• Jeff Bezos' public image has changed a lot in the 30 years since he started Amazon.
• The billionaire has shed his boring business attire and experienced a fashion glow-up.
• Here's a closer look at the evolution of his style and persona over the years.

Jeff Bezos is in his "mob chic" era, but it wasn't always this way.

The Amazon cofounder's style and persona have changed a lot over the years, from bookish founder (quite literally in Amazon's early days as a bookseller) to space cowboy at Blue Origin and a Vogue photo shoot.

Here's a look at Bezos' fashion transformation over the years:

In Amazon's early days, Bezos wore pretty run-of-the-mill business attire.

Take this photo of Bezos in 1997, three years after he started Amazon.

Here he is again in a similar outfit, donning a blue dress shirt, black jacket, and beige trousers.

A 1999 Wired profile of Bezos says, "For the kind of shopper Bezos represents, utility is, of course, a mantra. His wardrobe consists of white or blue dress shirts and a pair of khaki pants."

He occasionally opted for this pretty standard combo of a sweater over a collared shirt.

"Back in the late '80s in New York, when he had to wear a suit every day to the office, he gained a preference for shirts with hidden snaps under the collar points for easy tie removal," the Wired profile continued.

"He has trouble locating this style in the Pacific Northwest, so now he buys a pack of standard snapless shirts and has the snaps sewn on," it said. "When he discovers a pair of shoes he likes, he'll buy four pairs at once and wear them in regular rotation for years."

Over the years, Bezos started swapping his khakis for blue jeans more frequently.

The result was a more casual take on business wear.

In fact, he frequently wore jeans when speaking at Amazon events.

One such example is this 2014 launch of the now-discontinued Amazon Fire Phone.

Of course, Bezos dressed in more formal business attire in certain cases that necessitated it.

In this case, it was a meeting of the tech minds that former president Donald Trump convened in 2016.

Bezos made some changes to his style handbook around 2017.

He's channeling cool guy energy with the leather jacket and laid-back outfit.

And who could forget one of his most famous looks?

Bezos turned heads at the annual Sun Valley conference in 2017 with this iconic look that's almost giving Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Terminator."

If there was any doubt, this appearance confirmed a new Bezos had hit the scene, as media and casual onlookers alike noted his physical transformation from scrawny to brawny.

At Blue Origin, Bezos embraces another look entirely: Western-inspired spaceman.

Bezos, his brother, and some other passengers flew to the edge of space in 2021.

Donning a cowboy hat and boots with his blue flight suit, he's another Bezos entirely.

Reddit users dubbed the look "space cowboy billionaire."

A Vogue spread on Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sanchez further cemented the image.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vogue (@voguemagazine)

//www.instagram.com/embed.js

Photos from the spread quickly spurred memes online.

In his off time, particularly since he stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2021, Bezos varies his outfits a lot more.

Here he and Sanchez wear casual clothes while on vacation.

While on a ski trip in Aspen, Colorado, Bezos and Sanchez looked cozy.

If not for their bodyguards, they just might've blended in with the crowd pretty well in these pretty inconspicuous winter outfits.

Here's the couple at a fashion show last year.

Bezos once again shows his affinity for a shirt-and-vest combo.

Of course, Bezos attends plenty of galas, fundraisers, and other social functions, as you'd expect of one of the world's richest men.

One such event was the 2024 Met Gala, to which he wore this black tie ensemble.

Bezos and Sanchez looked considerably more casual trying to blend in with the crowd at Coachella.

Absolutely love that Bezos went to Coachella and did the same thing I would do – wore a $15 Hawaiian shirt from Amazon.https://t.co/CcQIDK2uGV pic.twitter.com/x8zGzWs5S9

— Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) April 24, 2023

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Rumors speculated that Bezos' butterfly shirt was a relatively cheap top from Amazon, though neither Amazon nor Bezos has confirmed if that was the case.

He sported one of his most fun looks while ringing in 2022 with Sanchez.

