• Supermicro filed annual financial reports late after an accounting dispute with ex-auditor EY.
• EY dropped Supermicro as a client after raising concerns about its internal financial governance.
• Supermicro said that after it replaced EY with another accounting firm, no issues were found.

Supermicro, the AI server manufacturer and Nvidia partner, has met the deadline for a late filing of its annual financial reports, and is blaming its former auditor EY for the delay.

The tech company, which does business as Supermicro, filed its overdue 10-K annual filing for fiscal 2024 and the first two quarterly reports for fiscal 2025 on Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filings came months late, putting Supermicro at risk of being delisted from the Nasdaq 100 for failing to meet compliance requirements. The company was granted an extension by Nasdaq in December.

"The Company is now current with its SEC financial reporting obligations," Supermicro said in a press release.

In an explanatory note included in the filing, Supermicro blamed its previous auditor, EY, for the delay, saying that the reports were late "due to EY's stated concerns and subsequent resignation."

According to the filing, the Big Four firm dropped Supermicro as a client in October 2024 after raising concerns to the board in July about the governance and transparency of the company's financial reporting and the integrity of its senior management.

In August 2024, Hindenburg Research, a now-defunct US short-seller, said it found "glaring accounting red flags" in Supermicro's financial practices. Hindenburg's report cited "evidence of undisclosed related party transactions, sanctions and export control failures, and customer issues."

"We disagreed with EY's decision to resign as our independent registered public accounting firm for a number of reasons," Supermicro said in the filing.

Its reasons included that a number of audit procedures were left incomplete when EY stepped down and that a special committee set up to investigate concerns was still conducting its review.

The server manufacturer also addressed the Hindenburg report in the filing. Supermicro denied any wrongdoing and said that the report "contained false or inaccurate statements about us, including misleading presentations of information we previously shared publicly."

Supermicro, which has a market capitalization of just over $30 billion, appointed BDO, a Belgian-headquartered firm, as its new accountant in November.

BDO found that the financial statements "present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company," according to the filings.

The special committee's review "did not give rise to any substantial concerns about the integrity of our senior management or the Audit Committee, or their commitment to ensuring that our financial statements are materially accurate," Supermicro said in the SEC filing.

EY declined to comment.

Charles Liang, founder, president, and CEO of Supermicro, called Tuesday's filings "an important milestone" for the company.

Supermicro's stock soared by more than 12% on Wednesday after it made the filing and regained compliance with Nasdaq's listing requirements.

Supermicro was an early launch partner for Nvidia, AMD, and Intel for CPUs and GPU accelerators and has since ridden the wave of AI hype to success.

The server manufacturer has seen its share price explode over recent years, climbing more than 1,000% since the start of 2022.

Supermicro's shares are up 67% to date this year. The filings show that sales more than doubled from $7.12 billion to $14.9 billion in 2024.

• North Korean troops have returned to fighting alongside Russia, South Korea's spy agency said.
• It also said there appears to have been a deployment of fresh troops.
• Ukraine said in January that at least 3,800 North Koreans had been killed or wounded in the war.

North Korean troops have returned to fighting alongside Russia, South Korea's spy agency said, following reports of earlier heavy losses.

"Following about a monthlong lull, North Korean troops were placed back in the frontline region of Kursk starting in the first week of February," South Korea's National Intelligence Service said in a note to the press seen by South Korean news agency Yonhap.

"It appears that there has been a deployment of additional troops, but their size is still being examined," the intelligence agency said.

The note came after South Korean newspaper The JoongAng cited unnamed sources as saying that Russian cargo ships and military aircraft had transported between 1,000 and 3,000 additional North Korean troops sometime in January or February.

Business Insider was unable to independently verify the claim.

Last fall, Western and South Korean intelligence agencies said that Pyongyang had sent around 11,000-12,000 troops to fight in Kursk, the Russian region under partial occupation by Ukraine.

Russia was estimated to be paying around $2,000 a month per soldier, though the soldiers themselves are unlikely to see much of that.

Dmytro Ponomarenko, Ukraine's ambassador to South Korea, told Voice of America in November that Pyongyang would likely maintain a presence of up to 15,000 troops in the war, rotating soldiers every two to three months.

He said this could mean 100,000 North Korean troops cycling in and out of combat within a year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that at least 3,800 North Koreans had been killed or wounded in Kursk.

The UK's Ministry of Defence also said earlier this month that North Korean units had been withdrawn from frontline positions, likely to rest and refit before being redeployed.

"This is almost certainly primarily due to heavy losses sustained during attacks against Ukrainian-held positions," it said.

Pyongyang has sent some of its best units to Russia — special forces including members of its elite 11th Corps, also known as the "Storm Corps," considered to be committed and hardened fighters.

But the US said in December that North Korean troops were being sent on "hopeless" human wave assaults against Ukrainian positions, taking more than 1,000 casualties in the space of just one week.

According to the Kyiv Independent, Russia has, in recent days, ramped up its attacks in Kursk. The region is considered a key negotiating chip in any coming peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.

• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff questioned whether Big Tech's AI investments are delivering results.
• Salesforce is focusing on AI integration, not building costly data centers, Benioff said Wednesday.
• The company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $9.99 billion, missing consensus estimates.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has berated Big Tech peers for their spending on AI and data centers, questioning whether companies like Microsoft are seeing real returns on their massive investments.

Benioff said Wednesday that Salesforce isn't investing in projects that would suck up the company's cash but wouldn't guarantee big returns.

"We aren't building huge $10 million, $20 million, $30 million, $100 billion data centers," Benioff said during Salesforce's earnings call. "We're not doing some of these kind of engineering efforts that may or may not have some kind of huge payoff, but is going to take down all of our cash and all of our margin for the next several years."

Instead, Benioff said the company is "augmenting" its existing product line with AI and taking advantage of "incredible" infrastructure investments by others to deliver on what he has called the "digital labor revolution."

Benioff's comments come as Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta have ramped up their planned AI investments for this year.

Amazon is leading the way, planning to allocate over $100 billion in capital expenditures this year, up from $77 billion in 2024. The vast majority will be spent on expanding Amazon Web Services and scaling AI infrastructure, the company said earlier this month.

Microsoft, which Benioff singled out by name on the earnings call, plans to spend $80 billion on AI-related infrastructure this year.

The Salesforce CEO isn't convinced by Microsoft's AI-powered workplace tools, describing the company as the "reseller of OpenAI" and questioning the company's agentic AI offering.

"Where on their side are they delivering agents? Where in their company have they done this? Where are they at best practice?" Benioff said, adding, "Do they have humans and agents working together to create customer success? Are they re-balancing their workforce with humans and agents?"

It's not the first time that Benioff has publicly taken shots at Microsoft.

Last year, he openly mocked Microsoft's AI assistant, Copilot, on multiple occasions, calling it "disappointing" and comparing it to Clippy, Microsoft's discontinued animated paperclip assistant.

Meanwhile, Benioff is pushing Salesforce's own rival agentic AI offering.

"Our goal is to be the number one provider of digital labor in the world," he said during the earnings call. "That's it. I don't think there really is another goal."

Salesforce reported fourth-quarter revenue of $9.99 billion, missing a consensus estimate of $10.04 billion.

Its shares fell by 5% in extended trading after the company forecasted fiscal 2026 revenue below Wall Street expectations.

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

• AI advances could widen wealth gaps, which has prompted calls for a universal basic income.
• UBI offers recurring cash payments to all adults in a population, regardless of status.
• AI leaders such as Elon Musk and Sam Altman have called for a universal basic income.

Universal basic income, once a utopian ideal, has become a hot topic among AI leaders.

It's a recurring cash payment made to all adults in a certain population, regardless of their wealth and employment status. There are no restrictions on how recipients spend their money.

As advancements in artificial intelligence technology drive economic growth, concerns are rising about whether the wealth it generates is shared equitably.

Industry leaders such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and AI's "godfather," Geoffrey Hinton, have warned about AI's potential to eliminate jobs — and subsequently widen the wealth gap between the haves and the have-nots. They, along with other tech leaders, are advocates of universal basic income as an antidote.

The concept of countries implementing universal basic income has shifted in recent years from a niche topic within tech circles to a mainstream conversation, thanks in part to the former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who made UBI a central part of his platform in 2020.

Yang campaigned on what he called the "Freedom Dividend," monthly $1,000 payments with no strings attached to all American adults. The idea was met with skepticism, and Yang's candidacy quickly fizzled. After the success of pandemic-era stimulus checks, though, and now the rise of AI, the idea has gained new traction.

Guaranteed basic income, which is similar to UBI but targets specific groups of people for a set period of time, has been piloted over 100 times across the country. The United States has basic income programs in 16 states, along with Washington, DC, that give residents cash — no strings attached.

The movement toward basic income programs is not without its critics. Some argue the programs could disincentivize recipients to work or even encourage them to spend frivolously. Some say the expenses of basic income programs could lead to higher taxes or local government budget cuts.

For now, though, AI leaders say it's the best option to mitigate the adverse economic impacts the technology could have. Here's what some of the major AI figures are saying about UBI.

Sam Altman

Altman has long been a vocal proponent of universal basic income.

In July, the results of Altman's universal basic income study were published. The study, which began in 2019, was conducted by the nonprofit research lab OpenResearch, and OpenAI contributed $60 million to it — $14 million of which was Altman's own money.

The study distributed payments to 3,000 urban, suburban, and rural residents of Texas and Illinois, all of whom had annual incomes below $28,000. One-third received $1,000 a month for three years, while the rest received $50 a month.

The study found that those who received the $1,000 payments increased their overall spending by an average of $310 a month, but most of that spending went toward food, rent, and transportation.

"We do see significant reductions in stress, mental distress, and food insecurity during the first year, but those effects fade out by the second and third years of the program," the report said, adding: "Cash alone cannot address challenges such as chronic health conditions, lack of childcare, or the high cost of housing."

But that's not Altman's only UBI endeavor. He also has a futuristic cryptocurrency startup called Worldcoin, which aims to build the largest encrypted identity network in the world by scanning people's irises with a baseball-sized orb. One way this technology could be implemented, its founders say, is to underpin the network that lets it collect UBI.

