• Jamie Dimon says he's a "full-throated, red-blooded American patriot capitalist."
• But the JPMorgan CEO said China has "done an enormous job" uplifting its people.
• Dimon said JPMorgan is a "long-term investor" and will not pull back from China.

JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon says he recognizes China's accomplishments in uplifting its people, even though he considers himself an "American patriot capitalist."

"They have done an enormous job over the last 20 years lifting up their people," Dimon told Bloomberg in an interview in Shanghai on Thursday local time.

"That doesn't mean I personally agree with everything they did. I'm a full-throated, red-blooded American patriot capitalist. But I understand that they can lift up their country," Dimon continued.

This isn't the first time Dimon has acknowledged China's economic accomplishments.

"Over the last 20 years, China has been executing a more comprehensive economic strategy than we have," Dimon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders last month. "The country's leaders have successfully grown their nation and, depending on how you measure it, have made China the largest or second-largest economy in the world."

"What China does so well is manage its country as a whole — coordinating government and business so that they are able to further some of their strategic goals," Dimon wrote in his letter.

When asked if China remains a "priority market" for JPMorgan, given the geopolitical uncertainty, Dimon said to Bloomberg that the bank is a "long-term investor."

"Yes, there's all these other issues causing consternation, but we have to deal with the world that we have, not the world we want, and we'll continue to grow," Dimon said on Thursday.

"We are not going to pull back," he added.

Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US and China have agreed to lower their tariffs by 115% for 90 days. Bessent said the US would reduce its tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%. China said it would lower its tariffs from 125% to 10%.

"The consensus is that companies are going to be doing business here. There could be some adjustments because of the trade negotiations, but I don't think the American government wants to leave China," Dimon told Bloomberg on Thursday.

A representative for Dimon did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Elon Musk is stepping back from DOGE to focus on Tesla, as the company faces many challenges.
• BI spoke to four people who worked with him about what the billionaire is like as a company leader.
• One said Musk was Tesla's "product manager," but questioned whether he is what the embattled company needs.

Elon Musk is turning his attention back to Tesla — and apparently for the long haul. The question is whether Musk's re-dedication to Tesla is what the electric carmaker needs right now.

The billionaire said this week he was committed to leading Tesla for the next five years, adding he would only stop running it "if I'm dead."

Investors have applauded Musk's renewed commitment to Tesla, with the stock up more than 40% since he signaled he was stepping back from the Trump administration and its DOGE cost-cutting efforts.

Musk's DOGE work — and the ensuing vandalism and protests that targeted his company — had normally bullish analysts urging him to refocus on Tesla. Days after Musk announced he was stepping back from DOGE to do that, Tesla's chair denied a report it had explored replacing him as CEO.

Business Insider spoke with former employees at Musk's companies — three Tesla, one SpaceX — about what he is like as a business leader and what his re-dedication to Tesla means at a time when the company is suffering from falling sales, growing competition from rivals like BYD, and a critical robotaxi launch next month.

Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.

The innovator in chief

Musk's importance to Tesla is undeniable.

Chris Walti, who led development of the Optimus humanoid robot before leaving Tesla in 2022 to found robotics startup Mytra, said he saw how the company's flat management structure meant Musk had a larger influence over Tesla's product direction than most CEOs.

He said that during his time at the company, Musk was "the product manager for the whole company." "That direction comes down, and then the engineers execute," he added.

Gene Berdichevsky, a former Tesla tech lead and the company's seventh employee, worked there when Musk was a major investor and board member. He said the billionaire brought a fanatical attention to detail even before he became CEO in 2008.

Berdichevsky recalled when the company was building the first prototype of its Roadster. "We spent the afternoon after the board meeting driving it around the parking lot and getting into all the details," he said.

He added that having Musk more focused on Tesla would up its chances of beating rivals to "the next big thing."

"The revolutionary product isn't obvious when it first shows up. But I think that Elon's always pushing for something revolutionary, and you don't have to always be right, because when you are, you get really, really good outcomes," said Berdichevsky, who now runs battery materials firm Sila Nanotechnologies.

Scrappiness vs scale

Tobias Kahnert, the CEO of powertrain startup EFT Mobility, was a senior Tesla software engineer when the company was struggling to ramp up production of the Model 3.

Musk has previously said he slept on the factory floor as Tesla grappled with the "production hell" of scaling the mass-market EV.

Kahnert told BI that Musk and other Tesla leaders pushed to balance the "scrappiness" of innovating quickly with the need to convert Tesla's startup mentality into "something that actually scales."

"Even being there, you sometimes thought, 'OK, this isn't the normal way of how we would do it.' Then often it only turned out a lot later that this approach was the right one," he said.

Musk is famously demanding. Walti said he would get "texts on Sunday at 3 a.m. and was expected to respond in 15 minutes."

"That's not for everyone. Some people just get burned out," he said.

While Musk runs companies with a range of focuses, Tesla will benefit from him being an "extremely good design engineer," said Quincy Lee, who worked at SpaceX for six years and helped roll out its Starlink satellite network.

"I've been in meetings with him, and I spent a lot of time with his executive staff," said Lee, who now runs EV charging startup Electric Era.

"He's extremely good at physics, and he's really good at manufacturing. And of course, he's a good businessman, and he's able to pull all of that into a really strong set of skills," Lee told BI.

Difference-maker or distraction?

Musk is known for pushing Tesla in ambitious new directions. But when the company's Q1 delivery figures showed it was in trouble, none of the analysts BI spoke to said it needed to take a big swing to make a comeback.

They said it should launch new models, improve its battery tech, and advertise more. The company has not launched a new vehicle since the Cybertruck in 2023, and sales of the electric pickup have underwhelmed.

Walti told BI Musk seemed "kind of bored with just building good products that the market needs."

"If it's not audacious, and if it's not against the grain, it feels like it doesn't personally interest him," he added.

"His connection with the customer 10 years ago was awesome. Elon had a really good sense of what the customer wanted. I don't know if that's the case anymore," Walti continued.

Tesla is racing to launch a robotaxi service in Austin next month, and Musk has said that Tesla's future lies in self-driving cars and Optimus.

Tesla has said it will also launch an affordable electric car model this year, but has not provided details. Reuters reported in April that the new EV could be a stripped-down version of Tesla's Model Y.

Walti said that he'd like to see the company build more mass-market EVs, but added, "Part of me is like, I don't know if Musk is the right person for the role. Not because he couldn't do a good job, but because I don't think he is genuinely excited about it."

But Kahnert said that Musk had an ability to push through decisions that others wouldn't agree with, making him a "differentiator" that other carmakers lack.

He said it is hard to say whether that was what the company needed, adding it was, "always hard, even while you are inside Tesla, to see and to acknowledge how much he benefits Tesla at times and how much he is distracting Tesla at times."

• Sean "Diddy" Combs' former assistant testified that he tried to ambush Marion "Suge" Knight in 2008.
• Diddy and Suge have been feuding since the '90s, when they both launched hip-hop record labels.
• Here's what to know about their feud and how it relates to the deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.

The sex-trafficking trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs heard that the hip-hop mogul planned to ambush his long-term rival, Marion "Suge" Knight, with guns at an LA diner in 2008.

If Diddy succeeded, he could have reignited a long-running beef between the East and West Coast hip-hop communities.

Last week, Cassie Ventura, Diddy's ex-girlfriend, testified at his trial in Manhattan that he left his rented mansion in LA during a "freak-off" in 2008, after learning that Suge was at a diner nearby.

Cassie said Diddy and other men covered their heads, grabbed guns, and drove to the diner.

On Tuesday, David James, Diddy's former personal assistant, testified that he drove him and a trusted security guard to the restaurant, but Suge left before they arrived.

"It was the first time I realized my life was in danger," James said, adding that he quit soon after the incident.

Here's what to know about the feud between Suge and Diddy.

Suge and Diddy were at the centre of the '90s hip-hop rivalry linked to the deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.

Hip-hop originated in 1970s New York City, but by the '80s and '90s, multiple rappers, including Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, emerged on the West Coast.

A rivalry soon emerged between Suge's Death Row Records on the West Coast, which he co-founded in 1991, and the East Coast's Bad Boy, founded by Diddy in 1993.

In 1994, Tupac Shakur, a West Coast rapper, survived being shot five times at Quad Studios in Manhattan during a robbery.

Tupac believed the Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie) of Bad Boys Records and Diddy were involved, which they denied. In response, Tupac joined Death Row Records in 1995, and the it released his diss track "Hit 'Em Up" in 1996, which targeted Diddy, Biggie, Bad Boy Records, and other East Coast rappers.

In 1996 and 1997, respectively, Tupac and Biggie were killed in drive by shootings.

