• I took the Lake Express ferry across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Michigan.
• I booked the premier cabin tier for $279, but ended up driving home because I got so seasick.
• I didn't get to enjoy perks like more spacious seating or table service that came with my ticket.

As I looked up at the ceiling of the Lake Express ferry, lying on the floor while cradling a barf bag, I realized I'd made a mistake.

I grew up boating on smaller lakes around Wisconsin, so I thought I'd be fine on my ferry ride from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Michigan. After all, I was cutting my travel time in half by crossing the lake instead of driving through four states.

I didn't anticipate that as the fifth-largest lake in the world, Lake Michigan's waves can be just as powerful as the open seas. I'd splurged on a premier cabin ticket, but felt so seasick that I wasn't able to enjoy the perks.

I did enjoy some parts of the journey despite my motion sickness, but I definitely came away from the experience knowing that I'm not cut out for cruises.

Follow along on my Lake Express ferry trip across Lake Michigan.

Lake Express did not respond to a request for comment.

The Lake Express ferry transports passengers across Lake Michigan between Milwaukee and Muskegon, Michigan, in half the time it takes to drive.

Instead of driving around the lake, which can take about 4 ½ to five hours, the Lake Express ferry brings passengers and their cars across the water in about 2 ½ hours.

An adult round-trip ticket starts at $199 for the classic cabin and $245 for the higher-tier premier cabin. To bring a vehicle along as well, round-trip tickets start at $236 on top of the passenger fees.

I paid a total of $279 for my round-trip premier ticket without a vehicle, including taxes and additional fees.

I arrived at the Milwaukee ferry terminal for my 6 a.m. trip to Muskegon, which was scheduled to arrive at 9:30 a.m. local time.

Michigan's eastern time zone is an hour ahead of Wisconsin. Even though the trip only took 2 ½ hours, the time difference meant we'd lose an hour on the way.

When I checked in at security, the guard handed me a motion-sickness pill. That was the first red flag.

I'd checked the National Weather Service's Great Lakes Portal and found that waves were expected to be around 1 foot high throughout the journey, which didn't sound that bad.

Receiving free motion-sickness medicine immediately upon checking in made me feel a bit concerned about how choppy the waters would actually be. I took the pill to be safe.

All passengers waited in the same area, regardless of cabin class.

Unlike the Amtrak lounges available to first-class train passengers, there was no separate waiting area for those with premier cabin ferry tickets.

The waiting area featured free coffee for all passengers, a perk not usually offered on flights or trains.

There were also drinks, snacks, and souvenirs available for purchase.

When it was time to board, the lounge led straight out onto the dock.

An announcement told those traveling with cars to board first by driving their vehicles onto the ferry.

I was surprised by how spacious the classic cabin was compared to trains and planes that I've traveled on.

The classic cabin was laid out in clusters of eight seats around two tables, with a few tables on the edges ending up with more space.

Screens around the ferry showed the route, weather, and live feed of the outside.

The screens appeared in both cabins, showing our approximately 82-mile journey across Lake Michigan.

The concession stand was located at the front of the cabin for easy access to food and drinks.

Next to the checkout counter, condiment packets and plastic utensils were available for passengers to grab for themselves.

There were even fake flower pots decorating the cabin.

The faux flowers added a whimsical touch to the ferry ride.

The premier cabin featured even more space to spread out, with four to six seats to each table.

The ferry wasn't very crowded on my trip, so I got an entire table with four seats to myself.

The cabin included a cart with more free coffee.

There was also a screen with a credit card reader to order additional concessions.

Unlike in the classic cabin, each table came with a menu to order food and drinks while seated instead of waiting in a line at the counter.

Breakfast burritos cost $10 while sandwiches and pizzas ranged from $11 to $12. There was also alcohol available for purchase, including local beers such as New Glarus Spotted Cow and Miller Lite.

Outlets seemed hard to come by in both the classic and premier cabins.

Unlike newer plane and train models that have outlets at every seat, the Lake Express ferry only had outlets every few rows.

I enjoyed watching the sunrise on the lower deck as the crew prepared for our departure.

Even while docked, the up-and-down movement of the ship on the water felt stronger than I'd anticipated. I hoped that once we started moving, the motion would feel smoother.

I explored the upper deck as the boat pulled out of the terminal, but it was too cold to stay outside for very long.

A factor that likely contributed to my impending seasickness was that it was too cold for me to sit outside on the deck in the fresh air.

In true Midwest spring fashion, it was 44 degrees on that early May morning. Strong winds over the open water made it feel even colder once we started moving. I got a little bit queasy from the sensation of the boat pitching up and down, but focusing on the horizon and feeling the wind against my face kept it from getting worse.

I lasted about half an hour outside before I got too cold and returned to the warmth of the premier cabin.

The waves felt even stronger as the trip progressed, and my seasickness became debilitating.

The Lake Express crew was clearly well-trained and used to passengers becoming seasick. As soon as they saw me looking a little green, they provided me with ginger ale, ginger chews, saltines, anti-nausea wristbands, and sickness bags.

Even though I was having a rough time, I felt well taken care of.

On the bright side, the bathrooms were spacious and clean.

The bathroom looked similar to bathrooms I'd encountered on Amtrak, with a few additional touches like decorative tile and a trash can with a weighted lid to keep it closed as the boat rocked back and forth.

I'd been excited to enjoy the luxury of my premier seat. Instead, I spent most of the journey lying on the floor with a barf bag handy.

The premier cabin where I'd booked my seat was located in the back of the ferry, where the motion of the boat was stronger. I couldn't last more than a few minutes there without feeling like I was going to throw up.

A crew member told me that lying on the floor in the middle of the boat would help me feel more like I was swinging in a hammock or rocking in a chair. It worked. Kind of.

I spent the next two hours regretting the money I'd spent on a seat I wasn't even using, for perks that I didn't feel well enough to enjoy.

Land ho! I felt better once I disembarked in Muskegon, but the nausea and dizziness lingered throughout the day.

I managed to keep a few plain applesauce packets down around lunchtime, but had no appetite to eat anything else for the rest of the day.

In Muskegon, I spent the afternoon at the USS Silversides Submarine Museum with newfound respect for the conditions that sailors endured.

The Lyft driver who drove me from the ferry terminal to the submarine museum was a US Navy veteran himself. He told me that enlisted sailors often got seasick, too, which made me feel less pathetic.

"Some people I served with were just lucky — didn't get seasick at all, ate all of their meals," he said. "And some walked around with buckets."

When it came time to return home, I couldn't bring myself to get back on the ferry. I rented a car and drove home instead.

After a few hours of fresh air and fascinating World War II history, some of the color returned to my cheeks. However, I knew if I got back on the ferry, I would immediately feel awful again. The mere thought of being tossed around by the waves on the journey home made my stomach churn.

Unfortunately, since it was less than 24 hours before my return trip, my ferry ticket home wasn't refundable.

I shelled out $123.27 for a rental car from Muskegon's tiny airport and hit the road.

The drive from Muskegon to Milwaukee took about 4 ½ hours, but it was worth it to me.

The route took me down the Michigan coast, across Indiana and Illinois, and back up into Wisconsin, totaling around 300 miles.

I returned my rental car in Milwaukee and resolved to appreciate Lake Michigan's beauty from its shores in the future.

About one in three people experience motion sickness, and genetics are a determining factor, according to a 2015 study published in the Oxford University Press' Human Molecular Genetics.

The simple truth is that some people get seasick and some don't, and I do. Even though I took motion sickness medicine ahead of the trip, it wasn't effective enough to quell my symptoms.

If you're one of those lucky people who doesn't get seasick, the Lake Express ferry is a great option to cut across Lake Michigan for a shorter, more scenic trip than driving.

If you're a landlubber like me, learn from my mistakes. Don't spring for the more expensive cabin. Check the weather and wave heights ahead of time. And keep your options open for your return trip in case you end up on the floor.

• Tom Cruise, 62, said he wants to keep making movies until he's in his 100s.
• The "Mission: Impossible" star said he stays young by doing a range of activities.
• Working the mind and body, and maintaining a zest for life are common traits in centenarians.

Tom Cruise said he wants to keep making movies until he's in his 100s. If he stays as active and curious as he is now, he may well succeed.

The 62-year-old actor, who is best known for his adrenaline-fueled stunts in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, said in 2023 that he was inspired by Harrison Ford, who still works at age 82.

But he told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday: "Actually, I'm going to make them into my 100s. I will never stop. I will never stop doing action, I will never stop doing drama, comedy films — I'm excited."

"Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning," the eighth movie in the franchise that is out this week, sees him doing a lengthy scuba dive and wing-walking on a bi-plane, among other impressive stunts.

When asked how he stays young by Men's Health in 2023, he said: "Sea-kayaking, caving... fencing, treadmill, weights... rock-climbing, hiking... I jog... I do so many different activities."

Centenarians tend to be active and curious

Business Insider has spoken to many experts in healthy aging as well as healthy older people, including centenarians.

A common theme among them is keeping their minds and bodies active, including with new hobbies. One 2023 study based on interviews with 19 people aged between 100 and 107 published in the journal Journal of Happiness Studies identified eight traits in the centenarians. They included: being active, challenging your mind, taking commitments seriously, and being curious.

