• The 2025 Masters Tournament is underway in Georgia.
• The tournament is held at Augusta National, one of the most exclusive golf clubs in the world.
• These clubs are known for years-long waitlists, expensive fees, and high-profile clientele.

Take a look at almost any billionaire's social calendar this weekend, and you'll likely see one thing: The Masters.

The prestigious golf tournament, which teed off Thursday and concludes Sunday, is held each year in Augusta, Georgia, at the Augusta National Golf Club.

"There's a huge amount of very exclusive clubs all over the world — I would say that Augusta National is the most famous one," Barnabas Carrega, CEO of luxury travel and planning firm GR8 Experience, told Business Insider last year.

At Augusta, the best golfers in the world compete to win the coveted green jacket bestowed only to tournament winners and club members and to etch their name into a rich sports history.

In 2024, the honor went to American Scottie Scheffler, who is eyeing a back-to-back win this year.

With past Masters attendees ranging from Nike cofounder Phil Knight to Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, the event is an annual reminder of the wealth ingrained in golf's history and the culture of exclusivity it breeds in the most elite clubs.

"I think that there's two different ways to look at why a club is exclusive and one of them is the quality of the golf course. Sometimes, the golf course has so much history behind it that the club becomes extremely exclusive by default because of the importance of the golf course," said Carrega.

"And then other times it's just the place, the service, the level of facilities, and what they've built around the golf experience," he added.

Regardless of how they achieved their exclusivity, such clubs are almost impossible to join. They require special connections, patience, and plenty of money for a chance at acceptance.

Here's a peek at 10 of the most exclusive golf clubs in the world.

Augusta National Golf Club is the home of the Masters.

The esteemed club, founded and co-designed by legendary golfer and Grand Slam winner Bobby Jones, opened for play in 1932, though women were not allowed to join until August 2012.

One of the highlights of the course is its extensive flora. Per Golf Monthly, Augusta has an estimated 80,000 plants from over 350 varieties, and each hole is named for a corresponding plant. This weekend, pros like Dustin Johnson and Fred Couples will test their skills on holes like Magnolia, Juniper, Azalea, and Holly in pursuit of tournament victory.

And if you're interested in playing this famed course someday, you'll have to get in line. Most memberships are inherited from one of the club's existing 300 or so members, but you could attend as one of their guests. You could also play as a guest of a Masters champion.

If these options sound a little too unrealistic, there is one other way to gain access: volunteering at the Masters. As to be expected, there's a waitlist, but if you volunteer for the full week, you'll be invited to an "Appreciation Day" in May to play a round of golf, per Golf.com. Keep that in mind for next year.

In 2028, Winged Foot Golf Club will host the US Open for the seventh time.

The Mamaroneck, New York, club's East and West courses were ranked on Golf.com's Top 100 Courses in the World of 2023-2024, with the West ranking 29th and the East ranking 80th, so it's no surprise that Winged Foot would be a top choice for the US Open.

"Winged Foot has provided the backdrop for some of the most dramatic moments in the history of our sport, with many of golf's legendary champions being crowned on the club's iconic West Course," said John Bodenhamer, USGA chief championships officer, in a press release in 2023, per Golf Digest.

In 2020, Golf.com reported that the Winged Foot Golf Club's waitlist was "supposedly a decade long," and initiation fees are believed to be well above $100,000, so instead of joining, you may just want to think ahead and purchase those 2028 tickets.

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews is known as the "Home of Golf."

Founded in 1754, The Old Course at St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland, is one of the oldest golf courses in the world and home to The Open Championship, the oldest and one of the most prestigious tournaments of the season.

While you can take a walking tour of the course between March and November, the clubhouse is usually only accessible to its 2,500 members. However, once a year on November 30, which is also known as St. Andrews Day, part of it is opened to the public for tours, Golf Digest reported.

St. Andrews is notoriously exclusive, allowing its first female members in 2015. Golf.com reported that the multi-step membership process includes an invitation from a current member, an application, and letters of recommendation — and this doesn't even guarantee admission, as it can take years to get through the waitlist, and applications can be outright denied.

The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle in Scotland offers lessons with PGA professionals.

Barnabas Carrega, CEO of the Gr8 Experience, a luxury travel firm specializing in exclusive experiences, told BI that visiting Skibo is "one of the most incredible experiences" he's ever seen from a country club in terms of level of service, privacy, and exclusivity, describing it as "an immense club."

Per the Carnegie Club's website, the golf course Carnegie Links, "is ideal for both beginners finding their feet on the greens and more accomplished players looking to perfect their swing. Lessons can be booked with our resident PGA professionals."

In 2019, Michael Jordan opened his exclusive golf club, The Grove XXIII.

Business Insider reported in 2021 that Michael Jordan's exclusive golf course in Hobe Sound, Florida, has fewer than 80 members. Some famous names allowed in include former president Barack Obama, former tennis player John McEnroe, and current pros Rickie Fowler and Dustin Johnson.

As you can probably guess, you'd either need to know Jordan — or he'd want to get to know you — for you to get an invite to this ultra-exclusive club.

"Michael Jordan is a huge fan of golf, and even when he was playing for the Chicago Bulls, apparently, in between games, he would go and play golf," said Carrega. "So he's always been very into the sport."

Jordan even hosts an exclusive tournament, gifting winner Keegan Bradley a $4,000 bottle of his tequila, Cincoro Extra Añejo, in 2023.

Shinnecock Hills was founded in 1891, making it one of the oldest golf clubs in the US.

Another club with high levels of exclusivity is Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, New York. The club will host both the US Open and the US Women's Open in 2036, per Golf.com.

As one of the five founding clubs of the US Golf Association, its history dates back to 1891, which might help explain some of its strict rules.

For example, Shinnecock doesn't allow any cell phones or communication devices to be used or displayed in the clubhouse or on club grounds (except in the telephone room or cars in the parking lot), everyone's shirts must be worn tucked in, and no gratuity may be paid to employees, per the club's Guest Information page.

To play here, you'll need a signature from an accompanying member — no exceptions, sorry.

Cypress Point Golf Club in Pebble Beach, California, reportedly has a seven-year-long waitlist.

In 2019, Cypress Point was named one of Golf.com's most exclusive golf clubs in the world. To quote entertainer and comedian Bob Hope, "One year, they had a big membership drive at Cypress. They drove out 40 members."

Business Insider reported that Cypress has only about 250 members, with Golf Addict noting that the clientele is primarily "prominent politicians, businessmen, and movie stars," who split the course's fees equally, no matter how much they actually golf.

You'll need over $1 million to join Shell Bay Club in Hallandale Beach, Florida.

Where does one begin with Shell Bay? Perhaps you'll start your day at the yacht club, practice your forehand on the Grand Slam-quality tennis courts, and then play a few holes on the Greg Norman-designed golf course. Or maybe you'll just spend the day at the spa.

The possibilities are grand at the Shell Bay Club — if you've got $1.35 million lying around for fun.

"Basically, all the members are millionaires or billionaires," Carrega said, adding that members include "the captains of industry and the most important of the people in Florida."

In addition to the private club, Shell Bay also has residences with amenities that include a sunset cocktail terrace, an orchid garden, and a private wine-tasting room with secure wine drawers.

Japan's Hirono Golf Club requires attendees to adhere to a strict dress code.

Also featured on Golf.com's most exclusive golf clubs in the world in 2019, Hirono Golf Club in Kobe, Japan, has a reputation for being especially private; the last professional tournament played there was the 70th Japan Open Golf Championship in 2005.

While most golf courses are known for having dress codes, some of Hirono's rules are incredibly specific.

Per the club's website, guidelines for playing attire include no clothing with "showy colors or patterns" like red or camouflage, no mock-neck shirts, no shirts without collars and sleeves, no ankle socks, and no clothing or hats "designed with conspicuous advertising intentions."

Only members and their guests are allowed access to Hirono, and both parties are held to the same high standards, with the club noting that members are "fully responsible for the conduct of the visitor," who should be fully informed on the rules and course etiquette before arrival.

Pine Valley Golf Club has been ranked the No. 1 golf course in the US every year since 2017.

Founded in 1913, Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey has been ranked the No. 1 golf course in the state every year since 1985 and the No. 1 golf course in the country every year since 2017, per Golf Digest.

The club is famously invite-only and, until 2021, only allowed women to play as guests on Sunday afternoons.

"The future of golf must move toward inclusion, and I am pleased to report that the Trustees and members of the Pine Valley Golf Club have voted unanimously and with enthusiasm to remove all gender-specific language from our bylaws," club president Jim Davis wrote in an email to members obtained by Golf Digest in 2021.

Pine Valley has only held one elite professional event in its history, further emphasizing its interest in privacy. However, the club will break tradition in 2034 to host the Curtis Cup, a biennial match where the top female American amateurs compete against the best from Great Britain and Ireland.

