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John Morgan has an estimated wealth of $1.5 billion, according to Forbes, placing him on its 2025 Billionaires List.
Morgan started his personal-injury firm, Morgan & Morgan, in 1988. Today, he has offices in all 50 US states and employs more than 1,000 lawyers. Morgan pioneered legal advertising, putting his face on ads across hundreds of US cities.
Other than his law firm, Morgan owns a collection of science museums, malls, billboard companies, and even a crime and punishment attraction that houses the original white Bronco that O.J. Simpson used to flee from the police.
Morgan sat down with Business Insider to discuss how he accumulated his wealth, the tragic motivation that led him to personal-injury law, the power and responsibility of wealth, and the dangers he believes a globally increasing wealth gap will one day create for both the rich and the poor.
In five years' time, our jobs will look different because of AI.
The consulting firm EY has given its employees an AI tool to help them anticipate what will change.
I wondered if ChatGPT or Gemini could do the same for me as a reporter.
A leader at the Big Four firm EY recently told me that the firm has introduced an AI tool to help their employees navigate the uncertainty around jobs that the new technology is creating.
It's part of an internal training program known as AI Now 2.0, which prompts EY employees to answer a series of questions about their job, day-to-day responsibilities, and overall deliverables.
They upload the answers to EYQ, the firm's internal ChatGPT-like tool, and it generates an analysis of how their current role might change because of the impact of AI. The goal is to help them identify the skills, knowledge, and abilities they might need in the future.
Most industries are facing AI-triggered upheaval, but professional services firms are in a particularly tight spot.
Consultants are the experts that other businesses turn to for advice, meaning the pressure is on to make AI work internally. While it presents opportunities, AI is also forcing firms to reconsider long-held pricing models, talent structures, and the services they offer.
Newsrooms are just as exposed to AI's unpredictability and opportunity.
Inspired by EY, I wanted to see if AI could predict how my job as a reporter will change over the next five years.
My prompts
I told both chatbots to act like "an organizational strategist," programming them to respond like someone who has done expert research on the possible impact that AI will have on my job rather than provide chatty advice.
I described myself as a "reporter for Business Insider" who covers the Big Four professional services firms and workplace culture, and listed some of my key job responsibilities.
Then I asked for a future role analysis, asking the chatbots to highlight only the most significant changes.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT predicted that AI will increasingly take on tasks like structural drafting, information-gathering, and generating background context in stories. It said there will be a suite of "built-in extras" to support the publishing process in real time, like smart templates and pulling up older coverage immediately.
With tools at my disposal to help speed up the reporting process, my edge as a reporter will come from providing "leaked memos, off-the-record sentiment, organizational politics, and nuanced interpretations that AI cannot surface on its own," according to ChatGPT.
A screenshot of ChatGPTs response to my prompt.
Polly Thompson/ ChatGPT
I pushed ChatGPT a bit more, asking what new knowledge and skills I'd need to succeed as AI changes my industry, and how I could mitigate some of the key ethical and legal risks.
It told me to develop AI fluency by learning to prompt effectively, evaluate AI outputs critically, and use analytics to flag stories earlier.
On ethics, the big takeaway was essentially: don't trust AI outputs, and you'll be fine — a reassuring conclusion that also neatly undermined my entire experiment.
But ChatGPT had a message of encouragement: If I follow its upskilling guidelines and evolve with the tools, then my future job will not be threatened by AI.
"Your role sits at the intersection of access + judgment + context — areas where AI consistently falls short," the tool told me.
Gemini
Gemini's response to my initial prompt was more impressive, if a little overwhelming.
The tool produced a 3400-word strategy document for me titled "The Alogorithmic Nexus: A Future Role Analysis for the Business Insider Big Four Reporter in the era of Generative AI."
Perhaps the deep analysis should have been unsurprising given that Google launched the latest update to its AI model, Gemini 3, this month to rave reviews.
Gemini said that AI's "primary impact" will be undermining reporters' ability to get scoops, as companies develop AI systems for corporate surveillance and secrets detection. Journalists need an "immediate upgrade in secure sourcing tradecraft," it warned.
This suggestion was surprising to me, as typically reporters avoid using any digital footprint a company could monitor when talking to employees — see Business Insider's guide here. I'm not sure how AI would change that.
A screenshot of a table created by Gemini highlighting how core journalistic tasks will change.
Polly Thompson/ Gemini
Like ChatGPT, Gemini said AI tools will help augment the research and writing process, and that I'll spend less time drafting and more time on verification.
On skills, Gemini gave me more detailed advice, suggesting I develop RAG literacy to improve my algorithmic research and use AI tools like Reality Defender to support digital verification.
Google's tool was more cautious about my future outlook, saying that my job security is not guaranteed by simply adopting AI.
"Your future value depends on shifting your function from a content creator to an ethical supervisor and veracity gatekeeper over all information," Gemini said.
A helpful exercise
Simon Brown, global learning and development leader at EY, told me that EY's tool "helps to show and bring to life in a totally relevant way where AI might be able to help them."
My test wasn't exactly lab-grade science — I haven't seen the responses that EY's tool generates, or the prompts and programming behind it. What AI means for the future of journalism versus consulting are two very different questions.
Overall, the results didn't tell me that much I don't already know.
New AI tools can boost my efficiency, and verification and source-building — which have always been essential skills in journalism — are evolving alongside AI. But it was a helpful exercise to actively think about the future, and a reminder to spend time exploring what's out there.
The author and her son have been eating pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving for 10 years.
Courtesy of Ashley Archambault
When I was growing up, my grandmother always suggested having pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving.