A person's chances of living a long, healthy life are partly down to their genetics and environment — and Cruise has more resources than the most to take care of his health and try new things. But research suggests that a person's diet, exercise, and lifestyle can have a significant impact on their longevity.

Joyce Preston, from the UK, who turned 100 in March, told BI that her morning routine included yoga or gentle exercise, and she also went on short walks.

Meanwhile, John Tinniswood, who died age 112 in November 2024, said: "Always do the best you can, whether you're learning something or whether you're teaching someone. Give it all you've got. Otherwise, it's not worth bothering with."

Some centenarians also prioritize diets of fresh, whole foods over processed ones. One 2022 study found that eating whole grains, legumes, fish, fruits, vegetables, and nuts could add 10 years to a person's lifespan.

Meanwhile, an expert in healthy aging previously told BI that 30 minutes of activity a day, particularly a mix of cardio and resistance training, could help prevent chronic illnesses.

• This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

Welcome back! In case you missed it, our new newsletter, Tech Memo, written by the great Alistair Barr, launched on Friday. Check out the first edition here. And if you aren't already, subscribe here.

In today's big story, we're looking at Big Tech's obsession with cutting out middle managers and flattening their orgs.

What's on deck

Markets: When companies like Facebook and Zillow IPO, they turn to this man

Tech: How one of the hottest coding startups almost died.

Business: Gen Z is turning to blue-collar jobs.

But first, no longer stuck in the middle.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

The big story

Flat techies

Technology can quickly become outdated, but it's a job title in tech that's an endangered species: the middle manager.

Big Tech is flattening its ranks to thin out layers of management in a bid to reduce bureaucracy, writes Emma Cosgrove, Tim Paradis, Eugene Kim, and Ashley Stewart.

Middle managers have had to keep their heads on a swivel for a while. At the end of last year, BI's workplace expert Aki Ito detailed Corporate America falling out of love with the role.

But the tech industry has taken the trend into overdrive, as is often the case. From Microsoft to Intel and Amazon, companies are shedding managers to make themselves as quick and lean as possible.

The biggest immediate impact of flattening orgs is managers overseeing more workers. Some argue that will limit micromanagement. Others say you'll burn out the managers who are left behind.

Big Tech is willing to take its chances, though.

As Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last fall: "I hate bureaucracy."

"The goal again is to allow us to have higher ownership and to move more quickly," Jassy added.

Big Tech's middle-management purge speaks to a larger trend: Let the stars shine and get rid of anyone else.

Part of tech companies' efficiency push is to identify top performers and weed out underachievers.

With that approach, you could argue there is less of a need for managers. No weak links in the chain means managers don't have to do as much hand-holding. Get out of the way and let your top performers do what they do best.

This isn't a foolproof strategy, though. Someone being extremely capable at their job doesn't always correlate with them being an easy employee to manage. In fact, sometimes the opposite can be true.

But what other options do these tech giants have? The pressure from startups like OpenAI and Anthropic is undeniable. Their smaller size also gives them a massive leg up to move quickly.

And when it comes to AI, speed is the name of the game. Meanwhile, middle managers seem to only be slowing companies down.

3 things in markets

1. Trump's "Big, beautiful bill" could cause some big chaos. Market pros say the president's tax bill would add $4 trillion to the US deficit, stoking mayhem in the bond market. That means another Trump vs. bond market showdown could be headed our way.

2. Bankers tell startups wanting to go public: "Go, go, go." Startups like Hinge Health put their IPO plans on hold when Trump introduced sweeping tariffs. Now that the stock market has recovered, bankers are telling companies to go public while they still can.

3. This "hick from Ohio" is a big deal for IPOs. Pat Healy could be the forefather of getting stock exchanges to compete for the right to get a company to list with them. From free Davos advertising to NFL star appearances, here's how Healy lands companies major marketing perks.

3 things in tech

1. "Appstinence" is a virtue. Raised in the age of the smartphone, a growing cohort of people, mostly millennials and Gen Zers, are opting for dumb tech instead. As the evidence of our collective phone addiction adds up, even tech lovers are embracing the digital detox movement.

2. How Silicon Valley's favorite startup came back from the edge of disaster. StackBlitz was at death's door when Anthropic released its AI model Sonnet 3.5 in 2024. That led StackBlitz to create Bolt.new, a product that could write code based on prompts written in English — and the company's gold mine. BI's Alistair Barr has the full story.

3. Is AI coming for teachers? Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn thinks so. On a recent podcast appearance, he told venture capitalist Sarah Guo that schools will still be necessary in an AI-driven future — but mostly just for childcare. He thinks AI will do the actual teaching.

3 things in business

1. Gen Z is dyeing white collars blue. The cost of college is skyrocketing, and the white-collar job market is unstable. That's led many young people to turn to trades instead, which can offer six-figure salaries and have a high demand for workers.

2. Selling a merger to Trump? MAGA-ify it. Cable giant Charter is merging with Cox, posing a bigger rival for Comcast. The merger still needs the green light from the Trump administration, and it seems like Charter is leaning into pro-American rhetoric to get it, BI's Peter Kafka writes.

3. LA investor Jessica Mah is in a legal battle with DGV investor Justin Caldbeck and two ex-employees. In a lawsuit, Mah has accused Caldbeck of sexually harassing her, which he denies. The lawsuits against Mah, meanwhile, accuse her of misusing company funds, harassment, and age discrimination, BI's Rob Price reports.

In other news

• No one seems to know if AI will take our jobs or make us productive superstars.
• Joe Biden was diagnosed with an 'aggressive form' of prostate cancer.
• Boeing was the real winner of Donald Trump's trip to the Middle East.
• I was an HR manager at Meta who helped guide the layoff process. Then they cut my role too — here's what being laid off taught me.
• We put Tesla's FSD and Waymo's robotaxi to the test. One shocking mistake made the winner clear.
• Trump's EPA is trying to reverse a Biden climate initiative that would have provided financing for new housing projects.

• Dairy Queen CEO explains what a job interview with Warren Buffett is like.

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  What's happening today

• WNBA season begins.

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• The Business Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.

• Michael O'Leary is set for a 100 million euro windfall if Ryanair stock stays above 21 euros for a month.
• It's been there for 17 days, and rose again on Monday after reporting earnings.
• Ryanair's profits fell 16%, but passenger numbers were up and a big share buyback was approved.

The CEO of Europe's biggest airline is set for another shot at one of the continent's biggest windfalls.

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary stands to receive stock options worth 100 million euros ($113 million) if the Irish budget carrier's share price trades above 21 euros for 28 days.

The stock has done well recently, staying above that price since May 2. It added another 3.3% in Dublin on Monday to just over 23 euros, valuing the company at more than 24 billion euros ($27 billion.)

While it spent a few days at this level last March and April, this is O'Leary's most promising rally yet.

In Monday's full-year earnings, Ryanair reported profits of 1.61 billion euros — a 16% fall compared with the previous 12 months.

While it reached a record 200 million passengers, tickets were 7% cheaper. O'Leary cited consumer spending pressure and "a big drop off" in bookings from online travel agents, following a dispute with them.

The airline also warned growth would slow due to delayed deliveries of Boeing planes. Having fewer planes than expected also meant that staffing costs were 17% higher this past financial year.

Ryanair also announced a share buyback worth 750 million euros.

Analysts at Peel Hunt said the airline traded at a "significant premium" to its peers and they maintained a "hold" rating with a target price of 21.50 euros.

The Financial Times previously reported that O'Leary's bonus deal was supposed to expire last year before being extended until 2028.

The potentially enormous payout isn't without its controversies, as Ryanair is known for its ancillary fees of up to three figures for changing a name or for hold baggage. The airline is getting rid of paper boarding passes later this year, however.

Such fees allow it to keep airfares as low as $20, but on some routes, tickets can still cost hundreds of euros.

When The Wall Street Journal asked about the potentially huge payout in an interview last year, the Ryanair chief gave a characteristically outspoken response.

"If premiership footballers are earning fucking 20 million a year and [Kylian] Mbappé is being paid 130 million to go play football for fucking Real Madrid, then I think my contract is very good value for Ryanair shareholders," O'Leary quipped.

• Xiaomi boss Lei Jun said his company would start making its own mobile chips.
• He said his company was ready to spend billions of dollars on chip design over the next decade.
• It's an approach that its rival Apple largely popularized.

One of Apple's top rivals in China is taking a page out of its own book, again.

On Monday, Xiaomi's billionaire cofounder and CEO, Lei Jun, said that his company was implementing a 10-year plan to invest 50 billion yuan, roughly $7 billion, into chip design as it looks to make chips of its own for its smartphones. To date, it has relied on US firm Qualcomm and Taiwanese firm MediaTek for chips.

In a post to Chinese social media site Weibo, Lei said his company "made a major decision" back in 2021 to restart the process of developing its own silicon for smartphones after an initial effort in the previous decade faced setbacks.

Apple has largely popularized the so-called system-on-a-chip (SoC) approach, spending the past 15 years powering products like iPhones and Macs with its own silicon, which company executives believe gives their products an edge.

Lei also said on Weibo that the first chip from its new mobile efforts, Xring 01, would be unveiled on May 22.

"Chips are the underlying core track for Xiaomi to break through hardcore technology, and we will definitely go all out," Lei wrote, while acknowledging that his company had previously suspended its work on SoC research and development.

