Every time Jake 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. New satellite imagery shows several destroyed American-made F-14 fighter jets at an Iranian airbase that was recently targeted by Israeli strikes. The images, collected on Monday by the US spatial intelligence firm Vantor and obtained by Business Insider, show visible wreckage of at least two F-14 Tomcats on the apron at the 8th Tactical Air Base in Isfahan, a city in central Iran. At least two of the F-14s were destroyed by airstrikes — one of the jets was completely replaced by a massive scorch mark. The Israeli military said on Sunday that its forces carried out airstrikes at the Isfahan airport, targeting an undisclosed number of F-14 fighter jets two days after it bombed more than a dozen Iranian aircraft at the Mehrabad airport in Tehran. The Tomcat remained a celebrated aircraft, though, thanks in part to its appearance in the 1986 and 2022 "Top Gun" movies. In the years since, Tehran's fleet has slowly declined as maintenance and logistical challenges grew. It is now believed to have only a few dozen left, though the exact figure is uncertain. International sanctions and embargoes have rendered Iran's air force largely obsolete. It's limited airpower has forced Tehran to rely on ballistic missiles and attack drones to project power. The US and Israel have heavily targeted Iranian aircraft, as well as its ballistic missile and drone capabilities, since they began their intensive bombing campaign on February 28. Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, said American forces alone had struck more than 5,500 targets inside Iran as of Wednesday. American military leadership has assessed that Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks across the Middle East have decreased by 90% and 83%, respectively, since the war began.

Oracle shares rose 12% Wednesday after the company posted robust third-quarter earnings and assured analysts that the company does not plan to raise any additional debt in 2026 beyond what was already announced. "Investing in AI infrastructure is capital-intensive, but our operating model is optimized to ensure profitability," CEO Clayton Magouyrk said on the company's earnings call Tuesday. The hyperscaler has drawn skepticism for the financing measures funding its data center construction. Last month, the company said it intends to raise up to $50 billion in 2026 with a combination of debt and equity, with no expectations to issue additional bonds. "We have signed more than $29 billion of contracts since then across multiple customers using that new model," Magouyrk said. "A combination of bring-your-own-hardware and upfront customer payments enables us to continue expanding without any negative cash flow from Oracle." Magouyrk also noted that Oracle delivered 90% of 400 megawatt data centers on or ahead of schedule in the third quarter. Fears of an AI bubble have taken a toll on software stocks, including Oracle, which is down over 50% from its all-time high in September and about 15% year to date. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) is down 18% so far in 2026. In cloud revenue for the third quarter, including infrastructure and software as a service, Oracle reported $8.9 billion, a 44% increase from last year. "Oracle's core AI and cloud numbers and backlog tell a very healthy and robust AI Revolution demand story," Wedbush's Dan Ives wrote in a note Tuesday. He added that the report will be viewed as a "huge relief for the software and tech sector." We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Sen. Tim Scott on Wednesday said he hopes the federal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell "goes away" so the Senate can take up the nomination of Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump's pick to replace the head of the U.S. central bank. "That proceeding going away allows for us to get the Fed fully functioning, back on target," Scott, who chairs the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said during an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box." Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has vowed to hold up any Fed nominees until a federal criminal investigation into Powell is resolved. Trump floated the idea of firing Powell last year and lashed out at the Fed chair for refusing to cut interest rates to the extent he desired. Powell has denied any wrongdoing and has said he is being targeted for refusing to accede to Trump's demands. Powell, whose term as chair ends in May, was expected to testify before Congress on Feb. 11, but missed that date because of the federal probe, Scott said. "I had a conversation with Jay about his testimony," Scott said. "I recommended that he come before the committee." Congress can compel an elected official to testify, but the Banking committee did not do that with Powell in this case. Tillis is otherwise supportive of Warsh, who Trump nominated for the role in January, but doubled down on his blockade after meeting with the Fed nominee on Tuesday. "I think this is a foul." "This is about this is bedrock principle of Fed independence," Tillis told reporters Tuesday. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., another Banking committee member, told CNBC earlier Wednesday he sees no reason why some Democrats won't support Warsh's nomination. "There's really no reason by anything from he's ever said or that he's done that, that Democrats shouldn't support his nomination," Cramer, who was scheduled to meet with Warsh on Wednesday, said. "They're going to be rigorous, of course, in their interviewing of him and and the cross examination ... when his hearing takes place. But I think we should be on track to get him across the finish line so that there's no gap between ... the end of Jay Powell's term and the beginning of the new term." Fellow Banking committee member Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said Wednesday he had met with Warsh and urged the Senate to confirm him promptly. "President Trump's Federal Reserve Chairman Nominee Kevin Warsh understands the importance of bringing down high costs and interest rates for working families. He has the experience to get it done and the Senate should confirm him ASAP!" Banks said in a post on X that included a photograph of the senator and Warsh. The investigation into Powell is in part based on testimony Powell gave to the Senate Banking committee last year. Scott has said in the past that he did not believe Powell committed a crime in his testimony, sentiment he repeated Wednesday. "I think he was woefully unprepared. We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Hugh 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. Google's $32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Wiz has officially closed. The search giant announced on Wednesday that Wiz will join Google Cloud at a moment when AI is making cloud security more vital. Wiz offers a platform that helps customers protect data across different cloud services. "As these organizations operate in a multicloud environment and adopt AI, attackers are using AI to operate with greater speed and sophistication," the company added. Google announced last year that it intended to buy Wiz for $32 billion in the search giant's biggest-ever acquisition. Google said Wiz would remain a multicloud offering after the acquisition, meaning it will continue to be made available through rival cloud providers such as Amazon and Microsoft. "Our mission remains as bold as ever: to protect everything organizations build and run," Assaf Rappaport, the CEO of Wiz, said in a blog post.