• Gold prices hit $3,200 for the first time on Friday.
• Trump's tariffs and China's retaliatory action have roiled global markets.
• A BlackRock strategist said gold was a better hedge than Treasury bills amid the market turmoil.

Gold hit another record high above $3,200 on Friday — and is a better way to protect against the ongoing market turmoil than Treasury bills, a BlackRock executive said.

Wei Li, global chief investment strategist at the asset manager, wrote in a LinkedIn post on Thursday that higher exchange rates and "currency down" were abnormal.

"Also not normal — risk off, #dollar and Treasuries down. I will keep saying it: #gold is a better diversifier than Treasuries in this environment of high debt."

Fears over the longer-term effects of President Donald Trump's trade tariffs have triggered an aggressive sell-off of US bonds. Yields have continued to rise this week, with the 10-year Treasury yield up almost 4.4% on Friday.

Treasurys have traditionally been considered one of the safest investments available, but that perception may be starting to change.

The dollar has also suffered amid the turmoil, hitting a three-year low against the euro and a 10-year low against the Swiss franc.

"In this new regime characterized by 1/ #inflationary pressure and 2/ high #debt, gold has been and could continue to be a better diversifier than long-duration Treasuries," Li wrote in an earlier LinkedIn post.

Last month gold broke through the $3,000 level for the first time. In the days following Trump's tariff announcement on April 2, the metal went as high as about $3,150 before retreating.

Gold has since regained momentum as investors seek out safe-haven assets, which typically maintain or increase their value during market turbulence.

In a Friday note, UBS analysts raised their 2025 gold price target to $3,500, citing "escalating tariff uncertainty, weaker growth, higher inflation and lingering geopolitical risks."

"Gold seems to be unfazed by higher US yields," they wrote, adding that the metal has stood out this year compared with other safe havens including Treasurys, the franc, and the yen.

Analysts at Bank of America also have a price target of $3,500 for gold.

• BlackRock, now managing $11.6 trillion, has more employees outside the US than in its home country.
• On the firm's first-quarter earnings call, CEO Larry Fink stressed its global reach.
• "We are Mexican in Mexico, Canadian in Canada," Fink told analysts.

BlackRock's first client 37 years ago was Japanese. A majority of the $11. 6 trillion New York-based firm's employees are based internationally. The manager's risk platform Aladdin just signed its first Korean client.

There are even plans to open a few more offices outside the US where the world's largest asset manager has a client base, CEO Larry Fink said Friday morning.

"BlackRock is a global firm, but one that operates hyper-locally," he said.

In practice, this means "we are Mexican in Mexico, Canadian in Canada," among other countries and nationalities, Fink said.

It was a notable remark from the world's largest asset manager, which held its first-quarter earnings call Friday morning as the financial world struggles to digest the ramifications of President Donald Trump's tariff policies. Though the tariffs have been put on pause for most countries, though notably not China, Fink said that "in the short run, we have an economy at risk."

This follows his talk Monday at the Economic Club of New York when Fink said that most of the CEOs he is talking to "would say we are probably in a recession right now." In the firm's earnings release, the current market environment is compared to "large, structural shifts" that occurred during the financial crisis and COVID-19.

Despite the dire immediate backdrop, Fink said his firm leads with "optimism." The large macro trends — such as artificial intelligence and infrastructure spending that BlackRock has focused on for the next wave of its growth — "are still around," he said, and that the manager has a "growth mindset."

Over recent weeks, BlackRock has had thousands of client conversations, Fink said, and there's still a significant appetite for infrastructure investing. He said BlackRock preaches long-term solutions, not moves to address "the next tweet."

He said the public market chaos is expected to attract more assets to private markets, a shift the firm is embracing.

Still, the tariffs — which Fink said "went beyond anything I could have imagined" — cannot be ignored as simply short-term noise. BlackRock's European ETF line surpassed $1 trillion in assets for the first time last quarter, thanks to investors leaving the US. Retirement and college savings are hit by such severe dips in stock markets.

"This isn't Wall Street versus Main Street," Fink said in his prepared remarks to start the call.

His closing advice (or wish): "Have a calm second quarter."

• The head of the US Space Force's Greenland base has been fired, Space Operations Command said Thursday.
• Colonel Susannah Meyers was removed from her position after a "loss of confidence," a statement said.
• It comes after Meyers reportedly distanced herself from Vice President JD Vance's criticism of Denmark.

The commander of a US Space Force base in Greenland has been fired following a recent visit by Vice President JD Vance.

In a statement Thursday, the military's Space Operations Command said Meyers had been removed from her position at the Danish territory's Pituffik Space Base due to a "loss of confidence in her ability to lead."

"Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining nonpartisan in the performance of their duties," it said, adding that Colonel Shawn Lee had now taken command.

In a post on X, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell shared an image of the SOC's statement along with a link to a Military.com article that reported Meyers had distanced herself from Vance's recent criticism of how Denmark manages the territory in an email to base personnel.

On March 31, days after Vance's trip to the island, Meyers is reported to have emailed staff saying, "I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the U.S. administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base."

"Actions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert President Trump's agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense," Parnell wrote on X, appearing to confirm the reason for Meyers' dismissal.

Vance visited the Pituffik Space Base during a trip to Greenland in March, where he made a series of controversial comments accusing Denmark of underinvesting in Greenland's security and echoing President Donald Trump's suggestion that the territory would be better off under US control.

Trump told Congress last month that the US would acquire Greenland "one way or the other" and has not ruled out using military force, despite Denmark being a longtime ally and a member of NATO.

An opinion poll earlier this year found that the majority of Greenlanders oppose the idea of becoming part of the US.

Business Insider has contacted the Pentagon for comment.

• Gen Z collage app Landing has rebranded to Zeen.
• Zeen is targeting fashion and lifestyle creators with tools for making shoppable content.
• Here's why the startup is pivoting from being a social media platform to being a creator tool.

Landing, a social collaging app that became a favorite among Gen Z users, is making a pivot.

The startup is rebranding to Zeen and targeting content creators as its core user base. Zeen is offering these creators the ability to make shoppable collages.

"We kept seeing this behavior of people wanting to shop from each other's collages, and fashion was always the biggest vertical on Landing," Zeen cofounder Miri Buckland told Business Insider.

Like any social media platform these days — just take a glance at any TikTok or Instagram post that includes an outfit — Buckland said the comment sections on Landing posts were flooded with questions like "Where did you get that dress?"

While some people (myself included) used Landing to create digital collages without clothing or products, Buckland said the overwhelming use case was outfit planning and fashion mood boarding.

Zeen, the startup's new product, is doubling down on this.

The web-only tool lets users design collages by dropping in online shopping links or uploading images. Creators can also include affiliate marketing links, like from ShopMy or LTK. Then, creators can save an image or a video of the collage to share on platforms like Substack, Instagram, and TikTok.

"What we're building with Zeen is very strictly a tool and a utility," Zeen cofounder Ellie Buckingham said. "We're not building a full social platform."

Pivoting is par for the course for startups — and it's not Zeen's first time doing so. The startup originally focused on interior design with Landing before expanding into broader categories like vision boards or fandom art. Zeen shut down Landing in September.

The startup has money in the bank to back its pivot, too.

Last year, Zeen secured another $2.3 million in funding led by venture capital firm Stellation Capital, bringing the startup's total funding to date to $9 million, Buckland told BI.

Building for the creator economy

Creators often have a robust stack of creative tools they use to make content. If they're video creators, maybe that's editing tools like CapCut. For others, it could be Canva, Adobe, or photo-editing tools like VSCO.

Zeen wants to be part of creators' tech stacks for making visual, shoppable content.

Several of Zeen's early users are Substack newsletter creators, particularly in the fashion and lifestyle category. For instance, Erika Veurink, who writes a fashion Substack called "Long Live" with 28,000 subscribers, has used Zeen for in-newsletter collages of furniture and clothing. Veurink is an advisor to Zeen.

Aditi Shah, a Peleton instructor and creator, has also been using Zeen on her Substack "Work in Progress" to showcase her favorite beauty products of the month.

With Zeen, newsletter creators can earn money if they use affiliate links. When uploading affiliate links into a Zeen collage, the platform will generate a list of the products and links for creators to copy and paste into their newsletters.

Zeen's premium tier ($6 per month) lets creators bulk-upload products from their ShopMy Collections, and unlocks unlimited use of tools like one that removes the background of product images and watermarks.

While many of Zeen's early adopters are Substackers, the startup is "platform agnostic" and aimed at creators using any newsletter tool (such as Beehiiv) or social platform (like Instagram and TikTok). Creators can export collages to fit Instagram stories and export video versions of the collage for vertical video feeds.

"The idea is, can we take what our creators are really good at, which is this curation and merchandising of products, and then automatically give them something that allows them to have a content type that competes on a video-first platform," Buckingham said.

