• My dad and sister died 19 days apart. My other siblings helped me with my grief.

    Siblings sitting on couch
    The author (third from the left on the couch) always got along with her siblings.

    • After my parents divorced, my dad had more kids, but we were all raised as siblings.
    • When my dad and one of my sisters died, my other siblings helped me deal with the grief.
    • I will thank my dad eternally for making sure we were all close.

    Within 19 days, I experienced both the sudden death of my baby sister and my father. Even though my five siblings and I had different mothers, we all shared the same father, who fostered close connections with us from a young age.

    Although we grew up apart, we spent holidays, birthdays, and summers together throughout our lives and have come to love each other deeply. I never called my two brothers and sister from another mother my "step" or "half" siblings; they are just my brothers and sister.

    My dad visited often

    When my parents divorced, I was 7, my middle sister was 5, and my baby sister was only 2.

    Shortly after they were separated, my dad left New York to move to Mexico for a job. He ensured that his contract required the company to cover the plane fare for us three to fly several times a year for visits. That's why when he remarried and had children with my stepmom, we became close with our new brothers and sister.

    All of us six children got along well from the start. It was as if we were all part of the same symphony, constantly creating synchronized, lovely music. When we were teenagers, Dad would rent houses for us to enjoy in Mexico during Christmas, and after he moved back to the US, he'd rent houses for us to enjoy Thanksgivings in Florida and eventually family reunions in upstate New York. During these times, we cooked, danced, walked, and did yoga together.

    Siblings posing for old photo
    The author's dad made sure that the six siblings spent time together.

    As we all grew up, we started our adult lives on opposite coasts. But we still often fly or drive to spend time together. We talk on the phone regularly, processing marriages, divorces, and our own children's challenges.

    My siblings showed up for me

    When our sister, Jenny, was in the ICU dying, my brothers and sister dropped everything to be with me and my middle sister, here in California. My sister, who lives in Idaho, was able to join us at the hospital within hours. Me, my two sisters, and other nearby family held hands while Jenny transitioned. My brother, who lives in Washington, D.C., arrived within days. My other brother's flight from Florida was canceled that day, but he joined us virtually.

    Having the support of my four other siblings within days of Jenny's passing made grieving bearable. My out-of-town brother and sister stayed for ice cream nights, meals where we shared our funniest Jenny stories. They knew Jenny and I were like one neuron with two bodies, so my sisters and brothers called me daily in the following weeks to check on me.

    Shortly after our dad died

    When my dad learned of Jenny's death, it was as if a dart shot into his heart. Crying, he told one of my sisters, "I'm done, I'm calling it." Eighteen days later, he was gone. The five of us remaining offspring were stunned. Within hours, my two brothers and sister booked flights again and jumped in and helped create slide shows, music lists, programs, and planning two celebrations for one weekend.

    During this stressful process, we never fussed or disagreed. Three of my siblings are agnostic, yet Jenny's trust specified her celebration of life be held at our Soka Gakkai International Buddhist Center, where the mantra we chanted, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, would occur. She also specified that everyone wear colorful clothing and that R&B music be played. Everyone agreed on it all. I noticed at her service that my brothers, sister, and their kids, who are not Buddhist, joined in the chanting to honor Jenny. Each of my sisters and brothers spoke in front of the 150 people present, praising Jenny's irreverent spirit.

    Dad didn't want any service. Still united, we decided to honor him by gathering at a local hotel and watching a slideshow of our favorite memories with him, spanning eight decades. We opted to tell our favorite stories about Dad that day.

    During the weekend, the five of us hiked, swam, cried, and mourned together. While those two days were sad, they were also joyful because we were together. Belly laughter filled the hours, too. The cascade of care from my clan transformed what could have been a sad month into a time of endearment. Whenever we are in the same place, it's as if waves of happiness wash over us.

    That intense month brought the five of us closer. I thank Dad eternally for making sure we six bonded as kids so that our love would last forever.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • What a $1.5B lifestyle is like, according to a self-made billionaire

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    John Morgan has an estimated wealth of $1.5 billion, according to Forbes, placing him on its 2025 Billionaires List.

    Morgan started his personal-injury firm, Morgan & Morgan, in 1988. Today, he has offices in all 50 US states and employs more than 1,000 lawyers. Morgan pioneered legal advertising, putting his face on ads across hundreds of US cities.

    Other than his law firm, Morgan owns a collection of science museums, malls, billboard companies, and even a crime and punishment attraction that houses the original white Bronco that O.J. Simpson used to flee from the police.