The move comes as Chinese companies increasingly seek to develop their own know-how and expertise in key technologies.

Lei said Xiaomi would chase "the latest process technology" as part of its ambitions for its renewed work on mobile chips. Chips for the Xring 01 will be developed using 3 3-nanometer process, Lei said, an advanced way of producing some of the most powerful chips.

He said that at least a decade of fresh investment would be needed, given "the difficulty of chip manufacturing."

"Xiaomi has always had a 'chip dream' because, in order to become a great hardcore technology company, chips are a peak that must be climbed and a tough battle that cannot be avoided," he wrote.

It's not the first time Xiaomi has looked to emulate a rival like Apple.

The Chinese firm, known primarily for selling smartphones, unveiled its first electric vehicle last year, a month after Apple ditched its multi-year effort to release its own EV.

• Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with "aggressive" prostate cancer.
• It's relatively easy to treat if caught early, but symptoms often don't show until it is advanced.
• Changes in how often you need to pee are among the signs that are easy to miss.

Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with "aggressive" prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, after experiencing urinary symptoms, his private office said on Sunday.

Prostate cancer is the second-deadliest form of cancer in men in the US, after lung cancer, and affects the gland that sits beneath the bladder and in front of the rectum in males. About one in eight men will get prostate cancer, but most will not die of the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

It is a somewhat paradoxical disease: when caught early, it is often curable — but symptoms typically don't appear until it's more developed and harder to treat.

When found at more advanced stages, treatment options are more limited, and at stage 4, which is where the cancer has spread from the prostate to other parts of the body, "treatment won't cure your cancer, but it can help keep it under control and manage any symptoms," Chiara De Biase, director of health services, Equity, and Improvement at the charity Prostate Cancer UK, told Business Insider.

Biden's team has not shared what stage of cancer he has or his prognosis, but said it was "hormone sensitive," meaning it uses hormones to grow and has the potential to be managed with drugs that block hormones in the body.

Easy to miss symptoms of prostate cancer include changes in how a person pees

Changes in urinary habits tend to be the earliest sign that a person has prostate cancer. If the tumor grows near and presses against the tube we urinate through (the urethra) it can change the way the person pees. But early prostate cancer usually grows in a different part of the prostate away from the urethra, so it doesn't tend to cause symptoms until much later.

Changes in how a person with prostate cancer pees can include:

• Difficulty starting to pee or emptying your bladder
• A weak flow when you pee
• A feeling that your bladder hasn't emptied properly
• Dribbling urine after you finish urinating
• Needing to pee more often than usual, especially at night
• A sudden need to pee or sometimes leaking pee before you get to the toilet.

It's important to note that these changes can also be a sign of a common non-cancerous condition called enlarged prostate.

If prostate cancer spreads, other symptoms can include:

• Back pain, hip pain or pelvis pain
• Problems getting or keeping an erection
• Blood in the urine or semen
• Unexplained weight loss
• Weakness or numbness in the legs or feet, or even loss of bladder or bowel control, from cancer in the spine pressing on the spinal cord

Men are diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 67, on average

Biden is 82. The ACS recommends that men with an average risk of prostate cancer consider getting screened at age 50. The test involves taking a blood sample and checking for higher-than-normal prostate-specific antigen levels.

"It's so important for men to know their own risk, and what they can choose to do about it," De Biase said.

• I wanted to sign my kids up for after-school activities because I didn't do many when I was young.
• But when I had kids, it felt overwhelming.
• At first, I felt guilty, but I realized being present with them was enough.

Growing up, I hardly participated in any activities after school. I did cross-country for a bit until I injured my ankle too badly to continue, and I tried cheerleading for a few years in elementary school, but that was it.

When I got pregnant, I told myself that I was going to be the mom who signed her kids up for everything. I was thinking about dance classes, gymnastics, instruments — the works. But when the time came and I had three girls, that's not what happened.

We tried ballet lessons for a few months, but it was exhausting

My girls did ballet lessons for about five months before the pandemic hit and in-person activities were shut down, and it was exhausting. It was just one activity, and I was still in over my head. When it restarted again a year later, I hid my face every time I saw the instructor, praying she wouldn't ask when we were coming back.

The kids didn't seem to miss it, and I sure didn't miss rushing them home from school to get dressed just to race to the studio and then stay up all night doing homework. We did that routine three times a week. Weekends? Swamped with studying and catching up.

While my friends' kids and their peers were zipping off to karate or piano or STEM camp, mine were at home with me — watching movies, helping with dinner, or just lying around doing nothing in particular. At first, it didn't feel like a choice; it felt like a failure to keep up because I was overwhelmed. Not in a dramatic, falling-apart kind of way, but I was constantly tired in that quiet way no one really sees. How did anyone else find the time to do that stuff?

Between freelance work, co-running a household, and trying to be emotionally available to my kids, adding even one more thing felt impossible. I kept telling myself, "Next month, I'll sign them up for something." But then the month would pass, and then another, and I hadn't done it.

I watched other parents juggle it all and wondered if I was falling behind

My husband and I often discussed whether there was something else we could be doing. I'd scroll through photos of other people's kids taking swim lessons or playing weekend volleyball games and feel a gnawing sense of inadequacy. Other parents seemed to be juggling so much — and doing it well. I felt like I was letting my kids miss out on something essential, some rite of passage that would make them more confident, social, or well-rounded.

Sometimes I'd ask my oldest if she wanted to join an activity, and she would shrug. "Maybe," she'd say. But there was never a strong yes, and I didn't have the energy to push it. The idea of finding the right program, coordinating drop-offs and pick-ups, and buying the gear was all too much. So I did nothing.

And that nothing started to weigh on me.

Was I lazy? Uninvolved? Selfish? Was I doing my kids a disservice by not filling their calendars the way other parents did? I didn't know. We had already established our own little family traditions, but I also wondered if our kids would be less cultured than others if we didn't get more active.

I've started to see that the way I'm parenting is good enough

Over time, I've started to see that being present was enough. The shift didn't come all at once. It came slowly — in bedtime conversations, in shared jokes, in the way my kids still came to me for comfort or to tell me about their day. I realized they weren't lacking anything in those moments. They weren't counting missed soccer goals or music lessons; they were counting on me.

We made cinnamon rolls together, my husband took them on long walks, and they talked about everything from how digestion works to their biggest fears. I was there when they woke up and when they went to sleep. I knew their friends' names, their favorite snacks, and that "Roys Bedoys" was the funniest cartoon to them. I didn't need a calendar to tell me I was showing up, because I just was.

There's this pressure to perform parenthood. It feels as though you've got to post the carousel of photos filled with every milestone and accomplishment, as well as the hustle of it all from day to day. But the quieter stuff — the long hugs, the shared silence, the way your kid looks for you in a crowded room — doesn't get a certificate or applause. It matters just as much, though.

I still sometimes wonder if I should be doing more, and maybe one day I will. But for now, though my kids may not have a full extracurricular résumé, they have me, and I'm finally starting to believe that's enough.

• One of tech's biggest celebrities, Jensen Huang, spoke on Monday at a major industry show in Taiwan.
• Huang said Nvidia is building a new office in northern Taipei.
• He also introduced a new desktop system and talked about China's DeepSeek R1 model.

Taiwan's biggest tech celebrity — clad in his signature black leather jacket — ran onstage in Taipei on Monday morning with a lot to talk about.

Jensen Huang's 100-minute keynote at the tech show Computex featured Nvidia's usual assortment of high-tech videos, complete with a cute robot, and praise for semiconductor hub Taiwan.

The tech titan also outlined new products and a significant regional expansion. Business Insider was in the audience while Huang spoke — here are the top four takeaways from his speech.

1. Nvidia's new office

Speculation about Nvidia's new office in Taiwan has been brewing since Huang said in January that the company's current building was too small and that it was "looking for real estate."

On Monday, Taipei's mayor, Chiang Wan-an, generated buzz when he showed up at Huang's keynote. Huang went on to announce that Nvidia is eying the Beitou Shilin area — home to a science park — in northern Taipei for the tech giant's new Taiwan office, named "Nvidia Constellation."

The announcement was met with applause and cheers from the audience.

Chiang said in a media interview following Huang's keynote that the city government welcomes Nvidia's move and will provide any necessary assistance.

2. New computer systems

Huang introduced Nvidia's DGX systems, which are designed for users who want heavy-duty AI without dedicating significant storage space to a weighty server system.

The physical workstation can be used as a single computer or as a central node for multiple users.

"This computer is the most performance you can possibly get out of a wall socket. You could put this in your kitchen. But just barely, if you put this in your kitchen and then somebody runs the microwave, I think that's the limit," he joked.

Huang said the cloud-based system — DGX Spark — will be ready in a few weeks. Nvidia is working with companies including Dell and HP on the systems.

"I'll let all of our partners price it for themselves, but one thing's for sure: Everybody can have one for Christmas," Huang said.

3. DeepSeek praise

Huang talked software, too.

He praised the DeepSeek R1 model, saying that it's "genuinely a gift to the world's AI industry."

"The amount of computer science breakthroughs is really quite significant and has really opened up a lot of great research for researchers in the United States and around the world," Huang said.

He said DeepSeek R1 — owned by the Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer — has made a "real impact" in how people think about AI and that it has made a "great contribution to the industry and the world."