As OpenAI continues to build more capable foundation models, Altman has also suggested that rationing their computational resources across individuals might be more economically efficient than distributing cash. Altman has floated the idea of a "universal basic compute" in which people would get a "slice" of the computational resources of the company's large language models that they could use however they liked.

Elon Musk

Musk is a champion of UBI. The world's richest man has said that universal basic income could give people more freedom over how they use their time and money and that AI would increase the share of UBI that people could receive.

In May 2024 at the annual technology conference VivaTech, Musk said: "In a benign scenario, probably none of us will have a job. There would be universal high income. There would be no shortage of goods and services. The question will really be one of meaning: If a computer can do, and the robots can do, everything better than you, does your life have meaning? I do think there's perhaps still a role for humans in that we may give AI meaning."

Vinod Khosla

Khosla says AI advancements will cause job losses by automating, the majority of human labor and that UBI will be a necessary safety net.

"As AI reduces the need for human labor, UBI could become crucial, with governments playing a key role in regulating AI's impact and ensuring equitable wealth distribution," Khosla wrote in a post on the website for Khosla Ventures, his firm, in September 2024.

Unlike the internet or mobile phones, which have assisted human workers, he wrote that AI "amplifies and multiplies the human brain much as the advent of steam engines and motors amplified muscle power." In other words, he suggests humans will be too slow and expensive to contribute meaningfully to the labor force in the age of AI.

Dario Amodei

Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, has said UBI is the least that can be done to mitigate the effects of AI.

"Civilization has successfully navigated major economic shifts in the past: from hunter-gathering to farming, farming to feudalism, and feudalism to industrialism. I suspect that some new and stranger thing will be needed, and that it's something no one today has done a good job of envisioning. It could be as simple as a large universal basic income for everyone, although I suspect that will only be a small part of a solution," he wrote in an essay on his personal blog in October 2024.

In Amodei's opinion, AI will alter our world in such a fundamental way that we'll need to think about a more comprehensive solution to inequality.

Andrew Yang

Even before AI took the world by storm, Yang, an entrepreneur and lobbyist, was a proponent of universal basic income. He advocated giving all Americans a $2,000 monthly stipend for the duration of the pandemic.

In Yang's interview with Business Insider in June 2020, a few months after he dropped his presidential campaign, Yang said he was "very confident that universal basic income was the future of our country."

Geoffrey Hinton

Hinton, the "godfather" of AI, has expressed concerns about the ramifications of AI.

Hinton has discussed his fears about AI-induced job losses and advised the UK government to adopt universal basic income as a solution.

• Valar Atomics, led by Isaiah Taylor, is trying to revolutionize nuclear energy.
• Valar's model uses "gigasites" with thousands of advanced reactors to produce nuclear energy.
• Valar says it does not build reactors like they are "artisanal cheese."

At 16, Isaiah Taylor dropped out of high school. He had ambitions beyond cramming for the SATs and competing with his classmates to get into a top college.

Instead, Taylor managed to land a six-figure job as a coder. He had taught himself coding years before and had built a body of work through freelance jobs and side projects. Eventually, one of his contacts recommended him for a gig building classified technology for the Defense Department.

Yet Taylor, whose great-grandfather worked on the Manhattan Project, was always interested in nuclear power.

Now 25, his biggest venture yet, Valar Atomics, emerged from stealth earlier last week. The company is backed by a team of 35 nuclear experts and $21 million in funding. Taylor says it aims to make nuclear energy more affordable — like SpaceX did for space travel.

The motto: cheaper, faster, better

Valar aims to revamp the way nuclear reactors are deployed and, in turn, solve the problem of scaling them. Typical nuclear power plants can take five years or more to construct. In Valar's view, that's akin to building reactors like "artisanal cheese."

To solve that problem, the company plans to develop what it calls "gigasites," creating and installing thousands of small, modular, high-temperature gas reactors over time.

Small modular reactors, or SMRs, generally have a maximum output of 300 megawatts compared to large nuclear reactors, which can generate over 1,000 megawatts. Collectively, though, the SMRs at a gigasite could produce thousands of times the energy of a typical nuclear power plant, according to Valar.

"It allows you to produce very cheap energy because all of the complexity is already dealt with on the first couple of reactors," Taylor said.

Instead of distributing power through the grid — the network that delivers electricity from power plants to homes and businesses —Valar plans to directly supply power to customers that need a lot of it, like data centers, green steel plants, and hydrogen production facilities, by building the sites right next to them.

" The grid is actually not a very good customer for nuclear energy," Taylor said. It "needs your reactors to essentially be spread out."

The rise of the small modular reactor

SMRs have gained momentum as a cheaper, greener, and faster alternative to traditional nuclear reactors. In recent years, a number of SMR companies have emerged with plans to bring their first reactors online in the coming years.

Oklo, backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is developing small reactors that run on nuclear waste. Oklo aims to deploy its first one in 2027. X-Energy — in which Amazon invested $500 million — aims to bring over 5 gigawatts of power online through SMRs by 2039. Kairos Power also signed an agreement with Google to provide energy from its SMRs, with plans to bring its first reactor online by 2030.

However, critics of SMRs argue that they should not be seen as a silver bullet for the problems that plague traditional reactors.

A 2024 report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that SMRs are still "too expensive, too slow to build, and too risky" to meaningfully transition us from fossil fuels in the coming 10 to 15 years.

Researchers have raised concerns about the radioactive waste produced by these reactors. A 2022 study from Stanford and the University of British Columbia found that SMRs generated more radioactive waste by "factors of 2 to 30" than large-scale reactors.

Valar argues that its gigasite model tackles the challenges of cost and speed by enabling it to deploy reactors to achieve economies of scale rapidly. With regard to safety, the company points to its use of tri-structural isotropic particle fuel, a heat-resistant nuclear fuel made from a combination of uranium, carbon, and oxygen. TRISO, as this fuel is more commonly known, generates more nuclear waste, but Valar claims it is "good at encapsulating the nuclear waste," making it highly resistant to spreading, minimizing environmental impact, and preventing misuse by bad actors.

TRISO is also being tested by Kairos Power and X-Energy, which is building a dedicated fuel fabrication facility.

Fuel and ambition

Despite being a young startup, Valar also has big plans to fuel the world with synthetic fuels that are cheaper than oil.

The company said it has pioneered a process for developing alternative hydrocarbon fuels that can replace the traditional fuel used in aviation, vehicles, and military operations.

It all begins with the company's reactors, which — once up and running — will generate heat at temperatures exceeding 900 degrees Celsius, or over 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit.

Valar aims to use this heat to power a thermochemical process that splits water into its component atoms: hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen will then be combined with captured carbon dioxide through a collection of chemical reactions to create carbon-neutral synthetic fuels because no new carbon is extracted from the ground.

" You can sell the hydrogen itself, right, which is a big market, but you can also create, synthetic fuel," Taylor said. " We can make jet fuel, diesel, gasoline. We can make all of our hydrocarbons that the world relies on today, and we can make them carbon neutral."

Valar's first reactor will launch in the Philippines, where it has secured a research contract for an advanced reactor from the Philippines Nuclear Research Institute. This follows the signing of the 123 Agreement between the United States and the Philippines in 2023, which establishes a framework for enhanced nuclear cooperation between the countries, including technical exchanges, scientific research, and safeguards discussions.

Using a prototype, Valar will simulate its first reactor, Ward One, to test and gather data on its efficacy. Taylor did not specify how long it will take to move through the licensing process and fully get the reactor running in the Philippines but said, "We're going to move really fast." Eventually, Taylor wants to bring Valar's technology to the United States.

The new nuclear era

Taylor believes this is an opportune moment for nuclear energy in the United States as public sentiment has shifted in the past several years.

"Public opinion about nuclear is actually very generational," he said. "Young people and, and I really mean, honestly, anyone under 50 are very, very pro-nuclear." Now that they're in positions of authority, Taylor anticipates that we'll see "rapid regulatory change." A 2024 poll of 430 first-generation voters conducted by America in One Room, organized in part by Stanford University, found that four in five supported "new generation" nuclear energy to supplement renewable power sources.

Beyond support from Silicon Valley, which needs more energy for its AI revolution, nuclear energy has seen increased bipartisan support in recent years. In March, the House of Representatives passed the ADVANCE Act, which will expand the use of nuclear energy in the United States and abroad.

Former President Joe Biden also signed a law in March that allocates $100 million to nuclear workforce training programs at universities, two-year colleges, and trade schools. President Donald Trump's newly appointed head of the Department of Energy, Chris Wright, said last month that "to compete globally, we must expand energy production, including commercial nuclear and liquefied natural gas, and cut the cost of energy for Americans."

Generational ties

While Taylor remembers discussing the Manhattan Project at the breakfast table with his great-grandmother and grandmother, he never believed his family history gave him carte blanche to enter the nuclear industry.

"I approached the industry as a complete outsider technically, but with the confidence of someone who knew the origins and history from my family's heritage with it," he told BI.

After years of research, though, he came to one conclusion: "I found that nuclear had the potential to be the cheapest form of energy on Earth if you build it this specific way: mass manufactured and deployed on gigasites, making highly transportable energy products."

• Palantir CEO Alex Karp said a stint at his company is a sure sign of technical expertise nowadays.
• Some tech recruiters agree Palantirians are top-notch hires, while others argue results matter more than the company.
• "No doubt, Palantir is a strong hiring signal, but the idea of a golden ticket in tech is outdated," one expert told BI.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp talks a big game when it comes to his employees.

He's boasted on several occasions that Palantirians, as the company refers to employees, are the crème de la crème of tech workers.

"If you work for Palantir, everyone knows you're good," Karp said on CNBC's Squawk Box on February 18.

"No credible institution in commercial life can really be built without Palantir or an ex-Palantirian," Karp has also said.

The company, which reported just under 4,000 full-time employees as of December 2024, recently hit an all-time high in its stock and brought in $2.87 billion in revenue in 2024. Following its most recent earnings report, Palantir hit a $240 billion market cap, surpassing companies like McDonald's and Disney. It hasn't only been clear skies, however, as Palantir's share price is down nearly 30% from its all-time closing high earlier this month.

So do the people hiring from the tech talent pool buy Karp's glowing view of Palantirians?

Business Insider spoke to half a dozen tech recruiting professionals to find out if having Palantir on your résumé is as powerful as Karp has made it sound.