We never did it then, but I always wanted to, and I finally tried it with my son when he was 2.
We loved it so much that we've done it ever since, and it's our favorite holiday tradition.
Growing up, my grandmother would always say we should have our Thanksgiving pies for breakfast. I thought it was such a good idea, because by the time you're done eating dinner, you're really too full for dessert. My family never ended up going through with it, but the idea stuck with me.
When I had my son, I wanted to start our own holiday traditions together. I remembered the idea of having pie for breakfast and decided to try it. In order for the pie to be ready on Thanksgiving morning, I had to stay up the Wednesday night before to make everything. I thought an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and fresh whipped cream would be perfect.
It went so well the first year, and we added on to the tradition
My son was only 2 years old the first year we tried it, so it was his first time trying everything. After I put him to bed, I stayed up cooking, while the SNL Thanksgiving special played on TV in the background. It all felt just right for me, as if I were figuring out the kind of holiday I wanted to have, not just for my son, but for myself too.
It wasn't easy putting everything away for the next morning without taste-tasting, but it felt so much more special to wait for Thanksgiving. When we woke up the next morning, I put the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on right away. I didn't even feel too bad about letting us eat pie for breakfast, because it was homemade and still full of apples and pumpkin.
My son looked at me as if I had made a mistake, but when I reassured him to go ahead and try it, he loved it. I had my pie with coffee, while he had his with milk. Although it was delicious, I think what made us most happy was being together and doing something out of the ordinary. Before the morning was even over, I knew this was going to be something we did forever.
Having pie for breakfast came with benefits I couldn't have predicted
In addition to establishing our tradition of having pie for breakfast, I also developed a special Thanksgiving coffee that morning by putting whipped cream in a mug first and then pouring hot coffee over it, creating something like a cappuccino. While I knew eating traditional Thanksgiving desserts for breakfast with my son to be fun, I wasn't expecting to establish other traditions that also felt personal and resonant for me, such as the surprising nostalgia for SNL that I felt as I watched the special (which I still do every year) and my new holiday coffee.
Since my son also spends time with his father on Thanksgiving, the new tradition has had some unforeseen benefits for coparenting over the holiday, too. His father and I do our best to ensure that our son sees each of us on holidays. So, for example, I would have my son for the first half of the day, and then he would go with his dad for the second half.
It was hard getting used to not being with my son for the whole day, but it's gotten easier. And part of that is because I found ways to make our holiday time together feel full. The Thanksgiving breakfast tradition allowed me to celebrate with my son and not feel as sad because I wasn't eating dinner with him later on. I think it helps my son in the same way, too, because he's doing something equally as special with each parent.
Our pie tradition has become the best part of Thanksgiving
My son is 12 now, and we have kept the tradition going ever since. When I'm feeling really ambitious, I make a pecan pie, too. When I remarried, we let my husband in on the ritual, and he loves it. We're both big coffee drinkers, and the pie and coffee combo is really perfect. Everything that happens for the rest of Thanksgiving after pie for breakfast is just a bonus, because we've already enjoyed the most important part of the holiday for us.
MrBeast says his recent videos slipped and vows to join the hardcore work era with "ultra grind mode" in 2026.
Amal Alhasan/Getty Images for GEA
MrBeast said his latest videos fell short and vows to enter 'ultra grind mode' in 2026.
His promise echoes that of CEOs like Andy Jassy and John Stankey pushing hardcore office culture.
As companies tie careers to metrics, MrBeast is pledging a creator-style productivity reset.
YouTube megastar MrBeast said he's gearing up for what he calls "ultra grind mode" — a pledge that places him squarely in the growing hardcore worker moment,reshaping both the creator economy and corporate America.
In a post on X on Wednesday, the 27-year-old creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, told his 33.4 million followers that he hasn't been fully satisfied with the quality of his latest videos.
"After some reflection, I just want to say I think some of our newer youtube videos haven't been as good as I wanted. I apologize," MrBeast wrote.
"Ya boy is going to go into ultra grind mode and make the greatest content of my life in 2026. Promise," he added.
The X post, which quickly garnered more than 2.9 million views as of Thursday morning, triggered a wave of encouragement from fans, who insisted his standards were already impossibly high.
But MrBeast doubled down.
When one commenter told him not to be so hard on himself, MrBeast replied: "Appreciate it but I'm going to take this stuff to a whole new level."
The creator version of a 'hardcore' reset
MrBeast's pledge mirrors a broader shift inside big companies, where bosses are dialing back talk of work-life balance and leaning into performance, presenteeism, and discipline.
Executives like AT&T CEO John Stankey and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy have pushed employees back to the office five days a week and tied careers more tightly to measurable output.
In a memo to AT&T managers in August, Stankey told staff the company is moving away from "familial cultural norms" toward "a more market-based culture — focused on rewarding capability, contribution, and commitment."
Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Jassy has slashed layers of management, toughened performance reviews, and reinforced Amazon's demanding culture.
Career experts say that in this landscape, staying employed means showing up, documenting wins, and proving how you drive results — not just how long you've been around.
The US Coast Guard has a strict step-by-step process for stopping and boarding drug vessels.
Its personnel train for a variety of situations, including needing to shoot out boat engines.
Everything the Coast Guard gathers in an interdiction is helping build a case for prosecuting alleged traffickers.
USCG TACLET SOUTH OPA-LOCKA, Florida — At a time when a new war on drugs is brewing in the Caribbean, Business Insider grabbed a front-row seat as the Coast Guard trained to take down drug smugglers on the high seas.
