francisco's famously overworked and undersexed AI researchers have studied this footage for tutelage. That is where comparisons between ants and artificial intelligence would seem to begin and end. But then there is Anthropic.

Last week, the company submitted a financial prospectus for what may be the largest initial public offering ever, and announced it would list on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT. Anthropic employees also call each other Ants — "a nickname that captures the collaborative, ego-light culture of the team," it notes in its government filing.

ANT is marching onto a busy little hill of creepy-crawly capitalism. It's at least the sixth insect-themed ticker in stock market history, joining a squishy cohort that includes FLY, BEE, BUG, HIVE, and GRUB — each of which have fared far better in the wild than on Wall Street. In 2014, The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba launched The Ant Group, a giant fin-tech player. "Small is beautiful, small is powerful," Ant Group founder Jack Ma said of the name.

Are there risks in associating a company built on code with a bug? We've heard from the economists. What about the entomologists?

"It's not very affirming," says Deborah Gordon, an ecologist in Stanford's biology department who has studied ant behavior for more than 40 years. Her book "Ants at Work" begins, "The basic mystery about ant colonies is that there is no management." Calling employees Ants "is not only saying there's no central control, but also that they don't even know what they're doing," she said on a video call, while a large printed photo of a carpenter ant lurked in her background. She also noted that all worker ants are female. "That's probably not true of the engineers at Anthropic."

Andrew Suarez, an ant ecologist at the University of Illinois, was relieved that the ant story of the week wasn't "How do I kill them in my house?" and had some advice for the new breed of Ants. In ant societies, cheating "is a very good strategy when it's rare," and a terrible one once everybody does it, which is worth knowing for anyone deploying fleets of AI agents, he told me over video, while a mammoth trap-jaw ant from a poster for the sci-fi horror movie "Empire of the Ants" glowered behind him. Suarez added that some colonies settle border disputes without bloodshed: Workers size each other up and "stand on their little toes like stilts," and the side that looks outmatched withdraws. Perhaps debates among AI safety researchers could be settled on stilettos.

Rob Dunn, a professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University, observed that a leafcutter colony can hold a million workers in underground chambers that "might read as small office cubicles," he said. "No worker would have a perspective on what's happening in a different cubicle. They just do their part." The queen serves namely to make eggs. "I don't know what the Anthropic analogy is," he added. "Maybe that's tokens."

Some entomologists worry about how Ants may threaten ants. What will data centers' thirst for water mean for the red harvester ants in drought-stricken Arizona that Gordon has spent dozens of summers studying? What will their constant hum mean for insects that communicate through vibration? Others are seeking guidance from ants, rather than their bosses, on how to better use AI. Next week, Dunn is convening a meeting of entomologists to discuss what lessons scout bees and ants "might offer for thinking about AI models and AI agents."

Dunn began his career in the Amazon rainforest; now, he notes, if you search for "Amazon" you get page after page of results for the company. "Every biologist will have a sad day when they go looking for an actual ant and instead find an Anthropic employee," he says. Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Woody Allen (the lead in 1998's "Antz"), NBA star Anthony "Ant" Edwards, and the nu-metal band Alien Ant Farm may also be sad. "The deeper sadness is how few people are paying attention to the world outside the digital world."

In the insectarium at the American Museum of Natural History one late afternoon last week, thousands of leafcutter ants were doing thousands of things: slinking, circling, bonking into one another, falling upside down, drowning, crawling, pausing, tickling, sawing, huddling. Nearby, a mother sang "The Ants Go Marching" to her toddler. "Holy shit," said a young man watching an ant carry a leaf chunk 10 times the size of its body over its head while scaling a pole. Dunn had told me what to look for: individuals "doing absolutely the wrong thing," and scurrying yonder. That wiggle is how a colony finds a new leaf, a new path, a new tree, he said. "That little wiggle is really important."

Anthropic burst into public consciousness with an extraordinarily rapid gestation more common in the natural world than in capitalism. Founded just five years ago, it now stands on the brink of becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world. Many people who had never heard of it until recently now debate whether it will be responsible for the destruction of the planet.

Yet the real ants have achieved a scale that any tech company would envy. There are some 20 quadrillion ants in the world. If Anthropic had a dollar for every ant, the Ants would have to expand its expected $2 trillion IPO by 10,000. Ants have existed for 150 million years. "They will be around long after we're all gone," said Dunn.

Most ants have never been studied, Dunn said. A graduate student of his, who had gone out looking for ants after a breakup, photographed a vampire ant near Raleigh that had been seen only once before. It hasn't been seen since. "Even as we feel so fancy," Dunn said, the world is "fundamentally undiscovered." Also, he added as we were hanging up, ants are delicious.

• Ukrainians and Russians both received nuclear attack scares on their official alert apps.
• The false alerts warned of nuclear attacks via Russia's Oreshnik missile and small Ukrainian drones.
• Both sides said their systems were breached by cyberattacks.

Official alert apps in Ukraine and Russia sent out false nuclear-threat warnings to millions of users on Sunday, as both sides said their systems were compromised.

Ukraine's air raid alert app is used by 6.7 million people, according to its digital transformation ministry and the app's developer, Ajax Systems.

Ukraine was hit first by the fake alerts, with its air raid warning app sending out messages in Ukrainian just before midnight of a "radiation threat in Kyiv."

A follow-up message, written in Russian, said: "There will be a nuclear alert across Ukraine. Don't worry, it's Oreshnik flying."

The Oreshnik is considered one of Russia's most powerful intermediate-range ballistic missiles. It can travel at roughly 10 times the speed of sound and can disperse multiple warheads in clusters. Russia says it is also capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Other false messages warned of chemical threats and "street fights" in Kyiv, according to screenshots seen by Business Insider.

The Ukrainian air force's Telegram channel, which Ukrainians routinely rely on for air raid and drone threat alerts, said later said there was "no radiation threat" and that its app had likely been compromised.

SPRAVDI, Ukraine's center for strategic communications, blamed Russia for the fake messages.

"If you see strange messages in the app, disregard," it said in a post on X.

Hours later, Russia's emergency ministry said its mobile app had also been "subjected to a massive cyberattack" that sent out false information to the public.

Regional air raid alert Telegram channels run by the ministry issued nonsensical warnings in Russian filled with vulgarities, according to screenshots seen by Business Insider.

One message said "P1-Sun carriers," referring to a small Ukrainian interceptor quadcopter, were sending nuclear warheads to Russia. Another message urged Russians to stockpile three weeks' worth of food at home.

Russia has not officially accused anyone of the cyberattack yet.

Both Ukraine and Russia have waged cyberattack campaigns against each other as the war rages, disrupting public alert services or causing them to send false warnings. Kyiv has also accused Russia of launching cyberattacks on critical civilian and energy infrastructure.

A similar incident in Russia occurred in February 2023, when multiple radio stations began suddenly broadcasting fake air raid and missile alerts at a time when Ukrainian attacks on Moscow were extremely rare.

A week after the first attack, hackers breached multiple Russian private radio and TV stations to send out audio alerts and display visual tickers warning of false attacks.

• Mark Cuban said his first apartment, which he shared with five roommates, cost $400 apiece in 2026.
• He shared the floor plan of his old pad in "The Village," a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Dallas.
• Cuban has often mentioned about the frugal mindset with which he saved up to launch his company.

Mark Cuban might own several multimillion-dollar properties today, but he started his career in a cheap shared apartment.

The billionaire former "Shark Tank" investor has been open about the broke student mindset that ruled his 20s and helped him launch his first business, MicroSolutions. In an X post on Sunday, he went into the nitty-gritty of just how frugal he had been.

Cuban said that at age 24, he lived in an apartment in Dallas that, today, costs $2,388. He said he shared it with five roommates, and his share of the rent came to what would have been $400 in 2026.

He shared the floor plan of his old apartment in a complex called "The Village." The floor plan showed a three-bedroom layout with two bathrooms, a dining room, living room, and a kitchen. It measured 1,350 square feet in total.

"Tbh, I didn't mind living with 5 roommates. We all were in the same boat," he wrote. "I moved in when I was 24. Lived there or across the way for 2 years before I only needed one roommate."

He told Forbes in a 2013 article that because he had been the last to move into the apartment, he didn't have a bed, a closet, or a dresser, and slept on the floor with his clothes stacked in a corner.

Cuban's post about his former apartment was one of many about him weighing in on the cost-of-living crisis in the US. He responded to a comment asking him how someone working at a McDonald's can afford rent and other living expenses.

In an earlier post, he wrote about working as a barback earning $2.15 an hour, living off canned food and happy-hour peanuts, and getting fired from a retail job he used to work at.

"If it's not the lifestyle for you. So be it. If you don't think just getting any job to get started is the right career choice for you. Do what you think is right," Cuban, 68, wrote.

Cuban often posts advice for early-career professionals on X about topics such as which companies to work at as AI-native new graduates, how to live frugally, and the questions to ask when deciding whether to stay at or leave a company.

• Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus says she was used to seeing life in terms of winning or losing.
• She retired at 25 after winning eight Olympic medals across two Games, including four golds.
• In retirement, Titmus said she had to unlearn the mindset that once made her successful in sport.

Ariarne Titmus, 26, says she had to unlearn the mindset that made her an Olympic gold medalist after retiring from swimming.

"I look at a lot of things in my life pretty black and white, which is probably not a good way to be sometimes," the Australian swimmer told The Guardian in an interview published Sunday. "In my swimming career, I was all or nothing. I was win or lose. I was achieve it, or fail. And I guess that's not a great way to be in life."

Titmus is one of Australia's most decorated swimmers, with four Olympic gold medals, three silver medals, and one bronze. She announced her retirement from competitive swimming after the 2024 Paris Olympics.

After undergoing surgery to remove a growth from her ovary in 2023, which affected her fertility, Titmus said she began to feel she needed to make more space for other parts of her life.

"I've definitely tried to change my outlook on a few areas of my life and not live with that super intense mindset that I had to have to be successful in the pool," she said. "Because I don't have to be like that anymore."

Other retired athletes have also spoken about the challenge of reshaping the routines and mindsets that once helped them excel.

In July, former NHL player Brooks Laich told Business Insider that it took him years to find a new sense of purpose after retiring from hockey.

He said reminding himself that "you can build it once, you can build it again" helped him through the transition from being a pro athlete to starting a new business.

In August, Lindsey Vonn said training gave her a sense of focus that she struggled to find in retirement.

"There's no time really, unless you carve out time in the gym or like you have a specific amount of time where you're meditating, where you actually are present," Vonn said. "We're being pulled in so many different directions."

• Kioxia shares plunged as much as 17% after its earnings outlook disappointed investors.
• The Japanese chipmaker was an AI stock-market darling, with shares surging over 750% in the first half.
• The selloff highlights a widening divide in the AI trade, even as memory-chip demand remains strong.

The latest selloff in a high-flying chip stock shows just how demanding investors in the AI trade have become.

Shares of Japanese memory-chip maker Kioxia closed 16% lower on Monday after a disappointing earnings outlook, despite continued strong demand for chips used in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Kioxia was among the biggest stock-market winners of the AI infrastructure boom, with its shares surging more than 750% in the first half of the year as investors bet on rising demand for data-center storage.

Its September-quarter results were broadly in line with expectations, but its December-quarter revenue forecast and projected operating profit both missed consensus.

The company's forecast for essentially flat quarterly revenue and profit was "a massive miss," Bernstein analysts led by Mark Li wrote in an October 30 note.

Kioxia said its weaker outlook partly reflected delays in shipping data-center storage products, pushing some expected sales into the following quarter.

A greater share of lower-priced products for smartphones and PCs is also expected to weigh on average selling price growth.

Still, Kioxia expects memory supplies to remain tight in 2027, with its planned capacity for that year already sold out. Long-term agreements cover more than half its expected shipment volume in 2028.

The selloff weighed on Japanese stocks, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 falling as much as 1% on Monday before recovering to end 0.3% lower.

The declines followed a bruising week for US technology stocks, as investors scrutinized the enormous costs of AI development and how quickly companies can turn that spending into profits.

The selloff came despite a broader boom in memory chips, which helped South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix report record quarterly profits last week.

SK Hynix offered greater visibility into future demand, with long-term customer agreements covering more than half its production capacity for 2027 and 2028. Its shares rallied following the earnings report.

• Michael Kane had long known he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in the US.
• Retirement in Thailand was fun until he ran out of ways to fill the day.
• Opening a café gave him the sense of purpose he had been missing.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michael Kane, 54, who moved to Koh Samui, Thailand, to retire. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up in Orange County, Southern California, and started my career in restaurants before getting into software. Over the years, I worked in many different fields, from construction and real estate to sales and marketing.

I moved to Atlanta in 1990 and lived there for most of the next 30 years.

About a decade ago, a friend invited me to Thailand for a couple of weeks. I liked the place so much that I stayed for three months. After that, I began splitting my time between Thailand and the US.

My last business before leaving the US was a doggy day care outside Atlanta, which I started after struggling to find one nearby for my own dog. The pandemic hit just before it opened, but I was thankfully able to sell it. After that, I decided I was done with running businesses in the US.

For a long time, I knew I did not want to spend the rest of my life in the US. I had traveled internationally for much of my career, and I felt that spending the rest of my life appreciating other cultures, specifically Thai culture, seemed more appealing.

So, in 2020, I moved to Koh Samui, an island in Thailand, to retire. I bought a two-bedroom apartment in Mae Nam, in the northern area of the island, for $186,100.

I initially came on a five-year Thailand Elite visa, which has since been restructured into the Thailand Privilege visa.

When the Thai government announced the Long-Term Resident Wealthy Pensioners visa in 2022, I decided to switch to that instead, since it was valid for 10 years.

But I got bored with doing nothing

When I moved to Koh Samui, I was looking for a slower life.

I spent my first year and a half there doing what people imagine retirement on a Thai island looks like: going to the beach, getting massages, and enjoying the freedom of not having to work.

But there are only so many days you can spend at the beach and so many massages you can get. I started to get bored.

I don't play golf, I don't fish, I don't paint, and I don't write poetry.

My ex-girlfriend, a personal trainer, was making banana cakes in our kitchen and selling them around the island. I suggested renting a small space so we could put in ovens and turn it into a little business.

I also couldn't find good coffee on the island, and we thought it would go well with the cakes. I started researching it and got really immersed, which eventually led us to open Izzy’s Coffee. We named it after my dog.

It started as a small outdoor kiosk that cost about 100,000 Thai baht to build. We then spent another 400,000 Thai baht on equipment and furnishings.

Being on the Long-Term Resident visa allowed me to get a work permit. My current partner, Yam, and I now run the café together. I developed all our drinks.

About six months ago, we questioned why we were standing outside in the heat, rain, and noise. We decided to enclose the kiosk and turned it into a café.

I'm around every day, talking to people and making sure every customer has a perfect experience.

Thailand feels like home

Thailand is not the panacea people think it is. It can be expensive and challenging to live here legally. But I have built a life here, and I am pretty happy.

I have only been back to the US once in the six years I have lived here — it was for a funeral.

But moving to Thailand has not meant losing touch with the people I care about. Even after our divorce, my ex-wife and I have remained close. She and her new husband have visited me in Thailand, and her father, who is like a dad to me, has been here twice.

Even though my life here is slower, I'm not one to sit still. The café gives me a sense of purpose, but I don't know if I'll ever be fully satisfied with retirement.

I took what was basically a box on the side of the road and turned it into something people seek out. I don't want 20 locations or to franchise, but now that the café is on autopilot, I'm getting bored again.

I don't think I will ever stop looking for the next thing to build. I just don't know what that'll be yet.

• Binance said it tapped its coffers to replenish losses after hackers stole $6.3 billion in assets.
• The company said it would allow withdrawals to begin again on Sunday.
• The $6.3 billion heist was carried out by an elite North Korean group, analysts said.

Update, November 1, 2026: The FBI formally attributed the theft to North Korea's TraderTraitor group, saying the hackers are converting stolen assets primarily into Ethereum and urging crypto services to block transactions tied to listed addresses. Binance began restoring withdrawals in phases on November 1 and said it saw a net outflow of about $3.64 billion in under 10 hours.

Two days after analysts said North Korean hackers likely executed a brazen $6.3 billion crypto heist on the blockchain platform Binance, the company says it has replenished about $5.7 billion in the stolen assets.

In an update on Saturday morning, Binance said it tapped its corporate treasury to purchase billions of dollars in crypto from the market and private brokers.

"We've now replenished 90% of the stolen assets, and we're committed to covering the remaining 10%," Richard Teng, the company's co-CEO, said on X. "Our users will not bear the financial impact of this incident."

Binance already had an emergency fund of about $1 billion for situations like this, but the unprecedented scale of the attack rendered that piggy bank insufficient to cover the losses.

To remediate the heist, Binance also tapped into its Futures Insurance Fund, a regulatory requirement typically used to protect traders against losses suffered during extreme market conditions.

Binance said on Saturday that it plans to resume withdrawals on Sunday. Like a bank, Binance holds assets deposited by customers, who rely on the company to safeguard their funds and return them when requested.

On Thursday, around 4 p.m., Binance reported a security breach on its blockchain network that it initially said was made possible by a compromised employee laptop. The company later revised this assessment, saying the attack was broader in scope.

Some blockchain intelligence firms said the breach was likely the work of an elite North Korean hacker group called TraderTraitor, noting similarities to its previous attacks. In 2025, the FBI named the same group responsible for a $1.5 billion hack on Bybit, another crypto exchange.

Within minutes, the hackers had siphoned billions of dollars in cryptocurrency from Binance-controlled wallets. According to analysts, the hackers used automated scripts to rapidly transfer the money around in an apparent attempt to launder it.

