• Amir Satvat created a free website with resources for laid-off video-game industry workers.
• The games industry has faced significant layoffs, with an estimated 37,600 jobs lost since 2022.
• Satvat's successful mid-life pivot to gaming made him confident he could be a de facto career guru.

A few years after Amir Satvat landed his first video-game job at the age of 38, layoffs started piling up across the industry at companies such as Xbox maker Microsoft and publisher Electronic Arts. Seeing many of his new peers let go, he became motivated to lend a hand.

Satvat built a website and filled it with a range of free resources tailored for out-of-work game talent. It includes two still-growing lists — one of job postings and another with contact information for hundreds of people he enlisted to provide support, such as résumé reviews and mock interviews.

"I was like, what if I made the most comprehensive job listing site ever?" Satvat told Business Insider of his thinking when he got started on the initiative in late 2022. "I'm good at modeling, scraping the internet."

Satvat also created a Discord group for the site's users to network with each other and he's given away thousands of tickets to industry events that he acquired by partnering with their organizers. He said he doesn't charge or make any money off his career site, describing it as a purely philanthropic side hustle.

Based on user feedback, Satvat said his efforts to date appear to have helped around 3,900 ousted game-industry workers find new jobs, a feat that earned him the inaugural Game Changer award at last year's annual Game Awards show in Los Angeles and this year's Giving Award from the nonprofit Games for Change in New York.

Those honors come as the game industry has been grappling with an exceptionally high volume of layoffs. An estimated 37,600 jobs have been shed since 2022, according to an online tally of termination announcements and media reports compiled by Farhan Noor, a technical artist in California.

Like employers in many other industries, game companies overhired during the pandemic but other factors have contributed to the cuts, too, such as rising production and marketing costs.

Breaking into the video-game biz

Satvat has been a gamer since he was a kid, and by high school, he knew he wanted to work in the industry despite not having artistic inclinations. "I just liked business stuff," he said.

But after earning undergraduate and graduate business degrees, he couldn't find any game jobs near where he lived on the East Coast, and staying close to family was a nonnegotiable. "I come from a very tight knit diaspora of a Persian community," he said.

Satvat spent several years in business-development roles outside gaming, most recently in a remote one at Amazon's cloud-computing unit. In 2021, after his first year at Amazon, a colleague introduced him to Ethan Evans, a leader in the company's gaming division.

Satvat explained that he was a devoted player of franchises like "World of Warcraft" and "The Legend of Zelda," and the conversation ultimately landed him the kind of job he'd long desired.

"It was transparent how much he knew the [game] community and loved it," said Evans, who also didn't start his career in gaming and is now an executive coach. Satvat "wasn't trying to get a promotion. He was trying to move from one thing to another to get closer to something he wanted to do."

About a year later, though, Satvat reluctantly resigned from Amazon because the Seattle-based company began mandating in-office attendance, which meant he'd have to relocate.

He said he landed his current job, a remote business-development position at Chinese game giant Tencent. The person who previously had it reached out over LinkedIn to say he'd just left the company and that Satvat should apply for the role. Satvat later learned that this person found him through mutual LinkedIn connections and was aware of his career site.

Now 43, married, and the father of three boys, Satvat works out of his home in Connecticut and continues to spend about 15 to 20 hours every week updating his career site. He also gets help from about 20 volunteers who are aligned with the project's mission of "empowering gamers at every stage of their career."

Satvat told BI that it was his successful mid-life pivot to gaming from enterprise software and earlier, healthcare, that made him confident he could become a de facto career guru. When asked for his best advice for job seekers, including those looking to change industries, he pointed to old-fashioned networking.

"Spend all your time meeting people," Satvat said. "Every single job I've gotten has been through a relationship."

• I wanted to attend my cousin's wedding, but was concerned about travel costs.
• When I found out kids weren't invited, I scrambled to find a babysitter.
• I changed my mind about going at all when I learned there was no rehearsal dinner.

Outside a café, a stranger and I struck up a conversation. Somehow, it turned to weddings. I explained to her that my cousin was getting married in Chicago this summer, and I was considering going, but it'd be pricey to take my entire family.

"You should go," she said, her eyes boring into mine. "I have learned over the years how important it is to take every opportunity to be with family."

With that conviction, I began planning how to make the trip affordable by using credit card points and asking to stay with the bride's parents, my aunt and uncle, in the Chicago area. I decided we could make the trip work because, as the stranger said, you can't put a price on family time.

Then I called my mom and learned that my aunt and uncle's house had already been claimed. A setback, but I'd see if I'd accrued enough points to cover the hotel.

When the invitation came, it was addressed to only my husband and me. In "etiquette land," that meant my kids were not invited to the wedding.

I respect the decision not to have children at a wedding — it saves money and there's something fun about an adult-only celebration. Still, it does make it difficult for us out-of-towners, who are left with a few less-than-desirable options: either taking the trip without children, hiring a stranger, or bringing a babysitter with us.

In my situation, each option felt complicated. Leaving town without my children meant missing out on the summer memories I had been hoping to make in Chicago as a complete unit. Hiring a stranger in an unfamiliar city felt too unsettling, while bringing a babysitter along meant increasing the trip's already higher-than-anticipated costs.

Then I learned there wouldn't be a rehearsal dinner. That was the last straw — I had to decline the invite.

Rehearsal dinners are one of the most underrated parts of a wedding celebration

I love rehearsal dinners. They feel like a chance to celebrate the bride and groom in a more relaxed environment because, let's face it, wedding days are such a blur. The bride and groom are often pulled in a hundred directions for photographs, formal dances, and toasts, among other things. As a guest, I've never managed to do more than offer them a quick hug or congratulations.

The rehearsal dinner, however, is a break from the chaos — a chance to connect and have a meaningful conversation with the bridal party and family members. They don't need to be hosted at a Michelin-starred restaurant either. In my experience, they are just an excuse to have a mini family reunion.

At my sister's dress rehearsal, I had a long conversation with my great-uncle, connecting over our mutual love of history. It was one of the last times I saw him before he passed away.