Both crimes remained unsolved, with many speculating without evidence that Diddy and Suge were involved, which they both deny. In 2023, Duane Keith "Keffe D" Davis, a former leader of a California street gang known as the South Side Compton Crips, was charged with murder, with prosecutors alleging he organized Tupac's death.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told People in 2024 that Diddy was never considered a suspect for Tupac's murder.

After Tupac and Biggie died, rappers on both sides, including Snoop Dogg, Diddy, Nas, and Ice Cube, attempted to cool down tensions between the two rap communities.

Suge is serving a 28-year sentence for manslaughter

The beef faded from the public eye, and major stars like Dre and Snoop Dogg left Death Row Records in 1996 and 1998, respectively, and the company filed for bankruptcy in 2006. In 2022, Snoop became its new owner.

Suge is in prison in San Diego, after he was charged over the fatal hit-and-run of Terry Carter, a business associate, while on the set of the 2015 movie "Straight Outta Compton." In 2018, Suge pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Despite his feud with Diddy, Suge told NewsNation's show "CUOMO" in September 2024 that he was not celebrating his rival's arrest.

"I don't jump and cheer for no Black man or any other human being going to prison," Suge said. "That man has kids, and whatever affects him definitely affects his kids."

Suge alleged at the time that Diddy was sexually abused by other people in the industry and said Diddy repeated that abuse on other people.

Legal representatives for Diddy declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider. Legal representatives for Suge did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

• Walmart is laying off staff to "remove layers and complexity" in the company.
• In a memo to staff, executives said roles in the global tech team would be cut.
• This comes as companies in the US have been cutting out middle managers and flattening their structures.

Walmart is laying off corporate staff in the US to "remove layers and complexity."

The retailer will lay off 1,500 employees, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, reported that the layoffs were in the company's Arkansas headquarters and other offices.

The retailer's US CEO, John Furner, and global technology chief, Suresh Kumar, announced the layoffs in a Wednesday memo to corporate staff titled "Building for the future," seen by BI.

"We are reshaping some teams in our Global Tech and Walmart U.S. organizations where we have identified opportunities to remove layers and complexity, speed up decision-making, and help associates innovate rapidly," the memo wrote.

It added that the technology team would be slimmed down to simplify its structure and "facilitate speed and innovation."

Aside from the layoffs, Walmart will also be opening new roles that align with its business priorities and growth strategy, the memo read.

Walmart is not the only company flattening its corporate structure. Big Tech companies, like Amazon, Google, and Intel, have been cutting middle managers to boost efficiency.

On the retail side, Amazon said in September that it would increase the ratio of its workers to supervisors by at least 15%.

The news of Walmart's layoffs comes about a week after the retailer announced in an earnings call that it would increase the prices of its products due to President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Walmart said it imports a third of what it sells in the US from outside the country, such as China, Vietnam, and Mexico. Although Trump has paused his additional tariffs, Walmart's CFO said reduced tariff rates are still "too high."

"Even at the reduced levels, the higher tariffs will result in higher prices," CEO Doug McMillon said in the earnings call.

Walmart reported a 2.5% revenue growth in its latest quarter compared to the year before, with sales of $165.60 billion.

The days of revenge travel are over. After years of being cooped up at home, travelers rushed into the world with a vengeance, sparking a major travel boom from 2022 to 2024. But years of rising prices and a slew of new tariff threats have cast uncertainty over the economy.

A summer vacation survey by Bankrate in March found that only 53% of Americans said they planned to take a vacation this summer — about the same as last year but a drop from 2023, when 63% planned to take a vacation. Of those forgoing travel this year, 65% cited cost as the main factor; and of those opting to travel, almost a third said they plan to take on debt to do so.

But not everyone feels equally squeezed. A Deloitte survey conducted in early April found that even after President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff announcement a few days earlier, estimated travel budgets for the summer on average remained 13% above similar estimates for last summer. Through its surveys over the last few years, Deloitte has identified a trend: High-income Americans have made up an increasing share of those planning summer travel. Nearly half of respondents who said they planned to travel this summer made over $100,000, up from 35% in 2023.

To cater to the growing share of high spenders, the luxury segment of the travel industry is outpacing every other segment. As the middle class cuts back on travel spending, many high-earners are still going all out for their summer vacation.

Over the past year, more and more middle-income Americans have decided to stay home or pivot their plans to save money. Las Vegas, which largely caters to middle-class travelers, has seen a major drop-off. Mark Wayman, the owner of an executive recruiter company with knowledge of the Las Vegas market, says bookings in Sin City this year through September are "the worst I've ever seen."

Some of the anxiety is new, with uncertainty over how tariffs might affect prices and the broader economy. But even before then was the compounding effect of years of price increases. Multiple travelers told me that they have noticed that hotels and flights now include fewer services bundled into their price tags. Southwest Airlines, for instance, recently made headlines in March by changing its long-standing policy of allowing flyers two free checked bags. As a result, people are feeling like their dollar can't go as far.

Reycie Gallardo, a 39-year-old IT project manager in Los Angeles, says that these kinds of changes really shrink the scope of what you can do when you travel. A few years ago, he and his wife might have taken a long weekend as an opportunity to fly to a national park and stay for a few days. Now they'll drive somewhere close, like Santa Barbara or San Diego, and not even stay the night.

Makarand Mody, an associate professor of hospitality marketing at the Boston University School of Hospitality Administration, has noticed others making the same decision. Nearly a quarter of survey respondents in April told Deloitte that high prices had prompted them to drive rather than fly in the past year. Deloitte also found that lower-income travelers have driven up demand for more affordable accommodations in the past few years, including RVs, bed & breakfasts, and camping.

Talon Windwalker, a 56-year-old grief counselor in Janesville, Wisconsin, has been making a similar compromise. When planning his trip to South Carolina, the travel enthusiast's 50th state to visit, earlier this year, driving was a clear way to save on costs. But "you make a lot of sacrifices" in the tradeoff, Windwalker says. Driving requires much more planning, and the long days at the wheel can be difficult. "I was gone for a week, but four days of those were just driving to get there and back," he says.

Home-swap platforms like HomeExchange and Kindred have also been seeing huge swells in popularity. Advertised as more affordable, community-oriented alternatives to hotels or short-term rentals, these platforms help members arrange stays at each other's homes. HomeExchange says it facilitated 43% more house swaps in 2024 than in 2023 and finalized 47% more exchanges in January 2025 than the same time last year. Kindred, which launched in 2021, a factor that could account for some of its growth, reported more than 500% more nights swapped in 2024 compared with 2023.

And yet, companies like airlines, hotels, and home rentals are still seeing "some pretty healthy bottom lines," Mody says.

For one, because prices have been steadily rising, companies can still grow their revenue even if demand falters. But also, wealthy people are getting wealthier while maintaining a strong appetite for travel, he says. A recent analysis from Moody's estimated that the top 10% of households had come to account for half of all consumer spending. As high-income Americans travel and spend more, it can offset pullbacks by lower- and middle-income segments of the population that are seeing prices stretch too high for comfort.

This is evident in the booming luxury travel market. The American Hotel & Lodging Association's latest report said the luxury category of accommodations experienced the fastest rate of growth in terms of new construction in 2024. Bram Gallagher, the director of economics and forecasting at AirDNA, an analytics firm that tracks the short-term-rental market, says that demand for stays priced over $1,000 a night has more than doubled since 2019, and bookings in the $1,000 to $1,499 range were up nearly 15% year-over-year in 2024.

Not only is demand for luxury accommodations going up, but prices are too. "We're actually increasing divergence between the bottom and the top of the short-term rental market," Gallagher says. AirDNA data shows that more expensive listings are increasing in price faster than less expensive listings. From February 2024 to February 2025, the average price of "luxury" listings (the most expensive 20% of all listings) increased by more than 5%, whereas the price of "budget" listings (the least expensive 20%) fell by about half a percentage point. Analyses have found that recent growth in the short-term rental market has largely been driven by luxury listings, adds Gallagher.

Roy Madhok, a senior vice president of revenue and distribution at Highgate, a real estate investment and hospitality management company, says that while travel in the budget and middle range is tapering, there's no sign yet that the same applies to luxury travel. As far as he can tell, travel for the highest income groups isn't slowing down.

The growing divergence between budget and luxury travel is leaving a massive middle ground of people who just can't afford how steep prices are getting. While that could mean many of us are left scraping together vacations from a combination of airline miles and staying with friends, there are signs this stark divide might not last forever. Some companies are already starting to tap into this market and win back cash-strapped middle-income travelers.