(Novelty glasses included.)

So much has Bezos' style evolved over the years that he's drawn comparisons to Pitbull.

And hey, with his renown as one of the world's richest people, he might just give Mr. Worldwide a run for his money.

Jeff Bezos is moving to Miami to complete his transformation into Pitbull 2.0 pic.twitter.com/fNWTkQdGeW

— Morning Brew ☕️ (@MorningBrew) November 3, 2023

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• A boomer partially regrets moving from Dallas to St. Louis due to unexpectedly higher living costs.
• She moved to Missouri to be closer to her son, and she loves the weather and friendliness of locals.
• About 494,000 people moved out of Texas between 2021 and 2022, while over 668,300 people moved in.

Donna, in her 60s, lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for decades, but she and her husband wanted to be closer to their son in St. Louis for their retirement.

"We thought: Midwest — not everyone wants to live there. It must be less expensive," Donna said. "We were so wrong."

Donna, who asked to use just her first name for privacy reasons, said she regrets the decision in some ways. She said nearly everything is more expensive in St. Louis compared to Dallas, from groceries to gas to various taxes. While she loves how friendly everyone is and the more moderate weather, she sometimes thinks she "should have stayed in Texas," even though it was never where she envisioned herself retiring.

"People say, you lived in Texas for 40 years, so that's probably where you belong, but I still never felt like I belonged," Donna said.

Several former Texans previously told Business Insider that they left the Lone Star State in search of cheaper living costs, better weather, slower paces of life, and political reasons. Those leaving in 2022 tended to be younger, according to a BI analysis of individual-level data from the Census Bureau's 2022 ACS, assembled by the University of Minnesota's IPUMS program — 37.3% were millennial, while 31.2% were Gen Z. The average salary of those moving away was $50,428 a year in 2022, with two-thirds employed.

Census data shows that between 2021 and 2022, about 494,000 people moved out of Texas, while over 668,300 people moved in. Nearly 9,200 people moved from Texas to Missouri during this period.

Leaving Texas, moving to Missouri

Donna moved around the northern US and Europe growing up, as her father was in the Air Force, and her family eventually settled in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. After college, she moved back to the area and got a job as a paralegal before working for an information technology company.

She formally stopped working after adopting her last kid, while her husband retired right before the pandemic. Though both lived in Texas for over 40 years, they knew Texas never felt like their permanent home.

Their son attended the University of Missouri, where her husband went, and he settled in St. Louis. Donna and her husband were looking for a new state for their retirement, as she knew she couldn't stand another Texas summer.

"When I got situated in Texas, I just didn't feel like I fit in. I wasn't a Southerner. I wasn't a Texan," Donna said. "It surprises me everybody's moving to Texas. I'm like, you know how hot it is here."

They moved to Missouri to be closer to their son and escape the heat.

"We didn't want to just be the parents that lived somewhere else and came in on a plane to visit you for a couple of days and then they were gone," Donna said. "We wanted to actually be close to him."

They looked around St. Louis for two years but couldn't find much on the market. They would fly in, tour five homes, and nearly all would be bought by the end of the day. She said the ones that weren't selling fast would be built on hills or back up onto a highway. Finally, she got the call for a new home on the market. She flew in on a Friday morning in January 2020 by herself, and by that night, they signed.

The home was bigger and more expensive than what they originally wanted, though they were grateful to find something that worked. They loved the neighborhood, and they envisioned they would renovate the Missouri home while working on selling the Texas home. The process took longer than they expected, though they eventually got a buyer.

Learning the hard way

Donna said she immediately felt like she was missing home once she moved in September 2020. Still, she was optimistic about life in Missouri, as she figured it was quieter and slower-paced.

Her new neighborhood was similar to Dallas, though she said it's more spread out. It's taken some time to get used to driving everywhere, which she said has been burdensome as they age. Still, she values having many hills and trees, unlike in Texas, where her community was more flat and monotonous. Her new neighborhood is also more family-oriented and diverse, though she said her neighbors were confused about why she would move from Dallas, which they perceive as a "real sexy place to live."

