• Michael Burry is back, and he's turning his fire on Tesla.
• The "Big Short" investor called Elon Musk's automaker "ridiculously overvalued" in a Substack post.
• Burry has disclosed big bets against Nvidia and Palantir and used his blog to criticize the AI boom.

Michael Burry is taking on a who's who of the world's biggest tech giants — and now he's picking a fight with Elon Musk.

The investor of "The Big Short" fame called Tesla "ridiculously overvalued" in a post on his Substack released late Sunday evening, after previously disclosing bets against Nvidia and Palantir.

"Tesla's market capitalization is ridiculously overvalued today and has been for a good long time," Burry wrote, adding that he expects Musk's $1 trillion dollar pay package to continue to dilute the company's shares.

"As an aside, the Elon cult was all-in on electric cars until competition showed up, then all-in on autonomous driving until competition showed up, and now is all-in on robots — until competition shows up," the legendary investor said.

It's not the first time Burry has taken aim at Tesla. The investor placed a bet against $530 million worth of Tesla shares in 2021 but exited the position a few months later, with Burry telling CNBC the move was "just a trade."

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Burry's post.

Musk's EV maker is the latest tech giant to draw the investor's fire.

Burry, whose bet against the housing market in 2008 was famously depicted in "The Big Short" movie, has been outspoken in his belief that the current AI boom is a bubble.

Last month, he disclosed bets against Nvidia and Palantir and engaged in a war of words with both companies.

In a pivot, he deregistered his hedge fund in November and set up his Substack last week.

Burry is not the first to call Tesla overvalued. The company's shares trade at over 250 times its earnings, far higher than other carmakers, and fellow famed short-seller Jim Chanos also said in 2023 that Tesla was overvalued.

Musk hits back at short sellers

Despite a DOGE-related wobble at the start of the year, Tesla's shares are up 11% in 2025 as investors have cheered the company's robotaxi rollout.

Musk has hit out against Tesla's critics and short sellers, predicting that the EV maker will become the most valuable company on the planet.

The billionaire's $1 trillion pay package, which was approved by Tesla shareholders last month, is contingent on the company's market cap rising over the next decade to $8.5 trillion, nearly double the valuation of Nvidia.

The Cybertruck maker continues to dominate the EV market in the US, with around 41% market share as of August — but that number has fallen in recent years as competitors have rolled out more electric models.

Musk has said that Tesla's robotaxi and Optimus robot are the future of the company. But Tesla faces fierce competition there too, from companies like Google-backed Waymo and Chinese robotics startup Unitree.

• I took a 43-hour Amtrak train ride to avoid chaos at airports ahead of Thanksgiving.
• The Southwest Chief from Los Angeles to Chicago had scenic views and a community vibe.
• It costs more and takes longer than flying, but I want to do more long-haul Amtrak rides.

If the plagues of our modern age are screen addiction, anti-social behavior, and a desire for immediate gratification, all driven by the supercomputers constantly affixed to our hands, then Amtrak may be the antidote.

On a 43-hour, 2,265-mile cross-country journey from Los Angeles to Chicago on Amtrak's Southwest Chief, I stared out the window at deep red mesas and Midwest farmland. I shared meals with strangers. I played chess with my husband while others watched before playing a game of their own.

We decided to take the train for two reasons. First, to avoid the airport chaos that often accompanies Thanksgiving, typically the busiest time of year for air travel (especially because there was a possibility the government shutdown would still be ongoing). Second, for the adventure of it.

We paid $1,963 for a two people in a large sleeper car room. While it was a lot more expensive and took much longer than flying, it delivered on the promise of an adventure across the American West. And, after my ride, it's no surprise to me that Amtrak has reached record ridership and revenue, with 34.5 million customer trips in the fiscal year that ended in September.

Whereas plane rides have increasingly become an impersonal, stress-inducing experience that often feels like a glorified commuter bus, the Amtrak feels a bit stuck in time, but in a good way — slower, more communal, less rigid.

We had a large, cozy room with plenty of space for 2

We left from Los Angeles's Union Station the Monday before Thanksgiving shortly after 5 p.m. local time. From there, the Southwest Chief would take us through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, a bit of Iowa, and Illinois. Along the way, there'd be historic train stations, ghost towns, and gorgeous terrain.

We booked a "Family Room," which sleeps up to 2 adults and 2 children. It spanned the width of the train, with a bench that expanded into a bed slightly wider than a twin. There were a couple benches facing each other that also expanded into a kid's bed, as well as two upper bunks that could be folded down from the ceiling.

The room was spacious for two people, allowing each of us to sprawl out during the day and work on our laptops. There were windows on both sides of the room and fold-down tables we could work from.