The Goldman Sachs of tech

Deepali Vyas, a senior Partner and global head of data, AI, and FinTech at global consulting firm Korn Ferry told BI she can "absolutely say that he's right," and she considers Palantir the Goldman Sachs of the tech industry.

"I've pulled people from Palantir," Vyas said. "They are a home run every single time."

While she said Palantir employees tend to work long hours, the company has a "very hands-on culture" that allows even junior employees to work alongside the "brightest minds" at the company. Vyas said having that proximity helps create a certain level of training.

Vyas said another factor that makes Panatir stand out is its ability to recruit people who are passionate about their work.

"There's something in the sauce there," Vyas said. "They want to work on the complex problems because that's what excites them."

Jason Saltzman, Director of Growth at Live Data Technologies, a company that tracks employment changes, told BI that "Palantir seems to be the stop on people's career journey that accelerates them the most." Almost a quarter of former product managers at Palantir have since become founders, he said.

Ex-Palantir employees also tend to end up at a big tech company or "one of the hottest startups," Saltzman said. Google and Meta as well as Anduril and OpenAI employ many former Palantir workers, he told BI.

"Not only is Palantir a rubber stamp on someone's résumé that allows them to go onto whatever they do next, but also many of them want to go solve the world's biggest problems that are shaping the future as we know it, either by joining a company or starting their own," Saltzman said.

Some say Karp could be overstating things

Aaron Sines, director of technical recruiting at global cloud consulting firm Edison & Black, told BI that there's some truth to Karp's statement, but overall he's seeing a "results revolution" among companies, where outcomes are placed above academic credentials and company names.

"My team tells me all the time results are almost always coming over academic credentials," Sines told BI.

Natan Fisher, the cofounder and co-CEO of tech and legal recruiting firm SingleSprout, similarly told BI that companies want to know how employees "operated under constraints, and whether they can drive impact in their environments."

"No doubt, Palantir is a strong hiring signal, but the idea of a golden ticket in tech is outdated," Fisher said, adding that "the real hiring market doesn't reward brand names alone, it rewards execution and adaptability — who built what and scaled systems at speed."

Fisher said that tech companies often seek to hire from "multiple high-caliber" talent pools such as Ramp, Stripe, Linear, and Notion, adding that they aren't clients of his.

Sines said that Palantir has a reputation for seeking out top talent and having a "rigorous" and "results-oriented" hiring strategy. However, he said that while it carries a "badge of honor," for some clients, it may signal too much intensity for others. It depends on how companies perceive culture, Sines said.

Farah Sharghi, a job search coach and former recruiter at tech companies including Google, Lyft, Uber, and TikTok, said that while Palantir's hiring process is "very stringent," a good employee at Palantir may not be a good employee everywhere else because "there might be some nuances to some companies versus others in terms of cultural fit."

"A Palantir engineer who's used to working on some particular type of technology might not thrive in another different size company or different cultural company," Sharghi said. "So it's really subjective relative to what the company does, what their needs are, and so on."

While culture may vary across tech companies, Sharghi says the guiding philosophy when it comes to hiring is largely the same across the board.

"They're not looking for breadth of experience," she said. "They're looking for technical depth of experience."

Alan Stein, the CEO of career-accelerating service Kadima Careers, told BI that "Palantir is a good brand name," but although it was considered, it didn't make his list of the top 100 companies that will accelerate your career.

"I don't think that's as impressive as some of the other companies," he said.

Stein, who has worked at several Big Tech companies, including Google and Meta, said that while Palantir candidates can definitely leverage their experience into data, engineering, or government roles, it doesn't have the same brand recognition as some other bigger companies, or Ivy League institutions like Harvard.

"My hunch is more people would prefer four years of Harvard on their résumé," Stein said.

• I had my two kids by the time I was 30 and was hoping to be a young grandparent.
• When my ex-husband and I divorced, it took time for me and my kids to heal.
• My daughter has decided she doesn't want kids, and my son isn't sure.

My mom had her three kids early, and we were out of the house by the time she was in her mid-40s. Her freedom inspired me, and I believed the best way to enjoy midlife was to have the children I always wanted earlier rather than later.

I met my now ex-husband in college, and we dated all four years of undergrad. My daughter was born in December 1981, when I was 22 — the same year we finished school. Our son was born in 1988, at the same time my husband graduated and was slated to start a surgery residency. I was 28. Our kids' births coincided with education milestones that were associated with moving to the next stage of life.

The first part of what I wanted was set. By 30, I had two kids, and they were more than four years apart, so we wouldn't have to pay double college tuition in the future. After having them, I still had plenty of time to focus on my own dreams later on. I figured that when I was ready to focus on myself, my kids would be fairly independent. Then, I'd still be young enough to enjoy grandkids when my own kids started that chapter of their lives.

My freedom precipitated the end of my marriage

After working at a long-term job that provided well for my family but was not my ideal — while my husband spent 10 years fulfilling his dream of becoming a surgeon — I turned my efforts toward my own goals. I wanted to lose 50 pounds and recover from long years of putting in long hours. My kids were teens and I also decided I wanted to quit my job to spend more time with them.

After I left my job, I took up belly dancing and started building a freelance writing business. I assumed I would have several years of fun parenting before the kids left for college, but then I got the first hint that our family would not have the future I imagined.

While I was focusing more on my own life, my husband started to resent me for pouring more energy into myself and earning less than he did. His attitude surprised and confused me. Five years later, we separated and eventually divorced.

Taking the necessary time to heal interrupted the family timeline

Both children were surprised by the divorce, but it hit my daughter the hardest. She was away in her first year of college and didn't know I had been barely holding things together to see her through high school. Her father had been engaged in an affair before we separated, and I just wanted to get her safely off to school before telling him to leave.

My kids never imagined there was anything their mom couldn't handle, but the shift completely upended our whole household. Healing was slow as we grieved the dreams and security that evaporated with the end of our family as we knew it. My son's college application process fell through the cracks after he had pulled himself together and done well in high school. I had to apologize to him for this and other disappointments.

My daughter told me recently that all the turmoil had a negative effect on her belief that she could find a good partner who would also be a good co-parent. The delay in getting her career underway also put her at a financial disadvantage for having children. Her best friend used IVF to have a child, which she is raising alone, and my daughter toyed briefly with the idea but ultimately decided against it.

For complicated reasons, the three of us have no extended family to rely on. She knows she cannot do it alone, so the burden of helping her raise a child would weigh heavily on me. We are both wistful about her decision because it means that my daughter is the last one in my direct matrilineal line.

My son resents being behind the eight ball, career-wise, but has also shared with me that he feels the weight of rescuing our family from what he called "genetic oblivion." He is a warm and compassionate man, and I have told him explicitly that I am confident he would make a great dad. He recognizes that his family will need to look after his sister after I die because she won't have a daughter to keep her company the way my kids do for me. He may have children, but it isn't guaranteed.

• Luca Pferdmenges visited North Korea as one of the first Western tourists there in five years.
• He told BI it was surprising that the tour guides didn't try to hide the country's poverty.
• The influencer has visited almost every country in the world — he has just two more to go.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Luca Pferdmenges, a 23-year-old German travel influencer who was among the first Western tourists to visit North Korea since 2020. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I've wanted to visit North Korea for a long time. I'm two countries away from my goal of visiting every country in the world, and for me, it's about giving every place a chance, even if I hate the politics.

Going there, there were lots of rules to follow and moments that felt quite staged, but what surprised me most was that they didn't hide the country's visible poverty.

Entering North Korea

There have been a few false starts in the past, but two weeks ago, Koryo Tours set up a WhatsApp group for travelers flexible enough to enter North Korea on short notice.

I was in Lisbon when I got the confirmation. I would be among the first foreign tourists allowed back after a five-year hiatus, as long as I could reach Quanhe in China in time.

With just two days to plan it, I flew from Lisbon to Dubai, then onto Beijing, and finally to Quanhe.

I was nervous about the border crossing from China into North Korea, because you don't really know what to expect. They can pretty much do whatever they want with you, including going through all the photos on your phone.

Some people got their phones checked, but I didn't.

When we crossed the border, you could tell that it wasn't really a routine procedure for them, because the border had been closed for five years. It was all a bit improvised, but it worked out.

Once inside North Korea, a few things immediately stood out. There are no advertisements anywhere — not even in the cities. Instead, it's just propaganda posters, portraits of the leaders, and flags.

I was also surprised that COVID-19 is still such a big deal there. About 80% of the people I saw wore masks, and every bag entering the country had to go through a disinfecting machine.

'It felt an awful lot like a school trip'

Everything on a North Korean tour is very, very organized, with strict rules to follow.

Some are obvious — like not speaking badly about the leaders. There are also more persnickety rules that you may not be aware of, like the requirement that whenever you take a photo of any statues of the leaders, everything needs to be completely in the frame — no cropping or zooming in on anything.

It felt an awful lot like a school trip. Everyone is on a bus, with assigned seats and the guide never leaves you.

Over five days, we did a lot of random things: climbing a mountain, visiting a shopping center, and touring a foreign language school.

In the school, the teacher pretty much read a script when we entered the classroom.

We also visited the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. It's a whole routine: You have to buy plastic flowers to show your respect.

Seeing the poverty

The Rason region is poorer than Pyongyang, the capital, which is still closed to most foreigners, and as we traveled from place to place, we saw the poverty.

People in the rural areas were clearly very poor, and we weren't allowed to photograph them. Many of them were using oxen and carriages.

Our guides also very strictly told us not to photograph the farmers' houses in the countryside because they are very run-down and shabby.

Surprisingly, they didn't close the curtains so we couldn't see it. The guides also didn't deny that there is poverty; they just don't like people taking photos of it and presenting it as the sole truth.

That being said, if you have a good job and relative privilege, you can get a phone and access the local internet. They even have an app store where you can download the Korean version of Western games.

I was very surprised to learn that there's a North Korean version of "Clash of Clans."

A visit to a pharmacy

The tour itself was surprisingly affordable — about $740 in total, including a night in China and most of the food.

North Korea is quite cheap for Westerners, and the hotel was actually really good.

On occasion, we had some unexpectedly authentic interactions with the locals, like when we visited a pharmacy. They were largely confused about why we were there; they'd probably never seen a foreigner before.

Visiting a pharmacy may not seem like a typical tourist activity, but the country is eager to showcase the parts that function well.