"The people in St. Louis are so friendly and so helpful," Donna said, noting that many of those she knew in Texas were friendly "on the surface" and didn't often go out of their way to say hello. "If you go into, say, a Lowe's, and you need help, oh my gosh, you're going to get help. People here are hardworking, and they don't complain."

Acknowledging that she should have researched some of the hidden costs, Donna said everything was unexpectedly a lot more than she thought. She noticed first that gas was more expensive in Missouri; though Texas and Missouri, on average, are now about the same per gallon nationally, she said her area is about 75 cents more expensive per gallon than where she lived in Texas. In her area, she saw just two grocery chains whose prices for some items were nearly 40% more expensive than in Dallas.

She knew Missouri had individual income taxes, unlike Texas, which she didn't worry too much about as she and her husband's income dropped in their retirement. Her property tax is about the same as in Texas. However, she didn't expect to pay $89 more a month on her car lease when she changed her address. She said she even had to pay $50 more per month at her gym for the same membership.

She added that she's had to get permits to install a new dishwasher and turn on irrigation for the spring. And her sales tax in St. Louis is nearly 10%, compared to 8.25% in Dallas.

In addition, she said the quality of her Missouri home is not as robust as in Dallas, as she's had two leaks so far in the winter, and cold air seeped in quite frequently.

Regardless, she's remaining positive about her future in Missouri. She's scheduled various home fixes, and she's gotten closer to many of her neighbors. She is also comforted by living closer to her son after years apart. And she's keeping the thought of downsizing when the market changes in the back of her mind, but she's taking it day by day.

"I'm thinking it'll take us a couple of years to see if this feels like home or is it still not right," Donna said. "Maybe I just never found the right place, and possibly that's because, as a military brat, I don't really have a hometown. I don't know where I belong."

Have you recently moved to a new state or country? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

• I was on JetBlue's inaugural flight from New York City to Edinburgh.
• I spent the six-hour trip in its business class "apartment," called the "Mint Studio."
• The studio had a bench, a cabinet with a mirror, and the largest TV of any airline.

It's not often you get your own apartment in the sky.

When I joined JetBlue for its inaugural flight to Scotland on May 22, I wasn't expecting to be in its "Mint Studio," a space my flight attendant described as an "apartment New Yorkers would kill for." But when I saw "1F" printed on my boarding pass, I knew I was in for a treat.

The front row of business class, the Mint Studio is JetBlue's most spacious option, with prices from around $4,000. Business Insider paid a press rate of $1,300, including a return flight in the airline's "Even More Space" economy section.

While the "apartment" makes for a comfortable transatlantic flight, it's not something I'd splurge on. Here's what it's like.

As the first seat on the plane, the studio has the most space.

The studio easily offers the most room of any airline I've ever flown.

It's got even more space than the rest of JetBlue's business class seats. There's more leg space than I could ever use — a luxury as the rest of plane seats seemingly continue to shrink.

It comes with a small cabinet to store belongings.

I stowed a few in-flight necessities in the cabinet, which I thought was a nice touch. It also has a mirror, so passengers can do some pre-arrival primping.

The food was the same as in the rest of the cabin.

I've always thought JetBlue's dining options are among the best, and the same applies here. The menu was the same as my flight to Paris last year: A farro salad, Cavatelli pasta, chilled soup, and gelato.

The TV is massive, and the in-flight entertainment options are expansive.

The television in the apartment is 22 inches — five inches larger than the TVs in other business-class seats. Per JetBlue, it's actually the largest screen of any US airlines.

I made good use of the screen: I didn't struggle finding anything to watch, as there were plenty of movies and shows to choose from. It even had a selection of A24 films, some of my favorites.

The studio’s pièce de résistance is its extra seat.

The apartment has a small bench, which apparently you can use to host other passengers, according to the website.

