Every time Lloyd publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The industry has largely moved on from mere concepts and technology validation to: How are we going to realistically scale autonomy? It's day one of the conference, and there's already a lot to take in. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled the Alpamayo family, which will serve as an autonomous-driving stack for OEMs to deal with those stubborn edge cases — or the "long tail" of self-driving. Uber and Nuro showed off an early look at the Lucid Gravity SUV that the companies hope public riders will be able to take by late 2026. Think of this as my personal notebook, where I jot down everything I've learned and seen at the conference. This is the first year Zoox, an Amazon-backed robotaxi company, will be giving live demonstrations of its service during CES. My immediate thoughts were that Zoox feels unlike any other robotaxi or pseudo-robotaxi on the market. It felt more like I was on a theme park ride than in an everyday car we're familiar with. Unlike Waymo's robotaxis, Zoox is not a regular car you could buy that's been retrofitted with sensors. The robotaxis were clearly a great tourist attraction from what I saw. My Uber driver wasn't too happy about them. Uber, Lucid, and Nuro had a swanky cocktail hour at Fontainebleau Las Vegas, where they quite literally wined and dined a room full of reporters, analysts, and investors: endless glasses of wine and an open bar, lobster tails, jumbo shrimp, too many appetizers to count, and a giant charcuterie board — the works. 2026 will be a big year for the three companies. Uber's plan is to roll out a robotaxi service by late 2026. The first market is San Francisco, where Uber will directly compete with Waymo. These two companies are partners in other markets, like Austin. We're already testing the production-intent vehicles on public roads. A quick image to get a sense of how big CES's mobility division is at West Hall of the convention center: There's a 60,000-pound combine from John Deere that's sitting in the middle of the showroom. The combine isn't autonomous in the way we think about self-driving cars, Sanchez told me, but it is self-steering. There's a lot of talk of self-driving cars in the automotive industry, but the scope of what it can realistically achieve has narrowed down in the last decade or so. Paul Costa, an ex-Apple veteran of 25 years who worked on the company's abandoned self-driving car project, gave me a bit of interesting color from what he saw at CES in 2015 — when the driverless car hype was reaching its peak — and what's different now. "My sense at the time was that people really wanted to focus on Level 5 autonomy," Costa, who now leads Ford's electrical engineering team, told me. That means full autonomy in all weather conditions and no geofences. "Now, I feel like here in 2026, L3 is extremely interesting," Costa said. AV operators, like Waymo, Uber, or Lyft, need to know the lifespans of their vehicles to determine the true cost of staying in business. Stephen Hayes, VP of Lyft's autonomous vehicle program, told me that the "lifetime mileage" the company can accrue on a robotaxi is still unknown. "Today, we're in the early innings, obviously, of the autonomous transition and very few AV players have vehicles on the road that have run hundreds of thousands of miles." Part of the business proposition for ride-hailing companies like Lyft is reselling its fleet of vehicles, also known as remarketing. Lyft owns a fleet through its subsidiary called Flexdrive. For robotaxis, remarketing remains an "unknown," Hayes said. "There's no market for it," he said. "There's no secondary market where it's like, 'Hey, I want to go buy a used AV.' Ten years from now, it's going to look completely different, but we don't know in what ways." Hyundai Motor Group has the largest footprint at CES this year, showcasing the company's latest in robotics development. I was told by a Boston Dynamics representative on a Wednesday afternoon that the wait-time to step inside the booth was around two hours. Ford announced on Wednesday that it will be making in-house hardware and software to deploy eyes-off driving capabilities by 2028. This comes about a month after Rivian announced it would be pursuing fully-autonomous driving by making its own silicon chip. I talked to Chris Ahn, a principal at Deloitte who consults for key automakers, to get some insight behind why automakers might want to pursue an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) on their own instead of licensing software from companies that are ahead of the curve. Ahn said automakers need to decide what level of autonomy their customer base wants and that won't look the same across the board. "And I think each of these automakers are going to have to define what does ADAS mean for the user base of my brand today, which is a fundamentally different way to think about AV than what we were thinking about three, four, five years ago, which was just level five autonomy everywhere."