Shares of Nvidia and many of its peers were clobbered in January, as Wall Street grappled with how to price in the new, seemingly cheaper technology.

Huang said in February that investors got it wrong because the industry will still need computing power for post-training.

4. New AI supercomputer for Taiwan

Huang announced an Nvidia collaboration with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Foxconn — the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer — and the Taiwanese government to build an AI supercomputer for the island.

Nvidia's joint effort with the Taiwanese government and Taiwan's top tech giants highlights the Santa Clara-based company's close ties to the hub of global chipmaking.

Born in Tainan in southern Taiwan before he moved to the US as a child, Huang's meteoric rise to the top of tech royalty has captivated Taiwan and catapulted him to folk hero status.

In Taiwan, Huang is surrounded by local media and fans who ask for selfies and autographs. The celebrity factor has also rubbed off on Nvidia, the company he cofounded, at home and abroad. The chipmaker's stock is up nearly 43% in the last year.

• The yield on US 30-year Treasurys rose above 5% on Monday.
• The increase follows Moody's downgrading of the US credit rating on Friday.
• Stock futures are down in premarket trading.

Yields on Treasurys jumped on Monday after Moody's downgraded the US' credit rating from Aaa to Aa1 and President Donald Trump's sweeping tax-cut bill passed a vote on Sunday.

The return on 30-year Treasurys rose as much as 0.13 percentage points to 5.03% as at 5:30 a.m. ET to the highest level since late 2023.

The 10-year yield also rose about 10 basis points to 4.5%. When yields rise, the price of the bond decreases.

"If we stay at these levels this would be a higher yield than that seen at the worst close after Liberation Day," Jim Reid, managing director and head of global macro and thematic research at Deutsche Bank, said in a note on Monday.

The previous triple-A rating signified that an economy poses minimal risk and is in a good position to repay its debts. Aa1 is the second-highest rating and indicates a country is subject to very low credit risk. Other countries with the top rating include the European Union, Canada, and Germany.

"Successive US administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs," Moody's said in a statement.

The ratings agency said it expected federal debt to rise from 98% of gross domestic product in 2024 to about 135% by 2035.

S&P was the first agency to downgrade the US from the top score in August 2011.

"The combination of diminished appetite to buy US assets and the rigidity of a US fiscal process that locks in very high deficits is what is making the market very nervous," George Saravelos, Deutsche Bank's head of FX research, said in a note on Monday.

He added that a key problem for the US was bond and currency markets failing to properly price in fiscal risks.

S&P 500 futures fell more than 1% in premarket trading, while Nasdaq futures were down more than 1.5% and Dow futures shed close to 1%.

"US-related stocks and investment trusts dominated the list of losers on Monday morning in London, while precious metals miners were higher as gold and silver prices moved up and the dollar weakened," AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould wrote in a Monday note.

"Significantly, the US 30-year Treasury yield flashed a warning signal as it hit the 5% mark for the first time since April, with the proposed tax cuts making their way through Congress, expected in some quarters to increase the US deficit."

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised DeepSeek R1 for significant contributions to AI research.
• DeepSeek has made a "real impact" in how people think about inference and reasoning AI, Huang said.
• Nvidia's stock fell sharply amid January's DeepSeek selloff, but Huang said investors got it wrong.

Jensen Huang heaped praise on the Chinese AI model that briefly upended the tech world, calling DeepSeek's R1 "a great contribution to the industry and to the world" on Monday.

Shares of tech and semiconductor companies, including Nvidia, tumbled in January following the meteoric rise of DeepSeek R1, the Chinese AI model that investors viewed as being globally competitive and cost-effective.

But Huang has good things to say about DeepSeek, which he said on Monday was "genuinely a gift to the world's AI industry."

"The amount of computer science breakthroughs is really quite significant and has really opened up a lot of great research for researchers in the United States and around the world," Huang said at the opening keynote of the Computex Taipei tech conference in Taiwan.

In January, open-source chatbot DeepSeek R1 took the world by storm, raising questions about Silicon Valley's massive spending spree on the technology.

"Everywhere I go, DeepSeek R1 has made a real impact in how people think about AI and how to think about inference and how to think about reasoning AIs," Huang said.

US AI-related shares tanked across the board in the wake of DeepSeek's rise. Nvidia's stock lost as much as $600 billion in market capitalization, hitting 20% of Huang's personal net worth at one point. The stock has recovered most of these losses and is up nearly 43% in the last year.

Huang said in February that investors got it wrong because the industry will still need computing power for post-training.

At the time, Huang said that post-training is the "most important part of intelligence" and "where you learn to solve problems."

The tech titan also seemed upbeat about DeepSeek, saying the open-sourced model created "energy around the world."

• Walt Disney World is building its first-ever affordable housing development.
• The 1,400 units will be built in Horizon West, a master-planned community in Central Florida.
• Housing insecurity is a problem in Central Florida — for residents and Disney cast members alike.

I don't typically spend my Friday afternoons flitting across Orlando in search of undeveloped plots, but nearly 80 acres of land have become a source of tension for some residents of Horizon West.

The master-planned community, complete with five villages and a town center, spans over 20,000 acres and is about 20 minutes from the Magic Kingdom.

Construction for nearly 1,400 mixed-income housing units — developed by The Michaels Organization on land owned by Walt Disney World — will begin this year. More than 1,000 units will be dedicated to affordable housing.

"We selected this land because it is part of a thriving community, close to employers, shopping, services, public schools, and areas of rest and recreation," Disney says about the development on its website. "We feel there is no better-positioned community in Central Florida to provide residents the opportunity to start a new chapter of their story."

Disney said the "critical" need for affordable housing units prompted it to pursue the project. "The lack of affordable housing is affecting many people across our country, including those who live and work in Central Florida," the company says.

Housing insecurity continues to impact Central Florida.

Residents across various industries are still reeling from the increased cost of living and the dicey housing market that emerged after the COVID-19 pandemic. That includes hospitality and tourism workers — like Walt Disney World cast members — who are vital to the area's economy. Former cast members have told local Florida outlets and BI that they've struggled with housing insecurity and securing living wages.

Walt Disney World has made strides to address the issue. In 2021, the company set a $15 minimum wage for cast members and increased it to $18 in 2023.

Critics of the privately funded project said the fast-growing area is already crowded and does not have the infrastructure to handle an influx of residents. Supporters said it's an opportunity to address the housing insecurity in Central Florida. Orange County expects the population, now over 1.5 million, to increase by 500,000 by 2050.

Orange County District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson, who represents residents in Horizon West, opposed a proposal for the housing units last year.

"We are not in a position to put more human beings in an area that isn't ready for them. I think we have this perception that affordable housing is the goal. And yes, it should be affordable, but it should also come with all the things we need for it to be successful," Wilson told WMFE, a local public radio station.

In response to concerned citizens, a Disney spokesperson told Newsweek, "Orange County leaders continue to identify affordable housing as one of the most significant priorities for our region, and we take great pride in bringing a plan to the table that can contribute to the solution."

Residents told BI that Horizon West used to be a hidden gem, but now it's attracting people in search of camaraderie and what they call the "village lifestyle."

I toured the community to see what all the hype was about.

Each Horizon West village has a distinct vibe

As I walked through Horizon West, one thing became clear: It's a lively, family-focused community that is quickly expanding.

Parents pushed strollers, couples walked dogs, and packs of laughing children sped down the sidewalks on electric scooters. Palm trees dotted the grassy landscape alongside several apartment buildings and retail spots. It's a far cry from when citrus farmers and their groves dominated the area.

Orange County began to develop Horizon West in 1995 after a series of freezes decimated the citrus groves in the area. Inspired by the new urbanism movement, developers created a master plan that envisioned each village having housing, shops, a place to work, a school, parks, and other things essential to daily life.

That "village lifestyle" is one reason Heather Parker and her family moved to Horizon West from Missouri in 2020. Parker is the culture & engagement manager for Horizon West Happenings, a community initiative focused on empowering residents.

"When we decided to move to Florida, my kids were in elementary school and middle school, so having the school was a very big draw to us," Parker said. "As we started researching, we found a couple of options that were a good fit."

It was also appealing that residents have easy access to green spaces and often forgo cars for bicycles or scooters, she said.

"Everything is open and connected," Parker said. "I can go to the grocery store on my scooter to pick up a couple of items or go to the dentist. The hospital is two minutes down the street from me. There are so many great things about everything being so close."

Although each village appears similar at a glance, Lindsay Turner, the director of marketing for Horizon West Happenings, said each "has its own unique vibe."

Hamlin, for example, acts as the downtown and offers a nightlife element attractive to young professionals. Bridgewater is "family-oriented," while Village I attracts many Disney employees due to the close commute. There's also a Brazilian influence prevalent in some villages that isn't in others, which Turner said shows how each area is distinct.

Horizon West's population boomed during the pandemic

Florida became a top destination for people moving states during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving it an economic boost but also increasing living costs. When I explored Horizon West, it seemed like there were signs and banners advertising real estate options on every corner.

Real estate agent Nicole Mickle said the influx of new Floridians was felt in Horizon West. She and her family moved to the area in 2018. "I sold many homes through FaceTime," Mickle said.

The US Census Bureau reported that 14,000 people lived in Horizon West in 2010, and that number rose to over 58,100 in 2020. The community is now about 75,000, according to the Census Reporter.

