• 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

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.

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

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.

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

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."

• 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

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

CEO and founder Brett Adcock says Figure 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, 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

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, 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 interview that "it's hard not to think that seeing what Atlas is doing is a little bit of an inspiration" for Tesla's Optimus.

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.

• 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

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

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.

Earlier this year, the Florida senator got into something of a spat with a colleague over wealth.

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, 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.

He also has a "dynasty trust," which allows their holders to pass wealth on to future generations without incurring certain wealth transfer taxes.

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

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.

• 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

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

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."

Solomon continues to believe that AI will grow the firm's head count over the next 10 years.

"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

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

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

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."

• Renting out a backyard hot tub and ping pong table earned $85,000 in passive income.
• The Portland couple uses Swimply to rent their unique backyard space for events and parties.
• This side hustle helps pay their mortgage and requires minimal management and cleaning time.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Rob Nachbar, who, along with his wife, rents out his backyard in Portland, Oregon, on the platform Swimply as a side hustle. His earnings have been confirmed by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

We started renting pools on Swimply to take our kids during the pandemic when public pools were closed.

We also had just redone our backyard at the beginning of the pandemic. It took a solid six months, and we were just doing it for ourselves, but after a few iterations, we realized we had created a unique space.

During our first Swimply experience, we began talking to the host and realized it could be a viable option for us. We had done Airbnb years ago, but it was so disruptive with having to clean the entire house and find another place to go.

We put our backyard up for rent and had no idea if people would even want to use it. Since then, we've gotten a lot of reservations, and it hasn't been disruptive to our lives at all. It's been a very easy and profitable side hustle.

We call our backyard "Pong Springs." It has a seven-person hot tub, 100-inch screen, a ping pong table, an outdoor kitchen and grill, a dart board, and gas fireplaces. We rent it out by the hour, typically starting at $75 per hour on the weekends.

Our guests are really varied. We just had a couple go on a date night and watch a movie in the hot tub. One week, we had a "Love Island" watch party with 15 women, and then the next night, we had a bunch of guys who rented it for their fantasy football draft party. It's a lot of birthday parties and holiday-themed events. It's all over the place. We have a limit of 20 people, so it's never too crazy.

Renting out our backyard has been easy and helps pay our mortgage

We've made about $85,000 since starting in 2021. It almost pays our mortgage, just renting our backyard. It's really nice, especially as AI takes our jobs.

We make it available to be booked instantly, pretty much all the time. We usually have at least a couple of reservations every weekend and then maybe one or two during the week. It's occupied about 30% of the time, so it gives us plenty of time to use it for ourselves. If we have something we know we want to do or if we want to host a small event for ourselves, we simply block it off on the calendar.

Managing bookings and preparing for guests requires minimal time. I spend less than an hour on all the management tasks, including cleaning up before and after. Guests are very good about keeping the area clean. We'll have large parties back there, so sometimes it can be a lot of trash, but that's the only negative.

Everything is pretty self-contained, except guests use the bathroom in the house, but we're going to probably put a bathroom outside soon. We are usually inside the house, so if guests need anything, I'm there to help them. But otherwise, we try to stay out of sight so they feel like they have a lot of privacy.

We have great neighbors, who are patient and understanding. They are also welcome to use the space at any time. We have a 10 o'clock end time, and make sure to keep the noise down. For the most part, all our guests have been respectful. It's Portland. No one gets too crazy.

In the three years we've been doing it, we've had a handful of not-so-great guests, but either they drink too much or just take a long time to leave, that kind of thing. But 90% of people have been fantastic.

I'd definitely recommend this as a side hustle, but it all depends on your tolerance for interacting with strangers. We've met some really interesting people and have become friends with a few through Swimply.

We don't use our backyard all the time, so why not share it?

Do you have a story to share about your side hustle? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.

• Popular free streaming service Tubi is airing Fox's Thanksgiving Day NFL game.
• It's the latest example of sports being available outside traditional TV.
• Tubi's marketing chief shared how the streamer is pairing live events with shoulder content.

Tubi is best known for its free slate of Gen Z-friendly shows and nostalgia-inducing movies, but sports have played a small yet important role in its rise.