We had access to several bathrooms and a shower shared by others in our sleeper car. The bathrooms were clean and well-maintained, and a bit larger than an airplane bathroom, while the shower was surprisingly spacious with solid water pressure.

The attendant for our sleeper car brewed a fresh pot of coffee for all of us every morning, and had a sign-up sheet so we could flag when we were ready for our bed to be made up or folded away each morning and evening.

Community spaces are an essential part of taking the train

When it was time to eat, we ascended to the dining car, as our tickets came with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Amtrak offers a traditional dining service, also known as shared dining. That means, unless you're in a group of four, you're going to be sat next to strangers. While communal dining in general is a divisive trend, it was a key part of the charm of taking the Amtrak.

For our first dinner, we sat with a couple who take six weeks of vacation every year and were taking two trains from California to catch a cruise in Florida. Another meal we sat with a man from upstate New York who took the train to Las Vegas because he was worried about government shutdown flight delays and wanted to see the Southwest. An older woman we sat with said her dad worked for the railroad, and she'd been taking trains her whole life.

The food itself was also better than I expected. It wasn't something you'd get at a nice restaurant in Los Angeles or Chicago, but rather standard banquet food: steak, chicken, pasta, and so on. I had mac n cheese (from the kids' menu) and a salmon dish that were both solid. The breakfast quesadilla was genuinely very good. The best surprise was the chocolate spoon cake, which was delicious.

There's no WiFi, but cell service was reliable, and lots of passengers talked or played games

Past the dining car was the observation car, a community space lined with windows for optimal viewing of the surrounding environment. During the day, I posted up at a table here and worked on my laptop, often forcibly peeling my eyes away from the views passing by.

One surprising thing that made the train feel like a remnant of a bygone past? No WiFi. Amtrak has added WiFi to some of its trains and stations, but not on this one. That left me to rely on my phone's hotspot.

Cell service was mostly reliable, though there were times when it would disappear or weaken, but often that would last for minutes. There was only one time, somewhere in New Mexico, where I would've liked internet but went without it for about half an hour, give or take.

The observation car was also full of people talking, playing games, and yes, watching content on their phones, though there were far fewer people glued to their screens than you might expect.

In the evenings after dinner, we'd grab drinks from the café cart ($9 for a whisky) and sit in the observation cart playing games. During a particularly close game of chess, a couple of people who didn't know each other asked if they could watch, and then started playing each other on their phones.

Take the train for the views and the vibes

There's a feeling of lawlessness on the Amtrak, which adds to the sense that you've stepped back in time. No one checked our IDs when we boarded. There are routines, but mostly you're free to wander the train as you please. There's a lot of time killing.

There are also designated "fresh air stops" or "smoke breaks," where passengers can get off to smoke a cigarette, as the staff will frequently remind over the loudspeaker — one of the only instances in this day and age where it feels like smokers are actively accommodated.

We finally pulled into Chicago's Union Station at around 4:20 p.m. local time on Wednesday, about an hour and a half behind schedule due to a couple of holdups along the route. But what's a 90-minute delay after almost two days on the train?

It's not the cheapest or the fastest way to travel. I'm not going to choose Amtrak over flying most of the time. However, I've already added several routes to my bucket list, which I'll take when I have enough time to slow down and enjoy getting to where I'm going.

• When I started eating more protein, I realized I stopped getting as much fiber as I used to.
• I started eating more fiber again to help reduce my colon cancer risk.
• I squeeze in more fiber where I can and lean more on plant-based protein sources.

When I first discovered how much stronger I felt following a higher-protein diet, fiber took a backseat.

I sidelined my berry oatmeal for cottage cheese eggs. My weekly plant-based meals, like tempeh stir-fries or lentil curries, were replaced by a thick wedge of salmon. As I started running longer distances, I also favored more carbs over fiber, which are more energizing and easier on the stomach during training runs.

At first, I felt stronger and faster than when I followed a more plant-based diet. Then, I developed colon cancer-like symptoms and got a pricey colonoscopy — all to learn that I had hemorrhoids, which could be caused by a lower-fiber diet.

As I later learned, most Americans don't eat enough fiber, which is crucial for a healthy gut and, in turn, reduces the risk of colon cancer.

To aim for my recommended 25 grams of fiber a day (without sacrificing the 53 recommended grams of protein a day), I'd have to get creative.

I stick to a fiber-filled breakfast, even if it's boring

My husband, who's always been a fiber fan, makes us the same breakfast every weekday: oatmeal with frozen berries, peanut butter, and chia seeds.