"The rumors are true," Turner said."The growth is exponential. It's insane how quickly and how fast things grow here. You can leave Horizon West for a month or two and come back to areas that are completely unrecognizable."

Horizon West has various housing options at different price points, which the developers specified in the master plan.

"Apartments could be around $2,500 a month, and homes could be multimillion-dollar over here," Mickle said. "I think the homes are still affordable for what Horizon West offers. You can't find this in other areas of Orlando at the moment."

Disney moves in

Mickle said the recent population boom, in tandem with residents' passion for Horizon West, could explain the stir around the Disney-backed housing units.

"What some want to do is keep the integrity of the community," Mickle said.

Residents circulated a petition last year saying they "strongly opposed" the construction because it threatened "the local environment and quality of life due to the inappropriate location and lack of adequate infrastructure." Some residents told local media outlets that the housing units would bring more traffic to the area, while others wondered how affordable the units would actually be.

Although the units have drawn criticism, Parker said they've also generated excitement from those looking for new housing opportunities. The units are meant for Central Florida residents across many industries and backgrounds, including firefighters, teachers, and hospitality workers.

"Not many teachers in Horizon West live in the area," Parker said. "It is an upper-middle-class area, and teachers in Florida may not make enough money to live here otherwise."

Parker said the project is designed to fit aesthetically with the surrounding Horizon West properties and will have coveted amenities like pocket parks.

"Disney has done a great job of holding community meetings, opening up the dialogue, listening, and trying to make sure everybody's on the same page," Parker said.

• Incat launched the world's largest electric ship — the biggest EV ever built — this month.
• Electric vessels are only suited to routes of less than 200 miles, Incat's founder told Business Insider.
• Demand is rising, but scaling up production poses a major challenge for Incat, Robert Clifford said.

Electric shipping has reached a major milestone, but long-haul routes remain a distant dream.

This month Australian shipbuilder Incat launched Hull 096, a 427-foot fully electric ferry built for South American operator Buquebus.

The vessel, now docked in Hobart, Tasmania, is the largest electric vehicle ever built. It is designed to carry 2,100 passengers and 225 vehicles across the Río de la Plata between Buenos Aires and Uruguay and is powered by about 275 tons of batteries.

Incat's chairman and founder, Robert Clifford, said ships like Hull 096 are still best suited for short distances — not the open ocean.

Density dilemma

"There's not the slightest doubt that under 50 miles, electric will be virtually 100%," Clifford told Business Insider. "When you're talking 200 miles, it might only be 50%. Over that, it'd be zero at the moment."

He said the main issue was the limited energy density of batteries, which still don't offer the same storage capacity per weight and volume as fossil fuels.

That's why Incat is focusing on ferries for high-density, relatively short routes like those in the English Channel or the Baltic Sea instead of oceangoing ships.

"We're ferry boat builders," Clifford said. "Even a very large ferry for most routes would not go over about 160 meters."

Still, Clifford believes Hull 096 marks a turning point for clean maritime transport.

"The ship changes the game," he said in a press release earlier this month. "We've been building world-leading vessels here in Tasmania for more than four decades, and Hull 096 is the most ambitious, most complex, and most important project we've ever delivered."

The ferry boasts a 40 megawatt-hour battery — the largest installed on a ship — feeding eight waterjets designed by Finnish firm Wärtsilä.

The interior, which includes a 2,300-square-meter duty-free shopping deck, is set to be completed this year ahead of trials on Tasmania's Derwent River.

Buquebus had originally commissioned Hull 096 as a liquid natural gas-powered ferry, but Incat convinced the company to go electric.

And while Clifford is bullish on the tech, he said real-world adoption depends on port infrastructure and customer readiness. "We simply need the shipowner to do their sums."

He said there's been strong demand since Hull 096's launch and was in talks with a dozen "serious" clients from Europe and South America.

"I've been in this entrepreneurial business for 30-odd years, and we've never had so many serious potential orders," he said.

Growth challenge

Still, scaling production in Tasmania is a massive leap. "We've been building one or two boats a year," Clifford said. "Building four or more large boats a year is a massive increase in the size of the company," which would require going from 500 to 3,000 staff, he said.

"That's today's challenge — how do we transition to a significant shipbuilder?"

Whether Tasmania becomes a global hub for electric shipbuilding remains to be seen.

William "Boeing, for instance, had a small shipyard in Seattle," Clifford said. "It probably wasn't the best place in the world to start building airplanes. But he did, and then he sold 100 to the US Army.

"He suddenly went from a small boat builder to a leading aircraft manufacturer all in a period of about a year or two. That sort of challenge is ahead of us."

• Anduril is competing with General Atomics for the US Air Force's drone wingman program.
• The startup says it's designed its drone, Fury, with commercial parts like a business jet engine.
• The Air Force has cited the project as a way to bring "affordable mass" to its aerial missions.

Anduril Industries has revealed new details on how it plans to keep costs down for the US Air Force as it competes with defense heavyweight General Atomics for the drone wingman program.

The defense startup, cofounded by Palmer Luckey, was featured in a CBS "60 Minutes" segment on Sunday. During the segment, Anduril's CEO, Brian Schimpf, said the firm designed its AI-powered fighter jet, Fury, to be built from commercial parts to make manufacturing easier.

"We tried to eliminate really every bottleneck we could find around what makes an aircraft hard to produce," said Schimpf.

Schimpf said the Fury's designers, for example, chose to go with a commercial business jet engine instead of a military one.

The Warzone reported in 2023 that the Fury was designed with a Williams International FJ44-4M turbofan engine, which is popular in light business jets such as those in the Cessna Citation Series. Anduril didn't say in the Sunday CBS segment if the Fury still uses the same engine.

Schimpf also said that the Fury avoids "very exquisite, big aircraft landing gear" in favor of a simpler model.

"We designed it so that it can be built in any machine shop in America," he said of the landing gear.

"We've designed nearly every part of this that can be made in hundreds of different places within the US from lots of different suppliers," Schimpf added.

The Fury, designated YFQ-44A by the Air Force, is Anduril's bid to win the Pentagon's Collaborative Combat Aircraft contract, which seeks to build large autonomous or semi-autonomous drones that can fly in tandem with piloted advanced fighter jets for Next Generation Air Dominance.

The service wants these new aircraft to be much cheaper than regular fighter jets. Gen. David Allvin, the Air Force Chief of Staff, said in November that the purpose of the drone wingman program was to bring "affordable mass" to aerial missions.

It's a priority that reflects mounting concerns in the US that the American military could run out of weapons and ammo in a matter of weeks or even days if it were to go to war with a rival such as China.

Now, the Air Force says the drone wingman program is a core part of its mandate to recalibrate itself for near-peer conflict.

Frank Kendall, who served as Air Force Secretary until January, said he'd accelerated plans to develop Collaborative Combat Aircraft when analyses showed the drones would "change air warfare in some very fundamental ways."

Anduril was one of two contractors selected to be the drone project's lead in April 2024, meaning it already beat Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman to reach this phase of development.

General Atomics, which manufactures the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator, has also billed its offering — the XQ-67A — as a "low-cost, modular" uncrewed system.

Both companies' prototypes were shown on May 1 at California's Beale Air Force Base, which Allvin said would be the home site for initial testing and assessments. The Air Force is expected to make early selection decisions in its fiscal year of 2026, which starts in October.

Anduril and General Atomics did not respond to comment requests sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

• On Sunday, Capital One acquired Discover Financial, becoming the sixth-largest US bank by assets.
• Online-focused Discover stands to gain a big physical footprint from the deal.
• A pair of top Democrats warned last month that the deal could spell trouble for customers.

Capital One has acquired Discover Financial, becoming the sixth-largest bank in the US by asset size.

In an earnings call last month, Capital One's CEO, Richard Fairbank, said the goal was to "preserve the best" of what Discover does, such as its advertising and focus on customer experiences.

Capital One's $35.3 billion acquisition of Discover was first announced in February 2024.

The deal was approved by regulators last month, despite pushback from top Democrats and consumer advocates who raised concerns about lower competition and risks to low-income customers and those with poor credit scores.

Representatives of Capital One and Discover didn't respond to a request for comment. On Monday, both banks said that "customer accounts and banking relationships remain unchanged" at this time.

Here's what customers of each of the two companies stand to gain and lose from the deal.

What does the merger mean for Capital One customers?

A much bigger Capital One could mean more products, but some Democrats have warned of higher fees.

Capital One previously said the merger would increase competition with the transaction giants Visa, Mastercard, and American Express and improve access for lower-income customers.

In a white paper published in July, four economists and lawyers at the International Center for Law & Economics wrote that the merger might finally end the Visa and MasterCard "duopoly."

They added that the merger would let Capital One switch its debit cards to Discover's payment networks, and it might offer "more attractive products to depositors." This could include free checking accounts with no minimum balance rules and debit cards with cash back for lower-income customers.

Cost savings and other benefits from the acquisition could also make Capital One a stronger competitor to "behemoths such as JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, and Bank of America," the ICLE group wrote.

What does the merger mean for Discover customers?

The merger doesn't appear to mean any big immediate changes. Discover has said accounts aren't linked to the new corporate owner, so Capital One branches and customer service can't help with Discover products.