People think of China as this really oppressive state where everything is controlled, but, to us, it felt like entering the free world again. We could leave the bus and go wherever we wanted, which really puts things into perspective.

Everyone has an opinion about North Korea, and it's so different from any other place in the world. But I saw a North Korea that wasn't just black and white.

I'd definitely go back because it's one of those places that you leave with more questions than you previously had.

• Tech leaders are spending more time in Washington, DC, these days, Keith Rabois said Friday.
• Rabois recently had a chance meeting with Mark Zuckerburg and Jensen Huang while in the capital.
• But that doesn't mean DC has become a great scene for founders and VCs, he said.

One month after Donald Trump's swearing-in, big names in tech appear to be spending more time in Washington, DC, according to venture capitalist Keith Rabois.

Many tech leaders, from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, attended Trump's inauguration last month.

But if a chance meeting that Khosla Ventures' Rabois had last week is any indication, some of them have kept coming back to the nation's capital.

"Without any pre-existing knowledge, I ran into Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen from Nvidia," he said at a conference on Friday, referring to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. "That never would've happened in my entire life before in DC, like zero chance."

Rabois spoke onstage at the Venture in the Capital conference hosted at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. He previously lived in the Washington, DC, area while working as a lawyer and said he still visits to see family.

Rabois, a self-identified conservative, welcomed Trump's victory in November's election. He's known in the tech world for his early role at PayPal.

Lately, the nation's capital has been attracting more visits from big names in the tech world. Elon Musk has spent lots of time in DC over the past month as he oversees DOGE's efforts to cut government spending from a perch adjacent to President Donald Trump's administration.

Those kind of chance meetings with other high-profile figures can lead to new investment ideas or follow-ups that wouldn't have otherwise happened, Rabois said.

But that doesn't mean DC will become a hotspot for founders or venture capitalists looking to invest.

Being in DC is "unlikely to drive me to meet some undiscovered talent who's going to create the next iconic company," Rabois said.

"It definitely still is not where early-stage venture capitalists should be spending too much time," Rabois said.

The Bay Area remains the place for startups to get noticed by venture capitalists in the US, Rabois said.

During the pandemic, some venture capitalists left the Bay Area in California for other parts of the US, seeking a change of pace. Rabois himself moved to Miami and became an evangelist for the city, trying to convince others from Silicon Valley to make the move.

But the rise of AI, including the growth of Sam Altman's OpenAI, has pulled many founders and venture capital players back to the Bay, Rabois said on Friday.

"If anything saves the Bay Area, it's going to be this AI wave led by OpenAI," he said.

• Satellite images obtained by Business Insider show work on Saudi Arabia's Neom project.
• Images appear to show a major palace for Saudi Arabia's ruler, Mohammed bin Salman.
• The palace has private beaches, extensive gardens, a golf course, and 10 helipads.

Satellite images obtained by Business Insider show a lavish palace that's been constructed as part of Saudi Arabia's $2 trillion Neom megacity project.

The images, which feature in a new Business Insider documentary and were captured by satellite firm Maxar Technologies in January, show a large palace on the Red Sea coast in the northeast of Saudi Arabia.

The images show a palace with private beaches, extensive gardens, a golf course, and 10 helipads.

The documentary based its identification of the palace as likely belonging to Saudi Arabian ruler Mohammed bin Salman on public data, including details in a 2018 Reuters report.

Information on the palace complex is sparse, but Reuters said that plans to build a complex of five royal palaces around 105 miles west of Tabuk were among the first Neom contracts to be awarded.

According to Reuters, the plans featured opulent buildings with Moroccan-style architecture, helipads, a marina, and a golf course — matching the development seen in the satellite imagery.

Neom is the centerpiece of Crown Prince Mohammed's plans to transition the Saudi economy away from fossil fuels and toward technology, innovation, and tourism.

The BI documentary highlights the project's most ambitious development, the construction of a 110-mile-long 'vertical city' called the Line, as well as controversies over Neom's design and environmental plans, as well as human rights concerns.

The entirety of the Line was initially scheduled to open by 2030, but now only a 1.5-mile "Hidden Marina" is likely to be ready by that date.

Crown Prince Mohammed has a lavish array of properties and assets, including a $300 million chateau in the South of France and a $400 million superyacht.

Saudi Arabia has channeled huge amounts of its oil wealth into funding the Neom project, but reports say it has struggled to attract foreign investments fast enough to realize its ambitious construction schedule.

Neom didn't respond to Business Insider requests for comment.

• Kelly Mackin grew up watching her mom work as a senior vice president at an ad agency.
• When Mackin went into marketing, she felt the same burnout she'd seen her mom have.
• Now, she promotes work-life balance and thriving at work.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kelly Mackin, author of "Work Life, Well-Lived." It has been edited for length and clarity.

When I was a child, I thought my mom was the epitome of success. She was the senior vice president of research at an ad agency in Chicago. Even as a child I could see that her job lit her up. Sometimes she would work evenings or weekends, but it was clear she was happy and thriving.

Then, her company was bought out. Suddenly, she was working most nights and weekends just to keep her job. I was only a pre-teen, but I could feel the energy shift from working extra because she was passionate, to working extra because her company was treating her poorly. Still, I idolized my mom, and I followed her into the industry.

I started to experience physical symptoms of burnout

Working in marketing in Chicago felt like "Mad Men" for modern times. There were screaming matches, whisky before 10 a.m., and regular all-nighters to meet unrealistic deadlines. I just thought that was the norm.

Yet, my mental, emotional, and physical health were suffering. My hands started shaking and my eyes twitched. I developed a sleep disorder and my confidence was shattered. I had only worked in the corporate world for about 7 years, but I knew this lifestyle wasn't sustainable.

One night, I ran to Chicago's Union Station to catch the last train at 10:30 p.m. It was winter, so the sidewalks were icy and slick. I'd been working since 6 a.m. and was utterly exhausted. When I missed the train, it felt soul-crushing. On the cab ride to my home in the suburbs, I knew something needed to change.

I left my job — and Chicago

I felt like I needed to leave everything behind, so I moved from Chicago to San Diego. I was so focused on my own wellness that I became an expert in work-life balance, and soon I was being paid as a consultant by companies and other workers. I'd found harmony, and I wanted to help others do the same.

Unfortunately, there's no one formula for work-life balance. Everyone needs to find what works for them. Some people like a clear separation between work hours and personal hours. I like a more integrated approach, personally.

On a typical day I get up early, starting work by 5 a.m. and working until about 10 a.m. That's when my brain is at its best, so I focus on the most intensive projects. I take a break in the middle of the day for errands, work out, or just relax. Then, I start working again in the evening on lighter items, like responding to emails.

Your priorities will shape what balance looks like for you

When we put expectations on how work-life balance should work, we do ourselves a disservice. You just have to follow what feels right, and what gives you vitality. Vitality has been a word on my mind a lot for the past few years, because I want to have energy for my work and hobbies. Sometimes, that means stepping away from work to go play beach volleyball or do a boxing workout. Other times it means working 12-hour days again, but this time, I'm reaping the benefit of that work.

Finding your balance can take some trial and error, but it starts with writing down your priorities, at work and personally. Then, take a look at how much time you spend on each. You might be surprised that how you spend time doesn't align with what's most important to you. If that's the case, it's time to adjust.

Not everything can happen in every season

Even with good balance, there's no way to fit everything we want into 24 hours. So, it's helpful to think about your life in weeks, months, or seasons.

Sometimes, you're more focused on one area during a particular season. Last year, I wrote and published my book. I barely left my house for 30 days while I was drafting it. I didn't go on vacation or out to eat because I was pouring energy into that project.

This year, I'm more focused on my personal life. I'm travelling to Mexico, to Chicago for my brother's wedding, and to Banff, Canada, one of my all time favorite places. When I have harmony between work and my personal life, I feel good and I know I'm thriving.

• I recently spent the weekend at Rosewood Miramar Beach, a five-star resort in Montecito, California.
• I stayed in a beachfront suite right on the sand, falling asleep to the sound of the ocean.
• My dinner at the resort's Michelin-starred restaurant was one of the best parts of the experience.

Nestled along the American Riviera, a place so revered that Meghan Markle tried to name her lifestyle brand after it, sits Rosewood Miramar Beach.

The five-star resort, owned by billionaire real-estate developer Rick Caruso, is mere steps from the sparkling Pacific Ocean. It's become an iconic part of Montecito, the swanky California neighborhood that many A-list celebrities — including Markle, Ariana Grande, and Oprah Winfrey — call home.

After spending a weekend at Rosewood Miramar Beach, it was easy to see why so many stars love this property. The beach was spotless, my suite looked out directly over the sand, and I still can't stop thinking about my dinner at its Michelin-starred restaurant.

Rosewood Miramar Beach was inspired by the grand estates of Montecito.

Once a farm of lemon and black walnut trees, the property became an established beach hotel by 1910, according to Rosewood Miramar Beach's website.

Originally named Miramar By The Sea, the hotel was beloved by legendary newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, who would stop by on his way to Hearst Castle.

Miramar closed in 2000 and remained empty for nearly two decades. Caruso purchased the estate in 2007, and after years of renovations, the Rosewood Miramar Beach opened in 2019.

It wasn't long before the beachside resort began making a splash.

Rosewood Miramar Beach is currently one of only 15 properties worldwide to hold a triple Five-Star title from the Forbes Travel Guide, which means its hotel, restaurant, and spa have all received five stars.

But those aren't the only stars attached to the resort. Rosewood Miramar Beach also quickly caught the attention of Hollywood, attracting everyone from Patrick Schwarzenegger and Larry David to Travis Barker and Kourtney Kardashian, who got engaged at the property in 2021.

Walking past the lobby after checking in, I was immediately struck by the resort's grand but playful elegance.

One of my favorite places in the 16-acre property was this gorgeous hall in the resort's main building.

The classic red roses popped against the black-and-white checkerboard floor, which was illuminated by a dazzling chandelier and flanked by a spiral staircase. It felt opulent and modern all at once.

My boyfriend and I spent two nights in one of the second-story beachfront suites located right on the sand.

Rosewood Miramar Beach has 119 rooms and 34 suites, offering garden bungalows or beach-facing retreats that start at $1,695 a night. Business Insider received a media rate for accommodations and dining during the two-night stay.