After years of this, it got boring for me. I started enticing us with local pastries or the aforementioned cottage cheese eggs. Or, when I'd go to the office, I'd skip the at-home breakfast for — deep breath — one of those fun-sized bowls of Frosted Flakes in the communal kitchen.

However, oatmeal with fibrous toppings is nutritionally tough to beat. That breakfast got me to about 10.5 grams of protein and 17 grams of fiber — already half my recommended amount. On strength training days, when I need a little more protein, I'll add some protein powder and high-protein milk to my coffee.

Is my high-protein, high-fiber breakfast as exciting as a lox bagel or breakfast tacos? No. But it helps me start off on a great note — and makes me stressed about getting all my nutrients in for the rest of the day.

I load up on veggie sides and grains

Instead of experimenting with fancy, decadent dinners, I simplified my meal-prep: I make virtually the same sheet-pan dinner every week.

Salmon is rich in protein and heart-healthy fat, while seasonal vegetables and grains like farro or quinoa add fiber in addition to carbs and extra protein.

The above meal would clock in at about 31 grams of protein and 9 grams of fiber.

Leaning more on plant-based protein

It's definitely easier for me to hit my protein goals with animal-based products — a piece of salmon gets me to at least one-third of the way.

However, plant-based protein sources like beans or lentils all have more fiber. So if I'm eating salmon for lunch, I'll usually opt for a vegetarian meal for dinner, like a salad or stew.

A recent salad I made included multiple protein sources: tempeh, quinoa, chickpeas, walnuts, and roasted butternut squash seeds. Combined with the fiber-packed veggies (arugula, beets, and butternut squash), meals like this help me feel full while also assuring I eat a diverse range of foods, which is important for good gut health.

I don't hit every nutrient target perfectly every day. If I go out to dinner, I'm probably getting the cheesiest pasta on the menu. But striking the right fiber-protein balance with the meals I make at home makes it that much easier to unwind the rest of the time.

• The Society for Human Resource Management was sued in 2022 by a former employee for alleged racial discrimination.
• The case is set to go to trial, with jury selection scheduled to begin on Monday.
• SHRM, which has been embroiled in controversy, tried to exclude evidence that it is a leader in HR.

The world's largest human resources trade group argued that the plaintiff shouldn't be allowed to portray it as an expert in HR during a trial that begins with jury selection Monday. A judge disagreed.

The Society for Human Resource Management, known as SHRM, was sued in 2022 by former employee Rehab Mohamed, who alleges that she faced racial discrimination and retaliation while working there as an instructional designer.

In September, SHRM took the unconventional move of filing a motion requesting that the federal court bar Mohamed from introducing evidence or argument that the organization is a specialist in HR best practices.

Doing so "would improperly hold SHRM to a higher standard than any other employer facing similar claims, confuse the issues, and mislead the jury," the organization argued in the motion.

In October, US District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher denied SHRM's request, saying its "asserted expertise in human resources is integral to the circumstances of this case and cannot reasonably be excluded."

The decision could be "very damaging" for SHRM because it means the plaintiff can effectively tell the jury that the trade group should, in fact, be held to a higher standard than other employers, said Betsy Bulat, an equity partner with labor and employment firm Martenson, Hasbrouck, and Simon.

"It makes them look more culpable," she said.

The judge also ruled that the Colorado jury could consider awarding punitive damages. This is significant as it means that if the jury sides with the plaintiff, "there could be a huge award," said Stacey Lee, an attorney and law professor at Johns Hopkins University's Carey Business School.

SHRM has consistently denied Mohamed's claims. The trade group does not comment on litigation, spokesperson Eddie Burke wrote in an email to Business Insider. "The case is going to trial because SHRM has a longstanding practice of not settling employment cases that have been fully and thoroughly investigated and determined to be meritless," he said.

Lawyers for Mohamed declined to comment.

The trial is set to begin while SHRM is embroiled in various controversies, as Business Insider recently reported. These include a new attendance policy that penalizes workers who arrive even a minute after 9 a.m.; a memo about a "conservative" dress code that bans sequins; and a companywide meeting in which Taylor said some staffers were "entitled," "complacent," and "sloppy."

During pre-trial discovery, SHRM revealed the existence of two other discrimination complaints from employees. One case, filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2018, was settled. The other, filed with a California regulator in 2021, is pending.

SHRM, which claims to have nearly 340,000 members, offers educational materials and credentialing programs to help HR professionals advance in their careers. Mohamed's suit alleges that SHRM doesn't follow some of the guidance it doles out to others.

Last year, the judge called the Mohamed case "messy" and said the evidence showed that the same HR person tasked with investigating her complaints was also ghostwriting emails for Mohamed's boss and drafting Mohamed's termination paperwork around the same time.