Even if I wasn't traveling solo, I can't see myself wanting to have another person in the little room. I imagine the space would be best used for a parent wanting to watch a movie or hang out with their kid.

The bench adds some extra space to the lie-flat seat.

For me, this was the seat's only real use case, other than having another place to put some of my belongings.

When the seat is fully reclined, the bench adds quite a bit of extra room. The added space is great for anyone who tosses and turns in their sleep, and I ended up being able to sleep for the majority of the flight.

Still, I can’t say it’s much better than its regular Mint seats.

The best part of the seat was the bench, which offered some extra space once the seat was laid flat. Even so, I can't say it's something I'd spend extra money on.

The flight experience is the same: You get the same food, amenities, and entertainment selections as the rest of Mint. I can see the bench coming in useful for parents traveling with kids, but for anyone just wanting to sleep their way over the Atlantic, the rest of business class gets the job done — for less money.

• Stephanie Quinn was forced to move out of her Farley, Iowa, apartment this spring.
• Quinn's Section 8 voucher and her children's schooling hinge on finding new housing by July 11.
• Iowa law allows landlords to refuse vouchers, complicating Quinn's search for a new home.

Stephanie Quinn was at work when her kids, 10 and 12, received a paper notice from their landlord informing them that the family wouldn't be offered a new lease on their three-bedroom apartment in Farley, Iowa.

A 43-year-old mother of two, Quinn had 30 days to move out of the place she and her kids had called home for five years. The family has spent the last nearly two months staying with Quinn's boyfriend in his one-bedroom apartment, so that the kids can finish out their school year. But the living arrangement isn't sustainable, and Quinn has a looming deadline to find a new home.

That deadline — July 11 — is imposed by the state housing authority and applies to Quinn's Section 8 housing choice voucher, which she's had for about 12 years. Quinn suffers from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which affects her motor and sensory nerves, compromising her mobility in her arms and legs. Though she receives about $1,000 per month in social security disability insurance, she also works at a local Subway sandwich shop to make ends meet.

If Quinn doesn't find a new apartment with a landlord who will accept her voucher before July 11, she'll lose the crucial housing benefit, according to paperwork she received from the housing authority, which Business Insider reviewed. With the voucher, Quinn paid up to about $250 of her $875 rent each month, as the program requires tenants to spend no more than 40% of their income on rent. If she loses her voucher, it would likely take years to get another.

"I'd have to go back on waiting lists, and I'm actually on a whole bunch of other waiting lists for income-based places, too, and they're about five years away," Quinn told Business Insider.

Iowa lets landlords refuse voucher holders

Quinn says she's contacted close to 30 landlords since March. Many have simply told her they don't accept housing vouchers. In 17 states and Washington, DC, turning an applicant down solely because they have a voucher is illegal — the practice is known as "source-of-income discrimination."

But in Iowa, the practice is allowed. In 2021, the state passed a law barring cities and counties from protecting voucher holders from overt discrimination by landlords.

Quinn received a list of apartment options from the local housing authority, but the listings are mostly outdated. So she's turned to looking for rental listings on Zillow, Trulia, and even Facebook and Craigslist. But when she's inquired with these landlords and informed them that she has a voucher, they've largely rejected her outright.

"It was a complete 'no' right away and 'no we don't do that, no we don't accept it,'" she said. "If it wasn't on the housing list, I pretty much got a no."

Quinn has found a few property owners who say they'll take her voucher, but they're almost an hour away from Farley and Quinn needs to stay in the area to keep her kids enrolled in their school.

Once school lets out for summer break, Quinn's kids will move in with a close friend in Dubuque until Quinn can find a new apartment. If she doesn't find a new home in the area before July, she's worried she'll have to temporarily put her kids in foster care so they can continue attending their school.

Quinn is also concerned she won't live close enough to her 83-year-old grandmother, who she's the sole caretaker for. And she fears having to give up her job. The managers at her Subway shop have been very accommodating of her needs, purchasing special knives she can use and exempting her from finding replacements to take her shift when she's out sick.