Without a rehearsal dinner, we will spend less quality time with everyone who has traveled far and wide to be there, and I know I won't get to see the bride much anyway. I love my cousin, and I'm sad to miss out, but I know we will visit again at a later time when we can spend more quality time together, rather than a rushed "Hi, thanks for coming to our wedding."

So, I sent the couple a nice gift and plan to gush over the wedding photos when they're posted. Who knows, maybe I'll still eat an honorary piece of cake that night and raise a toast to their union.

• Trump administration policies could deter international visitors ahead of events like the World Cup.
• The Big Beautiful Bill increased visa fees and cut funding to the group that promotes US travel.
• Travel associations say the US also has an image issue that the White House should address.

Major moneymakers for the travel industry are on the horizon, and with them, billions of dollars from overseas into the US.

But the potential windfall from those events could be at risk.

President Donald Trump's policies — and the perception of his policies — could cause some international visitors to rethink travel to the US altogether. This is happening right before several major events that are expected to rake in tourism dollars, including the FIFA World Cup and America's 250th birthday next year, and the Summer Olympics in 2028.

"The overall picture right now is kind of a perfect storm," Lisa Simon, executive director of the International Inbound Travel Association, told Business Insider.

Trump's immigration policies and ICE crackdowns have some international visitors concerned that they aren't welcome in the US anymore. Meanwhile, changes passed in the Big Beautiful Bill, including an increase in visa fees and a funding cut for the organization that promotes tourism to the US, could lead to a further decline in international visitors.

Even without major events like the World Cup, tourism is big business in the US. Travel generated $1.3 trillion in spending in the US in 2024, according to a report from the US Travel Association, and supported 15 million jobs. It's also one of the US's largest service exports, drawing $181 billion in spending from international inbound travelers in 2024.

But the industry has already taken a hit under Trump. Simon said international travel to the US was down more than 6% year-to-date. Noting that foreign visitors typically book far in advance, she said the second half of the year and into next year look even worse, with some IITA members reporting booking declines as high as 40 to 60% in some markets.

While the US is still a top destination for international travelers, its market share has already been shrinking due to other destinations growing faster in popularity, she said.

The US's loss is also another country's gain, and Simon said destinations in Europe and Asia are already winning over travelers who are choosing to skip the US. China, for instance, has been opening up visa-free entry to more countries, drawing more visitors — and their money.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The Big Beautiful Bill makes visiting the US more expensive for some

Erik Hansen, senior vice president, government relations, at the US Travel Association, told BI that surveys consistently show there are two primary factors that deter foreign visitors to the US: first, cost, and second, whether the US is a welcoming destination.

"For the One Big Beautiful Bill, it set us back in both areas," Hansen said.

The recently passed and signed spending bill adds to the cost barrier for foreign visitors. For travelers visiting from countries for which the US has waived visas, such as Australia, France, and South Korea, the fee for their travel authorization, or ESTA, was increased from $21 to $40. But for travelers from countries that require tourist visas, like China, Brazil, and India, a Visa Integrity fee of $250 was introduced. That fee is on top of the existing $185 tourist visa, making the new cost $435.

That means a family of four would be spending an additional $1,000 on fees before even entering the US. Hansen said that's $1,000 that's not being spent at American businesses.

The spending bill also cut match funding to Brand USA, the marketing organization that promotes travel to the US, from $100 million to $20 million. Hansen said Brand USA is "our megaphones for welcoming the world and encouraging people to come to the United States."

He said a lot of travel businesses and destinations also count on Brand USA to sell them to international markets, adding it's likely to be smaller and more rural destinations, many of which are represented by Republicans in Congress, to suffer the most from the funding cut.

An image and messaging issue

Simon and Hansen noted that, with the exception of countries affected by the travel ban, the Trump administration has not officially changed the rules for tourists visiting the US.

Still, stories of immigration crackdowns and international travelers having run-ins with ICE, or even being denied entry to the US on some occasions, have many international visitors feeling unwelcome. Several countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and Portugal, have even issued warnings or advisories to their citizens about visiting the US.

"I think the Trump administration's focus on illegal immigration has been misinterpreted by many people abroad as they don't want any foreign visitors here, but that's absolutely not the case," Hansen said.

The White House has established a World Cup task force with the goal of ensuring "a successful hosting of world-class international events that reflect the values, security, and hospitality of the United States of America."

Hansen said he has also spoken to cabinet officials who said they share the goal of making the US the best destination for international travel.

But there has been some less-than-friendly messaging, too.

"We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the game," Vice President JD Vance said during the task force's first meeting in May. "But when the time is up, they'll have to go home. Otherwise, they'll have to talk to Secretary Noem."

The nod to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, one of the faces of Trump's deportation efforts, could be interpreted as not very welcoming.

"It's not that it's necessarily a totally negative message, it's just not the friendliest," Simon said, adding that the administration should focus on getting a welcoming message out.

In addition to pushing for a welcoming message, the US Travel Association is also appealing to the White House and Congress to restore Brand USA funding and cut the increased visa fees, Hansen said.

He added that making it more expensive to come to the US "doesn't make any sense" given the administration's stated goals of growing US exports and lessening trade deficits.

"That's a self-imposed tariff on one of our largest exports," he said.

• Chris Williams is an ex-VP of HR at Microsoft and has over 40 years of executive experience.
• He acknowledges that AI is fueling both chaos and opportunity in the tech industry.
• Williams said despite disruptions, learning has never been easier and there's more money out there.

Tech layoffs are the new normal. The headlines come fast: Meta, Google, Salesforce, and, just recently, Microsoft, are cutting thousands. The jobs are gone, and for many, so is the optimism.

I don't want to minimize the widespread pain for tech workers. But I do see three rays of hope that offer a reason for some optimism, based on my background as the former VP of HR for Microsoft and 40 years of business leadership experience.

Change means opportunity for expansion

AI is fueling both the chaos and the opportunity. Thanks to AI, tech firms are seeing massive productivity gains and doing more with fewer people. Competitive and shareholder pressure means layoffs, but every breakthrough needs people to build and implement it.

