Financial Mindset

Sam Walton’s favorite ice cream, butter pecan, is always available at the Spark Café, in the quaint town square of Bentonville, Ark. Next door is Walton’s 5&10, the five-and-dime store where in 1950, “Mr. Sam,” as he was known locally, planted the seeds of Walmart , a retail empire that became the biggest company in America . That little shop is now a museum, and parked outside is a replica of Mr. Sam’s red 1979 Ford F150, the pickup truck he used to tool around town in, often with his dog Ol’ Roy. Venture out beyond the square, and the small-town USA illusion breaks. The population of the town surrounding Walmart’s sleek new multibillion-dollar headquarters has soared from about 6,000 in the 1970s to more than 60,000 today, and it’s expected to triple in coming decades as the company attracts top tech and management talent from coastal cities. The feeling is more glossy high-design hub than Norman Rockwell painting. There’s a Soho House-like private social club and spa, boutiq...

Sam Altman wants Washington to tax AI’s winners — and he’s put it in writing. On Monday, OpenAI released a 13-page paper entitled “ Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First. ” It offers a sweeping policy blueprint that proposes tax hikes on corporate income, among other revenue-boosting levers that shift the tax burden from labor to capital.  “Policymakers could rebalance the tax base by increasing reliance on capital-based revenues—such as higher taxes on capital gains at the top, corporate income, or targeted measures on sustained AI-driven returns—and by exploring new approaches such as taxes related to automated labor,” the report reads. Even in the face of relentless warnings about AI’s presumed labor market disruption, the Trump administration has doubled down on an anti-regulatory stance on the technology’s development. In December, President Donald Trump signed an executive order reducing “burdensome” state rule and preventing “cumber...

The United States pulled off a daring rescue of two aviators whose fighter jet was shot down by Iran, plucking the pilot from behind enemy lines before setting off a complicated extraction of the second service member who hid deep in the mountains as Tehran called for Iranians to help capture him. The CIA looked to throw off Iran’s government before the crew member was found, launching a deception campaign to spread word inside the Islamic Republic that it had already located him. Even as President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials described an almost cinematic mission, rescuers faced major obstacles, including two Black Hawk helicopters coming under fire and problems with two transport planes that forced the U.S. military to blow them up. “This is the first time in military memory that two U.S. Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory,” Trump wrote early Sunday on his Truth Social platform. “WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND!” US officials ...

Tehran has been embolden by its ability to maintain tight control over the Strait of Hormuz and its own population. But even if the regime survives the war against the U.S. and Israel, its biggest challenge may come afterward. For now, there’s little sign of de-escalation as President Donald Trump has vowed to obliterate Iran’s economy if Tehran doesn’t reopen the strait in the next few days, while the Islamic republic continues bombarding its Persian Gulf neighbors. Both sides are already targeting civilian and energy infrastructure, boosting postwar rebuilding costs everyday. But while the Gulf states boasted thriving business sectors before the conflict, Iran’s economy was already in shambles , leading to domestic unrest that prompted a brutal crackdown. Still, the regime’s ability to stay its power, resist Trump’s threats, and weaponize the Strait of Hormuz shouldn’t be mistaken as evidence it will survive, according to Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow for Middle East sec...

I’m going to be honest about something most VCs won’t say out loud: what keeps me up at night isn’t that the AI companies I back will fail. It’s that AI as a technology will succeed so much that it makes the business models of the companies I back completely irrelevant. We are living through a genuine step change in the industry. The advent of AI-assisted application development, known colloquially as “vibe coding,” has meant applications that once took years to build can now be replicated in weeks. And as big tech companies bundle AI features into a wider product suite, standalone chatbots lose their pricing power overnight. The human management software space — startups building digital tools automating and managing employee-related tasks such as payroll and performance — is set to go the same way as firms like Microsoft roll out similar products as part of a wider bundle. Both developments underline an uncomfortable truth for ventu...

U.S. service member who has been missing since Iran shot down a fighter jet has been rescued, according to two U.S. officials who spoke early Sunday on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement. It comes after a frantic search-and-rescue operation. The crew member has been missing since Friday, when Iran downed a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle. A second crew member was rescued earlier. The war began with joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Feb. 28 and has killed thousands, shaken  global markets , cut off key shipping routes and  spiked fuel prices . Both sides have threatened, and hit, civilian targets, bringing warnings of  possible war crimes . The fighter jet was the first U.S. aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the conflict in late February. President Donald Trump said last week that the U.S. had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days later, Iran shot down two U.S. military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombi...

 If the U.S.-Israel war on Iran continues into the summer, then airlines will start running out of jet fuel and will be forced to trim flights, according to Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary. In an interview Thursday with the U.K.’s ITV News , he said carriers will be in an “unknown scenario” if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed for two to three more months, warning 5%-10% of flights in May, June, and July might have to be canceled. By that point, O’Leary added airlines won’t be able to choose which flights to cancel, explaining that they will get little advance notice and it would depend on how much jet fuel each airport still has available. “So we will then look around, and we will be trying to ground one or two aircraft and minimize the inconvenience for customers,” he said. “But it’s going to be difficult. It’s going to be challenging.”  Despite the risk of cancellations, O’Leary said he would “strongly advise” that anyone planning a trip this summer book as soon as pos...