It said that the reserves would be released over a time frame that is appropriate to the circumstances of each of its 32 member countries. IEA members are primarily advanced economies in Europe, North America and northeast Asia. The organization is tasked with maintaining global energy security. It was founded in 1974 in response to the oil embargo imposed by Arab producers over U.S. support for Israel during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. "The conflict in the Middle East is having significant impacts on global oil and gas markets, with major implications for energy security, energy affordability and the global economy for oil," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in remarks broadcast from the group's headquarters in Paris. "I can now announce that IEA countries have unanimously decided to launch the largest-ever release of emergency oil stocks in our agency's history," Birol said. IEA members currently hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation. But tanker traffic must resume through the Strait of Hormuz to bring stable oil and gas flows back to the global market, Birol said. Roughly 20% of global oil and gas usually passes through it. Tanker traffic through the Strait has ground to a standstill as shippers fear attacks by Iran. Earlier in the day, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the country intended to release oil stockpiles from its national reserves as early as next week, citing an "exceptionally high level of dependence" on the Middle East. The closure of the Strait has triggered the biggest oil supply disruption in history, according to analyses by consulting firms Rapidan Energy Group and Wood Mackenzie. Middle East producers are cutting production and refinery operations are disrupted with major implications for diesel and jet fuel supplies in particular, Birol said. Attacks continue to damage energy and energy-related infrastructure, he said. The global liquefied natural gas, or LNG, supply has been reduced by 20%, forcing higher-income economies in Asia to compete with Europe for available cargoes, the IEA chief said. LNG is a form of natural gas that is chilled into a liquid so it can be loaded onto tankers for export. Natural gas is used for electricity production and home heating around the world. Oil prices have been extremely volatile since the outbreak of the Iran war on Feb. 28, with global benchmark Brent crude rallying to nearly $120 a barrel at the start of the week, before falling back to around $90. We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Jordan 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. Hypebeasts had the chance to get their designer drip at Costco stores. The wholesale mega store stirred online conversations last week as fashionphiles discovered a stash of Off-White hoodies being sold at some Costco locations in Canada. what the hellyyyyyy #costco #offwhite #costcofinds #costcocanada #shopping The hoodies popped up weeks after Off-White presented its Fall/Winter 2026 Paris Fashion Week. Costco's listings appeared unavailable as of Wednesday morning, as did an Instagram post from Costco Canada about the drop. Some Redditors said the hoodies were sold out online. Costco and Bluestar Alliance, which owns Off-White, did not respond to requests for comment. Others argued that Abloh might've made the same choice to partner with Costco to make the brand more accessible. It quietly released a pair of Kirkland Signature Nike Dunks in January, sending sneakerheads into a frenzy to get their hands on them. Costco's Kirkland Signature private-label brand is known for its reliable basics, like hoodies and T-shirts.

Every time Thibault 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. Sweet rejected the idea that Accenture's tracking of AI use amounts to coercion. Every time Thibault publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Thibault 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. Its tracking of AI use is part of Sweet's push to make Accenture "AI-first," a strategy she said requires leaders to deeply understand what the technology can and cannot do. "I knew that if they didn't understand the power, they would not be able to help us actually transform how we're delivering our services and what our clients could use it for," she said. Accenture has since doubled down on AI by partnering with ChatGPT last December, expanding its partnership with Anthropic a week later, cutting employees it can't retrain with AI skills, and launching a new business division focused on AI called "reinvention services" last September. Accenture isn't the only major company tying AI use to career advancement. And at Amazon, promotion packets in some divisions now include AI usage. Jamie Siminoff — the Ring founder who was brought back to Amazon in 2025 to oversee its Blink, Key, and Sidewalk businesses — said last July in an internal email viewed by Business Insider that employees applying for promotion at his RBKS organization must explain how they're using AI at work. "I would go even deeper than that," Siminoff told Business Insider last October. We're going to promote based on how you're integrating AI into your job."