Madhok sees the adjustment as a kind of "re-normalization" for the travel industry. The recent travel boom wasn't necessarily normal or sustainable, he says. Now, demand seems to be finding a more stable balance. After years of steep price increases in Vegas restaurants, hotels, and shows, for instance, Wayman says that "prices are already becoming more affordable." And if demand continues to stay this low, prices will continue to drop in tandem.

Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics supports Madhok's theory of renormalization. According to the Bureau's consumer price index, the cost of airfare this year so far is about on par with airfare last year, which is in line with 2019 prices. Hotels are slightly cheaper this year than last year, though still higher than pre-2020. "After the vibrant rebound in post-pandemic demand, the US hotel industry has been navigating a period of stagnation," reads the recent AHLA report, "signaling a shift toward normalization in travel patterns."

Despite middle- and lower-income travelers feeling priced out of certain options, it's clear that they still have an appetite for travel, Mody says. "There's a really tremendous opportunity" for hotels and other brands to beef up their midscale offerings, he adds. Hotels have started realizing that "this is where people want to be from a price perspective," Mody says, and so creating options for people to travel within that more affordable range will be really important. Over the past year, companies like Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott have announced plans for new hotel brands aimed at those middle-tier travelers.

Will that be enough to narrow the travel wealth disparity? Probably not, Mody says. After all, the travel economy is a reflection of the greater economy, and wealth inequality is still a growing concern. Despite ongoing economic uncertainties, the most luxurious travel experiences are still growing ever further out of reach for the majority of travelers.

Hannah Seo is a Korean-Canadian journalist based in Brooklyn, New York, who writes about health, climate, and social science.

William Fischer was in Peru, about to embark on a motorcycle tour around South America, when he got an offer he couldn't refuse — a job offer, that is. A US-based fintech startup reached out in spring 2024, and Fischer was intrigued. The only hiccup: They were 100% in office, no exceptions. The mandate didn't jibe with his LatAm-by-bike plan, or the digital nomad lifestyle he'd lived since 2021, working remotely while traveling to Spain, Mexico, and South Africa, among other locales. He tried to negotiate with his soon-to-be employer, asking to split time between New York and South America and pointing out that he'd already successfully worked remotely for two other companies, but the firm wouldn't budge.

Ultimately, Fischer decided the startup opportunity was too good to pass up, especially since the company was offering juicy stock options. So he packed it in and headed to New York. "I think you could argue I took a pay cut because of the tax increases and the cost-of-living differential that occurred," he says. "In my case, I did it because of the equity potential."

For now, the motorcycle tour is on the back burner — the bike is still sitting in Peru.

The pandemic jumbled the global labor market, causing big shifts in how and where people worked. It gave way to the explosion of remote work, which afforded workers an unprecedented opportunity to move around. Some people adopted a full-on digital nomad lifestyle, while others just quietly typed from the beach in Mexico for a month. Countries launched special visas to lure in footloose foreigners and make up for lost tourism traffic. In the immediate wake of the pandemic, people picking up jobs in other countries surged, too, as travel restrictions were lifted and cross-border movement normalized. The superhot job market also meant more workers and businesses were looking abroad for prospects.

Now the party's over in terms of working abroad. Return-to-office mandates have dampened the digital nomad phenomenon, and many companies are paying closer attention to workers' comings and goings. International job searches are slowing, too, as economic uncertainty takes hold and some countries tighten their immigration policies. Part of the swing back to a more "normal" work arrangement is people staying in their home countries, including many white-collar workers who only recently got their first taste of freedom, locationwise.

Globalization isn't going away, but it's in a cooling-off period that may lead to more workers staying put.

A recent analysis from the jobs platform Indeed found that job seekers' interest in foreign roles declined steeply between 2024 and 2025. Looking at job posting clicks from IP addresses outside the country of the job in question, Indeed found that the global postpandemic surge had reversed to pre-2020 levels. The reversal shows up in a slew of countries around the globe — including the US, Canada, Germany, and Australia.

"We're seeing less dynamic labor mobility, really, globally," says Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed.

Stahle attributes the drop-off to economic and political factors. Hiring in general has slowed, no matter where you are, and the cost of living has increased, making moving abroad onerous and expensive. Stahle says international roles in tech, architecture, and knowledge work are where the job seeker drop-off has been most acute, which tracks, given the "white-collar recession." "Why keep looking for jobs if the jobs are increasingly not there because of the slowing labor markets?" he says.

"We did see a postpandemic surge in shortages and labor migration as things opened up again," says Kate Hooper, a senior policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute. "And then that sort of settled down a little bit. In some cases, that was linked to a little bit of an economic downturn, but in other cases it was also tied to a more saturated labor market."

She offers up the example of Europe, which has seen a slowing economy, a decline in arrivals from outside the continent, and a wave of refugees from Ukraine. "Some employers are actually looking to hire from among that population, rather than necessarily opening up to international recruitment, which is a bit more expensive," she says.

More restrictive immigration policies from some countries, including the UK, Canada, and the US, could be keeping foreign workers out. But even for countries that have put in place policies trying to welcome foreigners, such as Germany, that pitch may not make it to job seekers. "It takes time for some of this information to trickle down," Hooper says.

Overall, it may just seem like a safer bet for some workers to stay put. That's the case for Arghya Das, a supply chain consultant who spent years studying and working in the US before returning to his home country of India in 2020. Dealing with the US visa process had become taxing, and he started getting some job offers that made him consider moving back. He was never hell-bent on living in America for the rest of his life, anyway. One of his friends, also from India, just got laid off from Microsoft, and he's scrambling to find another job so he can stay in Seattle, where he's got a wife and a mortgage. "If you get laid off in your own country, at least you can go back to your parents'," Das says.

Uncertainty may have many workers reranking their priorities. In a recent survey of 5,000 workers worldwide by Randstad, a staffing agency, two-thirds of respondents said they prioritized employability — meaning the ability to stay relevant and secure — over the ability to work remotely. More than half said they would rather control their work hours than their work locations.

Remote work during the pandemic opened up a lot of possibilities for working from abroad. A supertight labor market also made it hard for companies to be too demanding of their workforces, so they loosened the reins when it came to monitoring people's whereabouts. The digital nomad trend became so popular in some places that there was a backlash from locals against foreign squatters. The good news for those locals is that many of their not-so-welcome visitors are now being called back home.

Return-to-office mandates mean fewer opportunities to work from elsewhere — you can't commute from Spain to San Francisco, whether you have to be in the office five days a week or two. When companies had to compete harder for workers, remote work was one way to sweeten the deal. A labor market that's less favorable to workers means many employers feel that they can pull back on those types of enticements.

Even companies that allow remote work aren't so keen on it in places where they don't have offices. When the pandemic hit, many companies didn't have a lot of experience with remote workforces and treated working abroad as a gray area. They've since gotten better at monitoring their employees' locations and putting in place more specific guidelines about where people can be and for how long. It's not just a control issue — though many workers would argue it is — but also about compliance, says Brendan Coggan, the senior vice president of global services at Envoy Global, an immigration services consultancy. Many countries have started to more tightly monitor what foreigners are doing on their visits to ensure they're following immigration laws, not overstaying their visas, and paying taxes where required.

"Governments are able to actually better manage who's coming in, who's coming out, have all their biometric data, an easier way of tracking, and then AI is coming," he says.

Many countries have also formalized their pitch to foreign workers. Digital nomad visas offer remote workers a path that's more kosher, compliancewise. Hooper, from the Migration Policy Institute, says these types of visas haven't seen an enormous amount of uptake. They're helpful for extended stays, not for people traveling for a month or two and combining work and tourism. They also take time to get, and money, which a true digital nomad who bounces from place to place may not be willing to deal with. To some extent, the digital nomad visas are a marketing tactic. Even if the numbers aren't high, digital nomad visas "plant the flag, in a way, saying that we've got all this infrastructure in place that allows you to work remotely," Hooper says.

Marisa Meddin, a cofounder of Beach Commute, which helps people find remote jobs, says a lot of people got a "taste of freedom" over the past few years and feel like employers are now ripping that away. Her business tries to get people work-from-anywhere opportunities without them having to sneak around, which are usually at smaller operations. "There are very few companies that actually let you work from anywhere," she says. A big barrier is taxes. "That's why so many of the big companies are like, 'We can't even deal with it,'" she adds.

Some companies are embracing more business travel in lieu of sending (or allowing) employees to work full time in other countries. It's often more cost-effective, and it lowers their risk of running into legal trouble.

"People are working from other countries a lot, just in a different way," says Charlotte Wills, a partner at Fragomen, an immigration services firm. "Maybe in a more short-term way, for a temporary reason, before they either go back to their normal country of residence or where they're employed."

