Financial Mindset

Think back to February 2020. A few people were talking about a virus spreading overseas. If someone told you they were stockpiling toilet paper you would have thought they’d been spending too much time on a weird corner of the internet. Then, over the course of about three weeks, the entire world changed. I think we’re in the “this seems overblown” phase of something much, much bigger than Covid. I’ve spent six years building an AI startup and investing in the space. I live in this world. And I’m writing this for the people in my life who don’t. I keep giving them the polite, cocktail-party version. Because the honest version sounds like I’ve lost my mind. But the gap between what I’ve been saying and what is actually happening has gotten far too big. The people I care about deserve to hear what is coming, even if it sounds crazy. I should be clear about something up front: even though I work in AI, I have almost no influence over what’s about to happen, and neither does the va...

It was the week of Kimbal Musk’s 40th birthday in September 2012, and invitations went out for his party that Saturday at 7 p.m. at New York’s Four Seasons Restaurant on East 52nd Street. As invitees learned via email the password to get in—“pussy riot”—the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was scheming. Epstein and an associate had handpicked a woman he believed would interest Kimbal Musk; coordinated club reservations through an associate who promised “as many girls” as “needed”; and organized a lunch the following day at his Upper East Side Manhattan mansion for Kimbal, his older brother, Elon Musk, and Elon’s then-wife, Talulah Riley, according to dozens of Department of Justice emails released this month. (Kimbal Musk later apologized to Epstein for not attending the lunch, in another email released by the DOJ.) “I told him that you are coming with [Sarah] and that [Kimbal] might want to ditch his ex/or current to be,” Boris Nikolic, a close associate ...

Two weeks after the U.S. Justice Department’s latest batch of 3 million Jeffrey Epstein files revealed the business elite— from Hollywood to New York to Dubai —who were friendly with the late, disgraced financier, the corporate world is still sifting through his murky paper trail. And boards and business leaders are facing tricky questions as they decide how to dole out consequences for executives who were Epstein’s close confidants even after he was convicted of sex crimes in 2008 and registered as a sex offender.  Among the thorny questions they’re asking: Who knew what, and when? Did an executive commit a crime or just exhibit bad judgment? And to what standard do we hold leaders in a society that has developed a high tolerance for scandal?  Now, we are starting to get answers—and some corporate heads are starting to roll.  On Thursday, Goldman Sachs said general counsel Kathryn Ruemmler will leave the bank in June after the documents showed she stayed in close con...

Even as technology companies are projected to spend more than $5 trillion globally on earth-based data centers by the end of the decade, Elon Musk is arguing the future of AI computing power lies in space—powered by solar energy—and that the economics and engineering to make it work could align within a few years. Over the past three weeks, SpaceX has filed plans with the Federal Communications Commission for what amounts to a million-satellite data-center network. Musk has also said he plans to merge his AI startup, xAI, with SpaceX to pursue orbital data centers. And at an all-hands meeting last week, he told xAI employees the company would ultimately need a factory on the moon to build AI satellites—along with a massive catapult to launch them into space. “The lowest-cost place to put AI will be in space, and that will be true within two years, maybe three at the latest,” Musk said at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this January. Musk is not alone in floating the idea....

Matthew McConaughey has built a career on a chilled type of confidence: “Alright, alright, alright.” But when a University of Texas student asked him during a CNN town hall about the future of artificial intelligence replacing actors, there was nothing breezy about his response. His face grew grave. He stared at the camera. “It’s not coming. It’s here.” “Don’t deny it,” McConaughey said in a recent conversation alongside actor Timothée Chalamet. “It’s not enough to sit on the sidelines and make the moral plea that this is wrong. That’s not going to last.” In light of that inevitability, his advice to creators was to “own yourself. Your voice, your likeness, whatever you’ve got—own yourself. So when it comes—not if it comes—no one can steal you.” The Oscar winner has already acted on that philosophy. As The Wall Street Journal first reported , McConaughey has secured a series of trademarks covering his image and signature expressions—including his famous “alright, alright, alrig...

Visa entered  Formula 1  in 2024 with Red Bull Racing its  first new global sports sponsorship  agreement in 15 years. But it was a bumpy launch as its entry came with a name  mocked as one of the worst  in motorsports history. Didn’t matter to Visa, which on Thursday announced a four-year contract extension through 2030 that expands its partnership with Red Bull Racing and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls. Some fans call it VCARB, others call it Racing Bulls, and some even say Visa Cash App. “When people embrace what you’re doing, people will find a way to talk about your name in positive light,” Frank Cooper, chief marketing officer of VISA, told The Associated Press. “Names become affectionate names once people find some kind of close connection to the company, the drivers, the team, and so people have gotten comfortable with it. “I don’t know anyone has settled on ‘This is exactly what we’re going to call it every single time’ because sometimes people w...

As companies send mixed signals about how AI will impact white-collar jobs, one thing is certain: entry-level jobs are facing the brunt of AI uncertainty—and the effects are being felt around the world.  A new report from the Irish Department of Finance found that AI’s impact on the labor market is concentrated most among young workers. About 63% of jobs in the country are “relatively exposed” to AI, but some industries, like tech and financial services, are already seeing the effects of AI adoption.  Young workers (ages 15 to 29) in the tech sector are experiencing one of highest rates of job stagnation in Ireland, with employment falling 20% between 2023 and 2025. During that same period, employment for “prime-age” workers (ages 30 to 59) grew by 12%, the study found. The effects are most felt among younger workers in the financial, tech, information and communications sectors. Employment among 15-to 29-year-olds in ‘at risk’ sectors declined by 1%, between 2023 and 2025...