Day in and day out, the Coast Guard is out on patrol for boats packed with hundreds of thousands of pounds of cocaine, marijuana, and other drugs, illegal narcotics with street values in the millions. Finding these drug boats on the open isn't chance, officials said. It's all carefully orchestrated, from the intelligence-gathering to the drone flights to the precision shots from a helicopter needed to cripple the engine of a vessel on the run.
The service follows a strict step-by-step process, relying on the training and experience of its pilots, precision marksmen, boarding teams, and other personnel.
In recent years, the Coast Guard has been seizing record numbers of drugs from its interdictions during deployments in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, but drug smugglers out of South America keep them on their toes.
"The threat from narcotics traffickers and narco-terrorists is constantly evolving," Cmdr. Chris Guy, commanding officer of Coast Guard South's Tactical Law Enforcement Team, told Business Insider. "They are changing their tactics in order to try to elude detection and interdiction all the time."
They switch up drug routes and vessels, shifting from "go-fast boats" to semi-submersibles, vessels more commonly called narco-subs. But as the smugglers adapt, the Coast Guard does, too.
Finding drug boats on the high seas
TK
US Coast Guard photo
The hunt starts with eyes in the sky.Drones, patrol planes, and helicopter crews sweep the ocean for fast-moving boats suspected of carrying drugs north to the US.
The Coast Guard refers to vessels potentially carrying drugs as "targets of interest." They keep an eye out for a number of potential red flag indicators, such as suspected drugs packages aboard the ship, the number of people on the vessel, weapons, even how many engines the boat has.
While the Coast Guard gathers intel, it tries to avoid accidentally tipping its hand, so it can take time.
The time it takes to gather the necessary data "all depends on the assets being applied to it," Capt. Daniel Broadhurst, the commanding officer of the Coast Guard's Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, told Business Insider.
The Coast Guard can draw critical intelligence from whatever's in the air — Navy P-8 Poseidons or its own assets, such as the HC-130Js, MQ-35 V-BAT drones, or MH-65 Dolphin helicopters. Depending on the mix of assets available, spotting and tracking a suspect vessel can take 15 minutes, a few hours, or a full day.
Every detail is important, as it may help the Coast Guard build a case that can be used to prosecute smugglers once the drugs are seized and arrests are made, either in the US or the country of origin.
After wrapping up the recon phase, a helicopter crew is sent out to order the vessel to stop for boarding. If the suspected smugglers ignore the warning blaring over the loudspeakers, a gunner leans into the mounted machine gun and rakes three short bursts across the waves — the Coast Guard’s last warning before escalating and taking aim at the engines.
TK
US Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Alejandro Rivera
If the vessel doesn't heed the initial warnings, a precision marksman takes the next step, disabling the boat's engines with a rifle shot. Coordination with the pilots on position, angle, and speed is critical to making the shot count.
There's standard script, Lt. Cmdr. Jamel Chokr, a pilot and mission commander at HITRON, said, "so theoretically, I could meet a gunner tomorrow, never have spoken to them, and we could walk out to an aircraft and affect an interdiction, and we could do it relatively seamlessly."
He said that if the pilot and gunner have been flying together for some time, "you start really syncing up with them."
Drug boats sometimes have several engines on them, or paneling that's intended to shield the engines from a clean shot. The smugglers will sometimes try to use their own body to protect the engine, forcing the shooter to adjust to avoid injuring or killing someone not directly engaged in hostilities.
If someone aboard the boat falls or jumps into the water, the helicopter team has to seamlessly switch from interdiction to search and rescue mode, prioritizing throwing out life vests or flotation devices to those people while also keeping the drug vessel in sight. If the smugglers toss the drugs into the water, the crew will throw down devices to mark that location.
Once the target boat is disabled, the Coast Guard moves into the endgame phase. The helicopter team keeps their eyes and weapons on the vessel while the boarding team arrives.
Boarding drug vessels
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US Coast Guard photo
The Coast Guard's boarding teams position their vessels alongside the drug boat and begin what can be a highly dangerous process: the initial boarding can range in difficulty depending on the state of the seas, weather, time of day, and crew compliance.
Night time raids can be particularly risky, the darkness complicating even simple procedures.
The boarding crews have methods for disrupting and disabling vessels if needed, such as shouldering the boat, spraying fire houses, and using entanglers. Sometimes, how the interdiction process goes down is more of a leap-frog between teams, which makes communications between personnel essential.
After boarding, Coast Guard personnel want to swiftly take control of the vessel, including locating and apprehending any suspected smugglers, determining the origin and nationality of the boat and its crew, and investigating the drugs aboard. A translator will often come along to help gather information.
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US Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Laticia Sims
The boarding team also needs to be prepared for things to unexpectedly go south. If drug runners jump overboard, the mission switches to search and rescue. If they have weapons, the team has to neutralize them. Worst-case scenarios are anything that put the lives of the boarding team in danger.
If a vessel is stateless — no flag, no documents, and a silent crew — the Coast Guard enforces US maritime law. If it's registered to another country, the process gets more complex, requiring coordination with that government under existing law enforcement agreements.
Collecting all evidence aboard a drug boat is intense and can take hours. The team extensively takes pictures of the vessel and equipment and the drugs.
Coast Guard crews go through and swab for drug residue, map the vessel for hidden compartments, detain the crew, and search electronics for evidence while verifying identities and criminal backgrounds. The seized drugs are stored aboard a cutter and later offloaded to federal agencies in port.
A precise legal process
The offload included over 49,000 pounds of cocaine seized by US Coast Guard Cutter Stone in the eastern Pacific.