My stylish 960-square-foot suite came with a large wooden deck with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean.

The interior leaned into the nautical theme with textured blue-and-white pinstripe wallpaper, blue and gold lamps, and complimentary beach bags.

It was a warm and charming room, unafraid of mixing bold fabrics and chic fixtures that added plenty of personality.

Our first meal of the weekend was at AMA Sushi, one of Rosewood Miramar Beach's six on-site restaurants.

AMA Sushi's interior is a beautiful study of sleek Japanese minimalism. The marble sushi bar seemed to glow against the dark wood walls while a fireplace roared under a moody painting of the moon. The atmosphere was both serene and sexy.

The omakase dinner featured creative dishes and an incredible nigiri course.

Our $135 omakase menu began with a delicious snow crab, followed by a sashimi course featuring bluefin tuna.

One of my favorite dishes of the night was the delicious red miso soup with clams, which, per Japanese tradition, came at the end of dinner.

We then headed to The Manor Bar, where the cocktails are inspired by literary works.

With its wood-paneled walls, velvet seats, and stuffed bookshelves, The Manor Bar felt like the kind of library you'd find at a sprawling estate in the English countryside. The lights were dim, but the bar was packed and brimming with energy. I was almost shocked it didn't smell like cigar smoke.

As a former English major, I loved the creative cocktail menu, which featured drinks named after iconic literary villains. The "Lady Macbeth" melded gin with pineapple, roasted banana, and cinnamon, while the "Tom Buchanan" had two types of Johnnie Walker whiskey, plus tawny port and bitters.

The sound of crashing waves was my soundtrack as I went to sleep and woke up the next day.

Even the rainy morning couldn't damper my mood as I watched the ocean from the comfort of my plush king bed.

The French doors offered a perfect sea view, making the suite feel incredibly romantic.

We enjoyed breakfast at The Revere Room, which had a very different vibe from the restaurant and bar the previous night.

The Revere Room's Tiffany-blue walls were covered in illustrations of white roses and bluebirds. Frosted Christmas trees twinkled in the corner for the holidays while natural light streamed through the floor-to-ceiling French doors.

We started with the gluten-free lemon ricotta pancakes, which had a lovely fluffy texture and were served with a delicious blueberry sauce. Then came the breakfast sammie, which stuffed a fried egg, bacon, and Havarti cheese between two soft and flaky homemade sourdough slices.

With the sun finally out, it felt like the perfect time to tour the grounds.

The centerpiece of Rosewood Miramar Beach is the Manor House, which includes the lobby, ocean-view guest rooms, luxury retail stores, The Manor Bar, and The Revere Room.

Tucked behind the Manor House is a massive and perfectly manicured lawn, which made me feel like I was in someone's incredibly nice backyard. Since the resort is kid and pet-friendly, the lawn was frequently filled with children chasing after their adorable pups.

Rosewood Miramar Beach is lush with beautiful gardens.

The resort could have easily coasted on its beach access alone, but every inch of the estate is designed to evoke beauty and elegance.

The air is naturally perfumed with scents from the gardenia and lavender bushes, while citrus, olive, and fishtail palm trees dot the property. Everything was pruned to perfection, nary a leaf or petal out of place.

Luxury retail stores are tucked inside elegant clapboard houses, and a large bocce court stretches across the lawn.

Rick Fidel, the resort's managing director, told me that Rosewood Miramar Beach was designed to make guests feel like they were "being hosted in a private home."

If it weren't for the beautiful weather at the end of November, you could easily forget you were in California. As I walked around the property, I felt like I had been transported to Martha's Vineyard or the set of a Nancy Meyers movie.

There's even an outdoor gym.

I didn't squeeze in a workout during my stay, but I had to check out the resort's indoor/outdoor fitness studio, where guests can enjoy weekly fitness classes and private personal training sessions.

Treadmills, bikes, and elliptical machines dotted the gym's patio, while Pelotons, weights, and StairMasters could be found inside.

While I opted to walk, guests can tour the resort on complimentary electric bikes or a Rosewood Miramar Beach Jolly car.

The cotton-candy-pink Miramar Jolly cars are inspired by the open-top taxis of Capri. They feature wicker seats and canopies and are free for guests who want to be chauffeured to the beach or around the property.

After the tour, we stopped for lunch at Miramar Beach Bar.

The oceanfront Miramar Beach Bar is a small restaurant on the deck above Caruso's, the resort's Michelin-starred restaurant. It was just steps away from our beach suite and offered gorgeous views of the sea sparkling under the California sun.

Our tacos — tempura fish and red chili-braised beef — were solid but couldn't compete with our breakfast at The Revere Room or our dinners at AMA Sushi and Caruso's. Next time, I'd skip the food at Miramar Beach Bar and just grab a drink while watching the sunset.

Before heading to our room for a nap, we saw the iconic Pacific Surfliner train passing by the resort.

According to Rosewood Miramar's website, the family that first owned the property — which was originally a farm — decided to build a guest house after the train tracks were built in 1887. The Pacific Surfliner and Coast Starlight Amtrak now cut through the resort en route to the Santa Barbara Amtrak station.

The tracks are gated, and a guard is always on duty for safety purposes. While the trains didn't pass by very frequently, it was fun watching everyone around us stop to admire them whenever one came through.

My favorite meal during our stay was dinner at Caruso's.

Before dinner, I had the opportunity to sit down with Massimo Falsini, the chef at Caruso's and director of culinary operations at Rosewood Miramar Beach.

Falsini's menu seamlessly blends his Italian roots with California ingredients. All the seafood at Caruso's is "from the ocean in front of you," Falsini told me, including the spiny Santa Barbara lobster and the signature Channel Islands halibut (which were both fantastic).

"We don't fly in anything; we only buy from local small fishermen in order to support the community," said the chef, who hopes to make Caruso's a zero-carbon footprint restaurant by 2026.

Caruso's is a swoon-worthy restaurant with bold and stunning dishes.

The open-air space allows you to hear the waves and smell the sea as you dine amid the beautiful navy-blue leather booths and pristine white chairs.

The service was impeccable from start to finish, as was my $175 four-course dinner. The amuse-bouches included cones stuffed with caviar and gougères plump with truffle cream. Olive oil was decanted tableside for the bread basket, and the Baja Kanpachi crudo looked like a work of art.

One of my favorite courses of the night was the honeynut squash vellutata soup, which was topped with an intricate tuile of vines and tasted like autumn.

The dinner was so good that I think the restaurant deserves a second Michelin star.

Read my full review of Caruso's here.

Our final morning at Rosewood Miramar Beach began at the pool.

The resort has two pools on the property. We spent our time at the cabana pool, which is for adults 21 and up and features 19 cabanas, plus a bar and a large jacuzzi. The cabana pool features a scalloped zero-edge border, a design choice that makes it feel whimsical.

For those with kids in tow, there's also the kid-friendly manor pool. We stopped by to check out the Scoop Shop, which is right next to the pool and offers gourmet burgers and house-made gelato.

The pool also has a fire pit, where we tried the resort's complimentary s'mores kits.

While checking in at the resort, we learned there were s'mores kits at the front desk, which we could always pick up and enjoy by one of the fire pits.

I finally got to try the kit on our last day, opening the bag to find the most classic of s'mores ingredients: Honey Maid graham crackers, Hershey's milk chocolate, and Jet-Puffed marshmallows.

My boyfriend and I giggled like kids at camp as we used the provided wooden sticks to roast our marshmallows over the fire before building our s'mores.

And we couldn't leave without a long walk on the beach.

After such a rainy weekend, it felt fitting to end our stay with the sun shining down on us at the beach.

If it had been summer weather, I could've easily laid on the sand all day. The resort offers complimentary chairs, umbrellas, and beach toys, as well as equipment for paddleboarding, kayaking, and beach volleyball.

There's a designated beach butler who brings food and drinks, and the resort even has a falconer who helps keep seagulls and pigeons at bay.

Rosewood Miramar Beach perfectly understands that cozy and luxury can go hand in hand.

In the era of #quietluxury, which I detested, many people equated splendor with mundane. The colors went neutral, patterns disappeared, and everything felt inoffensive and uninspired. It was all very beige, like a plate at Thanksgiving.

But Rosewood Miramar Beach isn't afraid to make the space feel comfortable yet distinct, even with the luxury price tag. There's a fine line between Nantucket and coastal grandma, and the resort knows exactly where to stand. It's effortlessly chic and cozy, as if you're staying on a beautiful yacht.

And with the fantastic dinner at Caruso's and the sexy Manor Bar, Rosewood Miramar Beach is perfect for a special-occasion romantic getaway. I can't wait to go back.

• The Trump administration is dropping regulatory cases.
• Crypto firms including Coinbase and Robinhood have already benefited.
• Antitrust enforcement against tech giants, however, is expected to continue under the current DOJ.

There will be winners and losers as the new Trump administration rewrites how business is regulated.

And after only its first month, a pattern is emerging, with four major Biden administration cases dropped and others left firmly standing.

Crypto? There are clear winners already, with Coinbase, OpenSea, and Robinhood seeing federal officials swiftly closing shop on probes and enforcement lawsuits.

Meanwhile, some legal experts predict an uptick in traditional securities cases and a continuation of the Biden DOJ's aggressive antitrust enforcement in cases against Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Ticketmaster.

"Gail Slater, who's going to be confirmed head of the DOJ antitrust division pretty soon, is an experienced antitrust lawyer, and her confirmation hearings suggested she was pretty much going to stay the course," said attorney and Brookings fellow Bill Baer, who led the DOJ's antitrust division during the second Obama administration.

Here are the fortunate corporations whose federal cases or probes have been — or promised to be — dropped since Trump took office.

SpaceX

The Department of Justice plans to drop a lawsuit against SpaceX that it filed in 2023. In the lawsuit, officials accused Elon Musk's rocket company of discriminating against refugees and asylees in its hiring process.

SpaceX promptly sued to block the lawsuit, which was paused as both sides readied their cases. Yet on February 20, the Justice Department asked a federal judge to lift the original stay so that it could dismiss the case entirely.

In the initial suit, the department alleged that SpaceX discouraged refugees and asylees from applying to work at the company by incorrectly stating in job listings that it could only hire US citizens. The case referenced a tweet Musk sent in 2020 in which he said that "US law requires at least a green card" to be hired at SpaceX, as the rockets are "advanced weapons and technology."