The Fox-owned free streamer, which became profitable for the first time last quarter, made a name for itself in 2023 with a viral Super Bowl ad. That month, Tubi ranked on Nielsen's ratings chart for the first time. Tubi reintroduced itself to football fans in February by streaming the Super Bowl at no cost. At its peak, more than 15 million people tuned into Tubi's Super Bowl simulcast.

Nine months later, Tubi's NFL strategy is again in the spotlight as it streams a Thanksgiving showdown between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions for free. Turkey Day games are among the biggest TV events of the year, with a record 141 million viewers tuning in for last year's three games.

Tubi marketing chief Nicole Parlapiano said broadcasting these "mini Super Bowls" can both serve casual sports fans and introduce them to Tubi and its mix of quirky movies and shows.

Fittingly, Tubi is debuting football-themed rom-com "Sidelined 2: Intercepted" on Thanksgiving. The original flick found an audience after premiering on Black Friday last year. Parlapiano said she expects those who try Tubi to stick around, just like many did after the Super Bowl.

"We expect retention to be really high, especially as you're going into a Thanksgiving Day weekend," Parlapiano told Business Insider. "People are looking to watch movies and shows all weekend."

Although sports fans won't confuse Tubi with ESPN, Fox's free streamer is dipping its toes in the water with live events. Besides airing occasional NFL games, Tubi has Liga MX soccer games in Mexico and will show the coming World Baseball Classic in March, which will also be on Fox's broadcast and cable channels, plus its $20-per-month streamer.

In some ways, Tubi's event-focused strategy is similar to Netflix's approach to sports. The streaming giant has gone after high-profile events like Christmas Day NFL games and buzzy one-off stunts like the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match, both of which brought in tons of new subscribers.

"When it comes to live, it's tentpole moments that transcend your hardcore sports fans," Parlapiano said.

Don't expect Tubi to be a contender for major sports rights. Instead, Parlapiano said its niche in this space is more about sports-adjacent shoulder content, and the occasional Fox simulcast. The free streamer has a documentary on Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward debuting in December and another on a top figure in women's sports coming in 2026.

"When it comes to the overall sports strategy, it's about culturally relevant athletes and talent and storytelling," Parlapiano said.

Sports-adjacent content like documentaries can help "take the helmet off" football players and introduce them to new audiences who might not otherwise care, Parlapiano said.

Tubi has built a substantial fan base of its own. After making Nielsen's monthly gauge chart for the first time in February 2023, its viewership share on US TVs has risen from 1% to 2.2%, which is higher than Peacock, Paramount+, or HBO Max. Fox said its free streamer's revenue last quarter rose 27% year-over-year as viewership time climbed 18%.

Tubi tied its viewership share record in October, and its Super Bowl viewership bump in February suggests another leap could be coming this month as it airs another NFL game.

• President Donald Trump has granted clemency to more than 1,600 people this year.
• The list includes several notable businesspeople, including billionaire Changpeng Zhao and Nikola founder Trevor Milton.
• Many of those pardoned have supported Trump or his policies.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump made the most traditional pardons when he granted clemency to Waddle and Gobble, two turkeys, before jetting off to celebrate Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago.

During his second term in office, Trump has issued many less conventional pardons. So far this year, Trump has granted clemency, including pardons and commutations, to more than 1,600 people compared to 238 acts of clemency during his entire first term, according to Pew Research Center. 1,500 of those were January 6 defendants.

Some are famous names — like former baseball star Darryl Strawberry — and others are his staunch supporters, such as the January 6 defendants.

The list also features several notable businesspeople. Some of the highest-profile recipients, such as Changpeng Zhao, the cofounder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, align with Trump's agenda, like his support for the crypto industry. Some also backed Trump politically.

Here are the billionaires and notable businesspeople Trump has pardoned or commuted the sentences of so far in his second term, according to the most recent list published by the Office of the Pardon Attorney. They are listed in the order in which they were granted clemency.

Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road founder

On Trump's first full day in office, he pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an online marketplace for illegal goods and services that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, according to the FBI. In 2015, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for drug trafficking, money laundering, and computer hacking, among other charges.

"I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son," Trump posted on Truth Social on January 21.