SHRM's industry guide on "How to Conduct a Workplace Investigation," dated about two weeks after that decision, said investigators "should focus on being impartial to gather and consider relevant facts and should not push the investigation in any particular direction."

Additional reporting by Jack Newsham.

• Driverless cars are set to expand to more US cities next year.
• Waymo, Tesla, Uber, Lyft, and others are all trying to get in on the action.
• I hailed a ride in a Waymo car in San Francisco to see what it's like.

Robotaxis are coming to more US cities. San Francisco offers a glimpse of what the future might look like as their use expands.

On a recent trip to downtown San Francisco, self-driving cars, particularly those operated by robotaxi company Waymo, seemed to be on most of the streets. As a visitor to the city, it was odd to see so many cars ferrying people around without any driver behind the wheel.

But in San Francisco, that site is nothing new.

Waymo has had driverless cars operating in the city center since 2022, and hailing one of them has been an option for anyone who can download the company's app since last year.

And robotaxis are set to expand in the US.

In November, Waymo added Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando to the list of cities where it will start using its cars, though the company said that riders need to wait until next year to hail a robotaxi in those places. Waymo is also preparing to offer driverless rides in several other cities, including Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas.

In Atlanta and Austin, companies like Uber and Lyft started offering rides in driverless cars earlier this year, but some riders have told me they've had to go out of their way to hail one.

And Tesla, which already offers its robotaxis in Austin, has plans to launch the service in several more US cities.

In October, I decided to hail a Waymo car in San Francisco and see what it's like to ride one in a city where they've become so ubiquitous. Here's what I found.

I used Waymo while getting around San Francisco for business.

I wanted to get from my hotel near Union Square to a meeting about 12 minutes away, so I checked a few different ride-hailing options on my phone.

A 12-minute ride was about $16 on Waymo.

I was traveling close to 9:30 a.m., so I expected to hit rush-hour traffic and see higher prices than if I had waited until later in the day.

It was a little more expensive than the same trip on Uber or Lyft.

Despite not having a human driver to pay, Waymo charged me more than Uber or Lyft would have for the same trip.

After booking with Waymo, I pulled up the two other ride-hailing services to compare prices. An UberX ride would have cost around $13, while Lyft, which was running a discount when I checked, would have charged about $10.

With a 20% tip, the Uber ride would have cost about the same as Waymo, but the Lyft ride would've been a few dollars cheaper.

A Waymo spokesperson said that the company looks at multiple factors when pricing rides, such as the trip's duration and distance. "During busier times, such as morning rush hour and weekends, prices may be higher," the spokesperson said.

As I waited, I saw several other Waymo vehicles drive by.

During the six-minute wait for my ride, I noticed at least a half-dozen other Waymo vehicles drive by, including two right next to each other.

Going around town over the previous couple of days, I found out how hard it was to walk around a city block without seeing at least one or two self-driving cars.

My car arrived, but I had to look twice to find it.

At first, I missed the notification that my car had arrived. As I looked around my pickup location, though, I couldn't see a Waymo stopped near me.

After checking the map, I realized that it had stopped down the block and up another street. While it took less than a minute to walk there, I wondered why the car had not navigated to my designated pick-up point.

Waymo uses several factors, such as zoning, traffic, and walking distance, to determine where its vehicles pick up and drop off passengers, with the goal of "balancing safety and convenience," the Waymo spokesperson said.

After going down the block, I found this Waymo vehicle waiting for me.

I verified that this was my car by checking the license plate number against the one on-screen in the Waymo app. My initials were also visible on the console that was on the roof.

Three other Waymo-run cars were stopped behind it.

The street where my car stopped wasn't as busy as the one I waited on, which might explain why it was there.

I found it funny that there were three other Waymo cars stopped behind it.

I threw my bags in the trunk, got in the car, and started my trip.

I had to slide this button forward in the Waymo app to indicate I was ready to leave.

A safety video played as the car pulled away.

Sitting in the back of the electric Jaguar I-Pace, I noticed a screen on the console between the two front seats.

As the car began to move, a safety video started playing. It reminded me to buckle my seatbelt and said that I shouldn't touch the steering wheel or the pedals. It almost felt like boarding a plane.

Being in a car without a human driver wasn't as creepy as I expected.

Some people I know swear that they'll never get in one of these cars because no one is behind the wheel. I didn't find it that strange, in part because I was traveling along city streets at low speeds.

Still, I couldn't help but take a video of the empty driver's seat, especially as the car made a turn and the wheel rotated without anyone present.

The screens in the Waymo showed some of the process behind the company's self-driving tech.