    Morgan sat down with Business Insider to discuss how he accumulated his wealth, the tragic motivation that led him to personal-injury law, the power and responsibility of wealth, and the dangers he believes a globally increasing wealth gap will one day create for both the rich and the poor.

    For more:

    https://www.forthepeople.com/

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • I asked ChatGPT and Gemini to tell me what my job will look like in 5 years. Here’s what they told me.

    Hands at a laptop with a hologram chatbot.
    • In five years' time, our jobs will look different because of AI.
    • The consulting firm EY has given its employees an AI tool to help them anticipate what will change.
    • I wondered if ChatGPT or Gemini could do the same for me as a reporter.

    A leader at the Big Four firm EY recently told me that the firm has introduced an AI tool to help their employees navigate the uncertainty around jobs that the new technology is creating.

    It's part of an internal training program known as AI Now 2.0, which prompts EY employees to answer a series of questions about their job, day-to-day responsibilities, and overall deliverables.

    They upload the answers to EYQ, the firm's internal ChatGPT-like tool, and it generates an analysis of how their current role might change because of the impact of AI. The goal is to help them identify the skills, knowledge, and abilities they might need in the future.

    Most industries are facing AI-triggered upheaval, but professional services firms are in a particularly tight spot.

    Consultants are the experts that other businesses turn to for advice, meaning the pressure is on to make AI work internally. While it presents opportunities, AI is also forcing firms to reconsider long-held pricing models, talent structures, and the services they offer.

    Newsrooms are just as exposed to AI's unpredictability and opportunity.

    Inspired by EY, I wanted to see if AI could predict how my job as a reporter will change over the next five years.

    My prompts

    I told both chatbots to act like "an organizational strategist," programming them to respond like someone who has done expert research on the possible impact that AI will have on my job rather than provide chatty advice.

    I described myself as a "reporter for Business Insider" who covers the Big Four professional services firms and workplace culture, and listed some of my key job responsibilities.

    Then I asked for a future role analysis, asking the chatbots to highlight only the most significant changes.

    ChatGPT

    ChatGPT predicted that AI will increasingly take on tasks like structural drafting, information-gathering, and generating background context in stories. It said there will be a suite of "built-in extras" to support the publishing process in real time, like smart templates and pulling up older coverage immediately.

    With tools at my disposal to help speed up the reporting process, my edge as a reporter will come from providing "leaked memos, off-the-record sentiment, organizational politics, and nuanced interpretations that AI cannot surface on its own," according to ChatGPT.

    A screenshot of ChatGPTs response to my prompt.
    A screenshot of ChatGPTs response to my prompt.

    I pushed ChatGPT a bit more, asking what new knowledge and skills I'd need to succeed as AI changes my industry, and how I could mitigate some of the key ethical and legal risks.

    It told me to develop AI fluency by learning to prompt effectively, evaluate AI outputs critically, and use analytics to flag stories earlier.

    On ethics, the big takeaway was essentially: don't trust AI outputs, and you'll be fine — a reassuring conclusion that also neatly undermined my entire experiment.

    But ChatGPT had a message of encouragement: If I follow its upskilling guidelines and evolve with the tools, then my future job will not be threatened by AI.

    "Your role sits at the intersection of access + judgment + context — areas where AI consistently falls short," the tool told me.

    Gemini

    Gemini's response to my initial prompt was more impressive, if a little overwhelming.

    The tool produced a 3400-word strategy document for me titled "The Alogorithmic Nexus: A Future Role Analysis for the Business Insider Big Four Reporter in the era of Generative AI."

    Perhaps the deep analysis should have been unsurprising given that Google launched the latest update to its AI model, Gemini 3, this month to rave reviews.

    Gemini said that AI's "primary impact" will be undermining reporters' ability to get scoops, as companies develop AI systems for corporate surveillance and secrets detection. Journalists need an "immediate upgrade in secure sourcing tradecraft," it warned.

    This suggestion was surprising to me, as typically reporters avoid using any digital footprint a company could monitor when talking to employees — see Business Insider's guide here. I'm not sure how AI would change that.

    A screenshot of a table created by Gemini highlighting how core journalistic tasks will change.
    A screenshot of a table created by Gemini highlighting how core journalistic tasks will change.

    Like ChatGPT, Gemini said AI tools will help augment the research and writing process, and that I'll spend less time drafting and more time on verification.

    On skills, Gemini gave me more detailed advice, suggesting I develop RAG literacy to improve my algorithmic research and use AI tools like Reality Defender to support digital verification.