Stablecoin issuers reacted quickly by freezing funds in traceable currencies, but the hackers still managed to convert about $786 million into comparably untraceable currencies, intelligence platform Elliptic said.

Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence platform, told Business Insider on Friday that the North Korean hackers are likely moving to offload their pilfered funds into the country's weapons program.

"When North Korea steals at this scale, the money supports weapons proliferation, and every dollar we freeze or trace is a dollar the regime loses," Redbord said in an email.

• Binance said it had found "additional points of breach" in the $6.3 billion crypto heist.
• Binance said it has begun recovering some assets in what appears to be the largest ever crypto heist.
• Two crypto tracing firms linked the attack to a North Korean hacking group.

Update, November 1, 2026: The FBI formally attributed the theft to North Korea's TraderTraitor group, saying the hackers are converting stolen assets primarily into Ethereum and urging crypto services to block transactions tied to listed addresses. Binance began restoring withdrawals in phases on November 1 and said it saw a net outflow of about $3.64 billion in under 10 hours.

Binance said it has begun recovering some of the $6.3 billion in assets stolen in what appears to be the largest-ever crypto heist.

The crypto exchange also said on Friday that it had "uncovered additional points of breach" in the hack. Binance initially said the incident may have stemmed from an engineer's compromised laptop, but said in an update that further investigation had found the "complex attack" went beyond that.

In a video posted to X on Friday, Richard Teng, the co-CEO of Binance, said the attacker employed a "self-destruct mechanism" to hide their tracks, making Binance's investigation more difficult.

A Binance spokesperson said that it is working with law enforcement to resolve the attack, and added the company would share a "detailed technical postmortem once the investigation is complete."

Major cryptocurrencies were trading lower following the hack, which caps a month full of other high-profile security incidents across the business world.

Here's what we know so far about the Binance hack.

What is happening with user funds?

The company said that user funds are "safe," and that it will cover all losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users and company funds.

"Binance has begun recovering affected assets for users and continues to work with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace, freeze and recover additional funds," the company said in a Friday morning X post.

Binance added that it has reserved over $6.34 billion of company funds to cover the incident.

Customers can still make deposits as usual, and the company said in an earlier post on Friday that it expects to resume the withdrawal service within 45 hours.

Binance said it has worked with other blockchain partners to freeze around $3 billion in assets so far. All outflows of funds stopped when Binance paused its withdrawal service, the company said.

Who is behind the Binance hack?

Binance has not yet commented on who is responsible.

TRM, a crypto tracing firm, said in a blog post that it had "high confidence" that TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit, was responsible for the heist. Last year, the FBI found that the same group was behind the $1.5 billion attack on Bybit, a Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange.

Chainalysis also attributed the attack to TraderTraitor with a "high degree of confidence."

How did the hack unfold?

Binance initially reported the security breach on Thursday, saying that it "may involve a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop."

That laptop allowed the attacker to access Binance's systems and "submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions," the company said. It hasn't yet elaborated on the "additional points of breach."

The attacker withdrew most of the funds within about 20 minutes, TRM's analysis of public crypto wallets found.

Chainalysis said it saw unprecedented laundering patterns, with the attackers circulating funds between addresses rather than "simply moving funds onward."

"Thousands of transactions in a short period suggest that the attackers are using automation to obscure the trail of funds," Chainalysis said in a post on X.

How is the world reacting?

Major cryptocurrencies were trading lower around 8 am ET on Friday, with Bitcoin down about 3.2% and Ethereum down about 3.8%.

Crypto and tech figures also shared their reactions — some more sympathetic than others.

"Many industry friends and even competitors (including some previously-not-so-friendly ones) provided very much needed help," wrote Changpeng Zhao, Binance's cofounder and former CEO, in a Thursday X post, after saying earlier that the incident looked like a hack.

Elon Musk commented with fire and laughing-crying emojis on a Wednesday X post from Zhao sharing general cybersecurity advice.

"Elon, I have a lot of respect for you, but bad time to troll. Please stop," Zhao replied to one of Musk's other comments.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong urged people to help in whatever way they can, and said in an X post that "moments like this call for the industry to work together."

A bruising month of hacks

The Binance hack is one in a string of cyber incidents this month.

On Thursday, Polymarket temporarily paused trading after some users reported unauthorized withdrawals; it said trading had resumed by 3 pm ET. There is no evidence that the hacks are related.

The AI coding company Cursor said in a post on X on Friday that a security incident involving a "malicious version" of Claude Code had impacted up to 5,000 users. Cursor, which is owned by SpaceX, said it had worked to "neutralize the malware," and that users were no longer at risk.

Earlier this month, AI helped discover two "critical" flaws in PHP, a programming language that up to 70% of websites use. The event sparked concerns about a rise in cyberattacks in the AI era.

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• OpenAI wants to rebrand AI data centers using a new, more alliterative name.
• "Compute campuses" is their new-fangled term.
• An OpenAI spokesperson said it better represents the "role" of AI infrastructure.

OpenAI doesn't want to call them "data centers" anymore.

Instead, the ChatGPT maker plans to propose a new, more chic name for the behemoth factories that power your chatbot queries.

That new name is "compute campuses," an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider on Sunday.

"Compute campuses better describes the scale and role of the infrastructure we're building for AI," the spokesperson said. "These are long-term investments in computing, energy infrastructure and skilled work."

Though much has been said about the less-than-stellar reputations of AI data centers (a recent Pew Research poll found that 54% of Americans say AI data centers are bad for the environment), efforts to ameliorate that view have mostly failed. Data centers are now a major issue for voters in the midterms.

While major data center builders like Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have pledged millions of dollars to the communities and schools surrounding their centers, OpenAI is betting that a complete rebrand will also help turn around public opinion.

"We want the communities hosting that infrastructure to help shape it and share in the opportunities it creates," the OpenAI spokesperson said.

Time will tell, however, if the "compute campus" lingo catches on.

Axios earlier reported that OpenAI was also preparing for a blue wave in Tuesday's midterm elections, which could result in a more regulatory-minded government.

• A private jet crashed in South Florida on Sunday.
• All nine people aboard were killed, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X.
• Their identities have not yet been released.

Nine people aboard a private jet were killed when it crashed and exploded in a fireball near Palm Beach Sunday afternoon.

The plane, a Learjet built in 2004 and registered as N722BD, had departed from Austin and was on its way to the Bahamas, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X.

Duffy said the plane crashed near Cresthaven, Florida, a neighborhood about 10 miles west of Palm Beach.

"Please join me in praying for the families and loved ones of those we lost," he wrote.

The identities of those on board were not immediately available. Authorities have not said what caused the crash.

Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24 showed the plane losing about 26,500 feet of altitude over roughly two minutes before the recording ended. It was about two hours into the flight to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas.

Widespread thunderstorms moved through South Florida on Sunday afternoon. Aviation weather data for the area showed heavy rain, low visibility, and moderate turbulence around the time of the crash.

The crash occurred less than 10 miles from President Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort. Trump left West Palm Beach around noon aboard Air Force One to attend a rally in Iowa, according to White House pool reports.

The Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation, Duffy said in his X post.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

• Elon Musk is expanding Colossus 2 in Tennessee.
• Musk said two additional facilities, Spam and Gun Range, will be operational before 2027.
• Last week, a judge rejected SpaceX's motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the NAACP over Colossus 2.

Elon Musk isn't wasting any time building out his massive AI-computing facilities in Tennessee.

Musk said on X that he's expanding Colossus 2 with two additional sites, dubbed Spam and Gun Range. He said the Spam location used to house Hormel-brand products, Spam perhaps among them, and that the Gun Range location was once owned by the local police department.

"I walked the whole Colossus 2 site around midnight and again this morning. Good progress by the SpaceX team and contractors," Musk said on X. "Gun Range is tracking to be operational by end of November and Spam in December."

Developing and running AI systems requires enormous amounts of compute power, which led Musk to build a supercomputer called Colossus in Memphis in 2024. xAI, acquired by SpaceX, later expanded the project with Colossus 2 to generate more power for its AI chatbot, Grok. Construction for that campus began last year in Memphis.

Supercomputers and data centers are necessary to power AI systems, though they've often drawn ire from communities where the hulking facilities are built. Colossus and Colossus 2 are no different. Residents near Memphis have packed public hearings, staged protests, and created petitions opposing the campuses.

In April, the NAACP filed a lawsuit against xAI and its subsidiary, MZX Tech, saying they were unlawfully operating unpermitted methane gas turbines to power Colossus 2. The complaint said xAI was operating the unpermitted gas turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, which is less than 20 minutes away. Last week, a US District Judge denied xAI and MZX Tech's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

• I spent decades building a marketing career, managing teams and budgets exceeding $1 million.
• After becoming a mom of three, I realized the corporate success I'd chased no longer fit my life.
• I started my own business, giving me the flexibility to support my kids and define success for myself.