"I'm so upset that if I can't find something nearby, I have to leave this job," she said.

A crucial but flawed benefit

The federal Housing Choice Voucher Program is the biggest — and most effective — American housing assistance program. It aids about 5 million people in 2.3 million households who make less than 50% of their area median income to find rental housing on the private market. But a declining number of landlords across the US are accepting the vouchers, and a growing number of recipients are failing to secure housing through the program, Business Insider recently reported.

At the same time, the program is severely underfunded. Quinn is among the one in four eligible Americans who actually receive a voucher. And the average wait time for recipients is two and a half years. About 10 million additional low-income households are going without the help they qualify for.

Like Quinn, many voucher holders struggle to find a home that meets the program's requirements and a landlord willing to accept the applicant within the limited time — as short as 60 days — allotted to find a unit. Nationwide, only about 60% of voucher recipients are successful in finding a home with the subsidy.

Housing experts have found that the home inspection process is a major pain point in the program. Before a voucher recipient can sign a lease on a home, it must be inspected by the local housing authority to make sure it meets a slew of health and safety standards. But that process can create lengthy delays, cause landlords to keep a unit empty and miss out on rent payments, and ultimately result in the voucher holder losing out on the home.

But before a voucher recipient can even get to the inspection process, they need to find a suitable home that will take a voucher. Many landlords reject voucher holders even in places where source-of-income discrimination is illegal.

The deck is even more stacked against low-income people in a state like Iowa.

Quinn hopes her story will help others in even worse situations. "I've got a good family support system, and I know a lot of people don't have that," she said.

Are you a housing voucher recipient or a landlord who's struggled with the housing voucher program? Reach out to this reporter at erelman@businessinsider.com.

• A US millennial made over $100,000 last year secretly working multiple remote jobs. 
• But hiring slowdowns and return-to-office mandates have made it harder for him to find new roles. 
• He said he'll do whatever he can to avoid commuting to an office for work. 

Charles is willing to go above and beyond to make extra money — except go into an office.

Back in 2019, the tri-state area-based consumer product professional had a friend who needed some help with some freelance work, he told Business Insider.

Charles took on the side gig, figuring he could use the extra income to save up for a Tesla. Since his main job was remote, he said pulling off the side gig wasn't difficult.

After doing this for about two years, the work ended, but Charles had grown used to the extra income — so he decided to look for other remote opportunities. It was fortunate timing for Charles, as the pandemic had forced many companies to pivot to remote work. He said he had little trouble finding work-from-home positions.

"There were times when I was just sitting around with nothing to do at my main job for weeks," said Charles, whose identity is known to BI, but he asked to use a pseudonym due to his fear of professional repercussions. "So I'm either going to stay productive by finding other remote work or just wasting time and leaving money on the table. Why wouldn't I take on more responsibilities if I can manage them?"

Charles, who is in his 30s, is among the Americans secretly working multiple jobs to boost their incomes. Over the past year, Business Insider has interviewed roughly 20 job jugglers, many of whom are in the IT and tech industries, who've used the extra money to pay off debt, save for retirement, and afford weight-loss drugs. While some employers may be okay with their workers having a second job, doing so without employer approval could have repercussions.

Over the last few years, Charles has worked a mix of remote full-time and contract jobs simultaneously while keeping his overemployment a secret from his employers. Job juggling helped him earn over $300,000 in 2021, over $200,000 in 2022, and over $100,000 in 2023, according to documents viewed by Business Insider. Charles said this money made it possible for him to pay off debts, make home improvements, buy a rental property, invest in a personal business venture, and purchase a new car.

But over the past year, he said the job market for the types of roles he's interested in has "dried up." That's because some companies in his industry have scaled back hiring, while others are mainly recruiting for in-person or hybrid roles. It's left him clinging to his two remaining remote jobs, which have allowed him to not only bring in extra income — but avoid the dreaded work commute.