Musk has become a centerpiece of Trump's second term and is closely linked to the White House DOGE Office, which has embarked on a mission to reshape the federal government and dismantle agencies. While the White House itself said in a court filing that Musk doesn't have any "actual or formal authority," he appears extremely close to Trump. Many Democrats and watchdog groups have questioned whether there are conflicts of interest given Musk's power in the private and, now, public sector.

Coinbase

On February 21, the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said the Securities and Exchange Commission was ending a nearly two-year lawsuit against the company. The decision likely foreshadows an era of lighter crypto regulation during a second Trump term.

The SEC had accused Coinbase, the biggest US crypto exchange, of being an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. The company's CEO, Brian Armstrong, celebrated the decision, saying it was a "huge day" for Coinbase and calling the case "bogus."

Other industry leaders also welcomed the news, as BI previously reported. Though Trump once doubted crypto's merits, he's since become closely linked to the industry, releasing his own memecoin and creating a group to pursue regulatory changes.

Under former President Joe Biden, the SEC and its chair, Gary Gensler, drew the ire of much of the crypto community.

A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment on this story.

OpenSea

OpenSea, which which lets users sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs), said the SEC was closing its investigation into the company on February 21. The investigation began in August 2024, when the SEC issued a Wells notice, which is typically sent before launching a formal suit, and alleged the company might have been functioning as an unregistered securities marketplace.

OpenSea's founder and CEO cheered the decision in a post on X, writing, "This is a win for everyone who is creating and building in our space. Trying to classify NFTs as securities would have been a step backward — one that misinterprets the law and slows innovation."

Robinhood

On February 24, the financial services platform Robinhood said in a blog post that the SEC would drop its investigation into the company's crypto unit, after sending a Wells Notice in May of 2024. The SEC told Robinhood in a letter that the investigation was over and it didn't plan to pursue a lawsuit, the post said.

"We appreciate the formal closing of this investigation, and we are happy to see a return to the rule of law and commitment to fairness at the SEC," Robinhood's chief legal, compliance and corporate affairs officer said in the post.

Cases to keep an eye on

There has been no public sign of Trump's DOJ backing down after inheriting seven ongoing and massive federal antitrust-enforcement lawsuits — against Ticketmaster, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Apple.

The Ticketmaster case seeks to break up parent company Live Nation's concert venue, promotion, and ticketing arms, and has 27 states signed on as co-plaintiffs who could carry it forward should the Trump DOJ pull out. The case remains scheduled for trial in the spring of 2026.

The two Google cases are in their final stages.

The first, from 2020, was actually filed at the end of the first Trump administration and led a DC judge to find in August that Google maintained a search-engine monopoly. It will be another year of litigation before the search-engine case goes to trial on what the remedy should be, with the Biden DOJ having demanded that Google sell its Chrome browser.

In the second Google case, filed in 2023, the DOJ alleged at a September bench trial that the company has an adtech monopoly. A decision by a federal trial in Alexandria, Virginia is pending.

Two Amazon cases — one challenging the company's dealings with vendors, the other challenging its Prime subscriptions model — are working their way through the federal courts in Seattle, as is a government antitrust lawsuit against Apple.

The Federal Trade Commission's 2020 antitrust lawsuit against Meta is set for a bench trial before a DC judge on April 14. The FTC's new chairman, Andrew Ferguson, has vowed to go after Big Tech and its
"vendetta against competition," though it's expected he'll seek policy and contract changes rather than major breakups of any of these big companies.

Spokespeople for the FTC and DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment on this story.

• Jade Bonacolta began her career at LinkedIn and was promoted five times in her 6 ½ years there.
• Before each one-on-one meeting with her manager, Bonacolta spent one hour preparing a "pre-read."
• Pre-reads included weekly wins, upcoming tasks, and new ideas, helping increase her visibility at work.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jade Bonacolta, a 31-year-old based in Miami who began her career at LinkedIn and is now head of North American marketing at Google. Her employment and promotion history have been verified by Business Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

After graduating from Columbia University in 2015, I landed a job at LinkedIn in San Francisco.

During the six and a half years I was at LinkedIn before joining Google in 2022, I was promoted five times, beginning as an associate in the Business Leadership Program and leaving as the head of marketing for enterprise technology.

A lot of my promotions came from the way I handled my one-on-one meetings with my manager.

Preparing pre-reads for my one-on-ones

Most people go into one-on-ones taking a more passive approach, expecting their manager to present to them and tell them what to do. But managers often have teams of five or more people, so having weekly meetings with each of them can be a lot to juggle.

I noticed that my first manager would generally ask me the same things in every call — "How did this week go? What are you working on next week and where do you need help?" I knew I wanted to be more proactive and make those meetings more efficient.

I began spending an hour beforehand writing up what I called a "pre-read." I would draft a simple email with three sections: what went well for me this week, what I'm focusing on next week, and one new idea or interesting innovation to suggest for our team.

I would send it to my manager before we met and bring my copy to the meeting to help guide our conversation.

My manager told me he found the pre-reads incredibly helpful; they made our conversations far more productive and helped him feel completely aware of my work. He found the format so useful that he asked the rest of my team members to follow the strategy for their one-on-ones as well.

3 things that make an effective pre-read before a 1:1 meeting

1. What went well

First, I created a "wins" folder, and every time I had a win throughout my week, I would add it to the folder.

For example, if, when working with the sales team, I received an email from one of the leaders saying, "I am so impressed with the questions you asked my team and the way you provided value," that email would go straight into the wins folder. I would then pull from that folder when making my pre-read email to my manager.

I understood that I could be doing the best work in the world, but it didn't matter if the right people didn't know about it; if I wanted to be promoted, I needed to be visible.

I'd also save all of my wins in a document and share it with my manager to make it easier to write my performance review and build a case for my promotion.

2. What I'm working on

Managers are often expected to tell their employees what they should be working on. However, it can also be helpful and beneficial if the employees show proactiveness.

After sharing what I did the week before, I would then say, "Here's what I think I should work on next week." Some of these were ongoing projects, while others were new initiatives I was introducing.

When it came to projects, I had a pretty strong instinct on the direction I wanted to take my career, and I made the promotion I wanted clear to my manager. I asked them, "Are there any projects I could work on that allow me to start building those skills?"

I also tried to anticipate where I might need my manager's help. I'd ask myself: "What could possibly go wrong next week?" and "Which person do I need to connect with next week that I might need an introduction to from my manager?"

This way, I could ask my questions all at once in the meeting rather than throughout the week.

I also tried to proactively come up with solutions, rather than just present problems.

For example, I might say to my manager, "It seems like we have to get our budget in by this date, so is there a way that I can submit this earlier this week in order to make sure that that deadline doesn't sneak up on us?"

3. One new idea

In my pre-read, I'd also share one new idea.

Throughout the week, I would pay attention to things that my manager found frustrating or inefficiencies that came up over the past week — things that had simple fixes.

Then, in my one-on-one meetings, I'd offer an idea or solution to solve those issues. I realized that the ideas didn't have to be big. In fact, when presenting a new idea, the key is to make it small, as you don't want to take on an unhealthy amount of work and burn out, or neglect the main parts of your job.

Once, my team and I were doing really great work but no one in our broader organization knew much about it. As I wanted to lean more into the marketing world, I asked my manager, "What if we started a very quick, regular newsletter?"

My manager agreed.

I took on ownership of that newsletter. Every month, I consolidated and sent out the newsletter to the entire organization, sharing updates on what our team was doing. It was simple, and other teams weren't doing it, and I was reaching the leaders of other teams.

When those leaders would reach back out to my manager about how the newsletter was great, my manager would respond, "It was actually her idea. I didn't even ask her to do that; she just volunteered to take this on."

Spending an hour to prepare was worth it to give my manager visibility

I've repeated this process in every new role I've taken and every new manager I've had at Google. My managers have loved it and I've received incredible feedback whenever I've done it.

Even in my now-senior-level role, my leadership team deeply appreciates my weekly status updates and new ideas for the team. They treat me as a thought partner rather than just a direct report.

Making the most of one-on-one meetings gives your leaders more visibility into all the work you're doing.

If you found an effective strategy for getting promoted and would like to share your story, email Jane Zhang at [email protected].

• Goldman is building a new campus in Dallas, its largest US office outside of New York City.
• It will include rooftop gardens, bike parking, childcare, and more.
• Two top executives walked BI through the amenities and design.

Goldman Sachs may be synonymous with Wall Street, but working there no longer requires you to be a stone's throw from downtown Manhattan.

The investment bank's largest US workforce outside of New York City is now in Dallas, Texas — and the firm has plans to continue to grow its presence in the southern city in the coming years. Indeed, it's spending some $500 million to build a new office campus near downtown Dallas that's expected to house as many as 5,000 employees, or more than 10% of its global workforce, when it opens in 2028.

That's up from the roughly 1,500 staffers who worked at the Dallas site at the conclusion of 2018, the year CEO David Solomon took over leadership of the bank.

What will the new office tower look like, and what might it be like to work there every day?

BI spoke to two Goldman executives overseeing the project, Ben Trinder and Aasem Khalil, about the design, the office perks, and what it will mean to Goldman staffers based in Dallas. They said the goal was to create a space that feels more like a campus than a commercial office tower, including rooftop gardens, a park, and paths for walking and biking.

The design vision

The three-acre site, located in the hip Victory Park neighborhood, will include an 800,000-square-foot office tower powered by electricity. The structure will include a north and south wing united by a central, connective segment. The north wing will rise 14 stories, the central 10 stories, and the south wing 8 stories.

The building will include bicycle parking, lockers, and changing facilities, allowing employees to cycle to work.

A central, landscaped walkway called Paseo will connect the building to the large nearby park. An oculus above the Paseo will give passersby a glimpse into some of the building's busy offices while allowing sunlight to filter through the building.

Parking will be stored underground to make the campus more walkable.

"We pushed all of our parking below ground so that our building had a relationship with the public realm that was respectful," said Trinder, a managing director and and global head of real estate development for corporate and workplace solutions at Goldman Sachs.

Rooftop gardens

Each section of the tower will feature rooftop gardens and terraces where employees can gather for a breath of fresh air or to enjoy the Dallas skyline. The gardens will also host events, meetings, and functions.