• Alphabet's missed expectations in Q4 of 2024.
• Revenue rose 12% year-on-year and EPS increased to $2.15.
• The firm surprised investors with a larger-than-expected capex forecast.

Alphabet, Google's parent company, releases its earnings data every quarter.

Sundar Pichai, who is the CEO of Google and Alphabet, joins the earnings calls to deliver updates and answer questions.

Here's a breakdown of Alphabet's most recent earnings and financial history.

Alphabet Q4 earnings 2024

Alphabet's fourth-quarter earnings slightly missed expectations, dragging shares down.

The tech giant raked in $96.5 billion in revenue, amounting to a 12% gain from a year ago. Earnings-per-share came in at $2.15, above consensus.

While Pichai praised momentum in the firm's artificial intelligence initiatives, a slowing cloud business and a larger-than-expected 2025 capex forecast discouraged investors.

Alphabet plans to spend $75 billion in capital expenditures this year, well above the expected $57.9 billion figure.

Alphabet Q3 earnings 2024

Third-quarter earnings beat estimates, sending shares surging after the closing bell.

Alphabet outpaced expectations on nearly every front, with revenue rising 15% year-over-year to $88.3 billion. Earnings per share jumped to $2.12.

Google Cloud was a particular bright spot for the company, as "accelerated growth" in AI cloud products boosting revenue 35%.

"Today, more than a quarter of all new code at Google is generated by AI then reviewed and accepted by engineers," Pichai added, speaking about AI initiatives in the firm.

Alphabet Q2 earnings 2024

While Alphabet surpassed earnings forecasts, the second-quarter report still disappointed in key areas.

Revenue rose 14% on an annual basis, reaching $84 billion for the quarter. Earnings-per-share came in at $1.89.

However, $8.66 billion in YouTube ad revenue underwhelmed Wall Street, which forecast $8.95 billion.

Quarterly capex, reaching $13.2 billion, was higher than expected.

Alphabet Q1 earnings 2024

Alphabet's earnings report in April of 2024 far outstripped analysts' projections, sending stocks skyrocketing.

The company reported a 15% revenue bump year over year, revenues of $80.5 billion, and also issued its first-ever $0.20 per share dividend.

On the earnings call, Pichai touted "strong" performances from Google Search, YouTube, and Google Cloud. He also spoke glowingly of the company's inroads in artificial intelligence, and declared Alphabet to be in its "Gemini era," a reference to Google's Gemini AI chatbot.

Google has been gradually incorporating AI into its core products, such as YouTube and Workspace, the suite of productivity programs like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive.

"Our leadership in AI research and infrastructure, and our global product footprint, position us well for the next wave of AI innovation," Pichai said.

Alphabet Q4 earnings 2023

Alphabet beat expectations in its fourth quarter of 2023, though Google's advertising sales fell slightly below analyst projections, causing shares to dip. 

Alphabet's revenue swelled to $86.3 billion, up 13%, and the company reported a net income of $20.28 billion with $1.64 per diluted share.

In the earnings call, Pichai noted that Google had just launched its new AI model Gemini, and remarked that "the best is yet to come."

Alphabet Q3 earnings 2023

Alphabet's third-quarter earnings surpassed analysts' estimates, beating revenue and profit projections. But Google's stock fell 10% after its Cloud business fell short of Wall Street's expectations.

Google Cloud's revenue was up 22% at $8.4 billion, but down from 28% growth in the previous quarter.

On the earnings call, Pichai noted that the company was expanding and deploying new AI services, and said the company was "excited and confident" for its future prospects.

Alphabet earnings history

Alphabet — made up of Google and a collection of other companies known as Other Bets — had a tumultuous 2023, unveiling its most ambitious artificial intelligence technology and boasting an annual revenue of $307.39 billion, but also axing approximately 6% of the company.

Like many tech companies in the post-pandemic era, Alphabet has sought to cut costs and implement layoffs. Alphabet laid off some 12,000 employees in 2023, and by the end of the fourth quarter, the company reported having about 182,500 employees in total. 

Executives have also warned that layoffs aren't over — Pichai has anticipated more job cuts throughout 2024. Pichai explained that Google's layoffs have been intentionally slow because the company is "taking the time to do it correctly and well."

Still, Alphabet's market cap hit $2 trillion in spring 2024, a new milestone that made Google the world's fourth-most valuable public company.

The majority of Alphabet's revenue has come from Google, ever since the parent company was first formed in 2015. Other Bets — which includes businesses like Waymo, Verily, equity investment fund Capital G, and research and development unit Google X — generates most of its revenue from healthcare-related services but also reports large operating losses. 

In Q1 of 2024, Other Bets posted revenues of $495 million but reported an operating loss of $1 billion.

• I wanted to live in my hometown Santa Barbara but didn't want to spend most of my income on rent.
• So, my parents offered to convert a shed on their 5-acre property into a 500-square-foot tiny home.
• I'm so grateful they let me and my boyfriend live there rent-free while we save for a house.

Last year, my boyfriend and I were trying to figure out our next move — and we found it in my parents' backyard.

Our apartment lease in Los Angeles was up in June, and after two years in the city, we missed our home in Santa Barbara.

We agreed to move back to our hometown but didn't know where we'd live. After all, housing can be even more expensive in the Central California city than in LA.

The average rent for an apartment in Santa Barbara is about $2,901 (and $2,733 in LA), according to rental-listing platform RentCafe. That number only climbs when you factor in details like ideal location and sought-after amenities.

Although we could technically afford to live in our hometown if we compromised on our desired neighborhood and perks, spending most of our income renting an apartment we didn't truly want didn't sound great.

We also plan to buy a home one day, and saving money is our top priority.

So, when my parents offered to turn a shed on their 5-acre property in Santa Barbara into 500-square-foot tiny home for us to use, we were all in.

Turning the shed into a home wasn't as easy as I expected

Last April, my mom began meeting with contractors to plan out the shed-turned-home's layout.

It would be tough to fit everything we wanted in the small space, but we settled on a one-bedroom, one-bathroom design. The living room and kitchen would be one space divided by a couch, and the bathroom would contain a stacked washer/dryer.

I had foolishly thought designing a house would be as simple as paying Sims — pick your paint, choose your floor, and, boom, all done. As it turns out, it's a lot more complicated.

Throughout the process, we experienced numerous setbacks, like getting plumbers, electricians, and contractors to even show up.

Many of them had prior commitments and were working on our tiny home as a side project.

It took us about a month to find a plumber, then we ended up having to dig a tunnel below the shed to connect our lines directly to the plumbing in the main house.

We also struggled to connect an Ethernet to the tiny home. My dad had to run conduit from the main house underground and funnel Ethernet through it.

All in all, the project took about five months to complete.

We're grateful to live somewhere we can have our own space and also save money

In November, we finally moved into the converted storage shed on the northwestern corner of my parents' property.

I'm grateful my parents funded this project and don't charge us rent. We have regular monthly expenses, like groceries and gas, but we're able to save most of our income.

Plus, not having to pay rent has helped me sustain my career as a freelance writer.

I recognize how fortunate we are to be in this position. Still, my partner and I don't plan to live here forever. My parents built this space with the idea that when we move out, they can use it accommodate guests or other family members.

For now, it's our home, allowing us to live where we want without spending most of our income on rent.

We're incredibly lucky to get to spend our days surrounded by nature in the town where we grew up, cozily nestled between the mountains and the sea.

• Ned's Club is a private members-only space geared towards high-achieving professionals.
• The club's new location in Washington, DC, has three floors for socializing, dining, and events.
• Members' names are kept private, and it costs up to $125,000 to join at the highest membership tier.

Washington, DC's hottest club has everything.

A historic location steps from the White House. An elite, secret membership roster. Four fine-dining restaurants, each offering a different cuisine. A six-figure top-tier membership fee.

Welcome to Ned's Club, a private members-only space designed for high-achieving professionals across industries to lounge, dine, and mingle away from prying eyes.

A spinoff of Soho House members' clubs, Ned's Club began in London in 2017 and has since opened locations in New York, Doha, and now Washington, DC.

Managing director Gareth Banner estimates that about 90% of Ned's Club members are C-suite-level professionals, founders, and entrepreneurs. While the club doesn't disclose the names of its members, reported sightings have included Mark Cuban, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Clinton operative and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, and CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins.

"If the truth be told, and we make no apology for it, we are focused on probably attracting the top 1%, 2% of people," Banner told Business Insider. "So it doesn't really matter what you do, but you should be at the absolute top of your game."

Admission to the nearly 60,000-square-foot club comes at a price. Regular membership costs $5,000 to join and $5,000 a year. The top-tier Founders' membership, which includes additional perks such as access to the Founders' Dining Room, costs $125,000 to join and $25,000 a year.

Ned's Club granted Business Insider rare access to the exclusive space. Take a look around Ned's Club in Washington, DC.

Ned's Club occupies the top three floors of the Milken Institute, a five-building complex in Washington, DC.