Yes, the auto industry displaced carriage makers, but it also absorbed their skills and created countless more jobs. AI could follow the same curve: short-term disruption, long-term expansion.

The tech companies, while laying off some, are hiring many others to drive their own AI products. Other companies need help taking advantage of AI. The first wave of easy adoptions may have crested, yet for many firms, the reinvention of their businesses to fully leverage AI awaits the people who can help them do that.

Further, cataclysmic change often leads to vast expansion. Automobiles weren't simply a one-to-one replacement for carriages; they democratized transportation and led to the expansion of entire industries: huge investments in road building and major increases in travel, to name just two. Perhaps it's too soon to tell where that expansion comes from with AI, but I believe it's out there.

AI is laying waste to many traditional white-collar jobs. But for those who are willing to adapt, there's an entire new frontier of opportunity.

Learning has never been easier

An interesting twist of the internet-obsessed and AI-focused era is that learning has never been easier. There are resources everywhere to help you transition into a skilled AI practitioner.

You don't have to enroll in expensive courses, get advanced degrees, or endure yearslong apprenticeships like many other professions; you just need a laptop. There are videos, websites, and forums teeming with everything you ever wanted to know about taking advantage of AI. The guides are free, and the AI tools themselves will even teach you how to use them.

Finally, most of the tech behind AI is wide open for all to see. The heavy competition in AI models means they're all courting — and training — people to work with their systems. In this gold rush era of AI, it's as if the world is begging you to become an AI expert.

New money is out there

There's also a change in the world of tech investments that offers an interesting glimmer of hope. In my work with several startups I've seen that, as wealth concentrates higher and higher, a new wave of investors is creating opportunity. Specifically, I've seen more funding come from family offices, private wealth management advisory firms that handle investments for ultra-high-net-worth families.

For the last several years, the venture capital world has tightened. The smart money is being reined in, taking fewer bold risks. This makes it harder for very new ventures to get funded by traditional VCs.

But at least one startup I work with has had great success approaching this new wave of "angel investors" with these offices. They're intrigued by bold ideas in corners of tech that VCs won't touch. And the recent "big bill" through congress eased regulations on those investments.

This opens new opportunities for people jettisoned by their large tech companies. Many have connections with the very peers who went on to larger success, and they can get funding for new ideas that, just a few years ago, were rare.

Light at the end of the tunnel

No, the world of new startups funded by angel investors is not for everyone. But the last decade or two of tech has minted a new world of opportunity for those who can take this bold risk.

It might feel like AI is coming for every job. But for those who can pivot, build, or back bold ideas, there's still light at the end of the tunnel.

Chris Williams is a former VP of HR at Microsoft. He's an executive-level advisor and consultant with over 40 years of experience leading and building teams.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Justin Nedelman, the 48-year-old CEO of Pressed Juicery based in Los Angeles. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I began my career as a retail real-estate developer, building shopping centers and hotels.

I then started a restaurant group out of the ashes of my real-estate company in the 2008 recession. I was the CEO of Eureka! Restaurant Group from 2009 to 2021.

Pressed Juicery was doing a formal CEO search, and I knew a board member, so I decided to put my hat in the ring. My wellness background, experience, and consumer-oriented mindset made it a perfect match.

I continued in real estate and hospitality until June 2023, when I became the CEO of Pressed Juicery. Here's what a typical day looks like.

Monday to Friday, I wake up naturally around 4:15 a.m.

From 4:15 to 4:25 a.m., I drink a 10-oz glass of water followed by a 5-oz Americano or Pressed cold brew. This is my only dose of caffeine per day. I drink while having quiet time to think and prepare for the day.

From 4:25 to 4:35 a.m., I have five minutes of meditation and breathwork to relax and energize. I check my heart rate variability and resting heart rate from the previous night on my Whoop. I then catch up on business and world news, stock market information, and social media.

I work out from 4:45 to 5:45 a.m., and it takes me 10 minutes to drive to one of the three gyms I belong to. I have multiple memberships because I choose where to work out based on my time and mindset, and I don't want to have an excuse that the gym is closed.

I'll do a CrossFit-style workout with a weighted vest or use a jump rope intermittently between sets. I do weights and quasi-cardio. My workouts are more intense and diverse on the weekends.

I let myself rest every seven to 10 days, when I sleep in until 5:30 a.m., even on the weekends.

After working out, I help my wife make breakfast and lunch for our children

I drive back home to shower. From 6:15 to 7 a.m., I drink a 20-oz water and a decaf Americano with my wife and help her make breakfast and lunch for the children. My children are in high school now. Mornings with my wife and kids are important.

I skip breakfast every three days after a hard workout to do intermittent fasting. For the days I eat, I have a Pressed Greens juice, an avocado, or grilled cold fish with salad, and nonfat Greek yogurt with fruit and seeds.

I always start with fat and protein over carbs, as this energizes me. Once a week, I do a 24-hour fast to reset my metabolism. I also regularly do cleanses.

I drop my son off at school and head to the office by 8:30 a.m.

It takes me 30 minutes to drive to the office. When I joined Pressed, the office had a flexible policy of two days a week. I'm a big believer in bringing people together for collaboration, so I'm in the office at least four days a week.

When I'm not in the office, I'm in the field, either looking at stores or competitors and learning what's happening in CPG or traveling to our manufacturing facility.

I don't have spontaneous calls with anyone. My style is more structured and planned, and I have one-on-ones with folks reporting to me. I even plan time to not have anything planned.

I probably don't take enough time for lunch, but I eat with our team

We cater lunch for the Pressed team, and it's usually a plant-forward, healthy meal. It's an incentive and a perk of coming into the office.

It's helpful to sit with folks from different departments, and it's efficient. I'll eat with the team when I can, a meal with high protein, some greens, a thoughtful carb intake, and no bread unless I'm in Paris.

If I visit stores, it's usually planned weeks in advance with our operations leader, and we're not there to audit them. We meet with the regional operations and store management teams to analyze how good our marketing is and look at opportunities.