At one point, the car came to a stop in the middle of an intersection.

As I tried to look ahead and see what was happening, I noticed that the screen in the front of the car laid out the situation for me: Someone was crossing the street one vehicle ahead, and the car I was in had noticed and stopped.

I could adjust the music, air conditioning, and other aspects of the ride through this screen.

The screen between the front seats also allowed me to call support if there was an issue.

I arrived at my destination on time.

Fortunately, my destination was on a less-busy street than the one where I hailed the car, so it was able to pull up directly in front of my destination.

I grabbed my bags from the back and headed to my meeting.

As I got out, the Waymo app prompted me to leave a review and offered walking directions to my destination (which I didn't need, in this case).

Overall, I'd take a ride with Waymo again, but I'll be comparing prices with Uber and Lyft.

I felt safe riding in Waymo's vehicle, and with the company's expansion to other cities, I would consider trying it again.

But I probably won't pay a premium to ride in a Waymo again. If Uber and Lyft are cheaper, I'd likely take a ride with one of those services.

Do you have a story to share about self-driving cars, the gig economy, or a related topic? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com.

• Michael Stausholm bought the rights to a sustainable pencil from grad students at MIT.
• He thought the pencil was a great illustration of sustainability.
• He was surprised by the immediate commercial success.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michael Stausholm, founder and CEO of SproutWorld. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Back in 2013, I saw a Kickstarter campaign for a plantable pencil. Three young students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had invented the pencil in their class. The idea was to use the writing instrument, then plant it and watch herbs and vegetables grow from seeds encased in the pencil.

I thought this was brilliant. At the time, I was consulting with major companies, including Nike and Walmart, about sustainability efforts. I knew people had a really hard time understanding what sustainability was.

Yet, this pencil was a perfect illustration. It was a useful item, made from all-natural materials. It was designed with the end in mind: when it was no longer useful, users could quite literally give it new life. I wanted to integrate the pencil into my work.

I licensed limited rights, and then bought global rights

I reached out to the students and licensed their intellectual property to sell the pencil in Denmark, where I live. Just one month later, I obtained the rights for all of Europe and started my company, SproutWorld.

I had been interested in the Sprout pencil as a symbol, but almost as soon as I began selling it, I saw the huge commercial potential. That first summer, we sold 50,000 pencils. I had no idea how much space that inventory would take up. I had pencils all over my house, and the neighborhood kids were helping to pack them up.

Within a year, I reached out to the MIT students again, asking to purchase the global rights for the pencil. They were robotics students who dreamed of building robots, not pencils. I can't share the specifics of the deal, but I was very happy with it and so were they, which tells me it was fair for both sides.

Thirteen years later, I still keep in touch with them, and they're proud of how their classroom project has grown.

I was ready to turn down a major deal to project the brand

I thought schools would love the pencils, but I realized they weren't viable customers because of their small budgets. Soon, corporations began reaching out about making custom-branded pencils. That side of the business flourished. Even today, our sales are about 80% commercial, and 20% direct to consumers.

The first major global brand to reach out to me was Ikea. They wanted about 50,000 pencils for an anniversary celebration at their Italian stores. There was just one problem: they didn't want the SproutWorld logo on the pencil — they only wanted Ikea branding.

I've lived and worked in Asia, and I understood that as soon as I compromised on our branding, it would be easier for other companies in China and India to make copycat pencils. I wanted to do business with Ikea, but I had to decline. They asked me if I was sure, and I said yes. I dared to say no to a corporate giant in order to protect the company's future.

Ikea came back, and we later made branded pencils for Michelle Obama

A couple of months later, Ikea reached back out — they wanted the pencils, and were willing to include our SproutWorld branding. That was a major milestone for the company.

Then, in 2018, an agency from New York City contacted me about using the pencils for one of their artists. I saw they represented major musicians, so I was a little disappointed when they said the work was for an author. However, we then obtained the purchase and sales agreement, which was signed by Michelle Obama. Working with the first lady, with her emphasis on healthy eating, was a perfect fit for our brand.

Today, we've sold more than 85 million Spout pencils around the world. We even make eyeliner pencils. Last year, we profited about $1.7 million across the globe.

The symbolism of the pencil is still important to me

I'm thrilled with the commercial success of the Sprout pencils. And still, the symbolism of the product is incredibly important to me.

Sustainability is a hard concept to get your head around. The pencil is an entry way: if you can choose a sustainable, all-natural pencil, what other changes can you make? No one can be 100% sustainable these days, but even if individuals and businesses change 20% of their behavior, that would make a difference.

