Financial Mindset

In 2007, Assaf Rappaport was 24 years old and working inside Unit 81, an elite technology division of the Israeli Defense Forces that builds hardware and surveillance tools. For weeks, a friend had repeatedly badgered him about a 19-year-old soldier he was serving alongside, named Yevgeny Dibrov, insisting Rappaport needed to meet him. “He kept telling me, this guy is being wasted there, you need to talk to him,” Rappaport told Fortune . Before the two ever spoke, the friend told Rappaport that Dibrov had once won second place in a regional bout of Chidon Tanach, Israel’s national Bible trivia championship—a contest that requires memorizing scripture well enough to answer detailed trivia questions. Dibrov, who was not religious, entered purely to win. “I said, oh my God, this guy can probably do everything,” Rappaport recalled thinking. Soon after, the two men spoke on the phone, one of them a teenager, the other already a rising figure inside Israeli military intelligence. T...

Experienced CEOs know that brand equity can be a company’s most valuable asset, one that often doesn’t appear on the balance sheet. Companies build trust, credibility, and goodwill over decades through consistent performance. But as any chief executive knows, the strongest brands are rarely destroyed by their competitors. More often, brands are weakened by a company’s own choices that erode the very qualities that made them successful in the first place. This principle applies to nations as well. As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its independence, Americans need to ask not only whether their country remains one of the world’s most influential powers, but whether they have the internal qualities that sustain that influence. Recent global polling suggests that America’s reputation has weakened. Pew Research Center’s 2026 survey of 36 countries found that a median of just 37% of respondents expressed a favorable view of the United States, compared with...

Amazon Web Services’ top Asia executive is moving to Tokyo, as the global cloud computing provider bets that Japan’s potential for AI adoption makes it a far more interesting market than its sluggish headline GDP growth suggests. “Japan is in a moment of change,” Jaime Valles, AWS’ managing director of Asia-Pacific, Japan and China, tells Fortune at the firm’s Singapore office. “AI, security and competition are three strong reasons for Japanese companies to move from a traditional mainframe-based platform to the cloud.” Japan’s government has warned that a failure to modernize the country’s IT systems, which it dubs a looming “digital cliff,” could cost the economy as much as $76 billion each year.  The country was once a global pioneer in technological innovation, playing a leading role in the spread of technologies like LEDs, lithium-ion batteries, and notebook computers. But Japan’s corporate culture shifted to reward caution over disruptive innovation, a trend t...

Defense giant L3Harris forced out chairman and chief executive Chris Kubasik, 65, over the weekend after a board investigation revealed that he had violated the company’s code of conduct .  The $50 billion aerospace-and-tech company did not provide any detail about what Kubasik did to violate the code, but specified it did not involve financial reporting, controls, customer relationships, or operations. Kubasik, who has served as CEO since 2021, resigned from the L3Harris board and all of its subsidiaries and affiliates.The abrupt departure comes 14 years after Kubasik was fired from another leading defense contractor, following an ethics investigation that determined he had a relationship with a subordinate employee. Under the terms of the separation agreement between Kubasik and L3Harris struck on Sunday, Kubasik leaves with no severance or bonus, and as part of the deal he forfeited all his outstanding equity awards, stripping him of two option grants and other awards...

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez is reportedly working with state lawmakers to draft two new bills strengthening consumer protections and child safety online, the day before 29 state attorneys general are set to face off against Meta in a separate federal trial in Oakland, California. The legislation, which is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, would extend beyond social media to cover artificial intelligence and chatbots. “I think there’s a lot of momentum coming out of our victory in court, and the idea is to build on that momentum,” Torrez told the Guardian . The timing lines up two fronts in the fight over Meta and child safety: Torrez’s push at the state legislative level, building on New Mexico’s own $942 million verdict against the company, and Tuesday’s opening statements in the federal case brought by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey as part of the broader 29-state coalition that sued Meta in 2023....

Stripe Inc. has finalized an agreement to acquire OpenRouter Inc., a startup that helps companies switch between artificial intelligence models, for more than $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.  The deal, just months after OpenRouter raised money at a reported $1.3 billion valuation, underscores the demand from businesses to find the most cost-friendly AI solutions. It could also give Stripe, a payments processing firm, a stronger footing in the fast-growing artificial intelligence sector. The final price for the acquisition could change. The discussions were described by people who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public.  A spokesperson for Stripe said the firm doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation. OpenRouter declined to comment.  Founded in 2023, OpenRouter provides access to hundreds of AI models, with the goal of matching developers with the most efficient and affordable options for the job at hand....

President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon on Sunday to scale back planned joint military exercises with South Korea after the Republican president said South Korea declined to help denuclearize Iran. Trump said in a social media post that the exercises slated to begin this week are costly and “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” while Trump has been in the White House. “Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!” Trump wrote. The 11 days of exercises  involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers  were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats. U.S. and South Korean forces were expected to practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, an...