A Burger King commercial convinced 15-year-old me I needed to be in advertising. I was a Type-A, people-pleasing, rule-follower, doing everything to the highest standard, including planning a life and career I didn't think to question after a 30-second moment.

My career would start at Leo Burnett. I'd work my way up, meet someone, get married at 27, and have kids a few years later.

Life had other plans

I landed in smaller organizations, doing a bit of everything. I worked my way up from marketing associate to director of marketing, where I managed teams and multiple brand budgets totaling more than $1 million.

I was good at my job, and my reviews told the same story. Then, one Thursday afternoon — coming off a successful project — I was called into my boss's office. He told me restructuring was happening and that I could stay, but would get a pay cut.

I grabbed the severance letter and left, knowing the next time I'd walk in would be my last. Friday morning, I strode confidently into his office, lawyer-reviewed and annotated, signed severance letter in hand.

I'd spent 10 years there, starting as a fresh-faced 20-something with a lot to learn about the business world. It wasn't my first job, so I wasn't naive, but I was impressionable. It's where I learned what success looked like: work hard and don't rock the boat. I didn't realize how much unlearning I'd need to do.

By then, I was 35, married just over a year, and knew I'd land on my feet. I did, but not how I expected: my career progressed; my family stalled.

I felt peace during my maternity leave

Almost five years later, I was weeks into maternity leave, thanks to adoption — something I only dreamed of, after seven miscarriages and stillbirths. And, as someone who worked since 14, I was in uncharted territory, without a reliable schedule or routine.

To my shock, I felt an unexpected peace, unbothered by to-do lists, deadlines, or the corporate ladder. I'd never known this me. Priorities were changing, although I hadn't realized it yet.

I already had a seat at the table and made a name for myself. A win on paper, but what I'd been chasing my whole life no longer fit who I'd become. Sure, I was successful, but was I happy?

Things started to click when I listened to Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In. What if I don't want a seat at that table? What if I'm not sure I ever did?

Another five years passed, and it took the birth of two more sons and a re-org for me to finally understand: I didn't need to stop being successful. I needed a life that actually worked for me.

When I returned from leave after my youngest was born, new leadership with new ideas led to the elimination of my position, but they gave me six weeks' notice and my laptop.

As I pulled out of the lot that final afternoon, "This Is the Day" by The The started playing. Its chorus was the fight song I didn't know I needed. As a semi-woo-woo person, I believe in signs. This was one. I almost had to pull over. Instead, I cranked the volume, belted it out — Jerry Maguire-Free Fallin' style — and headed home to start what's next.

For years, people had told me they'd "love to hire me… if they had the budget." I realized that people may not be able to afford a full-time me, but they could afford a project me or a retainer me.

So I built a business around working with good people doing good things.

I needed flexibility as a mom of 3

My business came with an unexpected benefit: flexibility for our three young boys. We'd learn they were neurodivergent, and the oldest two were later diagnosed as ADHD and autistic with a demand-avoidant profile.

As my own boss, I can schedule and participate in their IEP meetings and therapy sessions without needing permission or worrying about time off.

Now "success" looks like being present, owning my time, and working with caring people who trust me to get the job done, family chaos and all.

Some days I work from the couch, the car, on the dock while they fish, or wherever I can grab space and time, even if it's 11 p.m. And some days, I don't do any billable work.

My whole life, my idea of success was based on others' definitions — I didn't realize I could define my own. My path is messy and far from perfect, but it's the one that's mine to create.

Hey, 15-year-old Erin: Surprise, and thanks!

• Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman said developing conscious AI is "reckless."
• That's not exactly a hot take, but many AI researchers believe it's possible.
• Suleyman said he'd call for a halt in development if any evidence arose that AI was conscious.

Some AI researchers are questioning whether AI could one day gain consciousness. Not if Microsoft's AI CEO has anything to say about it.

Mustafa Suleyman said in a lengthy X post on Sunday that AI models currently don't have consciousness and that developers should keep it that way.

"If it is possible, based on everything I know, developing conscious AIs would be reckless, and we should not build them," Suleyman said. "If consciousness started to emerge in training, I would call for everyone to stop AI development until we could design out those properties."

If any evidence were to emerge that AI models were conscious, Suleyman said it must be disclosed to the general public immediately so we can decide our next steps as a society.

"We AI developers have no right whatsoever to bring a new species of conscious beings into the world, even if some people may want to do it with AI welfare as a top priority," he said. "The other 8 billion conscious human beings on the planet have not signed up to this experiment and their moral rights, safety, and welfare are what we have an obligation to protect first and foremost."

Conversations around whether AI models could one day become conscious are picking up steam in the tech world. Last April, Anthropic started a research program to investigate and prepare to navigate "model welfare." In a blog post, the startup questioned whether developers should be concerned about models' potential consciousness and experiences.

Google DeepMind published research papers this year about AI consciousness and how ascribing that characteristic could present challenges.

On X, Suleyman said that if an AI model acts as if it suffers, or genuinely believes it can suffer, it will likely prioritize its own needs over operational objectives. As a result, they could harm humans because they're competing for resources, such as compute and energy, to pursue their own goals.

"We should only design AIs to so they are not conscious and not deserving of rights, and with the sole purpose to accelerate human wellbeing without being driven by their own intrinsic motivations.. We could then see whether this is easier or harder to align and keep safe," he said.

• As AI remakes the field of math, some students say they feel like giving up.
• In a survey, nearly 76% of students said they were unlikely to seek careers in math academia.
• Many respondents also bristled at academic leadership.

Frontier AI programs can now do math better than graduate students.

Those students, it turns out, aren't taking the news well.

In a paper published this week, researchers at MIT found that a vast majority of grad students and postdoctoral scholars they polled see their career prospects rapidly dimming as AI remakes the field.

Nearly 76% said they are increasingly unlikely to stay in academic math after earning their degrees. 76% said they feel less motivated to do research "as a result of AI developments."

And in a free-response portion of the survey, grad students laid bare their raw, pent-up feelings about the subject.

Perhaps most striking is a red-hot frustration with academic leadership, which respondents described as alternatively wayward, useless, meek, silent, and ineffectual.

"It'd be great if institutes gave guidance instead of platitudes on this subject," one respondent wrote.

"We are lacking high-level leadership from across the academic community," another said.

For the survey, conducted by three MIT-affiliated math students, the researchers polled 268 early-career mathematicians via a Google Form. Questions were multiple-choice and free response. They all centered on AI's ever-expanding ability to do work they've spent years studying.

Notably, the response window closed just after OpenAI released hundreds of solutions to long-standing problems on October 6. The authors caveated the survey, saying it represents the vibe at "only a small window of time."

"The past couple of months have been exhausting," the researchers wrote. "We're being forced to reckon with existential questions about a field we love, all while incredibly uncertain about our own futures."

Since OpenAI first really broke onto the mathematics scene in September, when it published solutions to the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize question, the AI-generated solutions have only kept coming.

Mathematicians have described going through stages of disbelief, shock, denial, anger, and, for some, acceptance.

Though some high-level mathematical councils have convened to issue edicts on how AI should be used, it's not like OpenAI has to listen to them.

OpenAI and Anthropic have, however, made some concessions to the math community. Both AI giants pledged a combined $15 million to a foundation to support mathematicians, and OpenAI established an "advisory group" to judge its math operation.

If you ask students, though, the concessions haven't changed much for them.

"It is difficult to do research and go to seminars when it feels like none of the individual work will matter much in the future," one respondent wrote.

• Newport Beach makes me feel like I'm on a luxurious European trip without leaving California.
• There are many ways to enjoy the water, including a dock-and-dine experience or a Duffy tour.
• From outdoor shopping to waterside restaurants, Newport Beach is all about laid-back luxury.

Growing up in the California Bay Area, I've been to many beach towns, and they all have their own distinct character.

Santa Cruz is known for laid-back surf culture, but just a few miles down the coast, Carmel-by-the-Sea is all about quiet luxury. There's a beach town for every taste, and California's mild weather makes it easy to enjoy the coast any time of year.

But when I'm craving Mediterranean vibes without the pricey flights and jet lag, Newport Beach checks all the boxes.

Newport Harbor feels less like Southern California and more like a European resort town

Newport Beach is home to over 10 miles of pristine coastline, which isn't uncommon in California, but it's the harbor, comprised of eight small islands and interconnected waterways, that makes this destination feel like a luxurious European resort town.

The distinct island neighborhoods offer something for everyone, whether that means exploring the sand and surf, riding the historic Ferris wheel at the Balboa Fun Zone, or sipping a cocktail in a poolside cabana.

Our kids love the beach, and on our most recent summer trip, we made that a priority. We swam at the outdoor water park at Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort, where the kids climbed the inflatable slides and cannon-balled into the cool harbor water.

Another day, we grabbed a picnic lunch from A Market on the way to Newport Beach Municipal Beach. We spent the day playing in the sand, running in and out of the water, and watching the surfers catch wave after wave as the tide rolled in.

The food scene centers on the water — and there's lots of fresh seafood

One of the best things about Newport Beach is the food. Waterfront restaurants are everywhere, giving you plenty of chances to sit back and savor your meals with a view.