    Google's tool was more cautious about my future outlook, saying that my job security is not guaranteed by simply adopting AI.

    "Your future value depends on shifting your function from a content creator to an ethical supervisor and veracity gatekeeper over all information," Gemini said.

    A helpful exercise

    Simon Brown, global learning and development leader at EY, told me that EY's tool "helps to show and bring to life in a totally relevant way where AI might be able to help them."

    My test wasn't exactly lab-grade science — I haven't seen the responses that EY's tool generates, or the prompts and programming behind it. What AI means for the future of journalism versus consulting are two very different questions.

    Overall, the results didn't tell me that much I don't already know.

    New AI tools can boost my efficiency, and verification and source-building — which have always been essential skills in journalism — are evolving alongside AI. But it was a helpful exercise to actively think about the future, and a reminder to spend time exploring what's out there.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • My grandma always wanted to have our Thanksgiving pies for breakfast. I finally started the tradition when I had my own family.

    Composite side-by-side image of the author and her son. On the left, they're at a pumpkin patch, smiling with a pumpkin, and on the right the author's son is eating pie for breakfast.
    The author and her son have been eating pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving for 10 years.

    • When I was growing up, my grandmother always suggested having pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving.
    • We never did it then, but I always wanted to, and I finally tried it with my son when he was 2.
    • We loved it so much that we've done it ever since, and it's our favorite holiday tradition.

    Growing up, my grandmother would always say we should have our Thanksgiving pies for breakfast. I thought it was such a good idea, because by the time you're done eating dinner, you're really too full for dessert. My family never ended up going through with it, but the idea stuck with me.

    When I had my son, I wanted to start our own holiday traditions together. I remembered the idea of having pie for breakfast and decided to try it. In order for the pie to be ready on Thanksgiving morning, I had to stay up the Wednesday night before to make everything. I thought an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and fresh whipped cream would be perfect.

    It went so well the first year, and we added on to the tradition

    My son was only 2 years old the first year we tried it, so it was his first time trying everything. After I put him to bed, I stayed up cooking, while the SNL Thanksgiving special played on TV in the background. It all felt just right for me, as if I were figuring out the kind of holiday I wanted to have, not just for my son, but for myself too.

    It wasn't easy putting everything away for the next morning without taste-tasting, but it felt so much more special to wait for Thanksgiving. When we woke up the next morning, I put the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on right away. I didn't even feel too bad about letting us eat pie for breakfast, because it was homemade and still full of apples and pumpkin.

    My son looked at me as if I had made a mistake, but when I reassured him to go ahead and try it, he loved it. I had my pie with coffee, while he had his with milk. Although it was delicious, I think what made us most happy was being together and doing something out of the ordinary. Before the morning was even over, I knew this was going to be something we did forever.

    Having pie for breakfast came with benefits I couldn't have predicted

    In addition to establishing our tradition of having pie for breakfast, I also developed a special Thanksgiving coffee that morning by putting whipped cream in a mug first and then pouring hot coffee over it, creating something like a cappuccino. While I knew eating traditional Thanksgiving desserts for breakfast with my son to be fun, I wasn't expecting to establish other traditions that also felt personal and resonant for me, such as the surprising nostalgia for SNL that I felt as I watched the special (which I still do every year) and my new holiday coffee.

    Since my son also spends time with his father on Thanksgiving, the new tradition has had some unforeseen benefits for coparenting over the holiday, too. His father and I do our best to ensure that our son sees each of us on holidays. So, for example, I would have my son for the first half of the day, and then he would go with his dad for the second half.

    It was hard getting used to not being with my son for the whole day, but it's gotten easier. And part of that is because I found ways to make our holiday time together feel full. The Thanksgiving breakfast tradition allowed me to celebrate with my son and not feel as sad because I wasn't eating dinner with him later on. I think it helps my son in the same way, too, because he's doing something equally as special with each parent.

    Our pie tradition has become the best part of Thanksgiving

    My son is 12 now, and we have kept the tradition going ever since. When I'm feeling really ambitious, I make a pecan pie, too. When I remarried, we let my husband in on the ritual, and he loves it. We're both big coffee drinkers, and the pie and coffee combo is really perfect. Everything that happens for the rest of Thanksgiving after pie for breakfast is just a bonus, because we've already enjoyed the most important part of the holiday for us.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • MrBeast is promising to join the hardcore worker moment in 2026

    MrBeast at the 2025 Joy Forum at SEF Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 16, 2025.
    MrBeast says his recent videos slipped and vows to join the hardcore work era with "ultra grind mode" in 2026.