My wife will say I leave the office too late, but I try to leave by 6 p.m.

I get home between 6:30 and 6:45 p.m. and try to have dinner with the family — there are days I'm later. My wife cooks, but occasionally, we'll order in.

Our dinners center on protein, vegetables, and a sensible carb. We'll also go to Pressed stores sometimes. The kids like that, and it's fun to get their perspective. They have good insight into what's relevant for their age group.

I don't believe in the separation of work and life. For me, it's about work-life integration, not work-life balance.

On Thursday evenings, I play tennis with my wife or daughter, followed by time in the sauna. On Fridays, I swim or surf with my son in the ocean. Fitness through swimming, surfing, mountain biking, tennis, or hiking keeps life exciting.

After dinner, I'll watch a show or read a book with my wife

I'm reading Elon Musk's biography, and I'm having my son read it, too — I try to connect with him that way.

My wife and I will also catch up on the day without the kids and watch our favorite show, The White Lotus. I also like the BBC and will watch some news to catch up on what the world is saying about America.

I'm a fan of social media, but I limit my consumption. I enjoy scrolling through Instagram. I study how brands present themselves, and I'm always fascinated.

I'll also take a Pressed calm shot before bed. I aim to go to sleep at 10 p.m.

I try not to do intense work on the weekends

I try not to do work that requires multiple hours of concentration because if I do, it's hard to pivot back into family and personal time. I do light work that requires 30 minutes of focus or less.

My weekends are committed to hanging out with family and integrating fitness. I came to Pressed because I love wellness and fitness, and Pressed is an extension of those.

It's easy to come to work every day and talk about this seven days a week because it doesn't feel like work — it feels like I'm just living my life.

Everything is intentional. Self-prioritization as a leader is important.

• Everyone seems to be talking about the "Gen Z" stare."
• It's when someone, often in a customer service situation, stares blankly at you.
• But if you're getting the stare, here's a tip: Maybe it's you who is causing the problem!

Let's say you're at your favorite coffee shop. You order a customized drink — the same one you've ordered hundreds of times. The 20-something barista says it's not available today.

Exasperated, you explain that you've ordered it many times in the past.

You're met with a blank stare.

You repeat yourself, anxious to fill the dead silence, but the barista isn't budging — and neither is her face.

Let's face it. You just got the "Gen Z stare." But, consider this: Maybe you deserved it! And maybe the Gen Z barista is onto something.

First things first: Is the "Gen Z stare" even real? I'm not entirely sure; I've never noticed it myself (but I'm also a socially capable and polite person who doesn't act like a jerk in customer service situations).

Still, judging from the number of TikToks I've seen on the topic — even Gen Zers themselves admit this is real. I've watched dozens of videos where a young person acts out a situation they experienced working in a retail or service job: In these reenactments, an older person comes in and asks for something unreasonable, leaving the zoomer agog and agape, speechless and staring.

Anyone who has worked any kind of customer service or retail job will tell you that these kinds of baffling and frustrating experiences happen regularly. People can be rude, entitled, and ask for completely unreasonable things.

I have some experience with this, although I'm an elder millennial, so I'm dating myself with this reference: I was behind the customer service desk at a movie theater when three college-age people came up and asked for a refund for their tickets to "Me, Myself & Irene" because they found the content too racy. (To be fair, there is at least one really funny visual joke involving bodily fluids.) The idea that you would ask for a refund for a movie simply because you didn't like it was shocking to me. (They did, indeed, get their refunds.) Who does that?! Who expects that the world works like that?!

But I worked in customer service for a long time, and I became seasoned at it. After a while, nothing shocks you about the unreasonable ways that some customers behave — and you build a skill set of how to handle demanding people.

One thing I learned is that sometimes silence is the best way to handle a situation. In other words, you might say: Give 'em the "Gen Z stare." If someone keeps pushing, eventually you have to leave some silence hanging in the air — no more room for them to negotiate.

As a journalist, I know the value of staying silent. Allowing for an awkward silence is one of the few tricks reporters have up their unfashionable sleeves. It makes the other person want to keep talking to fill the silence, which is exactly what you want them to do.

"Silence is very powerful," René Rodriguez, a communication and negotiation coach and author of "Amplify Your Influence," told Business Insider. Still, it's a pretty bold communication choice — and Rodriguez used a golf analogy.

"The caution I'd give is that a driver is a very good tool — but it's not a good tool if you're on a putting green."

Rodriguez warned that deploying silence can win a negotiation, but hurt a relationship, and should be used sparingly. "If you had a disrespectful, highly dysregulated customer who made threats, that's what works — the gray rock, as people call it," he said.

So if you find yourself on the receiving end of the "Gen Z stare," think a little bit about how you got yourself there. Like Ava Max (technically a young millennial) says, maybe you're the problem.

• Ring founder Jamie Siminoff has led a broad overhaul of the company since his return in April.
• He recently reinstated Ring's original mission.
• The founder has also stressed productivity and cost-efficiency, following Andy Jassy's core message.

Amazon's Ring division is re-embracing founder mode, part of a broader cultural and operational crackdown by CEO Andy Jassy.

In April, Ring founder Jamie Siminoff rejoined Amazon to run the internet-based doorbell company again. He replaced former CEO Liz Hamren.

Just months into his return, Siminoff is making sweeping changes.

One of his first moves: scrapping Ring's socially driven mission — "Keep people close to what's important" — which Amazon introduced last year.

In its place, Siminoff reinstated Ring's original mission statement, "Make neighborhoods safer," which suggests the business is going back to its founding identity as a crime-prevention tool.

"So excited to be back working on our mission to make neighborhoods safer!" Siminoff wrote in a companywide email on his second day back. A copy of the memo was viewed by Business Insider.

The shift marks the beginning of a broader reset led by Siminoff, who returned after a two-year hiatus. Alongside the mission reboot, he's pushing for faster execution, greater efficiency, and a deeper reliance on AI, according to internal emails and conversations with current and former employees. These individuals asked not to be identified because they're not authorized to discuss internal matters.