Our motto is "from small things, big things grow." That's what drives us as a company: inspiring global change, one pencil at a time.

• Google unveiled Project Suncatcher earlier this month.
• It aims to reduce AI's environmental impact by relocating data centers in space, powered by the sun.
• Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company plans to begin sending 'machines' to space next year.

The great AI space race has begun.

Google has been quietly working on a long-term research initiative, internally known as Project Suncatcher, to "one day scale machine learning in space."

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Shannon Bream on Fox News Sunday that Google's goal is to start putting data centers in space, powered by the sun, as soon as 2027.

"We are taking our first step in '27," he said. "We'll send tiny, tiny racks of machines, and have them in satellites, test them out, and then start scaling from there."

In a decade, Pichai said that it'll be normal to build extraterrestrial data centers.

"At Google, we're always proud of taking moonshots," he said. "One of our moonshots is: How do we one day have data centers in space so that we can better harness the energy from the sun, which is one hundred trillion times more energy than we produce in all of Earth today."

Google's cosmic pivot comes amid growing global scrutiny over the power demands of data centers.

"There is still much we don't know about the environmental impact of AI, but some of the data we do have is concerning," Sally Radwan, the chief digital officer of the United Nations Environment Program, said in a press release in November. "We need to make sure the net effect of AI on the planet is positive before we deploy the technology at scale."

The UN says AI's toll on the environment stems from the extraction of rare materials and minerals needed to build the technology and microchips to power the technology, the massive amounts of electronic waste data centers produce, the water needed to operate and cool data centers, and the greenhouse gases produced by operating data centers.

Google's plan is to divert some of that environmental toll off the planet.

"In 2027, hopefully we'll have a TPU somewhere in space," he said, referring to the company's custom AI chip, on the "Google AI: Release Notes" podcast last week.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• As AI becomes table stakes on Wall Street, business schools are racing to keep pace.
• Elite programs nationwide are launching new courses at the nexus of AI and finance.
• Leaders from Wharton and Goldman Sachs explain how AI is reshaping teaching and hiring.

Yesterday's classroom threat was: Use AI and you'll be caught.

Today's is: Don't use it, and you'll be obsolete.

As artificial intelligence becomes table stakes on Wall Street, business schools are racing to overhaul their programs for finance industry hopefuls. The technology is set to automate much of the work that has defined junior bankers' roles, including the rote tasks of building models or the endless tinkering of slide decks.

Across the country, universities are adding AI-focused courses, launching new majors, and retraining professors to prepare students for a world where algorithms handle the grunt work and humans provide the judgment.

Wharton, the famed business school at the University of Pennsylvania, is introducing a new academic track built around AI, offering students classes that fold in psychology, ethics, and governance to help them understand how humans and machines will reshape business. In Tennessee, Vanderbilt University is establishing a new College of Connected Computing to meet the moment. Nationwide, insiders say a debate is underway about how to update business-school curricula that have long centered on traditional finance fundamentals — like accounting, statistics, and financial modeling — as the advanced technology races past anyone's ability to keep up.

The push is to better prepare the next generation of Wall Street talent, as recruiters now prize candidates who have the human insight to interpret the outputs that AI produces, question a system's logic, and channel insights into cohesive strategies on deals.

Jacqueline Arthur, global head of human capital management at Goldman Sachs, told Business Insider that, as AI becomes more commonplace, the firm has doubled down on efforts to probe candidates' analytical thinking. When meeting with students, the firm tries "to see how they think critically, react in the moment, and solve a problem," she said — essentially, the attributes that would make a human more valuable than a robot.

Business Insider spoke to leaders at educational institutions as well as bank-hiring executives to determine how the AI revolution is transforming what and how students learn as they prepare to embark on Wall Street careers.

Wharton's AI reboot

About 10 years ago, Wharton, the famed business school at the University of Pennsylvania, became one of the first business schools to formally explore the potential of artificial intelligence. It launched a research center, enhancing its academic offerings, and partnering with corporations on real-life projects for its students.

Now, the school is taking that work into the classroom, rolling out new courses and an undergraduate and MBA academic track built around AI, Eric Bradlow, Wharton's vice dean of AI and analytics, told Business Insider.

New course offerings explore classes from interdisciplinary points of view, looking at how AI will change business and society from philosophical and psychological lenses. They include "Artificial Intelligence, Business, and Society," "Applied Machine Learning in Business," "Big Data, Big Responsibilities," and "AI in Our Lives," according to Wharton's online course listings. Classes combine quantitative analysis and lab-based data projects with coursework on ethics, governance, and behavioral responses to AI technologies; or case studies that unpack how humans and AI will work together to reshape organizations and the labor economy.