The U.S. government is considering investing in a company's critical minerals mining projects in Greenland, its CEO has told CNBC, ahead of high-stakes talks between Washington and Danish officials over the island's future. The projects are run by mining company Amaroq, which operates in South Greenland and is involved in extracting or exploring gold, copper, germanium and gallium, among other critical mineral deposits. Discussions with U.S. government bodies about the potential investment opportunities are ongoing and haven't been finalized, Amaroq CEO Eldur Olafsson told CNBC in an interview. Deals could involve "offtake agreements, infrastructure support and credit lines," Olafsson added, though he declined to comment on what specific projects the U.S. government was interested in. When asked to comment, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told CNBC: "The United States is eager to build lasting commercial relationships that benefit Americans and the people of Greenland. CNBC approached the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) for comment but had not received a response as this article went live. Olafsson's comments come as U.S. President Donald Trump ramps up talk of acquiring Greenland, which he sees as integral to national security, following a dramatic military operation to seize Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is to meet with officials from Denmark next week to discuss Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory. Rare earth companies with projects in the Arctic island surged earlier this week on U.S. comments about acquiring the Arctic island. Trump has mainly emphasized national security when discussing Greenland in recent days, but former national security advisor Mike Waltz told Fox News in January 2025 that U.S. interest in the island was about "critical minerals." Some experts have cautioned that extracting critical minerals from Greenland isn't economically viable due to the harsh conditions and lack of infrastructure, but Olafsson told CNBC that it was realistic with proper planning and logistics. He compared the process to significant critical minerals mines in Russia and Alaska, which, he said, were built in similar conditions. He said that "one of the biggest challenges in any mining project is usually some [transporting minerals] long distances on land," but added that many of Greenland's mineral deposits were near "deep fjords," meaning they could be easier to ship. Climate change has transformed some parts of Greenland, with ice melting to reveal wetlands, areas of shrub and barren rock. This has made some of the island's strategic minerals more accessible for mining firms. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

The Senate on Thursday voted 52-47 to block President Donald Trump from further military action in Venezuela. The move came less than a week after Trump authorized a strike that captured the country's leader, Nicolás Maduro. The measure, known as a War Powers Resolution, only needed a simple majority to pass in the Republican-controlled Senate and would require Trump to seek the approval of Congress before using the U.S. military again in Venezuela. The measure was brought by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. It would then go to the House, where Republicans have a razor-thin majority. "Make no mistake, bombing another nation's capital and removing their leader is an act of war plain and simple. No provision in the Constitution provides such power to the presidency," Paul said in a statement. Trump and his allies in Congress have argued he did not need to consult Congress on the strike that captured Maduro, which they say was a law enforcement operation. Maduro is now facing drug-related charges in New York. The Senate shot down a similar resolution in November, after only two Republicans — Paul and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — joined all Democrats in voting for it. Trump engaged in a months-long military buildup around Venezuela before the action that captured Maduro. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, voted for the measure. "While I support the operation to seize Nicolas Maduro, which was extraordinary in its precision and complexity, I do not support committing additional U.S. forces or entering into any long-term military involvement in Venezuela or Greenland without specific congressional authorization," Collins said in a statement. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