"Why would I leave the good job that I have where I'm 100% remote still and I don't have to go into the city?" he said. "I'd be getting up at 6:00 a.m. in the morning and not getting home until 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. if I'm lucky. No thanks."

Charles added that commuting to work could cost him several hundred dollars a month.

While juggling multiple full-time jobs can be very lucrative, fierce competition for remote gigs has made this unattainable for many workers. For example, the share of US fully remote job postings on LinkedIn fell from over 20% in April 2022 to about 10% in December 2023. Hiring slowdowns in industries like tech — where remote work and overemployment are more common — and shifts to hybrid working arrangements have both played a role in this decline.

But despite this dropoff, job seekers' demand for remote roles remains strong — LinkedIn said fully remote jobs accounted for nearly half of all applications in December.

Charles said he understands why some companies have shifted to a hybrid model — he presumes it's to keep closer tabs on workers — but he said he'll do everything he can to avoid a commute.

To prevent his employers from suspecting his job juggling, Charles said he uses separate laptops, phones, and calendars for each job. He said he's typically able to complete his tasks for both jobs without having to put in extra hours.

"If I am in a meeting with one job that doesn't require me to speak up, I will be doing work on the other laptop for the other job," he said.

If an employer were to discover his overemployment, he said he wouldn't simply give it up.

"I do my work from home, and people are happy with what I do," he said. "If a company wants to come after me for extra earned income because of some anti-overemployment policy, I'll fight it."

Are you working multiple remote jobs at the same time and willing to provide details about your pay and schedule? If so, reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com.

• Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev explained the app's name choice in a recent podcast interview.
• When first presented, half of the company feared it would push wealthier customers away.
• Tenev says the name is effective at capturing attention, even if it sparks debate. 

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev knows that the company's name is somewhat controversial — but that's part of the point.

Tenev said in an episode of "The Logan Bartlett Show" posted on Friday that he wanted the name to be disruptive and go against the traditional norm of other financial companies.

"We wanted it to be brave and bold and courageous," Tenev said.

The CEO said the origin of the name comes from when the company was just starting and he was dating his now-wife. At the time, when she introduced him to her friends and said he worked in finance, there would be "a little bit of a groan," Tenev said.

"They thought I was some kind of investment banker or venture capitalist," Tenev said.

Tenev's wife would counter the reaction by saying he was the "Robinhood of finance" and "trying to help the little guy."

Tenev said that he liked the sound of that.

"Our thoughts were that if the name elicited strong reactions, even if they weren't all positive, at least it would be memorable and that would be better than kind of a name that everyone was okay with," he said.

While Tenev and fellow cofounder Baiju Bhatt both loved the concept, the company had about 10 employees at the time and reactions were split, Tenev said. Half of the company loved the name and the other half hated it.

With many financial services companies serving a base of wealthier people, there was a fear that the name would scare off those customers, Tenev said.

Ultimately, they decided to go with Robinhood, and it's become a big part of the brand and its messaging, Tenev said. But years later, he wonders if the company would have received less criticism if it had gone with a different name.

"If we named the company Omaha, would Warren Buffett be criticizing it as aggressively?" Tenev said, referring to the billionaire's birthplace. "Because he, you know, he can't criticize Omaha. I think we could've avoided that."

Billionaire Warren Buffet and his longtime business partner Charlie Munger, who died last year, both vocally criticized the company, accusing it of treating the stock market like a casino and encouraging short-term trading.

Tenev also said that there's also been some backlash of the brand's message, like with the meme stock situation a few years ago.

The meme stock trading frenzy in 2021 involved a wave of new and inexperienced investors to the investment platform, interested in specific stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment. Following the surge, Robinhood faced criticism for restricting trading on certain meme stocks during the peak of that period.

But overall, Tenev said it's tried to be consistent from the beginning about its messaging and separating itself from other financial companies — and if they chose a name that was more positive, maybe it wouldn't have been as memorable.