The landscape designer on the project, Michael VanValkenburg, is known for projects including Brooklyn Bridge Park and Maggie Daley Park. VanValkenburg will also be responsible for developing a 1.5-acre park adjacent to the Goldman campus. A passageway will run through the office, connecting it to the park.

"By elevating the centerpiece of the building, we've created this connection to the community, to the park," Trinder said. "We knew that the park was the heart of the development."

From wellness to dining

Amenities include fitness and wellness facilities, childcare services, and multiple dining options. Dining options will be spread throughout the building but the main food exchange will be located on the second floor. The building will also include a social lounge and coffee bars.

"The new campus was designed to support the health and wellness of Goldman Sachs' workforce," the company said in a 2023 press release announcing the site's groundbreaking.

What the neighborhood has to offer

The new campus will be based in Dallas's trendy Victory Park neighborhood, named for a nearby park known for its festivals and outdoor markets. The hub is close to the American Airlines Center where the Dallas Mavericks play, as well as the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, the Dallas World Aquarium, a Ritz-Carlton hotel, the arts district, and plenty of popular restaurants.

Khalil — who also serves as the firm's global head of investment-banking services — described the location as representing "the heart of the city" because of its central location between Dallas' upscale uptown district and its vibrant business district located downtown.

Goldman's Dallas expansion is part of an multiyear cost-cutting plan introduced at the company's inaugural Investor Day in 2020. The bank said it would save money by shifting staffers from higher-cost centers like New York City and London, to more affordable cities like Dallas, Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The bank's current leadership sees the Dallas team continuing to grow once the new office opens as a result.

"We build for expansion," Trinder said, "and this office is designed to accommodate future growth."

Reed Alexander is a correspondent at Business Insider. He can be reached via email at [email protected], or SMS/the encrypted app Signal at (561) 247-5758.

• Rent growth has been accelerating in recent months, though prices are still in check.
• Apartment affordability could get stretched during a seasonally busy spring.
• Here are a dozen large US cities where rent is becoming more affordable.

Tenants should be on guard, as a brief winter slowdown in the rental market may end soon.

Rent growth rose on a year-over-year basis at the fastest pace in over 12 months in February, according to fresh rental data from listings site Zumper. One-bedroom fixtures were 2.9% more expensive than last year at $1,525, and two-bedroom units surged 3.7% to $1,905. Last month, rent increased by 2.5% and 3.2%, respectively, compared to the start of 2024.

That swifter growth "is a nod to how much demand there is across the country, even at a time of record-high supply," said Zumper's Crystal Chen, who authored the report, in a message to Business Insider. Her firm said last summer that new apartment supply had hit a 50-year high.

Curiously, apartments were actually slightly cheaper this month than in January, when the median rate for one-bedroom setups was $1,534. The same was true last year, as going rates for one-bedroom apartments fell from $1,496 last January to $1,482 in February 2024.

But renters shouldn't count on more affordable apartments — in fact, the opposite may be true.

Back-to-back years of rent sliding from January to February could simply mean that more leases end in the first month of the year. A smaller pool of tenants deciding to move or re-up could translate to softer rental demand, which would temporarily cause apartment prices to pull back.

However, that relief likely won't last long, as price growth resumed in March before taking off in the late spring and early summer. Either way, the difference in median rents at the national level was just a few dollars in either direction, which is unlikely to be a major tipping point.

"Rents staying pretty flat on a monthly basis is pretty on trend with this time of year," Chen told BI. "Winter months see lower rental demand, so even as some leases end, limited competition keeps prices relatively stable until the busier spring and summer seasons."

12 top cities for deal-minded renters

Apartment prices in the 100 largest US cities that Zumper tracks each month foreshadow what's ahead for shelter inflation, which rose at the slowest rate in three years in January. But Zumper researchers are wary of leaning on lagging indicators more than their proprietary price data.

"Although shelter inflation has eased in recent months, its lagging nature — due to the way it's calculated — means the full impact has yet to be realized," said Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades in a statement for the report. He added: "The annual rent increases seen in our most recent data are likely to be reflected in CPI metrics over the coming months."

More than two-thirds of the biggest US rental markets experienced rent increases in February, up from just under that mark in January. Price hikes were most prevalent in regions with fewer available apartments, like the Northeast and Midwest, Chen remarked.

Conversely, higher-inventory cities in the once-trendy Sun Belt region saw some of the largest drops, though those declines were tempered relative to early 2024.

Business Insider analyzed Zumper's latest rental data and found a dozen cities where rent for one-bedroom apartments is both below the national median of $1,525 and down more than 1% from February 2024. Below are those 12 cities, along with their median rent, year-over-year and month-over-month rent changes, and the cost savings for renters versus the national median.

1. Durham, North Carolina

One-bedroom median rent: $1,340

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -7.6%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 3.9%

Cost savings vs national median: $194

2. Milwaukee, Wisconsin

One-bedroom median rent: $1,000

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -4.8%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 0%

Cost savings vs national median: $534

3. Charlotte, North Carolina

One-bedroom median rent: $1,420

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -4.7%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: -1.4%

Cost savings vs national median: $114

4. Baltimore, Maryland

One-bedroom median rent: $1,290

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -4.4%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 0%

Cost savings vs national median: $244

5. Orlando, Florida

One-bedroom median rent: $1,490

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -3.9%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 0.7%

Cost savings vs national median: $44

6. Boise, Idaho

One-bedroom median rent: $1,300

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -3.7%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 0%

Cost savings vs national median: $234

7. Austin, Texas

One-bedroom median rent: $1,450

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -3.3%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: -1.4%

Cost savings vs national median: $84

8. Las Vegas, Nevada

One-bedroom median rent: $1,210

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -2.4%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 0.8%

Cost savings vs national median: $324

9. Knoxville, Tennessee

One-bedroom median rent: $1,290

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -2.3%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: -3%

Cost savings vs national median: $244

10. Irving, Texas

One-bedroom median rent: $1,270

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -1.6%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 1.6%

Cost savings vs national median: $264

11. Glendale, Arizona

One-bedroom median rent: $1,200

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -1.6%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 5.3%

Cost savings vs national median: $334

12. Minneapolis, Minnesota

One-bedroom median rent: $1,290

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -1.5%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: -2.3%

Cost savings vs national median: $244

• Gene Hackman, 95, has died, a Santa Fe Sheriff confirmed on Thursday morning.
• Betsy Arakawa, his wife, was also found dead at their home, alongside the couple's dog.
• The authorities said they do not suspect foul play.

Gene Hackman has died at 95.

The Santa Fe Sheriff, Adan Mendoza, told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the Oscar-winning actor died on Wednesday at his New Mexico home alongside his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and their dog.

He said there was no indication of foul play.

Mendoza added: "All I can say is that we're in the middle of a preliminary death investigation, waiting on approval of a search warrant. I want to assure the community and neighborhood that there's no immediate danger to anyone."

The Santa Fe Sheriff's Department did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Hackman is survived by his three children from his first marriage to Faye Maltese.

This is a breaking story and will be updated as more details emerge.

Hackman had his big break in 'Bonnie and Clyde'

Hackman played a wide range of roles over his four-decade career, making him beloved by audiences and peers alike.

His breakout part was in 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde," where he played the older brother of the gangster Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) for which he received an Oscar nomination. He became a leading man as the hard-nosed detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in 1971's "The French Connection," which earned him an Oscar.

He spent the 1970s working on movies that would become classics, such as "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Conversation." At the end of the decade, he played Lex Luthor in "Superman" (a role he reprised in "Superman II" and "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace).

The 1980s saw Hackman's star soar with movies like "Hoosiers" and "Mississippi Burning" (earning him another Oscar nomination). He started the 1990s with another Oscar win, this time for 1992's Clint Eastwood-directed Western "Unforgiven." As the decade went on he did some of his best work with "The Firm, "The Quick and the Dead," "Crimson Tide," "Get Story," and "The Birdcage."

As the 2000s came around it seemed Hackman wasn't going to slow down in his 70s. He starred in wide-ranging projects: playing a football head coach in "The Replacements," being part of an ensemble cast in Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums," and outwitting everyone in the clever "Heist."

But Hackman actor had other ideas.

After starring in 2004's "Welcome to Mooseport" he abruptly retired from acting.

Hackman, who wrote the 1999 novel "Wake of the Perdido Star," focused more on his writing during this period. He wrote four more books, the last of which was the police thriller "Pursuit," in 2013.

Hackman was a Marine before he started acting

Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California. He moved frequently as a kid and by the time he started high school his family had set roots in Iowa. At 16, he enlisted in the Marines and served four and a half years as a field radio operator in the late 1940s. He was discharged in 1951 and, after toying with a career in media by studying journalism and television production at the University of Illinois with the help of the GI Bill, Hackman moved back to California.

Hackman's acting career began in the 1960s at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. There, he befriended fellow aspiring actor Dustin Hoffman, and the two hit it off as they tried to navigate their careers.

The pair moved to New York City to try to make it big and soon befriended another California actor with the same goal: Robert Duvall.

Alongside off-Broadway plays, Hackman found work with small TV parts. In 1964, he got a part in the movie, "Lilith," starring Warren Beatty, leading to his big break with "Bonnie and Clyde."

From then, Hackman would become and all-time great thanks to his passionate performances and ability to play gruff everyman characters, but with a charming quality whenever he flashed that smile or gave that crackling laugh.

Hackman has three children from his first marriage

In 1956, the actor married Faye Maltese, a bank clerk from New York. The couple had three children, Christopher Allen, Elizabeth Jean, and Leslie Anne Hackman. They divorced in 1986 after 30 years of marriage.

In 2000, the actor told The Irish Independent that he wasn't always present as a father. Hackman said: "I couldn't always be home with them when they were growing up and then, living in California, they've had my success always hanging over their heads.''

Sometime after Hackman and Maltese split, he started dating Betsy Arakawa, a classical pianist who was 30 years his junior. They got married in 1991.

Hackman never returned to acting

Hackman's status as a legend only grew after his retirement, as one of few icons able to walk away and stay away from the business.

In one of his final interviews, in 2011, GQ asked him if he'd ever do another more movie:

"I don't know," he said. "If I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people."