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Wednesday that the International Energy Agency should release oil stockpiles to address the massive supply disruption triggered by the Iran war. "Certainly these are the kinds of moments that these reserves are used for, because what we have here is not a shortage of energy in the world," Burgum told Fox News in an interview. "We've got a transit problem which is temporary," he said. "When you have a temporary transit problem that we're resolving militarily and diplomatically, which we can resolve and will resolve, this is the perfect time to think about releasing some of those to take some pressure off of the global price." Japan's Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae told reporters Wednesday that Tokyo plans to independently release stockpiled oil as early as Monday, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK. The IEA convened an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss a stockpile release, but has not yet publicly announced a recommendation. Its member countries hold about 1.2 billion barrels of oil in reserve. The IEA's 32 members are advanced economies in Europe, North America and Northeast Asia. The Iran war has triggered the biggest oil supply disruption in history, as most tankers are unwilling to transit the critical Strait of Hormuz because they fear attacks by the Islamic Republic. The Strait is a narrow maritime passage between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman that is vital for global oil exports. We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.

Shares of Nebius Group popped 14% on Wednesday after Nvidia announced it would invest $2 billion in the artificial intelligence cloud company. As part of the deal, the companies will collaborate on AI infrastructure deployment, fleet management, inference and AI factory design and support, according to a release. Nvidia will also give Nebius early access to the latest generation of its accelerated computing platform as the company looks to deploy more than five gigawatts of capacity by the end of 2030. "Nebius is building an AI cloud designed for the agentic era, fully integrated from silicon to software and powered by NVIDIA's next-generation accelerated compute," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement. The announcement comes a week after Nvidia unveiled strategic partnerships with Lumentum and Coherent, investing $2 billion in each company. The chipmaking giant also announced a "significant investment" in Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab on Tuesday as part of a new multiyear strategic partnership. Huang said during a conference earlier this month that those investments might be the last time Nvidia invests in those companies before they go public. Nvidia has been one of the biggest benefactors of the AI boom because it produces the graphics processing units, or GPUs, that are required to train models and run large AI workloads. The chipmaker's Wednesday announcement builds on Nebius' ongoing efforts to deploy Nvidia's infrastructure, including in multiple gigawatt-scale AI factories in the U.S. "Nebius has been built for AI since day one — not adapted from a general-purpose cloud, but designed for what developers actually need," Nebius CEO Arkady Volozh said in a statement. "Now with NVIDIA, we are extending that throughout the stack — from gigawatt-scale AI factories to inference and software — as we build one of the first and largest clouds for all AI builders everywhere." WATCH: Large cap tech stocks like Nvidia are a deal now, says Silvant Capital's Michael Sansoterra Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Tech companies have been funnelling billions of dollars into AI infrastructure projects in the Middle East over the past few years, drawn in by cheap and readily available energy and land, alongside local government support. Iran's wave of retaliatory attacks hit AWS facilities in the UAE and Bahrain, causing banking, payments, enterprise and consumer services to experience outages. There could be a "shift in where the next wave of capacity gets built," Patrick J. Murphy, executive director of the geopolitical unit at Hilco Global, told CNBC. "If geopolitical risk continues to rise in the Gulf, companies may accelerate projects in places like Northern Europe, India or Southeast Asia, where power supply, regulatory frameworks and security conditions are more predictable." A concerted push by governments in the region to attract international investment — and divest away from China to appease the U.S. administration — has borne fruit. Saudi company Humain is pouring billions of dollars into AI infrastructure buildouts and Microsoft said it would invest $15 billion into the UAE by 2029. Those strikes signal that data centers may now be "considered legitimate targets for attack in modern armed conflicts," Aalok Mehta, director at think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "This will significantly change how companies think about data center security going forward." AI infrastructure firms will likely be making contingency plans because of the situation, he added. There are still big draws for companies looking to build AI infrastructure in the Middle East. "The region remains attractive to companies in terms of capital from sovereign wealth funds, government buy-in, available energy and its role as a gateway to markets in the global south," Tess deBlanc-Knowles, senior director at think tank Atlantic Council, told CNBC. Governments in the Middle East will also likely be racing to reassure U.S. companies and encourage them to maintain commitments in the region. "It is investing many billions of dollars to support the AI transition and has also played a central role in facilitating many of the big AI infrastructure partnerships." Given the huge costs invested in already operational facilities, alongside the power contracts, land agreements and fiber connectivity, it's unlikely AI hyperscalers will look to relocate built capacity. "Relocating or closing facilities could therefore lead to service-level agreement breaches and reputational risk." But scenario planning around the Iran war and its impact on the wider Middle East region will be weighing on investment committees and boards. Rather than exiting the region, companies could take steps to "hedge their investments," by slowing new capital deployments or pausing planned partnerships, deBlanc-Knowles said. Should the conflict persist or escalate, those hedges may transition into an "evaluation of alternative regional hubs to reduce exposure to sustained disruptions from a wider regional conflict," she added. The Iran war could cause digital infrastructure developer Pure Data Centre Group — which