Ring's transformation reflects broader shifts within Amazon, where Jassy emphasizes productivity and cost-efficiency across the sprawling e-commerce and cloud giant. Other Big Tech companies, from Google and Meta to Microsoft, are making similar changes.

"We are reimagining Ring from the ground up with AI first," Siminoff wrote in a recent email to staff. "It feels like the early days again — same energy and the same potential to revolutionize how we do our neighborhood safety."

A Ring spokesperson declined to comment.

A Return to Surveillance

While Siminoff was away, Ring softened its public image under Hamren's leadership. The company leaned into a more community-focused brand and distanced itself from the surveillance tools that previously sparked privacy concerns.

Hamren retired a controversial feature that allowed law enforcement to request footage from Ring users through the Neighbors app and introduced a more approachable mission statement last year.

Now, Siminoff is rolling back much of that vision, steering Ring back to its original role as a neighborhood crime watchdog.

As part of that pivot, Ring announced a partnership with Axon in April that effectively revives the video-request feature for police. The company is also exploring a new integration with Axon that would enable livestreaming from Ring devices for those who consent, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Privacy and civil liberties groups have criticized Ring's video-sharing capabilities, citing a lack of transparency and concerns about unethical use. In 2023, Amazon agreed to a $5.8 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations of privacy violations. Amazon denied wrongdoing.

Several Ring employees told BI they remain uneasy about the partnership with Axon, which is famous for making Tasers, which are used by law enforcement to zap people with electric shocks.

These Ring employees said customers may not don't fully understand what they're opting into, and it's unclear how video footage will ultimately be used. Data security also remains a concern, they added.

Siminoff's influence is also showing up in Ring's product roadmap and internal policies.

The long-delayed home surveillance drone, originally unveiled in 2020, is expected to launch soon, according to people familiar with the plans. Siminoff has been testing the drone in the office, though it's likely to debut in limited quantities, they said.

In June, Ring introduced a new text alert feature that provides real-time updates about activity captured by its devices. According to a recent internal email, Siminoff told employees the alerts would soon be refined to notify users only when "something unusual happens."

"My vision has always been that Ring would help super power our neighborhoods for good," Siminoff wrote in an April email.

'Bigger impact'

Siminoff, who founded Ring in 2011, sold the company to Amazon in 2018 for about $1 billion. His official title now is VP of product, but he signs off his emails as Ring's "Chief Inventor and Founder."

In practice, he oversees not only Ring but also Amazon's Blink security cameras, Key in-home delivery service, and the Sidewalk wireless network. Ring doesn't have a formal CEO anymore.

When Siminoff returned, some staffers were apprehensive about changes he might make. That concern was reinforced when he introduced a new travel policy in April requiring employees to email the company about the purpose of each business trip. He cited high travel costs and said the emails would serve as documentation when "auditing things."

After some employees pushed back, Siminoff doubled down in a follow-up message, reaffirming the policy. That second time, he pointed to a recent Jassy annual shareholder letter, which emphasized building a culture that encourages employees to ask "why" as a path to smarter decision-making.

"If we all keep doing this, I am certain we will be able to have such a bigger impact on the world," Siminoff wrote.

Since his return, Siminoff has also made changes to Ring's leadership and operations. In late April, Chief Product Officer Mike Harris and Chief Technology Officer Mike Balog both exited. In their place, Siminoff brought back longtime lieutenant Jason Mitura to lead the product and technology teams across Ring, Blink, and Sidewalk, according to an internal email.

Siminoff has also consolidated Rings office footprint for "speed" and "efficiency." Ring's Santa Monica office is shutting down, while Amazon's Hawthorne and Amsterdam locations have become headquarters for the combined Ring, Blink, Key, and Sidewalk teams.

'Double our output immediately'

Internally, Siminoff has scrapped Ring's monthly all-hands meetings and replaced them with a steady stream of companywide emails. Many of these messages focus on eliminating bureaucracy and encouraging creativity with AI.

In April, he launched a dedicated inbox where employees could submit new ideas (something Jassy has also done since becoming CEO of Amazon). While praising some of the more unconventional submissions, Siminoff also urged employees to vet their ideas through AI tools first to avoid duplication, and to consider the resources required and messaging clarity before pitching.

Siminoff has made it clear that AI will be central to Ring's future.

Starting in the third quarter, every promotion will have to prove that the employee used AI to improve operational efficiency or customer experiences, according to a recent email. They will also have to explain how they "accomplished more with less," the email said.

In mid-June, Siminoff also encouraged employees to use AI at least once a day to improve productivity. The following day, he circulated a memo from Jassy that warned job cuts could result from AI-driven efficiencies.

"If we all lean in on AI, could we launch 10% or 10 times more shit?" Siminoff asked in a recent email. "My guess is if we really all fully leaned in on AI and pushed ourselves hard to create constraints that only could be overcome with the use of AI, we could double our output immediately."

Not all of Siminoff's communications focus on technology. In one instance, he addressed a cultural issue: the excessive use of acronyms in meetings.

He noted that acronyms often obscure meaning and slow down decision-making.

"The best thing we can do is use data and clear language," he wrote. "It allows for faster and more accurate decisions."

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• 31-year-old Sam Awrabi has raised $10 million to invest exclusively in AI startups.
• Banyan Ventures will back 36 AI infrastructure and software companies, mostly at the seed stage.
• Here's the pitch deck Awrabi used to build his warchest.

31-year-old venture capitalist Sam Awrabi has raised $10 million to exclusively invest in AI startups, calling the technology "the dominant force of our lifetime."

AI advancements will be "bigger than both mobile and web combined," Awrabi said, in part because "the average person's productivity will be increased 50% to 75% in the coming years."

Awrabi's AI Fund I will operate within his VC firm, Banyan Ventures, named for the tree whose prop roots enable it to spread. The fund specializes in AI infrastructure and software startups that have had the technology at their core since inception.

On the infrastructure front, Awrabi said startups working to reduce AI costs — from inference chips to cooling technology — have a massive opportunity.