US Coast Guard photo by Cutter Stone's crew
Every interdiction hinges on legal approvals that must move up and down the chain of command, from Coast Guard leadership to law enforcement partners, often leaving boarding teams waiting for the green light to act.
"There's a lot of legalities that come into play," Coast Guard maritime law enforcement specialist Morgan Fussell told Business Insider. "And if you do any of those prior to getting full law enforcement authority, then the case obviously could be inadmissible in court and get thrown out."
Finding drug vessels, getting permission to stop them, and seizing the cargo also relies on interagency cooperation, including with the Joint Interagency Task Force South.
Coast Guard helicopter and boarding teams regularly also find themselves aboard US Navy warships, as well as vessels belonging to international allies and partners. On those deployments, the priority is balancing interdictions with other objectives and missions.
At its core, the success of the service's interdiction boils down to pursuing those interdictions precisely but also remaining flexible as things change. "Drug smugglers are ever evolving, and we do a really good job of training for that," Chokr said. "So it's kind of a cat-and-mouse game."
Tesla's graphic for its annual shareholder meeting 2025 features its Optimus humanoid robot, which is in development.
Tesla
Nothing conveys our sci-fi future quite like the humanoid robot.
Bouyed by AI, robot companies are now commanding eye-popping funding rounds.
These bots are quietly becoming fixtures in factories and may soon be folding your laundry.
Science fiction is imaginary — until, suddenly, it isn't.
We are now on the brink of living in a world populated by humanoid robot assistants, a timeless trope of futuristic fiction. Right now, it's more the world of the "Jetsons" than that of "Terminator," but that's not always readily apparent when you see the tall, sleek robots that companies are eagerly demoing.
The founders of some of America's most promising robotics startups say that we're not far away from a world in which humanoid robots are autonomously completing tasks in the home and on factory floors.
Business Insider compiled a list of some of the most well-known US companies in the space to highlight the current state of the humanoid robotics industry — and where it's headed.
Tesla
"I think we will literally build a legion, at least one legion of robots this year and then probably 10 legions next year," Musk said when asked about Tesla's Optimus robots.
John Ricky/Anadolu via Getty Images
While Tesla may be best known as an EV maker, the company has made its humanoid robot a key part of its future.
Optimus, Tesla's humanoid robot, is often trotted out at company events. It's been seen serving drinks, dancing, cleaning, and taking out the trash — at varying levels of autonomy (it's still very much in development and often tele-operated). The company says it is working to deploy its first fleet of Optimus robots in Tesla factories by the end of the year, but commercial production is further out.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is motivated to bet big on Optimus. Among other benchmarks, he will need to deliver one million new Optimus robots over the next decade to fully earn his $1 trillion pay package, which Tesla shareholders approved in early November.
During the company's third-quarter earnings call, Musk said that the robot "has the potential to be the biggest product of all time" and projected that Tesla would eventually make 1 million robots every year. He has also said that Optimus would eventually account for around 80% of the company's value.
At the company shareholder event in November, Musk even suggested that Optimus could "actually eliminate poverty."
Figure
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
CEO and founder Brett Adcock saysFigure is building its machines on the belief that "the humanoid robot will be the ultimate deployment vector for AGI."
AGI, or artificial general intelligence, is a still-theoretical and much-debated technology milestone generally viewed to be when AI can reason as well as humans. It's the thing all the leading AI companies are elbowing their way toward.
The company has $2.34 billion in funding, according to PitchBook.
The company's latest robot, Figure 03, is designed for household tasks like laundry, cleaning, and doing dishes.
The company says its overall mission is to "develop general-purpose humanoids that make a positive impact on humanity and create a better life for future generations," especially ones that can "eliminate the need for unsafe and undesirable jobs — ultimately allowing us to live happier, more purposeful lives."
In the near-term, like "single-digit years away," humanoid robots will be capable of doing useful work, Adcock said recently on the tech podcast "Around the Prompt." He told Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at the annual Dreamforce conference in October that Figure was building "a new species."
1X
1X's Neo home robot, which is now open to pre-orders and will require tele-operation for many tasks initially.
1X
1X,a dual Norwegian-American robot maker backed by OpenAI, is on a mission to develop "general purpose robots that can coexist with humans and elevate humanity," according to its website.
To that end, it has two series of robots: Neo, designed for domestic tasks, and Eve, designed for industrial use in factories. The company recently began taking orders for Neo, which will cost $20,000 or a $499 a month subscription with an expected US launch in 2026. For now, the robots will require owners to be okay with them being tele-operated by a human outside the residence as Neo is trained.
"We are cloning human thought and behavior into a machine, alongside providing foundation models for robotic safety," Bernt Øivind Børnich, the CEO and founder, told Business Insider in 2024.
He said the company, which is more than eight years into developing androids, is seeing a clear market for its innovations.
"What is unique about us is that we have an android that can be safely deployed with humans, which opens up new consumer markets," Børnich said. "These are complicated products looking for a market but we now have commercial traction which previously hadn't been proven out."
The company has raised $140.36 million in funding as of July 2025, according to PitchBook. The Information reported in September 2025 that the company was seeking an additional $1 billion in funding.
Agility
PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images
Digit, Agility's 5-foot-9 humanoid robot, became the first of its kind to be "paid" for performing real work in 2024.
Under a multiyear deal with GXO Logistics, Agility deployed Digit at Spanx's women's wear factories, where it moves boxes and places them onto conveyor belts, and just hit 100,000 totes moved to date, a spokesperson for the company told Business Insider by email. The company has also deployed its robots with Schaeffler Group and Amazon, Agility's spokesperson added.