Correction: February 27, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated the circumstances of Gene Hackman's death. The Santa Fe New Mexican cited Sheriff Adan Mendoza as saying Hackman, Betsy Arakawa, and their dog were found dead Wednesday afternoon, not that they died Thursday. Mendoza was said to have confirmed their deaths Thursday.

• House Republicans passed a budget plan that could include big cuts to Medicaid.
• Medicaid covers over 72 million Americans, with significant reliance in states like California.
• Mike Johnson said Republicans are focused on "rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse" within Medicaid.

Congressional Republicans are hotly debating their budget plans, and Medicaid cuts may be on the table. It could affect Americans across the country.

The committee that oversees Medicaid's budget aims to cut $880 billion over a decade as part of the House's narrowly passed budget outline. The math points to those cuts including Medicaid, since it and Medicare —which the Trump administration said it would not cut — make up the overwhelming majority of that committee's budget.

In states such as New Mexico, California, and New York, over a third of residents receive Medicaid, per a Business Insider analysis of Medicaid enrollment data from October 2024 and Census Bureau population estimates from July 2024. The analysis found that about 23.3% of all Americans receive Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, which is for children in families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid.

This map shows the percentage of each state's residents who received coverage for Medicaid or CHIP.

Areas with higher percentages of Medicaid recipients included the West, Southwest, and Northeast, while parts of the Midwest and South relied less on Medicaid. Utah was least reliant at 9.7%, followed by Wyoming at 10.8%.

As of October, Medicaid provides health and long-term care coverage to over 72 million Americans of all ages, predominantly those with low incomes and few other resources. Another 7.2 million children under age 18 receive payments from CHIP. Medicaid is financed by federal and state governments.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has argued that the budget plan doesn't explicitly call for Medicaid cuts.

Over the last few months, some Republican leaders have proposed per-capita caps on Medicaid, which would fix federal funding amounts per enrollee. A House Budget Committee proposal estimated this move could save up to $900 billion. Others have backed a proposal to install a Medicaid work requirement.

Tuesday's House vote is only the first step in a long process. Senate Republicans have competing plans, which, unlike the House's proposal, do not include an extension of Trump's 2017 tax law or new proposals like ending taxes on tips. Both sides will need to reconcile their blueprints before they can move forward.

Most states have expanded their Medicaid coverage for those making under a given income threshold — for individuals, about $21,600 a year — an expansion included in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Before the vote, Johnson said Republicans are focused on "rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse" within Medicaid. On Tuesday, he declined to tell reporters that House Republicans would not cut the program, arguing that making sure "illegal aliens" are not receiving Medicaid and eliminating other unspecified fraud will help the GOP save money.

"Medicaid is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse," Johnson told reporters at the Capitol.

People in the US illegally are not eligible for Medicaid. Hospitals can be reimbursed for emergency care if a patient, regardless of their immigration status, is otherwise eligible for Medicaid. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, $27 billion total was spent on emergency Medicaid for non-citizens from fiscal year 2017 through 2023.

Do you have a story to share about Medicaid? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at nshei0227.30. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Kevin Hartz, an early Uber angel investor, directed his VC firm A Star Capital to take Waymos only.
• Hartz told BI that he believes Waymo is the "least expensive option."
• A former investor at A Star roughly estimated spending about $10K on Waymos in the past year.

Kevin Hartz, an early Uber angel investor and cofounder of Eventbrite, directed his San Francisco-based venture capital firm, A Star Capital, to only take Waymo robotaxis in the city because he believes they provide the best value.

"Waymo is now required in SF as it is always substantially lower price and often faster," Hartz wrote in an email to his firm of 10 employees on January 16, which was shared on X.

The VC head wrote that a ride in an Uber "Green," the sustainable ride option offered on the platform, was $50 to his destination in San Francisco, whereas a ride back with a Waymo, which only operates Jaguar I-PACE electric vehicles, was $19.

Hartz told Business Insider over the phone that his email was indeed a serious mandate given that employees get their rideshare costs comped by the firm.

"Waymo is simply a better value," he said, adding that he believes "it's the safest and the fastest when you think about its ability to calculate the most efficient route."

Employees can substitute Waymo with another rideshare platform if wait times are too long and would make firm employees late to the office, Hartz wrote in the email.

Since Waymo began offering rides to the SF public in June, the Alphabet-owned company has chipped away at the rideshare market in the city that was once solely dominated by Uber and Lyft.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during the third-quarter earnings call in October that the company puts Waymo's market share within its limited operating areas of SF at "high single-digits or low double digits." He did not state an exact figure.

Waymo said in a press release that it averages 150,000 rides per week throughout its operating cities. The robotaxi company does not offer rides on San Francisco's highways or to the airport.

A Waymo spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a study conducted last year by Evercore ISI, comparing 1,000 trips across the Waymo, Uber, and Lyft platforms, analysts found that Waymo's pricing has become increasingly competitive in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The average cost of a Waymo ride for that quarter was $21.91, compared to $21.34 for an UberX — the basic level of service the rideshare platform offers — and $22.36 for a Lyft. Prices for Uber and Lyft exclude tips to drivers, Evercore analysts wrote in their report.

An Uber spokesperson declined to comment. Lyft did not respond to a request for comment.

Hartz said he was an early believer in Uber, participating in the company's series B funding round in 2011 at a $300-million valuation. He declined to disclose a figure.

His experience in Waymo has made him a convert, pointing to the privacy the robotaxi offers.

"It's a quiet place where you can kind of reflect," he said.

Khushi Suri, an ex-investor at A Star, had already embraced Hartz's Waymo-only directive long before he shared his January mandate.

As of February 20, Suri took 547 rides, traveled 1,680 miles, and spent 10,005 minutes inside a Waymo, she told BI. She roughly estimated spending $10,000 on Waymo rides in the past year.

"I remember the way there, I was enchanted," Suri told BI of her first Waymo ride. "But on the ride back, I forgot. It's just so natural."

Suri said she was a heavy Uber user, but "resented it." She said the privacy of a Waymo allows her to feel comfortable when she and her friends are going out and dressed for clubbing.

"With Waymo, there's no walk of shame," she said. "It's very intimate."

Uber and Lyft had originally pursued an in-house autonomous vehicle program before selling them off in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Both rideshare platforms are pursuing partnerships with other autonomous vehicle companies to offer a robotaxi service, leveraging its existing user base.

Uber plans to deepen its existing partnership with the Alphabet-owned company by managing a Waymo fleet in Austin and Atlanta sometime in 2025. The company already offers Waymos in Phoenix.

"I wasn't very happy that Uber had discontinued their self-driving program," Hartz said. "I'm glad that they're partnering there."

• Renault's former Russian partner said the carmaker might need to pay $1.3 billion to reenter the market.
• Renault exited Russia in 2022, selling its assets for 1 ruble amid Western sanctions.
• Foreign firms face challenges returning to Russia, with possible compensation demands looming.

Renault exited the Russian market in 2022, selling its assets for a single ruble.

Now, the French carmaker may need to pay 112.5 billion rubles — about $1.3 billion — if it seeks to return after the war, its former Russian partner Avtovaz said. The stipulation is a sign that foreign firms looking to return to the market could face high compensation demands.

In the case of Renault, Maxim Sokolov, the CEO of Avtovaz, said the company and the Russian state had invested 112.5 billion rubles in the business since its exit through 2025.

"It is clear that these investments will have to be reimbursed somehow upon return," Sokolov said, according to the TASS state news agency.

US President Donald Trump has signaled a willingness for the US to reconcile with Moscow, spurring recent discussions about a return of Western businesses — such as Renault — to the market.

In 2022, Renault sold its 67.6% stake in Avtovaz to the Russian state with the option to buy back its assets within six years. The automaker took a 2.2-billion-euro write-down from the exit from the market that was its second largest, after France.

A spokesperson for Renault told Business Insider the company didn't "foresee any change for the short term" regarding a return to business in Russia. The company didn't comment on Sokolov's statements.

David Szakonyi, an associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, told BI that Sokolov's comments about compensation should be taken seriously, even if Russian officials were also posturing.

The exit of foreign businesses created winners at home in Russia, some of whom picked up assets at fire sale prices.

"Freely allowing foreign companies back in is going to diminish their profit streams and make life a lot more competitive, so if that is going to happen, Russia wants some kind of compensation for liberalizing its market," said Szakonyi, who's a specialist in Russia's political economy.

'Even more confident, even more emboldened'

Sokolov's comments echo others in Russia recently signaling tough negotiations for departed companies that wish to return.

Anton Alikhanov, the Russian industry and trade minister, told reporters on Thursday that Russia was "not waiting for anyone with open arms" and that there would be "a price to pay for past decisions."

Szakonyi said Russia was likely to continue with such "cocky rhetoric" amid its rapprochement with the US.

"It feels that it survived just about the worst the West could throw at it and persevered through that adversity and now comes out even more confident, even more emboldened, to make demands on the West and dictate the terms of both political and economic dealmaking going forward," he added.

Three years into the war in Ukraine, 475 foreign companies have left the Russian market completely, according to the Leave Russia database from the Kyiv School of Economics.

The fast-food giant McDonald's and the coffee chain Starbucks were two high-profile brands that left the market, with their assets bought by Russian businesses. McDonald's rebranded to "Tasty and that's it" and Starbucks became Stars Coffee.

Western companies aren't clamoring to go back to Russia

Even though Russia is a large market, analysts have said recently that businesses are likely to be cautious about returning to the country, even if sanctions are lifted.

Russia's wartime economy is facing problems including high inflation, currency volatility, and sky-high interest rates. President Vladimir Putin's ironclad reign presents concerns about the rule of law and safety.

"While Russia says it's open to doing business again, it didn't actually signal any change of tone or policy," said Szakonyi, who added that much of Moscow's rhetoric was probably aimed at the Trump administration's appetite for dealmaking.

Investors are also likely to remain wary after a wave of corporate nationalization and asset seizures in the past few years that redistributed international company wealth to the Russian state and oligarchs.

Szakonyi said Russia had proven that business property rights protections, investor guarantees, and a hospitable business climate were things of the distant past.

"Without them in place, I see no reason why Western companies would risk again with Russia as such a volatile, unpredictable regime," he said. "It has proven that it doesn't care about property rights and that it talks out of both sides of its mouth and is not trustworthy."