"Nvidia is already worth $4 trillion, and we're still in the early days," he said. "Imagine what the new winners across the AI-native infra stack could be worth 30 years from now?"

On the app front, Awrabi seeks startups with "unique data access" and "high-leverage workflows" that could standardize how work gets done in a particular field.

To date, Banyan has invested in 14 companies, including AI inference chip company Positron, GPU server cooling startup Akash, and Italian AI legal assistant Lexroom.

It will invest in 36 startups in seed and pre-seed stages, most of which have already achieved revenue, and will cut checks ranging from $200,000 to $425,000.

Awrabi serves as the fund's only general partner, and he's entering a fiercely competitive AI landscape. Large VC firms dominate funding, though he believes Banyan's specialization in AI gives it a unique edge.

It's also increasingly hard to get in on seed rounds, Awrabi said, because AI startups generally require less funding, are generating more revenue, and are moving to Series A rounds more rapidly.

Having worked in AI technical sales since 2018 at Samsung-owned MissingLink.ai and then at Comet and as an advisor to various AI startups, Awrabi said his long relationships in the field provide a window into prospective deals and talent looking for fresh opportunities.

Here's a look at the pitch deck Awrabi used to raise $10 million for Banyan Ventures' AI Fund I. Some slides and details have been redacted in order to share the deck publicly.

• Oracle is disputing the property value of its Stargate data center site in Abilene, Texas.
• The company is eligible for an 85% property tax abatement.
• Protesting property value is common in Texas, where the law favors owners.

Everything is bigger in Texas — just not the taxes.

Oracle is disputing the property valuation of its Stargate data center site in Abilene, Texas, local officials confirmed to Business Insider.

Oracle is eligible for an 85% property tax abatement for the Abilene data center, thanks to an agreement with the city's local economic development corporation. A lower property value, in addition to the abatement, would shrink the software giant's tax bill even further.

BI has previously reported on the vast disparity between Big Tech's eye-popping data center investments and the seemingly minimal economic benefit they bring to local economies.

In Abilene, Stargate developer Crusoe has committed to spending up to $3.5 billion to build the data center site in exchange for its property tax abatement. Crusoe has also committed to creating 357 new full-time jobs. As Crusoe's sub-lessee on the property, it's Oracle that ultimately benefits from the agreement.

Companies often insist that tax breaks are crucial factors in choosing where to expand. Economic development officials say that any additional revenue to cities and towns is good, even if that revenue could have been higher without tax abatements.

Oracle did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Oracle's executive chairman and CTO, Larry Ellison, is no stranger to property tax appeals himself. In 2008, he successfully lobbied San Mateo County to lower the value of his property, a 23-acre site with an 8,000-square-foot residence inspired by the country estate of a Japanese emperor. The county awarded him a $3 million tax break.

Taylor County officials weren't surprised that Oracle filed a protest. The money-saving maneuver is often used, even if the company is already receiving other tax breaks or incentives. Texas law also gives any property owner (or an eligible sub-lessee, like Oracle) the right to challenge an appraisal.

"It is a very large property," said Gary Earnest, Taylor County's chief appraiser. "But at the same time, you approach value in the same manner as you would any large company — Costco, Sam's, Walmart, or any of those guys."

Earnest's appraisal valued the Stargate site at about $200 million for the 2025 tax year. He said it would be impossible to calculate what Oracle would pay in taxes at that valuation and with no abatement, because Texas property tax rates fluctuate from year to year and can be unpredictable.

Elijah Anderson, Taylor County's auditor, said that more than half the county's new property value this year came from Lancium, the company that owns the land underneath the Stargate data center. He estimated that Taylor County would have gotten about $3 million in tax revenue from Lancium properties had the valuation not been challenged.

The majority of Taylor County's $79 million general fund comes from property tax revenue, said Anderson, so an additional million or so dollars isn't exactly transformational.

"It's not a doubling of anything," he said. "But it's a significant amount that could go toward new programs."

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• Google hired Windsurf's top talent for $2.4 billion.
• Usually, big acquihires like this leave the remains of the target startups floundering.
• This time, though, Cognition swiftly snapped up the remnants of Windsurf. Here's why.

A new type of deal has swept through Silicon Valley in the past year or so, driven by the AI boom and antitrust limitations.

I call these transactions "acquihires on steroids," and they have some of the unsavory flavor of steroid use in sports. If you're a Big Tech company, you can't do big acquisitions as easily anymore because of antitrust scrutiny. So, instead, you pay handsomely to hire the top talent and license the technology, leaving the remaining business and employees to soldier on alone.

Crucially, Big Tech is not technically acquiring these startups, so the deals are not subject to the same antitrust rules. Depending on who you ask, the attorneys who devised this way to avoid the spirit of US law should either be awarded a Nobel Prize for business or imprisoned.

Remains of the prey

I'm not here to judge that. I'm focusing on what happens to the remains of these startups — and why the latest example, Windsurf, differs from the rest of these big, gnarly acquihires.

OpenAI planned to buy Windsurf for $3 billion. The deal fell apart, and instead, Google paid $2.4 billion to hire Windsurf cofounder Varun Mohan and other senior researchers and purchase a Windsurf license.

For a day or so, it looked like the remaining Windsurf business and staff would be cast to the wind, so to speak. Similar acquihires of Inflection, Character.ai, and Scale AI have left the remains of those startups floundering. For instance, an unprofitable Scale AI cut hundreds of jobs this week after Meta hired away its CEO, Alexandr Wang, in a $14 billion deal.

A different outcome for Windsurf

Windsurf's story took a different turn. Another AI startup, Cognition, quickly snapped up the Windsurf remnants. Why? The answer relates to one of the main ingredients for success in generative AI: data.

You need AI talent, for sure. This is the main reason Google paid so much for a handful of Windsurf leaders and researchers. You also need infrastructure, including GPUs, data centers, and huge amounts of electricity. Tech giants spend hundreds of billions on that.

The third ingredient, data, is less talked about. That's because AI companies don't want to pay for data, so they pretend it's not that important. Yet data is crucial for AI model development, and it's a real reason the remains of Windsurf were bought so swiftly.