The Milken Institute, a think tank founded by former Wall Street financier and billionaire philanthropist Mike Milken, is located around the corner from the Treasury Department and a five-minute walk from the White House.

The Ned's Club brand is named for Sir Edwin "Ned" Landseer Lutyens, the architect who designed the former Midland Bank building that houses the original London location.

"We love working with an old building and repurposing it in a way that makes it relevant for a different intended purpose," Banner said. "A great old building gives you so much in terms of character."

Privacy is paramount at Ned's Club — no photography is permitted, and members aren't allowed to disclose the names of other members.

Members and visitors are required to cover their phone cameras with stickers provided by the club upon entry.

"We work very hard to make sure that everything that happens here is off the record," Joiwind Ronen, executive director of membership and programming at Ned's Club, told Business Insider.

While the club's membership remains private, Ronen could disclose that the membership committee includes Kellyanne Conway, Paramount executive DeDe Lea, MSNBC host Symone D. Sanders-Townsend, and Zach Leonsis, whose family owns the Washington Wizards and the Capitals.

Members enter Ned's Club through what was once the Walker Building and is now part of the Milken Institute.

Built in 1937, the former Walker Building's entrance has been restored with handpainted wallpaper featuring DC's iconic cherry blossoms.

In the lobby, Ronen pointed out a sign advertising upcoming members-only events including comedy and trivia nights, a supper club for expats, and an Earth Day gathering with the Nature Conservancy featuring Chesapeake oysters. The club's offerings also include occasional off-site events such as test-driving a new line of Ferraris in Bethesda or viewing Elizabeth Taylor's private jewel collection at Bulgari.

The elevators open into the ninth-floor hallway featuring pieces from a curated art collection called "The First 47."

"The First 47" highlights the work of 47 female artists, juxtaposing the all-male history of 47 US presidents.

All of the artwork in Ned's Club is curated by Soho House.

Ned's Club and Soho House remain separate entities with no crossover membership access, but they do overlap in other ways.

Ron Burkle, who owns Ned's Club's umbrella organization called The Ned, is the majority shareholder of Soho House & Co Inc. Soho House also collaborated with Stonehill Taylor to design the Ned's Club location in Washington, DC.

Banner described Ned's Club as an "offshoot" of Soho House geared toward a broader, more professional audience, not just creatives.

"We look for the high-performance people who are leading their sector — the movers and the shakers," he said.

The two-story Library is the only room at Ned's Club where members are allowed to use their laptops, but only until 5 p.m.

It's also the only room with a TV, which the club uses to host watch parties for events like the Oscars and the Super Bowl.

The striped blue wallpaper was modeled after the wallpaper in the Obama White House.

A tapestry by Malaika Temba hangs above the mantle depicting a woman reading a newspaper with the headline "War is not a shortcut to lasting change." The piece is part of "The First 47."

With its 1920s-inspired decor, I felt like I'd walked into a speakeasy.

Members can order cocktails and snacks at the Library Bar, which serves items including chicken Parmesan tenders, burgers and fries, and mini lobster rolls.

Since Ned's Club began as a British organization, there's also a tea service complete with individual teapots.

"I think in DC — and I've lived here for 30 years — we're known as a very type-A intense town," Ronen said. "To see people just relaxing, having tea, having an extended conversation for an extended period of time, feels so luxurious. There's something really beautiful about seeing people engage that way."

My tour continued in The Gallery, Ned's Club's Italian-American restaurant.

The restaurant, which serves dishes like Margherita pizza, branzino, and rigatoni bolognese, features plush velvet seating and a custom mural by Patricia Cronin.

The Gallery leads into the Conservatory, which was once an outdoor space.

The enclosed Conservatory still feels like an outdoor terrace with wicker furniture, numerous plants, and large windows that let the sun stream in.

The Drawing Room serves as a lounge where members can mingle.

The Drawing Room features an intricate wood ceiling and more plush seating.

The room also hosts live music performances every weeknight.

Ned's Club provides a piano and drum set for musicians.

The Founders' Dining Room is available to those who pay $25,000 a year on top of the $125,000 joining fee for the higher membership tier.

The decor, which includes wood accents, stained-glass windows, and other fine dining touches, was inspired by the Kennedy administration.

"It's meant to evoke that period of some of the Camelot days of DC," Ronen said, referring to the way Kennedy's presidency was romanticized after his assassination as akin to King Arthur's court.

The Founders' Dining Room is one of only two restaurants in North America that serves beef from the esteemed Four Sixes Ranch.

Four Sixes Ranch, one of the oldest cattle ranches in the US, became known for its role in the drama series "Yellowstone."

Prices at the Founders' Dining Room include a $70 filet mignon and a $195 bone-in ribeye.

Kaia, Ned's Club's Pan-Asian restaurant, is adjacent to the building's rooftop terrace.

Kaia serves sushi, sashimi, and assorted grilled meats.

The ceiling of the restaurant and lounge is painted with a mural by artist Rose Jaffe.

Kaia also features a custom mosaic floor.

The highlight of my tour was the wraparound rooftop terrace, where I sat to enjoy the sunshine and the view.

When I visited midday on a Friday, the balcony was mostly empty aside from a few members. Despite the small crowd, I watched as staff members straightened chairs and fluffed seat cushions with meticulous attention to detail.

From the roof, I could see the Washington Monument, the White House, the Tidal Basin, and other DC landmarks.

The club brings in a DJ to play music on the roof on Sundays.

In addition to the members-only club, Ned's Club offers five private event spaces that anyone can book.

The rooms range from a boardroom for 60 people to the Riggs Room with a capacity of 150.

With 1,300 members and counting, Ned's Club already has a long waitlist of people eager to enjoy the lush space and rub shoulders with some of DC's most influential figures.

To Banner, the most luxurious aspect of Ned's Club isn't the fine dining or the furnishings — it's the sense of community often sought through "third places" that aren't home or work.

"I think there is a certain experience you get in a club — the stuff that you can't get in, say, a restaurant or a hotel," he said. "I think people want to belong to something."

• Patrick Collison said Stripe invites a customer to leadership meetings every two weeks.
• The fintech CEO says it sparks new ideas — even with other feedback systems in place.
• Elon Musk gave the move his seal of approval on X, calling it a "good idea."

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison has a direct way to get customer feedback: invite them to management meetings.

Collison shared a post on X this week that Stripe invites one customer to join the first 30 minutes of its leadership meetings every other week, which are attended by around 40 of the company's top managers.

The guest then shares "candid" feedback about their experience with the payments platform.

The move may be unusual, but it received some support, including from Elon Musk, who replied on X the next day, "Good idea."

Collison said the practice consistently generates "new thoughts and investigations" despite Stripe already having plenty of other feedback channels.

Stripe, founded in 2010 by brothers Patrick and John Collison, provides software tools for online and in-person payment processing to millions of businesses globally.

Originally built as a payments platform for startups, it's now used by half of the Fortune 100 and processed $1.4 trillion in payments in 2024, a 38% increase from the previous year, the company said in its most recent annual letter.

Following a secondary share sale in early 2025, the company was valued at $91.5 billion, making it one of the world's most valuable private fintech companies.

However, as Stripe has scaled, it has faced criticism from some users who think the company's focus has shifted toward large enterprise clients.

"Hi Patrick — you know I admire Stripe — but you should pay attention to the extent things have degraded for the indie community using Stripe," Pascal Levy-Garboua, an investor and cofounder, commented on the post. "I messaged support a week ago - no reply, things are super complicated. There's more stuff, but it's a mess."

Others praised the customer-in-the-room tactic as a way to maintain customer empathy. "Love this," one user replied. "Keeps the culture focused on what matters."

When Cloudflare's chief technology officer, Dane Knecht, asked when they'd get an invite, Collison replied, "Would love to have you guys… will reach out." Shopify's head of engineering, Farhan Thawar, also weighed in, calling it a "great idea" and adding, "Lmk when you'd like @Shopify to attend."

Stripe laid off 300 employees in January — about 3.5% of its workforce — Business Insider previously reported.

Despite the cuts, the company's chief people officer, Rob McIntosh said it still planned to grow headcount to around 10,000 by the end of the year.

• JPMorgan posted first-quarter earnings on Friday.
• The banking giant posted strong growth in revenue and profits but also grew its reserves.
• CEO Jamie Dimon said the US economy faces "considerable turbulence" from tariffs and other factors.

Jamie Dimon reiterated his warning about a turbulent US economy in JPMorgan's first-quarter earnings report on Friday, as the banking giant reported earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations.

JPMorgan's net revenue rose 8% year-on-year to $45.3 billion, driving net income up 9% to $14.6 billion.

The bank bolstered its provision for credit losses — money set aside in anticipation of bad debts — by $973 million to $3.3 billion in the first three months of this year, citing a worse macroeconomic outlook.