has operational data centers in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, and is planning further expansion in the Middle East — to "slow down" in the region, Gary Wojtaszek, chairman and interim chief executive officer at the company, told CNBC. And now it's like, okay, well, maybe we'll slow down here." "But I do think that eventually the hostilities are going to settle down," he said, adding that "there's going to be a lot more focus on doing development there" in the future. Companies could start cost-benefit calculations to guide their future investment plans, said Mehta. "They'll be asking questions like: How long might this war last? Are there any viable alternative sites for data center buildouts? How much delay would shifting to an alternative location cause?" Google and Microsoft declined to comment on how the Iran war was impacting its data center and AI infrastructure projects in the region. AWS, G42, Humain and OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Amazon's Zoox is making its toaster-shaped self-driving vehicles available through the Uber app in Las Vegas starting this summer, the latest sign of momentum in the nascent but fast-growing robotaxi market. As part of a multiyear partnership announced Wednesday, the companies said they plan to make Zoox rides available in Los Angeles next year. In both cities, Zoox will continue to offer rides on its own app as well. Amazon, which acquired Zoox in 2020, is way behind Alphabet's Waymo, the U.S. robotaxi leader. Waymo said in February that it had surpassed 400,000 weekly rides across six U.S. metro areas. It's now operating its service commercially in 10 U.S. cities, and aiming for expansion to London and Tokyo in 2026. Meanwhile, robotaxi companies in Asia, including Baidu's Apollo Go, WeRide and Pony.AI, continue to expand. Baidu reported that in the fourth quarter, its peak weekly rides surpassed 300,000. Zoox's deal with Uber is a sign of growing confidence in Amazon's ability to expand after years of development, and marks the company's first tie-up with a third-party platform. "This partnership is an opportunity to continue advancing the use of autonomous mobility in daily life," Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said in a statement. "Through our collaboration, Zoox will provide a differentiated rider experience to those who already know and love the convenience of riding with Uber." During Uber's fourth-quarter earnings call in February, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told analysts that AVs available via his company's app attain "significantly higher utilization" than robotaxis hailed on "stand-alone platforms," basing those estimates on unspecified publicly available data. By the end of 2026, Uber is aiming to offer driverless rides in 15 cities, the company said in a statement. As first-party robotaxi brand services and apps become more familiar to travelers and commuters, they could take market share away from Uber and rivals like Lyft or DiDi in China. Tesla has launched a Robotaxi-branded app and ride-sharing service, and has begun testing a small number of driverless vehicles in Austin in its fleet. Zoox began offering free driverless rides last year around the Las Vegas Strip and certain San Francisco neighborhoods. While it's served more than 300,000 riders, the company said in early March it's not yet offering paid rides. Earlier this week, Zoox announced an expansion of its testing efforts across some cities in the South. The Zoox robotaxis have been nicknamed "toasters" due to their shape, with a low step, doors that automatically open and close, and seats that face each other. Zoox is seeking an exemption from U.S. regulators to commercially deploy its robotaxis. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

The EU must not abandon plans to ditch Russian oil and gas, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said, as the war in Iran causes a painful supply crunch. The EU has scaled back imports of Russian energy since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and is planning an outright ban on all Russian energy imports. Europe is particularly vulnerable to an energy shock, and more Moscow-friendly European states like Hungary have called for a lifting of EU sanctions on Russian energy imports to ease the supply crisis. Von der Leyen said on Wednesday that it would be a mistake for the EU to abandon its strategy that aims to deprive Russia of revenues from its energy sales that fund its war machine against Ukraine. "In the current crisis, some argue that we should abandon our long-term strategy and even go back to Russian fossil fuels. She said the EU was preparing other options to lower energy prices for its 27 constituent states, including state aid measures, power purchasing agreements and subsidies or caps on energy prices. As prices soar, G7 energy ministers have met in Paris to discuss the possible release of emergency oil stocks held by the International Energy Agency. A decision is set to be made later on Wednesday. Von der Leyen was speaking after Russian President Vladimir Putin has already said his government "may decide not to wait for Europe to completely reject its oil and gas." The EU has looked to drastically reduce its reliance on Russian energy, with imports dropping to approximately 13% for both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline gas, and below 3% for oil in 2025 — down from 45% and 27%, respectively, in 2021. In January, the Council of the EU adopted a regulation to prohibit LNG and pipeline gas imports from Russia from March 18, with transition periods for existing contracts. By the end of 2027, all Russian gas imports will be prohibited, it said. Yet all of Russia's LNG exports from its Arctic Yamal facility went to EU nations in February, showing an outright ban could be a struggle for the bloc. On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that the country's companies will redirect part of the LNG currently being supplied to European countries to other markets, without waiting for the EU's import ban to take effect, per Interfax. His comments came after Putin asked the government and companies to consider halting gas supplies to the European market without waiting for an import ban. "Some other markets are opening up, and it might be more advantageous for us to halt shipments to the European market right now and go to the markets that are opening up and gain a foothold there," the Russian president said on March 4. He added: "If they close themselves to us in a month or two, we'd better halt [supplies] right now and go to countries that are reliable partners and gain a foothold there." The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC. Russia-friendly states Hungary and Slovakia have shunned efforts to outlaw Russian supplies, and have continued to import Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline, and gas via associated transit lines, that run through Ukraine. In late February, Hungary accused Ukraine of deliberately keeping the pipeline closed and of effectively imposing an oil "blockade" on the country. Ukraine said the pipeline had been shut because of Russian attacks. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Grace 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. Macrohard, XAI's ambitious AI agent project, has stalled following leadership shake-ups and suspension of a data project involving 600 contractors, people familiar with the situation told Business Insider. At the same time, Musk's other company, Tesla, has been ramping up its own AI agent project called "Digital Optimus," according to workers. CEO Elon Musk announced Macrohard — a tongue-in-cheek reference to "Microsoft" — in August. Since "software companies like Microsoft do not themselves manufacture any physical hardware, it should be possible to simulate them entirely with AI," he said on X at the time. The effort has aimed to build an AI white-collar worker. Since its launch, Macrohard has shuffled between a number of leaders and faced difficulty scaling up, according to company insiders. During an all-hands meeting shortly thereafter, Musk announced that xAI cofounder Toby Pohlen would oversee the project. Nearly two dozen xAI engineers identified themselves as working on Macrohard via X or LinkedIn. Most have left the company or shifted to a different team in recent months, including more than a dozen departures in the past month alone. Tesla has also been working on an AI agent known internally as "Digital Optimus," a nod to the humanoid robot Tesla has been building since 2021. The digital version is meant to act as an AI agent that can perform tasks on a computer. In February, Tesla posted a role for an AI engineer to work on a computer use agent — a similar type of agent that xAI's Macrohard has focused on — that can perform tasks like "autonomous software interaction, code generation, and real-time decision-making." Instead of relying primarily on models that analyze screenshots, which is a common approach for computer-use agents, the team is focusing on real-time control methods. In other words, the AI processes a continuous stream of information and responds, rather than analyzing a frozen image and acting step by step. The approach is similar to how its Full Self-Driving system processes live video. Musk has repeatedly told xAI employees that the project should emulate Tesla's work with Full Self-Driving, which uses video data to help the AI learn to navigate its environment in real time. Tesla has also used similar techniques in developing its humanoid robot. It marks a different strategy from xAI's Macrohard project, which was trained primarily on static images rather than continuous video. xAI employs around a thousand contract workers who help hone Grok and teach it to do everything from maintain a conversational tone to generate realistic images. Workers were told at the time that data collection would resume in two to four weeks. As of this week, the project is still on pause. Separately, xAI had tutors working to hone the agent's ability to act as an AI sales assistant for SpaceX's website and a separate project that trained the system on how to use spreadsheets, people with knowledge of the teams said. Tesla and xAI have collaborated in the past, including on integrating Grok into vehicles. In a January podcast appearance, Sulaiman Ghori, an xAI engineer who worked on Macrohard and has since left the company, compared xAI's work to a digital version of Optimus. Just as the humanoid robot performs physical human actions, he said, the AI agent would be able to perform human actions in a digital environment.

Every time Melia 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. In the battle for Big Law's business, legal artificial intelligence startup Legora is bulking up its talent roster. Legora is acquiring Canadian legal-tech startup Walter to sharpen its tools for lawyers, the companies tell Business Insider exclusively. Legora, based in Stockholm, sells software to law firms and corporate legal departments that aims to free up lawyers from busywork. In recent years, investors have poured billions of dollars into startups trying to win over law firms as customers. Not all of the tools will survive the transition, and some are looking for buyers with distribution and balance sheets strong enough to carry them. With this initial acquisition, Legora is signaling its intent to be one of those buyers. Bringing Walter into the fold, he said, accelerates that vision — and gives Legora a team already building in the direction it wants to go. Forty days ago, Ryan Wilson, Walter's cofounder and chief executive, had never met Junestrand. A repeat tech founder based in Vancouver, he created the company after growing frustrated with how legal services are delivered. Instead of trying to pull lawyers into a new software platform, it began building agents — tools that can carry out multi-step tasks with minimal human hand-holding. These agents worked directly inside Microsoft Word and Outlook, where much of the legal profession already lives and works. Over the next few months, Walter booked more revenue than it had totaled in three years prior, Wilson said. The company had raised millions of dollars in investment, Wilson said. Wilson said on his first call with Junestrand, the two traded demos and discovered they were building many of the same features, just in a slightly different order. They were, as Wilson put it, "an ocean apart," but pursuing an eerily similar vision for how legal tech should evolve and how to get there. Just as important, he said, was alignment on values. After multiple exits — he most recently sold Ollie Order, a Canadian alcohol marketplace, to the private-equity backed software company Next Glass in 2021 — Wilson said he had the luxury of putting culture over price. Walter's team is small and tightly knit, and all nine employees have invested their own money in the company. Any deal, he said, had to reflect that. Everyone at Walter is joining Legora, with most moving to Stockholm. For Legora, this acquisition looks to be about speed. By absorbing a team that was building similar tools inside a lawyer's daily workflow, the company can accelerate its push toward more autonomous software and deepen its bench in a tight AI talent market. Instead of competing for distribution in an increasingly crowded field, its team will plug into a better-capitalized platform with ambitions to become Big Law's global default workspace.