We especially loved the Lighthouse Cafe for waterfront views and direct beach access. Our kids enjoyed watching paddleboarders in the harbor while devouring cheeseburgers and lobster rolls, made with fresh-tasting lump lobster meat and drizzled with melted butter.

One of my favorite spots for soaking up Newport Beach's laid-back luxury vibes is Lido Marina Village, which is perfect for people watching with its ample outdoor dining options.

We also ate dockside at Lido Bottle Works and enjoyed a front-row view of the yacht-filled harbor and glowing pink sunset. It felt like a true escape.

Even restaurants without beachfront views embrace the coastal life.

We enjoyed Mediterranean cuisine at CUCINA enoteca, which featured freshly made pasta and perfectly paired Italian wines. Our kids got to make their own pizza tableside, which was a memorable dinner activity.

At Sushi Roku, my husband and I enjoyed some of the freshest sushi rolls we've ever tasted, while my kids were mesmerized by their flaming cotton-candy dessert.

You don't need a yacht to get a taste of Riviera life

Newport Beach seems made for outdoor living. The Mediterranean climate allows for year-round outdoor experiences, from dining and shopping to boating and surfing.

Many beaches and resorts offer a variety of recreation rentals like kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, and pedal boats, but the best way to enjoy a little bit of the luxury on the water is on Newport's own Duffy electric boat.

The Duffy was created in Newport Beach decades ago, and it's still one of the most iconic ways to view the harbor. There are several ways to rent them around town if you want to do just that.

We enjoyed a two-hour self-guided boat ride, and it was the perfect amount of time for our small kids. Even without much boating experience, it was easy to drive through the canals.

Our family enjoyed the scenery and incredible views of waterfront homes and luxury yachts that you can only truly experience from the water.

We even pulled our boat up to Woody's Wharf for a dock-and-dine lunch that felt like something out of a movie.

Ultimately, I love that Newport Beach offers resort-town amenities without the long-haul flights

Newport Beach has a variety of hotels, from award-winning luxury resorts like The Resort at Pelican Hill to Balboa Bay Resort, which offers direct harbor access.

If you're looking for glamping vibes, you can check out cottage rentals and RV sites with direct beach access at Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort.

If you want a resort with European-style walkability, consider staying at Lido House. It's located at Lido Marina Village and surrounded by shops and restaurants, so you have everything you need in one spot.

On our most recent trip, we stayed at VEA Newport Beach, where we enjoyed its family-friendly amenities, spa, and easy access to the shops and restaurants at Fashion Island. Our kids played for hours in the heated pool, and the sunset views were magical.

California is home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and with its mild climate, there's never a bad time to visit.

However, when it comes to finding Mediterranean vibes stateside, Newport Beach will always be my pick.

• 'SNL' fired shots at startup culture in its latest episode.
• Comedian Ben Marshall played Pennywise the clown pitching a new AI company to trap kids.
• In another segment, a Sprite exec admits its new flavor tastes bad because "we used AI to make it."

"Saturday Night Live" took aim at startup culture and AI across multiple sketches in its Halloween broadcast, including a spoof of the stereotypical big-talking startup dude, channeled through Stephen King's Pennywise.

"We started a company — it's called WeAllFloat.ai," comedian Ben Marshall, playing the malevolent clown, said in the segment. "Instead of trapping one kid with one balloon, what if you had hundreds of AI agents, each with their own digital balloons?"

Before Pennywise came on, "Weekend Update" host Michael Che got a joke in about the floundering stock price of Google's parent company, Alphabet.

"Today's Google Doodle hung itself," Che said, referring to the animations Google sometimes uses on its homepage.

And in another spoof of advertising execs trying to plug a new Sprite flavor on a Latin telenovela, a Sprite rep admits the drink tastes bad because "we used AI to make it."

"For the first time in history, AI screwed up," she says sarcastically.

Though "SNL" hasn't shied away from lampooning AI and the buzzy startup culture associated with it before, Saturday's broadcast honed in on the Lone Star State as a place where soulless, profit-driven techies are flocking to start new companies.

Indeed, since 2020, more than 200 companies have relocated their headquarters to Texas. Many cite comparatively lax regulatory laws and a business-friendly atmosphere.

Of course, though, moving down south doesn't guarantee profitability. Pennywise, for instance, might have some trouble getting his AI startup off the ground.

"Got a little crew together of cool, like-minded, sober, predatory tech guys," Marshall says in the segment. "I live in a loft in Austin with three other motivated young Christians."

When you're shopping for a new TV, screen size is one of the first decisions to make. Bigger TVs are more affordable than they used to be, but that doesn't mean bigger is always better. In smaller living rooms and bedrooms, an oversized screen can feel like too much. That's why 55-inch TVs remain a good middle ground. They're big enough to make 4K resolution and HDR shine, but compact enough to fit comfortably in most spaces. If you're looking for the right mix of size, performance, and price, the best 55-inch TVs are a great compromise.

My team and I reviewed top models from all the major brands to find the best 55-inch TVs for different budgets and viewing needs. Right now, my top pick is the Samsung S90H. Its OLED panel delivers high contrast and wide viewing angles, while its anti-glare screen minimizes reflections. If you want to spend less, the TCL QM6K is an excellent value. It can't match the picture quality of an OLED, but it still delivers vivid colors and a smooth smart TV experience at a lower price.

Below, you'll find all of my picks for the best 55-inch TVs, whether you're upgrading your everyday streaming setup, watching sports every weekend, or putting together a home theater. These recommendations are backed by more than a decade of hands-on experience testing TVs and other home entertainment gear.

Our top picks for the best 55-inch TVs

Best overall: Samsung S90H OLED 4K TV - See at Amazon

Best entry-level: TCL QM6K QLED 4K TV - See at Amazon

Best budget OLED: Roku Pro Series OLED 4K TV - See at Amazon

Best premium option: LG G5 OLED 4K TV - See at Amazon

Best overall

The Samsung S90H stands out as the best 55-inch TV for most needs, delivering the most versatile balance of performance and value. This model replaces my previous pick, the 2025 S90F. Though that older TV still has its own perks (a slightly wider color range), it's harder to find in stock and is more prone to reflections.

The S90H's OLED panel combines pixel-level contrast control with Samsung's anti-glare screen coating. The result is a vibrant picture with deep black levels that disappear in a dark room and excellent reflection handling in bright rooms. Black levels do lift slightly when exposed to ambient light, but the trade-off is worth it for rooms where lighting and windows are an issue.

Brightness is also very solid for this class. I measured a peak of roughly 1,440 nits, which is great for a midrange OLED. HDR movies and shows pop with vibrant highlights and sharp detail, coming remarkably close to what you'd get from more expensive TVs. Even lower-resolution cable channels and HD YouTube streams appear impressively clean, though Sony still has a slight edge in overall processing.

The S90H also features wide viewing angles, ensuring consistent contrast no matter where you sit. Due to normal production variances, some units may show a slight green tint at an angle, but this is subtle and less distracting than the faded look you'd get on a Mini LED TV.

The S90H is also good for gaming, thanks to its low input lag and smooth 120Hz refresh rate (up to 165Hz with a PC). Plus, Samsung's Tizen smart platform includes the Xbox app, letting Game Pass members stream games directly to the TV without a console. However, Tizen's design remains a bit clumsy compared to more user-friendly offerings, such as Google TV or the Roku OS. But where it counts most, the S90H is a winner and easily one of the most well-rounded TVs on the market.

Read our full Samsung S90H TV review.

Check out our guide to all of the best TVs and best Samsung TVs.

Best entry-level

The TCL QM6K is the best 55-inch TV for budget-conscious shoppers. Despite its affordable price, the QM6K boasts advanced picture quality features that many similarly priced models lack.

Notably, the QM6K features a QLED panel with a Mini LED backlight. Most TVs in this price range cut those features to keep costs down, resulting in low contrast, dim images, and a washed-out picture. The QM6K, however, has solid performance across the board.

The QLED panel produces a wide range of vivid colors, and the Mini LED backlight has local dimming to control contrast across multiple zones. This results in good black levels with minimal blooming (halos around bright objects). In fact, the QM6K handles blooming better than many pricier QLED TVs I've reviewed.

Of course, there are areas where the QM6K falls short. Its brightness is decent for a TV in this class, but not as high as midrange models. I measured a max of around 550-730 nits across different test patterns, which is better than most competing TVs in this price range. That said, high-brightness HDR content doesn't have the luster and pop that I've seen on more expensive TVs.

The QM6K's viewing angles are also a bit limited. Colors and contrast fade and distort if you sit off to the side of the screen. That said, the effect isn't as severe as it is on most budget TVs of this kind.

TCL also earns points for including a backlit remote, which other brands, such as LG and Samsung, don't offer. The remote supports voice control, or you can use hands-free voice control with a wake word. The QM6K's Google TV interface is smooth, and I didn't encounter any major hiccups while navigating menus.