Devon Archer and Jason Galanis, investors

Devon Archer and Jason Galanis, investors and former business partners of Hunter Biden, were granted clemency in March. In 2018, both were convicted of defrauding a Native American tribal entity. Archer maintained his innocence; Galanis pleaded guilty to two securities fraud schemes.

Trump granted the pair clemency. The pair previously turned on Hunter Biden, providing testimony in the Republican-led 2023 congressional investigation into the then-President's son.

Benjamin Delo, Arthur Hayes, and Samuel Reed, BitMEX founders

In March, Trump pardoned the three founders of the BitMEX crypto exchange — as well as one former high-ranking employee — who had pleaded guilty to failing to maintain anti-money laundering programs, which violated the Bank Secrecy Act, in 2022.

Trump did not specify the reasons for their pardons, but they fit with his administration's broader push for the deregulation of the crypto industry.

Trevor Milton, Nikola founder

Trevor Milton, the founder of electric truck maker Nikola, was pardoned in March. In 2023, he was sentenced to four years in prison following convictions for securities fraud and wire fraud. He was also ordered to pay Nikola nearly $168 million for making misleading public statements about the company. Milton denied any wrongdoing.

"They say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president," Trump said when asked about the pardon.

According to campaign finance records, Milton had donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican causes.

Carlos Watson, Ozy Media cofounder

Less than a year after Carlos Watson, the founder of Ozy Media, was convicted of fraud, his sentence was commuted by Trump.

Watson, who maintained his innocence, was found guilty of creating a plan to defraud investors of tens of millions of dollars by misrepresenting the financial health of Ozy, going so far as to impersonate media executives to lenders and prospective investors. In December 2024, he was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $37 million in restitution.

Paul Walczak, nursing home operator

Paul Walczak, the CEO of a Florida nursing home company, was pardoned in April after having pleaded guilty to tax crimes. About two weeks earlier, he'd been sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $4.4 million in restitution after failing to pay employment taxes or file income tax returns.

Walczak's mother, Elizabeth Fago, raised millions of dollars for Trump and other Republicans, according to his pardon application, and attended a $1 million-per-head fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, The New York Times reported. She was also involved in efforts to publicize Ashley Biden's diary, the Times reported.

Todd and Julie Chrisley, real estate investors and reality TV stars

Real estate investor turned reality-TV star Todd Chrisley and his wife Julie Chrisley, who were found guilty of bank fraud and tax evasion in 2022, were pardoned in May. The pair, who maintained their innocence, were sentenced to a combined 19 years in prison and ordered to pay about $22 million in restitution.

Savannah Chrisley, the Chrisleys' daughter, campaigned for Trump — including at the 2024 Republican National Convention, where she requested a pardon — and the President called her to deliver the news.

Lawrence Duran, healthcare executive

Lawrence Duran, the former co-owner of American Therapeutic Corp., which ran healthcare clinics in Florida, had his sentence commuted in May. He had pleaded guilty to Medicare fraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison and ordered to pay $87.5 million in restitution in 2011.

Marian Morgan, investor

In May, Trump commuted the sentence of Marian Morgan, who was convicted of multiple counts of fraud in 2011. She was serving a nearly 34-year prison sentence and had been ordered to pay $20 million in restitution.

Along with her husband, John Morgan, Marian Morgan ran a Sarasota-based investment firm that acted as a Ponzi scheme and spent $10 million of investors' money on luxury cars and a waterfront mansion, prosecutors said.

Morgan pleaded not guilty.

Imaad Zuberi, venture capital investor

In May, Trump commuted the 12-year sentence of Imaad Zuberi, who pleaded guilty in 2019 to making illegal campaign contributions, falsifying lobbying records, and tax evasion. His sentence also included $15.7 million in restitution and a $1.75 million fine.

He has since said he is innocent and worked to withdraw his guilty plea.

Zuberi, who ran a small VC shop, had both fundraised and donated to Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. But after Trump won the 2016 election, he switched his allegiances, donating $900,000 to Trump's inaugural committee.

Changpeng Zhao, Binance cofounder

The wealthiest of those whom Trump has pardoned, Changpeng Zhao, known as "CZ," is worth nearly $80 million, according to Forbes. The cofounder of crypto exchange Binance was pardoned in October after he had pleaded guilty to violating the US Bank Secrecy Act's anti-money laundering rules. He had been sentenced to four months in prison and fined $50 million.