The IDEs of July

Windsurf's main product is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). IDEs are coding tools installed on developers' computers — a bit like PowerPoint for writing software. They have become the go-to interface between professional programmers and their code.

When Cognition CEO Scott Wu announced the Windsurf deal this week, he described the main assets he's getting — and put Windsurf's IDE at the top of the list. He wrote that combining that product with the "rapid adoption" of its AI software engineering assistant, Devin, will be a "massive unlock."

Windsurf CEO Jeff Wang highlighted the same point, saying the combination of Congition's autonomous coding agents with Windsurf's IDE will lead to "breakthrough developer experiences."

Unique, granular data model fine-tuning

IDEs are valuable in AI because they provide a massive stream of unique, granular data on how human developers write, fix, ship, and update software code, said Armando Solar-Lezama, a distinguished professor of computing at MIT.

"This is why you're seeing so much dealmaking activity around some of these startups," he told me in an interview this week.

Big Tech and AI companies aim to make AI models really good at coding. Solar-Lezama said that one way to stand out is to use the data from IDEs in the post-training phase of AI model development.

At a high level, building AI models involves two main stages:

The first is pretraining, where tech companies vacuum up all the data on the internet and use it in huge training runs so the models learn a general understanding of how the world works. Everyone has already stripmined the web for this information, so there's not much advantage to be gained here in the AI race anymore. It's table stakes.

Then comes the second stage, known as post-training, that fine-tunes AI models and polishes away bad behavior while giving them their distinctive style. This is where things differ from company to company, and you get custom, proprietary approaches, Solar-Lezama said.

"All these companies, once they have exhausted all the data on the internet, there's no second internet to mine for data. They are all hunting for alternative data sources," he said. "One of the big advantages of IDE companies like Cursor and Windsurf — they have access to a rich stream of data that some AI model providers don't get to see directly."

An IDE provider like Windsurf can see every keystroke and every time programmers run their code, as well as how they run it and how they debug it, through the IDEs installed on developers' computers.

"This provides unique access to a lot of information about what people are doing with their code, versus just what they might enter into the prompt box of a more simple coding website — that's a lot less," Solar-Lezama said.

The big AI companies often provide the underlying models that power IDE products. For instance, Anthropic models mostly power Windsurf's IDE. However, these AI labs may have access to less detailed coding data.

"IDEs have a level of granularity that's impossible to get any other way," Solar-Lezama said.

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If President Trump fires Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, it would likely bring a period of short-term market volatility — along with higher long-term borrowing costs, as the Fed would be viewed as more subject to a president's whims.

The big picture: Trump appears to be itching to push out the Fed chief he originally appointed, perhaps by claiming that an over-budget building renovation constitutes legal cause.

• Paired with efforts to staff the Fed with more overtly political loyalists, that could remake what has been a bedrock of U.S. financial assets for decades — a central bank that is removed from the day-to-day political maw.

State of play: In the immediate aftermath of a Powell firing, there would be a period of deep uncertainty around who was in charge of the world's most powerful central bank.

• Would Powell be able to stay in his job while pursuing legal challenges? And how long would it take those legal challenges to be resolved one way or the other? Nobody really knows, because this hasn't happened before.
• Presumably vice-chair Philip Jefferson — not particularly well-known to financial markets — would temporarily lead the Board of Governors, while New York Fed president John Williams would lead the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. (By tradition the New York Fed chief is vice-chair of the committee.)

Zoom out: Short-term volatility is one thing. The bigger question strategists are weighing is how market might price in a new monetary regime under more direct White House control.

• A strong possibility is that a new Fed chair aligned with Trump's desires to cut short-term interest rates might end up delivering a much steeper yield curve — lower short-term rates paired with higher long-term rates.

By the numbers: The 30-year U.S. Treasury bond yielded 5.01% at yesterday's close, and prices of comparable inflation-protected securities imply that investors anticipate 2.35% annual inflation over that time horizon.

• If investors come to believe that any Fed chair who displeases the president will be fired, they could lose confidence inflation will hover at that low level, driving long-term bond rates up.

What they're saying: The long end of the Treasury yield curve "already has an elevated fiscal deficit and upside to consumer price pressures coming from tariffs to worry about," write Padhraic Garvey, Francesco Pesole and Chris Turner at ING in a note.

• "Adding front-end rates that are arguably too low for the economy risks adding permanence to the higher inflation prints," they add. "The outcome then is a much steeper curve, with front-end yields lower and longer-term yields higher."
• They argue that it would generate a flight away from the U.S. dollar and toward the euro, Japanese yen, and Swiss Franc.

The bottom line: If Trump follows through with his threats, expect a period of volatility, paired with cheaper short-term borrowing and higher long-term borrowing costs.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests of people without criminal charges or convictions surged in June, newly obtained data shows.

Why it matters: The numbers illustrate a major shift that came soon after the Trump administration tripled ICE's arrest quota.

Driving the news: People without criminal charges or convictions made up an average of 47% of daily ICE arrests in early June, up from about 21% in early May, before the quota increase.

• The average number of daily arrests for those with charges or convictions also increased in early June, but not to the same degree.
• As of June 26 — the most recent data available — ICE was reporting an average of 930 daily arrests, about 42% of which involved people without charges or convictions.

How it works: That's according to agency data obtained by the UC Berkeley School of Law's Deportation Data Project via Freedom of Information Act requests, and based on seven-day trailing averages.

The big picture: The spike in non-criminal ICE arrests came despite the Trump administration's claimed focus on criminals living in the country illegally.

• And it happened just after the Trump administration told ICE to arrest at least 3,000 people daily, up from 1,000.

Context: Being in the U.S. illegally is a civil, not criminal, violation.

What they're saying: "The media continues to peddle this FALSE narrative that ICE is not targeting criminal illegal aliens," Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement emailed to Axios.