• My wife and I have lived in Hong Kong for 35 years.
• Now that I'm 66 and retiring, we want to move to the US for that. 
• We don't have credit scores or credit cards, and debate whether to rent instead of buying. 

After 35 years of living and working in Hong Kong, my wife, Wendy, and I are returning home to the US. There are so many things to consider as we make plans for retirement.

Setting aside concerns of whether we are jumping from a frying pan into a fire (ongoing crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong versus political ruptures in the US), we have many other issues to grapple with.

We don't have credit scores or credit cards

Take, for example, our credit score: we don't have one. In Hong Kong we have always paid our bills on time and are conscientious consumers. But that means nothing to credit agencies in America, where we don't even have a credit card, let alone a car or home payment.

My wife and I are third-generation Californians, but who retires in LA unless they have a hit record or a reality TV show? Perhaps we would be better off in any number of other states that offer low taxes and affordable housing. This is a decision that many retirees face.

For us, it's also a question of where we will send the big shipping container that will soon be steaming across the Pacific. Wendy and I must decide whether it is worth the extra money to return to the great weather and laid-back lifestyle of our past if it means we will have less money to spend in the future. We've decided that we want to buy a house because we'd like to leave it for our children. But perhaps that's not realistic.

Also, it might be better not to buy a home and rent one instead. Wendy and I are both 66, so we hopefully have another two decades before the inevitable move into an assisted living facility. Like many other retirees, we are calculating how much cash we will need to pay the bills and take a few vacations before that day arrives.

One source of income that most other Americans our age rely on is Social Security. For us, that won't be a significant amount since most of my prime employment years were spent overseas working for Hong Kong companies. I wasn't putting money into Social Security, so I won't get much out. I never had one of those lucrative expatriate packages that paid for an apartment, a car, and the kid's school fees. I loved the work I did, both as a journalist and in the nonprofit sector, but those were never high-paying jobs, and I was always a "local hire."

I'm looking forward to moving back

I have no complaints about the past 35 years and only a feeling of eager anticipation about returning to my homeland.

Being away for so long with only an annual return to visit family has always given me a sense of how special the United States is and how open and helpful Americans are. I hope that's the case when I visit the Department of Motor Vehicles in my new home state and they realize I haven't had a valid driver's license since 1988. I don't expect benevolence when I apply for car insurance, however. No accidents for the last 35 years? Where, you say? I am preparing myself for large premiums.

I share many of the same concerns as Americans my age who have remained in the US. But a few other questions might be peculiar to my situation, like whatever happened to cable TV.

• Elon Musk's OpenAI rival, xAI, says it just raised $6 billion in funding from investors.
• The AI startup is backed by VCs like Sequoia Capital and Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding.
• Musk said xAI's pre-money valuation was $18 billion.

Elon Musk's xAI just took a critical step in building up its war chest to take on Sam Altman's OpenAI.

The AI startup said in a blog post on Sunday that it had raised $6 billion for their Series B funding round.

The company, which is barely a year old, counts among its investors prominent VCs like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital as well as Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding.

"There will be more to announce in the coming weeks," Musk said in an X post on Monday morning.

The mercurial billionaire said in a subsequent X post that xAI's pre-money valuation was $18 billion. The financial term refers to the value of a company before any equity investment is made.

Sunday's announcement marks the first time xAI has talked about its fundraising efforts. Musk had repeatedly denied earlier reports from Bloomberg and the Financial Times about xAI's outreach to investors.

The influx of funding will be essential for Musk, who has envisioned xAI as an alternative to OpenAI, a company he'd cofounded with Altman. Musk left the OpenAI board in 2018.

The ChatGPT maker was valued at $80 billion or more following a deal that allows staff to cash out their shares, The New York Times reported in February, citing people familiar with the deal.

Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in February, where he accused the company of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft.

A year ago, Musk expressed disappointment in what OpenAI had become, saying that it was "not what I intended at all."

"OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it 'Open' AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft," Musk wrote on X.