President Donald Trump's renewed focus on housing affordability has found a clear villain: institutional investors that own large swaths of single-family homes in fast-growing Sun Belt cities, where would-be homeowners increasingly find themselves bidding against Wall Street. Trump argued in a social media post Wednesday that corporate ownership has helped push housing further out of reach for everyday Americans, saying he's immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes. The message may be aimed at places like Atlanta and Jacksonville, metropolitan areas where investor ownership is far higher than the national average. While institutional investors only own roughly 2% of the nation's single-family rental housing stock, their presence is far more concentrated in parts of the Southeast. The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates, for example, that investors control about a quarter of Atlanta's single-family rental market, more than a fifth of Jacksonville's and sizable shares in Charlotte and Tampa. Those concentrations trace back to the aftermath of the financial crisis, when large investors moved aggressively into housing markets flooded with foreclosures. By buying homes in bulk, they helped stabilize prices in hard-hit regions experiencing sharp declines, particularly across the Sun Belt, according to Wolfe Research. "While their overall footprint is limited, ownership is heavily concentrated in Sun Belt cities, likely reflecting expectations of stronger home price appreciation," analysts at Wolfe said in a recent note to clients. The idea of curbing Wall Street's role in housing isn't new. Analysts at BTIG note that Congress has seen multiple efforts in recent years to rein in institutional homeownership, ranging from tighter regulations and financing limits to outright ownership bans and even forced liquidations. "Bureaucratic limitations have historically hindered the legislation in Congress, and as it stands now most bills remain in the 'Introduced' phase," BTIG said in a note. Trump did not provide details on how such a ban would be implemented. The president said he plans to outline additional housing and affordability proposals in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in two weeks. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

CrowdStrike announced Thursday that it is buying identity management startup SGNL in a deal valued at nearly $740 million as the cybersecurity provider beefs up defenses in the age of artificial intelligence cyberattacks. The acquisition will help users of CrowdStrike's Falcon cloud security platform better manage human and AI identity access requests and real-time risks, the company said. "This is a massive opportunity for our customers to be able to protect themselves, and a massive opportunity for us to disrupt the identity market," CEO George Kurtz said in an exclusive interview with CNBC. Companies have been bolstering identity security defenses as AI heightens the sophistication of cyberattacks. Last year, Microsoft was hit with a wave of attacks targeting its SharePoint collaboration tool and large language model startup Anthropic disclosed the first documented AI-led cyberattack in November. The company's backers include Cisco Investments and Microsoft's Venture Fund. The company was founded in 2021 by Scott Kriz and Erik Gustavson, whose previous startup was acquired by Google in 2017. Both founders worked at the search giant for more than four years. Cybersecurity providers such as CrowdStrike have ramped up acquisitions in recent months to offer a fuller suite of capabilities to customers in an increasingly competitive market. Businesses are also leaning into more autonomous agent-powered AI solutions to manage cybersecurity tools. Last year, competitor Palo Alto Networks scooped up Israeli startup CyberArk for $25 billion in a big bet from CEO Nikesh Arora and Google landed cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion. In 2025, CrowdStrike announced plans to buy AI agentic security platform Pangea and Spanish data startup Onum. Kurtz said the company's acquisition strategy is to buy successful teams and innovative technology over legacy tools. "We want to offer the most value to our customers where they can consolidate on CrowdStrike — less vendors, less complexities, less cost and with a better outcome of stopping breaches," he said. We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Sign up for the CNBC Cures newsletter here Maybe not in the context of business news, where we usually talk about company valuations that are in the billions, or even trillions. But when we're talking about people, 30 million is a very big number. Defining a rare disease can be tricky. In the U.S., a disease is considered rare if fewer than 200,000 Americans are diagnosed with it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that works out to be less than 7 in 10,000 people. In the European Union, a disease is classified as rare if it affects no more than 5 in 10,000 people. Any way you define it, patient populations within the rare disease community are smaller than those diagnosed with more well-known diseases like Alzheimer's, which the Alzheimer's Association estimates stood at more than 7 million in the U.S. as of last year. But when you consider that there are more than 10,000 rare diseases, and as many as 400 million people suffering from them worldwide, you start to take notice. That's why we're launching CNBC Cures, a new initiative to help raise awareness of rare diseases and improve patient outcomes for people living with them. Led by "Squawk Box " anchor Becky Quick, the initiative was inspired by her family's own rare disease journey. Quick's youngest daughter, Kaylie, was just 7 months old when Becky first suspected that something wasn't right. "She was not meeting some of her developmental milestones, and I was worried