While some classes involve coding, training of large language models, or statistics, many also tie in elements of critical analysis to teach students how to validate the output of AI systems.

Students learn to query models, review results, and determine whether the underlying assumptions withstand business scrutiny. To accelerate the shift, Bradlow said, Wharton established an AI in Education Fund that provides faculty with funding, data, and technical support to integrate AI material into existing courses.

Six months ago, a tech executive at a large private-equity firm, Bradlow, sought recommendations for hires who could sit at the intersection of business strategy and data science.

"I said, 'We'll send you five names,' Bradlow told BI. "He hired every single one of them the next day."

The AI wave sweeps other schools

Across the country, other schools besides Wharton are also catching the AI wave. One is Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, which recently announced the creation of a standalone college that will be dedicated to advanced technologies in AI, computing, data science, and robotics.

Though the school hasn't finalized its curricular programming, the College of Connected Computing is exploring where subjects overlap as part of its ongoing academic planning with Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management, the University told Business Insider in a statement.

"Our teams are actively developing opportunities that reflect the rapidly evolving role of data, AI, and analytics in business education," Vanderbilt added.

At the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Steve Sibley, a professor who oversees the investment-banking workshop — a program that's sent students to leading banks including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Moelis — said faculty were exploring how to "pivot the curriculum" in light of AI's rise. The school is expanding the number of case-based classes it offers, he said, and exploring more coursework tied to AI and programming, such as Python for Finance and a graduate-level AI and Business class.

Training The Street, which provides technical training to banks and early-career finance professionals, has launched a series of free online resources on how to use AI and data tools in finance roles. Scott Rostan, the company's founder and chief learning and strategy officer, told Business Insider the tutorials are open to the public, underscoring the growing demand for AI training.

Recruiters say those changes mirror what Wall Street is looking for.

"Many of the tasks junior employees would have traditionally performed will over time be automated, but that will really enable them to focus their attention on higher-value deliverables," said Arthur, Goldman's human global human capital management head. Training programs at Goldman incorporate AI lessons, she added, with new-hire development including hands-on experience with the firm's internal AI tools as well as instruction on responsible use and continuous human oversight.

"Many of these quantitative analyses will be automated, but will we need our people to understand how to look at that and actually assess it and make sure that what the AI has delivered is actually right?" Arthur asked. "Absolutely."

• Some workers are letting AI tools do their jobs for them — and they're keeping quiet about it.
• Most companies are still in the early stages of AI deployment, leaving room for quiet "coasters."
• A recent study from McKinsey says AI tools can now automate about 57% of US work hours.

For nearly two years, Noah Olsen kept a secret from his manager at a small roofing company in Ohio. He used AI to complete about half of his software-engineering tasks, spending the rest of his time on the clock scrolling through Reddit and watching YouTube.

"I was copying and pasting all of my tasks into an AI agent such as Cursor or Claude Code, and I would let it do the work," Olsen told Business Insider. "So instead of having to work about 40 hours a week, I would work around 20 hours."

Olsen's quiet use of AI to get ahead highlights a fleeting period of technological ambiguity unfolding in workplaces across the globe. With many companies just starting to adopt AI tools, workers who've figured out how to use them to shave hours off their workloads face an awkward dilemma: Come clean or stay mum?

Right now, there is an "arbitrage opportunity" for AI-savvy workers whose managers and peers are behind the curve, Glenn Hopper, an AI consultant in Memphis, told Business Insider.

"If you're using AI, you're getting polished, completed reports and spreadsheets that look incredible," he said. "If you didn't know AI did it, you would think someone took hours to create something like this."

About 57% of employees said they've used AI at work in non-transparent ways, according to a global survey of more than 30,000 workers conducted between November 2024 and January 2025 by KPMG and the University of Melbourne. Those hidden uses included not disclosing when they used AI tools to complete their work and passing off AI-generated work as their own, the findings show.

AI's impact on productivity can be extraordinary for some workers, said Matt Martin, cofounder and CEO of Clockwise, which uses AI to optimize workers' calendars.

"If you're an engineering prototyper, like, holy shit," he said. "Your life changed in the last year."

A recent report from McKinsey found that AI-powered agents and robots available today could technically perform about 57% of US work hours for all sorts of jobs.

Some employees are calling out the gains they've made using AI, said Avani Prabhakar, Chief People Officer at software maker Atlassian.

"They are gloating," she said.

While getting work done faster is a plus, the outcome still needs to be up to snuff, Andrew Sobko, CEO of the AI infrastructure startup Argentum AI, told Business Insider. Since AI is known for making mistakes, or so-called hallucinations, users need to invest time and energy into ensuring what it spits out is accurate.