JPMorgan reported earnings per share of $5.07, trouncing AlphaSense's consensus forecast of $4.65.

Shares rose 2.6% in premarket trading. The stock has fallen 5.4% this year.

"The economy is facing considerable turbulence (including geopolitics), with the potential positives of tax reform and deregulation and the potential negatives of tariffs and "trade wars," ongoing sticky inflation, high fiscal deficits and still rather high asset prices and volatility," Dimon commented in the earnings report, pulling from his letter to JPMorgan shareholders on Monday.

In his letter, Dimon cautioned the Trump administration's latest tariffs were likely to accelerate inflation and slow the US economy's growth. He also said he supported the US demanding that "unfair" trade and tax policies be rectified.

The billionaire banker later told Fox Business that a recession had become a "likely outcome."

• Trump and China are locked in a trade war, and for some products, the situation is getting out of hand.
• Thanks to the US and China's tariff tit-for-tat, EVs from China now face a 247.5% tariff rate.
• So don't expect to see cars from Tesla rivals BYD or Xiaomi on the road anytime soon.

It was already nearly impossible to buy a BYD in the US, but now things are getting somewhat out of hand.

After a rapid escalation in the trade war between the US and China over the past few days, anyone trying to import a Chinese electric car to the US faces a tariff rate of 247.5% — so don't expect to see any cars from Tesla rivals BYD or Xiaomi on the road anytime soon.

A spokesperson for the US International Trade Commission confirmed the total tax rate to Business Insider on Thursday.

That includes the 145% tariffs on Chinese goods announced by Donald Trump in recent days and the 100% levy on Chinese electric cars implemented by Joe Biden last year, plus a 2.5% duty rate on all EVs bought into the US for good measure.

The enormous number is a sign of how the trade war between the world's two largest economies has escalated to almost ludicrous levels.

China retaliated against the latest US tariffs on Friday with its own 125% tariff on US goods. China's tariffs are already hitting Tesla, which has stopped taking orders in the country for the Model X and S, both of which are imported from the US.

It also shows how far successive US administrations have gone to prevent a wave of affordable, high-tech Chinese electric vehicles from reaching American shores.

The new tariff rate implies that anyone in the US who attempts to buy and import BYD's cheapest EV — the $7,800 Seagull — will have to pay an extra $19,300.

Even if they can afford that, thanks to a host of additional regulations and restrictions, it is unlikely anyone would be able to legally drive one on US roads even if they could afford the shipping fees.

Chinese EVs pose an existential threat

Having once dismissed Chinese carmakers, the US auto industry has now decided BYD and its fellow upstarts represent an existential threat.

Elon Musk warned last year that China's EV companies would "demolish" their Western rivals without trade barriers. At the same time, Ford CEO Jim Farley was so impressed by Xiaomi's SU7 electric sedan that he flew one from Shanghai to Chicago.

The 250% trade barrier protects Tesla, Ford, and other automakers from having to compete with BYD and Xiaomi in the US, but it does little to protect them elsewhere.

Not content with crushing Western automakers at home, China's EV makers are now expanding rapidly in developing markets like Brazil and Southeast Asia.

They are also building factories and entering new markets in Europe, which is reportedly considering removing its own tariffs on Chinese electric cars after getting dragged into Trump's trade war.

Americans, who in surveys have consistently cited a lack of affordability and choice as major barriers to buying an EV, are starting to take notice.

YouTuber iShowSpeed, real name Darren Watkins Jr., showed off some of BYD's most eye-catching cars to his 38.6 million subscribers during a recent visit to China.

In a livestream with around 8 million views on YouTube, the streamer drove BYD's Yangwang U8 SUV, which can float on water for up to 30 minutes, and the U9, a $233,000 electric supercar with remote-controlled suspension that allows it to "dance" and jump over obstacles.

When he attempted to buy the U9 to take back to the US, however, the influencer was told it wasn't possible.

For many US drivers who want to see the Seagull or SU7 in action, high tariffs mean YouTube is their only option. Or they can just cross the border to Mexico, where Chinese EVs are rapidly becoming a common sight on local roads.

• Disney is working on a "Star Wars" horror project, according to "Andor" creator Tony Gilroy.
• The showrunner spoke to Business Insider on the red carpet for "Andor" season two.
• Gilroy previously suggested that the "Star Wars" franchise should expand into other genres.

"Andor" creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy says Disney is working on a horror project within the "Star Wars" universe.

The showrunner briefly touched on the future of the "Star Wars" franchise when speaking to SFX Magazine in March ahead of the final season of "Andor." He joked that he'd like to see "a three-camera sitcom in 'Star Wars' or a horror movie."

Gilroy spoke to Business Insider on the "Andor" season two red carpet in London on Thursday.

Asked what he would do with a "Star Wars" horror project, he said Lucasfilm and Disney already had one in development: "They're doing that. I think they're doing that. I think that's in the works, yeah."

Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gilroy didn't say whether the project was a TV show or a movie.

He also clarified his previous comments: "I'm agnostic about what should be done. I was riffing on the thing where I said, 'Oh, do a three-camera comedy,' so I was riffing. Sometimes riffing doesn't work with the 'Star Wars' community."

Referring to "Andor," Gilroy said: "The right creator, and the right moment, and the right vibe … you can do anything. So, my hope is that the show connects, and then we can pass along the favor that we were given from 'Mandalorian,' and we can pass along a good healthy backwind to someone else who wants to do something else cool."

The "Andor" series is a more serious affair than some of the other "Star Wars" projects of late. The political thriller focuses on the growing rebellion against the Empire in the years before 2016's "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," as well as 1977's "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope."

The first season, released in 2022, was met with widespread critical acclaim and earned a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Its success showed that the "Star Wars" franchise can explore wider themes and genres without relying on the Jedi, lightsabers, and the Force to keep its audience engaged.

"Andor" season two starts streaming on Disney+ on April 22.

• Marine leaders emphasize war gaming to foster learning and adaptability in troops.
• War games help Marines understand adversary tactics and adapt to emerging technologies.
• Marine leaders say it's important to embrace losing.

A Marine Corps general said this week that officers and troops couldn't shy away from war gaming, tough exercises in critical thinking.

They also can't be afraid to lose, he said.

"Why isn't everybody war gaming today, right now?" Brig. Gen. Matthew Tracy, the commanding general for the Corps' Education Command, asked Tuesday at the Sea Air Space symposium, a big annual event for military and defense industry insiders.

"We know it's the best way to learn," Tracy said.

"We know they need to get some reps."

Some military leaders might be holding back from making war gaming more common because they fear losing in front of fellow Marines, including junior troops.

He said it would take some bold leadership to help overcome fears of embarrassment: "We have to get down behind the weapon and show that it's OK to fail."

What is war gaming?

Thoughts of military war games might bring to mind images of senior military officers clustered around a table with figurines representing maneuvering units. That's not wrong. Such games are still important.

But nowadays, war games also come in boxes, on computers, and even in the form of plain flash cards. Some are also played in the field with red and blue teams and aggressor squadrons.

They're for all ranks, but not as commonplace as some would like to see. Leaders like Tracy don't just want to see colonels sweating through these mental gymnastics. They also want to see the trigger pullers at the lowest tactical levels involved.

At the symposium, a young Marine officer demonstrated the latest computer-based war game while nearby cadets from the Naval Academy played an almost human-size version of a game that resembled the classic board game Battleship.

Other games included increasingly complex elements for troops to consider, such as friendly and enemy nations' economic and diplomatic concerns, or how another country's civilians might react to the presence of US troops.

"When you have the time to think, it gives you the muscle memory about things to consider," retired Marine Lt. Gen. Lori Reynolds explained. She previously led the service's Cyber Command and also participated in Tuesday's event.

Reynolds says war gaming "improves your ability to understand adversary tactics and capabilities."

The tests force players to constantly check their assumptions about what's happening on the battlefield, she said, making it an ideal environment for learning by failure.

"It's important that we lose when it's OK to lose," she said. Better at the table than in battle.

Amid the Corps' efforts to modernize for a great-power fight in the Pacific after decades of war in the Middle East, checking old assumptions is even more important.

"When you think about Marine Corps Force Design efforts, we're going to be in a more distributed laydown than ever before," Reynolds said, referring to the Corps' initiative to cut mainstays like tanks and sniper units to build a force for combat on the island chains in the Pacific.

The geography of the Pacific — with its remote islands and varying degrees of infrastructure availability — has had war planners spinning their wheels in recent years to discern what the logistics support for such a war might look like.

War gaming has previously forced planners to confront uncomfortable realities about Pacific warfare. For the rank and file, it could help troops to grapple with other emerging issues, like drone warfare and advancements in electronic warfare.

"The ability to teach at the lowest levels, not just what the capability of these emerging technologies can do, but how to properly employ it," makes war gaming more critical, Reynolds said, especially for the most junior ranks.