In announcing Zhao's pardon, a White House spokesperson said that "the Biden Administration's war on crypto is over."

Since the pardon, questions have been raised about the Trump family's ties to Binance. The exchange has promoted a stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm backed by the Trump family. Trump denied knowing who Zhao is in a "60 Minutes" interview following the pardon.

"Given the deep financial entanglements of Binance, the Trump family, and the Trump family business, the President's pardon of Mr. Zhao raises significant questions about the underlying motive behind the pardon," Rep. Robert Garcia wrote in a letter requesting information on the pardon.

Joseph Schwartz, nursing home entrepreneur

Joseph Schwartz, who ran a chain of nursing homes, was pardoned in November after pleading guilty to tax fraud. In April, he'd been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $5 million in restitution.

Following his pardon, The Washington Post reported that Schwartz paid lobbyists nearly $1 million in an effort to seek clemency. A White House official responded to the Post that anyone "spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting funds."

• Several airlines ditched the Airbus A380 during the pandemic.
• But it's still flying high, led by Emirates' fleet of 116 superjumbos.
• Business Insider compiled a list of every airline operating the A380 and their winter routes.

It took decades to develop the Airbus A380.

The world's largest passenger was first announced in 1990 and entered service in 2007 with Singapore Airlines.

It was the European planemaker's answer to the Boeing 747, as it expected a big demand for aircraft with a huge capacity.

However, production ended in 2021, as many airlines preferred the flexibility of typical wide-body jets like the Boeing 777 and Airbus A350.

The four-engine jet's high operating costs also prompted carriers like Air France and Malaysia Airlines to retire their fleets during the pandemic.

However, many airlines seem to have fallen back in love with the superjumbo.

Lufthansa retired all 14 of its A380s during the pandemic but has brought back eight of them since 2022. Etihad has reactivated six jets and launched new routes to Paris and Singapore.

Meanwhile, Australia's Qantas restarted A380 flights between Sydney and Dallas in August — the first time since before the pandemic.

Based on route data from Cirium, Business Insider has compiled a list of every airline regularly operating the A380 and the routes they're planning to fly in December 2025.

Here's what all 89 Airbus A380 routes look like on the map.

More than 7,500 flights are scheduled with the Airbus A380 during December, with capacity for almost 4 million passengers, per Cirium.

If you're looking for the routes closest to you, then try this interactive map.

You can hover over each icon to view the destinations available from that location.

1. Emirates

Dubai's airline is by far the world's largest operator of the A380. Emirates has a total of 116, with 95 of them active.

Like its rival Middle Eastern airlines, Emirates' A380 is highly luxurious — with business-class passengers able to visit the bar or even book a shower.

The airline's president, Tim Clark, told Business Insider earlier this year that he'd like Airbus to build a new version of the A380 with more fuel-efficient engines.

Emirates' plethora of planes comes with a similarly broad route map. Brace yourself for an extensive list.

Emirates flies the A380 between Dubai and Amman, Jordan; Amsterdam; Auckland, New Zealand; Bangkok; Barcelona; Bengaluru, India; Birmingham, England; Brisbane, Australia; Cairo; Casablanca, Morocco; Copenhagen, Denmark; Denpasar, Indonesia; Düsseldorf, Germany; Frankfurt, Germany; Glasgow, Scotland; Hong Kong; Houston; Istanbul; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Johannesburg; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; London Gatwick; London Heathrow; Los Angeles; Madrid; Manchester, England; Mauritius; Melbourne, Australia; Milan; Moscow; Mumbai, India; Munich; New York; Nice, France; Osaka, Japan; Paris; Perth, Australia; Prague; Rome; San Francisco; São Paulo; Seoul; Shangahi; Singapore; Sydney; Taipei; Tokyo Narita; Toronto; Vienna; Washington, DC; and Zurich.

Emirates also operates three fifth-freedom flights with the A380, between Christchurch, New Zealand and Sydney; Bangkok and Hong Kong; and Milan and New York.

2. British Airways

British Airways has 12 Airbus A380s.