To some extent, the cat is out of the bag on people working from other countries. Globalization is a fact of the economy, and technology makes it easier for workers to be wherever, from freelancers to full-timers. But the cat is — kicking and screaming and scratching — going a little bit back into the bag.

Some of this is a natural cycle. People do the expat thing for a while, get tired of it, and go home. Two of the guys traveling in Fischer's cohort of digital nomads have also packed it in — one moved in with his girlfriend in Atlanta; another bought a house in Florida. Another made the official move to Spain with a digital nomad visa — he met a girl, the classic story.

Kristin Wilson, a blogger and consultant on working and living abroad, has planned her life destination by destination since 2012. She's finally slowed down and has been in Miami for about a year. "I got tired of living out of a suitcase, living out of backpacks, starting and stopping," she says. Ironically, she's become more set in place as her business grows, thanks to the surge in the pandemic-driven interest in working and living abroad, which resulted in the publication of her book "Digital Nomads for Dummies." Still, Wilson recognizes the growth won't be linear, and there's a level of normalization going on. "Remote work is here to stay, but the method of implementation during the pandemic was just completely contrary to the normal human rate of change and evolution," she says. "We're just kind of going back to a new baseline."

International job opportunities are still there, but workers may be more hesitant to grab onto them, and companies may be thinking twice about the rigamarole of bringing on someone from abroad. The brief WFH renaissance and the global opportunities afforded there appear to be a little bit over. Even if your company doesn't have an RTO mandate, it's probably paying closer attention to the IP address you're signing in from and rolling back that unacknowledged "don't ask, don't tell me if you're low-key in Colombia" stance it took in 2022.

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

• Some Americans are secretly working multiple remote jobs so they can retire early.
• Four job jugglers shared how working multiple jobs has helped pad their retirement savings.
• They also shared the downsides of working multiple jobs, including burnout.

To retire early, some Americans aren't climbing the corporate ladder to earn more — they're secretly working multiple remote jobs simultaneously and banking the surplus earnings.

Last year, Daniel earned about $280,000 juggling two remote roles in the medical field. Before becoming overemployed in 2021, he wasn't sure retirement was even realistic: With expenses like his children's college tuition looming, he said it was hard to put enough toward long-term savings. However, his net worth grew to $1.6 million from $1 million since 2022, and he's aiming to retire around the age of 59.

"I will be able to retire when I want, and perhaps earlier, if everything continues to fall into place," said Daniel, who's in his late 40s and based in Texas. "Before this, retirement was looking like wishful thinking."

Over the past two years, BI has interviewed more than two dozen overemployed workers like Daniel who've used their extra income to travel the world, pay down debt, and accelerate their retirement plans. These workers hope to escape the retirement challenges many Americans face — and protect themselves from rising costs, stock market volatility, and the potential threat of layoffs.

Four current and former job-jugglers shared how their strategies are giving them the financial means to retire earlier than initially planned. All did so on the condition that pseudonyms would be used, citing fears of professional repercussions. BI has verified their identities and earnings.

To be sure, working multiple jobs without employer approval could have professional repercussions and lead to other consequences, like burnout. But many job jugglers have told BI that the financial benefits generally outweigh the downsides and risks.

Job juggling is making early retirement possible

George, who's 39 and based in the Southeast, is on track to earn about $250,000 this year by secretly working two full-time remote IT roles. Early retirement has long been his "north star" because he hasn't enjoyed working.

Before he started job juggling about two years ago, George said he and his wife had a net worth of about $1 million, and he hoped they could reach $2.1 million by age 55. He said their net worth has since grown to $1.5 million, and he's now projecting they'll hit $3.2 million by age 48. His goal is to retire at age 50.

"I don't know that I would really stop before 50," he said. "I think I'd rather just pad the account, because I'd rather have too much than not enough."

Burnout and spending can impede overemployment

For some overemployed workers, holding multiple jobs isn't a perfect fix.

Adrian, a California-based data analyst in his early 40s, earned about $110,000 in 2023 by secretly working two full-time remote jobs. When the contract for one of his jobs came to an end last year, he decided not to look for a new role: Job juggling had become too stressful.

However, Adrian's roughly yearlong overemployment stint allowed him to make significant progress toward his retirement goals: He said he earned about $50,000 in additional income, all of which he invested in index funds that he's allocating for his retirement.

Adrian, who has about $323,000 in savings, said he's started exploring retirement plans that fit within his and his partner's budget.

"My partner and I are hoping to retire in about three years and move to a cheaper cost-of-living area," he said.

Kelly, who's in her late 40s and based in Arizona, also hopes to retire soon, but several hurdles stand in her way.

She's on track to earn nearly $300,000 this year by secretly working two full-time remote engineering jobs. However, she said her stock market investments have underperformed lately, and that she's had to support several family members financially.

"I am pretty much the sole provider for a lot of my family members," she said. "So I'm basically working to support others."

Kelly has about $42,000 in savings. Still, she's hopeful that her multiple income streams will make an early retirement possible.

"I would like to retire in five years from now," she said. "I'm trying to pay down all of my bills and invest more."

Do you have a story to share about secretly working multiple jobs or discovering an employee is doing so? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at jzinkula.29.

• Sergey Brin said he has used AI for leadership tasks, including delegating and promotions.
• Brin returned to Google in 2023 to develop AI products amid competition with OpenAI.
• Executives like Nvidia's CEO and Duolingo's CTO also use AI daily.

AI can help write boring emails, speed up coding, and even decide who gets promoted at one of the world's largest companies.

In an episode of the "All In" podcast released on Tuesday, Google cofounder Sergey Brin said he has been using AI for some of his leadership tasks since returning to the company.

"Management is like the easiest thing to do with the AI," Brin said.

Brin cofounded Google with Larry Page in 1998 and served as its president until stepping down in 2019. He returned to the search giant in 2023 to help develop AI products as the company races against startup competitors like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity.

On the podcast, Brin shared two ways he has been using AI for managing people at Gemini, Google's large language model team: delegating tasks and finding top performers.

Brin used an AI to condense group chat messages.

"It could suck down a whole chat space and then answer pretty complicated questions," he said. "I was like: 'OK, summarize this for me. OK, now assign something for everyone to work on.'"

Brin said that there were a few giveaways that he was using AI when he pasted things back into the chat, but it "worked remarkably well."

Brin said he also asked the AI tool who in the group chat should get promoted.

"It actually picked out this young woman engineer who I didn't even notice, she wasn't very vocal," he said. "I talked to the manager, actually, and he was like, 'Yeah, you know what? You're right. Like she's been working really hard, did all these things.'"

"I think that ended up happening, actually," Brin said of the promotion.

In the wide-ranging discussion about AI, Brin said AI could do certain things "much better" than humans, including tasks he is skilled at, such as math and coding.

He did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

How tech execs use AI

Brin joins a number of executives incorporating AI in their day-to-day work.

Earlier this month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he uses tools like ChatGPT and Gemini like a "tutor" every day.

"In areas that are fairly new to me, I might say, 'Start by explaining it to me like I'm a 12-year-old,' and then work your way up into a doctorate-level over time," Huang said.

This week, Duolingo's chief technology officer said that AI is part of his three-step leadership principle. Once he decides a task must be done, he tries to see if it can be automated with ChatGPT.

Still, not every tech executive is ready to outsource their management duties to AI just yet.

LinkedIn's chief operating officer, Dan Shapero, told Business Insider last month that he still likes to do the "human parts" of his job.

"While AI has shown that it can synthesize information, I'm not sure that it's shown that it can inspire a team or that it can connect with people at a deeper level," Shapero said.

• It's Ukraine's turn to adopt an unusual battle tactic from Russia: motorcycle assaults.
• One unit has formed its first motorcycle attack company for storming Russian positions quickly.
• It said its troops have trained "hundreds of hours" to shoot assault rifles from off-road bikes.

As the battle with drones continues, motorcycles have become a rising star in Ukraine's war.

The Ukrainian military's 425th separate assault regiment, nicknamed "Skala," announced on Tuesday that it had officially formed the country's first motorcycle attack company.

"As a result, we now have a modern 'cavalry' whose main task is to rapidly break through to enemy positions, conduct assault operations, and quickly shift the direction of attack," it said on its Telegram channel.

The use of motorcycles to carry troops into battle is well-documented in Ukraine. Since early last year, Russian troops have been increasingly seen riding on light vehicles such as ATVs and motorbikes as both a means of transport and a way to attack Ukrainian positions rapidly.

Their rise is largely viewed as a direct consequence of drone warfare, since armored vehicles are often vulnerable to exploding drones on Ukraine's flat terrain.