• "The official data tells the true story: 70% of ICE arrests were criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges. Additionally, many illegal aliens categorized as 'non-criminals' are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gang members and more — they just don't have a rap sheet in the U.S. This deceptive 'non-criminal' categorization is devoid of reality and misleads the American public."
• A DHS spokesperson did not immediately answer Axios' follow-up question about the origins of the 70% figure.

Between the lines: "ICE has the authority to arrest immigrants who are suspected of violating immigration laws, regardless of criminal history," writes Austin Kocher, research assistant professor at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and immigration expert, in an analysis of the new data.

• "Nevertheless, the administration has gone to great lengths in the press and on social media to emphasize the criminality of people they are arresting. Both things can be true, of course. ICE can arrest some people with violent criminal histories and a lot of people without criminal histories."

The latest: New legislation in Congress would stop ICE from detaining — and possibly deporting — U.S. citizens, Axios' Russell Contreras reports.

What's next: Trump's plan to deport millions of immigrants likely will depend not on removing criminals, but on telling people who are in the U.S. legally that they're no longer welcome, Contreras and Axios' Brittany Gibson write.

President Trump has set a radical new course in the U.S.-China rivalry, ceding ground to Beijing in pursuit of a far narrower vision of America's role in the world.

Why it matters: Six months into office, the Trump administration has hollowed out the machinery of American soft power and retreated from key arenas where the U.S. has sought to blunt China's rise.

• Some of it is strategic: an "America First" rejection of the institutions and norms Trump officials view as bloated, failed or captured by a liberal foreign policy establishment.
• But some of it, critics warn, is shortsighted: focused more on scoring domestic political points than sustaining the long-term foundations of American exceptionalism.

Driving the news: Voice of America — the U.S.-funded broadcaster long trusted to reach audiences inside authoritarian regimes — has gone dark in key regions after the Trump administration gutted its parent agency.

• Chinese state media is moving aggressively to fill the vacuum, expanding broadcasts in Nigeria, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries where VOA once saturated the airwaves, The Wall Street Journal reports.
• In a scathing report this week titled "The Price of Retreat," Senate Democrats accused Trump of damaging America's diplomatic toolkit and failing to offer "a viable alternative" to counter Chinese propaganda.

The big picture: Across domains where the U.S. once projected influence without military force, the Trump administration is unilaterally disarming.

• Alliances: Trump's tariff threats and bullying have undermined trust among allies critical to countering China's influence, complicating efforts to present a unified front in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. Trump officials say the president has been consistent — and successful — in his demand for allies to do more to pay for their own defense.
• Global institutions: Trump has pulled the U.S. out of multilateral bodies he deems hostile or ineffective, such as the World Health Organization and UN Human Rights Council.
• Science: Trump's funding cuts to research and crackdown on elite universities have triggered fears of a U.S. "brain drain." China is making massive, long-term investments and recruiting top talent in AI, biotech and space — and already leads the U.S. in 57 of 64 advanced technologies tracked by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
• Clean energy: The passage of Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" is poised to kneecap America's renewable energy boom, widening China's already dominant lead in electric vehicles, batteries and clean tech supply chains.

Zoom in: In prioritizing trade and market access, Trump has adopted a less confrontational approach to the Chinese national security challenges that had — until recently — united Washington across partisan lines.

• AI chips: Trump reversed course this week and approved the sale of advanced chips to China after a personal request by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Some national security experts also warn that Trump's push to make the Persian Gulf a hub for AI development could give China backdoor access to cutting-edge U.S. technology.
• TikTok: Trump has openly defied a new law requiring Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest from the popular app or face a ban in the U.S. He's repeatedly granted extensions, brushing off the national security concerns that his own administration elevated during his first term.

What they're saying: "The Biden administration oversaw a bloated and waste-ridden operation that doled out billions of dollars annually without oversight and resulted in duplicative or even contradictory foreign policy," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.

• "President Trump and Secretary Rubio have made America respected again while ensuring that all actions align with the America First agenda that people voted for."

Between the lines: While Beijing has stepped into some voids left by America's retreat, it has shown little appetite for taking on large-scale humanitarian aid or governance reform work.

• China has had some success in pitching itself as the more globally responsible superpower, but Beijing's aid commitments and diplomatic initiatives often are less substantive than they might appear, says Elizabeth Economy, a former Commerce Department adviser on China now at the Hoover Institution.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a China hawk who aggressively advocated for foreign aid as a senator, has embraced the "America First" model of tying U.S. assistance to the nation's interests, rather than promoting values.

• "What Marco is doing is turning that upside down. He's saying, 'We have our interests. What are yours?' And if there's mutual benefit, let's do it," an outside adviser to the Trump administration told Axios.
• "Ambassadors are lining up for this and saying, 'Thank God — you're not telling us what to do.'"

The intrigue: Rubio's firing of thousands of State Department officials, including China policy staff, has raised concerns that the U.S. is sidelining its own expertise in ways that ultimately could benefit Beijing.

• "What you're hearing is the howling of the dying establishment that fed like pigs at the trough — a bunch of Oberlin grads pushing climate change and gender now don't have a job," the outside adviser argued.
• "And they think Russia and China are celebrating. But the fact is, this means we're being realists for the first time in a long time."

The flipside: Economy argues there's a dangerous short-termism to the administration's cuts in areas such as foreign aid or educational exchanges.

• "These things aren't always 1-to-1, you give this and get that. You're building up goodwill and support over the long term," she says, citing U.S. investments after World War II to rebuild countries that became democratic allies — and still are, 80 years later.
• "You don't win over friends with the kind of coercive diplomacy this administration prioritizes."

By the numbers: A new Pew Research poll of 25 countries found that China — not the U.S. — is now the world's leading economic power.

• China was seen as the top power by pluralities in 13 of those 25 countries, vs. just six countries in a similar poll in 2023.
• China's favorability in most countries polled by Pew has ticked upward, while America's global favorability has diminished significantly since Trump took office.
• Still, suspicion toward China persists — particularly in Indo-Pacific countries like Japan, India and South Korea, where the U.S. remains the more trusted partner.

Axios' Marc Caputo contributed reporting.