Eventually, Discover customers may have greater access to the bank through Capital One's branches and ATMs. Right now, Discover has just one physical outpost in Delaware.

Michael Shepherd, the interim CEO of Discover, said on an earnings call last month that the deal would "increase competition in payment networks" and "offer a wider range of products."

Reactions to the deal

In a letter written to the Federal Reserve System earlier this month, Rep. Maxine Waters of California and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts argued that the merger would hurt Capital One customers.

Warren and Waters are top Democrats on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and the House Financial Services Committee, respectively.

"These are not two traditional banks — they are credit card giants," they wrote.

Waters and Warren said post-merger Capital One would have 40% of the general-purpose credit card issuance market share. This would give Capital One the power to increase fees for merchants and reduce rewards and other benefits for customers.

"Merchants would have no choice but to accept the terms dictated by Capital One's network, since they need to access the customers of the largest credit card issuer in the country," they wrote in the letter.

Warren and Waters said it was "doubtful" that Capital One could fix the "myriad issues" that Discover faces.

"For roughly 17 years, Discover misclassified millions of consumer credit cards as commercial, resulting in higher interchange fees for transactions," the politicians wrote.

In the white paper, the ICLE economists and lawyers wrote that a merger could improve data protection because the combined company would have the capacity to increase "financial investments in security."

A bigger company also means access to more data, which can be a plus, they wrote.

"The ability to capture and analyze more data on more customers may also permit the larger and more competitive company to develop and offer new innovative products," the ICLE experts wrote.

• Google CEO Sundar Pichai said, "all of us are going to do well" when it comes to the AI race.
• He said he met with Elon Musk and thinks his ability to build future technologies is "unparalleled."
• Pichai said success in AI will depend on innovation and execution, which is driven by top talent.

The launch of ChatGPT set off a race among Big Tech companies and startups to scale AI, but Google CEO Sundar Pichai doesn't see it as a situation where only one player wins.

"I think all of us are going to do well in this scenario," Pichai said during an episode of the "All-In Podcast," published Friday.

Podcast host David Friedberg agreed with Pichai and said there seems to be a misconception that there's one winner "and everyone else is a loser." Friedberg said AI is introducing "an entirely new world" that's bigger than that.

Pichai's comments came after former Googler and Podcast host David Friedberg asked for his thoughts on rival companies like Microsoft, xAI, OpenAI, and Meta and their leaders. The Google CEO acknowledged that "by definition, it's a very impressive group."

"I think maybe only one of them has invited me to a dance, not the others," Pichai said, referencing Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's comments that the "new Bing" will make Google "come out and show that they can dance."

Pichai added that he spent time with Elon Musk about two weeks ago and described the billionaire's ability to build future technologies as "unparalleled." He said that while there is competition among the companies discussed, there is also respect and partnerships.

Pichai said that AI offers a much larger "opportunity landscape" than any previous technology combined. He added that there may be companies that enter the playing field that haven't been established yet. Pichai raised the point that when the internet came out in 1983, Google hadn't even been launched as a company yet. Now, it's become the dominant search engine.

"There are companies we don't even know, haven't been started yet, their names aren't known," Pichai said, adding that those "might be extraordinarily big winners" when it comes to AI.

Pichai said that the companies that end up doing well will be those that are able to "innovate and execute with the best talent." That is what will be the driver for success, Pichai said.

Google is actively investing in that belief. Last year, the tech giant reportedly spent $2.7 billion on a deal largely intended to get AI scientist and startup founder Noam Shazeer back at the company. Other companies are following the same path: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has directly called candidates to persuade them to join his startup.

OpenAI also poached dozens of Googlers last year, and Zuckerberg has reportedly written personal emails to AI researchers at Google's DeepMind as a recruitment attempt. Even if Pichai is right that there's room for multiple companies to win the AI race, the competition hasn't shown signs of letting up anytime soon.

Google declined a request to comment from Business Insider.

• A British billionaire emphasized the importance of an applicant's personality to work at his hedge fund.
• Chris Hohn values employees motivated by more than money.
• The hedge fund's small team prioritizes trust and teamwork, seeking open-minded candidates.

British billionaire Chris Hohn said there's one thing that really matters in job interviews.

The founder of London-based hedge fund The Children's Investment Fund, which manages about $58 billion, told Norges Bank Investment Management CEO Nicolai Tangen in his most recent podcast episode that his top-performing employees are not just motivated by a paycheck.

Hohn said they think a lot about someone's personality when they want to work at the company.

"There's a human aspect to work," he said. The best people don't simply come to work for money, Hohn explained, they also come because they enjoy the environment.

"It's really important how we treat people, how everyone treats each other," he said. "I'll never hire someone without the blessing of my senior team because we could destroy the culture."

The Children's Investment Fund has a small investment team of only seven or eight people, with an overall head count of about 200.

"We've known each other a long time, and there's something we've built which is intangible trust," Hohn said.

He shared some insight into how to get a coveted spot at the hedge fund.

Hohn said one of the questions they ask applicants is: "What makes a good business?"

"We ask for a case study or two, and it becomes immediately obvious whether you know what you're doing," he said. "It's not enough just to be a good investor; you have to want to work in a team — not everyone wants that."

Hohn also said you need to be able to get along with people, in a way that you should be open-minded to being wrong.

"You can't be too dogmatic," he said. "The personality does matter a lot."

• Chikara Kennedy was a senior HR manager at Meta and helped guide the company through layoffs.
• She was devastated to learn in 2023 that her role had also been affected and took a solo Bali trip.
• She became a coach and now leads retreats for women who are transforming their lives and careers.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Chikara Kennedy, the 42-year-old CEO of Chikara Power Coaching, who splits her time between Mexico and Washington, DC. Business Insider has verified Kennedy's employment with documentation and edited her words for length and clarity.

I'd been working in HR for nearly 15 years when I was hired by Facebook, now known as Meta, in 2018 as a senior HR manager.

I was working out of the Chicago office and then became a remote employee in 2020 during COVID. I moved to DC in 2022, still as a remote worker, to be closer to family while going through a divorce.

At Meta, I worked closely with leaders on things like coaching, performance management, recognition programs, morale-boosting, restructuring, and organizational development.

When the company began implementing layoffs in 2023, part of my role was helping guide the company through the process. I felt passionate about doing layoffs the right way — a way that was respectful to people.

In the end, I was shocked and devastated to learn that this very Meta layoff would impact my role, too.

Despite being a high performer, I was laid off

Growing up, we're taught that if you go to school, get good grades, and do a good job, things will turn out the way they're supposed to. As a society, we make work a big part of our identities.

I'd worked for Meta for nearly five years and was a high performer. I had received great ratings, had good relationships, and was acknowledged for exceeding expectations.

But in 2023, the company laid off 10,000 employees and withdrew 5,000 open roles it had yet to fill. I was part of a team that was very severely impacted.

Despite my intimate knowledge of the process, the experience was more challenging than I anticipated. I went through all the stages of grief. I was mad, sad, embarrassed, and in disbelief. Following my divorce, I was anxious about finances, and with so many tech companies doing layoffs, I was worried about not finding another job.

I remember there was a moment when those of us impacted were all messaging each other online and saying things like: "Who has the connections? What are the next jobs that are hiring? Let me connect you."

It was encouraging, and I was happy to be among a group of star players who were helping each other. But I had to ask myself if jumping right back into a new job was really what was best for me.

Ultimately, I decided to take a step back

I'd always been empathetic toward people experiencing layoffs, but living through one in such a tough economy helped me understand the transactional nature of employment. Things can change at any time, anywhere, and so much isn't in our control.

Although it was devastating, I also began to tune into my own voice. I wanted to honor myself and not be influenced by other people, so I decided to take a solo retreat.

I booked a trip alone to Bali from DC and went with no itinerary — just the intention to enjoy myself, enjoy the sights, and look inward to figure out what I truly wanted moving forward.

The trip felt like I was on a Black woman's version of "Eat, Pray, Love." I turned off my phone and computer, connected with strangers, and did things like breath work and meditation, just trying to get my mind and thoughts together.

These practices helped quiet the noise and fear of being laid off. It shifted the way I viewed myself and the possibilities I could see for myself.

It was like I became the main character of my own life. Before the layoff, I would often ask, "What can I do to make this organization better?" But now I began to ask: "What are my goals, my strengths? What would I love to be doing on a day-to-day basis? If I'm not reacting out of hurt, embarrassment, or the need to prove I'm good enough to land another job right away, what do I truly want to do?"

For me, the answer was founding my company, Power Coaching and Consulting.

I'm now a coach, and I plan to run retreats in the next year

Since my Meta layoff, I'm currently living between Washington, DC, and Playa del Carmen in Mexico.

I've taken on leadership roles at retreats in Croatia and South Africa and am hosting my own power retreat for the first time in January at a private retreat center in Mexico.

The retreats involve women from all professions and walks of life and include activities and sessions like guided meditation, temazcal and cacao ceremonies, astrological and tarot readings, and wellness workshops. In a beautiful setting with like-minded women, I help clients explore their goals and overcome obstacles to achieve meaningful transformation in their careers and lives.

My advice for those going through a layoff

It's normal to have feelings of grief, but it's also important to remember you're not alone. A layoff isn't a reflection of you, your performance, or your value as a person; it doesn't have to define you.