While motorbikes leave the rider more exposed, they're faster, nimbler, and smaller, which makes them better able to evade attacks from small drones.

"Russia's increased use of motorcycles is an adaptation in response to pervasive Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian armored vehicles and the unsustainable armored vehicle losses that Russian forces suffered in late 2023 and 2024," the Institute for the Study of War wrote in early May.

Ukraine's troops initially balked at the attack method, which the Russians used in suicide assaults to wear down Ukrainian defenses and munitions.

But the 425th's announcement on Tuesday means that some Ukrainians are now adopting the same tactic.

In its statement, the 425th said its motorbike-riding troops had trained for "hundreds of hours" to shoot while on the move. The statement did not indicate whether the unit has started fighting or when its motorcycle troops will hit the front lines.

The 425th released a video of about two dozen soldiers riding tandem on off-road motorbikes, with each pair involving one driver and an infantryman wielding an assault rifle.

"The goal is to ride in, strike quickly at enemy positions, dismount, storm in, secure a foothold, and complete the mission successfully," a Ukrainian soldier says in the video.

Deploying motorbikes in a direct assault is an unusual tactic for modern war, where such vehicles are typically used for reconnaissance or infiltration. US special forces, for example, have used commercial bikes to navigate difficult terrain or traverse deserts in the Middle East.

But in Ukraine, the number of motorbikes sighted on the front lines has grown dramatically. In April, Ukrainian troops said they repelled a Russian assault on Pokrovsk that involved over 100 motorcycles.

Several Russian motorized attacks last month were also reported to be comprised wholly of motorcycles and civilian vehicles. The latter have been increasingly appearing in the warzone, with Moscow's troops often sighted traveling in sedans and tractors at the rear — a likely sign of strain on Russian logistics and resources.

Analysts from the ISW said in late April that it's likely Russia will start further incorporating motorcycles into its tactics for future attacks.

Lt. Col. Pavlo Shamshyn, spokesperson of Ukraine's ground forces in Kharkiv, told local media that week that Kyiv believed the same.

"Our intelligence records the fact that in training centers on the territory of the Russian Federation and in the units themselves, active training of motorcycle drivers is taking place, and all this indicates that the assault operations of spring-summer 2025 will be carried out on motorcycles," Shamshyn told Ukrainian outlet Suspilne.

• Urban Outfitters will be bringing in its fall products early this year.
• The company's CFO said this was to circumvent any future supply chain issues caused by Trump's tariffs.
• It could also "gently and sparingly" raise some product prices.

Urban Outfitters says fall is coming early this year.

The retail corporation announced in its earnings call on Wednesday that it would bring in fall products earlier, anticipating supply chain issues resulting from President Donald Trump's tariffs.

"While our teams continue to focus on increasing inventory turns, the uncertainty around tariffs means we are likely to bring in fall product a bit earlier," said the brand's finance chief, Melanie Marein-Efron.

Marein-Efron said to save costs, the brand shifted its mode of transporting stock from air to boat, a change which added about 30 days to delivery time.

The change in delivery method also comes with the risk of the fashion not being "as accurate as we would like it to be," she said.

"While there is some fashion risk of bringing product in early, we believe that it is prudent planning to bring in fall inventory, which is less sensitive to fashion, early, given the uncertain tariff outlook and any potential supply chain disruptions that could occur in the future," she said.

Representatives for Urban Outfitters did not respond to BI's query about whether customers would be able to shop fall fashion in-store earlier.

The company, which also owns retail brands Anthropologie, Free People, and Nuuly, sources its products mainly from India, Vietnam, and Turkey, Marein-Efron said.

Per Trump's announcement on April 2, 10% tariffs would be applied to goods from all countries entering the US. Goods from India, Vietnam would be subjected to additional 26% and 46% "reciprocal" tariffs, respectively, he said.

But on April 9, Trump announced a 90-day pause on the additional tariffs to allow room for trade negotiations.

She also said Urban Outfitters may consider "gently and sparingly raising some prices" to mitigate tariff effects.

The company reported a 10.7% revenue increase in the last quarter compared to the same period last year, with $1.33 billion in net sales.

Its shares were up more than 17% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

• A new North Korean naval destroyer had part of its hull smashed after a disastrous launch.
• State media wrote that the ship's stern slid off a ramp too early, causing the vessel to become stuck.
• Kim Jong Un, who watched, slammed the mishap as a "criminal act" and censured the officials involved.

A new North Korean naval destroyer was badly damaged during a botched shipyard launch that caused part of its hull to be "crushed," Pyongyang state media reported.

The Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday morning local time that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was attending the ceremony at the Chongjin Shipyard when the "serious accident" occurred.

Blaming "inexperienced command and operational carelessness," KCNA wrote that the stern of the 5,000-ton ship started sliding down a ramp too early and that a flatcar meant to support its weight didn't move with the vessel.

This report said this caused the ship to lose balance, leaving "some sections of the warship's bottom crushed" while the rest of the ship was stuck.

Per KCNA, Kim blasted the disastrous launch, saying it was "out of the bounds of possibility and could not be tolerated."

He also called the launch a "serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism," state media wrote.

It reported that Kim censured the officials responsible for the ship and its launch, including the country's munitions department and ship designers, and said their mistakes would be "dealt with" at a party meeting next month.

The North Korean leader was further cited as saying that the mishap "brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse in a moment."

The failed launch is a blow to Kim's military agenda, given his emphasis over the last two years on building up North Korea's maritime forces.

"A new historic time is coming before our naval forces," Kim said during a 2023 speech, declaring North Korea would focus on capabilities for projecting naval power beyond its own waters.

The same year, Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile submarine, the Hero Kim Kun Ok, which is a redesigned Soviet model equipped to fire cruise missiles.

Last month, North Korea launched the largest warship it had ever built, a 5,000-ton "multipurpose" destroyer, which it said was a new class of armed vessel.

That was at Nampo, a different shipyard. However, its tonnage could indicate that the vessel that failed to launch on Wednesday was in the same class. State media didn't provide further details about the damaged ship at Chongjin.

In March, North Korea said it was also building its first nuclear-powered submarine.

• Alexis Ohanian said he "wholeheartedly wants" his 7-year-old to use AI every day.
• "I want her to understand that this is a superpower that she should have," the Reddit cofounder said.
• Not every tech exec shares the investor's enthusiasm about tech for kids.

Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says he's all in on AI — especially when it comes to his 7-year-old daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr.

"I wholeheartedly want Olympia using it every day," he said on an episode of the podcast "Possible" published Wednesday. "I genuinely am so awed by the fact that super intelligence will be a commodity for her," he added.

Ohanian, who is married to tennis superstar Serena Williams, described how he's already using AI to fuel their daughter's creativity. The investor and entrepreneur dug up some of his own childhood pencil sketches — even half-finished ones — and ran them through ChatGPT with Olympia to bring them to life.

The AI turned his drawings into "full-color illustrations."

"It was just so wild to see her reaction to it," said Ohanian. He and Williams also have a one-year-old daughter, Adira River Ohanian.

Olympia still draws the old-fashioned way — with markers on paper — but now, they can "level up" that art together using AI. The pair can "make it fly through space," he said.

"I want her to understand that this is a superpower that she should have," he added.

The founder of VC firm Seven Seven Six also said he encourages parents to use educational AI tools like Synthesis to help with homework, which has been "going pretty well" for Olympia.

"I still need her to know the fundamentals of reading and writing and arithmetic," he said. "But I want her to know that the raw intelligence part has been solved for her."

"Now, it's going to be about her agency and her grit and her creativity," he added.

Ohanian did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

AI for children

Not every tech exec shares Ohanian's tech enthusiasm for their kids.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for one, has said he doesn't want his baby son to form a best-friend bond with an AI chatbot. He said earlier this month that children should have "a much higher level of protection" than adults when it comes to using AI tools.

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt also said last year that AI could shape a child's identity and culture. He called on tech leaders to set safety standards.

Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has said he doesn't want his three young kids "sitting in front of a TV or a computer for a long period of time."

Still, AI is quickly becoming part of everyday life — even for children.

Companies are rushing to add AI chat elements to their consumer apps and services, including ones for kids and teens.

Tech giants like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google have also promoted how their AI tools can support learning. Some educators told Business Insider last year that they welcome the use of AI in classrooms.

"Children in the future will only know a world with AI in it," Altman said in January.

• Jane Goodall, 91, says she was objectified by her male peers early in her career.
• "Back then, all I wanted was to get back to the chimps. So if my legs were getting me the money, thank you legs," she said.
• While her experience happened years ago, gender inequality persists in the workplace.

Jane Goodall, 91, may be one of the world's leading primatologists now, but there was a time when she wasn't being taken seriously.