Peggy Johnson, an alum of Microsoft and Qualcomm, who became Digit's CEO last year, previously told Business Insider that it'd soon be "very normal" for humanoid robots to become coworkers with humans across a variety of workplaces.
Boston Dynamics
Boston Dynamics unveiled Atlas in 2013
Tomohiro Ohsumi
Boston Dynamics, which was founded way back in 1992 and which is perhaps most famous for its "robot dog," has built and deployed a suite of advanced robotics over the years.
Hyundai acquired the firm in 2021 for $1.1 billion. In April, Hyundai announced a $21 billion investment in the U.S., including $6 billion to promote investment and partnerships in the US.
Its viral dog-like robot, Spot, is used to inspect building sites or oil and gas facilities. An artist-in-residence at SpaceX has even trained some Spot robots to paint.
More recently, Boston Dynamics released a fully electric version of Atlas, its humanoid robot, which the company is now exploring for commercial use, starting with part sequencing, a common logistics task that involves arranging parts correctly in order for the cars that are being assembled, according to a company press release.
Boston Dynamics has long been a leader in robotics. Its founder, Marc Raibert, said in a 2024 podcast interviewthat "it's hard not to think that seeing what Atlas is doing is a little bit of an inspiration" for Tesla's Optimus.
Apptronik
YouTube/Apptronik
Apptronik is an Austin-based humanoid robotics startup that spun out of the University of Texas' Human Centered Robotics Lab in 2016.
It unveiled its first humanoid, Apollo, in August 2023.
It had $772.78 million in funding as of November 2025, according to PitchBook.
"The big idea is a humanoid robot should be able to fit in all the places that a human can fit into and use all the same tools that humans can use," Apptronik CEO Jeff Cardenas told Business Insider at the time. "That allows them to integrate into a world that's built for us versus having to modify the world for the robots."
The company is targeting a new funding round of $500 million, which would value it at $5 billion, according to the Austin Business Journal.
Sens. Jim Justice and Rick Scott, two of the richest members of the Senate, high-fiving at the Capitol in April.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
Members of Congress tend to be wealthier than the American public.
But some are ultra-rich: There are eight US senators worth roughly $50 million or more.
Half of them were only elected last year, and six of them are Republicans.
You probably already knew that members of Congress tend to be wealthy. What you may not realize is that some of them are ultrawealthy.
Eight members of the US Senate are worth about $50 million or more, according to their most recent financial disclosures. One of them may be a billionaire. And there are several others who, though not nearly as wealthy, are still multi-millionaires.
Six of the eight wealthiest senators are Republicans. And four of those six were only elected last year.
That's no coincidence: Ahead of a 2024 election cycle in which costly Senate races were expected in several states, GOP leaders explicitly sought to recruit wealthy businessmen to run for seats in the upper chamber.
That allowed the party to rely on self-funding by those candidates, decreasing the burden shared by the party's donor base.
This list is based on an analysis of the assets and liabilities disclosed in each senator's annual financial disclosures covering 2024, which are the most recent available. Assets owned by their spouses are included.
Members of Congress are not required to disclose the exact dollar values of their assets and liabilities, but rather a range of values. They are also not required to disclose the value of their personal residences.
Senators are listed in descending order based on the sum of the minimum value of their assets.
Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia
Republican Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia may be the sole billionaire serving in the US Senate.
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
Sen. Jim Justice is by far the wealthiest senator — at least on paper.
The West Virginia Republican disclosed owning over $1 billion worth of assets in 2024. The bulk of that value is tied up in various coal and mining companies that Justice owns, along with the luxury Greenbrier resort.
However, there's some reason to doubt that Justice is a billionaire.
Though he was listed as a billionaire by Forbes for several years, he was removed from the list in 2021 after it was revealed that he owed a significant amount of debt. Last year, Forbes reported that Justice and his companies were in so much debt, he had a negative net worth.
Spokespeople for Justice did not return a request for comment.
After serving as governor since 2017, Justice was elected to the Senate in 2024, succeeding retiring Sen. Joe Manchin, who was also wealthy.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida
Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida is worth more than $240 million.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Sen. Rick Scott is worth somewhere between $243 million and $744 million, according to his financial disclosure.
The Florida Republican's largest assets include his personal residence in Naples and a series of airplanes he owns, both of which are valued between $25 million and $50 million. The rest of mostly held in various investment funds.
Scott was elected to the Senate in 2018. He first entered politics in 2010, when he ran for governor of Florida and narrowly won the election.
Before that, he co-founded a chain of for-profit hospitals and was an investor.
During a hearing on a bill to ban stock trading in July, Sen. Josh Hawley — while seated beside Scott — noted that he's "not a billionaire, unlike others on this committee."
Scott later said it was "disgusting" to criticize lawmakers for their success.
"I don't know when in this country it became a negative to make money," Scott said at the hearing. "This idea that we're going to attack people because they make money is wrong. It's absolutely wrong."
Sen. David McCormick of Pennsylvania
Republican Sen. David McCormick of Pennsylvania owns assets worth at least $135 million.
Scott Eisen/Getty Images
Republican Sen. David McCormick of Pennsylvania owns assets worth at least $135 million, according to his 2024 disclosures.
That includes over $50 million in equity in Bridgewater, the hedge fund where he was CEO from 2020 to 2022.
McCormick also owns a ranch investment property in Colorado worth between $25 million and $50 million, plus other multimillion-dollar properties in Dallas, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania. He and his wife also have significant investments in corporate, municipal, and US Treasury bonds.
The Pennsylvania Republican disclosed liabilities worth between $14 million and $66 million, including a mortgage and a line of credit he took out in 2024.