If you're going through a layoff, use it as an opportunity to figure out who you are and what you want next. The biggest challenges in our lives can lead to the biggest breakthroughs if we're willing to do the work.

Do you have a story to share about dealing with a layoff? Contact this editor, Jane Zhang, at [email protected].

• The EPA is trying to claw back $20 billion for decarbonization awarded under President Biden
• Some of the money was intended to help finance housing development projects.
• Now, tens of thousands of new apartments and houses are in danger of not being built.

President Donald Trump has dismantled federal agencies and slashed spending as he's pledged to "gut the weaponized deep state."

He has also vowed to ease the housing shortage across the nation. One promise may come at the expense of the other in the case of one agency's retrenchment.

In February, his administration sought to take back $20 billion awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency during Joe Biden's presidency to fund decarbonization projects around the country. The head of the EPA has justified the clawback attempt with unproven accusations that the grants were marred by "programmatic fraud, waste, and abuse."

As a result, tens of thousands of new apartments and houses that were expected to be financed with a portion of the EPA money are now in danger of not being built, nonprofit groups who were granted the funding say.

Climate United, a coalition that received roughly $7 billion of the money — known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund — is suing the EPA along with other awardees over the withheld funding. The nonprofit estimates that about 30,000 single-family homes and another 30,000 apartment units were to be built with some of the funds that it and another group were set to administer.

"There's a significant part of the strategy focused on building not only new housing but new affordable and workforce housing," Beth Bafford, the CEO of Climate United, said.

There are varied estimates on how many new homes are needed in the US. Freddie Mac, a mortgage lending agency, calculated recently that the country is short about 3.7 million units.

While the tens of thousands of homes that might be built with money from the GGRF would be just a small contribution toward that huge need, the fund's proponents say the money would go to a particularly impactful segment of the market.

Bafford said that the focus of the GGRF money was on housing development projects in a part of the market with a lack of private sector financing options: affordable projects using energy-efficient systems and materials that are environmentally sustainable while helping mitigate utility costs for residents.

"We see massive gaps in the financial markets, and this program was built to address some of those gaps," Bafford said.

A spokesperson for Climate United said it had "disbursed $25 million in loans and committed over $500 million in loans before the EPA terminated our grant agreement without warning."

"Unlike the Biden-Haris administration, this EPA is committed to being an exceptional steward of taxpayer dollars," an unnamed spokesperson from the EPA responded in an email.

The spokesperson said the GGRF's termination was "based on substantial concerns" over its "integrity, the award process, and programmatic waste and abuse, which collectively undermine the fundamental goals and statutory objectives of the award."

Some developers are already feeling the impact

The impacts of the freeze have already been felt by some developers.

Megan Lasch, the chief executive of O-SDA Industries, a for-profit builder of affordable housing based in Austin, said the EPA's clawback attempt made her reshuffle a portion of the financing package she had been arranging for a 90-unit affordable apartment project her firm is developing in Fort Worth, Texas.

The roughly $37 million development involves renovating 801 West Shaw St., a historic building with 45 rental apartments, erecting an additional 45 units on land adjacent to the property, and building a pre-K facility.

Lasch said she had arranged to use some $3 million of GGRF money for the project from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a member of Power Forward Communities, a coalition that received $2 billion of the EPA money.

When the GGRF money was held up, Lasch said that she found a replacement loan but that the new funding is more costly, carrying a roughly 4.5% interest rate versus the GGRF loan's roughly 1% rate.

"The patch was not pretty," Lasch said, adding that affordable housing projects often have thin margins and require deeply discounted financing to work. "There's going to be ultimately a lot of projects that will just go by the wayside because they're not able to come up with a patch."

The 801 West Shaw St. building is set to offer rents that are affordable for residents who earn between 30% and 60% of the area's median income, Lasch said.

Damon Burns, the CEO of Finance New Orleans, a public trust that helps fund and develop affordable housing in its namesake city, said that his organization had been allocated $5 million from the Coalition for Green Capital, which received $5 billion of GGRF money from the EPA.

Finance New Orleans was seeking to use about $1 million of that $5 million it was to receive in combination with $1.5 million of other funds it holds to build six or seven new homes with net-zero emissions.

Using GGRF money to augment his organization's funding pipeline to build more housing was a model that Burns said he had hoped to scale.

He said the prospect of having the GGRF money withdrawn was daunting because New Orleans is "already a financially constrained city."

"There is a huge concern that the disinvestment of the federal government will have an impact on all of our communities," Burns said. "It means less mortgages for homeowners. It means less capital for developers."

A climate-focused financing initiative

The GGRF was created with $27 billion of federal funds from the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act, which Congress passed in 2022. Some $20 billion of that amount was awarded to Climate United, Power Forward Communities, the Coalition for Green Capital, and other groups for various climate-focused financing initiatives. The remaining $7 billion went toward a federal program to fund residential solar energy installation projects.

In December, Project Veritas, a conservative media organization, published a video that showed a former EPA official suggesting that the agency, under Biden, had fast-tracked its award of the money in anticipation that the incoming Trump administration might seek to scuttle the program.

In the video, the official said: "It truly feels like we're on the Titanic and we're throwing gold bars off the edge."

Lee Zeldin, a former Long Island, New York, congressman whom Trump appointed as the head of the EPA in January, cited the video as evidence of misconduct in the allocation of the funds.

"One of my very top priorities at EPA is to be an excellent steward of your hard-earned tax dollars," Zeldin said in a video posted on his X account in February. "The 'gold bars' were your tax dollars, and tossing them off the Titanic meant the Biden administration knew they were wasting it."

Zeldin has ordered the termination of the GGRF.

In March, Climate United sued the EPA and Citibank, the financial intermediary for the $20 billion, in the federal district court in Washington, DC, over their refusal to release the money. Power Forward and the Coalition for Green Capital have joined the suit.

The EPA lost the initial argument for the case but has brought its complaint to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where it won a preliminary order in April to freeze the money as its appeal is being considered. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Monday.

'Every single project in the country is looking for gap funding'

While Climate United estimated that terminating the GGRF would put roughly 60,000 homes at risk, other parties involved in the financing program say that number could be even greater.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of housing developers interested in tapping financing from the GGRF, said Shaun Donovan, the president and CEO of the nonprofit housing lender Enterprise Community Partners. He was a secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Obama administration.

Donovan attributed that interest to growing construction costs from inflation and tariffs, which have driven up the price of building materials. Those overruns have punched holes in the budgets of a host of development projects that builders have scrambled to fill.

"Every single project in the country is looking for gap funding," Donovan said. "What this GGRF money can do is to be that last dollar in, right? So even if it's only 5% or 10% of the project."

A spokesperson for Enterprise said that it had received inquiries for about $1.2 billion of financing in recent months for a collection of projects totaling 18,426 units.

"My concern is that what this and other efforts to cut housing programs will do is make it impossible for the president to meet his goal of reducing housing costs," Donovan said.

• Microsoft is among the latest to cut middle management jobs.
• Tech giants like Intel, Amazon, and Google are also flattening structures for efficiency.
• Experts warn that while flattening can speed decisions, it is possible to take it too far.

Companies are shedding bloated layers of management in an attempt to reduce bureaucracy. Some employees are applauding the move, known as flattening the middle, in the hopes of getting faster and boosting efficiency.

Microsoft said Tuesday it's slashing around 6,000 employees. While the days since have made it clear many of those cut were individual contributor-level engineers, executives previously told BI one motivation behind the recent cuts was to increase managers' "span of control," or the number of reports per manager.

Intel announced a great flattening last month, emphasizing more time in the office, less admin, and leaner teams.

"The best leaders get the most done with the fewest people," said the chip giant's new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, in a memo to staff.

Amazon has also increased the ratio of individual contributors to managers. They call it a "builder ratio." Google CEO Sundar Pichai told staff late last year that the company cut vice president and manager roles by 10% as part of an efficiency push. Meta has been at it for years, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg writing in a 2023 memo, "flatter is faster."

The risk is that these companies cut too many managers, leaving the remaining folks with too many direct reports.

But for now, it appears to be a risk companies are willing to take.

Agility and expertise

The logic of cutting from the middle to speed up is sound, management experts say.

"You can't go faster and be more connected to a larger ecosystem if you're having to go up and down a hierarchy for every decision," Deborah Ancona, a professor of management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Business Insider.

While some companies have been trying for decades to zap management layers, there's a new urgency to do so. Businesses exist in "an exponentially changing world," Ancona said.

Dell executives explained this to employees earlier this month, when they began reorganizing managers to have more direct reports. The company, whose head count has dropped by 25,000 in two years, also pointed to the influx of artificial intelligence as a reason it needed to move faster.

Ideally, companies would remove layers and spread decision-making throughout the organization so that those closest to customers or technology, for example, could generate ideas and make decisions, Ancona said.

"You're kind of flipping the organization," she said. "Rather than all the ideas coming from on high, you have entrepreneurial leaders who are lower down in the organization coming up with new ideas."

Bayer CEO Bill Anderson is leery of having to run everything up the chain. After taking over the German biotech company in 2023, he began implementing what he calls a "dynamic shared ownership" setup that has cut thousands of managers. Staffers come together in "mini networks" for 90-day stretches to work on projects.