During an appearance on Tuesday's "Call Her Daddy" podcast, Goodall reflected on the challenges she faced in her decadeslong career.

Goodall told podcast host Alex Cooper that her love for animals started when she read "Tarzan of the Apes" as a child.

"Anyway, I knew there wasn't a Tarzan. But that's when my dream began," Goodall said. "I will grow up, go to Africa, live with wild animals, and write books — no thought of being a scientist."

Most people around her thought her dream was unrealistic, except her mother, she said.

"And everybody said, 'That's ridiculous. I mean, you don't have money. Africa's far away and you're just a girl,'" Goodall said.

Years later, Goodall appeared on the cover of National Geographic.

She recalled being objectified by others in the scientific community who said that her looks, not her research, earned her the spotlight.

"Well, some of the jealous male scientists would say, well, you know, she's just got this notoriety and she's getting money from Geographic, and they want her on the cover, and they wouldn't put her on the cover if she didn't have nice legs," Goodall said.

If someone had said that today, they'd be sued, she added.

"Back then, all I wanted was to get back to the chimps. So if my legs were getting me the money, thank you legs. And if you look at those covers, they were jolly nice legs," Goodall said.

The English conservationist acknowledged that things are different now.

"I did it by accepting that, in a way, they were right. So, thank you for giving me this advantage. It was good to give me that money," Goodall said. "I know that for me it was a long time ago. It was a different era. It wouldn't work today. "

While Goodall's experience may have unfolded years ago, gender inequality persists in the workplace.

Sexism at work comes in many forms, including wage disparities, stereotypes, and harassment.

Several female celebrities have also spoken up about the discrimination they faced in Hollywood.

In an interview with Porter magazine in November 2023, Anne Hathaway said she was told her career would "fall off a cliff" after she turned 35.

In January 2024, Sofia Vergara told the LA Times that her acting jobs were limited because of her "stupid accent."

Kathy Bates told Variety in September that she could have a long acting career only because she "wasn't a beauty queen."

A representative for Goodall did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.

• Klarna said it used an AI avatar of its CEO to report quarterly earnings in a YouTube video.
• Klarna brands itself as an AI company and has "streamlined" its workforce by 40% since 2022.
• Klarna's Q1 results show revenue growth but see a spike in net and credit losses.

Buy now, pay later services company Klarna said it used an AI doppelganger of CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski to report its quarterly earnings on Monday.

The AI avatar appeared in a video on Klarna's official YouTube channel to deliver earnings highlights. It wore a brown jacket reminiscent of one in Siemiatkowski's corporate headshots, and aside from a lack of blinking and suspect lip syncing, there were no significant giveaways.

"Our AI-first strategy is driving exceptional returns, we're outpacing competitors, our merchant network is scaling rapidly, and our next-gen products are reshaping money management for millions," a presumably human Siemiatkowski said in a press release.

The move comes as Klarna, which last month put its IPO on ice due to economic uncertainty, tries to brand itself as an AI company. In the earnings press release, Klarna said it has "streamlined" its workforce by around 40% since 2022.

In 2022, 800 employees were fired, while some were quietly offered an exit package last year after being placed into a "talent pool." In February 2024, Klarna announced that its OpenAI-powered AI customer service agents could do the equivalent work of 700 full-time human employees.

Klarna has recently ramped up partnerships with platforms like Walmart, eBay, and DoorDash, but consumer watchdogs have long been concerned about the potential for overspending under BNPL services. Under the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau treated BNPL providers as credit card lenders, which required stricter protections around disclosures and disputes. On May 6, the CFPB said in an announcement it would no longer enforce the rule and would consider rescinding it.

The Federal Reserve found in 2024 that users of BNPL services are more likely to rely on high-interest financing tools and are more financially fragile. LendingTree, an online lending marketplace, also found in an April survey that 41% of BNPL users in the US paid late over the last 12 months, up from 34% a year ago.

Klarna's latest Q1 results also show that an increasing number of people may not have been paying their loans. While revenue grew 13% year over year and it reached 100 million active users, Klarna also doubled its net losses from $47 million in Q1 2024 to $99 million in Q1 2025 — a 110% increase.

During the May 19 earnings call, Klarna attributed the spike in losses to several one-off costs related to depreciation, share-based payments, and restructuring.

Klarna's consumer credit losses have also jumped, which its Q1 financial report said is "driven by the accelerated expansion of Pay Later and Fair Financing products." Klarna's first quarter saw a 17% year-on-year increase in credit losses from $117 million to $136 million.

Klarna did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

• Trump said he's considering taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public.
• The move would privatize the mortgage giants, which have been under government control since 2008.
• Critics have said privatizing the companies could increase mortgage rates.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was "giving very serious consideration" to taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public and would make a decision soon.

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are doing very well, throwing off a lot of CASH, and the time would seem to be right," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

The president said he would speak to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, William Pulte, as well as others, regarding the decision.

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

Taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public would mean removing the mortgage giants from the government conservatorship they have been under since 2008 and privatizing them.

Previous attempts, including under Trump's first term, have been made to remove the companies from the government's control. Critics say the move could lead to higher mortgage rates.

During his confirmation hearing in January, Bessent said that "no conservatorship should be indefinite. However, any actions pursued should be carefully designed and executed." He also told Bloomberg in February that the decision to release the firms would depend on the impact it would have on mortgage rates.

Pulte, who heads the agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, told CNN in March that privatizing the companies was not a top priority.

"Fannie and Freddie shouldn't be in conservatorship forever," Pulte said. "But it's critical to ensure any discussion about exiting conservatorship needs not only to ensure safety and soundness but how it would affect mortgage rates."

BI previously reported that shares in the firms have increased dramatically this year and could soar even further if the conservatorship ends. Analysts at Pimco said re-privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be good for shareholders but could lead to increased costs for borrowers.

Trump's comments on taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public come as fears over the federal deficit continue to grow. The president is pushing major legislation through Congress that would add trillions to the deficit.

Bankers have estimated that the government could make hundreds of billions by selling its shares in the companies, The Wall Street Journal reported.

• Google announced over two dozen new AI updates at its I/O developer conference.
• It's impressive, though some of the new products seem to overlap significantly.
• Google's approach could lose to more focused rivals as tech races to build an "everything app."

Attending Google's I/O developer conference is like being doused with a firehose of new AI announcements.

At I/O's keynote event on Tuesday, Business Insider counted at least two dozen new models, features, and updates.

"We are shipping faster than ever," Google CEO Sundar Pichai boasted onstage.

Indeed. But it's starting to get a little confusing. For one, some of the launches seem to overlap with each other. Launching so many AI products in such a short timeframe is impressive, and it can also feel scatterbrained.

AI Mode allows you to chat with Google as you browse the web, creating a more conversational search experience. Don't confuse it with Gemini in Chrome, which allows you to ask Gemini questions while you browse.

With Gemini Live, you can point your phone at whatever you want and talk to the AI assistant about it. Don't mistake it for Search Live, which allows you to chat with Search about whatever your phone sees.

Project Mariner is an experimental AI agent that can take actions like booking tickets. Gemini's upcoming Agent Mode also has agentic capabilities, like helping users find just the right Zillow listing.

Not all the new tools seemed that similar. Google launched an impressive new AI filmmaking tool called Flow, powered by its new model Veo 3.

Google also touted updates to an entirely separate AI model family from Gemini called Gemma which, incidentally, can help decipher how dolphins talk to each other — that's DolphinGemma.

Multiple Googlers that Business Insider spoke with at I/O used a single word to describe Google's current rate of shipping: "intense."

Google's approach complicates its own vision of building a single, universal AI assistant. (That mission has its own name, too: Project Astra.)

OpenAI is also moving fast towards this goal and appears intent on launching a dedicated device to run it, given its recent purchase of Apple designer Jony Ive's hardware startup.

Google risks building so many overlapping AI products that it will be tough to compete with a single, more stand-alone solution, such as an AI-native phone.

No one's counting Google out, though. The tech giant has become an undeniable AI leader, inventing much of the core research behind the current boom and successfully launching transformational technology like Waymo. Time will tell whether Google's more sprawling approach wins out.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• The Army is preparing for a massive 250th birthday parade in Washington, DC, on June 14.
• The event, designated a national security special event, coincides with President Donald Trump's birthday.
• The parade will feature tanks, aircraft, and 6,700 soldiers from all Army units.

The US Army has shared new details for its massive 250th birthday celebration, which is set to be a mind-boggling logistical feat, with Abrams tanks, artillery, Strykers, horses, and a lot more descending on the nation's capital.