The notoriously rigid Marine Corps is known for favoring decentralized command structures to foster decision-making in the most junior ranks.

The idea is that when far removed from high-ranking leadership in combat, even the most junior enlisted troops can understand what's going on and make sound decisions to lead their small squads effectively.

Tougher war gaming

"Each year's wargaming efforts should surpass the last in complexity, challenge, and effectiveness," Tracy told Business Insider in an email after the symposium.

Part of the complexity that he envisions for thornier gaming could come in the form of AI-assisted games.

By including AI in war gaming scenarios, "you can look at a whole lot more potential outcomes, and you can look at them a whole lot faster," said Steven Wills, who moderated Tuesday's event and who serves as a research scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses.

"Being able to examine a wider problem set, the thought is that we can think and operate faster than the bad guys and get ahead of their decision-making." Good war gaming, he said, exposes unforeseen consequences of decision-making, setting off more complex chains of events.

But it doesn't give a participant a road map for winning.

"It lets you play through a whole lot of different outcomes so that when you think about an actual fight, you have an idea of what the outcomes might or could be," Wills said.

"It's all about trying to get you to think about the problem."

But thinking about those problems is going to take a level of vulnerability from Marine leaders, Tracy said.

"Creating a culture of war gaming starts at the highest levels, where leaders set the example by participating directly, making themselves vulnerable, and demonstrating a willingness to lose in order to learn," he told BI.

If you're always winning, you aren't being challenged, Reynolds said, adding: "It's OK to fail in a safe place that teaches growth."

"It teaches the importance of being a learning organization," she said. "You don't learn if you constantly win."

• US firms like OpenAI often keep their most advanced AI models behind paywalls.
• Chinese tech giants have been giving models away and are quickly integrating them into services.
• Analysts explain the key difference in strategies between China and the US.

Chinese tech giants are playing a different AI game.

US AI companies — like OpenAI and Anthropic — usually keep their most powerful models locked behind paywalls for consumers or license them to enterprises.

China's biggest players, in contrast, are handing theirs out for free — and rolling them out across everyday tech at breakneck speed, Ray Wang, a Washington-based analyst who specializes in AI and US-China tech statecraft, told Business Insider.

Instead of trying to outbuild leading players like OpenAI, China is out-deploying AI and "undergoing consolidation" — in other words, embedding AI into everything, Wang said.

That rapid integration could prove just as crucial as model quality in determining a country's overall competitiveness in AI, he said.

While the US maintains "a limited lead in frontier AI models over China," China's aggressive push to embed AI into everyday tech could give it an edge in real-world adoption, Wang added.

"China could have broader and faster — or on par with the US — AI integration in consumer devices and applications despite not having the most advanced LLM," Wang said, referring to large language models.

China's AI strategy

In recent weeks, companies like Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent have flooded the market with powerful AI models and upgrades.

In late March, Alibaba announced a new AI model designed for developing cost-effective AI agents. That same month, DeepSeek unveiled an upgraded version of its open-source V3 large language model.

Models like Alibaba's Qwen2.5-Omni-7B and DeepSeek's V3 are freely available for anyone to download, modify, and integrate.

DeepSeek's latest models — especially the reasoning-focused R1 and R2 set to launch later this month or in May — mark a "significant inflection point," said Wei Sun, the principal analyst for AI at Counterpoint Research.

"These models not only match the best-in-class performance globally, but are also open-sourced under the most permissive MIT License," she said.

"That changes the game," she added.

Amid high costs and chip shortages, Chinese firms are also prioritizing rapid AI deployment and consolidation to stay competitive, said Wang.

Tencent has deployed its Hunyuan model and DeepSeek R1 across its massive ecosystem, including WeChat, he said. WeChat, China's biggest social media app, is used by nearly 1.4 billion people.

Baidu has also integrated DeepSeek R1 into its search engine, Wang said.

Baidu last month released two newer versions of its AI model — Ernie X1, a reasoning model, and Ernie 4.5, a revamped version of the company's foundational model. The tech giant said it will "progressively integrate" Ernie 4.5 and X1 into its product ecosystem, including Baidu Search, China's dominant search engine.

"These developments underscore China's increasing emphasis on AI integration, application-driven innovation, and enterprise solutions rather than solely competing on model sophistication," Wang said.

The US's AI upgrades

In contrast, the dominant trend in the US is to build advanced, closed-source AI models that require significant investment in computing power, said Wang.

Big Tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta have spent billions on the infrastructure underpinning emerging AI tech. The four companies are expected to spend a collective $320 billion in capital expenditures this year to broaden their AI capabilities.

Their flagship models — including OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Gemini — are typically closed-source and monetized through APIs or enterprise licensing. This restricts access and limits how widely developers can experiment or build on them. However, OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, said in January that the company needs to "figure out a different open source strategy."

On April 10, Anthropic introduced a new $200-per-month subscription tier for its Claude chatbot — matching the premium pricing of rival OpenAI.

Meta is an exception with its open-source Llama model series. But despite its open-source stance, Meta still takes a capital-heavy approach, Wang said. Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has committed as much as $65 billion to AI projects this year.

Where China is catching up

A report released on Monday by Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Index found that US private AI investment grew to $109.1 billion last year — nearly 12 times China's $9.3 billion.

While the US has produced more AI models than China, the report found that Chinese models have "rapidly closed the quality gap."

China also continues to lead in AI publications and patents, the report found.

"Chinese vendors have come a long way from being caught surprised by ChatGPT to now competing head-to-head with top Western vendors," Lian Jye Su, the chief analyst at Omdia, told BI.

"It will take a while for China to compete in AI chipsets, but China has managed to provide solid alternatives to users looking at non-US AI software and applications," he added.

• I'm more bothered than my children that they haven't won Student of the Month yet.
• I want them to win because it would validate that I'm raising exemplary students.
• Their best attributes aren't the ones on display in public but in the safety of our home.

I sat in the back of the school assembly, watching an old acquaintance slip into the center aisle, camera-ready as her son's name was called for the Student of the Month award. I was happy for her — I really was.

But when my daughter's teacher stood to offer her class their monthly awards, I saw my daughter sitting crisscross applesauce with her first-grade classmates, and my stomach knotted. I knew her name wouldn't be called. Clearly, the parents were notified ahead of time. Sure enough, her teacher announced another student's name. My daughter clapped and cheered, seemingly unbothered.

This year, neither my daughter nor her older brother have won Student of the Month. And neither has expressed disappointment. So, why do I care so much?

I started to question why I wanted them to win the award so much

Maybe it's because my husband is a teacher and school administrator, and most of his colleagues' children have already won the award this year. On his behalf, I feel the tiniest hint of professional pressure, as if their children's success reflects on them.

Or maybe it's because, with their class sizes —18 kids in my daughter's class and 22 in my son's — nearly half of the school will receive the award by the end of the school year, making it feel almost as if those who don't are being singled out in some way. Or maybe it's my own history; I won it every year as a child, and perhaps I've unknowingly placed that expectation on my children. Yet, in the end, what does it matter? I don't have my own awards framed in my office or the accomplishments on my résumé.

Are these awards public validations that we must be doing good jobs as parents and that our children are exemplary students? Or, do I simply covet that bumper sticker that signals, "This car is full of winners" because humans are competitive by nature?

As the mother of award-less children, I wonder if the Student of the Month award simply creates unnecessary competition. How much of a child's — or parent's — self-worth hinges on praise?

I just want to raise good children — and I am

My children aren't troublemakers, but they are introverted and sometimes standoffish to those outside their inner circles. Neither are natural leaders, rule followers, or people-pleasers. Still, I hoped they'd be noticed for their better qualities.

I wonder if their best attributes aren't the ones they put on display in public, but rather, most often viewed in the safety of our home. This weekend, they spent two hours assembling a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe car for their toddler brother and couldn't wait to show it to him in the morning. My daughter did all of the dinner dishes to surprise me, and my son grabbed groceries from my hands with a, "Here, Mom, let me get those for you."

These moments give me hope for the adults they'll become.

Still, I'll admit as the school year comes to a close, it's hard not to feel a twinge of disappointment when I realize my children are among the students who won't stand up at the school assembly to receive their Student of the Month award.

I have this lingering question of whether their teachers ever get to see their best sides, but maybe that's the point here — that it doesn't matter. They don't need to stand out among dozens of kids or be awarded on a stage because I recognize them every day in the small moments. I recognize how fortunate I am that my children don't need a piece of paper to feel validated — now it's my turn to do the same.

• I always judged stay-at-home moms and never wanted to be one.
• I got pregnant around the time my career was taking an unexpected turn.
• I feel lost when it comes to a career, but I have a newfound passion: my son.

It wasn't intentional, but it's been two years since I've worked a full-time job.

When asked what I do, I stumble over my words. I write articles occasionally as a freelance journalist, but I can't sugarcoat it: I'm a stay-at-home mom. Even typing it, I cringe a little.