Every time Bryan 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. Mark Cuban is pretty down on the Democrats these days — but there are a couple that have caught his eye. During an appearance at the Punchbowl News Conference in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, the billionaire businessman named Texas Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as two Democrats whom he's impressed with. Talarico, a 36-year-old state representative who's waged an anti-billionaire campaign and whose politics are heavily inflected with Christianity, recently defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett to become the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Texas. Every time Bryan publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Bryan 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. "They know if you feed the algorithm, everybody gets — at least the younger voters get — most of their information and news from social media, whether it's YouTube or whatever it may be," Cuban said. The billionaire businessman waded into politics in a big way in 2024, emerging as perhaps the most prominent business-world supporter of former Vice President Kamala Harris. Since Harris's loss to President Donald Trump, Cuban has expressed disillusionment with the party. "The Democrats couldn't sell dollar bills for 50 cents. They just are awful salespeople," Cuban said on Tuesday. Reached for comment, Cuban told Business Insider in an email that Trump, Talarico, and Mamdani are the three politicians who "most understand how to make the algorithms work for them."

Every time Huileng 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. 2025 was another strong year for China's economy — on paper. Underneath the surface, however, things were not as anodyne. Many young Chinese millennials and Gen Zers, who are trading down on everything from fashion to career ambition, are gripped in a deep sense of morass. "Even though a recession has not taken place, a lot of the symptoms of recession have been experienced by this young generation, particularly around unemployment and underemployment," Zak Dychtwald, who runs consumer research firm Young China Group, tells me. Youth unemployment is high — around 17% — and that number also doesn't capture the growing number of graduates taking jobs they never expected to need. Last year, Chinese social media lit up after a Ph.D. graduate posted about turning to food delivery work. Around the same time, a gas company announced it was recruiting graduates and postgraduates as meter readers. "College education has become much more attainable for young adults," said Zhou Yun, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan. "Yet the returns to college education have not kept pace." As young adults in China confront an economy that no longer seems able to deliver on the promise of a steadily better future, a scarcity mindset is shaping their everyday spending decisions. Stagnant job prospects and weak price growth have revived questions about whether China could face a prolonged period of stagnation similar to Japan's "lost decades," when consumers delayed spending in anticipation of ever-lower prices, reinforcing a cycle of weak growth, subdued wages, and resignation that the future would look no better than the present. That doesn't mean China is on the verge of repeating Japan's lost decades. Dychtwald described 2025 as a more stable year than the earlier post-pandemic period. And once hesitation is entrenched, it can be hard to reverse. What has shifted is not just economic momentum, but generational expectation. When China lifted pandemic-era restrictions at the end of 2022, economists and businesses expected its once free-spending consumers to unleash a wave of "revenge spending." After a brief bump in early 2023, consumption quickly lost momentum. Retail sales growth consistently trails the 10% year-over-year gains common before 2020. More recently, retail sales growth in December slowed to a paltry 0.9% compared to the same month a year ago, which was the weakest pace since reopening and a stark contrast to the supposedly stable GDP numbers. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday in February — one of the country's most important consumption periods — has a few bright spots: daily revenues at key retailers and restaurants rose 5.7% year over year, while tourist revenues rose 5.7%, according to official figures. But average spending per trip actually slipped 0.2% from a year earlier, Nomura economists found, suggesting that while more people traveled, they remained cautious about how much they spent. Spending is particularly slow among younger millennials and Gen Z consumers. Once lovers of all things luxury, China's young are retreating from the likes of Louis Vuitton and Gucci to safer stores of value like solid-gold beans, or small comforts such as Pop Mart collectibles and a viral crying horse plushie — muted expressions of unease that have survived the censorship. Mainland Chinese consumers now account for around one-fifth of global luxury brand sales, down sharply from about one-third at their peak. At the time, many analysts worried more that young people were overspending. It takes the belief that next month is going to be as good as the last month," Dychtwald tells me. But China's demand problem increasingly looks like it can't be solved by nudging wallets alone. It hinges on something more fragile: whether young people — once expected to power the consumer economy — still believe the future will reward risk. Perhaps no element was more important than getting in on the real estate game. Similar to its Western counterparts, China is now seeing that narrative fall apart. Not only are jobs harder to find, but the source of wealth for most middle-class Chinese, real estate, has tanked. New home prices in China have fallen nearly every single month since mid-2022. Nationwide, property prices have fallen by about 20% since they reached their peak in the third quarter of 2021. This nasty deleveraging is destabilizing a key source of security for young people, Dychtwald says. And while the Chinese stock market has been booming since DeepSeek shocked the AI world last year, its wealth effect tends to be smaller than the housing wealth effect in China, Goldman Sachs wrote in a recent report. Chinese households hold the majority of their assets in real estate — often estimated at 60% to 70% of total wealth — whereas stock ownership is less widespread and accounts for a much smaller portion of household balance sheets. That fundamental shift helps explain why even a big stimulus project