Financial Mindset

David Trainer, CEO of research firm New Constructs, is taking a highly contrarian view of the looming SpaceX IPO that’s generating more excitement than any debut in stock market history. And that’s across the spectrum, from institutions anticipating their biggest payday ever from underwriting the shares, to the funds clamoring to get the way-underpriced allocations that should “pop” big the first day of trading, to the Elon Musk fans clamoring to pile in after the bell rings at the Nasdaq market site, probably in mid-June. Trainer’s got a different take: SpaceX is really skewering investors by raising tens of billions that instead of building profits will going to paying down debt, and “fund an increasingly costly AI race” that SpaceX claims it will totally dominate while in fact, it will encounter powerful competition, and intense pricing pressure, from the likes of Amazon , Google and Microsoft . Put simply, Trainer brands SpaceX proje...

Salesforce really wants to counter the narrative that an AI-related “saaspocalypse” has endangered its growth.  So, alongside its record first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Wednesday, the cloud software giant commenced its largest-ever accelerated share repurchase at $25 billion. In doing so, the company juiced its earnings per share but cut its full-year cash flow growth outlook roughly in half to account for the debt issued to fund the block share repurchase.  The $25 billion accelerated share repurchase (ASR) is part of a $50 billion stock buyback authorization the Salesforce board approved in February 2026. In the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Salesforce returned $27.5 billion to shareholders, including $27.1 billion in the mega-share block purchase plus $365 million in dividends. The ASR included upfront delivery of 103 million shares and drove Salesforce’s diluted share count down 10% year over year.  Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said on Wednesday’s...

Forget your salary—this space founder says a simple kids’ marshmallow experiment can reveal whether you’re destined to stay middle class for life.  The classic psychology experiment sees four-year-olds given one marshmallow and a choice: eat it now, or wait until the researcher returns and get two. Most kids can’t resist. And according to Dylan Taylor, philanthropist and CEO of Voyager Technologies, that same impulse is exactly what keeps most people stuck financially in adulthood. “It’s this deferred gratification,” Taylor, who made his first million before hitting 30, explains to Fortune . “It’s like, do you have the mental discipline to defer your gratification?” In his view, grown adults face the same choice every time they sign a car lease or tap a credit card for something they can’t yet afford. “I see a lot of those things—cars and planes and boats and all that stuff…. I support all that stuff when you can afford it, but most people ...

Twenty years ago, betting on New York as a serious technology hub felt contrarian to the point of naivety. Silicon Valley had the engineers, the venture capital, the density of ambition, and most importantly, the shared belief that this was where the future was being built. New York had finance, fashion, and media. The conventional wisdom was that you couldn’t build the next great technology company from a city that didn’t think of itself as a technology city. We met the way builders in New York tend to find each other: less by design and more because we were both doing interesting things in the same small room. This was a moment when people were openly debating whether Silicon Alley was dead. We built anyway. Matt was incubating and backing businesses like Resy, betting that New York’s density and culture were features, not bugs. Patrick was creating new companies at Thrive.  Thrive Capital went on to become one of the anchors of New York’s venture...

Saunas might seem like a new trend in wellness, but they’ve actually been around for thousands of years. From pit saunas in Stone Age Finland to sweat houses used by ancient Islamic cultures, saunas have been bringing heat to humans across the globe for centuries. So, what’s the appeal of the modern sauna, and is there real science behind its benefits? We talked to several experts, including a sports medicine physician and an exercise physiologist, about how saunas may support cardiovascular health, relaxation, and sleep. As interest grows in both traditional and infrared saunas, research is beginning to catch up with what many cultures have practiced for generations. If you’re thinking about adding sauna sessions to your wellness routine, start here. What happens to your body in a sauna? The heat of a sauna will make you sweat—that much is clear to most of us. But what else happens to your body in a sauna? According to Certified Exercise Physiologi...

Dylan Taylor made his first million at 27. Last year, he became a billionaire at 53, after taking his space-holding company, Voyager Technologies, public on the New York Stock Exchange. But don’t expect his two children to inherit all of it. “I’m not a huge believer in generational wealth transfer,” the founder and philanthropist tells Fortune . “I don’t think that’s good for the kids. And I don’t think it’s good for society, frankly.” It’s why, like Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates , Taylor has put a hard cap on what his kids will one day receive; “It’s a lot, but it’s eight figures, not nine,” Taylor responds, when asked exactly how much his children can expect to inherit. When you’re worth as much as Taylor, there’s only so much you can spend in one lifetime. Eventually, the conversation turns to what happens to the rest. “At some point, once you have a couple hundred million dollars, you can’t really spend what you ...

The ongoing dialogue regarding the ever-imminent displacement of white-collar workers by AI is predicated on the assumption that the technology will become as skilled as the very workers it threatens to displace, thereby cutting labor costs. But a new study found that’s not quite what’s playing out in many companies that have carried out AI-related layoffs. A survey of 350 global business executives with an annual revenue of at least $1 billion by the research and advisory firm Gartner found that many have reduced their workforce irrespective of AI adoption. While 80% of those surveyed who have piloted an AI or autonomous technology have reported workforce reductions, the businesses cut jobs due to automation regardless of whether the technology was actually generating returns. “Looking only at layoffs is shortsighted in terms of getting value from AI,” Helen Poitevin, VP analyst at Gartner and a key researcher of the study, told Fortune . “Chasing value only through head...