    • MrBeast said his latest videos fell short and vows to enter 'ultra grind mode' in 2026.
    • His promise echoes that of CEOs like Andy Jassy and John Stankey pushing hardcore office culture.
    • As companies tie careers to metrics, MrBeast is pledging a creator-style productivity reset.

    YouTube megastar MrBeast said he's gearing up for what he calls "ultra grind mode" — a pledge that places him squarely in the growing hardcore worker moment, reshaping both the creator economy and corporate America.

    In a post on X on Wednesday, the 27-year-old creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, told his 33.4 million followers that he hasn't been fully satisfied with the quality of his latest videos.

    "After some reflection, I just want to say I think some of our newer youtube videos haven't been as good as I wanted. I apologize," MrBeast wrote.

    "Ya boy is going to go into ultra grind mode and make the greatest content of my life in 2026. Promise," he added.

    The X post, which quickly garnered more than 2.9 million views as of Thursday morning, triggered a wave of encouragement from fans, who insisted his standards were already impossibly high.

    But MrBeast doubled down.

    When one commenter told him not to be so hard on himself, MrBeast replied: "Appreciate it but I'm going to take this stuff to a whole new level."

    The creator version of a 'hardcore' reset

    MrBeast's pledge mirrors a broader shift inside big companies, where bosses are dialing back talk of work-life balance and leaning into performance, presenteeism, and discipline.

    Executives like AT&T CEO John Stankey and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy have pushed employees back to the office five days a week and tied careers more tightly to measurable output.

    In a memo to AT&T managers in August, Stankey told staff the company is moving away from "familial cultural norms" toward "a more market-based culture — focused on rewarding capability, contribution, and commitment."

    Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Jassy has slashed layers of management, toughened performance reviews, and reinforced Amazon's demanding culture.

    Career experts say that in this landscape, staying employed means showing up, documenting wins, and proving how you drive results — not just how long you've been around.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Stopping drug smugglers at sea takes precision, not luck. Here’s the Coast Guard’s playbook.

    US Coast Guard personnel board a submersible vessel carrying drugs with a small boat and larger Coast Guard cutter in the background. The water is dark blue and the sky is overcast in the background.
    TK

    • 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

    A go-fast boat carrying drugs sails in dark blue ocean water.
    TK

    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.

    A US Coast Guard small boat sails in the ocean with a cloudy blue sky in the background.
    TK

    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

    Two boats sit in the ocean with people on the boats and an overcast, cloudy sky in the background.
    tk

    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.

    A person wearing camouflage with blue gloves stacks packages of drugs on a wooden crate.
    TK

    The boarding team also needs to be prepared for things to unexpectedly go south. If drug runners jump overboard, the mission switches to search and rescue. If they have weapons, the team has to neutralize them. Worst-case scenarios are anything that put the lives of the boarding team in danger.

    If a vessel is stateless — no flag, no documents, and a silent crew — the Coast Guard enforces US maritime law. If it's registered to another country, the process gets more complex, requiring coordination with that government under existing law enforcement agreements.

    Collecting all evidence aboard a drug boat is intense and can take hours. The team extensively takes pictures of the vessel and equipment and the drugs.

    Coast Guard crews go through and swab for drug residue, map the vessel for hidden compartments, detain the crew, and search electronics for evidence while verifying identities and criminal backgrounds. The seized drugs are stored aboard a cutter and later offloaded to federal agencies in port.

    A precise legal process

    The crew of US Coast Guard Cutter Stone stands behind rows of stacked cocaine packages on the ship's deck. A large drone is placed by the cocaine.
    The offload included over 49,000 pounds of cocaine seized by US Coast Guard Cutter Stone in the eastern Pacific.

    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."

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • 6 leading humanoid robot companies worth watching

    Tesla's graphic for its annual shareholder meeting 2025 features its Optimus humanoid robot, which is in development.
    Tesla's graphic for its annual shareholder meeting 2025 features its Optimus humanoid robot, which is in development.

    • 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
    Tesla's Optimus robot on display in Shanghai, China.
    "I think we will literally build a legion, at least one legion of robots this year and then probably 10 legions next year," Musk said when asked about Tesla's Optimus robots.

    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
    Brett Adcock

    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's Neo home robot, which is now open to pre-orders and will require tele-operation initially.
    1X's Neo home robot, which is now open to pre-orders and will require tele-operation for many tasks initially.