Before becoming a stay-at-home, I saw my friends who were well-off and stay-at-home moms. Their days seemed to be all about lunches and playing tennis.

I was judgmental, for sure. I used to think, "Must be nice."

Now I know — yes, it is nice, but it's also a very challenging job.

My life took an unexpected turn after getting pregnant

When I was 25, I moved to Los Angeles with big dreams of working in Hollywood as a sitcom writer. That didn't pan out, but I did meet my husband.

When COVID-19 hit, it was even harder to find a steady job in television so I took a position in podcasting. I was there a little over a year but left when things went south — the company declared bankruptcy a few months later. I was also newly pregnant.

I didn't look for a new full-time job while pregnant. Becoming a sitcom writer had been an uphill battle and one I was ready to give up. I took a few short-term contract positions, and after giving birth to my son, I wasn't working at all.

When I finally started to consider working again, there'd been a shift in the podcasting openings I found — many producer roles also required editing experience, which wasn't a skill I had or was interested in.

Since becoming a mother, I can't seem to find a career path that excites me

I'm a self-admitted lost soul when it comes to a career. I still look for jobs and often apply.

However, when I really think about what it would mean to take any of the jobs I apply for, sadness washes over me at the thought of being away from my son.

Maybe it's time to accept what I do feel passionate about: my son.

Also, if I returned to work I would need to find childcare since a day job would likely go to 5 p.m. and my son is out of preschool by 3 p.m. Plus, my son only goes to preschool three days a week.

Whether it's day care or a nanny, the amount of money it would cost makes taking any job less appealing. It's just not worth it.

If I had a clear career trajectory, it might be a different story.

I was surprised that I enjoy being a stay-at-home mom

I was with my son every single day until he started preschool at 1 ½ years old. I was there for all the milestones: first word, steps, giggles.

I was amazed at how this helpless being transformed into a chatty toddler, full of personality, right before my eyes. Though cliché, it was true: The days are long but the years are short.

Of course, some days are just hard. His naps offer me a much-needed break but then sometimes they don't happen. Food gets thrown on the just-washed floor. If he doesn't have a cold, then he has a stomach bug. It feels like a week without an illness is a rarity.

Even now that's he in school part time, my hours alone fly by, and I never accomplish all the to-dos I hope to. At 3 p.m. I switch back to mom duty and I must entertain him, keep him away from the remote (although sometimes you just have to put on the TV), and manage his multistep bedtime routine.

Even with all the trying moments, I've realized I'm the happiest I've ever been. My son makes me laugh constantly, and I can't tell him enough how much I love him.

I am privileged that my family can afford to live on my husband's salary alone. An additional salary would certainly be helpful, but the opportunity cost of me finding work — and not spending my days with my son — is too high.

My name may not be in the credits of your favorite comedy show, but I know people whose names are and I wouldn't trade places with any of them.

Although my days may not be glamorous and are often monotonous, I love my life as a stay-at-home mom.

• Coffee shops are starting to raise their prices in response to President Donald Trump's 10% tariffs.
• The US has limited coffee production, so beans have to be imported.
• Some coffee entrepreneurs told BI they need to cushion their business against tariff uncertainty.

Don't be surprised if your next cup of coffee costs more.

Coffee shops in the US have begun to pass along tariff costs straight to customers' wallets.

Though President Donald Trump put a 90-pause on most of his reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, his 10% blanket levies remain in effect. Some coffee importers and cafés are now raising their prices in response.

"That erases our entire profit margin if we absorb it," Chris Kornman, the director of education at the importer Royal Coffee, told Business Insider. He called the situation "an unprecedented crisis" for the coffee industry.

The Crown, a specialty coffee shop that Royal owns in Oakland, California, announced across-the-board price increases on Thursday. All of its drinks will cost an additional 50 cents from now on, Kornman said, with the exception of its $2 dark roast, which is an entry-level drink for customers who aren't used to a natural-processed pour-over or washed Rwandan espresso.

"Unless we get a resolution in Washington soon, this appears to be the new normal, unfortunately," Max Nicholas-Fulmer, the CEO of Royal Coffee, said in a statement shared with BI.

Other coffee shops have also announced price hikes. The Wakery, an Illinois-based late-night coffeehouse, posted a statement to Facebook on Wednesday informing customers that it would be increasing the price of all of its coffee drinks due to the tariffs.

"Our coffee supplier needed to raise their wholesale price, and in order to make our ends meet, we need to respond by raising our coffee prices," it said.

Local reports also indicate that cafés in Austin, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and New Jersey are raising their prices or considering doing so.

Just the beginning

TJ Semanchin, co-owner of Wonderstate Coffee, told BI a 10% increase for a cup of coffee is only "the starting point."

The US is the second largest coffee importer in the world, with Brazil, Colombia, and Vietnam making up around 60% of its coffee supply, according to a 2024 United States Department of Agriculture report. Before he announced pauses to some of the country-specific increases on Wednesday, Trump's sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs varied by country, with a 46% rate for Vietnam and 10% for both Brazil and Colombia. The blanket 10% tariffs remain for all three countries.

"The coffee market is getting zigzagged in every direction because there's so much uncertainty and volatility in everything," Semanchin said.

Uncertainty summer

Shop owners say tariff whiplash doesn't help. When Trump initially announced 25% tariffs on Mexico, Kornman said staff at Royal Coffee scrambled to scale back its Mexican coffee purchases and notify customers that it might charge more for those beans. Now, Mexico's agricultural products aren't affected. Royal has stopped buying coffee from India in case its tariffs go up to 27%, as Trump initially proposed.

"To quote our logistics coordinator, we're digging holes in all the wrong places," Kornman said.

Pierre and Jackie Marquez, who own Tasa Coffee Roasters in Chicago, say they already bumped up their prices in February because of overall rising costs. If Trump's reciprocal tariffs go into effect at the end of his 90-day pause, the Marquez's say they'll have to increase prices again.

"It's almost a guarantee," Pierre Marquez said.

Domestic coffee production is largely limited to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and small parts of California. Those farms can't replace coffee imports, Kornman said.

The cost of coffee beans was already creeping upward before Trump's tariffs, due in part to shipping costs and extra-warm weather in Brazil, he added.

"There's also the threat of a global recession on the table at the moment, and that makes it pretty unsavory to talk about raising prices when people may not be able to afford a cup of coffee," Kornman said.

"I don't expect to raise prices again in an ideal world," he added. Still, "it's really hard to predict."

• Le Labo, a luxury fragrance brand founded in New York, is known for its attention-getting scents.
• I tried six of the brand's most popular perfumes and ranked them from worst to best.
• Santal 33 is overrated, in my opinion, while Lavande 31 deserves more hype.

It doesn't matter if you're a celebrity, a successful businessman, or an everyday fragrance fanatic. It seems like everyone loves Le Labo.

The New York City brand was founded by friends Fabrice Penot and Edouard Roschi in 2006 and grew so popular that it was purchased by Estée Lauder Companies in 2014.

It's known for creating memorable, luxurious scents that smell unlike anything else. Bottles retail between $107 and $1,095.

I first tried the brand at the end of last year, testing Santal 33 against a Target dupe. Though I wasn't a fan of that fragrance, I was intrigued. I'd never smelled anything like it before.

So, I bought a few more samples (.05 fluid-ounce bottles for $7 each) of Le Labo's most popular scents and wore a different one each day over the course of two weeks.

I took notes on what I liked and disliked, asked friends and family for their thoughts, and watched the clock to see which scents lasted on my skin all day and which evaporated into thin air.

Here's how I'd rank them from worst to best.

Santal 33 doesn't deserve the hype it gets — sorry.

Santal 33 might be Le Labo's most famous fragrance, but it was also my least favorite of the scents I tried.

It had a strong, earthy scent with a heavy spice that, unfortunately, smelled like pickle juice to me. Many Le Labo fans and critics have also made this comparison.

After four short hours on the skin, the fragrance quickly went from overpowering to almost nonexistent, making it tough to justify the expensive price.

For those reasons, I'm not sure I'll ever understand the appeal of Santal 33's cult following.

Another 13 was nearly perfect, but not quite.

Whenever Santal 33 is mentioned, someone is bound to argue that Another 13 is better.

The fragrance was created in collaboration with An0ther Magazine and is now one of the brand's core scents. Le Labo describes it as a hypnotizing and "addictive dirty potion."

I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I'd say it feels accurate. Every time I sniffed Another 13, I wanted more. It faded into a blend that smelled like jasmine, citrus, vanilla, and musk — which I loved.

So, I wish I could say that the fragrance made my top three.

Unfortunately, when first sprayed, the fragrance smelled strongly of alcohol. Sometimes, it took nearly an hour to fade into the latter scent that I preferred. Other fragrance fans said they couldn't smell anything else, no matter how much time passed.

It's also not the strongest fragrance I've tried from Le Labo's roster. After two hours or so, I almost forgot I was wearing it.