McCormick was elected to the Senate in 2024 after defeating Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.
Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana
Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana is worth more than $100 million.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Sen. Tim Sheehy is worth at least $100 million — but he could be worth north of $300 million.
The Montana Republican's 2024 disclosure includes an ownership interest in an entity called "Turtle Lake Holding Company" worth over $50 million.
That holding company holds millions of shares in Bridger Aerospace, the aerial firefighting company that Sheehy founded before entering politics.
He also disclosed owning two properties in Montana valued between $5 million and $25 million. His one liability, a mortgage, is valued between $1 million and $5 million.
Earlier this year, Sheehy put one of his properties up for sale for $10.25 million.
The Montana Republican was elected in 2024, defeating Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia is worth more than $76 million.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Sen. Mark Warner is the wealthiest Democratic senator on Capitol Hill, boasting a net worth between $76 million and $303 million.
Much of the Virginia senator's wealth is tied up in various investment funds.
For example, he and his wife have between $7 million and $35 million in SPY, an exchange-traded fund that holds stock in all companies in the S&P 500 index. He also has millions of dollars invested in municipal bonds.
Warner was elected to the Senate in 2008. He was previously governor of Virginia, and before he entered politics, he was a venture capitalist who invested in a variety of tech companies.
Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska
Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska is worth more than $74 million.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Sen. Pete Ricketts is worth between $74 million and $293 million, according to his disclosure.
The Nebraska Republican is the son of Joe Ricketts, who founded the stockbroker TD Ameritrade and whose family owns the Chicago Cubs.
TD Ameritrade was acquired by Charles Schwab in 2020, and between $26 million and $155 million of the younger Ricketts's net worth comes from Charles Schwab stock.
He also has personal residences in Omaha and Washington, DC that are each worth between $1 million and $5 million.
Ricketts was appointed to the Senate in 2023, succeeding fellow Republican Sen. Ben Sasse. He was previously the governor of Nebraska.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is worth more than $70 million.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Sen. Richard Blumenthal and his wife own at least $70 million in assets, making him the second-wealthiest Democrat in the Senate.
The Connecticut Democrat's disclosures indicate that the vast majority of that sum comes from various investments held by his wife, Cynthia, who is a member of the Malkin family.
Blumenthal's father-in-law, Peter Malkin, is the chairman emeritus of Empire State Realty Trust and Malkin Holdings. The family owns a stake in the Empire State Building.
Blumenthal was elected to the Senate in 2010, succeeding Sen. Chris Dodd.
Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio
Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio is worth roughly $50 million.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Sen. Bernie Moreno owns at least $50 million in assets, according to his 2024 disclosure.
Much of that wealth comes from real estate holdings, including two residences in Florida, one residence in Washington, DC, and land in Ohio. He also has significant investments in mutual funds.
Prior to entering politics, Moreno owned a series of car dealerships and founded a blockchain company.
Moreno was elected to the Senate in 2024, defeating Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Greg Jensen said the real AI bubble is still ahead as investors miss its scale.
Bridgewater's co-CIO said AI is entering a 'dangerous' new phase and Wall Street still isn't ready.
He said investors have 'no idea what's hitting them' as AI spending accelerates.
Investors who are convinced the AI boom has gone too far should brace for what's about to hit the market, Greg Jensen, co-chief investment officer at Bridgewater Associates, said in a recent interview.
Jensen — who said he has spent more than a decade working with machine learning — said the market still hasn't grasped how transformative the technology will be or how much capital is about to flood into it.
"The bubble is ahead of us, not behind us," he said in an interview on the "In Good Company" podcast on Wednesday with Norges Bank Investment Management CEO Nicolai Tangen.
While some business leaders and investors, such as Bill Gates and Michael Burry, have said that the AI boom resembles the dot-com era, Jensen said the world hasn't even reached the speculative phase.
Instead, he said, we're still in the phase "where people have no idea what's hitting them," and that most investors don't yet understand how radically AI will reshape markets, geopolitics, and economic growth.
AI leaders think the stakes are existential
Jensen said one reason the cycle is different from past tech manias is that AI leaders, including Elon Musk, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman, and Google, believe the stakes are existential.
They "believe that the power to control Earth and the universe is only a couple years away," he said, adding that "they're not motivated by this normal profit incentives of the typical cycle."
That mindset means capital expenditure won't slow just because valuations look stretched or funding gets expensive. "This money is going to get spent," he said.
That has triggered what Jensen calls a "resource grab phase," unlike anything the tech industry has experienced before.
The rush for power, data-center land, and advanced chips is already creating bottlenecks.
Talent, he added, is another bottleneck. Jensen estimated "less than a thousand" people globally qualify as truly cutting-edge AI scientists, and the fierce competition to hire them is slowing scientific progress.
Tangen said the market now looks like professional sports: "It's like soccer players and the transfer season," to which Jensen replied, "Exactly."
The resource grab is already distorting markets
Despite AI's growing impact on markets, Jensen said investors still focus too narrowly on the current winners.
Stripping out the big AI names, US equities have already started to underperform the rest of the world, he said — a sign that the sector is masking deeper economic shifts.
Meanwhile, AI-related capital spending is now large enough to move macro indicators: Jensen estimates that about one percentage point of US GDP growth this year stems from AI investment alone.
All of this, he said, is still just the beginning.
Jensen said the world is now entering a "more dangerous phase" of the AI cycle — defined by scarce resources, accelerating spending, and intensifying competition — and that investors still aren't prepared for what comes next.
Russia is trying to fly its Shahed-type drones into Ukrainian aircraft, a senior official said.
GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images
Russia is using its Shahed drones to try to hit Ukrainian aircraft midair, a defense official said.
Russia is also now attacking closer to the front lines with Shaheds, typically a deep-strike weapon.
The new developments show how Russia is modifying and testing out new tactics with its drones.
Russia is using its explosive Shahed drones to hunt Ukrainian aircraft midair, a senior defense official told Business Insider, marking a new twist in Moscow’s evolving battlefield tactics.
Lt. Col. Yurii Myronenko, Ukraine's deputy minister of defense for innovation, said that Russia is constantly testing out new deep-strike capabilities, including "both new modifications of Shaheds and entirely different models."
Myronenko, a former drone unit commander, said Russia has recently started using operator-controlled Shahed drones near the front lines, communicating with the systems through antennas in occupied regions of Ukraine, Russia, or neighboring Belarus.
"Countering such Shaheds is even more challenging, as they are piloted in real time, allowing the operator to react to the current situation and even attempt to engage our aircraft or helicopters in the air," he said. It's not just cutting reaction time for defenders; it is creating a whole new set of headaches.
Ukraine has relied heavily on its aircraft, from fighter jets to helicopters, to help shoot down Russian drones, which are packed with explosives and are highly destructive if they reach their target. The new tactic of gunning for aircraft with drones appears to be Moscow's attempt to suppress Kyiv's air defenses.
Kyiv, which isn't typically very open about battlefield losses, has not publicly disclosed any incidents in which a Russian Shahed drone took out an aircraft. But in this war, aircraft have been knocked out of the sky by drones.
A Ukrainian F-16 operates in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Andriy Dubchak/Frontliner/Getty Images
On Saturday, Ukraine's Special Operations Force said one of its deep-strike drones "shot down" a Russian Mi-8 helicopter for the first time in history. Business Insider could not independently verify the claimed kill.
There have been other reported helicopter kills with other types of drones.
"Every mission requires creativity, from the technical characteristics of the equipment to the planning and training of the pilots," SOF said in a statement on the engagement published to the Telegram messaging app.
New tactics and weapons
For the past three years, Russia's Shahed drones have typically been used to strike Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure far beyond the front lines, but that appears to have changed as the Kremlin ramps up investment in its drone operations.
A soldier with the 4th Ranger Regiment, a Ukrainian special operations unit modeled after its US Army counterparts, told Business Insider on Tuesday that Russia is now producing so many Shahed-style drones that it is increasingly using them to hit front-line positions.
"It's a big threat, and it becomes a bigger problem every day," said the operator, who could only be identified by his call sign Khyzhak ("Predator" in Ukrainian) for security reasons.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency confirmed on Tuesday that Russia has been using new Iranian-made Shahed-107 drones to strike front-line positions. The news comes just a few months after Tehran unveiled the weapons amid its brief war with Israel.
Ukraine has relied heavily on its aircraft, including helicopters, to help shoot down Russian drones.
DANYLO ANTONIUK via Reuters Connect
Reports surfaced earlier this month that Russia had introduced the Shahed-107 onto the battlefield. The GUR said in its Tuesday statement that Moscow "has begun actively using" the drone.
Ukraine said that the Shahed-107 has a wingspan of about 10 feet and features cross-shaped tail stabilizers with a carbon fiber body. The GUR said one drone was found equipped with a 15-kilogram (33-pound) high-explosive warhead, and assesses that it has an operational range of 300 kilometers (186 miles).
Russia's defense ministry and its US embassy did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment on the Shahed tactics and reports of the new variant.
The Shahed-107 marks one of the newest weapons to debut in the war as it approaches the four-year mark, and its appearance in combat highlights how both sides continue to attempt to gain an edge over the enemy.
Myronenko, the deputy Ukrainian defense minister, said Kyiv is able to respond to the threat of Russia's new weapons and do so "very quickly."
"But how, exactly, is something that can only be disclosed over time, once the enemy understands the nature of the countermeasures, and they no longer provide a competitive advantage," he said.
Wall Street CEOs Jamie Dimon, Jane Fraser, and David Solomon.
AP
Bank CEOs have praised the epochal efficiency changes promised by AI.
But what does efficiency mean for employees? Does it mean fewer jobs?
We look at the public record to see what banking's top executives are saying about head count.
When bank CEOs start talking about AI, the financial world lights up — from meme accounts to markets. Their predictions about how generative AI will change work can move stocks, reshape strategy, and set the tone for the rest of corporate America.
Banks' plans, and increasingly, actions, around generative AI give a glimpse into how the technology will enhance and replace human workers.
But you know who else is listening? Their employees. Many of the largest bulge-bracket banks employ over 100,000 employees each, and the FDIC-insured commercial banking sector, more broadly, employs nearly 2 million people.
These can range from bank tellers to dealmakers making multi-billion-dollar salaries, as well as a veritable army of software engineers who will turn this generative AI dream into a reality.
In order to get a better understanding of what they're thinking, we've highlighted some of the most revealing statements about bank head count in the age of AI below.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon
Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images
Jamie Dimon's penchant for straight talk means that Dimon is willing to admit that job cuts are coming.
"It will eliminate jobs," Dimon said at a Fortune-hosted conference earlier this month. "People should stop sticking their heads in the sand."
The comments echoed those Dimon made at a town hall for the firm's employees in Columbus, Ohio, earlier this year, where he said that AI will "change some of your jobs," whether as a "copilot," a solution for "drudgery," or by eliminating them.
More immediately for JPMorgan, according to an interview on CNN earlier this month, Dimon sees head count remaining steady, or even rising, as AI continues to roll out, "if we do a good job."