    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
    Agility Robotics

    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' humanoid robot Atlas
    Boston Dynamics unveiled Atlas in 2013

    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's robot

    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.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • The Senate’s ultrawealthy club: Meet the 8 senators worth $50 million or more

    Sens. Jim Justice and Rick Scott
    Sens. Jim Justice and Rick Scott, two of the richest members of the Senate, high-fiving at the Capitol in April.

    • Members of Congress tend to be wealthier than the American public.
    • But some are ultra-rich: There are eight US senators worth roughly $50 million or more.
    • Half of them were only elected last year, and six of them are Republicans.

    You probably already knew that members of Congress tend to be wealthy. What you may not realize is that some of them are ultrawealthy.

    Eight members of the US Senate are worth about $50 million or more, according to their most recent financial disclosures. One of them may be a billionaire. And there are several others who, though not nearly as wealthy, are still multi-millionaires.

    Six of the eight wealthiest senators are Republicans. And four of those six were only elected last year.

    That's no coincidence: Ahead of a 2024 election cycle in which costly Senate races were expected in several states, GOP leaders explicitly sought to recruit wealthy businessmen to run for seats in the upper chamber.

    That allowed the party to rely on self-funding by those candidates, decreasing the burden shared by the party's donor base.

    This list is based on an analysis of the assets and liabilities disclosed in each senator's annual financial disclosures covering 2024, which are the most recent available. Assets owned by their spouses are included.

    Members of Congress are not required to disclose the exact dollar values of their assets and liabilities, but rather a range of values. They are also not required to disclose the value of their personal residences.

    Senators are listed in descending order based on the sum of the minimum value of their assets.

    Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia
    Republican Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia
    Republican Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia may be the sole billionaire serving in the US Senate.

    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
    Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida is worth more than $240 million.

    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
    Sen. David McCormick
    Republican Sen. David McCormick of Pennsylvania owns assets worth at least $135 million.

    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
    Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana is worth more than $100 million.

    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
    Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia is worth more than $76 million.

    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
    Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska is worth more than $74 million.

    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
    Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is worth more than $70 million.

    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 of Ohio
    Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio is worth roughly $50 million.

    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.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • ‘The bubble is ahead of us’: hedge fund exec says investors still don’t get how big AI is

    headshot of Bridgewater Associates co-CIO Greg Jensen
    Bridgewater Associates co-CIO Greg Jensen

    • 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.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Russia is trying to hit Ukrainian helicopters and other aircraft midair with Shahed drones, deputy defense chief says

    A Ukrainian military helicopter flies at a low altitude in Donetsk region on January 15, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
    Russia is trying to fly its Shahed-type drones into Ukrainian aircraft, a senior official said.

    • Russia is using its Shahed drones to try to hit Ukrainian aircraft midair, a defense official said.
    • Russia is also now attacking closer to the front lines with Shaheds, typically a deep-strike weapon.
    • The new developments show how Russia is modifying and testing out new tactics with its drones.

    Russia is using its explosive Shahed drones to hunt Ukrainian aircraft midair, a senior defense official told Business Insider, marking a new twist in Moscow’s evolving battlefield tactics.

    Lt. Col. Yurii Myronenko, Ukraine's deputy minister of defense for innovation, said that Russia is constantly testing out new deep-strike capabilities, including "both new modifications of Shaheds and entirely different models."

    Myronenko, a former drone unit commander, said Russia has recently started using operator-controlled Shahed drones near the front lines, communicating with the systems through antennas in occupied regions of Ukraine, Russia, or neighboring Belarus.

    "Countering such Shaheds is even more challenging, as they are piloted in real time, allowing the operator to react to the current situation and even attempt to engage our aircraft or helicopters in the air," he said. It's not just cutting reaction time for defenders; it is creating a whole new set of headaches.

    Ukraine has relied heavily on its aircraft, from fighter jets to helicopters, to help shoot down Russian drones, which are packed with explosives and are highly destructive if they reach their target. The new tactic of gunning for aircraft with drones appears to be Moscow's attempt to suppress Kyiv's air defenses.

    Kyiv, which isn't typically very open about battlefield losses, has not publicly disclosed any incidents in which a Russian Shahed drone took out an aircraft. But in this war, aircraft have been knocked out of the sky by drones.

    A Ukrainian Air Force F-16 jet flies in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine.
    A Ukrainian F-16 operates in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

    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.

    A rocket pod is mounted on a military helicopter of the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Knights of the First Winter Campaign of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Ukraine on July 1, 2025.
    Ukraine has relied heavily on its aircraft, including helicopters, to help shoot down Russian drones.

    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.

    Read the original article on Business Insider