The week-long celebratory event is officially designated as a "national security special event," a term used for major events like the Super Bowl or presidential inaugurations. These require extensive inter-agency coordination.

This event has been in the works for two years, but was only recently updated to include a parade on June 14 that will coincide with President Donald Trump's birthday. Army officials on Wednesday did not specify to reporters whose idea it was to insert the military parade into the already-planned events.

Trump made it known during his first term that he wanted a major military parade. That event never came to fruition.

At least 200,000 people are expected to attend the upcoming event, officials said.

The parade will start in the early evening and will proceed along Constitution Avenue and continue near the National Mall, a shorter route than previously expected.

Here's what's coming to DC for the parade:

There will be 28 M1A1 Abrams tanks, each roughly 70-ton tracked vehicle equipped with a 120mm cannon, among other armaments, as well as 28 Bradley Fighting vehicles, lighter tracked armor with 25mm M242 Bushmaster chain guns. Additionally, 28 Strykers will also be included, flexible 20-ton eight-wheeled vehicles with mixed armaments used for a range of missions.

Abrams tanks, Strykers, and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles form the backbone of two of the three types of Army "brigade combat teams," self-sufficient units that can fight and maneuver on the battlefield. Some are centered on infantry, others on "armor" like the Abrams and Bradley, and others on the versatile Strykers.

The parade will also feature 4 Paladins, tracked self-propelled 155mm howitzers each weighing over 27 tons. There will also be "several" pieces of towed artillery including M777s and M119s.

Fifty aircraft are expected to participate, including helicopters like the multi-mission Black Hawks, heavy-lift Chinooks, and attack Apaches. Army officials told reporters they are working closely with the FAA and DC's Reagan National Airport for parade flyover deconfliction, though final details regarding impact to local airports are still being hashed out.

All weapons systems will be disabled and inspected by the Secret Service prior to the event, officials told reporters. No ammunition, be it blank or live rounds, will be distributed to soldiers.

Roughly 6,700 soldiers — including active duty, reserve, National Guard, Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), and special operations forces — are expected to participate.

Some soldiers will wear historical uniforms specially made for this event, officials shared Wednesday, to reflect US Army traditions from the Revolutionary War through the Global War on Terror.

World War II-era equipment including M4 Sherman tanks, B25 bombers, P51 Mustang fighter planes, and C47 Skytrains, will also be featured.

Army equine units from across the country are also expected, including Arlington National Cemetery's Caisson Platoon.

The Army's prestigious Golden Knights parachute team will end the celebration with a jump and will present a folded flag to the president. Folded flags are usually presented to grieving military families during funerals, but they are also sometimes presented at military retirement ceremonies or other milestone events as a gesture of respect.

• The US Army highlighted an ongoing program to upgrade the range of its Stinger missiles.
• The program, Red Wasp, has been applying solid fuel ramjet technology to increase reach.
• Stingers have seen widespread use in a number of conflicts, including the Ukraine war.

The US Army is developing new technology aimed at giving legacy Stinger missiles, shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, a much longer reach.

An air defense interceptor program, Red Wasp, has been working on new technology to increase the Stinger's range, allowing it to hit targets at greater distances.

The Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center shared an update on the Red Wasp program Wednesday, highlighting a successful test flight last year and plans for future flights.

The Army said the focus of the program has been on solid-fueled ramjet technology, a dual propulsion cycle that starts with a conventional solid rocket motor to boost the missile to supersonic speed.

Once the booster ultimately burns out, outside air enters the combustion chamber through a port at the front of Stinger's solid fuel rocket motor, rather than being stored on board, and ignites the ramjet fuel.

"The ramjet cycle thus greatly increases the engine's delivered performance and ultimately the missile's range," the Army center explained.

That'll help soldiers use Stinger to engage with threats like uncrewed aerial systems with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities at longer distances, said Capability Area Lead for Air and Missile Defense John Gibbs.

"With Red Wasp, we can reach out and touch them at greater distances," he said. 

Stingers, man-portable air defense systems that fire surface-to-air missiles, have been in service since 1981, with few changes to their range over the past almost 45 years. They're fired over-the-shoulder and hone in on their target via infrared, making soldiers and insurgents more effective against helicopter gunships.

Red Wasp was a high-risk, high-reward, completely government-owned program to make the system much more lethal, Chappell Ray, deputy capability area lead for air and missile defense, noted.

The Stinger was chosen as a candidate for testing this type of technology a few years ago. At the time, "several industry propulsion experts expressed concerns about the feasibility of applying solid fuel ramjet technology to the Stinger form factor," Gibbs said. "The team took that as a challenge and within 18 months, successfully demonstrated the concept in a flight test."

Additional flight testing is expected this summer.

Stingers have been used in combat for decades. For instance, the US made the uneasy decision to share the missile with US-backed Afghan rebels to help erode the Soviet Union's control of the air. Over the course of the war, an estimated 2,000 and 2,500 were sent. Stingers have also seen combat in other wars, most recently Ukraine. Weeks after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, then-US President Joe Biden sent them to Ukraine to shoot down Russian helicopters.

• OpenAI bought Jony Ive's io to enhance product distribution and user reach.
• Generative AI competition is now more about distribution rather than technology.
• Google's vast distribution network poses a challenge for OpenAI. Ive's gadgets could help.

OpenAI's decision to buy Jony Ive's gadget company, io, is about distribution.

The generative AI race has entered a new stage. It used to be about creating the best AI models, but they're all pretty similar these days.

Who ultimately wins will depend a lot more on distribution, and less on the quality of the underlying technology.

Getting ChatGPT and other OpenAI models and products into the hands of users — that's what really counts. Without that direct relationship, these products won't be used as much, or it will cost a lot to get the offerings to consumers indirectly.

Ive designed the ultimate distribution tool for technology, Apple's iPhone. Then he left and started work on io, a new type of device company built for the AI era.

AI could spark a wave of new gadgets

While phones still dominate, generative AI could change that. We might all wear smart glasses with AI chatbots built in. Meta, Apple, Google, and others are working on this. We could have a little clip thingy attached to our shirts, so we can converse constantly with AI models and chatbots. Who knows what else might work in this new era?

Either way, if you're Sam Altman running OpenAI, you don't want to have Google or Meta or Apple standing in between you and your users. You know what happens then? You end up having to pay for distribution. Mark Zuckerberg despises being an app on Apple's mobile device platform, which takes a juicy 30% fee from many developers. Even Google pays Apple roughly $20 billion a year to have its search engine distributed on iPhones and other Apple gadgets.

Does Altman want to pay Apple $20 billion in a few years? Does he want to give Tim Cook 30% of the revenue OpenAI generates from ChatGPT paid apps on iPhones? Of course not.

One solution is to hire the original iPhone designer to build OpenAI's own gadgets. This quote stood out to me in the OpenAI announcement about the deal with Ive and his io company.

"It became clear that our ambitions to develop, engineer and manufacture a new family of products demanded an entirely new company," Altman and Ive wrote.

Even if this hardware journey costs billions of dollars, it could be cheaper than paying other tech giants for distribution. And at least you control your own destiny and have that direct relationship with users.

io vs IO

I'm writing this from Google IO, the internet giant's annual conference. Altman loves to crash this party. He did it last year, and he's doing it again today. It's all the more perfect because Ive's device company is called io.

My interpretation of this party-crashing is that Altman could be pretty worried about Google.

Despite that very expensive deal with Apple, Google is a master of distribution, and it's using everything at its disposal to quickly get its new AI products and tools into as many hands as possible. These are the offerings that compete directly with ChatGPT.

Here are some examples of Google's distribution power, taken partly from this week at Google IO and partly from all the work Google has been doing for the past 20 years or so. For a startup like OpenAI, this must be terrifying.

• Android, Google's mobile operating system, supports more than 3 billion devices. The company is prominently displaying its Gemini AI chatbot service on as many Android gadgets as possible.
• There are millions of Pixel devices and Chromebooks out there. And guess what? Google is weaving Gemini into many of these phones and laptops.
• Chromebooks, Android, and Pixel are mainly ways to distribute Google technology to users directly. Chrome is the default browser on these Googley gadgets. This week at IO, Google showed off how Gemini is now baked into the Chrome browser. That's suddenly more than 1 billion users who will see Gemini every day, and they could end up using this chatbot, rather than ChatGPT.
• Then there's the big kahuna: Google Search. The company announced several ways that its new AI technology is being weaved into Search. There's a new AI Mode that launched across the US on Tuesday. Suddenly, roughly 250 million people will see — and probably use — AI Mode regularly. Because it's baked into the top of the Search page prominently. There are about 1.5 billion daily users of Google Search.