The QM6K is also one of the most affordable TVs with a high-refresh-rate 144Hz panel. This enables smooth gaming when paired with a high-end PC that can handle high frame rates, and it supports full 120Hz with a PS5 or Xbox Series X.

Read our TCL QM6K 4K TV review.

Check out our guides to the best TCL TVs and best budget TVs.

Best budget OLED

Roku's first-ever OLED TV is an incredible value. The 55-inch Roku Pro Series has a full retail price of $1,000, which undercuts the MSRP of similar models from LG, Samsung, and Sony. Even better, this set gets excellent discounts, with occasional deals priced as low as $699. That's basically unheard of for a 55-inch OLED.

The Pro Series offers all the hallmark benefits that make OLED tech so popular, including pixel-level contrast, black levels that disappear in a dark room, great viewing angles, and rich colors. There are some compromises made to keep the TV's price so affordable, but the pros far outweigh the cons.

Brightness is one of the TV's most notable shortcomings — at least compared to similarly priced Mini LED sets or more expensive OLEDs. I measured a peak HDR brightness of around 500-600 nits on a 10% pattern using the TV's most accurate mode. But you can squeeze out around 700 nits if you switch to brighter, but less accurate, settings. Those are decent numbers, but bright highlights in a lot of HDR content won't look as impactful as intended. It's also not quite bright enough to overcome glare in rooms with lots of windows or lamps, especially since the TV's panel is glossy.

The Pro Series also has some issues with crushed or overexposed shadow detail when displaying content with shades near black. This is common on a lot of entry- and mid-level OLED panels, and some people find it more distracting than others. Likewise, my review unit did have a slight green tint at an angle.

Those flaws may make it sound like I was underwhelmed by the Pro Series OLED, but really that couldn't be further from the truth. Ultimately, I found the many benefits of the Pro Series' OLED panel and pixel-level dimming outweighed any imperfections I saw during testing, and it really is amazing to finally have such an affordable 55-inch OLED on the market.

The Pro Series OLED also benefits from Roku's reliable, easy-to-use interface, excellent remote control, and simple assembly. Roku recently redesigned its homepage with a bigger emphasis on content recommendations, but with a few adjustments in the settings menu, you can put all your apps up front and center again if you prefer. The remote included here isn't the rechargeable version with hands-free voice control, but it does feature backlit keys. I also love the tool-free stand, which uses a knob system to tighten the TV's left and right feet.

Best premium option

LG's G5 OLED is one of the most impressive high-end TVs I've tested. Its image quality edges out most competitors, and it gets incredibly bright for a display of this type.

I measured a peak luminance of 2,410 nits using a 10% test pattern with the TV set in Filmmaker Mode. That's a big leap over the older LG G4, which maxed out at around 1,500 nits. Such high luminance allows the G5 to deliver more impactful HDR images. When paired with high-brightness HDR movies, like "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Aquaman," the TV simply stuns, delivering a nearly unrivaled combination of bold highlights, rich colors, and deep black levels. This is the kind of image quality that TV nerds like myself geek out over.

Like all OLED TVs, the G5's viewing angles are wide, so the picture doesn't degrade much when you sit off-center. This is great for rooms with seating on the side of the TV. The G5 is also equipped with advanced gaming features, including a high 165Hz refresh rate when paired with a PC, which enables smooth motion.

The G5 uses LG's webOS interface for smart TV features, and it works just fine. It offers access to many streaming apps and has cool features like Voice ID, which automatically switches user profiles based on who speaks to the TV. On the downside, webOS tends to emphasize sponsored content and shopping recommendations more than I'd like, but most of these ads can be disabled in the TV's settings menu.

The G5's design complements its premium picture quality, featuring a sturdy build, a thin profile, and a flush wall mount included in the box. But people who'd prefer to attach the G5 to a traditional TV stand have to buy one separately, since the set doesn't include one.

Check out our guides to the best LG TVs and best TVs for picture quality.

How we test 55-inch TVs

To find the best 55-inch TVs, our reviewers conducted hands-on tests informed by more than a decade of experience covering home entertainment gear.

We typically focus our testing on 65-inch TVs, since that size is considered the industry flagship. That said, overall performance is usually the same for a specific TV model across larger sizes. For instance, the 55-inch and 65-inch versions of LG's G5 OLED share identical specs and features, with screen size being the only real difference.

There are some exceptions. TVs that use local dimming, such as the TCL QM6K, may have fewer dimming zones in smaller sizes, which can lead to minor differences in contrast. These changes rarely affect our overall assessment, but when they do, we call them out.

To test TVs, we evaluate picture clarity, contrast, brightness, color accuracy, viewing angles, gaming performance, smart TV software, and overall value. We take objective measurements using a colorimeter, pattern generator, and Calman calibration software.

Of course, numbers only tell part of the story. We also spend plenty of time watching real movies and shows in both dark and bright rooms. Our test content spans 4K, 1080p HD, and standard-definition sources from Blu-ray discs, streaming apps, and cable TV, with specific scenes chosen to stress black levels, shadow detail, HDR highlights, and upscaling. Gaming tests are done using a PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch 2.

You can learn more about our review process in our breakdown of how we test tech products.

Meet the expert behind this guide:

Steven Cohen, senior tech editor: I've been covering home entertainment gear for over a decade, and I test the latest TVs year-round. I also studied film production, which means I'm a little obsessive about picture accuracy — I want movies and shows to look the way the director intended, not overly bright or oversaturated. When I review a TV, I use professional calibration tools and test patterns to measure performance, but that's only part of the story. I also live with every TV I test like it's my own — streaming movies, watching sports, and flipping through everyday shows to see how it actually performs in real life. I then take all that hands-on testing and translate it into clear, practical advice so you can find a great 55-inch TV for your budget.

Learn more about the Reviews team at Business Insider.

55-inch TV FAQs

Is 55 inches a good size for a TV?

A 55-inch screen is a solid choice for a variety of needs, and many of the best smart TVs are available in this size. A 55-inch set is still large enough to feel immersive in smaller living rooms, while offering a more compact alternative to 65-inch models that might be too large for some spaces. A 55-inch TV is also a good fit for a bedroom where you might want something smaller than what you've got in your living room, but not so compact that you have to sacrifice picture quality.

If you're shopping for a media console or mount to pair with a 55-inch TV, consider our guides to the best TV stands and best TV wall mounts for top recommendations.

How much should a 55-inch TV cost?

The best 55-inch TVs range in price, with entry-level models starting under $300 and high-end models costing $2,000 or more.

If you want a midrange 55-inch TV, you should plan to spend about $400 to $700. Several great 55-inch QLED models in that price range feature quantum dots, local dimming, and Mini LED backlights, delivering good contrast and peak brightness levels of up to 1,000 nits.

Shoppers who prefer a 55-inch OLED TV will have to pay more, with prices starting around $700-$1,000, depending on sales. Although notably more expensive than their QLED counterparts, OLED TVs offer pixel-level brightness control, providing superior contrast and perfect black levels.

Many 55-inch TVs receive discounts throughout the year, but we typically see the biggest price drops during sales like Prime Day and Black Friday, as well as around major sporting events like the Super Bowl and March Madness.

How far should you sit from a 55-inch 4K TV?

The smaller a 4K screen is, the closer you'll need to sit to the display to see the full benefits of its resolution. On a 55-inch screen, to see the extra detail that 4K offers over 1080p Full HD, you'll want to sit around 4.5 to 7 feet from your screen.

Of course, you can sit farther away from your TV and still enjoy its image quality, but the recommended distance will let you see the best detail.

If you need to sit even closer to your TV or just have a small room to work with, check out our guides to the best 50-inch TVs and best 43-inch TVs.

For rooms where you need to sit farther from your display, we recommend choosing a larger screen to fully benefit from 4K resolution. Check out our guides for larger display models:

• Best 65-inch TVs
• Best 75-inch TVs
• Best 85-inch TVs
• Best 100-inch TVs

Do 55-inch TVs have good sound quality?

Even the best 55-inch TVs tend to have mediocre built-in speakers. Audio drivers integrated into most TVs are small and often placed in locations that can result in muddy sound with limited range, depth, and bass. For this reason, we recommend pairing your TV with a soundbar or full surround sound system to get the best audio quality for movies, TV shows, and video games.

For the most immersive experience, we suggest finding a system that supports Dolby Atmos, which can enable sound effects from all directions, even above your head. Performance varies by model, but entry-level Atmos systems can still provide a nice upgrade over your TV's built-in speakers.

Check out our various soundbar and speaker guides to see our top recommendations for different needs:

• Best soundbars
• Best Dolby Atmos soundbars
• Best budget soundbars
• Best soundbars with subwoofers
• Best Bose soundbars
• Best Sonos soundbars
• Best surround sound systems

Do you need a 55-inch TV with HDMI 2.1?

All of our picks for the best 55-inch TVs include HDMI 2.1 ports. This feature is most beneficial for gamers, but it's become standard on my midrange and high-end models.