can land softly. When security feels uncertain, incentives become something to bank rather than burn. While the statistics alone paint a bleak picture, if you really want a sense of how Chinese Gen Zers and millennials feel about the economy, just check out their social media. In the past year, some unemployed millennials and Gen Zers have begun openly embracing what they call "rat people" lives, describing days spent largely in bed, doomscrolling, and surviving on cheap takeout. And then there are young adults who are employed as "full-time children" by their parents, who pay them to run errands, clean, and prepare food. In 2024, prominent Chinese economist Gao Shanwen made headlines at an investor conference after describing China's young people as "lifeless," remarks later scrubbed from the internet by censors. Gao says his analysis of regional data showed that the younger a province's population is, the slower its consumption growth tends to be. "Young people are tightening their belts and eating noodles with the lights off." Younger regions, far from powering demand, were lagging behind it. There are also concerns about whether one's child can maintain an upward or at least similar social mobility trajectory," Zhou tells me. China's weak consumer demand is no longer just a domestic problem. For years, global companies and policymakers assumed that Chinese households — especially younger, urban consumers — would become one of the world's most powerful sources of demand, absorbing exports, buying luxury goods, traveling abroad, and underpinning global growth as China's economy matured. If that consumer engine continues to sputter, the consequences extend well beyond China's borders. "For the global economy in 2026, a slowdown in China's pace of economic growth from the 5% pace recorded in 2025 remains a key risk to world GDP growth and exports," Rajiv Biswas, an international economist and the CEO of Asia-Pacific Economics, tells me. One of the most significant downside risks for China's economy next year, he adds, would be if private consumption fails to show a meaningful rebound from its sluggish pace in the second half of 2025. China's current growth model — buoyed by exports and industrial production but weighed down by cautious households — may be enough to keep headline GDP on target. But it does far less to support the kind of demand global companies have been counting on, from luxury goods and autos to travel, services, and commodities. However, if younger consumers remain hesitant — shaped by job insecurity, falling housing wealth, and a scarcity mindset — no amount of policy fine-tuning will quickly change behavior — because economic recoveries depend on spending, and spending starts with belief. Huileng Tan is a senior business reporter based in Singapore, covering markets, the economy, and commodities. Business Insider's Discourse stories provide perspectives on the day's most pressing issues, informed by analysis, reporting, and expertise.

Every time Amanda 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. In the final season of Mad Men, Peggy has an idea for a burger chain commercial that her bosses like. She goes back to her empty yellow legal pad, jots down a new concept from scratch, and returns to eat at the restaurant, even though she'd already visited more than a dozen around the nation. But that messy, circuitous method of deconstructing an idea and starting from a blank page is how she lands on something much better than good. AI has supercharged our era of optimization — or at least the hunger for it. Software engineers work quicker, decks materialize with a few clicks, and AI agents manage email inboxes. Microsoft says AI agents "streamline repetitive and mundane tasks so that users can focus on solving more meaningful challenges." Mark Cuban said late last year that AI empowers "creators to become exponentially more creative." Other business leaders like Eric Yuan of Zoom, Bill Gates, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have teased that the mass adoption of gen AI will free white collar workers from the five-day workweek. Some are working longer hours with AI and taking on a broader range of tasks. The race for productivity and the promise that we'll be able to do more "meaningful" and challenging work misses a sentiment most white-collar workers like Peggy know: There's only so much creative thinking a person can do in a day, and the sloppy, trial and error process of bad ideas that gets to a good one doesn't lend itself to streamlining. Work where people have to hold multiple ideas in their heads, synthesize, connect them, and produce work is "cognitively very taxing," says Emily DeJeu, a professor in Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business. It also just takes a lot of space and bandwidth, and the idea that AI can assist with that, I think, is a bit fallacious." If AI can take over some of our mundane office tasks, and the rush to fill hours with more productivity emerges. Harvard Business Review published new research in February that found "AI tools didn't reduce work, they consistently intensified it." The eight-month-long study examined 200 employees at a US tech company, and found that they worked quicker but picked up longer hours and took on more tasks outside of their job descriptions. People prompted AI tools during their breaks, erasing the lines between work-time and downtime. As employers and employees look to AI to relieve bottlenecks in workflows, "it can be challenging to know which tasks, even though they might be annoying, are contributing to your ultimate learning or your workflow, and which tasks are truly superfluous," says Ben Armstrong, the executive director of MIT's Industrial Performance Center. Not all learning comes from strenuous focus — there are smaller breakthroughs hidden in tedious labor. If an AI model alone analyzes it, the neatly delivered analysis may conceal errors and gaps. "I worry that maybe we're not as good at the higher value added work if we don't do some of those mundane tasks." One of the biggest issues with AI at work is that people use it to skip out on the challenging, critical thinking tasks, like staring at a blank page and coming up with a new strategy or idea, Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown and author "Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout." Newport, who coined the term "deep work," says a lot of AI use "right now is less about speeding up or removing administrative tasks that are in the way or preparing you to better do value production deep work," Newport tells me. Instead, workers are "trying