This is the type of distribution power that startups can only dream of. If OpenAI really wants to compete with tech giants, it badly needs Jony Ive's new gadgets — and a host of other distribution.

Distribution = data = better AI

Why is this so important? Well, AI products only really get better when a lot of people use them regularly. Google cofounder Larry Page used to call this the toothbrush test: If your product isn't used twice a day, forget about it.

If that happens, AI companies can collect mountains of data on how users are behaving. That information informs product updates. But in the generative AI era, this data is also incredibly valuable for developing new AI models and related products. This data can be pumped into training new models, with certain user permissions. It can also be used for fine-tuning and other AI development techniques.

The more you have, the better. Again, this data feedback loop only works if you have distribution—massive distribution.

In February 2021, Morgan Wallen's future as country music's golden goose was hanging in the balance.

First, there were the reports of drunken disorderly conduct during a night out in Nashville. Then, a video of Wallen flouting COVID protocols at a party in 2020 resulted in the postponement of his "Saturday Night Live" debut. But his then-latest incident, in which he was caught using a racial slur on camera, threatened to torpedo his career.

As quickly as the industry had lifted him up as the genre's next global star, Wallen was disinvited from awards shows, criticized by peers, blocked from radio play, and suspended by his record label. Country music cable network CMT announced it would scrub his appearances from its platforms, saying Wallen's words and actions were "in direct opposition to our core values that celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion."

Then, something happened: People kept listening anyway.

Four years later, Wallen, now 32, is bigger than ever. His 2023 album "One Thing at a Time" spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the longest reign ever for a country album. He went back on "Saturday Night Live," where his latest viral controversy, in which he walked offstage while the cameras were still rolling, garnered him enough defenders to launch a cheeky merch line. (It's now sold out.) His new album, "I'm the Problem," only needed one day to become Spotify's most-streamed country album of 2025.

These days, it pays to be the problem.

The making and marketing of a modern antihero

Sonically, there's nothing particularly special about Wallen's brand of stadium country music. His signature Tennessee twang is pleasant enough, but it pales in comparison to the richness of Shaboozey's, for example, or the expressive texture of Chris Stapleton's. The melodies aren't any catchier than the average single by Luke Combs or Florida Georgia Line, and his lyrics are teeming with tropes: the word "whiskey" is sung no fewer than 18 times on "I'm the Problem."

In a genre historically obsessed with first-person storytelling and narrative cohesion, Wallen also isn't distinguished by his songwriting: he's not listed as the sole songwriter on any "I'm the Problem" tracks, and on 15 out of 37, he's not credited at all. (Forty-nine other songwriters are credited throughout.)

However, a closer look at the album's title track and opener offers insight into a core element of Wallen's appeal. On the taunting kiss-off, addressed to an ex who's equally flawed but can't bear to share the blame, Wallen is equal parts self-loathing and vindictive: "You hate that when you look at me, you halfway see yourself / And it got me thinkin' / If I'm the problem / You might be the reason."

These themes are woven into the fabric of Wallen's songs, many of which double as sly implications. He often sings about drunken screw-ups and toxic relationships that paint his friends, lovers, and listeners as co-conspirators, or even instigators. "Don't Think Jesus," his first solo release after returning to the spotlight in 2022, makes this theme explicit: "World likes to rear back and throw a few stones / So boy wants to throw a few stones of his own." In his big hit from last year, the Post Malone duet "I Had Some Help," Wallen reasons, "It ain't like I can make this kinda mess all by myself."

John Malanga, a 21-year-old rising senior at James Madison University, said he likes Wallen more than other country stars because he sees him as authentic: the themes of his music align with his unpolished, unapologetic public persona.

"He recognizes his flaws and yeah, he's kind of like this young guy who's a little bit of a douchebag sometimes, but that's his character," Malanga said. "It seems like he's really not afraid of that."

Devin Selvala, a Boston-based 27-year-old who said she's been in Wallen's top 1% of Spotify listeners for at least three years, agreed.

"Nowadays in the music industry, it's easy to be consumed by the machine," Selvala said. "He isn't one that's willing to be shape-shifted and evolved based on how the industry or how 'big music' wants him to be. I think he's very, 'Take me as I am or leave me.'"

Still, not everybody has accepted Wallen's career rebound. When Tate McRae was announced as a feature on "I'm the Problem," some of her fans objected based on Wallen's reputation and presumed political views, describing their team-up online as tone-deaf and meme-ing McRae as a MAGA Republican.

The Wallen fans I spoke to were well aware of the singer's slur scandal and didn't let it slide, either, calling his language "repulsive" and inexcusable. (Wallen, for his part, said much of the same at the time, instructing his supporters to stop defending him in a video shared online.) But none said the incident ultimately deterred them from enjoying and supporting Wallen's music, especially following his public apology.

"I know I've never called anybody the N-word, but I've called people other things and done really crappy things. I think everybody has," Laragh Thooft, a 32-year-old from Iowa, told me. "I would never stop listening to music that I like, or stop watching a movie that I like, because it's somebody doing really dumb and potentially hateful things if they're not seeming to me to be a dumb and hateful person."

"If we start doing that," she added, "then we're just gonna have to listen to only AI music."

Wallen doesn't innovate — he resonates

Wallen's relatability is also bolstered by streaming-optimized savvy.

His music is extremely popular on TikTok, a platform that rewards broad appeal and repetition to serve users content that echoes what they already know and love. To this end, Wallen and his collaborators are masters at integrating other sounds and genres into his well-worn country formula. His songs bear tones of '70s rock, radio-friendly pop, electronic, and hip-hop, and his duet partners are carefully selected to help legitimize those unions: Hardy ("Come Back as a Redneck"), Tate McRae ("What I Want"), Diplo ("Heartless"), Lil Durk ("Broadway Girls"). Wallen's most high-profile collaborator in recent years, Post Malone, has achieved similar success hopping between rap, pop, and country trends.

Wallen also releases a lot of music. Like, a lot. "One Thing at a Time" had 36 songs on its tracklist, just one fewer than "I'm the Problem." Its predecessor, 2021's "Dangerous," was a double album with 32 songs total, including bonus tracks.

Much has been written about the "more is more" strategy that excels in the streaming era, and Wallen is far from the only artist to take advantage of it. But he arguably does it better than anyone else. The proof is in the pudding, which is to say, his chart performances. As of Wednesday, tracks from "I'm the Problem" dominated nearly half of Spotify's Top 50 in the US, with four of the top five slots. "We see that the demand is there and we are happy to meet that demand," Wallen said in a press release for the album.

In the process, Wallen avoids disappointing any fans who prefer specific flavors in his sound. It's a familiar failsafe — something for everyone — and it suits Wallen's creative process, which he has characterized as relatively directionless. "We just went with our gut. That's what we do a lot of times, we don't necessarily have a plan," he told Rolling Stone of his debut album, "If I Know Me," in 2018. "Hopefully it sounds good."

Wallen may not be leading the writing or production of his songs, but there is something to be said for his sonic pliability. Paired with his everyman ease and nonconformist attitude, Wallen is the ideal avatar for an attractive idea — a feeling of freedom, of open roads and judgment-free zones.

After all, Wallen was right: He had some help. His record label resumed promoting his music a few months after he apologized for the slur incident in 2021. Last year, he was nominated for male video of the year at the CMT Music Awards and won entertainer of the year at the CMAs. He's hitched a ride on a powerful pendulum, one that's swinging away from DEI initiatives and toward self-styled free thinkers and rebels against social etiquette.

Consider "Working Man's Song," a track from Wallen's new album, which echoes recent anti-establishment, anti-elite hits like Oliver Anthony's "Rich Men North of Richmond" and Jason Aldean's "Try That In a Small Town": "I punch the clock, wanna punch a ticket to New York and punch the boss," Wallen sings. Never mind that Wallen's 2023 tour grossed over $300 million, making it the highest-grossing country tour of all time. When he moans about the indignity of 9-to-5 jobs and "underpaid checks," it strikes a nerve.

For a lot of Wallen's fans, Selvala theorized, "It's not just the music. It's the embodiment, the aesthetic of everything."

"When I think of country music, I think of long drives, being with my friends, feet in the grass, sunny and 75, beers in the cooler," she said. "A lot of amazing memories I have over the years, just like being with people I love, have Morgan playing in the background."

"I'm the Problem" concludes as it begins, with a double-edged confession. In the chorus of "I'm A Little Crazy," Wallen casts himself as a "coyote in a field of wolves" — scrappy, perhaps, and proud to stand out, yet no more wild than anyone else.

"Yeah, the only thing keeping these tracks on the train," Wallen sings, "Knowing I'm a little crazy, but the world's insane."