Core to JPMorgan's promise is increased efficiency, which Dimon explored during the 2024 Alliance Bernstein conference.
"It will affect every job, every application, every database, and it will make people highly more efficient," Dimon said. "Like a lot of you clicking away, taking notes. You won't have to do that because it will — you can just summarize what Jamie said. You push a button, and you don't have to waste all that time."
He also explained how increased efficiency could also create more jobs in cybersecurity.
"We use it for risk and fraud recognition, and bad guys are going to use it," Dimon said. "So, we have to use it to counter the bad guys. We have to use it to get better and better in cyber."
Other executives at the firm are even more explicit about how headcount at the firm is changing now.
In operations, the "tip of the spear" on using this new technology, executives expect head count to trend down 10% through 2029, according to Marianne Lake, the CEO of consumer and community banking.
Jeremy Barnum, the firm's CFO, said they're "asking people to resist head count growth where possible and increase their focus on efficiency."
While a more efficient future with an equal number of working and non-working weekdays may exist in the coming decades, according to Dimon, for now, hiring may slow.
David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said AI will enable the bank "afford more high-value people."
MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images
David Solomon's most definitive statement about how AI will affect Goldman actually came from a memo he released earlier this year alongside the firm's president John Waldron and CFO Denis Coleman.
The memo, announcing the third iteration of the bank's cross-bank initiative OneGS, explains that AI will drive efficiency at the firm. Driving efficiency will mean slowing hiring and reducing roles at the firm, which is no stranger to job cuts, with a yearly culling of some employees.
"We're asking people to resist head count growth where possible and increase their focus on efficiency," the memo said. This will be part of a broader initiative to find the "right team structure" and to gain "more agility."
When Business Insider obtained the memo and reported on it, a spokesperson for the bank told us that the firm anticipates an increased head count at the end of 2025, and in the third quarter of 2025, it announced it had grown its global workforce 5% to about 48,000 positions.
Slowing hiring and increasing head count don't need to be contradictory; instead, the firm is focusing its hiring on the right talent.
"We need more high-value people," Solomon told Axios in October. "We can afford more high-value people to expand our footprint and continue to grow and broaden our business."
"There are obviously things where we're going to have a lot fewer people — but I'd love to have the capacity to go get more people to spend time with clients," Solomon said at a conference last month, noting that AI will have its most immediate impact on software development.
Speaking more generally earlier this month, he said that "disruption" will happen, but "our economy is very nimble, very flexible."
"And when you look at the technology that has flooded over hundreds of years into our society, we adapt," Solomon said. "We find new businesses. We find new jobs. I don't believe it will be different this time."
The adoption may come quicker than previous changes, like the creation of the internet or the rollout of electricity. And Solomon shares the views of others that professional workers may take the hardest hit.
"The need for some white-collar office jobs will be diminished, but they'll be picked up in other parts of the economy," said Solomon.
Jane Fraser, CEO of Citi
Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup.
John Lamparski/Getty Images
Back in 2023, Jane Fraser wrote a LinkedIn post walking through her big picture thoughts about AI at the bank. She, like her peers at the bulge brackets, saw big-time transformation ahead.
"In the near term, generative AI will drastically improve productivity," she wrote. "Over the long term, it has the potential to revolutionize all functions across our bank and the industry — changing how we write code, onboard clients, service customers, detect fraud, develop market research and strengthen compliance and controls."
On a recent earnings call, Fraser explained how it was already increasing productivity.
"AI-driven automated code reviews have exceeded 1 million so far this year and are dramatically improving our developers' productivity," Fraser said. "This innovation alone saves considerable time and creates around 100,000 hours of weekly capacity."
Fraser also highlighted how AI is helping their customer service teams resolve client inquiries faster, their wealth advisors provide more personalized advice, and the firm is launching an agent-based AI pilot to tackle more complex tasks.
When she was asked by CNBC this month if productivity increases from AI will lead to layoffs, Fraser said her "fear" is that AI might "pinch" the job market "before it pays."
But, with adoption only at 10% globally, she said, it's a long way before adoption is widespread enough to see what it will do for layoffs. Fraser said adoption will need to be closer to 50%.
"It's not there yet, and we don't know how quickly," Fraser said.
Charles Scharf, CEO of Wells Fargo
Charles Scharf, CEO of Wells Fargo
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Wells Fargo has already shrunk its headcount by nearly a quarter since Charles Scharf joined in 2019, and he expects that trend to continue.
"It's likely we'll have less headcount as we look forward … we'd like to do much of it through attrition as possible," Scharf told Reuters this month.
He said the lower headcount is an "outcome" of the firm's focus on areas where it's "way too inefficient" and "way too bureaucratic." From 2018 to June of this year, the firm had a $1.95 trillion asset cap, hindering its ability to grow.
In the same interview, Scharf called out those who are saying that AI won't reduce jobs.
"The opportunities that exist in AI are very significant, and anyone who sits here today and says that they don't think they'll have less head count because of AI either doesn't know what they're talking about or is just not being totally honest about it," he said.
Brian Moynihan, Bank of America CEO
Brian Moynihan, Bank of America CEO
John Lamparski/Getty Images
Bank of America has set a new industry standard, with a minimum wage of $25 an hour across the company. And while CEO Brian Moynihan conceded on a September Bloomberg TV interview that generative AI adoption has shrunk the size of some departments, the bank is focusing on training employees to do what LLMs cannot.
"The key to that is really redeploying people and re-skilling them," he said. "We have to be more mindful about training them along multiple dimensions than we might have been two or three years ago."