to reduce or avoid the peak cognitive strain of doing harder thinking." They generate workslop and edit their back way through it, preferring to push past the discomfort of starting a new project. Tech companies are promoting a world where you don't need to feel that friction. Research from MIT published last year found that people who used ChatGPT to assist with writing essays over time tended to get lazier and more dependent on the tech. They "consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels" compared to control groups that either had no help in writing essays or those who used Google. Similarly, research last year from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School showed that tools like ChatGPT could help an individual's ideas, but tended to flatten creative thinking among groups. Workers are already noticing that relying too heavily on ChatGPT could cost them a creative edge. Karim Adib, a public relations manager at the software company Search Atlas, tells me he started using gen AI to brainstorm ideas. It's not as efficient as having ChatGPT spit out a bunch of starting points, but Adib says that what eems like more effort is actually more fun. So if me and someone else get the same idea, if we're both executing in the exact same way, that gives me zero advantage." One software engineer and founder wrote on X that he had hit a "vibe coding paralysis," which he defined as "the syndrome of wanting to do so much — and being able to do so much — that you end up finishing nothing." AI made it easy to start projects, but he was then bogged down by editing and de-bugging. The pattern created a "graveyard of almost-finished projects," he wrote. Mundane tasks offer a break for our brain to reset. There's still productivity at play, but it's in filing papers or inputting basic data. Research shows there are benefits to doing chores around the house, from a sense of accomplishment that follows tasks as simple as making the bed to increased self-efficacy, which boosts confidence. Too much boredom can lead to what's recently been deemed as "boreout." But completing boring tasks at work can lead to new bursts of creativity for problem solving, according to a 2014 study from University of Central Lancashire researchers. These little work tasks or a blank page aren't necessarily driving workplace burnout. Feeling like you have no work community, your values don't match the organization's, or that you aren't appropriately rewarded for your work all contribute to the feeling. Newport says part of what's tiring workers is "frenetic" communication. Now, workers are interacting with AI agents and chatbots, leading to more back-and-forth communication taking place at higher speeds with a conversational partner that's always on. "A lot of the things that make us so busy and drive up our long work days, it's not really problem solvable by AI, it's problem solvable by workplace culture." It's not surprising that we're in the midst of a Mad Men rewatch craze. There's something about a show where people deeply know their coworkers and clients (often too intimately), where work moves slowly and all communication is funneled through secretaries, and where the mere concept of putting a computer to the office sends one worker into a full mental breakdown that feels all too poignant as we navigate AI. Turning nothing into something is the challenge that helps people grow. It leads people to feel accomplishment and ownership over their work. But a few quiet, boring moments to tinker and organize can serve as little rituals that anchor us. Amanda Hoover is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. Business Insider's Discourse stories provide perspectives on the day's most pressing issues, informed by analysis, reporting, and expertise.

Every time Cheryl 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. Heat, with legions of fans clutching bags toting pickets bearing their favorite member's face, comparing merchandise hauls like the spoils of war. They've been working together for 11 years, playing to hundreds of thousands of people who cross continents just to see their favorite boys. I've been following Seventeen for just over a year now, which makes me a newbie Carat — the name the group has for its fans. The band, which is down four members because of South Korea's mandatory military service, has been touring the US and East Asia, playing over 26 shows to date, to close to 800,000 people. Seventeen kicked off the "NEW_" tour in South Korea on September 13 and 14, and did shows in five US cities. They're back after a short break following their winter dome tour in four Japanese cities. Taylor Swift performed six nights at the stadium in 2024, and Lady Gaga did four shows there in May 2025. Seventeen played the venue for two nights in January 2025. They kicked off the show with tracks from their 2025 album, "Happy Burstday," which sold over 2.52 million copies in its first week of release. The group also dug deep into their archives and pulled out tracks like "Hot," "Hit" and "Rock" for a segment that the members said was particularly hard to get through because of the strenuous choreography. Every member of the team got their fair share of airtime with the nine solo songs, each showcasing their personal style. Korean-American member Vernon went full pop-rock and brought out his electric guitar for "Shining Star." Joshua — the group's other Korean-American, and my favorite band member — kicked off a segment of ballads with his saccharine solo song, "Fortunate Change." Hong is fresh off an appearance at the Golden Globes and this year's Super Bowl. That was right after the electro-dance party number, "Skyfall," from his bandmate The8. The rapper — like his teammates Joshua, Mingyu, and Jun — is a fashion week regular in Europe. S.Coups was the reason Jackie Ko flew in from California. This was Ko's 11th time at a Seventeen concert and first abroad. Ko told me she spent around $2,500 for the trip. He's my motivation to keep going, no matter what life throws at me." Seventeen is part of an industry that generates billions in annual revenue. The group's parent company Hybe is riding Seventeen and similar groups' success: Shares are up 55% in the last year. For four hours, there is nothing that shines brighter or makes me happier than watching Seventeen perform. In these troubled times, that's something worth holding onto. "The feeling of being in a stadium with other fans enjoying the same moment is so healing," Aw said. "I don't think anything can compare to how a good concert makes me feel, and that gives me strength to deal with many things in life."