Rose 31 had a classic scent but ultimately didn't stand out.

With a name like Rose 31, I figured this perfume would be straightforward.

It started with strong whiffs of grass and spice, initially distracting from the rose. Once the main note took over, however, I smelled of florals and powder, which reminded me of a classic French perfume.

I can absolutely see why people might enjoy this perfume, and I did, too.

Ultimately, though, it was a little too simple for me. If I'm buying Le Labo, I want something that stands out.

Thé Noir 29 was captivating and masculine, yet anyone could wear it.

Thé Noir 29 is the Le Labo fragrance that surprised me the most.

I expected a musky cologne but got a masculine-leaning scent that smelled like black licorice. There was also a subtle trace of tobacco as it settled and a consistent note of cedarwood.

One of my favorite elements was that the scent lasted all day without being too strong.

My only gripe — a small one — was that it only felt appropriate to wear in the evening. I couldn't see myself wearing this during the day.

Everyone should have Lavande 31 in their fragrance rotation.

After being underwhelmed by Rose 31, I worried I might feel the same about Lavande 31.

However, Le Labo says on its website that this fragrance "knocks all preconceived notions of lavender on its head" — and I completely agree.

The fragrance smelled refreshing and sophisticated, with a mix of lavender, moss, musk, and even a citrus zest. I could easily see this becoming my signature scent, especially in the spring and summer.

What I really loved, though, was the product's concept. Sometimes, you just want a perfume full of your favorite classic notes but with an interesting twist.

Lavande 31 fit that bill and exceeded expectations.

Thé Matcha 26 is probably the best and most underrated of Le Labo's popular scents.

I was most excited to try Thé Matcha 26 for two reasons. First, I enjoy the scent of the drink this fragrance is named after.

Second, Le Labo's description of the perfume caught my attention. It's said to be "introverted and deep by nature" and is meant to be smelled only by "those individuals lucky enough to be very close to the wearer."

Not only was that an accurate description, but the perfume's notes were also phenomenal, in my opinion. It's scented with fig, vetiver, and orange, which creates a soft, alluring, and calm fragrance.

If I were only going to buy one Le Labo product, it would be a bottle of Thé Matcha 26 without question.

• Conductor AI has raised a $15 million Series A led by Lux Capital.
• The startup helps government agencies streamline compliance and approval processes using AI.
• Conductor AI plans to expand its team and scale operations with new funding.

Conductor AI, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to help those in large organizations — like the US government — fill out paperwork and effectively resolve compliance issues, has raised around $15 million for its Series A round led by Lux Capital.

Former Palantir employees Zachary Long, Eric Schwartz, and Ben Fichter, who previously worked at a defense cybersecurity company, cofounded the Biddeford, Maine-based company in June 2023. Additional investors in the funding round include Jack Altman's Alt Capital, Haystack Ventures, led by Semil Shah, and Abstract Ventures.

The 15-person company develops an AI platform that can navigate complex government approval workflows in classified environments. Using AI, Conductor's software ingests thousands of pages of complex policy and compliance rules, atomizes them into individual line items, and then determines what is allowable for a given document review or approval process based on the new information in its system.

"What we are trying to do is make it clear to the user what they're answering … and make it much clearer to the reviewer who has never heard of you, or seen you, what you were trying to say," Long said.

This process speeds up governmental review and approval processes. Early customers have seen their time spent combing dense policy documents drop by 50%, according to the company.

Building software tailor-made for the government was an intentional choice from day one. Just as Conductor's platform helps agencies ensure compliance, the startup itself had to meet strict standards for building new tech since government software has to operate entirely within secure environments, Long said.

The US government is burdened by an overwhelming amount of rules, paperwork, and policies, according to Long: "If you've worked with the government for a while, you've had this experience and this pain of needing to do something," he added. "But there's this totally legitimate but very complicated process of getting to yes."

Conductor's founding team is well-versed in the intricacies of working on tech and selling it to the government. Long started his career as a quantitative analyst at the proprietary trading firm DC Energy. He then spent seven years at defense tech giant Palantir, where he led a data science project for the US Army and collaborated with Schwartz, Conductor cofounder and COO, on DOJ initiatives. Schwartz also spent seven years at Palantir. Before that, he worked in data analysis at Bloomberg. Fichter previously worked as a software engineer at PreVeil, which makes encryption software for email and file collaboration.

So far, the software's biggest use case has been automating security classification, but it's also being applied to a host of other government processes, including export licensure, International Traffic in Arms Regulations compliance, document review, declassification, and the release of information from one agency to another.

Conductor has already clinched contracts with the US Air Force, Space Force, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Long added. Conductor AI intends to use its Series A funding to scale quickly and hire engineers.

"The end goal is that any industry that's heavily regulated by the government, including finance, healthcare — any industry that goes through government review workflows would be applicable," Lan Jiang, an associate at Lux Capital, said. "This idea about expediting efficiency and cutting through red tape really appealed to us."

• When Shruti Mangawa tried applying for jobs after taking a career break, she was often ghosted.
• She felt guilt about being unemployed, particularly when people said she was "just a housewife."
• Returning to work after her break taught Mangawa how to view success differently.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 35-year-old Shruti Mangawa from New Mexico. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up and studied in India. In 2018, I joined Hindustan Unilever, a subsidiary of Unilever, where I became an area sales and customer manager.

In 2021, I took a sabbatical due to a spinal injury. I came to the USA, where my husband worked, to spend some time with him and recover.

But after a few months in America, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, so I couldn't go back to work. My company extended my sabbatical, but my health got worse.

I knew I couldn't go back to India or my job. I spent most of the following two to three years in treatment and recovery.

When I started looking for work again in the US in 2024, I had a hunch that the huge gap in my résumé was preventing me from finding a job.

I've struggled with guilt about being unemployed because I tied my identity to my job. It's taken me a while to embrace my career break and adopt a different view of success.

I struggled to find employment in the US after my recovery

My role at Unilever was my dream job. I was in a leadership role managing a team.

I was used to being financially independent and I tied my identity to my job. I saw the shine of pride in my parents' eyes about what I had achieved. In our family circle, people younger than me looked up to me as an inspiration.

Then it all went away.

My diagnosis turned my entire world upside down. The cancer was pretty aggressive and had a big toll on my body. Thankfully, I had financial support from my husband and family.

I was more worried about my professional life than my recovery. I was conscious that any time spent in recovery was increasing the gap in my work experience.

When my doctor said I was cancer-free, I thought I'd be able to pick up my career from where I left off. It didn't happen that way. My energy levels weren't the same, and I didn't feel as motivated as I was in my 20s.

I felt guilty and like I was worthless because I wasn't working

When I was cancer-free but still dealing with long-term side effects, people would ask me what I did for a living, and it made me feel empty inside. Some acquaintances said: "Oh, so you're just a housewife, then?" I don't know if their intentions were bad, but I felt guilty. My parents spent so much on my education, but now I was sitting at home.

Being a housewife isn't a bad thing. My mom was a homemaker. But in my generation, everyone's used to working. I felt like if I wasn't, I was worthless.

When I tried to re-enter the workforce in 2024, people advised me to figure out a way to cover my gap by doing some freelancing or not putting it on my LinkedIn. We may preach that it's OK to take a break and not attach our image to job titles, but people do.

I applied for marketing roles and any jobs where I thought I had transferable skills, but I'd get ghosted or rejected even before the interview stage. I felt like I didn't even get a chance to explain my story.

Once, a recruiter told me that because I had a big career gap and all my prior work experience was based in India, I might need to lower my expectations for the roles I was going for.

I'm focusing on building a personal brand and have changed the way I think about success

Since I was so drained physically and mentally, I forgot what I used to be able to handle professionally. I started to feel that nobody would hire me, and this was my future.

Thankfully, my husband snapped me out of my negative thought patterns.

Around October 2024, I decided that instead of waiting for opportunities, I'd create my own. I thought by developing a personal brand, I'd stand a better chance in the job market. With such a big career gap in a rough market, I needed to find a way to stand out.

I stopped applying for jobs and focused on my writing — posting essays on Medium and producing a newsletter. Getting positive feedback from readers gave me more confidence.

I've decided to focus on brand-building for at least a year and a half while I figure out how I want to transition my career.

Though people have advised me to hide my career gap, I've decided to be more open about it, disclosing it on my LinkedIn.

Embrace detours in working life

In life, you'll have to take detours. I know people who've been laid off or who've had their life disrupted for other reasons. I'm in my 30s and have had to restart my career. Things aren't always linear.

I no longer think success is just about your career and money but also about other parts of life. If my husband says, "I'm lucky to have a wife like you" — even that is success to me now.

Now, when challenges come, I don't just panic. I ask: "What is this here to teach me?" That mindset shift is what I consider my biggest success.

Do you have a story to share about your career break or sabbatical? Contact this reporter at [email protected]