about it," Quick said. Kaylie visited several doctors, and at first, none of them seemed concerned. But after several months, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician diagnosed Kaylie with global developmental delay, a broad term given to a child that is significantly delayed in hitting developmental milestones, like walking and talking. But the diagnosis didn't point to a cause. Her family was left grasping for answers until just before Kaylie's third birthday, when a genetic test revealed the root cause of Kaylie's struggles. She had SYNGAP1, a rare genetic disease that has only been diagnosed in about 1,700 people in the world. "Our neurologist didn't know what it was," said Quick. "She told us, 'You'll probably know more about this by the end of the weekend than I do.' "We ran to Google and started googling things," Quick explained. SynGAP is a protein crucial to brain development. It helps with learning and memory, and also with regulating communication in the synapses of the brain. Kaylie has a genetic mutation in her SYNGAP1 gene that causes her brain to get only about half the SynGAP protein it should be getting. That makes it difficult for the neurons in her brain to communicate effectively with each other. Mutations in the SYNGAP1 gene are surprisingly common and are estimated to account for between 1%-2% of all intellectual disabilities. An article published by CURE SYNGAP1 indicates the figure could be as high as 76,000 in the U.S. alone. But because most doctors don't know the symptoms of SYNGAP1, and the vast majority of newborns aren't screened for genetic diseases at birth, it's believed that most cases of SYNGAP1, like many rare diseases, go undiagnosed. SYNGAP1 is a spectrum disorder, meaning not all patients are affected the same way or with the same severity. It's common for SYNGAP1 patients to have seizure disorders, intellectual disabilities, autism, motor skill delays, difficulty forming speech, balance and coordination issues, and high pain thresholds. "We have all the doors locked all the time so that she doesn't walk out. Despite her physical challenges, Quick says Kaylie is still a happy and active kid. There are several treatments in development, though none have yet progressed beyond clinical trials. Progress has been made in identifying more individuals with SYNGAP1. Shortly after Kaylie's diagnosis, that figure jumped to 1,000. It now stands at more than 1,700 globally. Expanded access to genetic screening for newborns, a cause nearly everyone in the rare disease community is rallying behind, could help further identify more SYNGAP1 patients. That's key when dealing with rare diseases because a bigger patient pool can attract more research and funding for treatments. It also helps regulators better understand the scope of a disease, which can ultimately get those treatments to market more quickly. Every single day Kaylie works harder than any of the rest of us, and that's just who she is," Quick said. She's got friends at school … she is just happy every single day, and I am grateful for that." "I've been amazed at how many people are going through something similar," Quick said. She and her family began to think about how they could make a difference for others navigating a rare disease diagnosis. Rare diseases often go overlooked by investors and pharmaceutical companies. Smaller diagnosed patient populations make it difficult to attract funding for research into rare disease treatments. And where promising research does exist, those smaller patient populations make it more difficult for potentially lifesaving treatments to clear regulatory hurdles and get to the patients that need them. This is where Quick saw an opportunity to make a difference. "We thought, you know, CNBC has a pretty unique audience. It's an audience of people who know how to get things done. Why not tap into what they can bring to the table too?" CNBC Cures is teaming up with some of the nation's top researchers, doctors, regulators and patient advocacy groups. The initiative's goal is to help build a community that can break down barriers that can limit treatment options and isolate those living with a rare disease. Through our storytelling and live events, we'll work to identify the most innovative scientific developments in the rare disease space and put a spotlight on the bottlenecks preventing them from getting to the patients who need them. We'll bring you moving and inspirational stories about the individuals changing the way we think about rare diseases and offer a space where you can share your own rare disease journey with us. And we'll share perspectives from the most prominent investors in the space, highlighting where they see opportunities for healthy returns, and for transforming health care as we know it. The odds are that almost all of us know someone who is impacted by a rare disease, and the millions who make up this community are more connected than we think. Every week scientists are finding new evidence that shows if you can figure out how to effectively treat one rare disease, there are countless others that can be treated using similar mechanisms. And advancements made in rare diseases are offering new hope for breakthroughs in everything from Alzheimer's, to cancer, and heart disease. These are just a few of the themes we want to explore with CNBC Cures in the coming year. More information about SYNGAP1 can be found at CURE SYNGAP1, CHOP, NORD, and Global Genes. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday pressed the administration's desire for lower interest rates, saying they are the key to future economic growth. In a speech he will deliver before the Economic Club of Minnesota, Bessent backed President Donald Trump's economic agenda and said easier monetary policy will help pave the way for gains ahead. "Cutting interest rates will have a tangible impact on the lives of every Minnesotan," he said, according to excerpts obtained in an official draft from an administration source. "It is the only ingredient missing for even stronger economic growth. Which is why the Fed should not delay." The Federal Reserve approved three consecutive interest rate cuts in the final four months of 2025, totaling 0.75 percentage point and taking the central bank's key interest rate down to a range of 3.5%-3.75%. However, the pace of reductions is expected to slow considerably this year, with markets pricing in just two cuts and the most recent projections from Fed officials pointing to just one. Current Chair Jerome Powell's term ends in May, and the Treasury secretary has whittled down the candidates to five. National Economic Council leader Kevin Hassett and former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh are the two betting favorites to get the position. While lower interest rates carry the threat of reigniting inflation, they also could help support a slowing labor market. "In 2025, the President laid the foundation for robust economic growth with: the historic passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, trade deals that rewrote decades of global misalignment; and an ambitious deregulation agenda that empowered American entrepreneurs and businesses," Bessent said. "Now, in 2026, we will reap the rewards of President Trump's America First agenda." Bessent will deliver the speech at 12:45 p.m. Correction: This story has been updated to correct that Kevin Hassett is leader of the National Economic Council. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox. If you can't already tell from reading this newsletter, I'm a big cliché user. Stock futures are lower this morning after a mixed session. The Trump administration announced a flurry of market-moving policy plans yesterday that could reshape everything from what we eat to the path to home ownership. Trump on Tuesday said Venezuela would turn over up to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the U.S., but sources close to the White House told CNBC yesterday that those were only the first barrels and that shipments would continue indefinitely. The White House said yesterday that Trump reserves the right to use military force to protect U.S. oil workers in Venezuela. The South American country would also use revenue from its oil sales to purchase American products, Trump said on social media. Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC yesterday that debts owed by Venezuela to ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil were not an immediate priority for the Trump administration. CEOs from both companies, as well as a representative from Chevron, are expected to meet with Trump on Friday. Moving across the Atlantic Ocean: Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters yesterday that he would meet with Danish officials about Greenland next week. News of the talks comes as Trump reiterates his threats to take over the island to bolster U.S. national security. But as CNBC's Dan Mangan notes, Denmark's leaders aren't taking these comments on the chin. On Tuesday, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said the European country would spend the equivalent of $13.8 billion to rearm Greenland given "the serious security situation we find ourselves in." In Washington, some congressional Republicans are brushing off Trump's threats. As Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., put it, Trump sometimes negotiates using an "everything is on the table" strategy. CNBC's Morning Squawk recaps the biggest stories investors should know before the stock market opens, every weekday morning. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis fatally shot a woman in her car yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security said. Top DHS officials claimed the woman engaged in an "act of domestic terrorism" by attempting to run down ICE agents. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey both rejected that description of events, with the latter calling it "bulls---" and "a garbage narrative." The shooting comes amid increasing tensions in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as more than 2,000 government agents descend on the area for immigration enforcement. "To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem: You've done enough." Ford is planning to enter the eyes-off driving arena. The Detroit automaker said last night that it will begin rolling out the technology in 2028 with a $30,000 all-electric vehicle. As CNBC's Michael Wayland notes, Ford joins a bevy of fellow automakers looking to launch similar systems. The move is tied to a strategy of "putting our best and newest technology where the volume is and where the accessibility is," Ford executive Doug Field told CNBC. CNBC's Dan Mangan, Amelia Lucas, Kevin Breuninger, Yun Li, Sean Conlon, Spencer Kimball, Jennifer Elias, Brian Sullivan, Garrett Downs, Michael Wayland and Gabriel Cortes contributed to this report. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Google is adding more Gemini features to Gmail, providing upgrades like artificial intelligence-generated summaries of email threads, the company said Thursday. The company said its latest updates will be rolled out in phases, and some features will be turned on by default in inboxes, meaning users who don't want them will have to opt out. "When you open an email with dozens of replies, Gmail synthesizes the entire conversation into a concise summary of key points," Google wrote in a blog post. The company said AI Overviews, which show up at the top of search results, are also being added to Gmail. Google is counting on its massive customer base to provide an advantage as the company takes on the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic and others in the booming generative AI market. Google says Gmail now has more than 3 billion users. Last year, Google's Gemini integration in Gmail allowed users to do things like search messages, draft emails from prompts, improve grammar and generate custom responses. One of the new features is "Suggested Replies," which Google says uses the context of a user's emails to create one-click responses. It's an update to a prior tool called "Smart Replies." The company is also upgrading a proofreading option for checking grammar and making messages more concise. Driven by its rapid advancements in AI, Google parent Alphabet topped Apple by market cap on Wednesday for the first time since 2019, continuing a rally that made the stock the best performer among tech megacaps last year. Meanwhile, OpenAI soared to a private market valuation of $500 billion late last year, and Anthropic said Wednesday that it's valued at $350 billion in a new funding round. WATCH: How Gemini is gaining ground on ChatGPT Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

The U.S. housing market has yet to pick up steam into 2026, but real estate agents say there's been a real shift toward a more balanced market, according to the quarterly CNBC Housing Market Survey. Mortgage rates didn't move much at all in the last quarter of 2025, but home prices are steadily easing. Now, there are early signs of what could be more activity ahead. "The buyers I have seen have been buying because of life circumstances, whether it's having a baby or moving for a job or retiring or downsizing," said Ashley Rummage, a real estate agent in Raleigh, North Carolina. That is up from 30% as of the third quarter and is likely because consumers became less confident in the economy as job losses grew. "The people who had been moving and the momentum that we had were definitely slowed down, far, far less by interest rates than the intrinsic factors, the cost of living," said Heather Dell, a real estate agent in Detroit. The CNBC Housing Market Survey is a national inquiry of real estate agents selected randomly across the United States. Responses for the fourth-quarter survey were collected between Dec. 10 and Dec. 17. While the majority of agents said it is still a buyer's market due to easing prices and more inventory for sale, some agents noted that their buyers and sellers still have very different expectations. CNBC's Property Play with Diana Olick covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, delivered weekly to your inbox. "Buyers tend to think that the market is like 2008 and sellers tend to think that the market is closer to 2021, 2022, and those are diametrically opposed markets and diametrically opposed mindsets," said John Fragola, a real estate agent in Charleston, South Carolina. Meanwhile, 2021 came shortly after the start of the Covid pandemic, when there was a buying frenzy and inventory dropped to record lows, giving sellers all the power. More agents, 92%, reported having at least one seller cut their price in the fourth quarter, compared with 89% in the previous quarter, according to CNBC's survey. "Concessions have gotten bigger, especially in my market," Rummage said. "At the beginning of the year, unfortunately, a lot of sellers were still stuck in the 2021 mindset, but as the year has gone by and their listings sat, they had to get more comfortable with understanding the fact that they were probably going to have to offer some concessions to get the transaction done." While prices are easing, they are still historically high, but buyers appear to be getting used to that as the new normal. When asked how affordability is impacting their buyers, agents said fewer buyers left the market in the fourth quarter than in the prior period, and fewer delayed purchases. They also compromised less on things like home size, features and location. Cutting prices, however, is not all that palatable to sellers, and more agents reported they had to delist properties than during the third quarter. "I personally had some clients who said, 'Let's just pause, pump the brakes here and we'll come back on in the spring market when there's more buyers out,"' said Fragola. Fully 77% of agents said they expect the full year 2026 to be better than last year. There is more inventory on the market now, and some agents said they think consumers are getting used to current economic conditions. "I think a lot of people are feeling a little bit more comfortable with the unknown," Rummage said. "Sentiment has shifted from anxiety to cautious optimism." Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Ashley publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. GitHub is a leading software development platform that Microsoft acquired in 2018. GitHub had an early lead because of its popularity as a place to store code. Lately, though, GitHub has faced more competition from AI tools such as Cursor and Anthropic's Claude Code. Microsoft in January 2025 formed a new group focused on building AI tools under ex-Facebook engineering boss Jay Parikh. Still, Microsoft and GitHub have remained somewhat separate, and the company has been moving people and resources around over the past few months to better coordinate efforts such as sales, one of the people said. The latest change, happening this week, is moving a small group of Microsoft engineers over to GitHub. The goal, the people said, is to better compete with AI coding tools that rival GitHub Copilot, while getting in the race to build AI agents and fulfill Parikh's vision to build an "agent factory." Every time Ashley publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Ashley and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The latest changes are also part of what Parikh said would be new investment in improving the basic parts of GitHub. In the meeting, Parikh said those include making improvements to its GitHub Actions tool that automates building, testing, and deploying code, analytics and insights tools so teams can see how their code is performing, security for keeping the code safe, and making sure the company can meet local data storage rules to offer GitHub in new countries.

Every time Lloyd publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Ford said it's developing autonomous capabilities, such as eyes-off driving, that will be ready for public roads by 2028. The legacy automaker said in an announcement on Wednesday that it will be cheaper to develop self-driving technology in-house than to seek an outside supplier. "Because we own the technology behind our driver assistance systems, we can deliver significantly more capability at a 30% lower cost than if we bought it from outside suppliers, which makes advanced driver assistance scalable," Ford announced during CES in Las Vegas. Chris Morse, a spokesperson for Ford, told Business Insider that the cost is compared to "the supplier system that we have on-road today." "These are some of the key reasons why we can get to that price point." Costa said Ford has "great suppliers," but seeking third parties doesn't allow for integration of modules, and the size of the computers themselves is larger. "To integrate, I can't do this with all these suppliers," he said. "We need to bring this stuff in-house, and it allows for this ability to do the trifecta at once: smaller, cheaper, and higher performance." There are several players in the business of licensing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for car makers, including Nvidia, Waymo, and Wayve, among others. Ford previously announced a partnership with Mobileye in 2020 to develop its ADAS software, called BlueCruise. Leading EV companies in the US — namely Tesla and Rivian — have taken an in-house approach to developing their own self-driving technology. Costa told Business Insider that Ford isn't interested in making its own chip and the automaker is happy with its current suppliers. "Honestly, I don't want custom silicon," he later added.

President Donald Trump took executive action aimed at defense contractors after a series of Truth Social posts. In his post, the president blasted defense contractors for issuing "massive" dividends and buying back their stock. "Therefore, I will not permit Dividends or Stock Buybacks for Defense Companies until such time as these problems are rectified," he wrote. Trump also took issue with what he called "exorbitant and unjustifiable" compensation packages for industry executives. Until companies build "NEW and MODERN" production plants, defense execs should be making no more than $5 million, he said, without providing details on how those guidelines would be implemented. He later singled out Raytheon in a Truth Social post. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider. Defense stocks fell after Trump's Truth Social post on Wednesday. The defense sector has been a big focus for Trump dating back to his first term as president. In the past year, he's floated projects like creating a Golden Dome missile defense system and signed off on increasing defense spending to a record $901 billion.