"We hire highly educated, trained people, and then we put them in these environments with rules and procedures and eight layers of hierarchy," Anderson previously told BI. "Then we wonder why big companies are so lame most of the time."

Fewer managers, more reporting, more meetings?

When middle managers are cut and layers condensed, inevitably, more workers report to fewer managers. The logistics of that vary, and the success in terms of morale has a lot to do with the starting point.

Amazon started flattening last year. In September, CEO Andy Jassy ordered a 15% increase in the ratio of individual contributors to managers by March. BI reported that senior Amazon Web Services managers received a memo in January instructing them to restrict high-level hiring and increase their number of direct reports.

An Amazon spokesperson told BI at the time that the memo may have been intended for one team, but does not apply to the company at large. The Amazon spokesperson also referenced a September memo from Jassy on the importance of reducing management layers.

An AWS manager told BI this month that the flatter structure has since put more burden on employees on her team to report on what they're doing day-to-day, in addition to their actual work, since managers have less time to inspect individuals' work.

Plus, this manager said they are spending more time in meetings as they took on a more diverse group of direct reports. The Amazon spokesperson also emphasized that the individual employee's anecdote does not represent the company as a whole.

Yvonne Lee-Hawkins was assigned 21 direct reports when she worked for Amazon's human resources. She told BI that she had to quickly learn new skills to handle the load, like asynchronous work strategies, but her teams' performance suffered as her number of reports grew from 11 to 21 employees.

Weekly one-on-ones — the subject of much debate among tech titans — became impossible, and she had to cut them in half.

At Microsoft, a half-dozen employees who spoke to BI about the manager flattening trend generally regarded it as a positive step to eliminate inefficient and unnecessary levels of managers. Some managers have as few as one or two reports.

Microsoft ended up with many management layers, the people said, because it often tried to reward good engineers by promoting them to become managers. Often, those engineers-turned-managers still spent most of their time in the codebase and weren't very effective as managers.

Meanwhile, larger groups of direct reports often work better for senior employees, who need less one-on-one time and can do more things in a group setting.

A Microsoft spokesperson did not comment when asked about these factors.

Gary Hamel, a visiting professor at London Business School who lives in Silicon Valley, told BI that pushing managers to take on more direct reports can reduce micromanaging, a common bane of corporate existence.

When managers have a lot of people to oversee, it pushes them to hire people they trust, mentor rather than manage, and give up a "pretty big dose" of their authority.

"Those are all hugely positive things," he said, even if they require "a fairly dramatic change" in how managers see their role.

How many direct reports is too many?

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang famously has 60 direct reports. Managers at Dell have been told they should have 15 to 20. An AWS document viewed by BI in January mandated no fewer than eight per manager, up from six. An Amazon spokesperson told BI there are no such requirements companywide.

Gallup research indicates that the quality of a manager matters more than the number of direct reports in terms of how well teams perform. That's because more engaged managers tend to lead to more engaged teams. And small teams — those with fewer than 10 people — show both the highest and lowest levels of engagement because managers can have an outsize effect, for better or worse.

That may explain why some companies seem to thrive with dozens of direct reports per manager and others fail.

The nature of the work matters, too. When work is more complex, it can be harder for managers to oversee too many people.

Managing dozens of people gets harder when "life intersects with work," Ravin Jesuthasan, the global leader for transformation services at the consulting firm Mercer, told BI.

When employees have an issue, they often need someone to talk to about it.

"As a manager, you are the first port of call," he said.

That's one reason, Jesuthasan said, that having something like 20 direct reports would likely be "really hard." For most managers, the couple of dozen direct reports that many tech companies are aiming for is probably the limit, he said.

Strong managers can powerfully boost a company's ability to develop talent and its bottom line. A 2023 analysis from McKinsey & Company, for example, found that organizations with "top-performing" managers led to significantly better total shareholder returns over five years compared with those entities that had only average or subpar managers.

While flattening schemes may be successful at reducing bulk in the middle and speeding up decision-making, they can hinder future growth if they're not well-managed.

Jane Edison Stevenson, global vice chair for board and CEO services at the organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry, told BI that removing layers from a management pyramid can help elevate those high performers. But flatter companies may fail to develop leaders who can pull together the disparate parts of an organization.

At some point, she said, "You've got to start to make a bet on the leaders that are going to have a chance to build muscle across, not just vertically."

• The markets have relaxed after Trump's tariffs scare, and companies are racing to go public again.
• Startups like Chime and Hinge Health resumed their IPO plans this week after previous delays.
• Bankers are telling IPO hopefuls to capitalize on the market's stability — knowing it may not last.

IPOs are back — just a month after a sudden market slump forced tech companies to put their public market debuts on hold.

This time, bankers are telling companies to rush out while they still can.

"If you're trying to get public, now is the time to 'go go go' before something else happens," a healthcare banker told Business Insider. The banker requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the press.

When President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imports from other countries on April 2, the markets panicked. The chaos forced companies from the payments lender Klarna to the physical therapy startup Hinge Health to put their long-awaited IPO plans on hold.

But in the past month, a number of changes, including Trump's rollbacks of the most severe tariffs and assurances he would not fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, all but erased that market drop. The S&P 500 is now up about 1% since the beginning of the year, a nearly 19% increase from its April lows.

With IPOs on the table again, companies are hustling to complete those deals while the market stability holds.

EToro, the Israeli trading platform, made its public debut on Wednesday via a SPAC merger and saw its shares pop on the Nasdaq, opening 34% above the IPO price and valuing the company at nearly $5.2 billion by Friday. Hinge Health resumed its own IPO plans by kicking off its road show Tuesday, aiming for a valuation of up to $2.6 billion. Digital banking app Chime and diabetes care startup Omada Health also filed to go public in May.

The markets have bounced back quickly after Trump rolled back most tariffs in part because investor appetites didn't go away, said Tom Johnson, global cohead of capital markets at Barclays. (Barclays is an underwriter on Hinge Health and Omada Health's planned IPOs.) Companies are being encouraged to seize on that improvement, he said.

"Knowing that we're perhaps going to be living in a world with a bit more volatility, you've got to be thinking about going when you can," Johnson said.

Releasing pent-up IPO demand

Bankers are looking at a number of signals that suggest companies could see successful IPOs right now.

Most importantly, the volatility index has cooled, signaling calmer markets. VIX, a measure of market volatility often called the stock market's fear gauge, denotes high volatility at values of 30 or more, while values of 20 or below signal more stability. The VIX index hit painful highs of 52 on April 8. As of Friday, the index has dropped to 17.

That reduced volatility, combined with better market performance, has allowed public investors to stop playing defense with their existing portfolios and consider new buys.

With steadier supply chains for most industries and fewer market shocks, companies and investors are also finding it easier to agree on fair pricing, a key ingredient for a successful IPO.

"Boards are now talking about the IPO option as being attractive and something that they want to proactively seek," said Jimmy Williams, a senior banker at Jefferies who worked on the eToro deal. "The backlog of private companies waiting to go public right now is one of the longest we've ever seen because we've had such a historic drought the last three years."

No guarantee of sunny skies ahead

Despite recent market improvements, Barclays' head of Americas equity capital markets, Robert Stowe, said it's reasonable to expect higher political volatility for the foreseeable future.

"The conversations are harder than they've been historically. It's harder to predict even the next day, let alone the two weeks you need for a typical IPO roadshow," he said.

Not all of the companies previously rumored to be on the precipice of IPOs have come back to market yet. As of May 15, online payments company Klarna and ticket marketplace StubHub, which both reportedly delayed their IPO plans in April due to the stock sell-off, haven't publicly reupped those efforts.

Neither has Medline, a surgical equipment company backed by private equity firms Blackstone and Carlyle, which said in December it had confidentially filed its S-1. Medline had been planning a spring 2025 IPO until Liberation Day tariffs forced an indefinite delay, per the Financial Times.

It's not clear yet which of these companies, if any, will resume their IPO efforts in the current market. Medline, for one, still stands to be significantly affected by the tariffs, since the company manufactures much of its supplies in China. Most imports from China now face a 30% tariff, at least for the next 90 days, while the US and China attempt to negotiate a long-term trade deal.

Spokespeople for Klarna and StubHub said the companies don't have any information to share on their IPO plans. Medline didn't respond to requests for comment for this story.

Private investors may not be able to take advantage of the market upswing by cashing out at a company's IPO, either. Insiders are frequently subject to lock-up periods, wherein investors have to wait from 90 and 180 days after the IPO to sell their shares, sometimes even longer. Given how much the market has fluctuated this year, investors can't be sure that shares will continue ticking up for the next six months.

Still, it may be worth it to get an exit on the books while the market fundamentals are favorable, particularly for mature companies like Omada Health founded more than a decade ago, and offer an opportunity for investors to get the returns they've been waiting for.

"There is more impetus to get the first deal done and get the company listed, give the stock a chance to trade, and then the owners can be more nimble with the balance that they're holding," Stowe said.

For other companies, especially those that could be more vulnerable to policy changes, bankers are advising a "wait and see" approach, watching how this next set of IPOs performs and continuing to evaluate emerging political risks, said Phil Capen, a managing director of equity capital markets at Deutsche Bank.

"The market is getting better, but there's still a lot of uncertainty out there. If you don't need to go, and you can be patient, I think there are a number of companies that are just waiting to find the right window," he said.