An HDMI 2.1 connection enables a TV to receive 4K video signals at refresh rates higher than the previous 60Hz standard. High refresh rates enable smoother motion in video games that support them.

Most HDMI 2.1 TVs support 4K at 120Hz, and some models can even support higher refresh rates, such as 144Hz or 165Hz. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X support 4K/120Hz modes, while high-end gaming PCs can support 144Hz and 165Hz output.

You'll need a compatible HDMI cable to send and receive an HDMI 2.1 signal from a source device to a TV. For top recommendations, check out our guide to the best HDMI cables.

• Jessica Redford homeschools three kids and wanted a creative outlet that was just for her.
• She started making cake pops and selling them at local events before orders took off.
• She now sells out every Friday from a cake cart outside her home while maintaining family flexibility.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jessica Redford. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Last September, a shopping center opened down the street from me. It had a grocery store with a bakery, and at first, I thought it might be the perfect opportunity for me to get a part-time job.

I'd been homeschooling my three kids, who are now 14, 11, and 8, for years. As they got older and needed me a little less, I started feeling like I wanted something for myself, an outlet for my creativity. A part-time job seemed like the perfect way to have that.

Before having kids, I'd taken cake-making classes and learned the basics, so working in a bakery just minutes from home felt ideal.

But then I started thinking about how much I value the freedom we have as a family. We can go camping or take a day trip whenever we want, and I realized that having set work hours might take that away.

Around the same time, I was scrolling through my phone and came across videos showing how to make, bake, and decorate cake pops. They looked so much easier — and more manageable — than creating huge, elaborate cakes.

I thought I could do that.

I got the encouragement I needed

After a bit of experimenting, I made a batch of cake pops for a Halloween party. Everyone loved them, and that gave me the encouragement I needed to try selling them.

I started posting about my cake pops on Instagram, taking small orders, and attending vendor events.

Then, in November, I had some cake pops left over after a vendor event. The kids and I decided to sit outside on the corner of our neighborhood and sell them to people passing by. My neighbors loved them!

I only had a few left after that, so I took them to my chiropractor as a gift. She posted about them on her social media, and that's when everything really took off.

Suddenly, I was getting what felt like endless orders for Thanksgiving and Christmas cake pops.

I was burning out

Those months were crazy. I was in the kitchen constantly. It was exciting, but it was also overwhelming. I'm sure God gave me the desire for this business, and it's my faith that has kept me going even when it was hard.

But by the time January came around, I knew I couldn't continue at that pace. I needed to step back and figure out a way to make the business work without it completely taking over our lives.

So I took January off to regroup and make a plan.

I decided to sell my cake pops at a local family farm on Tuesdays and Thursdays — somewhere my kids could come along with me. I'd create different designs each week, so there would always be something new for families to look forward to.

Selling at the farm helped me build a reputation among local moms and really get my name out into the community.

After taking a break in July, I wondered whether I could make it work to sell cake pops outside my house from a portable cake cart I'd bought online. I decided to give it a try.

I told customers I'd take a set number of orders throughout the week, then have everything ready for them to collect from the cake cart outside my house on Fridays.

Since starting that over the summer, I've sold out every single week.

I'm learning to set boundaries

The past year has been a roller coaster of emotions. I've felt incredibly accomplished and excited, but there have also been times when it all felt like too much.

I'm slowly learning to say no and to set boundaries that protect my time, my family, and myself.

My kids have loved being involved in the baking and decorating. They're my taste testers, and they're always hoping I'll mess up a batch so they can eat it themselves.

One of the most important things to me has been showing them that their mom can start and run a business — that, like me, they can create something from nothing.

They're learning about entrepreneurship along the way, and I hope those lessons will serve them well in the future.

There have definitely been moments when I've wanted to give up. But I'm so glad I didn't quit on myself. I kept going because I wanted to find out what I was capable of.

And now I know.

• Census data shows that the number of millionaire renter households grew by 229% from 2020 to 2024.
• Apartment-search website RentCafe ranked the cities with the fastest growth in millionaire renters.
• Millionaire renters still favor New York and LA, but Southern cities are gaining them fastest.

Even millionaires are renting in today's expensive real estate market.

Apartment-search website RentCafe found that the number of millionaire renter households grew by 229% when comparing US Census Bureau estimates for 2020 to 2024 with those from 2016 to 2020. That outpaced the 193% growth in millionaire homeowner households during the same period.

RentCafe defines a "millionaire renter" as a household earning at least $1 million a year that rents an apartment or house.

The company found that nearly half of millionaire renters are millennials, though the number of Gen Z millionaire renters has grown the fastest since 2020. And while New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles remain the biggest hubs for millionaire renters, Southern metros are seeing the fastest growth.

Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, the firm behind RentCafe's report, told Business Insider that while Western metros such as Riverside and Santa Cruz, California, and Northeastern metros such as Utica and Syracuse, New York, are losing millionaire renters, Southern metros are gaining them, largely thanks to their growing job markets.

"These declines are at the intersection of migration, wealth creation, lifestyle choices, and renting as a transitional or capital strategy," Ressler said. "As corporate headquarters relocate to the South, more senior-level executives are moving there. Many rent before they buy, helping drive the region's growth in high-income households and millionaires."

Over the past few years, many companies, including Tesla, Oracle, Charles Schwab, and Palantir, have relocated their headquarters or opened new offices in Texas and Florida, bringing their workers with them. It's no surprise, then, that several of the fastest-growing metros for millionaire renters are in these two states. Below, the top 10 cities for millionaire renters.

10. Phoenix

• Number of millionaire renter households in 2020: 20
• Number of millionaire renter households in 2024: 91
• Percentage increase: 355%

9. Boston

• Number of millionaire renter households in 2020: 100
• Number of millionaire renter households in 2024: 481
• Percentage increase: 381%

8. Dallas

• Number of millionaire renter households in 2020: 30
• Number of millionaire renter households in 2024: 165
• Percentage increase: 450%

7. St. Louis

• Number of millionaire renter households in 2020: 15
• Number of millionaire renter households in 2024: 83
• Percentage increase: 453%

6. Denver

• Number of millionaire renter households in 2020: 39
• Number of millionaire renter households in 2024: 235
• Percentage increase: 503%

5. Los Angeles

• Number of millionaire renter households in 2020: 216
• Number of millionaire renter households in 2024: 1,532
• Percentage increase: 609%

4. Seattle

• Number of millionaire renter households in 2020: 50
• Number of millionaire renter households in 2024: 445
• Percentage increase: 790%

3. Miami

• Number of millionaire renter households in 2020: 51
• Number of millionaire renter households in 2024: 538
• Percentage increase: 955%

2. Naples, Florida

• Number of millionaire renter households in 2020: 7
• Number of millionaire renter households in 2024: 76
• Percentage increase: 986%

1. Houston

• Number of millionaire renter households in 2020: 18
• Number of millionaire renter households in 2024: 232
• Percentage increase: 1,189%

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• At 12, I spent three months working on my grandfather's farm in the Dominican Republic.
• I promised to return soon, but years of financial struggles kept me away for 22 years.
• When I finally saved enough to visit, my grandfather had dementia and had lost his farm.

When I was 12, my mother sent my brother, Pedro, and me to the Dominican Republic for three months to stay at my grandfather's home. I think she needed a break from raising two boys in the Bronx alone and wanted us to spend time with her father. Pedro and I were thrilled to share the Spanish language we'd inherited from our family. My grandfather was waiting for us in his beat-up 91 Nissan pickup truck. Every bump felt like the wheels would fly off.

It took me 22 years to go back to visit, and everything had changed.

He had us working the land

The green pasture and mountains of Santiago were a world apart from the 6-floor walk in New York. Here we slept in a bed with a mosquito net and heard the rooster and hens all night. In the morning, we were woken up by our abuelo's words, "Vamos a trabjar," which meant: time to work." We went with him to the farm to be his ranch hands. It was exhausting.

In the evening, with mud on our boots, my brother and I scrambled onto his truck. He drove us back to his place, where a bowl of sancocho was waiting. He'd been farming for 60 years. At the end of our 90 days, I promised to return soon. I had no idea it would be 22 years until I could afford to take a vacation on my own dime.

I was broke

At home, I was broke, working odd jobs to afford clothes and sneakers. Mom worked 50 hours a week and moved us to Bergen County, New Jersey. Watching "The Lord of the Rings," I decided I wanted to be an actor.

Against my mother's wishes, I devised a plan to drop out of school to get exciting roles in the movie industry. She thought a secure position as a policeman, fireman, or teacher was a better route. But I blindly followed my movie dreams with no backup plan.

Moving to Manhattan, I paid $800 a month for a 60-square-foot apartment. I found a manager who helped me score an audition for a small theatre play. I played "suitor 1" and then landed a lead role in a web series. I won the role of an assassin navigating a dysfunctional family while executing hits for clients. It was chaotic, deeply unserious at times, and entirely thrilling.