At some point in the future, Sobko said he expects enough workers to be using AI that the technology's productivity boost will no longer go unnoticed.

"Eventually it's going to even out," Sobko said.

It may be a while, though, before that happens. Another recently released study from McKinsey shows that around two-thirds of companies are still in the experimentation or pilot stage of AI deployment. It also notes that companies with more than $5 billion in revenue are closer to fully embedding the technology into their operations than those with less than $100 million in revenue.

"While AI tools are now commonplace, most organizations have not yet embedded them deeply enough into their workflows and processes to realize material enterprise-level benefits," the report concludes.

Employers hoping to boost productivity with AI should encourage workers to share the efficiencies they uncover and position that transparency as a good thing, Dan Kaplan, head of the HR practice at consulting firm ZRG, told Business Insider.

"Let's celebrate it," he said. "Let's give awards for it."

For Olsen, the software engineer from Ohio, the good times didn't last. Over the summer, he said, his employer hired an AI specialist who taught everyone on his team to use the same shortcuts he'd been relying on. Soon after, he said he was expected to fill the hours he'd spent slacking off with additional work.

Olsen, 21 years old, quit his job in September. He then visited China for two months and is now doing freelance software-engineering work for an employer in Europe that he said hasn't yet caught on to his penchant for AI coasting.

"If you're not at one of the bleeding-edge companies, then you can use AI to do a lot of your work," he said. "But who knows how long this will last."

• One of my sons started his very long Christmas wish list back in October.
• To temper expectations, I have set a gift limit and reserve the right to veto any gift on the list.
• I'm also working to teach my kids the importance of gratitude and giving to others this season.

My 5-year-old is like me in so many ways. He's social, loves trying new things, and makes friends wherever he goes, from a kid at the playground to the older man who walks his dogs in our neighborhood. Also, like me, his love language is receiving gifts.

As such, his Christmas list is crazy long — and expensive. Since he's still a big believer in Santa and thinks all the gifts are made in the workshop, I can't use the cost of things to bring his expectations down to a realistic level.

Here's how I'm tempering his expectations this year, while still keeping the magic of Christmas alive.

I set a gift limit

Since we're still in the sweet stage of believing in Santa's magic, I can't really tell my kids that I'm setting a dollar amount on the gifts they'll receive for the holiday. After all, they still think all the toys are made in Santa's workshop and that everything is "free." Oh, I wish that were the case.

Instead, I'm setting a limit on the number of gifts Santa will bring him and his brother. In our house, it's 10 since most of the asks are for inexpensive toys.

And it's easy to explain the logic, too — since Santa has to bring gifts to every kid around the world, he can only carry a set amount per kid.

I asked him to rank his wish list

As a child, I remember drafting and redrafting my holiday wish list, ranking items in order of importance. Often, I'd cut out pictures of the desired item from catalogs or ads in the paper to really drive my point home. While Christmas isn't all about gifts, I know for kids, that's often the most exciting part of it, and I don't want to take that away from my 5-year-old.

That's why I have my kids rank their own list in order of importance, so I don't miss anything that they really want. It's also an excellent opportunity to discuss how they may not receive all the items on their list, and it's important to be thankful and appreciative of the items they do receive.

I'm teaching them to give, not just receive

At 5 and 7, my boys are at the perfect age to start giving gifts to loved ones. They both receive an allowance, so every year I take them to the toy store and have them pick out a small gift for each other with minimal guidance. Not only is it hilarious to see what they pick out for their brother, but it also teaches them the other side of holiday gifting.

We also adopt a family via the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program every year. We gather the family's list, hit up a local big-box store, and I let my boys take the lead on what they think the family's children would like. It also opens up the conversation about socioeconomic differences and the importance of giving to others if you're fortunate enough to have extra.

I encourage gratitude

This year, we're starting to exercise gratitude for what we have even earlier in the season. Every night at dinner, we share what we were grateful for that day.

We've also started a "leaf wall" in our dining room last month. Every day, the boys write one thing they're thankful for on a leaf and we affix it to the wall. We've enjoyed doing this so much that we're planning to keep adding to it through Christmas and the new year.

I always have veto power

I'm not sure how far you take the Santa thing in your house, but my kids think I'm on a first-name basis with the big guy. We text a lot. I know his favorite kind of cookie, and — most importantly — I have final approval on all the gifts Santa brings them.

This is important for two reasons. First, it helps me keep the budget in check. Second, I can easily veto gifts that aren't appropriate for their ages, like the super-fast dirt bike my 5-year-old asked for. Sorry, buddy, Mom doesn't want any emergency room visits this holiday season.