Skytrax ranked the airline's first class 10th this year. However, BA has also launched a $9 billion "transformation program," which includes retrofitting its A380s with an upgraded first class that is expected to debut next year.

"The A380 is an important part of our fleet and rightfully, incredibly popular with our customers," Neil Chernoff, BA's chief planning and strategy officer, previously told Business Insider.

Behind Emirates, BA offers the second-highest number of destinations, most of which are in the US.

BA flies the A380 between London Heathrow and Dubai, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco.

3. Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines also has a fleet of 12 double-decker jets, having retired seven due to the pandemic.

The carrier is one of just 10 to receive a five-star rating from Skytrax. It named Singapore Airlines' business class the second-best behind Qatar Airways, but top for first-class.

The airline offers enormous suites on its A380s, which have both an armchair and a bed. Two of these can also be uniquely combined to create a double bed.

Singapore flies the A380 between Singapore Changi Airport and Frankfurt, London, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Sydney.

4. Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways cleaned up at this year's Skytrax awards, winning both best airline and best business class.

Like Emirates, the airline's A380 includes a bar for business-class passengers. It also has huge bathrooms, but lacks showers.

Qatar's A380s, perhaps surprisingly, don't feature its flagship business-class product, the QSuite, which you'll find on the A350 and Boeing 777 and 787.

Following delays to the Boeing 777X, Qatar reversed plans to retire the A380.

Its former CEO, Akbar Al-Bakar, said in 2021 that buying the planes was a "big mistake," given their high operating costs.

However, on the sidelines of last year's Farnborough Airshow, current CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer said the quad-engine was getting a new lease of life.

Qatar has eight A380s, which it operates between Doha and Bangkok, London, Paris, and Sydney.

5. Qantas

Australian flag carrier Qantas has 10 A380s.

It flies them from Sydney to Dallas/Fort Worth, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, and Singapore, where it also continues to London.

Plus, the A380 is sometimes used on flights from Melbourne to Los Angeles.

A severe storm warning and "incredibly high" demand during Taylor Swift's Australian tour last year saw Qantas use a spare A380 to fly Swifties from Melbourne to Sydney.

6. Etihad

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways is the third-most prominent operator in the Middle East, often overshadowed by Emirates and Qatar.

However, its A380s are unique as they offer the most extravagant ticket in commercial aviation: The Residence.

For $24,000, you can book the only three-room suite on an airliner, complete with a bedroom and shower.

Etihad has 9 A380s. It flies them from Abu Dhabi to London, Paris, Singapore, and Toronto.

7. Lufthansa

The German flag carrier has a fleet of eight A380s.

It appears to prefer the only other double-decker jet, as Lufthansa operates the most Boeing 747 jets of any passenger airline.

Lufthansa initially retired all 14 of its A380s during the pandemic before changing its mind as travel demand bounced back. The other six were sold back to Airbus, Airways Magazine reported in 2023.

Lufthansa's A380s go between Munich and Bangkok, Los Angeles, New Delhi, and San Francisco.

8. Korean Air

Korean Air is one of four airlines on this list, and 11 around the world, to be rated five stars by Skytrax.

It has six A380s, which it flies from Seoul's Incheon Airport to Frankfurt, New York, and Tokyo.

But four-engined jets appear to be falling out of favor here. In 2021, CEO Walter Cho told FlightGlobal that its A380s would be retired by 2026 and its Boeing 747s by 2031.

9. Asiana Airlines

Asiana Airlines has six A380s.

During the pandemic, Asiana flew empty superjumbos to keep its pilots certified.

The second Seoul-based carrier on this list, Asiana has merged with Korean Air. For now, it's operated as a subsidiary but will use the same name from 2027.

The combined entity could have 12 A380s, depending on Korean's plans to retire its A380s.

Until then, Asiana regularly flies these jets from Seoul to Frankfurt, Los Angeles, and Sydney.

10. ANA

ANA is the newest Airbus A380 customer, as its first was delivered in 2019.

The Japanese airline has three in total, which it flies between Tokyo Narita and Honolulu.

ANA is another five-star airline, with an impressive business-class product. But you'll need to fly on a Boeing 777 to experience "The Room" — or in first class, "The Suite," which includes a 43-inch TV.