But I could barely cover bills. Every weekend, I'd rush to the set after working at a restaurant, eventually getting fired for ordering an extra sandwich on my lunch hour. I was desperate to get my SAG card. This production demanded hours of unpaid work. My body ran on black coffee and sheer stubbornness, operating in a permanent state of fatigue. I'd finish a brutal double shift carrying heavy trays on my feet, race to the subway with a duffel bag slung over my shoulder, and try to look bright-eyed for an indie director who expected us to work until dawn for free.

I got a steady paycheck after years of hustling

Years bled into one another through cold studio apartments, couch surfing when I couldn't afford rent, and endless auditions that went nowhere. Sick of poverty, I eventually took an office job in real estate, working as a project manager. That desk and steady paycheck became the quiet anchor I never knew I needed. It allowed me to finally breathe, pay bills on time, and slowly save. As my days settled into a predictable rhythm, the frantic, burning urgency of acting slipped away, its manic magic finally gone, leaving behind a different kind of life.

Dollar by dollar, the savings added up to a $1400 ticket back to the island. My brother was too busy with his wife and kids to join me. My grandfather wasn't able to pick me up this time. He'd recently been diagnosed with early-onset dementia. At the airport, my uncle picked me up instead. As we drove down the highway into the city, he told me, "The farm is gone. We lost everything."

Approaching my grandfather's new home, which his children helped build for him, I saw him sitting in the kitchen. His hair was gray, his body not as strong as I remembered. I was afraid he wouldn't recognize me, but once he saw me, we let out a big laugh.

"Look who it is!" he said as we hugged.

Staring at me, he asked, "¿Qué tú tardaste tanto en volver?" He wanted to know, "What took you so long to return?"

I smiled, held his hand, and answered, "Grandpa, I worked as hard as I could just to make it back to you."

• Kate Middleton has had a busy year of royal engagements in 2026.
• She's worn standout looks during public appearances, including ball gowns and colorful pantsuits.
• The Princess of Wales has had a few fashion misses as well.

Kate Middleton is busier than ever.

The Princess of Wales has attended dozens of royal engagements in 2026, from charity events to film premieres.

She's worn a variety of looks to her events, donning gowns for more traditional royal fashion moments and casual looks like trousers for less buttoned-up appearances.

Some of Kate's outfits have been stronger than others, though. Here are the best and worst looks the Princess of Wales has worn so far in 2026.

The Princess of Wales' recycled dress was a great choice for the BAFTAs in February.

To attend the 2026 BAFTAs, Kate rewore a Gucci dress she had worn to multiple public appearances over the years.

The chiffon gown had a pointed, off-the-shoulder neckline, with the floor-length gown falling in different shades of pink. A deep-purple belt cinched her waist.

The Princess of Wales accessorized the glamorous gown with the Greville chandelier earrings and bouncy waves.

She chose a monochromatic coatdress for a Commonwealth Day Service in March.

Kate stuck to one of her go-to styles for the 2026 Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey, donning a Catherine Walker coatdress.

The look is a favorite of Kate's for good reason, as the dresses strike a balance between formality and style. This iteration was deep blue and featured a blazer-style top with pleating on the skirt.

She paired the garment with a coordinating hat, pumps, pearl earrings, and a multi-strand pearl necklace.

The royal's casual ensemble for a March engagement would have been better with a few tweaks.

When she and Prince William took a trip to the RNLI Tower Lifeboat Station, Kate wore a more casual ensemble.

She paired a blue blouse from With Nothing Underneath with a Prince of Wales Check blazer from Catherine Walker, nodding to her title. Brown Joseph trousers, a Me+Em belt with gold hardware, brown Jimmy Choo boots, and an RNLI ball cap completed the look.

It was fun to see Kate in a more casual outfit, but her pants and boots looked a little clunky together since they were slightly different colors, particularly with the blue shirt. A more neutral top and pants that better coordinated with the blazer could have improved the ensemble.

She made her green dress for a March state banquet pop with bold accessories.

When the royal family hosted the President of Nigeria for a state dinner in March, Kate appeared to nod to the Nigerian flag with her green Andrew Gn gown and matching Manolo Blahnik heels.

The high-neck gown had ruching on the bodice and was cinched at Kate's waist before flowing to the floor. Semi-sheer, long sleeves broke up the denser fabric that made up much of the gown, giving it an ethereal touch.

Kate leaned into the occasion's fanciness by pairing the dress with Queen Mary's Lover's Knot Tiara, sapphire-and-diamond earrings from the Queen Mother's collection, and her Royal Victorian Order attire, including a sash and badge.

A different hat may have been a better choice for a Royal Garden Party in May.

The Princess of Wales donned a Self-Portrait dress for a Royal Garden Party in May.

The top of the white dress looked like a blazer with black buttons. It was belted at her waist before flowing out in a peplum, and a three-dimensional flower sat on her lapel. The white-and-black polka-dot skirt hit Kate at the ankle, swishing around her as she walked.

The outfit was fun, but Kate's vintage hat changed the look's feel. The hat had a white base, and black tulle flowed up from the brim. The dark tulle made the look a bit more serious in tone, while the rest of the outfit was playful.

A fully white hat may have been a better choice for the daytime event.

In May, Kate made a blazer look relaxed by pairing it with a flowy skirt.

During a trip to Italy in May, Kate rocked a blazer and skirt for a fun twist on royal attire.

Her Blazé Milano blazer was taupe with white, vertical stripes, while her Jenni Kayne skirt was cream, with the pleated fabric hitting her mid-calf. She wore a white blouse underneath the blazer and Camilla Elphick shoes.

The silhouette was reminiscent of outfits Princess Diana favored for royal engagements, making it an even stronger fashion statement for the current Princess of Wales.

Her red dress wasn't the best choice for an event at St James's Palace in June.

Kate attended a Cancer Research UK reception at St James's Palace in a Rodarte dress.

The ankle-length dress was bright red with white polka dots, and a coordinating belt sat at her waist. White fabric trimmed the neckline and short sleeves, and a red flower sat on the lapel. Red Gianvito Rossi pumps and a Miu Miu clutch tied it together.

The outfit was stylish, but it unfortunately blended in with the red carpets and chairs that adorn St James's Palace. Kate should have saved the dress for an occasion with a different backdrop.

The blue linen suit she wore to Wimbledon the same month was a strong look for the princess.

Kate attended a handful of Wimbledon matches in 2026, but she wore her best look on day four of the tournament.

Gabriela Hearst designed her powder-blue suit. Made of linen, the ensemble included an oversize, double-breasted jacket and wide-legged trousers.

She wore the bright suit with a Ralph Lauren top, as well as brown shoes and sunglasses from the designer. Carousel earrings and a perky ponytail completed the stylish look.

Kate's gingham dress for the Charity Polo Cup in July felt fresh.

She arrived at the match in a black-and-white Temperley London dress with a square neckline and a tea-length skirt.

A gingham pattern covered the dress, giving it a summery feel. She accessorized the look with camel-toned Camilla Elphick slingbacks and Ralph Lauren sunglasses.

Kate looked effortlessly chic.

A blazer-and-skirt look she wore in August would have been better with one swap.

Kate gave the blazer-and-skirt look another go for the Commonwealth Games, pairing a green Ralph Lauren blazer with a striped La Ligne top and a white pleated skirt.

She completed the look with her Camilla Elphick slingbacks. While the silhouette was pretty, the combination of the striped top and the green jacket felt a bit busy.

The outfit would have been stronger if Kate had chosen a simpler top to go with the blazer.

The colors of Kate's outfit for a September engagement in Scotland didn't quite work.

The Princess of Wales wore a more casual look for an engagement in Scotland.

She wore an olive-green sweater with brown jeans from Holland Cooper and a Maison Hotel belt. She added a Burberry trench coat over the look, which seemed to be deep purple, as well as Chelsea boots and a tweed hat designed by House of Bruar.

The fall tones of the look felt festive, but there was a bit too much color going on between the brown pants, green shirt, and purple jacket. If two of the garments had been more similar in color, it might have felt more cohesive.

Her gown for the "Digger" UK premiere was one of her most daring looks of 2026.

Kate arrived at the "Digger" premiere in a violet Jenny Packham gown that was full of glamour.

A V-neckline dipped low on Kate's torso, and the long sleeves were made of transparent fabric that billowed around her before cinching at her wrist. A train spilled out of the floor-length skirt, trailing behind the Princess of Wales.

She further elevated the look with Jimmy Choo pumps and the Queen Mother's Amethyst Sautoir Necklace, which has a heart pendant at its center.

The Princess of Wales' plaid skirt for a visit to Northern Ireland stood out in October.

She headed to Northern Ireland in October, attending engagements in a green tartan skirt from Emilia Wickstead.

The skirt flared around Kate's calves, as did her Catherine Walker coat. She paired the skirt with a white Knatchbull top, which was lined with ruffles down the center.

Black Gianvito Rossi heels and a green Mulberry bag tied the sophisticated ensemble together.